9 Worst Practices in SaaS Metrics (TC Baltics Edition)

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This is the version of Christoph's '9 Worst Practices in SaaS Metrics' as presented by Nicolas Wittenborn at Tech Chill Baltics on February 13, 2014.

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9!Worst Practicesin SaaS Metrics

Christoph Janz!Point Nine Capital

TODAY: !

Nicolas Wittenborn

About me

Associate at Point Nine Capital!I blog (too little) at heyni.co and tweet (too much) at @ncsh

We love SaaS!

A new member

!

9HORROR

worst practices

in SaaS Metrics

Image source:

Image source:

Image source:

Confuse MRR with Cash Inflow(or Bookings or Sales or Revenues)

9worst practice

MRR:• Monthly Recurring Revenue!

• Shows how much revenue you make next month if you don‘t win any new customers (assuming no churn, no upgrades/downgrades, etc.)!

• #1 SaaS metric. Much more important indicator than bookings or cash inflow (but cash inflow pays the bills!)

• 2 customers!

• 1 on a $20/m monthly plan!

• 1 on a $120/y yearly plan!

=> MRR = $30

Example:

Predictable revenue!!

Lifetime value!!

Valuation multiple!

Underestimate churn(by mixing up monthly with yearly plans)

8worst practice

Churn rate

# of customers who churned

# of customers who could have churned

Including customers who can‘t cancel in the denominator screws up your churn estimate!

Don’t forget churn in

your financial plan!

7worst practice

Ignore your cohorts

Cohort analyses are the only way to get a good understanding of retention and customer lifetimes

Image source: Change in

retention over product lifetime

Retention over user lifetime

Don‘t track each step of the conversion funnel

worst practice

6

ttention

nterest

esire

ction

AARRR!Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Revenue

Visitors

Free Trial Signups

PayingCustomers

Visitor-to-Trial Conversion Rate

Trial-to-Paying!Conversion Rate

Retention Rate!and Account Expansions

Referrals

Mix up visitors to your marketing website with users of your software

worst practice

5

0,00%$

0,50%$

1,00%$

1,50%$

2,00%$

2,50%$

3,00%$

3,50%$

4,00%$

4,50%$

5,00%$

0$

200$

400$

600$

800$

1000$

1200$

1400$

1600$

1800$

1$ 2$ 3$ 4$ 5$ 6$

Visits$ Signups$ Signup$Rate$

0,00%$

1,00%$

2,00%$

3,00%$

4,00%$

5,00%$

6,00%$

0$

200$

400$

600$

800$

1000$

1200$

1400$

1600$

1$ 2$ 3$ 4$ 5$ 6$

Signups$ Website$visits$ Signup$Rate$

Show CACs on a blended basis only

4worst practice

(mixing up paid and non-paid sources of leads)

• 100 customers @ $0 per customer!

• 20 customers @ $500 per customer

average CACs of $83.33, but !

the average is pretty meaningless

Example:

Catch the low-hanging fruits, just don‘t expect them to scale!

Attribute all conversions to your sales team

3worst practice

Find out how well your signups are converting without being called by a salesperson. !!A/B test and calculate the ROI on your sales investments based on the conversion uplift.

Vice versa: Maybe it’s

not the sales person?

Assume you‘re growing exponentially

2worst practice

• True exponential growth is very, very rare in SaaS – requires virality which most SaaS products don‘t have!

• Most SaaS companies grow linearly and with step changes!

• Even a modest exponential growth rate of 10% p.m. is very hard to sustain for a longer period of time

Reading exponential growth into linear growth numbers can lead to wrong conclusions

GAIL GOODMAN: !

THE LONG, SLOW,

SAAS RAMP OF DEATH

Don‘t start tracking KPIs until investors request it

1worst practice

• Many metrics are actionable – they tell you what to focus on, when to invest in acceleration, etc.!

• Metrics help you focus your team on what matters most!

• Investors want historic numbers, not just a snapshot

Because...

Thank you.

Questions?!

christoph@pointninecap.comOr, if e

asy ;) !

nicolas@pointninecap.com