Dana Stalder

𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆-𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀! We're conducting a benchmarking study to define success metrics specifically for vertical software companies. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Existing SaaS benchmarks just don't cut it for your unique industry needs. This research will provide the data-driven insights to measure and optimize your vertical software business. 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽? A few minutes of your time can make a big difference.

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🚀 Venture debt covenants might sound like a small part of the deal, but they carry huge implications for your startup’s future. 📈 You need to be strategic in your negotiations to avoid any pitfalls down the road. It’s all about setting yourself up for success, not stress. Dive into more details in the original Kruze Consulting post. The link is in the 1st comment. 👇

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Make sure your investors and funding partners don’t inadvertently kill your business. Beyond just putting cash into your company your funding partners need to fall into one of the three following buckets: 1. SWEET MONEY: funding that’s such a sweet deal you can’t possibly turn it down. Supportive grant programs with non-onerous funding requirements fall into this bucket. 2. SMART MONEY: people who can make connections, add legitimacy, guide you, and know how to execute investments with standard terms. Savvy angel investors and professional investors fall into this bucket. 3. SHHHHHH MONEY: silent investors who want to support you and are willing to lend a hand when asked fall into this bucket. Funding partners can create bad corporate structures, distract you from your customers, or create burdensome requirements and kill your company if you’re not careful. We’ve been very fortunate to have amazing funding partners, when I looked at why it’s so easy to work with them it’s because they fall into one of these three buckets.

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Crypto is complex. We make it simple. Take CryptoEQ Premium for a test drive with our brand-new EQ Dashboard walkthrough video. A Texas-sized shout-out to Rebecca Correa, Michael Thoma, and team for putting this together! Learn more at CryptoEQ.io. 🚀

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Customers of SparkLayer B2B regularly tell us what features they'd like and need, and one feature request has surpassed all others by a country mile… today our team just made it available 🎉 B2B discounts! Think coupon codes, order-level discounts (spend $1,000 and save 10%), free products, and promotions based on meeting specific requirements (e.g. a discount for VIP customers only). It’s quite possibly the most complex thing we’ve built within the team. How brands manage B2B pricing can be mind-boggling to begin with… try adding a discount engine on top of that 🤯 I genuinely believe this now makes pretty much ANY B2B pricing requirements possible using SparkLayer as the B2B platform for brands. If you’re interested in the backstory of how we’ve incrementally tried to solve B2B pricing over the years and what our new Discount Engine now makes possible, head over to the post below. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eFadx2Kp ========== I’m curious to know - what are some of the most complicated B2B pricing requirements you’ve seen? And I'll see if SparkLayer can solve them!

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🎙️ Exciting insights from SaaS Academy's CEO Johnny Page on the Expertise Economy podcast! Johnny breaks down their two-step approach to helping SaaS founders: 1️⃣ The Discovery Call: Uncovering the founder's "why" and long-term vision 2️⃣ The Strategic Game Plan Session: Creating a 90-day action plan to achieve 12-month goals 🔑 Key focus: Identifying and solving business constraints Want to dive deeper on the secrets of building a successful SaaS business? Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dju-Be2u #SaaS #BusinessStrategy #SaasAcademy #ExpertiseEconomy #Podcast

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In case you missed it last week, one of my favorite SaaS benchmark reports was released. Thanks to High Alpha and OpenView for the work and having us as a partner! This thing is stuffed full of insights on everything from growth rates, net revenue retention, ARR per FTE, and more. You can't build a great SaaS business without it! https://lnkd.in/ghKT_tBY

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In a recent episode of The Expertise Economy podcast, I sat down with Johnny Page, CEO, and Matt Verlaque, COO, of SaaS Academy. Johnny shared a crucial insight for SaaS founders that challenges conventional wisdom 👇 "Many founders aim to delegate sales once they reach $15-20K MRR. This is often a critical mistake. We advocate for founders to remain deeply involved in sales for as long as possible." Why? According to Johnny, "No one can articulate the problem and solution more compellingly than the founder." Key takeaways from our discussion: > Founder-led sales drive stronger growth > Focus on consistent wins rather than quick handoffs > Clarify your customer acquisition strategy > Define your ideal customer profile precisely > Optimize your sales channel and offer > Maintain this focused approach for at least 12 months This strategy is the catalyst for transforming steady growth into exponential scale. For a deep dive into scaling strategies for your SaaS business, watch the full interview now: https://lnkd.in/dju-Be2u SaaS founders, what has been your experience with sales leadership? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. #sales #SaaS #SaaSAcademy #Scale #Startups #Podcast #Leadership

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Triangle startup ecosystem - first thanks for the incredible generosity that you showed over the last 2wks to help folks impacted by Helene. Here's a last update on our Hurricane Helene relief efforts with a final 'how can you help' ask. The TL;DR - our nascent effort has matured and morphed into the WCEN. The most urgent need has moved from supplies to funding the teams out on the ground that need specialty items like gas, oxygen tanks, starlinks, etc. There's a gofundme, this is a certified 501(c)(3) here-> https://lnkd.in/e4NdxuW8 What is the WCEN you ask?!.... o There were several operating groups that were able to grassroots consolidate efforts under the Western Carolina Emergency Network (WCEN) umbrella and they have a website up that is improving every day: https://lnkd.in/ePYP6_JJ o WCEN's goal is to provide services to survivors until temporary infrastructure can be re-built. There are over 1m people in Western NC without shelter and basic necessities. o WCEN is providing: -> Reconnaissance -> Search + Rescue ( + Recovery) -> Rapid Supply Response / Air Support -> Medical Care o WCEN has these network partners: -> Operation Airdrop Inc- Air support including planes and helicopters -> Carolina Calvary - Coordinator for Operation Airdrop -> Razor Nation - ATV support -> Restoration Church @restoration church - Josh Brown and Ryan Honeycutt- supply collection sites and delivery -> Apex Defense - Search and Rescue, Security -> Lincoln County Airport - Pilot coordinator -> AJ - Heavy Lift Drone support -> GSDF team - C&C logistics, Special Forces team coordinator -> Reagan Madison Inc. team- Back office, infrastructure, and fundraising,FOB coordination (Crystal Suazo, CPA - who looped this together and we connected with here on LI!) -> WRTE, Inc - Legal, tax, fiduciary support -> Christina Marie Noel - Christina Noel + volunteers - Strategic marketing & communications -> United National Weather Team - Medical support with ATV abilities if anyone, especially corps would like to donate $, volunteers, trucks, etc. please contact William McGuire (on the ground items), Rebecca Ross / Jess Porta (Triangle-based corp donations/logistics). We're getting the last truck of items at Raleigh Founded out and future donations should be made at: Electric Supply Co 207 Bickett Blvd Raleigh NC, 27608 Want more ideas on how to have an impact? https://lnkd.in/euNxS8kd Thanks again everyone!

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Today marks Recharge’s 10th anniversary. There’s a lot to celebrate with this moment, and 2024 was a banner year, surpassing $100 million in ARR, powering 20,000 merchants and topping 100 million subscribers served by our platform. But I also want to be real for a second. The last ten years haven’t been easy but two things have kept me focused and made the highs even better, and pushed me to persevere during the lows. 1. “From humble beginnings come great things.” This quote has been with us since the earliest days of Recharge and it’s with us today. We never lose sight of the fact that we are always at the beginning of something great, and bigger than we know. 2. Focusing on helping the lives of merchants. Our mission of making the lives of everyone that we serve at Recharge better is why I get up in the morning ready to solve new problems. There’s no doubt that our merchant-first mission has enabled us to scale and hit those exciting milestones. We started Recharge because we saw an opportunity and a need in the ecommerce space. Looking back, I don’t think we could have predicted how much growth, change, and excitement would come over the course of a decade. I’m grateful to everyone who’s been part of the Recharge journey. We could not have made it to year 10 without the hard work of our team, the trust of the brands we work with, and the collaboration from our ecosystem partners. Reflecting on the past 10 years is what energizes me to plan for the next 10. So, here’s to tomorrow.

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Exciting to see Adaptive tackling the slow payments issue in construction with innovative financial management tools! 🏗️ It's clear their platform addresses crucial inefficiencies in the payment chain, benefiting small- and medium-sized businesses in the industry. The team has closed their $19 million Series A round—looking forward to seeing how they expand and enhance financial workflows for even more construction companies. 💡 A great example of tech-driven solutions making a big impact where it's needed most! 🚀 #ConstructionTech #FinancialInnovation #SMBs https://lnkd.in/eBJq3Q93

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We talk a lot about menu automation, but a big issue is that most retailers don't actually do regular cycle counting of all retail departments, so quantities on hand are often insufficient to get an accurate picture of what's in-store. We've built what we call "Predictive Inventory", where we layer on sales movement data and predictive modeling to get a better picture of what's likely in-stock at the store. In doing so, we can offer 10x larger menus with very low out of stock rates, all with no admin work from the retailer.

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SAAS NORTH Conference is less than one week away. Do you have your ticket yet? I’m excited to be speaking on the panel, “Totally Fubar! 3 Epic Founder Fails,” moderated by Kenneth Pham. I’ll be joined by Ewan Reid and Kelsey Hahn to discuss the challenges we’ve faced as founders. Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster, and we’re sharing valuable lessons learned along the way. If you're a SaaS founder scaling quickly in Canada, I hope to see you and your team in Ottawa from November 13–14. Get your SaaS pass now—and use code MIKEPSN24 for 25% off your ticket: https://lnkd.in/gtm7eY8E #entrepreneurship #founders #leadership #scaling #startupstory

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If you’re an early-stage founder, finding out what your customers *really* want so you can build the right product is critical. I’m excited to share some of First Round Capital's PMF Method program with Gagan Biyani on Friday! Gagan has founded 3 companies including Udemy, Sprig, and Maven. We’re hosting this live conversation for product leaders & founders on how to reach PMF. You’ll learn: - How to identify your customers' real problems - How to test demand by selling before building - When to write code vs. build a no-code MVP RSVP to join on June 14th (it’s free): https://bit.ly/3VBAK69

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Did you see the news? Excited to have TechCrunch announce that in addition to acquiring three new companies, Capacity is continuing our transformational growth with a Series D round. I sat down with TechCrunch to give a little more insight on our roadmap: “Our growth strategy reflects what our customers are asking for: an all-in-one AI platform that delivers across all communication channels.” As we keep pursuing our goals, we’ll keep expanding our AI offerings and growing our team to become a leading provider of AI-powered support solutions. Read the full interview with TechCrunch -> https://lnkd.in/gTWagawR #supportautomation #artificialintelligence #customersupport #automation

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We use Circle for our community at Exit Five, and Matthew Carnevale has become a Circle power user (he runs our community). They did this awesome write about how to grow a community with insights from Matt and Exit Five sprinkled in. • How to use your community as an audience growth multiplier • 5 systematic community growth strategies • Why you should treat your community like a product, and • Best practices for growing your community https://lnkd.in/e9vs32NQ

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Attention Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Meet Source Marketplace! We help SMBs find their perfect technology partner. We’re building a platform that’s like Angi’s List, but specifically for businesses like yours—helping you find, compare, and connect with top-tier tech, operations, consulting, and other services in a smarter way. Why Source Marketplace? Maximize Efficiency: No more wasted time or budget. Discover the right providers for your business with just a few clicks. Tailored for SMBs: We understand the unique challenges you face. Source is designed to level the playing field for small and medium-sized companies, giving you access to the same opportunities as larger enterprises. Community-Driven Growth: We’re committed to supporting women-, veteran-, and minority-owned businesses, fostering a diverse and thriving community. Get ahead of the curve and be among the first to experience this game-changing platform. Join our waitlist today at source-marketplace.com and let’s revolutionize the way you do business together! Technology Providers (Service and Product)! We are currently seeking AI-focused product and service providers as strategic partners. Please feel free to reach out to learn more about this program! The number of strategic partners are limited as they will have many short-term and long-term business development benefits. #SMB #BusinessGrowth #DiversityInBusiness #Efficiency #Marketplace #SmallBusiness

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You are invited! Join us for an online event on June 11th at 4pm for a deep dive discussion with Matt Kaplan about market leading SaaS products that help companies scale to over $1B in revenue.  Register: https://lnkd.in/e5xuHE9q Matt is one the top product leaders in the tech scene having been the SVP of Product at Toast, Acquia, and LogMeIn.  We'll have a lot to cover, including:  * Working side-by-side with founders * Building a durable, multi-product strategy * Your role in navigating uncertainty * The power of vertical SaaS * Operating a product function during rapid scale to an IPO * How to manage your career to executive product leadership roles * And more! #productmanagement #scaling #events

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Success in the SaaS world isn't for the faint-hearted. With over 9,100 companies in the U.S. alone competing for a slice of the $200 billion pie, standing out demands more than just a clever tagline. You need a rock-solid strategy that blends customer experience with flawless execution. The latest insights show that a staggering 99% of companies are expected to rely on at least one SaaS solution by 2024. This isn't just a trend—it's a revolution in how businesses operate. Yet, many will falter without quick adjustments to their pricing models amidst tightening budgets and evolving consumer expectations. This is where understanding your unique value propositions can set you apart from the noise. If you're looking to thrive in this cutthroat environment, leveraging data and fine-tuning your engagement strategies are non-negotiables. Your customers not only want great service; they demand it. Don’t wait for the competition to catch up—be proactive, be bold. What’s your story in the SaaS game? We want to hear how you're adapting to these fierce market dynamics. https://lnkd.in/enjmK7vy

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