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HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
saas
Pioneering SaaS In Business Process Optimization: Ariba’s Kevin Costello (Part 1)
SM: Kevin, let’s start with some historical perspective of Ariba. You joined the company after it went public, correct? KC: Ariba was a company that was one of the founding members of the dot-com explosion that occurred in the mid to late 1990s. It was focused on helping organizations optimize a business process. The process
Forbes Column 2010: Bootstrapped SaaS Gains Critical Mass
Entrepreneurs are building significant Software-as-a-Service businesses without outside capital. Read more in this week’s Forbes column, Bootstrapped SaaS Gains Critical Mass.
On The Way To 100 Million Dollars In SaaS Revenue: Vocus CEO Rick Rudman (Part 7)
SM: I talk to a lot of SaaS companies and have noticed that there is a big trend in terms of near-shoring. A lot of companies are moving to affordable areas such as Montana, Wyoming, and Tennessee. You can get good labor arbitrage within the United States. RR: We do have a second sales center
On The Way To 100 Million Dollars In SaaS Revenue: Vocus CEO Rick Rudman (Part 6)
SM: Aside from educating your potential customers, what else governs your growth? RR: We are a very profitable company. Our guidance for 2009 is an 18% operating margin. We have delivered a balanced growth and profitability model to our investors. I could take profitability down to zero and put that money into sales and marketing
On The Way To 100 Million Dollars In SaaS Revenue: Vocus CEO Rick Rudman (Part 5)
SM: What does a corporate department pay to use your service? RR: It depends on size. For the mid-market, meaning companies ranging from $5 million to $500 million in revenue, on average pay us $9,000 to $10,000 per year in annual subscriptions. The range can start as low as $3,000 per year and it could go
On The Way To 100 Million Dollars In SaaS Revenue: Vocus CEO Rick Rudman (Part 4)
SM: I am assuming you raised a second round. When was that? RR: We then raised a second round of $12 million. That was in the fall of 2000. It was only eight months later. Our valuation increased during that time by five times.
On The Way To 100 Million Dollars In SaaS Revenue: Vocus CEO Rick Rudman (Part 3)
SM: Was it a software-as-a-service offering? RR: When we launched the product in 1997, we did it on the desktop. There was no SaaS model back then. We sold it as a desktop application from 1997 to 1999.
On The Way To 100 Million Dollars In SaaS Revenue: Vocus CEO Rick Rudman (Part 2)
SM: Why did the deal fall through? Sounds as though they had commitment issues. RR: We never got a good answer regarding their rationale for cancelling the deal.
