SaaStr Fund

Being a CEO is a tough job, and you often break some glass. But there are 9 types of CEOs that VCs ... just really don't like to work with. You may see some of yourself in here. If you do, maybe just make a few changes.

This revenue ramp has a unique origin story. At 12, Adam Guild ran Minecraft servers making hundreds of thousands in profit. At 17, he was helping his mom's dog grooming business rank #1 on Google. By his early 20s, Adam Guild had transformed Owner from a bootstrapped website builder into a venture-backed platform solving restaurants' biggest pain points. On this episode of In Depth, Guild shares his unconventional path to product market fit—dropping out halfway through 10th grade, cold texting restaurant owners to get his first customers, and navigating a make-or-break pivot during COVID that led to one of the few startups rapidly scaling by supporting local businesses. You can find my entire conversation with Adam in the comments. It's a deep dive look on a pivot into PMF.

Something new is brewing at Gorgias Starting with a smoother + sleeker interface for AI Agent, designed to enhance navigation and improve overall efficiency. Behind the scenes, we're also training it with new skills to help #ecommerce brands convert more and drop off less... Stay tuned for more info in the next coming days ✨ #conversationalai #shopify

At Owner, nothing makes us more proud than to see our customers grow and succeed. See Adam interview Mo Farraj, co-founder of Talkin' Tacos, who has built a restaurant empire doing over $3.17M/month and has grown from 1 location to 22 restaurants in only 4 years, on Owner's platform. Mo shares all of his biggest secrets, including how he brings in $1M+ per month without delivery apps - and so much more! 

"Banks are in this for a different reason than the fintechs. The banks want deposits and they want fees. It’s a volume game. If they can get a billion dollars from a fintech, they can get half a percent on that, and that’s real money.” — Chris Dean, CEO of Treasury Prime Listen to the full SaaStr podcast with Jason M. Lemkin for more on the future of AI in banking and a behind-the-scenes view of #fintech partnerships: https://bit.ly/4hAwqMk

Very cool to see the lineup of speakers at the Mapistry Summit in May!! I love how we are leaning into making it so interactive with roundtables and panels --- we want the audience to "be the conference" not just get lectured Thank you to all the speakers, attendees and customers that make our Summits so much fun!

The latest State of Subscription Apps 2025 from RevenueCat reveals trends that can make or break your growth strategy. 1) Hybrid monetization is the new norm. Over 35% of apps now mix subscriptions, consumables, and one-time purchases. 2) The top 5% of apps earn 400 times more than the bottom 25%. The gap is widening quickly. 3) User acquisition is more expensive than ever. Trial optimization and paywall strategies can help fix this. 4) iOS users spend more, but Android has global reach. Your platform strategy matters. 5) AI apps are making money, but only if they stand out. AI alone won’t guarantee success. Swipe through the key insights in this carousel to see what’s working in 2025.

RevenueCat launched App Performance Calculator where you can compare your app metrics vs. 75,000 others. We've got nothing to hide, so here is Bliss Brain's data and some takeaways: * We've got a high percentage of users who start a trial – a clear sign that our onboarding performs well and there is a high interest in the product. * At the same time, our conversion from trial to paid is lower than the industry average - there's a lot of work to do in keeping customers. * Monthly renewal rates are low and that's ok since we are not oriented towards monthly subscriptions right now. * Yearly subscriptions are at the median, which aligns with our current focus - we highlight them on the paywall. On average, we perform in line with or better than other apps in our vertical but we feel we can do so much more!

RevenueCat's 2025 State of Subscription Apps Report just dropped, with data from >75k apps generating >$10B in revenue, and it's full of insights. 💡 Here are a few of my favorites: 1️⃣ AI apps are printing money - their Day 60 Revenue per Install (D60RPI) is 2x higher vs. the median, but they must still figure out retention to sustain growth. 2️⃣ Retention is king - median apps only retain ~30% of annual subscribers and ~9% of monthly subscribers after a year, but p90 apps have ~2x higher annual subscriber retention rates and >3x higher monthly subscriber retention rates. 3️⃣ The rich get richer - the top 5% of new apps generate 400x as much money after 2 years vs. the bottom 25%, which is double last year's gap of 200x. 4️⃣ Apps are innovating on monetization - 35% now mix recurring subscriptions with lifetime plans and/or IAPs, helping them capture more value from "whales." 5️⃣ Onboarding and paywall optimization are key - 82% of trial starts occur on the day of install, and p90 apps have >3x higher trial start rates vs. the median! 6️⃣ North America outperforms - this includes KPIs like Price, Trial Start Rate, Trial Conversion Rate, Install to Paid Conversion Rate, Subscription Renewal Rate, and RPI, highlighting the challenges of profitable international expansion. Thanks to Jacob Eiting, David Barnard, Hendrik Haandrikman, and the entire RevenueCat team for doing this every year - it's the best report of its kind! Excited to have Jacob on my podcast this month for a deeper discussion. 🔥

⏰ It's the final countdown to #AdobeSummit, and we're excited to share a behind the scenes look as we put the finishing touches on our Summit booth! Will you be joining us at Booth # 1171? Comment below if you’ll be in Las Vegas for the Digital Experience Conference—we’d love to connect: https://lnkd.in/eA9_YJVu #AdobeCommerce #AdobeStack #AISearch #SiteSearch #AdobeSummit25 #DigitalCommerce #eCommerce