Reducing Churn
For most SaaS startups, churn is one of the key metrics used to assess the health of the business. At it’s most base level, churn represents the reduction in numbers (and/ or revenue) from customers cancelling their subscriptions. In practise however, churn is more complex, particularly for startups new to SaaS, who lack historical data, and are in many instances still striving to achieve product/ market fit.
Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses have been attracting a lot of attention in recent years. As Marc Andreessen has argued ‘Software is Eating the World’. However, for startups looking to build the next unicorn the SaaS journey can be daunting as you look to avoid the SaaS Startup Graveyard.
The inaugural SaaStock 2016 took place in Dublin, Ireland on September 21–22, 2016. It brought together over 60 speakers, and 700 delegates from 30+ countries, who all shared a common passion for B2B/ Software as a Service (SaaS).
The following represent some of the key lessons from the event:
One only need to take a walk around We Work Moorgate or The Office Group in Riding House Street in London to get a glimpse into the world of modern business. These buildings house hundreds of businesses operating in co-working facilities (The Times recently claimed there were over 800 of these co-working offices in London alone). For many of these tenants, their ‘offices’ simply consist of a smart phone, laptop (typically a MacBook Pro) and a headset. And their ‘window on their world’ is usually via an internet connection and a small collection of familiar desktop icons e.g. Spotify, Dropbox, Firefox and Skype.
Decisions regarding pricing are of crucial importance for SaaS businesses. The first decision point usually relates to whether you are contemplating a Freemium offering or choosing to charge from the off. The pro’s and con’s of launching with a Freemium offering are well documented but regardless this decision warrants some thought.