Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Transforming SaaS Unlocking the Power of Software as a Service

30 May 2024 · 1 min

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0:32

A short excerpt of a Jason M. Lemkin YouTube talk arguing that SaaS in 2022–2023 drifted from its service roots and became perceived as overpriced—customers faced large price increases without corresponding value. Lemkin cites HubSpot as an example, notes product expansion claims (more features) and stresses founders must dramatically improve product value; he also mentions challenges for businesses with high churn.

Chapters

Software is supposed to be a service. SaaS software as a service. We forgot about it in 2023 and late 22 became soft. SaaS became software as a ripoff. Everyone got massive price increases for no benefit, right? Some folks will grumble about HubSpot. It has raised prices, but overall the prices haven't gone up much. And now they have five times the amount of software. That's 50 times more powerful, right? It's like 250 times better than when Brian started. And that's what you've got to aspire to as a founder. The flip side is, here's the like. If you have a high churn business and HubSpot started there, a lot of folks start in high churn business.