Know What's Happening in SaaS
Apollo.io acquires Pocus to build an AI‑native GTM operating system
Apollo.io announced the acquisition of revenue‑intelligence startup Pocus, aiming to embed an AI‑native signal layer into its sales platform. The move adds behavioural‑driven scoring capabilities as Apollo, approaching $200 million in ARR and serving over 600,000 companies, expands its go‑to‑market stack.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Beautiful.ai secures $45M non‑dilutive capital
The post explains how SaaS and tech founders can secure personal liquidity through minority recapitalizations—selling less than 50% of their equity to growth or private equity investors—while retaining control and upside. It illustrates the concept with a detailed case study of the author’s $15 million secondary sale at iContact, and lists numerous recent founder‑liquidity deals to show market viability. The author emphasizes the importance of strong metrics (Rule of 40), the role of experienced investment bankers, and promotes his SaasRise and VentureRise communities for CEOs seeking guidance.
The post introduces two SaaS valuation calculators—Livmo’s interactive tool and SaaStr’s calculator—to help founders estimate company worth using metrics like ARR, growth, and EBITDA. It highlights recent M&A multiples, noting a median 4.1x revenue and 19.4x EBITDA for private deals...
The post announces a new weekly mastermind group exclusively for venture‑backed tech CEOs who have raised at least $5 million, aiming to provide peer support on scaling, fundraising, exit planning, and founder well‑being. Led by SaaS veteran Ryan Allis, the group...
The post curates the best SaaS growth and exit‑preparation content from the first half of 2025—webinars, reports, podcasts, templates and videos—organized for easy sharing. It highlights resources on raising capital, scaling, AI‑personalized outbound, and detailed M&A and VC reports, all...
The post promotes SaasRise’s weekly mastermind calls that bring together 600+ SaaS CEOs and founders scaling from $1M to $100M ARR, offering peer feedback on growth, hiring, ops, AI, product, and exit strategies. It outlines the Summer 2025 schedule, highlights...
The post presents a detailed B2B LinkedIn strategy used by SaasRise, outlining tactics such as Sales Navigator ABM list building, AI‑personalized outbound email, automated connection requests, retargeting and thought‑leader ads, viral organic content, and a LinkedIn newsletter. Ryan Allis shares...
How do we position a product that doesn't have any advantages over the alternatives? Let's start by entertaining the idea that maybe we're wrong about that.
A veteran SaaS VC advises new B2B founders to temper speed with caution, recommending they pause on uncertain big decisions and extend runway budgets by 6‑12 months beyond original forecasts. He stresses the importance of building a aligned founding team...
You shouldn't wait until disaster strikes to adjust your positioning, but when it does, that's a great time to revisit it.
I sat down with Ayman Al-Abdullah, my friend and former CEO of AppSumo. (He helped scale the company from $3M to $80M from 2016 to 2021). Now he’s a CEO coach helping 7-figure CEOs get to 9-figures. Sharing the top lessons from our...
The piece advises that the line between founder and first employee should be drawn by timing and commitment: founders are present before a name, product, code or funds, take essentially all the risk and work for little to no salary....
