Today's SaaS Pulse
Salesforce Launches AgentExchange, a Unified AI Marketplace with $50M Builder Fund
Salesforce has merged its three app and AI stores into a single AgentExchange marketplace, offering over 13,000 ready‑made apps, AI agents, and automation components. The platform features intent‑aware search, one‑click buying, and instant activation within Salesforce or Slack, and includes a $50 million builder fund to encourage partner development.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Loop raises $95M to scale its supply‑chain AI platform
From Zero to Eight Figures in 18 Months: Decagon CEO’s Playbook for AI-Native SaaS Growth. And Why They Partnered With...
Decagon, founded in late 2023, scaled to eight‑figure ARR in roughly 18 months by selling AI customer‑service agents to major enterprises including Hertz and Chime, claiming roughly $800K in annual savings for every $250K spent. Backed by Accel at Series A, the startup credits rigorous customer discovery, a relentless focus on provable ROI and rapid iteration, and an in‑person, mission‑aligned culture for compounding growth. The company’s playbook — incremental deployments, measurable payback, and building at the application layer to absorb underlying model changes — highlights a repeatable path for AI‑native SaaS, even as Decagon flags culture and systems as the next scaling challenge.
Humans Win Big Deals, AI Dominates Routine Outreach
On SaaStr’s own little sales team, “outbound” from humans has still crushed “outbound” developed by our AI SDRs But the nuance is >whichSDR< we’ve ever had But the best AEs have still brought in deals the AI SDRs never would have, and...
AI in Tech Isn’t So Much About Laying Off Humans. It’s About AI Backfills
Jason Lemkin explains that SaaStr has replaced departing employees with AI agents as a routine backfill, not as a cost‑cutting layoff, and now runs over 20 agents covering sales, marketing, support, RevOps and operations. He notes that AI agents require...
Build Reliable AI Products, Not Just Flashy Demos
.@Jacob_Heller is the co-founder & CEO of Casetext, the AI legal startup behind CoCounsel, which was acquired by Thomson Reuters for $650 million. In his talk at AI Startup School, he shared how his team did it—from picking the right idea...
The Brutal Truth About Series B: Only 1 in 3 Deals Even Double Investors’ Money, Per Latest Carta Data
Carta’s analysis of 547 U.S. startups that raised primary Series B rounds in 2018 shows that only about one‑third of those investments doubled investors’ money, while 66% delivered two‑times or less – including 38.6% that are now worth the same or...
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In this solo episode, Rob Walling tackles listener questions about product positioning, debating vertical, orthogonal, and horizontal strategies for bootstrapped SaaS founders, and examines whether AI now makes inventing a new category viable. He stresses evaluating how much a product...
198. Jakob Lilholm, Co-Founder & CEO, Formalize - The S-Curve Bet: How to Time Product #2 Before Product #1 Peaks?
In the episode, Jakob Lilholm, CEO of Formalize, explains how the company timed its transition from a single‑point whistleblowing tool to a multi‑product GRC platform by leveraging EU regulatory trends and an S‑curve model to launch product 2 before product 1 peaked....
Launching AlertMouse: Superior Real‑Time Web Mention Tracking
I've got a new job. Not leaving my old ones, but... alongside my friends @adamdoppelt & Nathan Kriege, we're launching https://alertmouse.com today -- just think "what if Google Alerts was really good at tracking web mentions, instead of completely useless?" We built...
SaasRise Enterprise Mastermind Call Recap Oct 21, 2025
The Oct 21, 2025 Enterprise SaaS Mastermind call covered five practical themes: optimizing holiday‑season sales pipelines with early‑sign incentives and deferred starts; evolving content personalization using AI‑driven cold emails and segmented newsletters; launching a low‑friction PLG product for hotel reputation management as...
The Science of SaaS Unit Economics: How to Nail Your Numbers and Scale with Confidence
The post explains why mastering SaaS unit economics—especially CAC, LTV, ARPA, churn, and lifespan—is essential for predictable, scalable growth, showing how these metrics determine the LTV:CAC ratio and payback period. It walks readers through calculating each metric, setting target CAC...
How to Build a SaaS Dashboard That Turns Marketing Data Into Predictable Growth
The post argues that measurable data is the foundation of predictable SaaS growth, urging marketers to build comprehensive dashboards and weekly KPI sheets that track revenue, CAC, NRR, and funnel metrics. It outlines a step‑by‑step process—from setting up visual revenue...
How to Build a B2B Content Machine That Scales Your Brand and Pipeline
The post outlines how SaaS and B2B companies can create a repeatable "content machine" that delivers one high‑quality piece of content each week, repurposes it across email, LinkedIn, blogs, ads, and SDR outreach, and tracks brand impressions to reach a...
How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Clay to Build a Winning ABM Lead List
The post teaches B2B SaaS founders how to combine LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s up‑to‑date professional data with Clay’s enrichment and automation to create high‑quality, verified ABM lead lists. It walks through precise LinkedIn searches, exporting via Chrome extensions, email verification, then...
This Week in SaaS Oct 20 - 27, 2025
This edition of “This Week in SaaS” surveys the latest wave of AI‑centric funding, high‑profile M&A and SPAC filings, underscoring how investors are gravitating toward vertical AI integration and secure enterprise orchestration. The author highlights key takeaways for founders—building modular,...
How to Turn Leads Into Customers: Building a Scalable SaaS Sales and Success System
The post outlines a step‑by‑step framework for turning SaaS leads into paying, retained customers by building five interlocking systems—ABM lead sourcing, content creation, advertising, sales, and customer success—and measuring unit economics before scaling. It emphasizes calculating target CAC and CPL,...
How to Use Conversion Rate Optimization to Cut CAC and Scale Your SaaS Ads
The post explains that SaaS founders can dramatically lower Customer Acquisition Cost and scale ads by focusing on conversion rate optimization (CRO) across the entire funnel, not just on generating leads. It outlines a step‑by‑step framework—tracking the right metrics, improving...
SaasRise CEO Mastermind Recaps for the Week of October 19-23, 2025
The SaasRise CEO Mastermind recap for the week of October 19‑23, 2025 distills ten actionable insights from founders on scaling smarter—ranging from holiday sales tactics and M&A fee negotiations to hyper‑personalized outreach, PLG‑driven vertical SaaS, and AI‑accelerated product development. Across...
AI Makes Cheap Tools, Reshaping Jobs Beyond Automation
“Many of the projects I do with Claude day to day I just wouldn't have done at all pre-Claude.” One of the underestimated impacts of AI agents will be the fact that work will just change in unexpected ways because we’ve...
Series B Deals Rarely Deliver 10x Returns—Pick Wisely
The latest data from @cartainc is brutal. Of 547 Series B deals in 2018: - Figma did 100x ... but - 39% are worth 1x or less - Only 34% are worth 2x or more after 7 years But - 11.7% do achieve...
New Corporate Espionage Claims Emerge, Centered on Two Highly Valued 401(k) Admin Startups
Human Interest, a $1.4 billion‑valued 401(k) admin startup, sued rival Guideline in Utah federal court alleging that three Sterri brothers, two of whom were junior sales reps at Human Interest and one a Guideline employee, stole confidential lead data, partnership information...
AI Procurement Platform Secures $5M Seed, Boosts Quote Speed
Congrats to @NelsonRay18966, @benrk100, @szymczyk06, and @salespatriot_ on their $5M seed! SalesPatriot is building the next-generation procurement platform for defense and aerospace – replacing decades-old systems with an AI-native platform that helps suppliers quote 7x faster. https://t.co/w4SUzjaqRh
AI Accelerates Category Creation for Bootstrappers
Does AI make it easier to “create a category” as a bootstrapper? Tune in to find out 👇
LexisNexis CEO Says the AI Law Era Is Already Here
LexisNexis CEO Sean Fitzpatrick announced that the company’s new AI platform, Protégé, is moving beyond research to generate draft legal documents, promising higher accuracy by grounding output in its 160 billion‑document corpus and a built‑in citator to prevent hallucinated citations. The...
Kaizen Secures $4M Seed to Accelerate Browser Automation
Congrats to @aquariusacquah, @michaelssilver, and the @joinkaizen team on their $4M seed! Kaizen allows companies to deploy complex browser automation in minutes instead of weeks. Kaizen powers critical automation in healthcare, finance, and logistics.
Vesence AI Secures $9M Seed to Power Office Law Tools
Congrats to @HenrikTaro, @LudvigSwanstrom, and @VesenceAI on their $9M seed! Vesence brings AI agents to Microsoft Office for law firms. Built for accuracy and quality control, Vesence helps lawyers avoid costly mistakes across Word & Outlook, already seeing 90% weekly...
Experts Warn Microsoft Copilot Studio Agents Are Being Hijacked to Steal OAuth Tokens
Datadog Security Labs identified a new phishing method called CoPhish that hijacks Microsoft Copilot Studio agents (called Topics) to present fake login or consent flows, tricking users into granting OAuth permissions and handing attackers tokens that provide access to email,...
Start at $1M ARR, Let Customers Map Growth
If you aren’t sure how to get to $100m ARR, just get to $1m ARR Then just ask your customers They will basically tell you
From Seats to Credits: Next Bubble's Lingering Hangover
There was a “seats” hangover after the 2021 bubble There will be a “credits” hangover after the 2025 bubble
Workers Are Scamming Their Employers Using AI-Generated Fake Expense Receipts
Companies are facing a surge in AI‑generated fake expense receipts that are increasingly indistinguishable from real documents, forcing businesses to rework expense verification. AppZen says AI‑generated expenses rose to 14% of fraudulent submissions in September 2025 from 0% in 2024,...
Apten AI Agent Proactively Engages Leads Across All Channels
Apten is an omnichannel AI agent that engages leads across text, call, email, and webchat. It's not only able to start a conversation through webchat, but proactively reaches out via SMS/voice/email once the lead goes inactive. https://t.co/N7hPSoVvG8 Congrats on the launch, @dho1357 and...
One Bad Campaign Doesn't Mean a Channel Fails
The more founders I work with, the more I realize: most teams write off entire marketing channels based on one failed campaign. The channel isn't broken. You're just not looking at the campaign-level data that actually matters. https://t.co/FI8G6RNGXZ
The Change Economy with Bonfire Ventures’ Brett Queener: Why Your Product Must Ship Every 30 Days or Die
Bonfire Ventures partner Brett Queener warns that AI‑driven “agentic” software forces a new SaaS playbook: companies must ship major product updates roughly every 30 days or risk being outcompeted. He advises starting small with demos and rapid trials, embedding continual...
Founders Hire Likable VPs, Ignore Product Expertise
The #1 mistake I see founders hiring their first VP of Sales? Hiring someone they like. That talks the talk. But that never understands the product. https://t.co/xqO0h14EFc
Redesign Your Business Around AI, Not Just Augment It
Founder: I’ve got 35 AI agents now. They're making me 100x more productive! Me: And you’re still on Zoom calls all day??? [Founder nods.] Me: Then you’re missing the whole point of AI. Founder: What do you mean? Me: You’re trying to bend AI to...
Workout App Ladder Launches Nutrition-Tracking Experience
Strength-training app Ladder has launched Ladder Nutrition, a built-in calorie and macronutrient tracker that lets users log food via photo, barcode scan, text or voice and includes a protein mode, streaks and gamified reminders. The tool uses multiple AI models...
Mantle Automates Grunt Work, Letting Companies Focus on Building
Mantle (https://t.co/acxDq4HklH) is the operating system for every company. Tell Mantle about the grunt work you do and it does it for you in the background, exactly how you would, directly in your stack. Let Mantle do the boring stuff for...
Public SaaS Stagnates; Private AI Unicorns Lead Growth
As the world follows every whisper & rumor from AI, what has happened to public SaaS? The answer is not much! All the fun is in the private markets. Multiples haven’t moved outside of a narrow band since the post-Covid crash in...
Microsoft Facing Huge Lawsuit Involving Millions of Citizens over Unfair Software Pricing - Here's What We Know
Australia’s competition regulator has sued Microsoft, alleging it misled up to 2.7 million Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers by pushing auto‑renewals after adding Copilot and failing to disclose a lower‑priced “Classic” option. The ACCC says emails and a blog...
AI Gives Basketball Scouts 10× Insights in 10% Time
PlayVision (@playvisionai) is the AI Moneyball for Sports: the future for scouting, recruiting, and playing the game. After scouting for Cal Athletics, the team built PlayVision to automatically analyze film for basketball teams, giving them 10x more insights— in 10% of...
AI Agents Boost Productivity, Especially for Non‑technical Teams
My biggest takeaways from Dhanji Prasanna, CTO of @Blocks: 1. Block’s internal AI agent "Goose" is saving employees on average 8 to 10 hours per week. The company built an open-source tool called Goose that handles tasks from organizing files to...
“Cursor Is a Much Better Product Manager than I Ever Was”: How This PM Uses AI for PRDs, Jira Tickets,...
Dennis Yang, Chime’s principal product manager for generative AI, says he uses Cursor as a no‑code product‑management hub to generate PRDs, push documentation to Confluence/Notion, create Jira tickets, and automate status reports and comment replies. His workflow leverages Model Context...
B2B Must Offer Instant Value, Not Delayed Features
Today your B2B product has to deliver immediate "WTF" value now. Not "interesting." Not "I'll think about it." Holy Cr*p, Almost Instant Value. The old playbook of annual releases, 12-month enterprise rollouts, and quarterly webinars? Dead. 🧵Here's what's replacing it...
AI Marketing Startup Hits $1.15M ARR, 997% Growth
AI startups are printing cash. Live on @acquiredotcom: AI platform helping marketers maximize every dollar. Automating research, creative testing and scaling campaigns. > $1.15M ARR > $798K TTM revenue > $678K TTM profit > 997% YoY growth Full listing: https://t.co/jNAVKv3ABY https://t.co/GOthuI0JQl
Customer Sales Feel Better than Investor Pitches
Selling to customers is so much nicer than selling to investors.
Strategy Starts With Aspiration, Field, and True Advantage
Strategy isn't just a trendy term—it's about making a series of courageous, coordinated decisions. In our newest Playing to Win: Practitioners Insight, @RogerLMartin and I explore why effective strategy begins with a distinct aspiration, a strategic playing field, and a...
RPO Shows Future Revenue—Track, Grow, Storytelling
RPO reveals your future revenue. 📈 Track it. Grow it. Use it to tell a stronger story. New SaaS Metrics School episode is live 👇 https://t.co/gchRtmCwJr #SaaS #SaaSMetrics https://t.co/IIQl3eHxfb
Play Health Redefines Perimenopause Care with Data-Driven Tracking
Play Health (@playhealthco) is setting a new standard for perimenopause care through comprehensive in-app tracking combined with hormone testing to provide data-driven insights that support faster care and improved outcomes. https://t.co/Sff2rkedc7 Congrats on the launch, @a_mazzocchi and Ian!
Skip Process‑obsessed VP of Sales Before $10M ARR
Before $10m ARR, Do not hire a VP of Sales that mainly talks about process You are too early for them
Celebrating Entrepreneurs' Wins Fuels My Purpose
My favorite part of running @acquiredotcom is seeing entrepreneurs win. The founders who bootstrapped through hard months. The ones who landed their 1st customer. The ones who just sold their startup and changed their life. Every win reminds me of why this...
Extreme Pricing Wins; Middle Ground Leads to Failure
Either sell extremely expensive to a select few or sell something super cheap to everyone. The middle is where people die.