Measuring AI Investment ROI Becomes Essential for All Companies
Fired up* to work w/ @rfradin @jlarrison @aktwits @arampell @a16z on the Board of @Larridin. We used Larridin at Gainsight to measure the ROI of our AI investments & this is a problem every company will need to tackle. *Russ promised to a parody music video in the deal terms. https://t.co/gpYSYcd0AR
Soft‑skill Platforms Can Generate Six‑figure Profits
People underestimate how profitable “soft skills” businesses can be. Live on @acquiredotcom: A 15-year social skills training platform built on live, coach-led practice. > $561K TTM revenue > $275K TTM profit > 4,400 active members Full listing: https://t.co/woKnEzxZXN https://t.co/Ejax6k1Lqx
Close the Intent‑Action Gap with Decision‑Focused Pages
After a while, you realize pipeline is not created by volume alone. You also think about it as something you can either catch or miss. Most buying journeys do not announce themselves. They show up in small, uneven bursts. A...
Testing Daily Signals to Boost Operator Decision Speed
For 11 years, I’ve sent a weekly newsletter. Five hundred seventy-two issues built around links people consistently tell me they actually read. That cadence works. I’m keeping it. But frequency isn’t the same thing as usefulness. A lot of operator...
ARR Numbers Mislead when Definitions Are Vague
Most ARR disclosures are technically correct — and still wildly misleading. After reviewing hundreds of public tech company ARR definitions and calculations, one thing became clear: 👉 The problem isn’t the ARR number 👉 It’s how companies define, calculate, and...
Profit Focus and Strong Team Fuel Founder Happiness
I’ve talked to over 20 founders the past 4 weeks and every one of them is miserable. They want me to be miserable too … but I’m NOT. 11 years in, I’m more excited than ever. Here’s the top 5...
AI Destroys Per-Seat CRM Pricing, Shifts to Outcomes
The "per seat" business model is officially dead for CRMs. For the last 20 years, the logic of SaaS pricing was simple. You build a database, and you charge companies for every human who logs in to update it. The...
Three Hours Coaching Boosts Sales Attainment Above 100%
The data is clear: teams receiving 3+ hours of coaching per rep per month consistently outperform (thanks Gartner for the analysis). But most teams never get out of reactive mode. “I wish I had more time to coach my reps....
AI Wins by Replacing, Not Automating, Deterministic Workflows
Most companies claim they are becoming AI first. Almost none understand what that actually requires. The surprising truth: AI does not transform your business by automating existing workflows. It transforms it by replacing deterministic workflows entirely. I explore this with @hala_zeine, Chief Strategy...
Deep Product Knowledge Outweighs CEO Polish
For a long while, you probably aren't a great CEO But you know the customers The software The feature gaps The roadmap The competition How to sell it How to market it How to build it So maybe as flawed as you are You are still the best CEO
Focus on Product-Market Fit, Buyers Come Naturally
“Businesses get bought, not sold.” - A random private equity fund bossman. I sold Robly in 2021, and I didn't go looking for a buyer. Robly was a grind. Only got to $3M ARR. Tiny company in a super-saturated space (didn't have...
Your Day Job Can Teach 11 Entrepreneurial Lessons
Some of the best founder training happens in your 9 to 5 if you’re curious enough to notice. In episode 815, I share 11 unexpected lessons a day job can teach you about entrepreneurship. Listen here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gfJNG6qV
Customer Research Sells; Product Research Builds
I'm noticing confusion in b2b around customer research - we think we're doing customer research ( ✅ ) but in reality it's usually just product research 🙈 (to improve the product) Product research asks: "How do we improve our features?"...
2026: AI Agents Transform Knowledge Work Through Scaffolding
The capability overhang right now in AI is pretty massive. Most of the world still thinks of AI as chatbots that will answer a question on demand but not yet do real work for them. Beyond coding, almost no knowledge work...
Most B2B AI Features Fail; Winners Do Differently
Hot take: 90% of "AI features" shipping in B2B right now are terrible. The companies winning are doing something completely different. Come to SaaStr AI 2026 May 12-14 and learn what actually works from founders with the receipts. https://t.co/Ff7DKVt1H2
Great Product Needs Relentless, Years‑long Promotion
Built a great product? Awesome. Now go tell everyone on the internet every day for the next 5 years. You got this.
Six Key Steps to Close an M&A Deal
What are the basic milestones of a process (M&A or capital raise)? 1. Pre-marketing Complete the marketing materials (information packet and buyer list) and get your house in order. 2. Marketing Reach out to buyers, execute NDAs, and share marketing...
Capture Customer Stories Early to Accelerate Deal Closure
I’ve sat in a lot of deal reviews where someone asks, “Do we have a customer story for this?” The answer is usually yes. But the pause that follows tells the real story. Someone remembers a win from months ago....
No Excitement, Wrong Product—Learned After $1M Loss
If you don’t see the excitement in people’s eyes, you’re building the wrong product… (spent $1M, wasted 1 year, been there, done that (NEVER AGAIN)) https://t.co/aL0rguGFxJ
Balancing Agency and Control Drives Enterprise AI Success
My biggest takeaways from Aishwarya Naresh Reganti and Kiriti Badam on building successful enterprise AI products: 1. AI products differ from traditional software in two fundamental ways: they’re non-deterministic, and you need to constantly trade off agency vs. control. Traditional...
Board Pressure Fuels Unsustainable Product Overreach
The Second Act Stumble Steve had a way of making growth sound inevitable. He’d done it once already—tripled revenue from $7 million to $21 million in 12 short months—and the board wanted another lap around the track. Another 3×. Another...
Post‑crisis “Diligence” Masks Underlying Process Gaps
I keep seeing the same thing after teams realize something important too late. The impact shows up in how work gets done. Extra checks get added before meetings. People start keeping private notes. Someone is asked to manually watch competitors....
Refresh Your Messaging Annually to Match Rapid Market Shifts
It's natural to stay in the mindset that things are today like they were last year or 2 years ago. But of course, they're not. The world changes very fast. The amount of new well-funded startups entering a space every...
Scalability, Not Ambition, Is Marketing’s New Bottleneck
The results are in from the Adapt or Die: 2026 Resilient Marketer Survey that I collaborated on with the team at MoEngage . One pattern is already clear: the challenge for most B2C marketing teams is no longer experimentation or...
Turn Testimonials Into a Real‑Time Sales Flywheel
Most SaaS companies waste their best testimonials. - They collect a few quotes - They bury them on a landing page - They forget about them and call it a day And then, as a result: Proof that never gets...
Variable Pricing Requires Cohort‑Based, Smoothed NRR Metrics
Does NRR exist and/or matter where traditional ARR no longer exists? Usage-based and outcome-based pricing didn’t make NRR irrelevant - but they make "NRR Slop" hard to defend... The old SaaS world was simple: Annual contracts → clean ARR →...
Secure AI Governance Enables Enterprise Trust and Innovation
Enterprises want the speed and intelligence of AI agents and automation, but never at the expense of security or control. Auditability remains essential in making that possible. Organizations need to verify what happened, when it happened, and why, and this...
Strong Docs Drive Success: Updating Omarchy Manual
The early success of Rails was assisted heavily by having solid documentation out of the gate. So I'm trying my best to do the same for Omarchy. Constantly improving and updating the manual. https://t.co/9tL5fdZ0T9
Your AI Strategy Deadline: SaaStr AI
If you're a VP of Sales, CRO, CMO, or Head of Product at a B2B company and you haven't figured out your AI strategy yet... May 12-14 is your deadline. SaaStr AI 2026. SF Bay. Come with questions. Leave with...
Squarespace Design Plugin Generates $340K Revenue, 39% Growth
Plugins + SaaS print money. Live on @acquiredotcom: All-in-one website design plugin for Squarespace freelancers and agencies. Faster builds, no custom code, sticky subscriptions. > $340K TTM revenue > $223K TTM profit > 39% YoY growth Full listing: https://t.co/Y8gnOYsd82 https://t.co/kiUkoUUPCu
Incumbents Shift From Open APIs to Closed Walls
Salesforce, Datadog & Epic are building walls. After two decades of flourishing through open APIs & data portability, the software industry's largest incumbents are locking down. https://t.co/7n6Tio3aJK
Strategy Beats Volume: 6‑Step GTM Wins 2026
I spoke to a founder who sent 15,000 cold emails. The result? Near zero responses. He fired his marketer. Hired an expensive agency. Still zero results. The problem wasn't the execution. It was the STRATEGY. Here is the 6-step GTM framework that works...
Master a 6‑Step GTM Strategy to Unlock Growth
I was on a call with a Founder the other day. His growth was stuck. So we got to diagnose the issue. The culprit? They had sent 15,000 emails. And got back zero real responses. They tried blogging. Posting online....
Trust and Iteration: Keys to Successful AI Products
Why most AI products fail: Lessons from 50+ AI deployments at OpenAI, Google & Amazon @Aish_Reganti and @KiritiBadam have built 50+ enterprise AI products across companies like @OpenAI, @Google, @Amazon, and @Databricks. Based on these experiences, they’ve developed a small set...
Hire Salespeople Who Are Motivated by Money
Never hire anyone in sales that doesn't care about money You'll see
Shopify Launches Open Universal Commerce Protocol for Agents
Shopify is building the foundation for agentic commerce. Universal Commerce Protocol, which we co-developed with Google, is now live. UCP will make it faster for agents and retailers to integrate. It’s open by default, so platforms and agents can use UCP to...
Sell to Executives, Not Middle Managers, Cut Churn
I was recently chatting with Dan Pfister (author of Million Dollar Winback) about the real reasons SaaS companies lose customers. He shared a story of how one SaaS company dropped churn from 18% to 3% by changing who they sold...
Narrow Your Niche: Key to Startup Success
Most startups don't fail because they build bad products. They fail because they try to serve everyone. One of the biggest lessons for us this past year at Univid was narrowing down the niche harder - not expanding it. https://t.co/RlCp4pBsvI
Build for Forever, Sell Tomorrow: Leverage Through Systems
Build your startup like you’re going to run it forever but prepare it so you could sell it tomorrow. > Organized books > Standardized operations > Product that works without you That’s how you create real leverage with buyers.
Four Pillars to Achieve a 10x Exit
What does it take for a 10x exit? These are the 4 pillars... Scale: $10M–$15M+ ARR Growth: ~40% year-over-year Retention: 120% NRR / 95%+ Gross Retention Profitability: Break-even or profitable
Future Product Skills: Intuition, Clarity, Taste, and Agency
Product skills of the future: - Intuition about what's worth building - Clarity in describing the solution - Taste in knowing when it's great - Agency to do the above without being asked
Buyers Still Eager for Top‑Tier Software Assets
Market Fatigue: The Need for Quality Deals I recently sat down with Jim Williams to catch up on the state of Software M&A. Have an "A" asset? There are plenty of buyers who want your business. Listen to the full...
Stop Chasing Fame; Focus on Customers to Scale
I have to get something off my chest… In 2024, I completely butchered the year and nearly killed RB2B. For 15 months, I didn't have a single conversation with a customer. Was too busy trying to be an "influencer." I became everything I...
Bootstrapped SaaS Secures $480K Sale After Advisory Process
65 days ago this founder didn’t know if their SaaS was sellable. > Bootstrapped > 3 serious offers > Structured advisory process Yesterday they closed for $480,000 on @acquiredotcom. https://t.co/IHlzfr48zL
Aligning Incentives to Secure Stable Income for PLG Talent
One of my big goals for 2026 is to build the ultimate home for PLG talent. We have assembled a team of world-class implementers who are hands-down the best in the industry at solving activation problems. But to be fully...
Discarding Prompts for Small Tools Mirrors Binary‑only Code
at least for small tools, keeping the code and throwing away the prompts is the 2025 equivalent of throwing away the source and keeping the binary.
2026: Embracing Selective Focus Over Unlimited Yes
If I seemed less online in 2025, it's because I kinda was. In 2025 I: - Worked full-time as one of three people at SparkToro - Spoke at a dozen or so conferences - Planned & co-hosted my own conference...
Teach Reps Buyer‑centricity by Walking in Buyers’ Shoes
One of the most important lessons from our early days building the HubSpot sales team is to teach your reps to start with a buyer-centric mindset. We trained our reps by having them walk in the buyer’s shoes. Every new...
Context Graphs: Hype Meets Reality Check
A concept is making the rounds in AI circles right now that has many people very excited: context graphs . Foundation Capital published a piece calling it "AI's trillion-dollar opportunity." Engineers and founders are writing technical breakdowns of how it...
AI‑Driven GTM Built in 180 Days: Key Wins
1/ Personio's CRO Phil Lecor built an AI-powered GTM in 6 months. From nothing to all-in in 180 days. $8.5B company. 400 salespeople. 15,000 customers. Here's what actually worked (and the mistakes to avoid): 🧵 https://t.co/qhDbuFmAxS