Welcome to the first day of 2021, and with that, the very first edition of the SaaS weekly roundup this year. While only time will tell what the year has in store for the SaaS ecosystem, here are the 7 SaaS trends that are worth watching out for in 2021. Coming back to the things that you shouldn’t ignore in the past seven days (even though the news was slow due to the holiday season), let’s begin this roundup.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Qualtrics files for U.S. IPO two years after sale to SAP
As it was reported, SAP has hived off Qualtrics as it’s going public just two years after being acquired. Expected to be the among the first IPOs of 2021, Qualtrics could be valued as high as $14.4billion. Investment firm Silver Lake has purchased $550million worth of Class A shares in a private placement.
VMware files suit against former exec for moving to rival company
When Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey announced his plans to retire in August, he was replaced by VMWare executive Rajiv Ramaswami as president and CEO in December. However, Dell-owned VMware has filed a lawsuit against him as he has breached his contract. Considering Nutanix and VMware are rivals, it remains to be seen how the lawsuit plays out.
Zix acquires CloudAlly backup for SaaS data protection
Email security provider Zix has acquired CloudAlly for $30million. CloudAlly backup works with popular apps like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Box, and Dropbox for backup. The deal price was $30million and the acquisition happened in November 2020.
Cedar Gate Technologies Receives Minority Investment from Cobalt Ventures
Care performance management company Cedar Gate has announced that it has received investment from Cobalt Ventures. The amount hasn’t been divulged, however. The Greenwich-based company Cedar Gate supports value-based care end to end.
Must reads
23 ways to reduce involuntary churn
How to create a PR strategy for your SaaS startup
Forget FAANG. It’s time to scale MT SAAS
Listen to
Dylan Field – the growing importance of design
In Founder’s Field Guide, the host Patrick O’Shaughnessy’ to founders about their experience of starting a company, and how it evolved over time. In this episode, listen to Figma’s co-founder and CEO sharing why he built the design tool, why design is important for businesses, and more.
How to leverage the cloud giants to scale to 100million ARR and beyond with Snowflake, CrowdStrike, Sumo Logic, and Sapphire Ventures
Cloud marketplace have become a potential option for companies to reach out to consumers. In this podcast Sapphire Ventures, Snowflake, Crowdstrike, and more discuss how companies can sell enterprise software through cloud marketplaces. They also talk about what kind of investments and alignment in the company is needed to do the same.
Building a $38k/month SaaS business as a solo founder with Jordan O’Connor of Closet Tools
Being a solo founder isn’t easy, but with SaaS as a business model, many have been able to do this successfully. In this podcast, Jordan O’Connor, founder of closet.tools shares how he started this journey, and how he took it to $400,000 ARR.
Watch
The 3 types of CEOs with Mike McDerment @ Freshbooks
Freshbooks is one of the oldest SaaS companies, and is a giant today in the accounting software category. In this episode, its CEO Mike McDerment interacts with Dan Martell about his journey, different types of CEO, and how the CEO can scale their business.
