As more and more people are working from home, we’re sure that you’re looking for ways to feel more productive. Well, we’ve got you covered as this week’s newsletter brings forth a ton of interesting content, including some must-listen podcasts and must-watch videos. So without any further ado, let’s begin.
Table of Contents
News of the week
Cloud and SaaS providers prepare for increased demand as millions telecommute due to COVID-19 fears
Many are suggesting that the COVID-19 will be a breakout moment for SaaS products, more specifically cloud companies and those services that enable remote work. In fact, Microsoft Teams did go down earlier this week, but the Redmond giant is ending the week on a good note as it celebrates its third-year anniversary and boasting 44million DAUs. Microsoft has also announced several new features such as real-time noise suppression and raise hand feature (to highlight to others that one wants to say something) during video calls.
Microsoft Teams rival Slack also announced its revamped interface and a slew of capabilities, that will be rolled out to users in the coming days. The company also revealed that it has added 7,000 new businesses as customers in the past few weeks.
However, not all is rosy, as this article suggests that the situation would also lead to revenue loss for SaaS companies. As per the piece, Indian companies in this vertical can see a loss of as much as 10 percent.
Zoho revenue surpasses Rs 3,300 Cr in FY19, posts Rs 516 Cr in profit
Speaking of India, one of the pioneers in this industry, Zoho has reported 37.1 percent growth in its operating revenue in the last financial year. It’s significant because the company hasn’t raised an external capital since its inception in 1996.
Google indefinitely delays the digital version of its Cloud Next conference
Due to Coronavirus, the search titan had canceled the Cloud Next conference which was scheduled for April. But now, the company has also indefinitely postponed the virtual event due to the COVID-19 concerns.
Investment quotient
HashiCorp soars above $5B valuation in new $175M venture round
Cloud companies are continuing to reach newer valuations, and the latest company to enter such a club is HashiCorp. The company offers a suite of products to help the people in the company to work in the cloud. With its Series E investment, the company has crossed the $5billion valuation mark.
CoreStack raises $8.5 million in series A funding round
Another cloud company that raised funding this week is CoreStack, which focuses on cloud governance. Led by Naya Ventures, the Seattle-based startup received $8.5million for Series A funding.
Ideaspring Capital invests in cloud data protection startup Nimesa
Marking the hattrick for cloud enterprises, Nimesa has raised a little over $800k. The company offers cloud-native data protection and copy data management.
Must-reads
The good SaaS times will end and challenges are coming
Social media management in times of crisis
Zoom conquered video chat — now it has even bigger plans
Pricing in a time of uncertainty
Listen to
In this podcast, Rachel Hepworth, VP of Marketing, Pilot, shares her learnings from her previous companies: Climate Corporation, LinkedIn and Slack. She explains why finding a product-market fit is important for marketers too, and what is product-led growth and why she thinks organic marketing is better than paid marketing among other things. She also gives insights on how companies can increase word-of-mouth marketing even if their product doesn’t necessarily offer features that people will feel the need to tell others.
Turning a Simple Slack Plugin into a Growing B2B SaaS Startup – with Darren Chait
Hugo’s Darren Chait talks about how he got started with the idea of improving meetings, and even reached a few thousand users. But then Hugo wasn’t able to monetize it, and it later dawned upon the team that there was a gap in the market for doing meeting notes in a proper manner so that everyone involved is informed. He also discusses how Hugo integrates with various services to ensure that people can take required actions after meetings.
Running a high-performance remote SaaS marketing team with Kevan Lee, VP Marketing at Buffer
As many companies are moving to remote work for the first time, it may not be easy. So this podcast with Buffer’s Kevan Lee – a company that has been remote since its inception – is a good starting point. He shares how the social media management company communicates with the team, the tools they use and more.
Related read: How to keep your company aligned while your whole team works remotely
Watch
Redpoint Founders Series: Ian Tien, Mattermost
While we talk about Slack and Microsoft Teams as the most popular communication app, there’s also an open-source alternative called Mattermost. In this video, Redpoint’s Tomasz Tunguz chats with Ian Tien, Mattermost’s CEO and co-founder to talk about how the company started (and pivoted from a gaming company), the open-source ethos, and the future among other things.
SaaS sales strategies (3 ways to shorten your sales cycle for your SaaS business)
“Why you, why us and why now” – that’s the simple mantra that any SaaS company needs to follow for sales, as per this video. TK Kader, who formerly was associated with ToutApp and Marketo shares how following these three things, the sales cycle could be shortened.
Lessons from the field: five proven strategies for faster SaaS growth
Rob Wailing, the former CEO of Drip, and currently an angel investor at TinySeed, shares some proven strategies that SaaS companies can follow to grow faster. To share these learnings, he not only tell from his own experience, but also from the companies TinySeed has invested in.
