How we Build

If there ever was a SaaS syllabus, this would be it.

We’ve sifted through the stacks and compiled our favorite online sources about all things SaaS. Presenting ChartMogul’s essential resources: The things we rely on everyday to build and grow our own business.

At ChartMogul we eat, sleep, and breathe SaaS. Most of the time… it’s specifically metrics. But the rest of the time, we’re thinking about how to share everything we learn with YOU — how to educate and spread valuable information about SaaS business, to our customers and beyond. It can be a crowded, noisy space on the web, so knowing where to go for quality insights is vital.

Whether you like to dive into the blog of an industry thought leader, receive a curated list of top content in an email newsletter, or engage with a variety of perspectives and peers in a community forum — there’s something in this list for you.

Figures

Tomasz Tunguz photoTomasz Tunguz
VC, Redpoint
@ttunguz | http://tomtunguz.com

Tomasz Tunguz is a partner at Redpoint Ventures. With a background in engineering and entrepreneurship, he has plenty of thoughts to share on the subjects of startups, software, and SaaS. And he publishes them regularly on his blog, most often with excellent data-driven analysis. We never miss a post.

Start with… 5 Mistakes SaaS Startups Often Make with Pricing

Christoph Janz photoChristoph Janz
VC, Point Nine Capital
@chrija | http://christophjanz.blogspot.de

Now a managing partner at Point Nine, Christoph Janz spent his earlier years as an internet entrepreneur and an angel investor. Janz’ blog is stacked with data-driven and evidence-based pieces, some of the most thorough and detailed out there. Plus if he sees a certain post is popular, he’ll follow up on the topic shortly after with another blog post, answering readers’ questions and providing further explanation. All of this makes for a very educational follow!

Start with… A KPI dashboard for early-stage SaaS startups

Jason Lemkin photoJason M. Lemkin
Founder, SaaStr
@jasonlk | https://www.saastr.com

Jason M. Lemkin is a jack-of-all-trades in the Enterprise SaaS world, and you will definitely come across him in the SaaS discussion online. Whether keeping up with his posts on the SaaStr blog, following him on Twitter, reading his answers on Quora — or reading his new book — there is a lot to learn from Lemkin and no shortage of places to learn it.

Start with… How to Know You’ve Hit Initial Traction in SaaS

David Skok photoDavid Skok
VC, Matrix Partners
@bostonvc | http://www.forentrepreneurs.com

A five-time entrepreneur turned VC, David Skok is putting all of his comprehensive experience and advice into his blog, which is targeted specifically to founders and early startup teams. In fact, he kicked off the conversation around SaaS metrics years ago. Forbes and Inc. both laud his site as a top resource for entrepreneurs, and ChartMogul does, too.

Start with… SaaS Metrics 2.0: A Guide to Measuring and Improving What Matters

Lincoln Murphy photoLincoln Murphy
Founder, Sixteen Ventures
@lincolnmurphy | http://sixteenventures.com

Lincoln Murphy is a self-described “secret weapon” for SaaS entrepreneurs, with advice on nearly every topic related to getting a subscription company off the ground: business model, customer acquisition, growth hacking, churn reduction, and especially customer success. Murphy has been working in the space for nearly ten years, and publishing regularly on his blog since 2009, so there’s a rich archive and a lot to learn.

Start with… Customer Success: The Definitive Guide

Steli Effi photoSteli Efti
Founder, Close.io
@steli | http://blog.close.io/author/steli-efti

Steli Efti is THE sales guy of the SaaS world. From sales tactics to sales metrics, he lays it all out there in a candid style on his blog, which also includes YouTube videos of him presenting his ideas if you feel like giving your eyes a break.

Start with… The no-BS guide to understanding churn

Bonus!

Point9 Capital logoThe Point Nine Capital team
@PointNineCap | https://medium.com/point-nine-news

Point Nine is an early-stage venture capitalist firm that focuses on SaaS and online marketplaces — and that also invests in ChartMogul! Members of their team collaborate to supply both unique observations of the industry (“Open Source is losing, SaaS is leading, APIs will win…”) as well as stories about life inside a VC (“What Point Nine Invests In”).

Start here… 7 Trends that Will Shape the SaaS Industry in 2016

Newsletters

SaaStr logoSaaStr
@saastr | https://www.saastr.com

SaaStr began as a community for SaaS founders and executives in 2012, and has since established itself as essential reading for SaaS and B2B entrepreneurs. Focusing on long-form content, the site features Jason M. Lemkin’s excellent commentary and advice on everything to do with the industry. You can also come across the blog’s content in other channels, be it Quora, other media publications, or SaaStr’s own podcast.

SaaS Club logoSaaS Club
@SaaSclub

SaaS Club is a simple, barebones newsletter that pops up in your inbox every week, alerting you to five “under the radar” SaaS products and five top-quality SaaS articles.

SaaScribe logoSaaScribe
@saascribe | http://saascribe.com

SaaScribe is a community-driven newsletter where the content comes not from SaaS companies or VCs, but from everyday people who work in and are passionate about SaaS business — from sales and marketing to customer success and strategy. This makes for a multi-faceted collection of articles on the SaaS and startup scenes, with global perspectives and diverse styles.

Hiten’s SaaS Weekly | http://hiten.com

Run by Hiten Shah, co-founder of analytics company KISSmetrics, this is “a weekly email of useful links for people interested in SaaS businesses.” — we couldn’t say it any better than Hiten’s homepage. Each newsletter compiles articles from around the web to fall into these categories: business, product, marketing, sales, growth, and a quick tip of the week.

ChartMogul logoChartMogul’s SaaS Roundup
@ChartMogul| https://chartmogul.com

Every Friday we send out a simple newsletter of our top-rated pieces of content for the week, gathered from all over. Sign up on our site and let us know what you think!

Communities

GrowthHackers logoGrowthHackers
https://growthhackers.com

The internet’s largest community based around Growth, growing any part of your business or audience. Users can share content they like, ask questions they’re curious about (and answer others), engage in discussions, and participate in AMAs (Ask Me Anythings) with business leaders from all verticals. If you specifically follow SaaS-related topics, it’s a great tool for discovering new ideas, opinions, and information on the subject.

Inbound.org logoInbound
https://inbound.org

Inbound is a marketing-centric community. It has a pretty simple content feed, where users pose questions that garner answers or post content that sparks conversation. Common topics range from brand management to engagement tactics to SEO, but there is a lot of valuable discussion around SaaS and startup business, as well.

Hacker News logoHacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com

Hacker News, around since 2007, is a forum where anyone can submit content or start a discussion. While the general rule for content is “anything that gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity,” the site is run by Paul Graham’s investment fund and startup incubator, Y Combinator — so there’s a lot of content to do with entrepreneurship, technology, startups, and SaaS. Though the format and the topics may be slightly less accessible, slightly more difficult to follow, than GrowthHackers or Inbound, Hacker News is worth having on your radar and diving into if you’re interested!

quora logoQuora
https://www.quora.com

Quora is the king Q&A website, with a global community and a wealth of information on the broadest and most minute of topics — it boggles the mind. So we suggest tailoring your Quora experience by following specific topics, such as “Software-as-a-Service.” VCs and other SaaS thought leaders regularly moonlight on Quora, as well as fellow entrepreneurs, each offering their own experience or evidence to the discussion.

Have a favorite resource of your own that we missed? Tell us about it in the comments!

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Annie Musgrove

Content Writer

industry resource saas