Tag Archives: Podcasts

Private Equity Funcast: A Board Perspective on Peopleops

Posted on May 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

I’m back for my second appearance on the ParkerGale Private Equity Funcast, this time speaking with Jimmy Holloran on topics related to Peopleops and the Chief People Officer (CPO) in a session entitled A Board Perspective on Peopleops.

Topic we cover include:

  • The role of HR and my mantra:  help managers manage
  • What help means and taking pride in a supporting role
  • Help who?  (Managers or employees)
  • Hiring and recruiting
  • Conflict aversion
  • The three golden rules of feedback
  • 9-box models
  • Giving a successful People update at board meetings
  • Scorecards and the infamous “it’s all green” story
  • How to tell if the CPO is helping (hint: ask)

The episode is available on the ParkerGale site, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.  For those interested, my first appearance — a romp that contrasts the PE and VC worlds with my old friend Jim Milbery — is available here.

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Posted in HR, People, Private Equity, SaaS, Startups, VC

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Appearance on the Metrics That Measure Up Podcast

Posted on May 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Measure or measure not.  There is no try.”

— My response to being called the Yoda of SaaS metrics.

Just a quick post to highlight my recent appearance on the Metrics That Measure Up podcast, hosted by Ray Rike, founder and CEO of RevOps^2, a firm focused on SaaS metrics and benchmarking.

Ray’s a great guy, passionate about metrics, unafraid of diving into the details, and the producer of a great metrics-focused podcast that has featured many quality guests including Bryon Deeter, Tom Reilly, David Appel, Elay Cohen, Mark Petruzzi / Paul Melchiorre, Sally Duby, Amy Volas, and M.R. Rangaswami.

In the episode, Ray and I discuss:

  • Top SaaS metrics — e.g., annual recurring revenue (ARR), ARR growth, net dollar retention (NDR), net promoter score (NPS), employee NPS, and customer acquisition cost (CAC) ratio
  • How metrics vary with scale
  • Avoiding survivor bias, both in calculating churn rates and in comparisons to public comparison benchmarks (comps) [1]
  • How different metrics impact the enterprise value to revenue (EV/R) multiple — and a quick place to examine those correlations (i.e., the Meritech comps microsite).
  • Win rates and milestone vs. cohort analysis
  • Segmenting metrics, such as CAC and LTV/CAC, and looking at sales CAC vs. marketing CAC.
  • Blind adherence to metrics and benchmarks
  • Consumption-based pricing (aka, usage-based pricing)
  • Career advice for would-be founders

If you enjoy this episode I’m sure you’ll enjoy Ray’s whole podcast, which you can find here.

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Notes

[1] Perhaps more availability bias (or, as Ray calls it, selection bias) than survivor bias, but either way, a bias to understand.

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Posted in Metrics, SaaS, Sales, Startups, Strategy, VC

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My Two Appearances on the SaaShimi Podcast: Comprehensive SaaS Metrics Overview and Differences between PE and VC

Posted on February 28, 2021 | 1 comment

The SaaShimi podcast just dropped the first two episodes of its second season and I’m back speaking with PNC Technology Finance banker Aznaur Midov, this time discussing some of the key difference between private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) when it comes to philosophy, business model, portfolio company engagement, diligence,  and exit processes.  You can check out the entire podcast on the web here or this episode on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

I’ve also embedded it below:

Dave Kellogg on SaaShimi Discussing Differences between Private Equity and Venture Capital.

 

If you missed it and/or you’re otherwise interested, on my prior appearance we did a pretty darn comprehensive overview of SaaS metrics, available here on Apple podcasts and here on Spotify.

I’ve embedded this episode as well, below:

Dave Kellogg on SaaShimi with a Comprehensive Overview of SaaS Metrics.

 

Thanks Aznaur for having me.  I think he’s created a high quality, focused series on SaaS.

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Posted in IPO, Metrics, Private Equity, SaaS, Startups, VC

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PMM Hive Interview, Marketing Strategy in Hot vs. Cold Markets

Posted on June 28, 2020 | 1 comment

Just a quick post to plug my appearance on a podcast hosted by PMM Hive, a product marketing community that was recently launched by my old friend and colleague Crispin Read, and that’s already loaded with some superb product marketing content.  Check it out.

I’m excited about this session both because it’s one of my favorite topics and because Crispin is one of my favorite marketers.  The topic is critical because too many marketers (and CEOs) hit rewind/play on their last successful experience without considering their situation and the marketing strategy that should support it.  Crispin’s great because he’s world-class at messaging and positioning, sharp as a tack, enjoys what we’ll call “spirited debate,” and has a dry English sense of humor that keeps things not only interesting, but fun.

Again, the recording is available here.

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Posted in Marketing, Strategy

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Kellblog on SaaS Metrics, A Comprehensive Introduction Podcast

Posted on May 16, 2020 | 3 comments

I’m pleased to announce that I was recently featured in a six-part SaaS podcast mini-series on SaaShimi hosted by Aznaur Midov, VP at PNC Technology Finance Group, a debt provider who works primarily with private equity (PE) firms for SaaS buyouts, growth capital, and recapitalizations.

Let’s talk first about the mini-series.  It’s quite a line-up:

  • A Brief History of SaaS with Phil Wainewright, co-founder of Diginomica and recognized authority on cloud computing.
  • Key SaaS Metrics with me.
  • Building a Sales Org with Jacco van der Kooij, founder and CEO of Winning by Design
  • Building a Marketing Org with my old friend Tracy Eiler, CMO at InsideView and author of Aligned to Achieve, a book on aligning sales and marketing.
  • Building a Customer Success Org with Ed Daly, SVP of Customer Success and Growth at Okta.
  • Raising Capital with my friend Bruce Cleveland, partner at Wildcat Ventures and former operational executive at Oracle and Siebel.

The series is available on RedCircle, Apple podcasts, and Spotify.

Now, let’s talk about my episode.  The first thing you’ll notice is Aznaur did the interviews live, with a high-quality rig, and you can hear it in the audio which is much higher quality than the typical podcast.

In terms of the content, Aznaur did his homework, came prepared with a great set of questions in a logical order, and you can hear that in the podcast.  His goal was to do an interview that effectively functioned as a “SaaS Metrics 101” class and I think he succeeded.

Here is a rough outline of the metrics we touched on in the 38-minute episode:

  • ARR vs. ACV (annual recurring revenue vs. annual contract value)
  • ARR vs. MRR (ARR vs. monthly recurring revenue)
  • TCV (total contract value)
  • RPO (remaining performance obligation)
  • Bookings
  • Average contract duration (ACD)
  • Customer acquisition cost
  • Customer acquisition cost (CAC) ratio
  • CAC Payback Period
  • Renewal and churn rates
  • ARR- vs. ATR-based churn rates (ATR = available to renew)
  • Compound vs. standalone metrics
  • Net dollar expansion rate (NDER)
  • Survivor bias in churn rates
  • The problem with long customer lifetimes (due to low churn rates)
  • LTV/CAC (LTV = lifetime value)
  • Net promoter score (NPS)
  • The loose correlation between NPS and renewals
  • Intent to renew
  • Billings
  • Services gross margin
  • Cash burn rate
  • The investor vs. the operator view on metrics

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Posted in Metrics, SaaS, Uncategorized

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