MassTLC: Business Decisions and Models from the SaaS CFO

Ascent Venture Partners: Matt Fates

June 27, 2012

Ascent Venture Partners: Matt Fates

Experience:

Ascent Venture Partners 2002 – Present

Norwest Venture Partners 1998 - 2000

Alex Brown & Sons 1996 – 1998

Areas of Focus: Data analytics, cloud business services, security

Current Investments:

Education: BA, Computer Science, Economics – Yale UniversityMBA – Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (Tuck Scholar)

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Ascent Venture Partners

Who we are

At the forefront of enterprise tech investing We have backed more than 100 early-stage, emerging technology companies

since 1985, generating more than $10 billion in enterprise value We leverage our extensive network to make connections for portfolio

companies to investors, customers and advisors that can support their long-term success.

Investment team of six, dedicated to investing in IT innovation for the enterprise

Supporting early-stage entrepreneurs

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Investment Focus Areas

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SaaS Investments: Transforming Legacy Industries

Cloud Print Service for large enterprises Store it in the cloud. Print it where needed, when needed, in any amount. Quality guaranteed.

SaaS-based Service for business dataLive data streamed directly into e-commerce and CRM applications

SaaS-based Security for specialty marketsEnables control of data while gaining the collaboration and cost savings benefits of the cloud

Cloud Scheduling for large & small enterprises Appointment CRM: Enable self-serve appointment scheduling for customers, employees and partners

Today, There’s SaaS…

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… And Then There’s SaaS

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Custom SaaS Built to the specific pricing and hosting

needs of a company

Subscription pricing Most commonly an annual or monthly

subscription fee

Subscription plus transactions A monthly or annual fee plus a fee per transaction

Measuring SaaS

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Key SaaS metrics we monitor:

Fully loaded cost of customer acquisition vs. contribution margin and expected duration Line up all costs associated with acquiring a customer against their

contribution margin Consider time offset (length of sales cycle) How long to they stay customers on average?

Expected future contribution from existing customer base

Churn vs. Expansion/Upsell

Impacts of SaaS

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Business Impacts of Using SaaS:

Cash vs. revenue vs. bookings vs. CMRR

When it comes time to sell the company most buyers don’t use SaaS metrics or accounting!

Ascent Venture Partners: Matt Fates

Thank You

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Ascent Venture Partners255 State Street, 5th Floor

Boston, MA 02109(617) 720-9400

www.ascentvp.com@AscentVP