The challenge is likely to be the tech/org debt they've built up around product/ease of implementation. It will take additional R&D investment (or reprioritization of existing) to build the tooling that makes it easier to implement.. that's more pressure on FCF in the near-term.. Product loves to build new features, not this boring stuff even though it can hugely impact margins..
I’m still in awe of what Tien built in terms of a product and a space. But the returns for public shareholders did not come together as you so adroitly lay out.
On the product side I think there is a big opportunity for a new company to build something that better suits the market for where the recurring revenue world world is going — billing and metering for usage-based pricing.
Curious if you've come across any resources that summarize profitability of "professional services" offering for public SaaS companies? It's clearly low / negative margin for most, but would be interesting to see within what range these margins fall.
The challenge is likely to be the tech/org debt they've built up around product/ease of implementation. It will take additional R&D investment (or reprioritization of existing) to build the tooling that makes it easier to implement.. that's more pressure on FCF in the near-term.. Product loves to build new features, not this boring stuff even though it can hugely impact margins..
As a repeat CFO and someone who is constantly disappointed about the billing options we have to choose from, I hope they're able to pull this off.
Very much agree
Does Silver Lake sponsor newsletters?
Well done here, my friend!
I’m still in awe of what Tien built in terms of a product and a space. But the returns for public shareholders did not come together as you so adroitly lay out.
On the product side I think there is a big opportunity for a new company to build something that better suits the market for where the recurring revenue world world is going — billing and metering for usage-based pricing.
Totally agree!
And if Silver Lake wants to sponsor my DMs are also open to them :)
Curious if you've come across any resources that summarize profitability of "professional services" offering for public SaaS companies? It's clearly low / negative margin for most, but would be interesting to see within what range these margins fall.