why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public
record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable
ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't;
assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card:
▮▮▮▮▮ certainty ·
▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Gill: Native SaaS vendors will capture dominant market share from traditional incumbents
“I really believe that the SAS companies really are going to take over a lot of the markets. It's a much harder transition this time. It's not just, I need to build a, the, a similar solution on a new architecture. It's I've got to do that and transform the bus…”
Insight
Gill: SaaS sales spending represents investments in future recurring revenue
“Fundamentally, if you're looking at the sales and marketing expense on the P and L of a SAS company, you're comparing that to the revenue this period on the P and L of the SAS company, you're comparing the wrong thing, right? You're comparing an investment tha…”
Insight
Gill: Multi-year SaaS contracts provide no extra value over one-year deals
“There's no reason for me to think of a three-year deal as more valuable than a comparable one-year deal. Our retention rates are very high. We're gonna get, We're going to get the second and third year even if even if it's not locked into that initial contract…”
Opinion
Gill: Wall Street's calculated billings metric for SaaS is not meaningful
“I spend a great deal of time talking to the street about why the calculated billings number is not very meaningful.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gill: Legacy software incumbents rarely build successful cloud products in-house
“We see a lot of acquisition, but we don't see a lot of perpetual license companies really growing solid cloud solutions in house.”
Disclosure
Gill: NetSuite customer cohort value expands year-over-year despite attrition
“If you look at a company like, ah, NetSuite at a high, high retention, low churn SaaS company, and you do a cohort analysis, you'll get a, you get a year over year, ah, increase in value of the entire install base of customers. So more than a hundred percent, …”
Disclosure
Gill: NetSuite maintains an 86% gross margin on recurring subscription revenue
“A company like NetSuite has a gross margin on recurring revenue that's 86%, so it's a very profitable annuity.”
Disclosure
Gill: NetSuite reached net income and cash flow positivity during 2009 recession
“Revenue growth slowed for recurring revenue, slowed from in the forties to about 16% in 2009. But that was the year we became net income positive. That was the year we became operating cash flow positive.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gill: NetSuite's customer lifetime value doubled between 2012 and 2014
“Our lifetime value of a customer has improved, has slightly more than doubled in the last two years at NetSuite.”
Disclosure
Gill: NetSuite sets sales commissions and quotas based on annual contract value
“We very much use one year contract value as the way to measure thing. That is the fundamental basis for sales comp as well. That's the commissionable amount. That's what quotas are set on.”