Thisd article is part of our SaaS Business Startup Guide—a list of articles to help you plan, start, and grow your SaaS business!
You probably already know that there are plenty of resources out there to help you grow and scale your SaaS startup. But, there are so many available that it can actually be overwhelming.
To cut through the clutter, I turned to Noah Parsons, a SaaS-industry veteran and our COO here at Palo Alto Software (makers of Bplans).
Here’s our list of top resources to help you learn, stay informed, and grow your SaaS business successfully.
Podcasts
Want to get expert advice from top SaaS founders? You’re in luck with over 200 interviews recorded on The SaaS Podcast. Host Omer Khan conducts in-depth interviews with industry leaders that’ll help you scale your SaaS business.
Ready to get inspired? Start by listening to this episode to learn how Christian Owens, founder of Paddle, went from failure to $10 million ARR.
Co-hosts Mike Taber and Rob Walling have over 20 years’ of combined startup experience. Their podcast covers current projects they’re working on, expert advice, and the stories of other successful startups.
Not sure where to get started with more than 400 recorded episodes? You can’t go wrong by starting with their greatest hits list.
Andreessen Horowitz’s “You Bet Your SaaS!”
Andreessen Horowitz, of a16z.com, hosts this podcast that touches on the industry at large and the voices that add to it. Keep up with trends and the future of SaaS by tuning in to the latest episodes.
Check out the list of all episodes to get into this podcast.
Ramp Podcast from InsightSquared
If you want a podcast focused on analytics, look no further than the Ramp podcast. Featuring interviews with industry experts, Ramp offers a deep-dive into the data end of running a SaaS business.
Learn how to ramp up your SaaS startup with the podcast episodes in their archive.
While not strictly focused on software, NPR’s “How I Built This” podcast with Guy Raz is worth a listen. With a storytelling approach, Raz shares the stories of some of the biggest companies in the world. Often, learning from other industries helps to inspire growth in your own.
For a SaaS-specific episode of this podcast, don’t miss out on this one featuring Slack and Flickr with Stewart Butterfield.
Communities and networking
SaaStr is one of the largest communities in business software. Founded by Jason Lemkin, SaaStr initially started after Lemkin answered questions on Quora and ran a Wordpress blog. The community grew over time and now includes online resources, meet-ups, and large scale events.
Discover what the SaaStr Academy has to offer in this community with everything you need to grow your business.
If you’ve always wished there was a Reddit-style community for entrepreneurs in the SaaS space, you’ll love Growthhackers.
This free community allows you to post questions and interact with other experts looking to grow their businesses and teams. There are even expert AMAs (which stands for “ask me anything,” if you haven’t used Reddit before).
Want to attend one of the biggest SaaS conferences to connect in-person with forerunners of the industry? You’re bound to find the right people, content, and sessions at the annual Dreamforce conference, hosted by Salesforce.
Want to get involved with a kick “SaaS” community? SaaS Invaders created this digital space for people like you. Here you can browse through topics around all parts of running a SaaS business, sorted by latest posts or trending topics.
Get connected with other SaaS industry leaders with the latest posts.
Books and blogs
Lost & Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World
Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz and Sparktoro, gives an inside look into startup life (spoiler: not all companies begin like Facebook). In Lost & Founder, you’ll get immersed by what it’s truly like in the startup world. Did you know it took fifteen years for Fishkin to build Moz?
It’s authentic, funny, and a great source of advice that’ll help you weather any SaaS startup storms.
Entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have put together some invaluable resources for those in the SaaS community. This site features their podcast episodes and articles on everything from financing your startup to company culture.
Be sure to check out their tech topics page, for more big-picture articles on the industry itself.
One of the most important things for a SaaS company is choosing the right pricing strategy. Price Intelligently focuses specifically on pricing strategies within the SaaS sector, both with the service they offer and on their blog.
Take a look at their articles on pricing strategy to learn more about getting the most value out of your service.
From best practices to resources, the blog run by ChartMogul’s team covers it all for SaaS businesses. With customers like Notion and Typeform, ChartMogul provides a subscription growth tool and expert advice for industry leaders.
Start with the industry section to get a pulse on what’s happening now within the space.
If you’re looking for a blog with a focus on acquiring and retaining customers, get familiar with Sixteen Ventures. This blog run by Lincoln Murphy focuses on the customer lifecycle and how to best optimize customer acquisition and retention.
Check out the 20 most popular articles to get started.
Venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz blog focuses on the startup experience, including discussion of areas like culture, pricing, funding, and content marketing.
To start, check out his SaaS-specific posts—it’s an extensive list, and you’re sure to learn a lot.
SaaStock could be considered a one-stop shop for SaaS-related content. The media hub, created by entrepreneur Alex Theuma, began as a place to share information, learn, and network within the industry.
Learn more about how to get involved with the SaaS Revolutionary community to get started.
Bringing humor to the industry is Jason Cohen’s A Smart Bear blog, which focuses on marketing and other startup “geekery.” With plenty of SaaS-industry experience (including selling his company for millions), this blog is an informative, fun resource.
Start with our favorite post by Cohen about what it means to have two big things in life but not three.
InsightSquared’s Top SaaS Sales Blogs
Cheating? Maybe—I’ve included a resource list within a resource list. However, this list by InsightSquared contains much more than just a couple of blogs. On this list, you’ll find notable entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the field, useful apps, and a whole lot more.
And of course, we have to mention the Bplans guide to starting a SaaS business. There, you’ll find information on writing a Lean Business Plan, a SaaS sales forecast template you can download for free, and more.
Briana is a content and digital marketing specialist, editor, and writer. She enjoys discussing business, marketing, and social media, and is a big fan of the Oxford comma. Bri is a resident of Portland, Oregon, and she can be found, infrequently, on Twitter.
