Metrics that Measure Up Entering the U.S. SaaS Market from Europe - with Niclas Lilja, Founder and CEO Younium
Niclas Lilja, Founder and CEO at Younium recently joined our host, Ray Rike on the Metrics that Measure Up podcast to discuss his decision to re-locate from Sweden to the United States to better understand the U.S. buyer's market for recurring revenue billing solutions. During this fast-moving 30-minute conversation, Nic and Ray discuss the following topics:
- The Evolution of SaaS Pricing (yesterday, today and tomorrow)
- Global Expansion - The Cultural Challenges
- How Usage-Based or Hybrid Pricing Impacts SaaS Metrics Calculation
- Top 3 learnings as a European Founder and CEO entering the U.S. Market
Why is there an opportunity for another SaaS billing and revenue management solution? The story begins with the evolution of SaaS pricing and where it is heading? Niclas highlighted the evolution to more complex product-led growth and usage-based pricing models, especially in AI solutions is creating a more flexible billing solution that can handle the nuances of every pricing model. Moreover, the ability to "experiment" with new pricing models will be critical for companies to test and identify the best pricing model for this solution and their target market(s).
Why do companies evaluate a new or different billing solution? Though the evolution of hybrid pricing is one good catalyst, having billing software that can manage the revenue recognition process to compress the time to close the financial books is also an important variable. Though it is hard to believe, many SaaS companies do not have a robust billing and revenue management infrastructure leading to time-consuming manual mistakes and the associated time required to close the books. Another catalyst is when companies evolve into different markets with different pricing, a more comprehensive and flexible billing and revenue management reporting capability is required.
Younium has a very focused Go-to-Market strategy, including a decision to focus primarily on the recurring revenue technology industry. This dedicated Ideal Customer Profile focus required entering the U.S. Market if they can achieve their dream of being a $100M ARR company.
What are some of the differences between selling to U.S. companies and selling to European companies? The first thing Niclas highlighted is that U.S. companies are quicker to adopt new trends and technologies. At the same time, U.S. companies are more focused on "what are" the benefits of a new technology versus in Europe, it's more about "how do we achieve" those benefits including a road map on how to move from the current state to the future state the software enables.
If you are a B2B SaaS company evaluating how to increase the pace of pricing experimentation, shorten the financial close process, enhance revenue management and reporting, or are an international SaaS company considering entering the U.S. market this conversation is full of great insights, experience, and ideas.
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