The SaaS Metrics that Matter Most with Kathryn Wortsman, Amplify Capital

Amplify Capital is a Canadian-based impact investment venture firm investing in technologies that can scale solutions to today’s complex social and environmental challenges. Amplify invests in companies with an emphasis on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) #3: Good Health, #4: Quality Education and #13: Climate Action. All of Amplify Capital’s impact measurement and management tools are anchored to the SDGs. Initial seed-stage investments range from $500 – 750K. Amplify Capital has invested in several standout Canadian SaaS companies including:

EarlyBird Education – improves literacy outcomes for children who today are not screened early or provided personalized interventions to change their academic and life trajectory. EarlyBird provides schools and therapists with a game-based detection software platform, predicting risk for dyslexia and other literacy challenges with expansive insights to support teachers, parents and pediatricians.

Knockri – is an AI video soft-skill assessment tool that helps diversify the future workforce by reducing bias at the interview screening phase. Knockri merges video intelligence, artificial intelligence and industrial psychology science to quantify soft skills like confidence, empathy and growth mindset.

Verto – solves for improving health outcomes at scale and uses digital twin technology to revolutionize health care delivery efficiency to improve patient outcomes and patient experience, while significantly reducing administration costs. The software is a smart-data integration and virtualization of care that ensures quality management of care through automation, digital-twin pathways, and user-friendly interfaces for clinicians, administrators, patients, and caregivers.

Amplify Capital Managing Partner Kathryn Wortsman stresses that metrics are just part of the story. The most important thing at the seed stage is whether a founder deeply understands the problem they’re trying to solve, and who their customer is. For example, founders should have exceptional insight into what a customer needs to do before making a decision:

• Does the current infrastructure enable easy implementation, or is there a need for systems change?
• What additional solutions and integrations are required for yours to operate?
• What is the decision-making process of your target customer?

Once a founder understands the answers to questions like these, SaaS metrics can validate product-market fit. Key metrics Kathryn recommends seed-stage founders focus on include:

New Customer Signups – The velocity at which a company is attracting new customers is an indication of urgency around the need for the product. This is paramount at the seed stage.

Length of the Sales Cycle – Here shorter is not necessarily better. What’s required instead is a deep understanding of the multiple facets of the sales cycle and the standard range that’s emerging.

Renewal Rate – At the seed-stage, this data isn’t always available, but if it is, it should be high.

Total Addressable Market (TAM) – This is critical at the seed stage. Amplify Capital looks for the TAM to be at least $2 B USD.

About SaaSCan

SaaSCan was created to bring deep experience in customer-centric growth and SaaS metrics to Canada’s growing SaaS ecosystem.

SaaSCan for Startups services were born in the early days of COVID-19 to help Canadian SaaS companies understand COVID’s impact on churn and retention. We have expanded to provide enablement for SaaS startups on SaaS metrics and benchmarks.

SaaSCan for Early Stage Growth services emerged from the need startups have to adopt a customer-centric approach as they grow, so they can deliver ongoing value to existing customers and optimize key SaaS retention, expansion, and efficiency metrics.

SaaSCan for Later Stage Growth services empower SaaS companies to be customer-centric and metrics-savvy at scale, further optimizing customer retention, SaaS metric performance, and company valuation.

To learn more about our Advisors, Partners, and Services, please visit www.saascan.ca.