MRR GAIN -0.48%

 Now, what's happening in B2B SaaS news?

Zoom numbers: fact or fiction?

The team over at the Verge has its eyes peeled.

They spotted a small edit to a blog post by Zoom—one that has big implications. 

In a post on April 22, the Zoom team humbly announced it had 300 million daily active users. But what they meant to report was the number for daily meeting participants. And apparently, the difference between users and participants is significant.

Here's the deal: Daily meeting participants can be counted multiple times, i.e., if you have five Zoom meetings in a day, you're counted five times. A daily active user is counted just once daily, and is a measurement commonly used by companies to weigh service usage. Only counting meeting participants is an easy, yet often misleading, way to make your platform usage seem larger than it is.

Zoom’s growth has nonetheless been impressive, but we’re also eyeing other video software makers soar in growth during this time—think Google Meet, Facebook Messenger Rooms, BlueJeans, Loom. 

The question remains: How will these companies address this influx in acquisition and foster steady retention when this is all said and done?  

Here’s a take from our product pro Neel Desai, who says, “This is a pretty big deal."

"Especially for us folks in the SaaS community, it seemed like Zoom was absolutely crushing it. This was their moment. But after this mishap, it seems like Google and Microsoft’s rival products are much closer to them than we had previously thought. It’ll be interesting to see how much consolidation there ends up being in this space.”

Obviously, retention is the name of the game, so Neel says he’s curious to observe how the big uptick in users amid the pandemic will continue to evolve in the coming months.

What’s your take? Do skyrocketed acquisition numbers mean success is given down the line? I’d argue not, but I’m always open to a good discussion. Send me your thoughts to abby@recurnow.com. 

Diary of a remote product manager

Now, a behind-the-mind view at the life and struggles of a seasoned remote worker. 

“Dear diary, Here is a collection of my thoughts and conclusions from my experience working remotely for 10 years.”

This is how Artem Borodin, Co-Founder and CPO at Standuply, kicks off his deep dive on Working Remotely: Product Manager’s Diary. With over a decade of experience managing products remotely, he has a lot of thoughts about remote team management that, he says, haunt him.

It’s the lack of rules and laws. It’s the redundancy in live communication. It’s the lack of empathy—the over-control. 

Artem has taken to this “diary” to get super real on remote (not to mention I’m loving the design and layout of this one). It’s fun, yet it’s credible. It’s quick and still informative.

There’s really no better time than now for Artem to air his grievances. We’re all in this same remote boat, so, ultimately, we can all relate—no matter where we are on the map. 

With it, Artem says he wants to look at the major problems that no one usually talks about.

“I see everywhere articles about team spirit, constant communication, monetary benefits, and yadda, yadda, yadda. We're aware of all that.”

But no one talks about the root of the problem. No one discusses the reason why it even exists. The problem being: Remote work has changed its vector. 

In response to a question about the benefits of a remote team, the modern market says: "We can run any team remotely because it is profitable and cheaper." And that’s just it, Artem says. The bottom line: Costs came to the forefront—while the challenges that come with remote work have been taken for granted. 

If you're interested in digging into this one, head here for the full piece. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts after you read it, specifically if you’ve been a remote worker for several years. Have you witnessed this paradigm shift? Or do you have differing thoughts than Artem’s? You know you can always reach me at abby@recurnow.com. 

Events on tap

A fresh face in the webinar space, it’s our very own Peter Zotto. On May 6, ProfitWell GM, sneaker fanatic, and basketball extraordinaire Peter links up with the Stacklist crew during their Daily Stack series, to offer his insight into monetization framework and best practices you can implement for your venture. 

The Daily Stack is a virtual program for startup founders and leaders, offered every day at 10 a.m. EST—featuring daily founders, operators, and experts on the challenges and opportunities they’re facing (featuring plenty of Q&A—our favorite). 

New speakers are added every day, and the past lineup does not disappoint. I’m seeing names on there from Verblio, Dollar Shave Club, Payability, Primary Ventures. 

Here's a link to the full lineup so you can check it out, peruse the site, and decide if membership is up your alley—for access to all the talks in full. 

Reminder: Subscription Stimulus Package

Click here for the entire list of partners.

PSA: Your Subscription Stimulus Package is still thriving and ripe for the taking. It's an initiative we launched with 70+ other names in the space, with room still for more partnerships, to help get our neighbors back on track during a time of uncertainty for so many. 

If you're interested in up to 20% of your MRR in savings, head here.

If you're looking to partner with our crew and offer your own savings initiative, send a note to brian@profitwell.com for more on collaboration. 

ProfitWell featured user

There may be “no stupid questions.” But there are repetitive questions. Questions of which the answers are taking up valuable time from your team members, but could simply, instead, live in one cohesive space. 

Enter Tettra, today’s featured user. The team at Tettra has set out to squash the unnecessary, as an internal knowledge base with smart workflows used to help you answer repetitive questions. Tettra gets you documenting important processes, policies, and procedures in one centralized place, making onboarding new teammates so much faster and more seamless.

Tettra helps us eliminate information silos throughout the org, which reduces ramp time for hires, increases collaborative productivity, and ultimately ensures we're moving as quickly as we can in growing the business.

The Tettra crew has also partnered with us on our Subscription Stimulus Package, to offer you some ease during this economic whirlwind we’re in. New customers that sign up for the SSP can get Tettra free for four months. Your info. on that, here.

There you have it, your May 4 special edition episode of Recur Now. Back to your regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.