Hello friends, we are officially nearing the end of our first month of 2019, and we want to know: have you stayed steadfast in your resolutions? Today, we’re your accountability partner, focusing on some resources to keep you going full steam ahead with your twenty nineteen. I’m Abby Sullivan and this is your January 18th Subscription60. Let’s kick it off.
Know anyone who could use a slice of Subscription60? Send them to Subscription60.com.
Ready for the rundown?
In resources...
Getting Trendy for Twenty Nineteen
Entrepreneur has your guide to workforce trends on the horizon, predicting shifts from embracing HR tech to the Gen Z competition and the 100 year life span. Learn from the past and pivot with the new with this quick-hit survival guide to attracting and retaining talent, fostering innovation, improving productivity, and building competitive advantage.
Tien Tzuo Talks Tech
Over on the Zuora blog, Founder and CEO Tien Tzuo looks even further ahead than twenty nineteen - to 2023 - listing the tech predictions he think'll boom by five years' time. Some of these include big businesses getting “Netflixed” by the new wave of smart, friendly fintech options, as well as subscriptions trumping ownership as AI accelerates.
"We’re rapidly shifting towards a subscriptions and service-based economy, and this transformation is affecting every industry on the planet."
Drift Knows Growth
We are also digging the Growth Hub Podcast, a center for all things marketing in B2B SaaS, featuring marketing, growth, and sales spotlights through conversations with some of the greatest global minds in SaaS. Most recently, our neighbor David Cancel discusses Drift's playbook for hyper growth and why he founded Drift without a product or an idea.
In headlines...
Mastercard Disrupts the Industry
Mastercard is on a straight path to disrupting the subscription economy by soon requiring merchants to notify cardholders before they start auto billing post free trial, which gets us wondering how Visa and Amex will respond, and how this initiative will longterm affect the freemium model for subscription services. The giants in the subscription space may fare fine, but we'll be keeping a close eye on the smaller players here.
[update: MasterCard clarified they will not require SaaS and subscription software merchants to request re-authorization before automatically charging recurring payments once a free trial has ended. The original announcement called into question whether the new policy would apply to SaaS subscriptions, but later indicated this policy will apply to merchants of physical products only.]
Billing Merger in the Billions
Fiserv is set to acquire First Data in a $22 billion deal. First Data offers advanced billing options for merchants, streamlining payment solutions ideal for the recurring revenue crowd by automating customers' payments and providing tracking and reporting tools. The merger is likely to add momentum to revenues and profits by providing a continuum of services, hardware, and software in one complete package.
"So it is in payments as two financial technology heavyweights are pairing in the largest deal in that sector to date."
Slack Is Back (with a brand spanking new logo)
People are freaking out (or at least, our people are freaking out) over Slack’s logo swap. But hey, the Slack team does have good reasoning behind the change, in fostering a more cohesive visual identity when place out in the wild. The preliminary logo was created before the company even launched, and was far too easy to "get wrong" they say (because of the 11 different colors) when placed on color backgrounds or at the wrong angle. So, Slack changed it up to get the logo to start doing its job.
Launch of the Day
We’re looking to products both newly launched and (semi) veteran to help make your business run more seamlessly. As a powerful mobile marketing solution CleverTap helps consumer brands retain their users for life by marrying user data from online and offline channels in one centralized platform. You can leverage CleverTap to build customer engagement strategies using actionable, real-time insights that help generate exceptional customer experiences.
Reap Those Referral Rewards
Calling all subscription junkies: For those of you digging Subscription60 and eager to spread the good word (plus reap the bennies from referrals) we'll soon have a referral program on lock, offering our loyalest watchers some exclusive goods. Stay tuned for more on this, as we dive into 2019 full throttle.
But before you go...
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