How Remo conserved cashflow by streamlining SaaS buying and management

Hoyin Cheung founded Remo with a singular mission: Make virtual events asengaging and inclusive as in-person events, if not more. So, he created a robust andengaging platform, built for experience, not just meetings. As the pandemic raged,Remo saw exponential growth in adoption.

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To keep pace, Remo used a sprawling tech stack, almost all of them SaaS. Once theboom stabilized, the banker in Hoyin returned to the basics: Focusing on cashflow.

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“As a bootstrapped company, we paid more attention tofinancial consideration and cashflow. When we startedtaking a hard look, we noticed that SaaS spendoptimization could be a major lever,” - Hoyin.

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To help gain end-to-end visibility, streamline SaaS management and save costs, HoyinCheung chose Spendflo.

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Beginning at the beginning: SaaS spend visibility

Spendflo began optimizing Remo’s SaaS spends by enabling complete visibility of thelandscape: What tools are they using, how many licenses, what are the contractterms, when are they due to renew and so on. We also evaluated the infrastructurecosts of Remo to get a complete picture.This highlighted two key factors: Usage and wastage.

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Getting to a position of strength: Strategic SaaSmanagement

Based on the clear and strong foundation of this information, Remo began makingkey investment decisions.

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“Spendflo helped a lot to think this through in terms of when we should change tool, when we should cut licences, when to downgrade or unsubscribe entirely,” - Hoyin.

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This visibility also helped Remo conduct internal research and audits to understand SaaS usage. For example, their CRM tool was one of the biggest line items, which Hoyin chose to re-evaluate. He asked his team:

• What were the workflows?
• Where does the data sit?
• How many departments did it impact?

He realized a lot of workflows were tied to the CRM and couldn’t be eliminated entirely. Changing to an alternative would also have significantly impacted their current processes, adding an unnecessary adoption curve — a trade-off he wasn’t willing to make.

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Seamlessly cutting corners: Effective SaaSnegotiations

With a clear and holistic understanding of his SaaS stack, Hoyin was ready to renegotiate and optimize his spends. “If I can’t cut the tool itself or move to an alternative effortlessly, I need to look deep into the tool itself,” says Hoyin. He went through every cost item in the CRM subscription — the breakdown helped him find a big opportunity.

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“Half of the CRM costs was email contacts. We eliminatedthat and saved 80%!” - Hoyin.

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As a bootstrapped entrepreneur, Hoyin was aggressive in his negotiation targets. He realized that difficult economic environments need a mindset change towards frugality and that has to start with expenses. So, supported ably by Spendflo’s benchmark pricing and negotiation levers, he set out to talk to his vendors. Some of his strategies include:

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Asserting retention

He said to vendors that he likes the tool and wants to continue, but it doesn’t fit his budgets. As a SaaS business founder himself, he knew that acquiring a customer would be much more expensive than retaining him. His vendors, being large companies, who can take the discounts in the short-term, accommodated his demands to retain the relationship.

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Negotiating much ahead of due date

He began speaking to vendors much ahead of the renewal date. This helped the account executives take it to their managers and get approvals, without the rush of a deadline.

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Evaluating alternatives

There are multiple options for every need. He leveraged Spendflo’s data and price benchmarks to consider cheaper alternatives, while carefully considering the cost of switching.

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Setting up best practices

With Spendflo’s help, Hoyin also set up SaaS buying best practices such as:

• Canceling auto-renewals to ensure all deals are negotiated when due
• Signing yearly or multi-year contracts, but choosing to pay monthly toconserve cashflow

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Powered by Spendflo’s platform, data and an able team of expert buyers, Hoyin notonly culled wastages and saved significantly one time, but also set Remo up for successful ongoing optimizations forever.

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“With Spendflo, we’ve been quite successful in achieving our aggressive savings targets. Spendflo has helped me save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and quite literally saved my company and extended my runway in this recession environment,” - Hoyin.

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For more on how Remo went from half a million dollars in burn to profitability, watch Hoyin’s webinar with Siddharth Sridharan, CEO of Spendflo.

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