On a couple of separate occasions last week I was asked to write about my list of characteristics that define true SaaS application companies.  Establishing these characteristics is becoming important now that there is so much interest in cloud computing and is getting easier to confuse SaaS applications with cloud-based applications.  Coincidentally, there are a couple of recent posts and active discussions on this topic taking place in different forums (here, here and here).

As you can imagine, I spend a considerable amount of time every week with our SaaS portfolio companies, as well as talking to the management teams of SaaS companies seeking investment from our firm.  The continued interest of venture investors in SaaS, and more recently in cloud computing, is resulting in management teams trying to position every company that uses the cloud as a SaaS company.