SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: What are the Signs of an Entrepreneur Who is Over-Prepared for Meetings with Investors? The post Dear SaaStr: What are the Signs of an Entrepreneur Who is Over-Prepared for Meetings with Investors? A deck is great. And a detailed operating plan in a Google Sheet or Excel is an A. A too-thoughtful exit strategy.

Consulting 256

Consulting Engineering Investment Strategy 256

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Is There Any Downside In Asking a Potential Investor for a Higher Valuation? The post Dear SaaStr: Is There Any Downside In Asking a Potential Investor for a Higher Valuation? You’d hope not. Certainly not, when you’re in control, have multiple offers … and are at least 90% OK walking. It was fine.

Technical Review 205

Technical Review Trends Technology Revenue 205

How To Buy Saas

APRIL 5, 2024

Here, we have come up with pieces of advice for first-time real estate investors that will help you get started on a positive note. It is advisable for new investors to invest in public traded REITs which can be purchased from brokerage firms. Investing in real estate is filled with challenges, more so for the first-timers.

Transportation 40

Transportation Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Innovation 40

SaaStock

MARCH 14, 2019

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we take you back to the SaaStock18 stage for a panel discussion on what growth investors look for. Growth investors like Jos, Nicola, Michael, and Tom look through a different lens for Series B/C rounds as compared to earlier stage venture investors.

Investment 128

Investment SaaS Product Marketing Metrics 128

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

Q: What is a fair success fee to charge for helping an entrepreneur find an investor? I don’t need (or want) this equity today, but 2 start-ups that are Unicorns today … that I found their Seed / Series A investors for them both gave me grants of about 0.25%. It’s complicated. But … but …. And it was the right thing to do.

Finance 150

Finance 150

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Running a profitable SaaS business allows you to take control of your own schedule - some would even say your life! But what’s the final checkpoint for your business? At some point in your journey, you’ll need to think about your exit strategy from your SaaS startup. The issue comes when you haven’t prepared for an exit. Table of Contents.

SaaS Payments 105

SaaS Payments Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review 105

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2019

Why is it dangerous to accept too high of a valuation from an investor for a startup company? If you push an investor to pay more than she is comfortable with, that comes with a cost. If you push your investors to the max on price, they’ll think a lot more about if you are the right CEO. A lot of VC advice is a bit self-serving.

Startup 183

Startup Venture Capital Acquisition Investment 183

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. I don’t have all the answers – and no investors do. And I bet they’re hearing all sorts of advice, some of it even clashing, from different investors.

Venture Capital 245

Venture Capital Cybersecurity Scale Artificial Intelligence 245

SaaSOptics

APRIL 30, 2019

often talk about B2B SaaS metrics from the perspective of what investors want. That’s why customer success metrics are required by investors, but you should also use them, too, to build your business. SaaS Metrics Matter to Investors for the Same Reason They Matter to You. However, it’s not great for business insights.

Metrics 91

Metrics SaaS Churn SMB 91

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Can I Convince My Investor We’ll Double Their Investment By The Next Round? If you are a VC / private investor, there’s a key meta question: why invest now ? “Prove” / convince your investor your blow through the milestones for the next round. Time always decreases risk.

Investment 219

Investment Pricing 219

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2024

So Redpoint Ventures published some of the slides they recently presented to their Limited Partners (their own investors) here. We knew that, too, but helpful to see it clearly here: But, while AI deals are priced at 3x “normal” growth rounds — investors are looking for 2.5x the growth. There’s no free lunch.

AI 303

AI Pricing Data Investment 303

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2024

I’ve been through it twice as a founder and about ten times as an investor. I’ve been through 2 acquisitions as a founder, 2 as an executive, 10 or so as an investor or so, and this is “all” it took. The vast majority of startups will never get one acquisition offer, let alone a good one. Still, it’s not random.

Strategy 261

Strategy Acquisition Startup Engineering 261

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 3, 2024

Dear SaaStr: I am a startup founder that writes extensive monthly report to investors. Some rough rules: For every 1% of a company an investor owns, they get one meeting a year. Every investor that owns >=1% should get a monthly update until $5m-$10m ARR $20m ARR even better. Otherwise, you won’t get the help.

Startup 218

Startup Scaling Investment Leadership 218

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2024

The relationship between investor and founders should be supportive. In fact, that’s how VCs are treated by their own investors (LPs). I’m guilty of this myself, and if you go too far here, sometimes as an investor, it doesn’t help. Of your team, your customers, and yes, your investors. But there are frictions.

Sales 223

Sales 223

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 21, 2024

Free cash flow yield offers investors or stockholders a better measure of a company’s fundamental performance than the widely used P/E ratio. Investors who wish to employ the best fundamental indicator should add free cash flow yield to their repertoire of financial measures. That’s my mental model for it, anyway.

Software 193

Software Business Construction Government 193

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 30, 2014

Hometown investors, the local group of angels and VCs within a startup community, are an essential part of startup ecosystems. I’m defining hometown investment is the share of dollars raised by a startup contributed by investors based in the startup’s hometown. I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand.

Startup 100

Startup Venture Capital Travel Investment 100

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

In a lineup of all Enterprise B2B SaaS companies with similar features, investors can only choose one or two per year. She’s also sat on boards with 15 or 16 companies, figuring out what does and doesn’t work for her as an investor. Each investor has its own criteria, likes, and dislikes. So what drives that decision?

B2B 196

B2B Enterprise Communication Technology 196

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

The investors make nothing, the product is in trouble, and yet the founder cashed out $100m+ and moved to the beach in Spain. Third came the investors. In fact, when we sold EchoSign to Adobe, we had a second offer than was worse for the founders, but better for the investors. Weren’t those sophisticated VCs?

Startup 221

Startup Venture Capital Investment Scaling 221

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2023

Yes growth investors don’t expect every deal to do 8x-10x. Today, it’s just much harder for growth investors to see an 8x-10x outcome past a $200m valuation. Go find out, ask around, ask your board and existing investors. Sort of, if you ignore dilution. But how do you make 8x-10x at the later stages, Series B and on?

Venture Capital 304

Venture Capital AI Investment SaaS 304

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

What Do All Founders Need to Know in 2024: You have to constantly ask your investors; am I fundable? At the end of the day, usually, only one investor wil truly have your back. Figure out who that investor is. Figure out who that investor is. So Harry Stebbings and I got back together for the first 20VC of 2024!

SMB 291

SMB SaaS AI Software Review 291

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 12, 2024

The big cash piles raised in 2021 are starting to get smaller, and we dug in on how investors and founders should be thinking about the world. Every type of investor was broadly operating in a “risk on” mindset given the ZIRP environment, and the venture capital ecosystem was no exception. This all shifted in 2021.

Cloud 284

Cloud Venture Capital Acquisition Metrics 284

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Any founder you talk to likely remembers every investor who said no to them. Those founders hold a special kind of “not hatred,” says Michael Seibel, Managing Director and Group Partner at Y Combinator, but a special kind of something for those investors and a desire to prove them wrong. Who’s on your team? What’s your traction?

Payment Methods 213

Payment Methods Startup Payment Solutions Sales Hiring 213

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Do Investors Feel About “Acquihires”? The post Dear SaaStr: How Do Investors Feel About “Acquihires”? Back when I started investing, in 2013, VCs worked on getting acquihires for their struggling startups. VCs for the most part don’t care. That’s not without costs.

Investment 221

Investment Startup Strategy 221

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

They stop sending out investor updates for a while. Investors are prepared for bad news. More on that here: Knowing — and Sharing — Your Zero Cash Date – SaaStr Don’t run out of cash a lot faster than you’ve led your investors to believe. Similarly, many founders hide from bad news. They hunker down. That’s natural.

Sales Hiring 213

Sales Hiring Startup Sales Business 213

SaaStr

MARCH 21, 2024

When in the earlier days at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, my co-founder had left, growth stalled, and I had made a rough mishire and lost almost a year — I offered to give everything left back to my investors. It’s not the investors’ money anymore, and as long as founders are ethical and honest, VCs generally can lose any single investment.

Acquisition 217

Acquisition Investment Startup Revenue 217

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2023

So I’m seeing something I haven’t seen since the high-stress times of March-June 2020 or so: founders alienating their investors during tough times. Often because they feel pushed too far by their own board and investors The thing is, it’s not symmetrical. And some of the tensions are just fine. If you burnt them?

Acquisition 292

Acquisition Startup Investment 292

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

DECEMBER 6, 2017

I’ve seen hundreds of startup pitch decks in my time at Matrix, and have found total addressable market (TAM) slides to be among the most frequently mis-executed. I get the sense they are often included as a formality in an attempt to get VCs to check a mental box and continue on hearing about other.

Marketing 279

Marketing Startup Venture Capital Business Model 279

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

None of the investors ever understood it. At Adobe Sign / EchoSign, the vast majority of investors that I met with understood what we were doing at the time — but not why it was changing/creating a market. As a founder, the biggest thing that always surprised me was the limits of due diligence. Now I understand.

Technical Review 208

Technical Review Technology Marketing 208

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

And one thing founders tend to worry about is — can I be fired by my investors? It wasn’t easy, but the investors did push him out. The investors paid a crazy amount to push the CEO out. Hiding bad news repeatedly also freaks investors out. They stop sending out investor updates for a while.

Venture Capital 343

Venture Capital Sales Hiring Forecasting Startup 343

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Jack is an investor through his founding of Jack Altman Capital where he has invested in WorkOS, NexHealth, Owner.com, Mercury and more. Auren is an investor through his founding of Flex Capital where he has invested in Chime, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Vercel and more. Jason is an investor through his founding of The SaaStr Fund.

Investment 247

Investment Communication SaaS Management 247

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. Our fund gives us the flexibility of angel investors but allows us to leverage our experience as institutional investors to support the companies we invest in.

Marketplace as a Service 221

Marketplace as a Service Venture Capital Entertainment Construction 221