Ok we’ve never done a SaaStr Fund news update but thought it might be time to try one!
SaaStr Fund manages almost $200,000,000 to invest in Seed and Late Seed B2B startups, from $10k-$200k in MRR. Much more here. Current and past investments include Talkdesk, Algolia, Salesloft (acquired $2.5B), Pipedrive (acquired $1.5B), Greenhouse, Gorgias, RevenueCat, Owner, and other leaders.
So what’s new?
First off, a micro-trend: small up-rounds from existing investors. These are happening across the portfolio.
RevenueCat is the latest. RevenueCat powers mobile subscriptions in over 30% of all mobile apps (!) and already had 5+ years of cash, or more. But the insiders wanted to invest more, so they took in a modest amount of extra capital ($12m) at a slightly higher price. It’s a token amount of dilution, but
can make for an odd headline. Why would a market leader at $20m+ ARR and accelerating raise “just” $12m? Because they can. They don’t need more, and it added some flexibilty to the cap table. More leaders will do these “low dilution” bonus rounds, as insiders want to buy more and more of their winners. Since finding them these days often feels a lot harder than doubling down on the ones you already have. There are so many benefits in 2024 of growing in a capital-efficient fashion. You pick your path.
Second, Gorgias sees big wins for AI in Support — But When Done Carefully.
Gorgias is the #1 contact center for Shopify (think of it as Zendesk for Shopify — it’s actually bigger in ecommerce than Zendesk).
Across the SaaStr Fund portfolio, we can see a lot of different impacts of AI. In many cases, in B2B, the hype remains at least 6-24 months ahead of the reality.
Gorgias has taken a measured approach, using automation and AI only when it is 99% sure it will work.
The impacts have already been profound — with some customers. Many are already automating 40%+ of customer interactions, and a handful are automating almost 100%. Others are taking it slow. Key is intelligently knowing when to kick back an interaction to a human. Gorgias has spend a ton of time making this hand-off seamless.
The result? Their AI agent is often in the Top 5% for CSAT. More here.
#3. Compass COO Joins Owner as COO
Owner automates marketing for small restaurants. While that may sound niche, in fact the market is vast in size. It’s growing “double digits at double digits.” Toast itself still only has a small share of its market.
To keep up with its growth, and following its own Series B, Rob Lehman ex-COO of Compass and one of its earliest employees through its mega-growth has joined Owner.com as President & COO.
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More to come! SaaStrFund.com
