“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. We had a great one last week with Jay Levy, Managing Partner at Zelkova Ventures. Check that out here.
This week we’re focusing on Mary D’Onofrio, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners!
#1. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Why did you do the deal?
Teleport (www.goteleport.com) — Teleport provides identity-based infrastructure access that gives developers material productivity gains without compromising security. Teleport’s Zero-Trust security approach makes it the tool of choice for CISOs and compliance officers, but developers love it because their experience accessing everything from SSH and Windows servers to databases to Kubernetes to web applications is simply easier.
#2. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? And how big is your current fund?
Bessemer’s typical growth stage investment is $20 million+ for series B+, but we invest through pre-IPO. Our current fund is $3.85 billion.
#3. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today?
To prioritize efficient growth.
#4. What’s your pulse check on the venture markets right now, today?
Multiples have come down since the peak, and today the venture-growth markets are prioritizing efficient growth. Strong unit economics are fully funded plans are being rewarded, while high burn is being penalized. Overall I am seeing companies improving their operating plans and extending their runway such that they control their own destinies, and if they do choose to raise, can do so from positions of strength.
#5. What’s different about your fund / how you invest and support founders?
Bessemer is the oldest VC fund with a 100+ year history and truly global operations, from SF to NYC to London to Tel Aviv to Beijing. For SaaS founders in particular, we can deliver the expertise gleaned from a 20+ year history investing in over 250 SaaS companies, including generational companies like Shopify, Twilio, PagerDuty, Procore, and Toast.
#6. What’s an “exit” you’re particularly proud of?
HashiCorp
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Mary is a partner at Bessemer, where she primarily focuses on cloud software investments. She serves as a board member or observer for Teleport, Netlify, Imply Data, LaunchDarkly, GetInsured, and Contractbook.
Mary is a co-author of Bessemer’s Scaling to $100 Million report, annual State of the Cloud Reports and the 10 Laws of Cloud, and she is a key architect of the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, which serves as the benchmark for public cloud companies. She also developed Bessemer’s Cash Conversion Score and authors the annual Cloud 100 Benchmarks Reports. Mary was previously named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Venture Capital and is a protagonist in a Harvard Business School case on Bessemer’s Century Fund.
Prior to Bessemer, Mary worked in Equity Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and held roles at Apple and at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Mary graduated with honors with an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management, where she now sits on the Board of the International Center for Finance. In her free time, Mary enjoys cheering for the 49ers, listening to country music, and spending time with her husband and daughter.
