“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 time with Mark Roberge, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital. Check that out here.
This week we’re focusing on Satya Patel, Partner at Homebrew!
#1. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Why did you do the deal?
Our most recent disclosed investment is in Pika.art, a company redesigning the entire video-making and editing experience utilizing AI. There’s no question that video is going to continue to be a critical medium for both individuals and businesses. We made the investment because Pika makes it possible for anyone to become a professional quality video creator and use that powerful format to communicate, educate and entertain.
#2. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? And how big is your current fund?
Our sweet spot is pre-seed and seed with checks ranging from $100k to $2m. Our current fund is an evergreen, personal capital vehicle that doesn’t have a specific fund size.
#3. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today?
It’s the best distribution that wins, not the best product.
#4. What’s your pulse check on the venture markets right now, today?
There is capital to be invested but the bar for new investments is very high and valuations are much lower than the past few years. It takes a special company to be viewed as a breakout worthy of capital.
#5. What’s different about your fund / how you invest and support founders?
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. We’re stage specialists who focus our time and energy on the three critical pillars of early company success, the product, the distribution and the company. We aim to be responsive to the most critical needs of founders, investing not just capital, but also sweat and reputation.
#6. What’s an “exit” you’re particularly proud of?
It’s not the biggest one but we’re very proud of our investment in BuildingConnected, a SaaS plus marketplace company that sold to Autodesk. We were very early in developing a thesis around SaaS-enabled marketplaces and BC was a construction tech investment that came in via cold inbound and was started by first time founders.
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Prior to Homebrew, Satya was VP Product at Twitter, building and leading the Product Management and User Services teams. Before Twitter, he was a Partner at Battery Ventures, where he co-led the seed and early stage investing practices. Satya joined Google in 2003 and was responsible for AdSense product management and partnerships. Before heading to Silicon Valley for Google, he worked for DoubleClick, in venture capital and as a strategy consultant. Satya’s education is memorialized by a BS in Finance and a BS in Psychology from The University of Pennsylvania.
