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So I’m mostly made good investing decisions. My first VC investments were Pipedrive ($1.5B So if interested — here are the changed I’ve made to investing at SaaStr Fund : #1. Don’t Invest Without an S-Tier CTO If you follow me on social media, this won’t be a surprise, as I say it all the time.
The purpose of the detailed information is to help investors (both institutional and retail) make informed investment decisions. We are modernizing a massive and technologically underserved industry—an industry commonly referred to as the “trades.” trillion on trades services annually. .”
We’re obviously written up a lot about Fundraising and Investing here on SaaStr.com, but time and time again, SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin has seen so many Founders sign a bad term sheet based on gut instinct, VC celebrity or vibes, and while that may be fine, it’s not enough.
We stopped doing reference checks. The same things happened in VC and investing. I did some of this myself, both on people and investments. Better to do with fewer people, fewer investments, fewer initiatives. The post Lowering the Hiring (And Investing) Bar Didn’t Work appeared first on SaaStr. We learned.
Customers you have a bond with will give you positive reviews on G2, become your reference customers, share their success stories, and work together with you on product innovation. Organizations that invest heavily in customer success earlier see much higher customer retention and loyalty than the competition.
Generally when you hear “consensus estimates” it refers to revenue and earnings (EPS), but for the purpose of this analysis we’ll just be looking at revenue consensus estimates (as this is the metric these companies are valued off). This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation.
Do startup investors care about how employees are treated where they invest? Last week, I literally was on a back-door reference call for a $250m+ valuation investment (not a company where I am an investor) where a late-stage VC did not invest just for this reason. Later stage investing becomes more purely transactional).
One great enterprise reference customer is worth 20 mid-market logos. But the rewards – higher retention, bigger deals, and ultimately a much larger TAM – make it worth the investment. Build the Right Team for Enterprise Success Enterprise selling requires a fundamentally different skillset. Your future self will thank you.
SEO: How Rupa Health Dominated Search with Programmatic SEO and AI Rupa Health invested heavily in search, aiming to own the top spots for specific lab tests and biomarkers. Key Tactics: Expanded Lab Catalog into a Reference Guide : Rupa turned their lab catalog into a searchable, indexable resource for Google.
Because of this, localization can seem unattainable to many small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the capital to invest in localization – or the resources to maintain it. The post Not investing in localization is costing you more than you think appeared first on Inside Intercom.
Q: Why would an investor invest in a pre-revenue company? And de-risk the investment. If someone else is going to do the deal, you may need to invest now. You are worried you can’t get enough ownership unless you invest now. The earlier you invest, the easier it is to get your target ownership. It really can.
Team Building Anatomy of a Reference Check : Then get out of their way. Scaling Management Invest in managers : Great companies invest disproportionately in developing their managers. Cultivate growth mindset : View challenges as learning opportunities rather than fixed obstacles.
Proof of Concept and Early References One of the hurdles in the early days is that every customer wants to do a proof of concept (POC) that’s 100% customized, but having success cases and references can help alleviate this issue.
Startups I invested in from cold email from founder: Salesloft (exited $2.4B) Talkdesk ($10B) Pipedrive (exited $1.5B) Logikcull (exited $270m) Owner Mangomint etc. Reference a tweet, blog post, or investment Ive made thats relevant to your pitch. I saw your investment in [similar company] and your post about [relevant topic].
Finally, some founders after deciding who can help the most, and how important and big a brand they can get, move on to reference checks. But mostly, reference checks sort of tease at personality fit, which is important. Most will be hoping for a 10x return on their investment. And these are important.
Structured Data refers to information organized in a defined manner, making it easier to search and analyze. Here's a suggested approach: Ground Truth Creation: Design a test dataset with established answers or recognized documents to serve as a reference point. A PoC is a pragmatic step to evaluate the feasibility and results.
Joselyn Goldfein , Managing Director at Zeta Venture Partners, which invests in AI and data infrastructure-focused startups from inception through seed stage And see everyone at 2025 SaaStr Annual, May 13-15 in SF Bay!! Creating a Data Moat A “data moat” refers to a unique and defensible data set providing competitive advantage.
While many strategies involve significant investments in marketing, sales, and technology, there are also effective methods to boost recurring revenue that require minimal financial outlay. Show Appreciation : Acknowledge and thank customers who refer others, either through public recognition or personalized messages.
What Nobody Tells You About Seed Investing with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Cowboy Ventures Founder and Partner Aileen Lee. I think it gives us a perspective that maybe we don’t get in some other places, in addition to many great investments over the years. You have two partners and one or two other investing?
In AI terminology, “generalizing” refers to a model’s ability to apply learned knowledge to new tasks or unseen data. This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Don’t do any VC investments your first year. He has one terrible reference. Yes, but what about the other 3 great references? Don’t do that investment, the CEO is hard to work with. Dear SaaStr: What Were The Top Pieces of Advice You’re Glad You Ignored? Take your time. Sound advice. It’s Hopeless.
In my opinion, the most informative and useful SaaS content “speaks for itself” and is well suited for future reference. Just like David Sacks’ SaaS Org Charts talk + slides , this Battery slide on the evolution of PQLs versus MQLs by company stage is a great standalone reference point. #3
If your prior investors aren’t 100% positive, or at least, 90% positive on the investment … usually … the Next Round guys simply won’t invest. They will almost instantly smell the lack of commitment, and see it as a sign not to invest. You can game this. If you are struggling, and ask for more money, you may get it.
Just note, you’ll need a strong balance sheet and stable investments — it takes money to make money. Market: products that aligned with her experience but that she was emotionally invested in and excited about. People’s past accomplishments and references tell you more than their interview. What are the tricky things?
And some do very in-depth ones with lots of “off sheet” references (i.e., Many do few references checks beyond the CEO, but not all. Finding material issues late in the potential investment process is a big flag. 1 rough reference isn’t going to stop a deal. ones not provided by the CEO).
What’s your most recent disclosed investment? I invested in a company named CAT Labs in Q1 of this year. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? My main focus is to invest in Series A with an initial check of $5-15M, although I do reserve an interest in smaller checks for late Seed rounds.
He believes AI investments should come directly from line-of-business budgets, with business unit leaders held accountable for efficiency, productivity, and employee augmentation through AI. AI Budgets Are a Red Flag Where are AI budgets actually coming from? Top 4 Mistakes Marc Made 1.
Google is on a trajectory to invest $50 billion this year. ” Better for large enterprises to wait until there’s a reference architecture that’s been proven to work. Facebook and Google both announced very similar strategies of overinvesting in AI data centers. Within AI, the switching costs today are modest.
The other thing that VCs are doing is one very important part of their jobs, and that’s meeting companies and studying markets to figure out where they might want to invest eventually. And so, for all of those reasons, seed right now is a very different beast than Series and later-stage investing. Not the case to the seed stage.
Send the reference list, if asked. Spend enough time on the VC’s website to have a thesis on why they’d want to invest. Send the deck. Send a competitive analysis. Send an NRR analysis, and a good financial model. Do research. A great sales rep does research on their prospect. You need to do the same. Outbound works.
A few tells: No CEO-level reference. I see very mediocre executives that came into startups I’ve invested in and really get nothing accomplished in 6-9 months or more … then trade that experience for another VP role. Reference checks are not a waste of time. But they actually aren’t that good. Again and again.
So one of SaaStr Fund’s latest investments is Mangomint, a vertical SaaS platform for spas and salons. They refer all single-user prospects to a competitor — right on their website. Now … that sounds niche, and it sounds crowded. Not the 1 person salon or spa, nor the massive chaings, but the middle.
If the partner leading the deal leaves the firm to start her own, this can leave your investment as an orphan, which can be a significant disadvantage. Firm Diligence: What are your top investments, and how much did you own in them, and at what stage did you invest? Where would this investment be in the current fund?
If you have options, if more than one VC wants to invest in you — do reference checks. It’s not your company anymore at that point. Pick VCs on your board, especially early stage VCs, that you trust. This will go a long way. On the individual partner, not just the firm. Look at the track record of the Series A-B-C VCs you bring in.
Think about it — who else is so invested in your long-term success? If they’ve bought 7%, 10%, 20% of your company (with no exit on the horizon) … they’re pretty invested personally. They’re highly invested in you. But top VCs attract other VCs to want to invest. Your VCs are. More Money.
At this point, customers start referring other customers to you. If your product costs $2,000 a year, that might be around 1,000 customers. If your product costs $20,000 a year, your mini-brand might kick in around 100 customers. Folks talk about you in the industry. The higher your brand equity, the more deals you win.
Product analytics refers to the process of gathering and analyzing data on how users interact with a product. Depending on these gaps (and your budget), you’ll need to decide whether to invest in buying data or building a data infrastructure. Key steps to build and improve your product analytics strategy. What is product analytics?
Investors will invest in your business if: You have a strong brand. If a user refers you to a friend, you will want to live up to the expectation of their referral. Nobody wants to refer a service that may not be able to deliver. Try not to limit your thinking to the economics your VCs want in business economics.
It’s important to ask yourself if you’re engaging your clients enough, helping them to want to invest more in your offerings. Pay attention to your SLAs and, depending on their level of investment and commitment, commit your time and resources back into your partnership with them. Velocity refers to how quickly you can close a deal.
When you meet Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, it’s no surprise that companies reference deep partnership with the Wiz team as one of the “no-brainer” reasons to work with them. No one describes Wiz better than its own customers: “They’re the Porsche of security.”
And/or, one piece of it — say 5%-10% — uses an edition of the product that you don’t really want to keep investing in and supporting, because you want to invest in the other 90%. But don’t assume the customer is lost, or not worth investing time in. But … what if you keep that customer for 4 years?
Users could sign up for free and get 2GB of storage, which could be expanded by referring friends. This phase is often referred to as “crossing the chasm,” a concept popularized by Geoffrey Moore, which highlights the challenge of bridging the gap between the enthusiastic early market and the more pragmatic mainstream market.
The number of global venture capital (VC) investments dipped in 2022, thanks to ongoing geopolitical tensions, turbulence in global capital markets, supply chain issues, and increasing interest rates. The rise and fall of these investments have resulted in negativity in the global VC space in 2022. The recent downward movement.
A few thoughts: Talk to as many founders they’ve invested in as you can. Do reference checks. Ask how many investments they write second and third checks into. Ask what their worst investment was, and why. Ask what CEO they’ve invested in that they respect the most. But talk to as many as you can, at least a few.
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