SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS, Venture Capital, Bootstrapping, and Valuations – understanding market trends and investment patterns is critical. We’ll explain Jason’s take on the recent market fluctuations, highlighting major deals that shaped investment patterns and their effects on valuation trends.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 205

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2019

I’ve watched many bridge rounds over time from a far, and took $500k in bridge capital at EchoSign myself when our seed round didn’t end up being quite enough to get us to the Series A. And usually only for their core investments. But if they’ve invested say $500k of a $3m round? But not all.

Venture Capital 222

Venture Capital Scale Finance Pricing 222

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

When reps want a $160k+ OTE for hitting say a $400k attainment, really, that’s only possible when fueled with a lot of venture capital. Either higher quotas, lower attainment, or for a while, even more venture capital. But it all breaks at scale much higher than that. Then ultimately, no one is happy.

Scale 303

Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring Sales 303

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

The venture capital firm’s mission is to be “entrepreneurs backing entrepreneurs.” Doug Pepper, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth, has invested in software and SaaS companies for 22 years, from seed to growth stage. They initially double their ARR each year in scaling post $10M.

Scale 197

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Venture Capital 197

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2023

to the firms that send over a dozen of their Partners and Associates — everyone who invests in SaaS has a presence at SaaStr Annual. From the Founding Partners, Managing Directors and big name SaaS VCs who grace the stage.

Venture Capital 187

Venture Capital Banking Cloud Investment 187

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

We had a great one last week with Jay Levy, Managing Partner at Zelkova Ventures. This week we’re focusing on Mary D’Onofrio, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners! #1. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? Check that out here.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Benchmarks Cloud compliance 209

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2023

So now is simply a terrible time to be raising growth stage venture capital. We just did our latest Workshop Wednesday with Omers Growth, and they only did one growth investment last year. We just did our latest Workshop Wednesday with Omers Growth, and they only did one growth investment last year. Not even close.

AWS 296

AWS Venture Capital Finance Cloud 296

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2023

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? Canvas Ventures manages $835 million in AUM, currently investing out of our third, $350 million fund.

Scale 217

Scale Venture Capital AI Generative AI 217

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Later stage venture capital was so free-flowing, that it made sense to invest in sales, customer success (and marketing to some extent) at much higher levels that before. Now, as SaaS got bigger and we scaled faster, we pushed these metrics up a bit. That’s what venture capital is for, in fact, to some extent.

Scale 214

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales 214

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Jason re-takes the stage in Part 2 of the series to answer questions about the right time is to invest in a new product line, building vertical vs. horizontal, multiples in 2024, and much more. Building and scaling a startup isn’t for the faint of heart and often comes with many ups and downs that SaaS veterans have experience in.

Sales Hiring 234

Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital Generative AI 234

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

As you finally begin to scale, you’ll have enough revenue to hire some great folks, but not enough to build very redundant teams. More here: From Initial Traction to Initial Scale (~$10M in ARR): The Hardest Phase. SaaStr From $10m ARR on: Capital Inefficiency. You need to learn to become great at recruiting. Not just sometimes.

Sales Recruiting 246

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 246

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2023

PST, to unveil the data behind effective scaling. Pepper shares that ICONIQ, a venture capital firm with $10B under management, made fewer investments last year than ever before. What are companies doing today to scale efficiently? It was a tough growth environment, but it feels like it’s changing in 2023.

Outsourcing Services 164

Outsourcing Services Scaling Venture Capital Forecasting 164

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

We had a great one last week with Rebecca Lynn, Co-Founder & General Partner at Canvas Ventures. This week we’re focusing on Nina Achadijian, Partner at Index Ventures! #1. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal?

Technical Review 199

Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions Venture Capital 199

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2023

Yes, There’s Lots of “Dry Powder” in Venture Today. SaaStr 624: Investing and Venture Capital in 2023 with SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin and Atrium Founder and CRO Pete Kazanjy. . Founder Confidential: The Secrets to Scaling with HubSpotchannel’s Founders and SaaStr’s CEO.

Scale 218

Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring Scaling 218

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2023

Carta is a platform that helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. The company is trusted by more than 30,000 companies, over 5,000 investment funds, and half a million employees for cap table management, compensation management, liquidity venture capital solutions, and more.

Scale 188

Scale Payments Payment Solutions Artificial Intelligence 188

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2021

You get to make about 30 or so investments from that fund. So those 30 investments have to return $800m. Scale that up for billion$+ funds. With 500 Unicorns, if you've been investing for > 8-10 years and haven't invested in one, You should quit venture capital [link].

Venture Capital 358

Venture Capital Acquisition Business Model Investment 358

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 28, 2020

As alternative financing solutions attract more attention from entrepreneurs, some VC investors are noticing more startups are turning to these options for their growth and working capital needs, many times mixing and matching RBF with a term loan, line of credit with a forward commitment, or both. Lower-cost capital post-VC funding.

Venture Capital 61

Venture Capital Finance Payments Revenue 61

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2022

But I’ve made 30+ investments, and while many have been big wins, some haven’t. Here’s what’s caused startups I’ve invested in to fail, or at least, not to thrive and succeed: Founder conflict. This hasn’t driven any startup I’ve invest in 100% to failure, but it’s driven them to unoptimal exits. Unable to control the burn rate.

Startup 198

Startup Venture Capital Scale Churn 198

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 5, 2022

Purchasing power erosion of this scale may entice founders with significant cash positions to explore riskier ways of generating yield. In the mid-2000s, many startups invested their excess cash reserves in instruments called Auction Rate Securities. VC investment fell 40%, nearly halving another source of oxygen.

Venture Capital 220

Venture Capital Banking Startup Investment 220

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2023

SaaStr 626: 10 Lessons Learned Scaling to $1B Valuation with Drift Co-founders David Cancel and Elias Torres  2. SaaStr 624: Investing and Venture Capital in 2023 with SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin and Atrium Founder and CRO Pete Kazanjy  5. A 6 Part Test to Help You Get It Right.

Scale 185

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales Hiring 185

SaaSOptics

AUGUST 11, 2022

Raise, Sell, Merge, or Scale? In this article, we’ll help you determine the next best step for your business and provide guidance on whether you should raise, sell, merge, or scale your SaaS. Option 1: Raising capital. So what should you do if you’re strapped for cash and have your sights set on venture capital?

Scale 97

Scale Scaling Technical Review Venture Capital 97

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2022

Go Long — if you get to Initial Scale with happy customers and good growth. This one took me a little while to figure out (thanks to Auren Hoffman for helping me see this clearly), but if you’re a founder, the best investment you can make is in yourself. And I put in a very large capital commitment into investing.

Scale 360

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital Startup 360

Tom Tunguz

JULY 22, 2014

Nevertheless, we will see a spike in the next six months as firms begin investing from new funds. Which startup sectors should expect to benefit from this surfeit of capital? Each quarter, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters gather data on the VC industry.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Startup Banking Trends 100

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

There may be times, maybe even many times, in the earlier days when you look at VCs and Venture Capital and think — that’s the easy way. And you usually need a proven track record to do so, which takes years of promising investments. There is very little of this in a venture capital firm.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Investment Acquisition Strategy 319

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 26, 2020

Nathan Heller published an article called Is Venture Capital Worth the Risk? It’s a well-researched critique of the venture industry. If you have ideas for how to improve venture capital for founders, please tweet me or send me an email with the link above. First, venture capital has become much bigger.

Venture Capital 201

Venture Capital Merchant Services Innovation Finance 201

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Many start-ups think they need to net venture capital to jumpstart their growth. UserZoom invested in a model where they didn’t just provide software, but services, in a model known as SaaS++. Pick the right partners to scale. This applies to finding cofounders, team members, and partners to scale.

Scale 204

Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring SMB 204

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2022

Logan Allin, Managing Partner at Fin Venture Capital, has reviewed hundreds of deck submissions and shares the secrets to crafting the perfect presentation to win over investors. Early-stage investing makes as big of a bet on your founding team as it does on the company. Keep Everything Clear, Simple, and To-the-Point.

Venture Capital 187

Venture Capital Management Business Model Investment 187

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2022

1/ From "Limited Partners", the ones that give VCs $ to invest. So 2021 was a crazy year for venture capital, topping 1,000 unicorns and an IPO-a-day. So 2021 was a crazy year for venture capital, topping 1,000 unicorns and an IPO-a-day. returns in 2022 from Private Equity (including Venture): 2.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Benchmarks Investment Startup 297

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Or of my investments, ones like Algolia and Salesloft, that yes, in theory, were playing in larger markets, but in practice, their entry points were quite narrow. How can that scale over time? Does it make sense, and scale, from an input-output perspective? Worth investing 7+ years of your life in.

Scale 198

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital AWS 198

SaaStr

JULY 16, 2022

There’s a common meme in Venture Capital that traction is tough to quantify, but you know it when you see it. Not from a large base yet, but it’s now started compounding, albeit at a small scale. This is what will enable you to scale. And invest. Well, let’s take a stab at it anyway. But Trust Me.

Scale 254

Scale Venture Capital SaaS Branding 254

SaaStr

JUNE 30, 2023

Magnuson shares his insights on how to find opportunities during headwinds and how Braze scaled to $400M+ ARR. When I look at the purpose of venture capital, it’s not to burn a dollar five in order to grow a dollar of revenue,” says Magnuson. You can’t chase shiny objects. Change creates opportunity.

Scale 188

Scale Mobile Venture Capital Scaling 188

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 16, 2020

Ideally, the management team should raise more capital to move to the upper right quadrant of the matrix. Venture capital, debt, or negotiating better cash collections (multi-year prepay) are all viable strategies to position the business to press its advantage. Plenty of cash and tepid demand (bottom right). Full speed ahead.

Strategy 325

Strategy Startup Venture Capital Acquisition 325

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Did You Learn From Your Worst Venture Capital Investment? You can’t keep investing in the same companies, at the exact same stage, same valuations, etc. When I’ve cut a corner here and invested in startups with customers that aren’t super-happy, it hasn’t worked out as well. Trust — but verify.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Investment CTO Churn 217

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 31, 2022

We are delighted to share that we are officially launching our new program for fast-growing, venture-backed startups. We’re working with venture capital, accelerator, incubator, and technology partners to help founders bring the best communication experience to their customers.

Startup 118

Startup Venture Capital Scale SMB 118

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2021

I’m not saying you have to raise venture capital, or other types of capital. So it will be an accretive investment. Precious time scaling your recurring revenue business. What works with founder-led sales at $1m ARR just doesn’t scale to the next stage. 3m to fund Your First Great Revenue Team.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Scale Marketing Sales 264

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

And as part of that push from my vantage point as Chief of Staff, I saw the need to continue investing in those early-stage startups so that we didn’t put all our eggs in one basket but that we continue to grow and nurture the companies that would go on to become great.” Nurture : Provide startup-specific resources to help them scale.

Startup 196

Startup Scale SMB Venture Capital 196

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

As the premier SaaS conference , SaaStr Annual’s ability to attract top-tier investment firms and the best SaaS Founders creates unparalleled Founder <> Investor networking and learning opportunities. . Generation Investment Management. Glade Brook Capital. Hepco Capital Management. How Women Invest.

Scale 223

Scale Venture Capital Innovation Banking 223