SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2024

Since then, I’ve made some pretty good other investments as well. The top reasons an investment has turned out to be a Zero: #1. The post The Investments Where I’m Going to Lose All My Money appeared first on SaaStr. cash Second was Algolia leading U.S. But also, I made some that … weren’t.

Investment 327

Investment Scale Churn SaaS 327

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Should You Always Ask a Co-founder to Invest Their Own Money? And many times even a small investment will be very stressful for some co-founders. However, whoever contributes cash should usually either be repaid, at least partially, or get extra equity for that investment. I made 12x on that investment.

Investment 310

Investment Startup Leadership 310

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Do angel investors or seed venture capitalists normally ask for detailed budgets including cash flow analysis before investing, even though most of the numbers will be pure speculation? The post Do Angel Investors and Seed VCs Ask for Detailed Budgets Before Investing? When it is, you can learn a lot.

Investment 306

Investment Sales Hiring Business Model Sales 306

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2025

Have we lost interest in investing in the human side of sales? For the most part, folks seem done investing in more productivity for their sales humans. In 2021, everyone bought 100 new sales and revenue apps to keep the sales engine humming, along with large investments on the human side of RevOps, Customer Success, and more.

Sales Hiring 330

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount AI 330

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

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.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 314

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Most Smaller VC Funds ($100m or smaller fund) would like to own 10% or more after a Seed or Pre-Seed Investment , but typically model around 7% average ownership. If it’s not a core investment, VC funds may be more flexible. But these exceptions to ownership targets make these investments non-core.

Investment 285

Investment Pricing Engagement Leadership 285

SaaStr

MAY 18, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Have You Ever Made a Very Risky Investment That Paid Off Big Time? More of the story here: The post Dear SaaStr: Have You Ever Made a Very Risky Investment That Paid Off Big Time? In my first start-up, the VCs pulled our term sheet between signing and closing. But sometimes … you just do it. appeared first on SaaStr.

Investment 304

Investment Leadership 304

SaaStr

JULY 9, 2024

Those rare investments that return enough money to the VC fund to pay off at least 1x the total fund size. And you can see VCs are often pretty careful to make sure structurally, any given investment can do it. Investing in the #3 or #4 in a space? It’s not what anyone hoped when they invested. A 1% stake?

Investment 305

Investment Venture Capital Social Media Startup 305

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2025

A deep dive with two leaders at the forefront of AI startup scaling and investment. Meet Our Experts Rajin Alqahtani General Partner at Hypergrowth Partners and interim CMO at Together AI, Rajin brings a unique perspective from both the operational and investment sides of AI scaling. Charge for POCs Make them refundable, but charge.

AI 275

AI Scale Artificial Intelligence Startup 275

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

More operators behind fast-growing SaaS companies are turning to angel investing - not just as a way to diversify but to actively support the companies they believe in.This is core to GTMfunds thesis: providing investment access and opportunity to operators.

Investment 78

Investment Strategy SaaS Sales 78

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2024

Share everything anyone would want to know to invest in you. But unless you are raising from folks that truly invest pre-revenue, investors are going to want to see 3 strong months of growth in a row. If nothing else, point out an existing investment or two theyve made that is somewhat similar to yours. # Share it all.

Venture Capital 276

Venture Capital Investment AI Metrics 276

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Having led sales teams of 500+ at BILL and 800+ at HubSpot, Michelle has unique insights into what makes great frontline managers and why investing in them is crucial for sustainable growth. “At HubSpot, I had over 100 frontline sales managers reporting to me. ” The bottom line?

Sales Hiring 262

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales 262

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2025

Follow the Pilot-Repeat-Enlarge Methodology Pilot : Start small with minimal investment. Use a Hypothesis-Driven Approach For each campaign, establish: A clear hypothesis Time limits Budget constraints Minimum success criteria Most importantly, define what “success” looks like before you start.

Scale 245

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Marketing 245

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 8, 2024

In a recent Office Hours, Baris Gultekin, Head of AI at Snowflake & a friend from Google, shared his insights into Snowflake’s approach to AI. It was a great conversation to understand how one of the leading data companies is pushing AI forward. The video for the session is here & the audio is here.

Artificial Intelligence 264

Artificial Intelligence AI Search AI Investment 264

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2024

3 Came from the Investment Bank They Hired. In my experience, hiring an investment bank to help you in any acquisition > $100m or so is critical. Hit $20m ARR, growing 30%-40%, with little to no burn, and PE firms will begin to find you. #2. They Ran a Crisp, Tight Process And Got 4 Offers to Buy Them.

Sales Hiring 296

Sales Hiring Banking Sales SaaS 296

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2024

Having been through 4 acquisitions in different forms (founder, exec, etc), it’s a lot like a venture capital investment. A ton of time is invested negotiating price, and then way, way too much time on inconsequential legal terms, and then … it closes. Usually, there isn’t actually a ton of time to really get to know each other first.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Acquisition Investment Technology 263

SaaStr

DECEMBER 6, 2024

The other seed investing. Two CEOs I invested in basically just gave their startups to other companies, even with many millions left in the bank. So I recently noted that 2 founder CEOs Ive known for years that raised $50m+ each just arent CEOs anymore. They werent forced out by their VCs, at least not directly. They just had enough.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Banking Trends Investment 287

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

But it’s clear that it’s still in the investing phase, and increasing spend in sales & marketing. Outside of a pre-IPO phase, Klaviyo has been cash-flow positive or close for most of its history. Today, it’s steadily driving its margins up, now up to 14% non-GAAP operating margins.

Scale 304

Scale SMB Scaling Enterprise 304

SaaStr

MARCH 17, 2025

Massive investments, at massive valuations, into the biggest leaders of AI. Now there’s a lot going on here and part of the rush in 2024 and 2025 is that more capital is coming into VC again. But it still shows where the energy and momentum are. At a scale we haven’t seen before.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital AI Scaling Investment 316

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2025

The winner(s) will receive funding from the Mayfield AI Garage, who are at the forefront of investing in cutting-edge tools at the intersection of SaaS and AI. You could win $500K – $5M in funding from Mayfield AI Garage!! That’s right. This is epic opportunity to showcase your AI Startup. Win $500k – up to $5M in funding.

AI 303

AI Startup Innovation Investment 303

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

Invest early in supporting functions Don’t underestimate the importance of enablement and revops in driving growth. ” Delayed investment in enablement “I wish we’d hired our first enablement person two months earlier. We let sellers ramp without proper resources for too long, which cost us deals and momentum.

Sales Recruiting 245

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 245

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

It’s now falling to 150 because 81% percent of the dollars invested in venture capital at the height of the boom came from non-traditional venture capital firms which are all very likely to leave investing. US venture funding went from 8 to 300 over 15 years.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 333

SaaStr

DECEMBER 26, 2024

I havent done that, but Ive done handshake deals in one day in maybe 50% of my investments (i.e, Not literally months to do the homework that doesnt take long but sometimes months to see enough progress for the investment to make sense to me, to connect enough dots. Yes, term sheets get done in one day.

Investment 246

Investment Pricing Leadership 246

SaaStr

OCTOBER 22, 2024

In my ecosystem, most do another start-up, invest, or do something related: For some, it’s ego. Dear SaaStr: Why Do CEOs Keep Working After Making a Lot of Money? It’s a great question. Some don’t keep working. Some are happily retired. But not most in my ecosystem. For some, they get bored. For some, it’s to go even bigger.

Investment 275

Investment 275

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2024

There are really three modes from a VC perspective during a fundraising pitch: You Almost immediately want to do the investment. This is 80%+ of the investments Ive done. Almost all my investments at SaaStr Fund , Ive told the founders before the meetings end that Im in if everything theyve said checks out. The Likely Nos.

Startup 262

Startup CTO Investment Marketing 262

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Basically I only invest in first-timers. First-timers do just as well, if not better, than second-timers. And they are much more capital-efficient. Not always, but often. And they lack the biases of second-timers. The post 6 Of The Most Common Mistakes I See First Time SaaS Founders Make appeared first on SaaStr.

Scale 310

Scale SaaS Social Media Business Model 310

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

Don’t underestimate the investments you need to make here to be compelling to your customers. Another big investment during rapid growth is digital moments. You want to invest time and energy here so that partners are ready to talk to customers. Then, package that up into a narrative that makes sense.

Scale 263

Scale AI Scaling Marketing 263

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

The result was a 5x increase over initial projections – growing from an $8M revenue target to $40M actual results – driven by a belief that market demand justified the investment. This approach required immense trust from the CEO to invest millions ahead of proven results.

Scale 188

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Headcount 188

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

But I’d say 90% of SaaS companies I work with and have invested in don’t get these basics right for a long, long time. Even if churn isn’t that high today — it likely will be later. I see many SaaS start-ups with mediocre retention with … mediocre NPS (20-30). Yes, a lot of this sounds basic. Not for real. NPS is A Great Core Metric.

Churn 273

Churn Retention Scale Investment 273

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2025

Their “sense” of what things cost is often just way too low once they start to invest the first round of VC capital they raise. And how much that dramatically drives up the burn rate and cost of doing business. Dramatically. This especially bites founders that get pretty far bootstrapping.

Startup 276

Startup Finance Engineering Investment 276