This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
In her session, Erica shares her hard-earned leadership lessons– from selling her company to what she’s learned at Github, we’ll share her most essential leadership principles for any stage of business. #1 Invest in mental and physical health and wellness. 1 Build a Support Staff Early.
We hired job hoppers that never stayed anywhere for more than 18 months for leadership roles. 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. We stopped doing reference checks. We learned.
GTMfund’s 3 Areas of Focus for Investing Thanksgiving weekend is always a period of reflection and gratitude. Reflection across go-to-market trends, but also on the investment front (not to mention community !). A common misconception is that the name is representative of the type of software we invest in.
Prior to Datadog, Alex held leadership positions at several high-growth SaaS companies and has a proven track record of building marketing engines that deliver consistent, measurable growth. Follow the Pilot-Repeat-Enlarge Methodology Pilot : Start small with minimal investment. Negotiate with vendors for smaller initial commitments.
Speaker: Peter Cowen, Managing Director, Sutton Capital Partners & Tim Draper, Founder, Draper Associates
Join Peter Cowen, Managing Director at Sutton Capital Partners, with top VCs looking at the trends and perspectives on investing in today’s climate. Come join us for any of these sessions to hear from these top seasoned investors and get answers to these questions: How are VCs now looking at investing in the short term?
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. Our best hires consistently came from our leadership team’s networks.
Traditional VCs usually reserve another 1x-2x of their first check for later investments. If the synergies are real, they’ll happen irrespective of some token investment. An investment won’t create a partnership. An investment may anoint one vendor in the space as the preferred vendor over competitors. Be realistic.
Under his leadership, the company has developed innovative AI-powered solutions for restaurant websites, online ordering, CRM, and marketing automation. Under her leadership, Alloy Automation has pioneered the use of AI to streamline API integration and documentation processes.
Q: How Do VCs Mitigate Investment Risks? There are a number of slightly subtle things the best VCs do, and the rest really don’t: Getting other investors to carry their “Yellow Lights” You’ll end up with investments sort of doing OK, with customers, but really burning too much cash to justify another check.
Join Peter Cowen, Managing Director at Sutton Capital Partners with top VCs looking at the trends and perspectives on investing in today’s climate. Come join us for any of these sessions to hear from these top seasoned investors and get answers to these questions: How are VCs now looking at investing in the short term?
Meeting intensity KPI challenge : Sometimes AI efficiencies can reduce a company’s core metrics (like Calendly’s “meeting intensity”), requiring leadership to make conscientious decisions about value tradeoffs. That’s what Calendly’s leadership team discovered as they embarked on their AI journey.
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.
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.
Dear SaaStr: Will a VC Invest in a Venture That Is Or Can Be a Competitor To An Existing Investment? As a rough rule: the larger the check, the less likely a VC will invest in a direct competitor. You invest so early, sometimes it’s not totally even clear what the company will really do. They seemed so different.
Speaker: Peter Cowen, Managing Director, Sutton Capital Partners & Ben Narasin, Venture Partner, NEA
Join Peter Cowen, Managing Director at Sutton Capital Partners with top VCs looking at the trends and perspectives on investing in today’s climate. Come join us for any of these sessions to hear from these top seasoned investors and get answers to these questions: How are VCs now looking at investing in the short term?
Therefore, any successful feature you launch will generate more subfeatures and additional investment that seem obvious after the fact. Leadership needs to consider funding areas, not just a single feature, because more supplemental subfeatures and finetuning will be required every time. Robinson shared an example from his experience.
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.
What’s Next The next 12-18 months will be critical for SaaS companies looking to establish leadership in vertical AI. IBM’s $7B Bet on Vertical AI and What It Means for SaaS Founders. IBM’s Instruct Lab approach, delivering 98.5%
Dear SaaStr: What Percentage of Total Incoming Deals Do VCs Invest In? A seed stage fund meeting a Series B investment opportunity is a waste of time. Of the ones that really meet all my criteria, and that I really want to do … maybe a third have gone to term sheet / investment. Right here, right now?
Join Peter Cowen, Managing Director at Sutton Capital Partners with top VCs looking at the trends and perspectives on investing in today’s climate. Come join us for any of these sessions to hear from these top seasoned investors and get answers to these questions: How are VCs now looking at investing in the short term?
Dear SaaStr: What Is The Average Time it Takes a VC to Make an Investment Decision? For hot seed and even Series A investments? The average VC basically makes the initial decision to tentatively invest very quickly — pending due diligence, confirming her theories are correct, and making sure what they think is the case actually is.
Dear SaaStr: Should I Tell VCs How Much I Want Them to Invest? Don’t ask an investor for more money than they will invest, if you’d take less. The post Dear SaaStr: Should I Tell VCs How Much I Want Them to Invest? At least, 98% of the time. It helps a VC quickly get context, and figure out if the deal fits — or not.
SaaS Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin and Atrium Founder and CRO Pete Kazanjy sit down to discuss the state of investing in 2023 and what founders should keep in mind for the year ahead. . Since 2016, he prefers to make about three or four investments per year, usually within the $1 – $4 million range. . The Backstory.
The 4 states of an engineering team is a mental model that resonated with me, and I think it provides a framework for leadership teams and boards to understand the state of a developer team. Repaying Debt - to pay down debt, the team needs more time to invest in reducing the debt.
Speaker: Peter Cowen, Managing Director, Sutton Capital Partners & Mark Mullen, Co-Founder, Bonfire Ventures
Join Peter Cowen, Managing Director at Sutton Capital Partners, with top VCs looking at the trends and perspectives on investing in today’s climate. Come join us for any of these sessions to hear from these top seasoned investors and get answers to these questions: How are VCs now looking at investing in the short term?
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.
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.
Starting with his time as an investment banker and later working in SaaS, Yancey Spruill, CEO at DigitalOcean , watched venture capitalists invest in seemingly strong companies, only to sell them off. Know when to diversify leadership. Focus on the long-term, and be willing to create a leadership that can handle the tasks ahead.
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.
Speaker: Andrew Regan, Managing Partner at BlueSeed Retail Ltd.
This talk will also explore how retail tech can not only enhance the entire customer experience, but can ultimately lead to reduced associate burnout, powerful and effective leadership, and stronger, more outcome-driven teams.
Dear SaaStr: Is It a Bad Idea for Founders To Invest Their Own Money Into a Funding Round? One way or another, every founder is going to invest some of their own money , at least a tiny bit, to get a startup off the ground. But usually, when I invest, part of the reason is to de-stress the money side of things. I don’t like it.
This year, many companies, including Gong, have been focused on how to optimize and drive value with existing tech stack investments, rather than adding new tools. As Chief Evangelist, Udi oversees Gong’s market leadership through new product launches and thought leadership.
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.
Engineering resources: With thousands of engineers, companies like HubSpot can make substantial AI investments when they choose to 3. Proprietary data access: “We’ve got the zoom data, the calling data, the email data…If you’re a startup breaking in and you want to do some amazing AI work, it’s tricky.”
Speaker: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, Founder and CEO of The Product School
From expectations to technology, tools, and leadership, the CEO of the Product School, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, will detail the trends that are shaping the future of Product Management. Why your organization should continuously invest in product training. In this webinar you will learn: The Top 5 Product Management Trends.
Q; Dear SaaStr: I Just Received a $1M investment for My 3-year old Industrial SaaS Product to Scale. If you are very careful, 1m will let you invest in your first sales team. You can keep investing in whatever small paid channels already work. It doesn’t let you truly invest. What Should I Do First? You can’t. $1m
The explanation from software leadership is often unsatisfying or unclear. Getting Buy-in from Leadership Business leaders are often concerned about how their tech teams will react to an external technical review. Let’s assume that you’ve already expressed your frustrations with technical leadership.
So you need context from leadership to what you ultimately need to deliver on in your function to be successful. When you get everyone on the leadership team in a room to come up with the best ideas, those people take ownership of the ideas. Leading him to some of his biggest mistakes when hiring: Not investing enough time.
I try to work with (and invest in) CEOs that are better than me. Dear SaaStr: Why did Jason M. Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? I found, when I was a SaaS CEO, that the CEOs that complained about needing a COO early, that it was too hard (which it is), etc.
I try to look at two things in Vertical SaaS startups, at least when investing : Will everyone in the vertical / industry use it? Dear SaaStr: How Big Should The Addressable Market Be to Go into Vertical SaaS? and Is the app so core, or at least is on a path to become so core, that they can charge $20,000+ a year for it?
In addition, this year Mayfield is sponsoring our VC AI Pitch Stage and will invest from $500k-$5m in the winner! Bringing your leadership team to SaaStr Annual allows for compressed learning experiences that would otherwise take months to acquire. Meet and Find Your Next VP / CXO!
There’s also a management and leadership layer to enable and coach individual contributors. That’s why getting the right leadership in place is so important. Companies are moving up-market, investing more in marketing, and orienting all processes around efficiency. One way to get that is by building a global workforce.
At a previous startup she worked for, management was constantly interviewing people from big companies to take leadership roles. So if you never invest seriously in your current workforce, they will stop investing seriously in your business. . They do not hire for leadership positions.
During this stage, SaaS businesses often expand their teams, invest in marketing, and refine their go-to-market strategies. The Scaling Stage: Building Market Leadership The scaling stage is where a SaaS company seeks to solidify its position as a market leader.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 80,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content