SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2024

Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? I try to work with (and invest in) CEOs that are better than me. Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? Dear SaaStr: Why did Jason M. they all failed or came up way short. appeared first on SaaStr.

Sales Hiring 257

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale Startup 257

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2023

Q: What are some common mistakes that investors make when evaluating potential startup investments (such as Seed or Series A)? A few I’ve made and watched others around me make: Invest in good traction with a pretty good but not great CEO. Investing when you aren’t sure but someone else really successful is investing.

Investment 345

Investment Startup Scaling SaaS 345

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 306

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 306

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2022

Startups create products. When a business is ready to scale, a startup ought to develop an organizational roadmap. The question for early-stage startups is how to start building this structure. Most startups begin either with a product marketer or a demand generation specialist. Who should be the first marketing hire ?

Startup 361

Startup Acquisition Product Marketing Scaling 361

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Tomasz Tunguz , General Partner at Theory Ventures, shares nine observations from a Go-To-Market survey Theory Ventures did with hundreds of startups, 68% of them early-stage, well-funded, mostly mid-market ACV, and 25% remote. Six months ago, security was the number one prohibition preventing businesses and software companies from buying AI.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 328

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2024

AI in B2B SaaS: The Incumbent Advantage On the AI revolution in B2B software, it’s the age-old ‘startups are innovating and racing to get distribution, and the bigger companies have distribution and are racing to innovate.’ ’ The twist this time is the data is very hard for startups to acquire or accumulate.

AI 278

AI Marketing SaaS Interviewing 278

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2023

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. They just assumed it would come.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Investment Leadership Startup 306

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 5, 2022

So even more than usual, VCs have to decide what to do with their struggling startups. The thing is VCs know 3 almost conflicting things: The best startups just grow at an insane rate, at least most of the time. And yet … Almost all the top startups had one rough year. I don’t mean the ones 100% failing.

Startup 354

Startup Sales Hiring Venture Capital Cloud 354

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

But it’s clear that it’s still in the investing phase, and increasing spend in sales & marketing. New Startups and Companies and Enterprise Strong. Outside of a pre-IPO phase, Klaviyo has been cash-flow positive or close for most of its history. Just not as quickly as overall revenue growth. #4. SMB Weaker.

Scale 294

Scale SMB Scaling Enterprise 294

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2025

This is epic opportunity to showcase your AI Startup. 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. If you’re building the next AI breakthrough in SaaS, pitch your startup at the MayfieldAI AI Demo Stage at SaaStr.

AI 294

AI Startup Innovation Investment 294

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2023

Salesforce is ceding the startup CRM market to HubSpot. But I would tell every startup I invested in or worked with to move onto Salesforce — at least once they hire a real VP of Sales. Now I just see so many fast-growing startups now just starting on HubSpot, but staying on HubSpot. Does it matter?

Startup 70

Startup Sales Hiring Scale Investment 70

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 1, 2022

How much value does a successful software startup create per dollar of venture investment? Let’s call the value generated per venture dollar the MOIC (multiple on invested capital). Over the last 30 years, a venture dollar invested in a successful US software startup generated $10 of value.

Startup 329

Startup Software Pricing Investment 329

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Should You Always Ask a Co-founder to Invest Their Own Money? Yes, you need money one way or another to startup. And many times even a small investment will be very stressful for some co-founders. I made 12x on that investment. Especially if they haven’t really made any money yet, and you have more.

Investment 300

Investment Startup Leadership 300

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 269

Venture Capital Investment AI Metrics 269

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. They werent forced out by their VCs, at least not directly. They just had enough. One is doing YouTubes. Theres also a most invisible version. So they could just give up.

Venture Capital 278

Venture Capital Banking Trends Investment 278

SaaStr

AUGUST 1, 2022

Because in the Best of Times, there’s always more money to invest in top performers — and even mid-pack performer s. That really leaves just $120m to invest. (Yes, Yes, there are ways to “recycle” to get the amount available to invest up, but that’s not super important for this analysis). checks on average ($2.5m

Venture Capital 331

Venture Capital Startup Investment Pricing 331

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2022

But what about startups? Most VC funds “carry” startup investments at their last round price, unless their value has been materially impaired. Even if the startup isn’t quite a rocketship anymore, most smaller VC funds will stay hold it at the same value. And in the middle are growth funds and investments.

Startup 325

Startup Venture Capital SaaS Cloud 325

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 29, 2024

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.

Investment 112

Investment Technical Review Development Team Review Scale 112

SaaStr

JULY 9, 2024

Imagine a $150m seed VC fund that buys 15% stakes in each startup. Yes, you get more time to see how the startups are doing, so that’s easier. Those rare investments that return enough money to the VC fund to pay off at least 1x the total fund size. Investing in the #3 or #4 in a space? An epic amount! A 1% stake?

Investment 296

Investment Venture Capital Social Media Startup 296

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Not too long before the public market correction, high-growth startups routinely commanded 100x ARR multiples. When modeling investment cases, VCs often use a basket of comparables - not a single transaction - to justify prices, even if that single transaction is a firecracker that lights up the entire night sky.

Startup 354

Startup Acquisition Pricing Revenue 354

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2023

This is consistent with my experience and across 30+ investments. More at the full report here : The post SaaS Capital: Across 1,500 SaaS Startups, Yearly Contracts Don’t Actually Increase NRR appeared first on SaaStr. So keep increasing that NRR target as you march to $20m ARR!

Startup 362

Startup SaaS Retention Churn 362

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2024

In a recent Workshop Wednesday, SaaStr Founder and CEO, Jason Lemkin sat down to discuss 9 signs a startup isn’t going to make it. So, let’s look at the nine signs a startup will likely not be a real success. Sign #2: You’re Too Slow to Hire VPs If you want to gauge momentum in a startup, see how quickly they hire VPs.

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Startup Scale SMB 294

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

But with that out of the way, let’s talk just enough about financial accounting to explain why Big Tech Companies both acquire smaller ones — and do corporate VC investment. Because in the short-term, it often costs basically close to nothing to acquire a smaller startup with cash on hand, or do a corporate VC investment.

Acquisition 293

Acquisition Investment Headcount Banking 293

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

When I look across my investment portfolio for past 11 years , the #1 issue I think isn’t pricing, or TAM, or making a terrible mishire, or competition. I’m seeing all across my investments that are 5, 8, 10, 12+ years out. I’m seeing all across my investments that are 5, 8, 10, 12+ years out. They’re not truly multi-product.

Startup 293

Startup SaaS Investment Enterprise 293

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2024

So I firmly you believe you can build an incredible SaaS startup from anywhere now, or at least, any major-ish tech center. VCs really don’t want to invest 100% on Zoom anymore. Of Pre-Seed Rounds Are to California Startups per Carta appeared first on SaaStr. Heck, Oracle apparently is moving to Nashville! What do I mean?

Startup 300

Startup Investment SaaS Data 300

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What are some common reasons for the failure of startups? My experience across leading 30+ seed investments, including 4 billion+ exits so far, on why startups fail: Not 200% committed to winning no matter what. How can these mistakes be avoided to increase their chances of success? Just not a huge one.

Startup 276

Startup Scale CTO Pricing 276

SaaStr

DECEMBER 25, 2023

G2 had us back for another great deep dive on just where SaaS investing is there days, and it was a great panel: Accel Partner Arun Mathew Inspired Capital Founder & Managing Partner Alexa von Tobel Salesforce Ventures Managing Partner Paul Drews and Jason Lemkin! Low investment multiples pose a key challenge.

B2B 276

B2B Investment Venture Capital SaaS 276

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2024

ARR, Zendesk today gets 14% of new business from startups. On top of that, if you look at their top accounts globally, 33 of the top 50 customers by ARR are startups. This is where they started, but startups weren’t adopting the product as much with a discount, and there was a lot of conflict with the sales team. A free term.

Startup 257

Startup Scale Underperforming Technical Team AWS 257

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Would You Invest in a Start-Up With 6 Co-Founders? And that startup did end up selling for over $1 Billion (!) — so it’s not a firm “No.” UPDATED The post Dear SaaStr: Would You Invest in a Start-Up With 6 Co-Founders? I’ve done it — once. At least with 5 true co-founders. The downside?

Investment 258

Investment Compensation Startup Scaling 258

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Will Venture Capitalists Do if Our Startup is a Loss? Bill said] ‘most startups do fail, so the odds were that Fanbase would fail , not succeed. A VC fund will typically do 30-ish investments per fund. of the fund, on average, per investment. Typically, though, that’s over 3–4 rounds of investment.

Startup 285

Startup Investment Leadership 285

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. You want to move quickly.

Venture Capital 268

Venture Capital Investment CTO Churn 268

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2024

But it isn’t, so I’m going to try to help by being brutally direct: No VC on Planet Earth Wants to Invest in a Startup with Mediocre Growth None. Ask them if they’d invest again. Snail image from here ) The post Look, No VC Wants to Fund a Startup With So-So Growth. They’re in for a dollar.

Startup 337

Startup Investment Business 337

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2023

[link] So personally, with SaaStr Fund , I am what is called a “Solo GP” I’m the only general partner, and that means most of the eventual gains from any investment do go to me. So if SaaStr Fund is lucky enough to invest enough to own say 10% of your startup, that’s sort of like me owning 2% personally. (20%

Startup 285

Startup Investment 285

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2024

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?

Payment Solutions 258

Payment Solutions Inbound Sales Team Marketing Scale 258

SaaStr

APRIL 5, 2025

Kobe Conrad, Head of Growth at Rupa Health and Onleet, took the stage at SaaStr Annual to break down the five growth channels that transformed Rupa Health from a $20M seed-stage startup into a platform with hundreds of millions in equity and a 4,000% increase in user acquisition over three and a half years.

Scale 226

Scale AI Search Sales Hiring Acquisition 226

SaaStr

APRIL 22, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Craft a Winning Investor Deck for an Early-Stage Startup? When you’d invest just based on that one slide. The post Dear SaaStr: How Do I Craft a Winning Investor Deck for an Early-Stage Startup? Not using 6 point font. When that one slide is great. Whatever slides 2-22 say.

Startup 277

Startup Investment Leadership 277

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2022

For the most part, Growth Stage investing, roughly deals at $500m valuations and up, is frozen now. The post The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs appeared first on SaaStr. That’s on hold for now. And these deals are frozen because public market valuations have fallen 75%. Axios: U.S.

Startup 341

Startup Banking Cloud B2B 341