Did Elizabeth Holmes manage to cash out from Theranos?
I think this is a super-interesting question. Because it helps show you how she was thinking about the company. It appears she did not cash out any shares (or take a dividend) from Theranos. If she had, I can only assume the SEC would have forced her to pay more than...
SaaStr Crosses 40,000,000 Views on Quora!
It took a little while, but SaaStr finally crossed 40,000,000 views on Quora: It’s been a fun journey sharing and learning from 2,684 answers on Quora, and being named a “Top Writer” for 6 years in a row: Some of the top posts from the past year,...
SaaStr Podcast #168: Ryan Williams, Founder @ SalesCollider Shares Why 70% of Startup’s VPs of Sales Fail
Ryan Williams is the Founder of SalesCollider, the organization that helps technical founders jumpstart sales. Ryan got his start as the first sales manager at Adroll where he grew the team from 3 to 32 reps in just 8 months, a team that was responsible for ARR...
How is the best way to appease interested SaaS prospect who demands complete opt out after 90 days?
Just do it. I know this stuff will frustrate you in the early days. “Proof of Concept” and Paid Trial deals where the prospect, after you do so much hard work to onboard them … can just up and quit in 90 days. But you have to change your perspective. In SaaS, you have...
Was Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn a success?
It’s too early to know. If the goal was to buy “the Facebook of Business”, I’d argue probably yes. LinkedIn’s feed and engagement continue to grow and it does seem to have become a daily destination, not just an intermittent one for hiring and research. If the goal...
What is the number of invested startups for a small VC fund?
It varies a lot. But you can do a bottoms-up analysis via capacity / pacing: Most bigger funds will do 1–2 investments per year — per partner. So 4 partners x 1.5 investments x 3 first check investment period = 18–20 core investments in a fund. Most...
Come Hear and Meet Aaron Ross + Jason Lemkin at SaaStr Europa in Paris 15 June! Early Bird Tickets About to Expire!
We’re rolling out an amazing speaker list for our first ever SaaStr Europa in Paris on 15 June! March is the last chance for Early Bird tickets at just $299 so get ’em here right now! ($250 each if you bring your team) We’ll have amazing speakers...
Dear SaaStr: Why Should Founder CEOs Get Additional Stock Options?
Dear SaaStr: Why Should Founder CEOs Get Additional Stock Options? They don’t always need more equity / options. Typically, most CEOs one way or another — as founders, or from their initial grant — have plenty of equity. But incentives work. They work on all of us....
Can a company go into an IPO if the founders own 70-80% of the company?
Sure. When Atlassian IPO’d, the founders owned 75%. And Atlassian is the 5th largest public cloud company by market cap today. In the case of Workday the founders also owned 75% at IPO. But that was a bit different, as they were billionaires and millionaires already....
Tomasz Tunguz + Jason Lemkin Talk “State of SaaS in 2018”
A little while back at the 2018 SaaStr Annual, Tomasz Tunguz and our own Jason Lemkin kicked off Day 3 with a fun look at 5 of the Top Trends in SaaS” Click on the video below to check it out — it’s great. A transcript is also below. And March/this...
What is it like to build a SaaS company? Do you consider it easier or harder than other startups?
Both. SaaS is harder than a successful B2C company because you are always selling. You never get a break. Each quarter, the gauges in Salesforce go back to zero. Every quarter, you have to sell more than the last one. And sales is hard, human capital-driven work. Not...
SaaStr Podcast #167: PJ Bouten, Founder & CEO @ Showpad On The Biggest Challenges In Scaling From $1-10m in ARR
Welcome to Episode 167! Pieterjan (PJ) Bouten is the Founder & CEO of Showpad, the world’s leading sales enablement platform that allows for the creation of amazing buyer experiences. To date they have raised over $89m in VC funding from the likes of Insight...
Are there any companies that aggressively acquire other companies in their industry in order to avoid competition?
This happens for sure, but is a little bit less common than you would expect. The problem with acquiring competitors is they are like weeds — there are always more of them. Also, M&A is expensive. It’s usually cheaper to deploy that effort into beating a...
What are your thoughts on taking money from a new VC firm?
Taking money from a “new” VC firm has a little risk, but it’s minor. The real negative is money from a un-respected firm or Partner (GP). Even this is minor, but a clear negative. It just makes raising the next round that much harder. And if you have a highly...
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