Almost 10 Years On, I Remember Every Minute

A lot of early posts at SaaStr were about my learnings co-founding Adobe Sign / EchoSign.  That was a while ago though and I try to keep some of those learnings now to a minimum, and incorporate more of the learnings from the 25+ investments I’ve made, and 5 unicorns.  Still, 10 years on, and Adobe Sign is doing hundreds of millions in ARR and is the fastest-growing product at Adobe, so that’s something.  So many of those lessons hold.  And in fact, give me a decade-long perspective on a SaaS product.

But while some of those lessons are from a generation ago in SaaS, the thing is, I remember every minute of it.

• I remember every deal.
• Every great logo.
• Every single person I hired.
• Everyone that went the extra yard.
• Every customer visit.
• Every team retreat.
• Every terrible mistake (you forget the rest, but remember the terrible ones).
• Every 10x feature.
• Everyone that truly went the extra yard to help us (THANK YOU!  Even today, THANK YOU!)
• Everyone that let us down.

I remember every minute of it, 10 years on.  Or at least it seems like it.

My point is just this.  Remember — These Are the Best of Times.  You probably don’t see it, not totally.  You might even think the grass is greener as a VC, or a COO, or Something Else.  Deep down you might think that.

Being a founder makes you alive.  Fewer things are harder, at least up until $10m-$20m ARR or so.  Nothing will be more consuming.  It will change you.  A lot.

But you’ll remember every minute.

You will be alive.