Dear SaaStr: How Many Deals a Year Do VCs at Bigger VC Funds Do a Year?

by Jason Lemkin | Nov 24, 2022 | Blog Posts, Early, Exit, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: How Many Deals a Year Do VCs at Bigger VC Funds Do a Year? Not as many as you’d think. This is a really important question because it creates so many non-obvious VC-founder dynamics. There are some partners that do more but the number is generally 1-2 per...

Dear SaaStr: The Startup I’m Working At is Getting Acquired. How Much Can I Negotiate?

by Jason Lemkin | Oct 27, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: The Startup I’m Working At is Getting Acquired. How Much Can I Negotiate? Unfortunately, as a non-CEO, non-founder of an acquired start-up … you have almost no ability to really negotiate.  You can try a little, but it’s rough. Overall, your ability...

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Startup?

by Jason Lemkin | Sep 9, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Leadership | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Startup? Having been through the acquisition process 4x — twice as a founder, twice as a start-up exec, here’s my list of when and if to sell.  Don’t take it literally. Most startups never get a single good...

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Company?

by Jason Lemkin | Apr 21, 2022 | Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Exit, Exit Strategy, Leadership, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Company? I was with the CEO of a $XB+ SaaS CEO a little while back He was acquiring a leanly-funded startup. The founder owned so much, he would make more than the CEO. I asked how that felt. "That's his journey....

Zoom Had a Burn Rate Budget. So Should You.

by Jason Lemkin | Mar 5, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit, Fundraising, Metrics | 0 comments

There was a very curious thing in Zoom’s financials leading up to its IPO that I am surprised no one commented on, at least that I saw.  But as a founder, it jumped out at me. In 2017, Zoom’s cash burn was exactly equal to its Gross Proft.  In other words,...

What If There Are No Natural Acquirers (For Your Company)?

by Jason Lemkin | Jan 13, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Leadership | 3 comments

A little while back I had coffee with a very successful VC and we chatted about our views of what’s happening in SaaS.  The things we are both interested in are very similar, our thoughts on risks and markets were well aligned.  At the end, he noted how the key...

If You Sell Your Company, Use a Banker

by Jason Lemkin | Dec 2, 2021 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Leadership | 1 comment

When I sold my first company, I used a banker, an M&A advisor.  When I sold my second, I did not.  Not using a banker the second time was a mistake. The benefits are nonobvious, somewhat counterintuitive — and large. You don’t get THAT much from a...

Dear SaaStr: How Much Do Founder-CEOs Own at Time of Exit?

by Jason Lemkin | Aug 25, 2021 | Blog Posts, Exit, Q&A | 0 comments

It can vary a lot, of course. If you never raise venture capital, the founder-CEO might own 50%, or even 100% in some cases. The founders of $10B+ Mailchimp still own 100% of the company, for example. But, on average, venture-backed founder CEOs tend to end up owning...

The Only Exit “Strategy” Is IPO

by Jason Lemkin | May 25, 2021 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Fundraising | 1 comment

At least a few times a week, I am sent a deck or exec summary that includes an “Exit Strategy”.  The slide sometimes references a nice acquisition by an adjacent company, or a prior competitor or player in the space.  It’s all fine and good, though I...

The Rise of Private Equity in SaaS: A Gift to Founders

by Jason Lemkin | Feb 25, 2021 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Fundraising, Leadership | 2 comments

Let’s take a look at a few recent $1B+ “exits”, i.e. sales in SaaS: Pipedrive acquired by Vista for $1.5B Thoma Bravo acquires Sophos for $3.8B Insight Partners buys Veam for $5B Gainsight sells a majority interest to Vista at $1.1B valuation What do...

Plenty of Top SaaS Companies Are Worth a Lot Less Than 10x ARR

by Jason Lemkin | Dec 14, 2020 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Scale | 0 comments

A reminder that as a start-up, if you aren’t growing at fairly fast rates … your comp is 5x ARR Also a tough realization for bridge rounds, etc. https://t.co/bL5o63pdsB — Jason ✨BeKind✨ Lemkin ⚫️ (@jasonlk) May 14, 2021 So as you’ve seen,...

Would You Rather Own 100% of a Company Worth $100 million or 10% of a Company Worth $1 Billion?

by Jason Lemkin | May 2, 2020 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy | 0 comments

Q: Would you rather own 100% of a company worth 100 million or 10% of a company worth 1 billion? This is the greatest question for ambitious founders. I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve lived it (a version of it). And I think about it every single day. I remember when...

4 Myths Selling SaaS Into Enterprise

by Team SaaStr | Jan 21, 2020 | Blog Posts, Exit, Sponsored Posts | 0 comments

By Avanish Sahai, Google Cloud VP of ISV & Application Partners At SaaStr Annual, we’ll be sharing stories of how a few of our SaaS partners enable enterprises to change the way they do business. I am a former CXO and current investor and board member in the B2B...

5 Key Steps to Evolving Your Offering Into a Platform with Eventbrite and Stripe (Video + Transcript)

by Louise Lee | Nov 7, 2019 | Blog Posts, Engineering, Exit, Leadership, Metrics, SaaStr Events, Videos

How can a simple offering be transformed into its own platform? Renaud Visage, Co-Founder of Eventbrite, and Romain Huet, Head of Developer Relations at Stripe, know what it takes to effectively evolve your offering into a platform without losing what made offering...

Crossing 100 Employees While Keeping Your Culture Intact with Liveramp and Periscope Data (Video + Transcript)

by Faith Storey | Sep 17, 2019 | Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Exit, Leadership, Marketing, Marketing, SaaStr Events, Videos

How do you create a collaborative, cohesive workplace that scales from your first employees to multiple offices in different locations? How can you ensure the heart of your company’s culture holds strong, and also embracing a spirit of reinvention? This panel of three...