What Does it Take to Get to the Next Level of Funding After Series B with Scale Ventures’ Stacey Bishop
How do you raise funds beyond Series B? Stacey Bishop with Scale Ventures shares what it takes to get to that next level of funding.
Dear SaaStr: If You Want to Buy Shares from a Founder That Has Left the Company, What Price Do You Use?
Dear SaaStr: If you have old founders who left the company and kept their shares, on what valuation you buy their shares? Generally speaking, there are two paradigms: Buy them out at Common Stock price (which is what they in fact own), based on the lastest option...
5 Tips On How to Handle Acquisition Talks
Dear SaaStr: What should I know about getting acquired? My top 5 tips: #1. Listen more. Talk less (on the target side). It’s very difficult to invent an acquisition. It’s almost impossible to create one, though it happens sometimes. Listen and learn. ...
Dear SaaStr: Do Shares Get “Forward Vested in an Acquisition?
Dear SaaStr: Do Shares Get “Forward Vested in an Acquisition? Stock vesting is accelerated very rarely in an acquistion. In 95%+ of cases, the acquirer wants folks to keep vesting just as before — or more so. Even where the option agreements or bylaws or...
Dear SaaStr: What Should Founders Do To Get Noticed By An Established Company’s M&A Team?
Dear SaaStr: What Should Founders Do To Get Noticed By An Established Company’s M&A Team? Don’t bother too much with trying to get “corporate development” or the M&A team’s attention. That’s not their job. Probably the most...
Can You Still Get Acquired for a Decent Price if Growth Has Slowed or Even Stopped? Yeah, Sometimes
So the other day a CEO reached out to me about advice on an acquisition. They wanted to do three things: Enter a space they had no product or customers in today; and Add on at least $10m of extra revenue for the year; and Not add too much to their burn rate. So this...
9 Things Founders Should Know About Getting Acquired with Brett Goldstein, Former M&A at Google
Former member of the M&A team at Google, Brett Goldstein, now Founder at Micro and Co-Founder & CEO of Launch House Ventures, shares the nine things founders should know about getting acquired. It’s a common dream for founders to hope their startup be acquired one day, but what is a company, like Google, really looking for in their acquisitions? And what should all founders know about the process if the time comes?
Dear SaaStr: How Do Investors Feel About “Acquihires”?
Dear SaaStr: How Do Investors Feel About “Acquihires”? Back when I started investing, in 2013, VCs worked on getting acquihires for their struggling startups. A lot of energy was put in to find a “soft landing” for struggling investments...
Tech and Startups Have Changed. Do Founders Still Come Last?
So the other day I did a 20VC with Harry Stebbings, and one of the topics that came up was the Hopin founder’s $100m+ secondary that the CEO took out of the company. While the company is still around, the Hopin product was subsequently sold for pennies on the...
Dear SaaStr: Is It Normal for a Founder CEO to End Up With Just 10% Equity?
Dear SaaStr: Is It Normal for a Founder CEO to End Up With Just 10% Equity? Yes — if you are venture-backed. Roughly speaking, this is what generally will happen after 3 rounds of traditional venture capital. Expect it and plan for it. If the company sells...
Dear SaaStr: What Happens to Employees After Your Startup Gets Acquired?
Dear SaaStr: What happens to employees after your startup gets acquired? It varies — a lot. But as a rule: Top engineers will all be given retention packages, extra money / RSUs / options designed to keep them for 2-4 years. All engineers and product people...
Most SaaS Metrics Really Only Work if You Have 75%+ Gross Margins and 100%+ NRR
So over the past decade-and-a-half we’ve come up with a lot of yardsticks, metrics and rules for SaaS companies. E.g.,: CAC of < 12-14 months is Good-to-Great Paying sales reps 25%-30% of what they close is Good A burn multiple of 1 or less is Good These metrics do...
Dear SaaStr: What Are the Exit Options for VCs That Fail to Make It in The VC Industry?
Dear SaaStr: What Are the Exit Options for VCs That Fail to Make It in The VC Industry? There is probably no better business to fail at than to be a failing General Partner at a sizeable VC firm. If you fail as an associate, principal, etc. … that’s just like any...
Dear SaaStr: Do Late Stage Startups Prefer to Get Acquired or Go Public?
Dear SaaStr: Do Late Stage Startups Prefer to Get Acquired or Go Public? It really varies. Especially these days, when the IPO markets are closed. When it was literally an IPO a Day in 2021, it seemed almost easy. And today — it seems so far from easy. It Was...
Dear SaaStr: Do Companies Prefer Stock Over Cash When They Acquire Startups?
Dear SaaStr: Do Companies Prefer Stock Over Cash When They Acquire Startups? It depends on how profitable the acquirer is. All things being equal, most tech companies that are very profitable (Adobe, Microsoft, Intuit, SAP, Oracle, Google, Facebook etc) would prefer...
SVP and GM, SaaStr
Related Posts
