How did Jason Lemkin come across the patent on which he built NanoGram?
We in essence ‘bought’ the patents and more importantly, the related IP, from a company we sort of spun-out of. The assets were no longer being used and appeared to have $0 in market value. In return, they and their investors got a lot of stock 🙂 View original...
SaaStr Podcast #135: Auren Hoffman, Founder & CEO @ Safegraph on Why Raising Prices Is Not A Good Idea
Welcome to Episode 135! Auren Hoffman is the Founder & CEO of Safegraph, the startup that is unlocking the world’s most powerful data so that machines and humans can answer society’s toughest questions. They have backing from likes of Naval Ravikant and...
How do early investors (angel, venture) recognize when a technology is close to the peak of inflated expectations on the hype curve?
I think what alarms everyone is when there are too many startups funded with > $10m-$20m in venture capital, without a true break-out leader. As soon as you have 4–5 competitors in a space, each say less than $10m in ARR but each very well funded, things get...
Did Jason M. Lemkin invest in Algolia?
Yes, I’ve been fortunate enough to invest thrice. I was the first U.S. venture investor. That investment is up almost 20x. It is a very good company, a great product and a terrific team. I knew within 20 minutes of the first meeting I wanted to invest as much as I...
Michael Pryor, Co-Founder @ Trello: When a Product Everyone Loves is Worth $450M (Video + Transcript)
We all know Trello and Atlassian, two superstars in the SaaS world. Shortly after Atlassian bought Trello for a cool $450 million, Jason Lemkin gets the story from Michael Pryor, co-founder of Trello, on its beginnings, the obstacles the company overcame, and why the...
Algolia: From Impossible to Inevitable
Before I ever made a single investment, I was 100% heads down running my own SaaS company. I remember asking Jason Green of Emergence Capital (my 2x investor), back in the day, how pre-IPO Successfactors was doing, where he was also on the board. Successfactors later...
Why is NetSuite so well promoted yet with a lot of shortcomings?
Well, of course any well established product like NetSuite and many others will feel a bit old and have their shortcomings. NetSuite is almost a 20 year old product, as is Salesforce, Concur, Successfactors, etc. etc. Ariba is older. And this certainly creates lots of...
Is it worth learning Salesforce? What useful skills can one learn from it?
There are two scenarios where you must learn Salesforce. If you don’t, you are squandering an opportunity: First, are you building or working at a SaaS company? If so, you “must” learn Salesforce. Because it’s is the largest and most successful SaaS company. At $11...
SaaStr Podcast #125: Laura Bilazarian, Founder & CEO @ Teamable Discusses Why You Should Always Be Premium
Welcome to Episode 125! Laura Bilazarian is the Founder & CEO of Teamable, the startup that allows you to recruit the best talent from your network. They have raised funding from some stellar investors including the likes of True Ventures and SaaStr. As for Laura,...
What does Jason Lemkin think of Zenefits? Is there an effective way to manage such a hyper growth startup?
I think the learning and meta-answer to your question is: The Faster You Grow, The More Stuff Breaks. The faster a start-up grows, the shorter the half-life of the playbook. The shorter the “stretchability” of any given VP or executive skills may last. The more broken...
SaaStr Podcast #117: Amit Agarwal, Chief Product Officer @ Datadog Discusses How, Why & When To Launch A Second SaaS Product
Welcome to Episode 117! Amit Agarwal is the Chief Product Officer at Datadog, the startup that provides cloud scale monitoring that tracks your dynamic infrastructure and applications. They have raised over $140m in VC funding from some of the best in the business...
Should Google acquire Slack?
I think it’s worth them trying. Google is making a huge push all across business solutions now, a big one finally. Google has $100b+ on its balance sheet. Google is so big almost nothing can be material. Even at $200m+ in ARR, Slack wouldn’t be remotely...
How does Jason Lemkin feel the e-sign space has changed since he sold EchoSign? Are 100 million exits still possible?
I don’t think there is a materially large “e-sign space” anymore. Broadly speaking, the market has evolved into three segments: Rich/Complex Workflow-based, especially for enterprise. DocuSign and Adobe Sign own this market. But. This space is as...
Why should Quora be valued at $1.8 billion?
Because the world has changed. And it started with Facebook. And then continued with Airbnb, Uber, Alibaba, Tesla, and more. Before Facebook, investors basically believed a $100 billion+ valuation for an internet / tech company was sort of a “once in a...
CEO & Founder
Related Posts
