Dear SaaStr: How Many Board Seats Do VCs Typically Get?

by Jason Lemkin | May 29, 2023 | Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Early, Exit Strategy, Leadership, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: How Many Board Seats Do VCs Typically Get? Let me try to simplify, generally speaking: 1. Generally, “proportionate” boards are usually seen as fair, and easy to agree to. I.e., if the investors own 20%, and founders 80%, then investors get 1 board seat,...

Acquisitions — If You Do Sell, Try to Make Sure It’s At a Local Maximum

by Jason Lemkin | May 25, 2023 | Blog Posts, Exit, Exit Strategy, Leadership | 10 comments

Have a strong M&A offer? Not sure what to do? Look at this pic or a similar one Do you want it? If so, say No If not? Probably just say Yes pic.twitter.com/K483lKnyzd — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  (@jasonlk) April 21, 2021 So I wrote a version of this post...

The Honest Questions No One Discusses When A Startup is Acquired

by Jason Lemkin | Mar 12, 2023 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Growth, Q&A | 0 comments

Q: What are some of the most overlooked details or challenges when integrating two companies post-acquisition? Getting acquired can sound like an endpoint, a magical outcome.  And sometimes it is.  But the reality is, it’s just the start of a new process for...

Dear SaaStr: Does Raising Funding From VCs Limit Your Exit Options? If So, How Much?

by Jason Lemkin | Feb 25, 2023 | Blog Posts, Early, Exit Strategy, Fundraising, Leadership, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: Does Raising Funding From VCs Limit Your Exit Options? While technically true, especially if you’ve raised a lot (as many did in the Boom Times of late 2020 to early 2022), I believe embedded in this thinking is some bad advice. VCs are expecting a...

Ode to the $100,000,000 Exit

by Jason Lemkin | Feb 20, 2023 | Blog Posts, Early, Exit Strategy, Fundraising, Growth | 0 comments

Underrated: How great of a business model SaaS is. You can literally do almost nothing but make your customers happy and usually you will still grow. Underestimated: Just how expensive the incremental customer gets beyond your core, highest velocity ICP. — Jason...

Dear SaaStr: What Do Most People Not Know About Acqusitions?

by Jason Lemkin | Jan 14, 2023 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: What Do Most People Not Know About Acqusitions? That people, not companies, do acquisitions. “Amazon”, “Salesforce”, “Google”, etc. don’t buy companies. Executives do — to meet their goals at companies. Either the CEO makes a decision (if it’s a Big...

Figma: “We’d Been Talking to Adobe Since 2012”

by Jason Lemkin | Oct 31, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Scale | 0 comments

CNBC had a good write-up of how the Figma acquisition got done.  How you really need a lot of both CEO and President/SVP level support to get a big “Bet The Farm” deal like this done, and more. One of the many things that stuck out to me was just how long...

Dear SaaStr: How Do You Know if a Potential Acquirer is Really Interested, Or Just Kicking the Tires?

by Jason Lemkin | Oct 7, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Growth, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: How Do You Know if a Potential Acquirer is Really Interested, Or Just Kicking the Tires? Well, first off — you can’t. Not without engaging. And at some level, there isn’t any real difference between early stage due diligence and tire...

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Do My Retention Negotiation in an Acquisition?

by Jason Lemkin | Sep 28, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Growth, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Do My Retention Negotiation in an Acquisition? A few thoughts on retention compensation when you are acquired First, understand that the acquirer almost certainly already has a strong sense of what they want to do (right or wrong). Even if they...

Dear SaaStr: What Are SaaS Companies Generally Worth When They Are Acquired?

by Jason Lemkin | Sep 25, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Growth, Q&A | 0 comments

Figma cost $20B because (x) It was 2x the last round price (y) it wasn't for sale Lots of deals end up getting priced like that in the end — Jason ✨Happy✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 25, 2022 Dear SaaStr: What Are SaaS Companies Generally Worth When They Are...

Everything That Breaks on the Way to $1 Billion ARR With Mailchimp Co-Founder Ben Chestnut (Pod 592 + Video)

by Amanda Beaty | Sep 21, 2022 | Blog Posts, Customer Success, Exit Strategy, Featured Podcasts, Featured Videos, Leadership, Marketing, Marketing, Podcasts, Product, Videos | 0 comments

In some cases, weirdness wins the race. The lovably off-beat “weird” marketing automation platform Mailchimp was recently acquired by Intuit for $12 billion. At SaaStr Annual 2022, Mailchimp Co-Founder Ben Chestnut sat down with SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin to answer...

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: Why Do Big Companies Buy Small Companies Instead of Competing?

by Jason Lemkin | Aug 24, 2022 | Early, Exit Strategy, Q&A | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: Why do big companies buy small companies instead of competing? Well, first of all, they often do both.  They often start off competing, at least a bit.  Salesforce paid $27 Billion for Slack.  But that came years after they spent tens of millions on...

Dear SaaStr: When Is the Best Time for a Co-Founder to Leave a Startup?

by Jason Lemkin | Aug 3, 2022 | Blog Posts, Company Culture, Exit Strategy, Growth | 0 comments

Dear SaaStr: When Is the Best Time for a Co-Founder to Leave a Startup? The best time to quit is the earlier of (x) 6 months from the time you’ve decided to move on or (y) at any time when the other founders ask you to. If you’ve truly decided to leave, then it’s...

Down Markets And the Evaporation of Liquidity

by Jason Lemkin | Jul 21, 2022 | Blog Posts, Exit Strategy, Fundraising, Growth | 0 comments

Yes, valuations are way down But less discussed is the evaporation of liquidity: – Founder's secondary is way down, now absent in most rounds – IPO market frozen – M&A way down We acted in 2H'20-Q1'22 like liquidity didn't matter...