


Dear SaaStr: How Difficult is It To Fundraise Over the Summer?
Dear SaaStr: How Difficult is It To Fundraise Over the Summer? There’s still seasonality to venture fundraising, even now with so much being done over Zoom. Yes, deals get done every day in venture. But especially in bigger partnerships, it’s just harder...
Which to Choose, If You Can Choose, Between Bootstrapping and Raising a Seed Round
"Bootstrapping wasn’t a magical choice for Mailchimp. No one would fund them."https://t.co/I0X6sJVY5t — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 22, 2023 Dear SaaStr: If you started a new company today how long would you be bootstrapped for...
Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days?
Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days? First, bear in mind, start-up fundraising has gotten a lot harder than it’s been the past few years. A lot harder. The latest Carta data summarizes it well: But while raise VC capital...
125+ VC Funds and 250+ VCs Are Coming to SaaStr Europa 2023 to Meet You!!
Top Tier VCs Are Ready to Meet You. Get your first (or next) round of funding at SaaStr Europa 2022 with our returning Meet a VC program.

8 Things You Think As A First-Time Founder That Just Ain’t So With Lattice CEO Jack Altman (Pod 662 + Video)
At nine figures in revenue and 550 people, the CEO of Lattice, Jack Altman, has seen every stage of building a startup. In this week’s Workshop Wednesday — held every Wednesday at 10 a.m. PST — Altman talks more in-depth about his viral tweet storm, sharing the eight...
What VCs are Really Looking For: Signs
Q: How do VCs pick which seed investments to make? There is one common factor, that founders know, but often lose track of in their pitch: every VC, at any stage, is looking for outliers. No matter the price or how early or late. Your pitch, your team, your metrics,...
What You Need To Know About Venture Capital in 2023 with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Black Mangroves Founder and Managing Director, Arnaud Bonzom (Pod 661 + Video)
People keep asking when we’ll get out of this downturn in venture. The truth is: It’s not a downturn—only a reset. For the people who haven’t been raising capital or haven’t seen this side of things since, say, 2018, they’ll probably think this is a terrible time. In...
10 Tips to Fundraising in The Tumultuous Times of 2023
So 2023 is a unique time in venture fundraising. We’re coming off a stretch in 2021 where VC capital hit crazy, record highs… and now is coming into multi-year lows. It’s a time when SaaS and Cloud spend are also at record highs, and many Cloud leaders are still...
The Playbook to Investor Relations with Zelkova Ventures Partner Jay Levy (Video)
In the first quarter of 2023, global venture funding fell to $59 billion, down from a peak of $181 billion in Q4 2021. Deal sizes are falling, late-stage rounds are down by 45%, and funding rounds are taking longer to complete. Despite the challenges, there is still...
My #1 Best Hack for VC Fundraising
So raising VC capital has gotten a lot harder than it was at the peak of 2021 — when it was still hard for all but the best and more privileged. But boy, it’s harder today. Everything has slowed down, the bar has gone up, and even VC funds themselves are struggling...
11 Signs To Predict If a Venture Investment Will or Won’t Work Out
So I’ve been investing long enough — just about 10 years — to not really have mastered it, but seen the results of trade-offs made in investing. I’ve made about 30 material investments. More on them here. Most have been successful, but of course, not all have, and...
Dear SaaStr: What Were The Top Unforced Errors You Made Raising Your First VC Rounds?
Dear SaaStr: What Were The Top Unforced Errors You Made Raising Your First VC Rounds? A few unforced errors I made as a founder pitching VCs: Meeting too early. I pitched a few friendly VCs before EchoSign was really ready. Sometimes, that’s OK, but not with these 2...
Fundraising By VC Firms Themselves Is At a 10-Year Low. What That Means.
So when I was a founder, I didn’t pay much attention to how VC funds themselves worked. I just pitched them. But fast forward to today, and there is an incredible amount of information about how the industry actually works, and we put a bunch of the best stuff...