Uncapped and Supercapped Notes and SAFEs: Good in Small Doses
Even with these market wobbles, if you’re fortunate enough to be a “hot” startup in SaaS today you may find yourself oversubscribed in a fundraising round, and/or with investors that really want to invest between rounds when you don’t want or need any more money....
Dear SaaStr: How Do VC Partners Reach Consensus On Investments?
Q: How do venture capital general partners resolve investment choice disagreements? If a number of partners think a certain startup is a good portfolio candidate and others don’t agree, what happens? It varies. Generally: The most senior partners can get any deal...
12 Things You’ll Look Back On in SaaS … And Regret
A little ways back on LinkedIn and Twitter, I put together a list of things that later, once you are successful, even very successful, you’ll regret. It got a lot of engagement from the SaaS veterans out there, so I thought it would be worth digging in more on...
In 2021, We Minted 46 Unicorns a Month
Has it felt like not just a unicorn-a-day in 2021, but a bit more? No, you weren’t crazy. We minted 46 Unicorns a Month in 2021. That’s 1.5 a day: Ok, 2021 isn’t quite over, but the trends are pretty much set. Crunchbase had some interesting...
Dear SaaStr: VCs or Founders: Who Makes More?
What has a higher chance of making you money, being a venture capitalist or a startup founder? When it's hard, as a founder, you'll be a bit jealous of VCs But when it's good, as a founder, they'll be jealous of you — Jason ✨BeKind✨ Lemkin ⚫️...
Corporate VC Investments: Limited, But Real, Pros. And Cons.
These are the Best of Times for venture capital. 500+ new seed funds, and 1000+ unicorns and decacorns. And as part of this, more and more big corporations are adding and expanding their venture arms. For the most part, this is a great thing. More options are...
Founder Confidential: The Highs and Lows of Fundraising with the CEOs of Boast, Coda, Expensify, LaunchDarkly and SaaStr (Podcast #497 and Video)
Featuring 5 prominent Founders – from Boast, Calendly, Coda, LaunchDarkly, and SaaStr – that have achieved scale, at “Founder Confidential” you will hear about the highs and lows of fundraising, working with a VC board, and real talk about what it really is like to be a true Founder.
10 Learnings from Off The Record with Pat Grady of Sequoia Capital
Actionable insights include a) why you should disregard conventional advice about VC associates, b) building cultures that scale, c) how to run an effective fundraising process, and d) habits of high-performing CEOs.
Why It Matters Who Your “Lead” Investor Is
Dear SaaStr: What does a lead investor do? A lead investor: Is expected to lead any bridge round. This is super important. If the company does OK but Not Great, the investors will often be willing to do a bridge round (i.e., a smaller, second, all-inside round). But...
Is a World Coming Where We Don’t Need VCs at All?
2002-2019: Founders jealous of VCs, with their easy life, diversified 2020-2021: VCs jealous of Decacorn founders that own so much more 2022-2023: Why do we need VCs at all? — Jason ✨BeKind✨ Lemkin ⚫️ (@jasonlk) November 11, 2021 The Rise of 1000 Unicorns and...
SaaS Rule of 40 Drivers Using KeyBanc’s 2021 SaaS Survey
SaaStr’s analysis of the KBCM SaaS Survey highlights CAC and churn as key underlying drivers of “Rule of 40” and capital efficiency. However, high revenue multiples and abundant VC funding have potentially changed whether the “Rule of 40” is worth optimizing for.
The Job of a VC: Turn Every $50m into a $2B+ Exit
VC funds need about $2B in “exits” for each $50m they raise Why? True average ownership of 10% fully-diluted x $2B = $200m. That’s 4x “gross” $50m or just about good enough today. So raise a $300m fund, you need about $12B in exits. Or better. — Jason ✨BeKind✨...
A Founder’s Guide to SAFEs and Convertible Notes vs. Equity
A few years back, it seemed like there were hundreds of articles on the pros and cons of raising relatively modest amounts of capital using traditional equity vs. SAFEs and convertible notes. I shared my detailed learnings here, and I think it remains a strong...
Everyone Will Want to Fund You at $10m ARR. But Maybe Not Before.
After $10m ARR, every VC in SaaS comes to the same conclusion So interesting that they don't even at $4m-$5m ARR though — Jason ✨BeKind✨ Lemkin ⚫️ (@jasonlk) September 24, 2021 In this era of unprecedented unicorn production and public SaaS multiples, where...
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