European Founders: A Fundraising Primer with Front, Automile, and Algolia (Video + Transcript)
Being an American founder in the Valley is difficult enough, but as a European founder, what unique concerns do you have to think about while running a company and trying to scale it? Teddie Wardi, Partner at Atomico, leads this session with Mathilde Collin, CEO of...
What are the sources of great business ideas?
I can share my experiences, FWIW. One was inspiration, the other calculation. Both worked. For my first start-up, we purchased / licenses a dormant technology from a larger start-up. They had abandoned it as noncommercial. 12.5 months later, we sold for $50,000,000....
Is it harder for an enterprise SaaS company to get acquired in LA, versus ones based in NYC?
No. At least, not once you hit scale. Once you hit $10m ARR, growing at a fast rate, no one cares where you are headquartered. Not really. You’ve proven you can scale from anywhere, or at least from wherever you are. You do often take a “hit” before that. If you are...
What are some early signs to recognize your startup is in trouble?
Here’s my list. Admittedly, much is obvious on it: Founders can’t work together, and/or are dysfunctional. It’s over, at least eventually, if you don’t make a change. Best case, one of you has to go. It’s “do or die” on some — or any — specific feature, launch date,...
Does Jason Lemkin of SaaStr have set marketing goals for answering Quora and other channels like a VP of sales would for their sales quota?
Not Quora, but we’ve set 2+5 other core goals. For the 2018 SaaStr Annual, our goals are: $10m in top-line revenue >10,000 attendees (nominal target 20,000) 20% gross margin (minimum to pay salaries, rent, etc). Speaker NPS of 80 Sponsor NPS of 50 Attendee NPS of...
Is it necessary to have a co-founder for your startup?
Of course not. In the SaaS/B2B world, AppDynamics, which was just acquired for $3,700,000,000 had no co-founder. Zoom, one of the fastest ever in SaaS from $0 to $100m in ARR, had no co-founder. Even Salesforce didn’t really have a true, equal co-founder. It happens...
Why do people in Silicon Valley hate suits so much?
I think Silicon Valley likes suits, and in general, getting “dressed up” a lot more than a few years ago. In the “old” days (8–10 years ago), not wearing business clothes, let alone suits, was seen as a core part of the liberating, creative start-up process. It still...
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...
The leadership of my company (enterprise SaaS) just had a presentation to one of our competitors. Does this indicate a possible imminent acquisition?
No, but it’s a bit weird. Your CEO meeting with the CEO of your competitors is not a big deal. In both my start-ups, I met with the CEOs of my competitors a couple of times a year. There was never an agenda, and relatively little drama. You never know where issues...
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...
Is Chris Sacca really worth $1.2 billion?
Probably, but you are misreading the article. It’s confusing. VC is very confusing. The article is taking a guess at how much money Lowercase I the fund made, not Sacca himself: “ Or, in real dollars, nearly $1.3 billion on just under $6 million in call-downs...
Does Jason Lemkin believe he has ever gotten revenue from answering Quora questions, or does he do it purely to help people out?
No revenue, at least, not directly has come from 2,260 answers over 5 years on Quora. But … There is SaaStr revenue — the SaaStr Annual and related endeavors will produce about $7m in GAAP revenue this year — but all of that will be consumed by expenses. (There is...
What are some experiences where someone found a co-founder for their startup without having had a prior relationship?
I’ve had 3 co-founder experiences: #1: Knew for many years and worked together previously. #2: Knew a little and worked together briefly. #3: Didn’t really know, warm referral. All 3 worked, which is probably the uber-lesson. But interestingly, for me at least, the...
50,000,000+ Views Later: What I’ve Learned About Content Marketing
When I meet with founders and investors, they assume at SaaStr we are some sort of content and social marketing geniuses. Let’s be clear — nothing could be further from the truth. We have no one on our tiny team with a background in content or social...
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