If Things Aren’t Going Well … Should You Offer To Give Your VCs Their Money Back?
Dear SaaStr: Should you offer to give the money back to your VCs if your startup just isn’t going to make it? It’s an interesting question. Many of us have been there — or at least close. I’ve been there. When in the earlier days at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, my...
Dear SaaStr: Why Are So Many VCs Grouchy These Days?
Dear SaaStr: Why Are So Many VCs Grouchy These Days? I think because it’s so damn hard to truly make money as a VC. So, so much harder than it felt in late 2020 and 2021: If you aren’t in the top quartile of venture fund performance at least, maybe...
5 Interesting Learnings from HashiCorp at $600,000,000 in ARR
So of the beloved leaders in Cloud and SaaS, few have been hit harder than Hashicorp by the “downturn”. At $400m ARR, they were growing 50%. Now at $600m, ARR, growth has radically slowed to 17%. Some of it may well be some of the challenges in...
Advice Every SaaS Founder Needs to Know in 2024 with Sam Blond and Jason Lemkin
At SaaStr Miami, former Founder’s Fund Partner and CRO of Brex Sam Blond — host of the SaaStr CRO Confidential Podcast — sat down with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin for a fireside chat about finding success as a SaaS company in 2024. They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions.
Dear SaaStr: What Happens to the Management Team When a New CEO is Hired?
Dear SaaStr: What Happens to the Management Team When a New CEO is Hired? You never know exactly what will happen. However, at a practical level, I think you should plan on maybe 50% of the management team turning over if your company brings in a new CEO. Maybe more....
What Are The Odds You Get Acquired Within 5 Years for a Good Price? Around 1%-1.5%
So Carta put out some recent data I found very useful on how many startups raise another round, and how many sort of quietly wind down, in the first 5 years or so after being founded (from 2018 to early 2024): Almost none IPO’d in the first 5 years, but that...
5 Lessons Learned from a 20+ Years Operator Turned First-Time Founder with ex-Synk and Elastic CMO Jeff Yoshimura
Jeff is the co-founder of a new stealth startup, a previous CMO at Snyk, and an operator at Elastic, Zuora, and Salesforce. His day-to-day role as a first-time founder involves a lot of work around creating and building the MVP product and filtering out all of the noise in this SaaS ecosystem. Now, Jeff shares five themes and his lessons learned over the past 6-8 months as a founder vs. an operator.
Dear SaaStr: Does the Fund Make The VC or VC Make The Fund?
Dear SaaStr: Does the fund make the VC or VC make the fund? The VC makes the fund — but it’s a little more nuanced than that. Only 2 things matters for VC until it’s late stage, and maybe even then: Getting the best founders to pick you; and Picking...
Attention Sales Reps: AI is Coming For Your Job. For Real.
Every interaction I've had with a sales rep or CSM the past 30 days would have been better with an AI None of them knew the product, or how to solve our issue. And all wanted to schedule a time to talk in a week or two. AI will take all their jobs. Soon. —...
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