Technical Founders - Is There a Magic Moment When a Technical Founded Company Is Not a Seller?

In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, Neeraj Agrawal, General Partner at Battery Ventures, joins our hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon to discuss the nitty gritty of doing business in today’s markets. Neeraj sits on more than a dozen boards and has invested in several companies that have gone on to stage IPOs. As a serial investor with a long list of companies in his portfolio, Neeraj knows a thing or two about helping startups turn an idea into a full-fledged company. Tune in to hear actionable tips on leadership, growth, and revenue from the man himself, including how he chooses the companies he works with as an investor. 

Additional Resources:

• Donate to Hack Diversity: https://www.hackdiversity.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajagrawal2000/
• 5 Traits of Successful Leaders: https://forc.mx/3BrMkHh
• Listen to More Revenue Builders: https://forc.mx/3bfW5Od

HIGHLIGHTS

• 4 key dimensions that determine the success of companies 
• Timing is more predictive of success than market size
• Great product and sales processes are crucial for sustainable growth
• Lessons learned from successful and failed investments 
• Technical founders aren't necessarily the best CEOs 
• The bull market is on its way out, what about it?
• Your company reputation is everything
• How Neeraj chooses the companies that he works with

GUEST BIO

Neeraj joined Battery in 2000 and invests in SaaS and internet companies across all stages. He has invested in several companies that have gone on to stage IPOs, including Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV); Coupa (NASDAQ: COUP); Guidewire Software (NYSE: GWRE); Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO, acquired by Vista Equity Partners); Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX); Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR, acquired by Adobe); RealPage (NASDAQ: RP); and Wayfair (NYSE: W).

He also invested in several companies that have experienced M&A events, such as A Place for Mom (acquired by Warburg Pincus); AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco); Brightree (acquired by ResMed); Chef (acquired by Progress); Glassdoor (acquired by Recruit Holdings); Internet Brands (acquired by Hellman & Friedman); Kustomer (acquired by Meta); OpsGenie (acquired by Atlassian); Stella Connect (acquired by Medallia, Inc.); and VSS Monitoring (acquired by Danaher). Neeraj also played a key role in several other Battery investments including Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN); ITA Software (acquired by Google); and Sabre (NASDAQ: SABR).

Neeraj is currently on the boards of Braze (NASDAQ: BRZE), Compt, Catchpoint, Dataiku, Level AI, LogRocket, Pendo, Reify Health, Repeat, Scopely, Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse), Sprinklr (NYSE: CXM), Tealium, Wunderkind (formerly BounceX), Workato and Yesware. He is a board observer for InVision and Mattermost. Neeraj has also made seed investments in companies including 8fig, Dooly, PayStand, Proton, Reibus International and UserGems since 2020.

QUOTES

Neeraj on the challenge of timing your investment: "The challenge often is if you invest too early, you've got a good idea but you run out of money before the inflection point happens. And if you invest too late, somebody else captures the market. Having a sense of the timing is really important and like most things in life, luck has a lot to do with it."

Neeraj on why both product and sales are crucial for success: "Ultimately, great companies are built on great products and great sales. You can kind of fake it for a while now on the sales side, but the longer you wait to put in the fundamentals, the harder it is to do later." 

Neeraj on how he chooses the companies that he backs: "Life's too short. If this isn't a person that I want to back from beginning to exit, they don't have the right coachability and skill to read my mind, it's probably time to move on and look at other investments."

Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064