Equity

Who captures the most value after the SaaS-acre? Enterprises or Startups?

Apr 19, 2023

Janelle Teng, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and co-author of the Bessemer 2023 State of the Cloud Report, joins to dissect the current cloud landscape. She explores whether the recent valuation drops for startups are finally stabilizing and why investors are shifting their focus back to growth over profitability. The discussion also covers the altering dynamics of M&A, the influence of AI on SaaS, and the critical need for startups to demonstrate operational efficiency. Plus, expect some fun personal insights about snowboarding and playlists!

35:58

Creator website

Episode guests

Janelle Teng

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Episode notes

Intro

2min

Evolving Dynamics in the Cloud Economy

15min

Navigating the Post-SaaS Funding Landscape

3min

Navigating Talent Acquisition and AI in Cloud Companies

13min

The Significance of Gross Margins and a Fun Lightning Round

1min

Snowboarding, Playlists, and Passionate Preferences

2min

Cultural Reflections: Authenticity Across Coasts

2min

Alex invited Janelle Teng from Bessemer Venture Partners on the program to riff with us on the state of the cloud.

That's also the title of Bessemer's latest data dump concerning cloud stocks, startups, AI, and more. Teng, a co-author on the report, walked through some of key bits with us to better explain her firm's perspective, and to answer our critical commentary regarding Figma and why startups should always kill Goliath, instead of joining him for a round of grapes and lounging.

You can find the report that we chatted about here, and our early notes thereof here. Finally, a rundown of topics:

Is the valuation massacre that startups have survived since late 2021 finally over?
Why is investor preference swinging back towards growth from profitability?
What is the state of runway at late-stage startups?
Is the M&A pause nearly over?
And, naturally, AI and SaaS and where VCs see the pair heading!

See you at Early Stage tomorrow!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts,Overcast, Spotifyand all the casts. TechCrunch also has agreat show on crypto, ashow that interviews founders, one thatdetails how our stories come together and more!

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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