The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Why Seed is Systemically Broken | Why Pricing is Worse Than Ever and There is More Funding Than Ever | Benchmarks for Churn, Retention and Growth Rates - Good vs Great | Why Last Vintage for Private Equity Will Suck with Jason Lemkin

170 snips

May 27, 2024

In this engaging discussion, Jason Lemkin, a pioneering SaaS investor and founder of the SaaStr community, shares insights from his impressive portfolio of unicorns. He delves into why the traditional seed VC model is broken and how companies are now inundated with cash that often fails to ensure well-grounded growth. Additionally, Jason emphasizes the importance of strong founder dynamics, particularly the winning combination of a CEO with sales prowess and a technical CTO. He also highlights critical metrics for startup success, such as churn and retention rates, offering an expert's perspective on what truly drives sustainable growth.

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INSIGHT

Winning Founder Combination

Ultra-committed founding pairs with sales/technical skills are crucial.
Great CTOs possess deep product knowledge and transparently share frustrations/insights.

ADVICE

Prioritize CTO Interview

Prioritize a second Zoom call with the CTO immediately in the diligence process.
Assess their technical expertise and product vision.

ADVICE

CTO Interview Questions

Ask CTOs open-ended questions about demos, favorite features, and frustrations.
Evaluate their transparency and ability to articulate technical challenges.

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Jason Lemkin is one of the OG SaaS investors with all of his first five investments turning into unicorns with Pipedrive, Algolia, Talkdesk, Salesloft and RevenueCat all in his portfolio. SaaStr is the largest global community in SaaS and he has taught a generation the fundamentals of SaaS on saastr.com.

In Today's Episode with Jason Lemkin We Discuss:

1. Growth Rates and Churn Rates: Average/Good/Great:

What is a growth rate that would excite Jason in a SaaS company? What is average?
What levels of churn would worry Jason to see? What would excite him to see?
What does Jason never tolerate when it comes to either growth rate or retention?

2. What Founder Combination Always Wins:

Why does Jason believe you cannot lose money on a CEO salesperson and a technical CTO founding partnership?
Why does Jason always meet the CTO for a second meeting in the diligence process? What questions does he ask? What do the best CTOs do or say?
Why does Jason always want to sell his shares when the founders want to sell?
Why does Jason believe that a company is never the same when the founders leave?

3. WTF is Happening in the World of VC:

Why does Jason believe that pricing is worse than it has ever been in venture?
Why does Jason believe that traditional seed VC is systemically broken?
Why are companies getting stuffed with more cash than ever before?
What does Jason know now about dilution that he wishes he had known when he started?
Why does Jason believe that you should always recycle everything?

4. WTF is Happening in PE and Later Stage Markets:

What happens to all the overpriced acquisitions like Zendesk and Salesloft where private equity way overpaid for them, they have no growth and no product innovation?
What happens to the generation of public companies like Box, Dropbox and Twilio, all with low growth and little product innovation in the single-digit market caps?
Why does Jason believe that Klaviyo is the most undervalued public company today?
What does Jason believe will happen to Anaplan with Pigment eating their lunch?