Brianne Kimmel

Erik is joined by his co-host for this episode, Brianne Kimmel (@briannekimmel), investor, advisor and Village Global network leader. They talk to Christoph Janz (@chrija), investor at Point Nine Capital, a Berlin-based early stage venture capital firm focused on SaaS and digital marketplaces. Christoph lays out their investing thesis at Point Nine and talks about why they are geography-agnostic when it comes to potential deals. He explains at which stage they like to invest and some of the difficulties in evaluating early-stage SaaS companies. The three delve into some of the more successful SaaS companies from the past few years and use them as case studies to talk about how to evaluate an early-stage product, team and sales strategy. He discusses why they invested in Zendesk and Typeform, and why he sees product and branding as very important at an early stage. They discuss some of the merits of SaaS companies that are working in specific verticals and in the enterprise, as well as why being a “SaaS company” is no longer as significant a distinction as it once was. They also talk about when a startup should be focusing on sales and whether it’s even possible to hire the VP of sales that a founder dreams of in a small SaaS company.Articles Mentioned In This EpisodeJason Lemkin: The 48 Types of VP, Sales: https://www.saastr.com/the-48-types-of-vp-sales-make-deadly-sure-you-hire-the-right-one/Christoph Janz: There’s More Than One Path To $100 Million: https://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2018/12/theres-more-than-one-path-to-100-million.htmlThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Brianne Kimmel, a pioneering solo capitalist and founder of WorkLife Ventures, shares her insights on the venture capital landscape. She reflects on her unconventional path into investing and the challenges of maintaining a busy schedule. The conversation dives into how VCs profit from their investments and examines the value of college education today. Intriguingly, they also explore the innovative use of deepfakes and identify hot spaces in the tech sector, revealing what drives her investment decisions.

In this engaging discussion, Brianne Kimmel, founder of Worklife Ventures, shares her insights on navigating the AI-first startup landscape. She highlights why renewals are becoming essential revenue streams and the need for startups to quickly adopt multi-product strategies. Brianne also emphasizes the evolving dynamics of founder-LP relationships, strategic hiring, and her thoughts on embracing failure. With a focus on personalized venture support, she explores how modern founders are reshaping capital raising and building enduring companies.