The SaaS CFO

I spoke with Mingsheng Hong, co-founder and CEO of Bluesky. Bluesky, a Menlo Park, CA-based formally launched its first product that provides unprecedented visibility into Snowflake workload usage and costs. He couldn’t start coding his idea due to IP concerns when he was employed. However, soon after launching the idea, he raised funding and started to code the product. Bluesky announced that it raised $8.8 million in seed funding led by Greylock, with participation from angels Ashish Thusoo (co-founder of Qubole), Jeff Hammerbacher (co-founder of Cloudera), and Johannes Gehrke (Microsoft Redmond research director). Founded 2022 $9M Raised 12 FTE’s and hiring more Moved from % savings pricing model to subscription model Closer to $0 than $1M ARR If the founder’s vision doesn’t resonate with the VC, move on (fail fast) Mingsheng Hong’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mingshenghong/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/bluesky-raises-8-8-million-in-seed-round

I interviewed Ben Edmond, founder and CEO at Connectbase. Ben started his career in sales and product management in the telecom arena. He made the leap from employee to SaaS founder in 2015. His company is connecting buyers and sellers of fiber and connectivity across the globe. Connectbase, a Westborough, MA-based connectivity marketplace platform, announced that it raised $21 million in its Series C funding round led by DigitalBridge Ventures, the InfraTech initiative of DigitalBridge Group, Inc. All existing Connectbase investors participated in the funding round, including Ascent Venture Partners, Harbert Growth Partners, Nauta Capital, and Osage Venture Partners. Connectbase secured the new equity investment to drive the growth of its platform, fueled by the increasing global appetite for bandwidth. The latest funding will be used to enhance the company's Connected world platform capabilities, expand digital services into more global markets and grow its team—including its go-to-market organization. $48M total capital raised Staff of 82 in the Boston area and remote #1220 on the Inc 5000 list 500%+ three-year growth per Inc 5000 PMF, crossing 10M ARR, major customers helped in Series C raise Luck favors the prepared; educate first go-to-market strategy 18 staff in Sales Ben Edmond’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminedmond/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/connectbase-raises-21-million-in-series-c

I spoke with Hauke Feddersen, VP of Operations at PreciTaste. PreciTaste is a fascinating combination of AI and vision hardware. It optimizes food production at quick service restaurants. PreciTaste, a New York-based Vision AI platform in operational optimization, raised $24 million in Series A to continue its mission to become the standard for digital food AI management in fast casual and QSR kitchens. HQ’s in New York and Munich Just passed 100 FTE’s Doubling growth $24M raised Huge total addressable market helped with the Series A raise Large customers helped refine the product Find investors who embrace your vision Hauke’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hauke-feddersen-precitaste/ Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/precitaste-raises-24-million-in-series-a

I interviewed Thomas Ramsøy, CEO and founder of Neurons. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Neuropsychology and was a clinical psychologist. He and his company have worked with some of the largest consumer brands in the world to understand how consumers respond to ads. He is helping these brands stop the waste in their marketing budget. Founded in 2013 Started as a consulting agency ~100 staff Based in Copenhagen Goal to hit 5M ARR in 2023 7M total raised + venture debt Neurons, a Danish consumer neuroscience company that helps businesses better understand unconscious and conscious responses, secured over €6 million in seed funding. Fairpoint Capital Vækstfonden and Finance Zealand backed the round. The round will fund the development of unique, state-of-the-art products, the scaling up of the company to 200 employees, and will bring a sizeable increase in annual recurring revenue by 2025. Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzramsoy/ Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/neurons-raises-over-6-million-in-seed-round/

Oort, a Boston, MA-based identity-centric enterprise security platform, raised $15 million in the funding of Seed and Series A rounds. I interviewed Matt Caulfield, Founder and CEO at Oort. Matt put his time in as a cloud/systems engineer. While working at a Fortune 100 company, he saw a market opportunity in security and ditched his employee title for SaaS founder. Oort will use the funds to grow and further accelerate its go-to-market (GTM) strategy and leadership in identity threat detection and response. The round was co-led by .406 Ventures, Energy Impact Partners (EIP), and Cisco Investments and joined by existing investors including 645 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and First Star Ventures. CFO's watch out! You are a security target. Oort protects against account takeovers Founded 2019 Team size of 20 $15M total raised Land and expand GTM strategy Very engaged customers were a signal to raise Matt Caulfield’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcaulfie/ Fundraise Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/oort-raises-15-million-in-funding

Devicie, a Sydney, Australia-based software startup that helps companies secure their workers’ laptops, announced that it raised $14 million AUD in Series A funding. The round was led by New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with participation from leading Australian cybersecurity firm CyberCX. Devicie previously raised $1.3 million in seed capital from angel investors and the cybersecurity venture accelerator program CyRise. I interviewed Martin McGregor, CEO and co-founder. Devicie was born out of a cybersecurity consultancy in 2020. $15.3M AUD raised in total Founded 2020 Staff of 18 Millions of ARR, hoping to double Early prospects did not believe their product claims Would have been more selective with time spent with VC’s What’s next; automate onboarding Martin McGregor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdmc/ Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/devicie-raises-14-million-in-series-a

I interviewed Tom Ross, CEO of Andgo Systems. This is not your regular shift scheduling software. Andgo is innovating on intelligent shift fill automation in complex industries such as healthcare and manufacturing. No more waiting for sick calls and then manually calling employees to fill open shifts. Not surprisingly the pandemic drove growth. The pandemic crushed the status quo and demanded the need for real-time analytics of labor staffing. Tom discloses his ARR range in this episode and plans to hire another 5-10 staff on top of its 60 employees. Andgo Systems (Andgo), a Saskatoon, Canada-based provider of intelligent workflow automation solutions for dynamic absence onboarding, shift filling, and vacation mapping raised $5.6 million CAD in Series A funding. The round was co-led by First Ascent Ventures and Waterline Ventures, based out of Toronto and Boston, respectively. Tom Ross’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasrosscan/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/andgo-systems-raises-5-6-million-in-series-a

HPC-AI Tech, a Beijing, China-based artificial intelligence high-performance optimization platform, closed $6 million in seed and angel rounds. The angel round was led by BlueRun Ventures China (BRV China); the funds will be mainly used to bring in more talented teams and expand the business market. I interviewed Yang You, founder of HPC-AI Technology. He also holds a PhD and is a professor at the National University of Singapore. The number of parameters in AI modeling has increased 35x. Yang aims to make AI modeling faster and more efficient. Founded August 2021 Team of 30 Based in US and Singapore $7M raised to date $1M ARR Used open-source as a go-to-market strategy Yang You’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yang-you-0b92914b/ HPC-AI Technology’s Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/hpc-ai-tech-completes-6-million-in-funding

Mesh Payments, a New York-based corporate payment and spend management platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Entrée Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, and existing investors TLV Partners and Meron Capital. I interviewed Oded Zehavi, CEO and co-founder at Mesh Payments. He is a self-described “payments geek.” Mesh pivoted product strategy during the pandemic. $123M raised, series B of $50M 150 staff, 100 engineers NYC headquarters Servicing 1,000 global companies $1B payment value run rate Doubling down on market share growth Fundraising is about relationships Oded Zehavi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odedzehavi/ Mesh’s fundraising story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/mesh-payments-raises-50-million-in-series-b

Duel, a London, UK-based leading brand advocacy platform used by companies including ASOS, Dove, and Charlotte Tilbury, secured a $3 million (£2.5m) seed funding round led by SuperSeed. The investment will enable Duel to continue its 13 percent monthly growth rate in 2022 and better serve its expanding global client base. I spoke with Paul Archer, CEO and Founder of Duel. Paul’s tech experience dates back to when he wrote first video game at age 12. He founded Duel to turn word-of-mouth brand referrals into a scalable go-to-market motion. Founder 2016 Raised $3M Based in London 30 staff and growing Took 5 years to find product market fit Paul discloses his ARR number Do reference calls on potential investors   Paul's LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkarcher/ Duel's Fundraising Story:  https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/duel-raises-3-million-in-seed-round