“Leaders of Growth” is an epic compilation of interviews from top leaders in the startup industry. It is a book about business founders who grew their startups from $1 million to $25 million and beyond.
Overview of SparkLabs, Asia's leading accelerator. Based in Seoul, South Korea.
SparkLabs is a startup accelerator founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs in South Korea. The focus will be on startup companies from the Internet, online gaming, mobile, ecommerce, digital media sectors and healthcare. The mentorship-driven program will be three months in length and provides funding, office space, a structure program and access to a top-tier network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and executives.
Transparency is one of our core values at Seedcamp and we are no strangers to how tough the fundraising process can be. In a continued spirit of openness and to show how - like with startups - our own story and proposition moves on, we're sharing the deck we used to raise our heavily-oversubscribed Seedcamp Fund V.
Read more about our plans to invest in and support the next generation of exceptional European talent on our blog: https://seedcamp.com/news/
Grands groupes: 8 manières de collaborer avec une start-up, jusqu’au coup de foudre?
Read more at http://www.frenchweb.fr/grands-groupes-8-manieres-de-collaborer-avec-une-start-up-jusquau-coup-de-foudre/225966#EbLo8TpXaoc7K42W.99
Silicon Valley Bank and Orrick supported by CB Insights released this years new York Venture Capital Almanach 2013: a useful snapshot of where the New York venture community is right now, as well as a brief summary of
where we’ve been.
We are big advocates of transparency at Seedcamp and understand first hand just how tough the fundraising process can be. It's not just startups who go through this but funds too. In the spirit of openness, we're sharing the deck we used to go out to investors for Seedcamp Fund IV.
Read more about our plans to invest in 100 new European startups with our biggest and boldest fund yet over on our blog: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-fund-iv-announcement/
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The Fintech Summit, an initiative of the Tech Tour and the International Venture Club, will take place in Paris May 3-4, 2016 and will focus on showcasing the best investment opportunities within the fintech industry in Europe.
Global Investments in Fintech tripled to $12.21 billion in 2014 from $4.05bn in 2013 (Source: Accenture) and fintech is one of the fastest growing sectors in the European Market. The agenda will include 20 innovative company presentations by CEOs, discussion panels, keynotes and top level networking including the Networking Dinner. 120+ guests will be present at the dinner, representing the "Who's Who" of the Fintech and Venture Capital market who are invited to join our Tech Tour delegates, including top executives from blue chip technology companies, international venture capitalists, investment bankers, specialized press, regional accelerators and advisers coming from all around the world.
The programme and pitches will revolve around the following themes:
Payment & Billing Tech
Personal Finance
Insurance Tech
Lending
Money Transfer
Digital Currency
Tools
Corporate innovation programmes are on the rise, how can startups and corporates partner for mutually beneficial gains and what best practices should startups follow when collaborating with these friendly or not so friendly giants.
Ivi master class path to commercialization for csu exec ed mba in kazanThomas Nastas
Russia made $ billions of investment in incubators, technoparks, accelerators, venture funds and countless other projects to diversify its economy, generate more technology, innovation and investment, with the Russian Venture Company & Rusnano taking the leadership role. With these assets in place, how do we leverage them to do more, faster?
Obstacles still remain that impede the success of these initiatives & the ability of start-ups and SME business models to do more, faster. Until we attack these issues, progress in attaining more innovation, investment, entrepreneurship & new business is slowed unnecessarily; since these barriers are what impede modernization, let’s attack these issues head-on or circumvent around them to ‘Scale-Up.’
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Fostering a Startup and Innovation EcosystemTechstars
We are on a mission to make the world a more innovative and prosperous place, one community at a time.
We believe that entrepreneurs are critical to driving a strong global economy and a better world. We do our part by supporting the grassroots leaders who are at the core of every strong entrepreneurial community
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In this internal Slash talk (2019) we covered:
1) the underlying dynamics that accelerate the exponential change we're seeing across society, tech and climate.
2) We summarized 2 books and highlighed key ideas:
- Thank you for being late (Thomas Friedman)
- Homo Deus (Yuval Noah Harari)
3) the implication for Slash
Andrew Romans - general partner of Rubicon Venture Capital.
Andrew Romans, based in Silicon Valley, is a successful VC-backed entrepreneur, author of two top-selling books on venture capital, former tech VC and M&A investment banker, cofounder of an angel group and now General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital, a VC fund active in Silicon Valley, New York and Europe. Masters of Corporate Venture Capital and The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital have been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Russian by major publishers.
Romans raised over $48m for tech startups he founded by the age of 28. He has continually raised VC funding as a founder, banker or VC ever since. Romans was the founder and General Partner of The Founders Club and also acted as the Managing Director of EMEA at VC-backed Sentito Networks (acquired by Verso Technologies) and managed enterprise software sales in Europe at VC-backed Motive Communications (NASDAQ IPO). He founded a global angel group and turned that into a venture capital group Rubicon Venture Capital. He is also a frequent VC guest speaker on TV shows including MSNBC, CNBC and ABC, as well as various TV channels in China and Russia. He was born in Japan, lived in Europe for 15 years and is fluent in English, German, and French and can speak conversationally in Slovak. He began his career in 1993 working in the UNIX computing industry at Pencom Systems in New York, Silicon Valley, and Austin. He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MBA in finance from Georgetown University, which he completed on scholarship.
SparkLabs Global Ventures: Our First 16 MonthsBernard Moon
SparkLabs Global Ventures is a new seed-stage fund founded by entrepreneurs. We are a global fund that
believes exceptional entrepreneurs can be found anywhere. All six partners have created new businesses
across the globe, and are currently based in London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Singapore and Silicon Valley.
2017 SMB Cloud Summit: Investment Climate for Small Business SaaS – Temperatu...Localogy
This presentation was delivered at the first ever Local Search Association SMB Cloud Summit in San Francisco 12.7.17. For more visit: http://bit.ly/2nGhO8s
Overview of SparkLabs, Asia's leading accelerator. Based in Seoul, South Korea.
SparkLabs is a startup accelerator founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs in South Korea. The focus will be on startup companies from the Internet, online gaming, mobile, ecommerce, digital media sectors and healthcare. The mentorship-driven program will be three months in length and provides funding, office space, a structure program and access to a top-tier network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and executives.
Transparency is one of our core values at Seedcamp and we are no strangers to how tough the fundraising process can be. In a continued spirit of openness and to show how - like with startups - our own story and proposition moves on, we're sharing the deck we used to raise our heavily-oversubscribed Seedcamp Fund V.
Read more about our plans to invest in and support the next generation of exceptional European talent on our blog: https://seedcamp.com/news/
Grands groupes: 8 manières de collaborer avec une start-up, jusqu’au coup de foudre?
Read more at http://www.frenchweb.fr/grands-groupes-8-manieres-de-collaborer-avec-une-start-up-jusquau-coup-de-foudre/225966#EbLo8TpXaoc7K42W.99
Silicon Valley Bank and Orrick supported by CB Insights released this years new York Venture Capital Almanach 2013: a useful snapshot of where the New York venture community is right now, as well as a brief summary of
where we’ve been.
We are big advocates of transparency at Seedcamp and understand first hand just how tough the fundraising process can be. It's not just startups who go through this but funds too. In the spirit of openness, we're sharing the deck we used to go out to investors for Seedcamp Fund IV.
Read more about our plans to invest in 100 new European startups with our biggest and boldest fund yet over on our blog: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-fund-iv-announcement/
Paris Internatioanl Fintech Summit in May 2016Baruk Pilo
The Fintech Summit, an initiative of the Tech Tour and the International Venture Club, will take place in Paris May 3-4, 2016 and will focus on showcasing the best investment opportunities within the fintech industry in Europe.
Global Investments in Fintech tripled to $12.21 billion in 2014 from $4.05bn in 2013 (Source: Accenture) and fintech is one of the fastest growing sectors in the European Market. The agenda will include 20 innovative company presentations by CEOs, discussion panels, keynotes and top level networking including the Networking Dinner. 120+ guests will be present at the dinner, representing the "Who's Who" of the Fintech and Venture Capital market who are invited to join our Tech Tour delegates, including top executives from blue chip technology companies, international venture capitalists, investment bankers, specialized press, regional accelerators and advisers coming from all around the world.
The programme and pitches will revolve around the following themes:
Payment & Billing Tech
Personal Finance
Insurance Tech
Lending
Money Transfer
Digital Currency
Tools
Corporate innovation programmes are on the rise, how can startups and corporates partner for mutually beneficial gains and what best practices should startups follow when collaborating with these friendly or not so friendly giants.
Ivi master class path to commercialization for csu exec ed mba in kazanThomas Nastas
Russia made $ billions of investment in incubators, technoparks, accelerators, venture funds and countless other projects to diversify its economy, generate more technology, innovation and investment, with the Russian Venture Company & Rusnano taking the leadership role. With these assets in place, how do we leverage them to do more, faster?
Obstacles still remain that impede the success of these initiatives & the ability of start-ups and SME business models to do more, faster. Until we attack these issues, progress in attaining more innovation, investment, entrepreneurship & new business is slowed unnecessarily; since these barriers are what impede modernization, let’s attack these issues head-on or circumvent around them to ‘Scale-Up.’
Steve Currie of Communitech - ScaleUp CT keynote 2017Courtney King
Keynote presentation from Communitech's own Steve Currie. Covering how Communitech is changing Waterloo-Kitchener, what Connecticut can do to emulate it, and how ScaleUps can face- and conquer, their uniquer challenges.
Fostering a Startup and Innovation EcosystemTechstars
We are on a mission to make the world a more innovative and prosperous place, one community at a time.
We believe that entrepreneurs are critical to driving a strong global economy and a better world. We do our part by supporting the grassroots leaders who are at the core of every strong entrepreneurial community
Slash | The Age of Acceleration and the Great Societal ShiftSlash
In this internal Slash talk (2019) we covered:
1) the underlying dynamics that accelerate the exponential change we're seeing across society, tech and climate.
2) We summarized 2 books and highlighed key ideas:
- Thank you for being late (Thomas Friedman)
- Homo Deus (Yuval Noah Harari)
3) the implication for Slash
Andrew Romans - general partner of Rubicon Venture Capital.
Andrew Romans, based in Silicon Valley, is a successful VC-backed entrepreneur, author of two top-selling books on venture capital, former tech VC and M&A investment banker, cofounder of an angel group and now General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital, a VC fund active in Silicon Valley, New York and Europe. Masters of Corporate Venture Capital and The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital have been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Russian by major publishers.
Romans raised over $48m for tech startups he founded by the age of 28. He has continually raised VC funding as a founder, banker or VC ever since. Romans was the founder and General Partner of The Founders Club and also acted as the Managing Director of EMEA at VC-backed Sentito Networks (acquired by Verso Technologies) and managed enterprise software sales in Europe at VC-backed Motive Communications (NASDAQ IPO). He founded a global angel group and turned that into a venture capital group Rubicon Venture Capital. He is also a frequent VC guest speaker on TV shows including MSNBC, CNBC and ABC, as well as various TV channels in China and Russia. He was born in Japan, lived in Europe for 15 years and is fluent in English, German, and French and can speak conversationally in Slovak. He began his career in 1993 working in the UNIX computing industry at Pencom Systems in New York, Silicon Valley, and Austin. He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MBA in finance from Georgetown University, which he completed on scholarship.
SparkLabs Global Ventures: Our First 16 MonthsBernard Moon
SparkLabs Global Ventures is a new seed-stage fund founded by entrepreneurs. We are a global fund that
believes exceptional entrepreneurs can be found anywhere. All six partners have created new businesses
across the globe, and are currently based in London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Singapore and Silicon Valley.
2017 SMB Cloud Summit: Investment Climate for Small Business SaaS – Temperatu...Localogy
This presentation was delivered at the first ever Local Search Association SMB Cloud Summit in San Francisco 12.7.17. For more visit: http://bit.ly/2nGhO8s
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In April 2017 I was invited to present my startup, Task Pigeon at the Startup & Angels event in Sydney, Australia. While I wasn't pitching for investment, it was a good opportunity to update the startup community on the progress we had made to date, and why we chose to build a startup in the task management space.
Our 3rd annual State of SMB Software Report looking at all the VC, PE & exit activity in the SMB software space in North America.
If you don't know SurePath, we are the only investment bank focused exclusively on SMB Software.
Download it and get in touch with us if you have questions.
Research and findings in Volume 1 revealed several key shifts in marketer/agency relationships and major discrepancies on topics such as: areas that brands and agencies believe are most valuable to clients, reasons clients walk away from agency relationships and the biggest talent shortfalls within client organizations. In this edition, we continue to explore some of those same findings, offering very different perspectives and lines of reasoning in an effort to challenge our own assumptions and improve our analysis of important industry issues.
The meticulously-curated editorial sections within the Report include Industry Insider, Modern Marketer and Tech Talk. You’ll also find an exemplary collection of projects from SoDA members and partners that feature work with world-renowned brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Pepsi, and YouTube in addition to immersive digital experiences for museums and academic institutions.
*Please note that certain anchor links will only work if the publication is downloaded locally.
Which Is the Most Valuable Startup in the World.pdfAlex Morgen
https://www.worldwildes.com/ Have you ever wondered about the most valuable startup in the world?
You might think that it’s a unicorn, or a company that has achieved a valuation of over $1 billion. But there’s more to it than that. Companies like Uber, Airbnb and SpaceX are just some examples of startups that have revolutionized the way we do business, and their success is an inspiration to many.
But which ones are really worth the most? In this article, we’ll take a look at which startups are leading the pack in terms of value. We’ll explore the ways in which they have achieved success, as well as their current market standings. So let’s get started and find out which is the most valuable startup in the world!
Introduction to Angel Investors and Unicorns
When it comes to innovation and growth, startups are leading the way and garnering a lot of attention. But what is a startup, exactly? A startup is defined as a company founded with the intention of scaling up operations and achieving profitability by developing a product or service that addresses a specific gap in the market.
Many startups begin with angel investors who are wealthy individuals or groups that provide financial backing to businesses, typically at an early stage. These types of investments help companies get off the ground and develop their products or services and help them gain traction in the market.
As startups grow, they can become unicorns—startups valued at $1 billion or more—which can attract more investors due to their high-value status. This type of valuation is often based on market capitalization (the total value of all shares outstanding) or sale price multiples when comparing similar companies.
Exploring the Value of Startup Companies
Startup companies are now more valuable than ever before. By leveraging the latest technologies, they can create innovative products and services that improve our lives in unprecedented ways. As such, many startups have gained significant market capitalization and are now leading the way in the tech industry.
So which startup is at the top of the heap? According to recent reports, it's Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The company was founded in 1999 and offers online shopping, banking, entertainment and other services. As of 2020, it has a market capitalization of over $555 billion USD and is the world's most valuable startup.
However, it's not only Alibaba at the top of the pile: there are other high-valued startups that have reached impressive levels of market capitalization. These include Didi (valued at $56 billion USD), Airbnb ($31 billion USD) and Stripe ($35 billion USD). What’s more, these companies continue to grow and are expected to become even more successful in the coming years.
What Is a Stealth Startup?
A stealth startup is a privately funded company that operates in the shadows, attempting to keep its product and services under wraps until a certain moment when it can receive maximum exposure.
The Next Round - Optimizing Your Next Financing with Investor ReportingVisible.vc
For public companies, frequent investor reporting is a requirement. In the private markets, this is not the case. At Visible, we worked with Digital Currency Group to help companies better understand how a commitment to consistent investor updates leads to more successful funding outcomes.
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Crafted by our interns to help founders and teams in their Start up journey.
We suggest that you download the file for better viewing and for your to conveniently access the links indicated.
Thank you!
Taurus Zodiac Sign_ Personality Traits and Sign Dates.pptxmy Pandit
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Skye Residences | Extended Stay Residences Near Toronto Airportmarketingjdass
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[Note: This is a partial preview. To download this presentation, visit:
https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations]
Sustainability has become an increasingly critical topic as the world recognizes the need to protect our planet and its resources for future generations. Sustainability means meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It involves long-term planning and consideration of the consequences of our actions. The goal is to create strategies that ensure the long-term viability of People, Planet, and Profit.
Leading companies such as Nike, Toyota, and Siemens are prioritizing sustainable innovation in their business models, setting an example for others to follow. In this Sustainability training presentation, you will learn key concepts, principles, and practices of sustainability applicable across industries. This training aims to create awareness and educate employees, senior executives, consultants, and other key stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and supply chain partners, on the importance and implementation of sustainability.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that form the foundation of sustainability within corporate environments.
2. Explore the sustainability implementation model, focusing on effective measures and reporting strategies to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
3. Identify and define best practices and critical success factors essential for achieving sustainability goals within organizations.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Key Concepts of Sustainability
2. Principles and Practices of Sustainability
3. Measures and Reporting in Sustainability
4. Sustainability Implementation & Best Practices
To download the complete presentation, visit: https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations
3.0 Project 2_ Developing My Brand Identity Kit.pptxtanyjahb
A personal brand exploration presentation summarizes an individual's unique qualities and goals, covering strengths, values, passions, and target audience. It helps individuals understand what makes them stand out, their desired image, and how they aim to achieve it.
Cracking the Workplace Discipline Code Main.pptxWorkforce Group
Cultivating and maintaining discipline within teams is a critical differentiator for successful organisations.
Forward-thinking leaders and business managers understand the impact that discipline has on organisational success. A disciplined workforce operates with clarity, focus, and a shared understanding of expectations, ultimately driving better results, optimising productivity, and facilitating seamless collaboration.
Although discipline is not a one-size-fits-all approach, it can help create a work environment that encourages personal growth and accountability rather than solely relying on punitive measures.
In this deck, you will learn the significance of workplace discipline for organisational success. You’ll also learn
• Four (4) workplace discipline methods you should consider
• The best and most practical approach to implementing workplace discipline.
• Three (3) key tips to maintain a disciplined workplace.
Unveiling the Secrets How Does Generative AI Work.pdfSam H
At its core, generative artificial intelligence relies on the concept of generative models, which serve as engines that churn out entirely new data resembling their training data. It is like a sculptor who has studied so many forms found in nature and then uses this knowledge to create sculptures from his imagination that have never been seen before anywhere else. If taken to cyberspace, gans work almost the same way.
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The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is buzzing with discussions after Google confirmed that around 2,500 leaked internal documents related to its Search feature are indeed authentic. The revelation has sparked significant concerns within the SEO community. The leaked documents were initially reported by SEO experts Rand Fishkin and Mike King, igniting widespread analysis and discourse. For More Info:- https://news.arihantwebtech.com/search-disrupted-googles-leaked-documents-rock-the-seo-world/
Set off and carry forward of losses and assessment of individuals.pptx
Leaders of Growth Website
1.
2. L e a d e r s o f G r o w t h
vii
Introduction
The T2D3 (triple, triple, double, double, double) acronym has become a well-
known goal in the startup scene to achieve the infamous unicorn status.1
Even
though formulating such a goal may be easy, realizing such tremendous revenue
growth is notoriously difficult.
As founders turned investors, we are in the fortunate position of helping other
founders and operators realize their ambitious goals. For investors, one of the most
important jobs is to get out of the way of talented founders and let them run their
own businesses. But when and where our advice is welcome, we often notice that
the most useful learnings stem either from one’s own experience or from that of a
founder in our network who has been in a similar situation.
Although great content is available on the start-up phase (getting to product–
market fit) or success stories (raising hundreds of millions of dollars, multibillion
dollar exits),less content is available on growing a company from $1 million to $25
million annual revenues (broadly defined as the Series A, B, and C stages).
With this book we aim to provide founders, operators, and enthusiasts with
firsthand learnings from forty-seven experienced experts on scaling rapidly-
growing companies. We touch upon the following topics:
• Founders ... the changing role of a founder (Micha Breakstone); how to en-
force culture (Felix Eichler, Braydan Young); learnings along the entrepre-
neurial Journey (e.g., Alex Theuma,Tom Brady).
• Marketing … when to hire a chief marketing officer (CMO) (Jen Grant);
build a new category (Tami); and know the importance of branding in the
enterprise company segment (Bill Macaitis). In addition, Wes Bush shares
his product-led-growth perspective and Sean Ellis his growth-hacking
viewpoint.
• Sales … how to grow internationally and launch another vertical (Matt
Chappell, Cory Munchbach); how to align the customer journey with the
sales process (Adam Tesan); how to structure your sales team (Mads Foss-
elius); and hiring trailblazing salespeople and selling to small and midsize
enterprises (Maria McMenahim).
1 T2D3 is a business tactic invented by Neeraj Agrawal: software investor and general partner
with Battery Ventures. According to this tactic, to reach a $1 billion valuation, software
companies should increase their revenue growth threefold over two years, then double it for
three years.
3. viii
L E A D E R S O F G R O W T H
• Go-to-market … building a revenue function (Sterling Snow) and how to
build a replicable go-to-market model (Mark Roberge, Jacco van der Koo-
ij).
• Tooling & Processes … which categories of tools do you need (Frederick
Becker)?
• Finance … know which type of CFO you need (Herbert Sablotony); how
to set up a reporting structure (Ben Murray); and which tools to use (e.g.,
Kasper Sommer).
• Fundraising … the differences between Series A, B, and C (Joyce MacKen-
zie Liu); managing your board and acquiring companies as a start-up (Brian
Requarth); and selecting your investors (Richard Valtr).
• HR … what people do you need in which stage (Richard Brooks), best
practices in hiring (Jonno Southam); incorporating tests in your hiring
process (Mads Faurholt); and goal setting (Daniel Gebler).
• Tech & Product … how to set up a product function (Jiří Helmich); scaling
a tech team (João Graça); and setting up a data stack (Yaniv Leven).
• Other topics … valuations (Nathan Latka); metrics (Ray Rike); venture debt
(Andrew Parker); competition (Alex Iskold); dealing with strategic inves-
tors (Sampo Hietanen); setting your pricing (Patrick Campbell); and how
to run a customer success department (Katie Christian).
It is supposed to be a light read and should feel as though you are in conversations
with them yourself. We continue the conversation via our podcast: Leaders of
Growth! (open.spotify.com/show/0tnVrn5bnbFBniVOa7Ay9T)
Arthur, Diederik & Paul
4. L e a d e r s o f G r o w t h
ix
About the authors
Arthur:
Arthur is an entrepreneur turned investor.He works as Principal at Knight Capital.
Arthur started his career at Rocket Internet before joining several venture capital
funds in the Seed and Series B+ stages. Afterward, he cofounded Flexpat, where
he went through both the hype and disillusionment of running a start-up. Arthur
specializes in scaling companies and has expertise in growth, go-to-market, and
strategy. He is the host of the Leaders of Growth podcast and is passionate about
enabling entrepreneurs to realize their visions.
Diederik:
Diederik is an entrepreneur turned investor. He is the Founder and Managing
Partner of Knight Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in entrepreneurs
building the next generation of leading software companies.Previously,he invested
in start-ups as an angel investor and through a start-up studio with Paul. He
started his career working for an international law firm, and then cofounded his
own law firm at the age of twenty-eight, specializing in mergers and acquisitions
for technology companies and venture capital firms. Diederik is passionate about
changing the world through technology and helping mission-driven founders
realize their ambitious goals.
Paul:
Paul is a serial entrepreneur turned investor. At twenty-three, he cofounded
the first event- ticketing marketplace in Europe, named GetMeIn. After three
years of bootstrapping, the business raised VC funding, and two years later they
sold the company to Ticketmaster / Live Nation (NYSE: LYV). Paul then
cofounded two other companies in the e-commerce space, which he sold five and
seven years later. Before cofounding Knight Capital, he invested in numerous
start-ups as an angel investor and through a start-up studio. Paul loves to work
with talented entrepreneurs and support them in building great companies.
5. NATHAN LATKA
Founder at Founderpath and GetLatka.com
#1 WSJ Best-Selling Author of How to Be a Capitalist without Any
Capital) with over 30k copies sold, launched first SaaS company
at 19, grew to $5m revenue, exited 2016 (Heyo.com), founder
at The Top Entrepreneurs podcast (13.5m downloads)
Funding Raised: €3.3m (Roanoke-Blacksburg
Innovation Network), €1.8m (Heyo)
Topics Discussed: Finance, Metrics
“THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IN
BUILDING WEALTH IS OWNERSHIP”
6. 2
L E A D E R S O F G R O W T H
Can you briefly introduce yourself?
When I was nineteen,I built Heyo,my first software-as-a-service (SaaS) company.
The company grew to a couple of million in revenue, and I sold it in 2015. I have
documented the story in my bestselling business book, How to Be a Capitalist
without Any Capital.
When I sold the business, I was frustrated that there was not much information
about SaaS companies in general. This is why I started a podcast: to pull critical
data points such as valuation, revenue, churn, customer acquisition cost, and
growth strategies. I put that up on GetLatka.com. Since 2016, I have personally
interviewed about 3,000 business-to-business SaaS CEOs and have become one
of the world’s leading SaaS content creators.
The podcast still goes out every day. It is called The Top Entrepreneurs podcast. I
sometimes joke about being the most-sued podcast, because what happens is that
I get these large VC-backed founders on the podcast. They will say things such
as, “We are growing the fastest, we are winning, we are killing everyone.” And I’ll
say, “Well, quantify that. How much money are you burning every month? What
is your ARR-to-funding ratio? What is your revenue per employee?” Because as a
matter of fact, their butts are often kicked by bootstrappers who rank much better
at these critical metrics relating to wealth generation.
The podcast has done pretty well over time, and eventually founders started asking
me to help them raise both debt and equity. In 2018, I started helping founders
when it came to closing deals with all these venture debt providers. Eventually I
decided to launch my own debt fund. So I started founderpath.com and raised a
$10 million fund.This enables me to help founders from bootstrapped companies
and convert their monthly recurring revenue (MRR) into upfront cash. We are
currently putting out about a million dollars of capital per week, specifically across
business-to-business, bootstrapped SaaS companies.
In your eyes, how is the SaaS business model going to develop?
I actually think SaaS as a business model is going to get phased out over the next
couple of years in favor of utility-based pricing. This is a different model-to-flat-
fee subscription pricing. An example is Snowflake. They do not charge SaaS fees.
They charge a usage-based fee tied to your server usage or your warehouse usage.
Amazon AWS works like this as well. I think that is the future, because customers
are sick of paying for SaaS tools they do not use. If you just tie your pricing to a
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usage-based driver, it becomes much easier for them to conclude that they are
getting value from this software tool because they are using it.
For predictability reasons, VCs and founders want the lock-in. However, it is way
more powerful to build a tool that people use every day and that they use more
and more day after day. Your usage-based revenue is actually as predictable as how
valuable your tool is. It is interesting to compare this to so many SaaS companies
with, for example, 1,000 customers that pay $5,000 a month, from which nine
hundred have not logged in to your system in the past thirty days. The growth of
these SaaS companies might look great, but when you dig deeper into the usage
model,it is a Trojan horse.It is not real.I see a lot of Y Combinator companies that
sell their software tool to all the other Y Combinator companies. In my opinion, it
is like a fake user base, because there is no usage happening.
So I believe you are going to see a trend toward this usage-based selling, and I
think, over time, these will be the more valuable companies. We saw this with the
Snowflake IPO. Currently, I am most bullish on the companies that have a blend
of pure SaaS revenue and fixed monthly subscriptions, plus a utility-based upsell
tied to something such as number of API calls, number of contacts collected, or
amount of gigabytes storage in a warehouse.
What do you view as an important metric and how
does it evolve as companies scale?
For very early-stage companies, things such as valuation multiples are less
interesting to track because the valuation is totally dependent on the founder’s
ability to tell a great story. Net dollar retention rates are an interesting metric.The
definition of net dollar retention is that you are upselling your historical customers.
You do not see many companies with under $5 million in annual revenue and net
dollar retention rates of 130 percent or 140 percent. I do not see many founders
thinking about driving upsell by adding more product lines, adding utility-based
pricing, feature-based upselling, or seat-based upselling until they are in the $5 to
$10 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) range.Therefore, you will not see the
net dollar retention rate above 100 percent until you get to that range. However,
as companies scale and you start looking at companies with $10 to $30 million in
ARR and the need to drive real value, you have got to get net dollar retention of
above 120 percent or 130 percent.
When you look at publicly traded SaaS companies, you are obviously looking at
metrics such as the Rule of 40. So, does your cash flow margin plus your growth
over the past twelve months exceed 40 percent?
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How is the net dollar retention rate influenced
by your annual contract value (ACV)?
When your ACV (annual contract value) is low,your churn levels will look entirely
different from a business with high ACVs. It is much easier to invent an upsell
motion if you are already pricing at an ACV of 100 grand a year, as opposed to
starting smaller and trying to upsell from there.
When you have an ACV between $0 and $100 a year, it is going to be hard to
break through a 100 percent net dollar retention, and it is going to be hard not
to churn anybody. Companies with that level of ACV are probably going to have
10-15 percent revenue churn. As you go from $100 to $10,000 ACV, you start
being able to flirt with the 100 percent net dollar retention mark.This means that,
if you are churning 5 percent of your revenue, you are able to take those customers
who do stick with you and upsell 5 percent to get back to 100 percent net dollar
retention. Once ACVs are above $25,000, net dollar retention is often way above
100 percent.
Having seen lots of company failures, what are the main drivers for
valuation, and which are some underestimated drivers for valuation?
The key drivers for valuation are year-over-year growth rate and net dollar retention.
If you are growing your revenue by more than 100 percent year over year, and you
have between $10 and $40 million in annual revenue, you can get a very high
premium valuation.
A good example of that might be OutSystems, who are doing $145 million in
annual revenue. They do $90,000 in revenue per employee. The valuation on the
$145 million in revenue was $9.5 billion, which is a 65-times revenue multiple.
Another example is from Databricks. With $425 million in annual revenue, they
got a $28 billion valuation,which translates into a 66-times revenue multiple.Then
there is UiPath.They are a 33.3-times revenue multiple.
Be aware that when you are looking to fully sell your company, you are not going
to get valuations in this range.The reason is that buyers are acquiring your business
for today’s value. By contrast, VCs are buying the business on what it could be
worth in four to ten years.So this is a completely different situation.I generally put
a discount of almost 60 percent or 70 percent on what a buyer is going to value a
company at compared to what a VC is going to value the company at.
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In your eyes, how important is valuation?
For any founder I work with, I think on how I can help them build the life they
want. This usually means making money, having more freedom, or both. So, the
only thing that matters in building wealth is ownership. Every point of equity you
give up is extremely costly.
It is interesting that the most diluting event is actually your cofounders. Usually,
the next most dilution you experience is your Seed round, unless you end up in a
really bad down round.
I bring this up for two reasons. First, consider your cofounders. I have had three
companies and all had cofounders. We moved rather slowly. Actually, we moved
slower than if it had just been me dying on the sword myself, as 100 percent owner
making yes-or-no decisions.Generally speaking,having a cofounder is a very weak
place to be in terms of them owning equity. You can pay someone a crap load of
money to intellectually be your cofounding sounding board, but you want to keep
as much equity as possible. Therefore, be careful with how you divide up equity
with your cofounding team.
Second, there is dilution from funding rounds. If you raise $1 million from a VC,
you have got to show them a way you can generate, for example, a 100-times
return. From the moment you raise money, you are on this VC track. So it is a
binary decision. If you go for the VC track, I always recommend to getting as high
as you possibly can so that you keep a higher equity stake. However, the challenge
is that the higher the valuation you raise at, the less buyers you have for your
company, and so there are less liquidity options.
So the trick for a founder to build wealth is to try and get enough leverage in your
B, C, and D rounds. If you can, you might be able to take some chips off the table,
via secondary transactions, and generate personal wealth early on.
What trends do you see regarding secondary
transactions in early stage rounds?
I am definitely seeing more secondary transactions in early stages. There is no
question about it: the trend is clear. Because there is more capital in the market,
it is fairly logical that this trend is there. Post-Covid, the US Treasury printed
trillions of dollars of capital. So in terms of purchasing power, every US dollar we
hold in our wallets is theoretically worth half of what it was a year ago.
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The reason this ties back to secondaries is because there is more cash in the
marketplace. That cash eventually finds itself into VC funds or debt funds that
support SaaS founders.As a result,SaaS founders are able to drive more competitive
terms and create larger bidding wars earlier on. Additionally, they can command a
secondary if there are multiple term sheets on the table. They would not have the
ability to do that if there were less capital in the marketplace.
How do you see the valuation premium develop?
When talking about valuations, the biggest gap I see is not one that is metrics
driven. It is usually how good of a hype woman or hype man is leading the
company. Every bootstrap founder I interview who is doing $6, $7, or $8 million
in revenue, is just focused on building. When I talk to a VC-backed founder, they
are talking about how they are going to change the world.They are,too! So actually
the biggest difference between folks getting valuation premiums and those who do
not is actually just founder DNA and whether they are great storytellers.
Now let’s go to the next step. If you are VC backed and you are telling a huge
story, what sorts of things do you have to make it true from a metrics perspective:
to start actually putting your money where your mouth is? Net dollar retention is
obviously a massive one.
Gong has a net dollar retention rate of 163 percent, which is world-class. They
have got an average-revenue-per-user of about $2,500 per month, and they are
doing over $60 million in revenue.They just raised at a $2.2 billion valuation for a
thirty-seven-times revenue multiple.
The same thing applies to ClickUp and Zeb. These are basically bootstrapped
companies who have $30 million in annual revenue. When you look at what they
were doing in terms of net dollar retention, they are at around 150 percent. There
is a little bit of a different mix here though, because their average revenue per user
is only 10 bucks a month. They are selling lots of seats into each business, but
their feature-based upselling enables them to get to that 150 percent mark. The
founder basically bootstrapped, but then went out and raised a lot of money. And
just recently they raised a round at a 33.3-times revenue multiple, with an implied
valuation of a billion dollars.
So those are some real examples of how net dollar retention correlates to the actual
valuation multiple premium.
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Can you share some thoughts on alternative fundraising options?
There are a lot of alternative options. First, so you know my bias, I will share what
I am building. I am in the factoring business. Factoring is where I buy your SaaS
receivables, and you pay back a fixed monthly price every single month. This is
all about unlocking capital for founders very early on by factoring their monthly
contract.
This factoring business I am building is very different from revenue-based
financing, which is what you see Shopify, Money, and Stripe Capital doing. This
means you get $50,000 from Stripe Capital and you pay it back as a percentage of
revenue. When you grow very fast, you still pay this fixed percentage of revenue.
The effective interest rate on this can get up to 400 percent.This is a great business
model for Stripe, but not so great for a very quickly scaling SaaS company.
Third, you have all the term loan players. Term loan players generally want to see
more than a million in revenue. SaaS Capital, for example, wants to see more than
$3 million in revenues, and Espresso Capital in Canada wants to see at least $5
million in ARR.These parties will give you funding up to 1 times your ARR, and
then you pay it back over a four-year period. If you are good, you can negotiate a
twelve-month interest-only period.This enables you to invest the principal amount
to drive your SaaS ARR growth before you have to start paying it back.Sometimes
term loans will take warrant coverage.
These, along with really cheap bank debt at 4-6 percent, are the big options I see
right now that usually do not take any equity.Of course,there are also VC-funding
options.
Is there anything you would like to share that I did not ask about?
I would encourage founders not to get lost in the noise of chasing a Techcrunch
headline. Build something that makes you really happy. If it ends up being
something that has venture scale, great.There is nothing wrong with growing a $5
million annual top line business that provides a million bucks a year of cash flows
and you are the sole owner. In fact, you are doing better than 99 percent of VC-
backed founders.
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What content can you recommend?
I really like studying great capital allocators over time. One book that I think is
particularly interesting here is Storming the Magic Kingdom,by J.Taylor.It is a great
story about how Walt Disney fought off private equity firms in the late eighties,
when the private equity firms were trying to take over the company.That is a great
creative approach to capital allocation.
If you like pure capital allocation, read The Outsiders, by William N. Thorndike. It
has a black-and-teal cover. It is about the eight best capital allocators in history, as
measured by stock price gains. And then last, I am reading a book called The Match
King, by Frank Partnoy. It is basically a real version of Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. It
explains how the Match King built a monopoly in Europe, back in the 1800s, and
then used that monopoly to build himself a financial fortune that rivals many of
today’s fortunes.
How can people find you online?
People can find me through my newsletter (Latka SaaS Newsletter), podcast (The
Top Entrepreneurs) or websites (http://book.nathanlatka.com/). They can also
access my database with private SaaS companies through https://getlatka.com/.
13. MIKE DIAS
Founder and CEO of ScaleUpValley, Host of ScaleUpValley podcast
Scaleup Advisor to over 10+ start-ups, including unicorn Talk Desk
Topics Discussed: Scaling Framework
“NOT ALL PEOPLE FIT IN WITH ALL
STAGES: AS I SAID, AT LEAST A YEAR
BEFORE YOU NEED HIM OR HER, YOU NEED
TO LOOK FOR THE PERSON YOU MIGHT
NEED IN THE NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH”
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Can you briefly introduce yourself?
I help companies scale, typically from $1 million to $100 million in annual
revenues. My sweet spot is advising CEOs and leadership teams about scaling
up. I have had the opportunity to work worldwide with scale-ups across the US,
Europe, and Asia.
Currently—with a scale-up in the cybersecurity space called Smart Protection—I
am more hands-on. I am also involved with LEAPWORK, a scale-up in
Copenhagen. Some other companies I have worked with include the Portuguese
unicorn Talkdesk, and Unbabel, which is a Series C signatory.
When scaling, what are some of the typical traits
and challenges facing companies?
I see three patterns in all the companies successfully going, post-Series A, from $1
million annual recurring revenue, to $100 million. Number one is a radical focus,
number two is a world-class team, and number three is the culture of execution.
One lesson I have learned with the teams I have worked with is that, when you
are scaling, you go through the start-up stage again, in specific segments. Suppose
you are attacking a new geography, or a new vertical, or moving upmarket or
downstream. In that case, you need to validate your value proposition and your
go-to-market strategy all over again.
Can you elaborate on each?
First, you need radical focus—and a narrative. After all, you want to be the leader
in that segment. You want to be the leader leveraging that opportunity, but you
need to create a narrative. You need to kind of go from region to region, and from
vertical to vertical. It depends on your particular case, but go niche by niche. The
riches are in the niches.
Leaders need to discover the trends and markets that will be expanding quickly in
the next decade. That is why the VC industry is interested in backing start-ups to
leverage such opportunities. At the same time, the total potential market needs to
be large enough to create a billion-dollar company. Simultaneously, until you have
cornered a large chunk of that enormous market,you still need to proceed niche by
niche. Doing so is amazingly complicated, because it goes against the natural fear
of saying no to a certain niche or prioritizing certain niches over others.You should
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double down on what is working. Just focus on execution, putting more resources
there, and expanding it.
The second thing every VC, founder, and CEO needs is a world-class team,
leadership, and culture. It is about going from a founding team to the first version
of the leadership team, where you are kind of completing those revenue seats: the
sales seat, the customer service seat, the product seat, and so on.
Then, going through Series B and Series C, you will reach version 2.0 and 3.0
of that leadership team. At least twelve months before he or she is required, you
will need to start looking for the person you will need in the next stage. It is
almost impossible to get someone in a VP role. Failing to do so will increase the
probability of making mistakes.
Something I have not mentioned yet is the team component.They need to be stars
in their roles, but also need to be able to work in a team and behave appropriately.
This is the art component of the equation: how to make the team play as a team.
That is part of my passion for being a kind of coach to the team. I help them to
create the rituals and the culture,to perform together,to learn their differences,and
to communicate better. The most important thing is to execute goals: achieving a
vision involves having a fantastic team, one that can help us get there together.
The third topic is the culture of education, which is all about the rhythms: the
dailies,the weeklies,the monthlies,the quarterlies,the annuals,and all the internal
events. It is essential to make those rhythms sacred. For instance, you need the
rhythm of reviewing the objectives and key results, and for asking ourselves these
fundamental questions: How are we progressing? Are we measuring the right
firewalls? What should we be measuring? What will we do about moving this
metric from poor to lagging, or from lagging to on-track?
So, how can we own the quarterlies, how can we prepare for the quarter that
will start in eighteen months? If you want to go from Series A to B, from $1
million to $5 million annual recurring revenue in twelve to eighteen months, you
already need to be working on the next stage, from B to C, from $5 million to $10
million annual recurring revenue. If you start working on that when you are in the
fundraising process, it is already too late because it will be almost impossible to
execute when you get there.
A lot of companies lose two years going from one stage to another. Some go into
zombie mode and are not able to attract some of the best investors. It is also
exceedingly important to be able to grow at a certain rate and to get the timing
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right, because if you are not able to prove those kinds of growth rates, you cannot
attract the best investors.
Last, do not underestimate the importance of doubling down on the culture and
being sure you have the right people in the right seats. Always focus on the next
stage. Do not neglect those rituals. Dedicate the same amount of time to meeting
the VPs of the future as you did to leading the present VPs. Align the team with
your vision and execute with a clear focus.
What are the common pitfalls amongst those traits,
and how can you overcome them as you scale?
One of the most challenging transitions I see from Series A to Series B is going
from a founding team to the first couple of versions of the leadership team. Not all
people fit in with all stages.As I said,at least a year before you need him or her,you
need to look for the person you might need in the next phase of growth.
Another part of this is that when the team grows to over fifty to seventy people,
it will need restructuring. You need to transition from a functional mode to a
cross-functional mode. That is when you need to open new markets, open new
verticals, create enterprise boards, and so on. So you cannot play in a functional
mode anymore. The way to go is create a matrix or cross-functional, or a squad-
oriented organization, which is usually an intensive process.
Another common mistake we see leadership teams repeatedly make is trying
to simultaneously attack the entire market and not prioritize the combination
of geographical and company size verticals. If you focus on different company
sizes, verticals, and geographies all at the same time, this is an immensely complex
problem to solve. After all, you have come from a start-up background, where you
have been dealing with product–market fit and frugal resources. Now you have $5
million or $10 million in the bank, and you are ready to expand into more markets.
Often the teams do not have any criteria or segmentation in the way they think
about the verticals. They are simultaneously trying to go to enterprises, small
businesses, midsized businesses, and everything else. It is really complicated for
them to become aware that because we cannot be everything to everyone, we need
to proceed niche by niche.
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At a deeper level, how do you organize and run those meetings
you think are important to get into execution mode?
A fundamental rule is to separate execution from strategy. Dailies, weeklies, and
monthlies are all about execution. So we do not discuss strategy until we conclude
the twelve- or thirteen-week periods of the quarter. We just discuss execution.
When there is constant change in direction, it burns out a lot of teams and creates
a lot of confusion in the organization. It affects scale-ups even more, because every
single quarter, they are evolving into different companies. It will never normally be
perfect: in fact it will always be chaotic. But we need to calibrate the level of chaos.
What are your thoughts on assigning a specific
squad toward launching something new?
One lesson comes from my work with teams. Even when scaling, in certain
segments and niches, you will go through the start-up stage again: meaning you
need to again validate your value proposition and go-to-market strategy. I have
learned that when you open a huge deal, you really need to enable squads in a
small team that wields significant decision-making power as well as autonomous
behavior and mind-set. If possible, you also need the CEO to be deeply involved
in that project, and you need to get to product–market fit as quickly as possible,
just as in a start-up.
You can start with a core team, and then it usually needs someone from the
business side and someone from the technical side or product side. In addition,
you need someone from marketing and customer success.It requires the same kind
of philosophy as applied in start-ups: you have that initial sales-oriented squad,
and as you move forward,you want to adapt the products to that specific vertical or
niche.Then, on the squad, you will start including people from products and from
engineering. You do not need to have all the functions in the squad from day one,
but I really recommend that you at least need the support functions—finance and
people—and that they join the rituals, even if they are working on the corporate
functions of the scale-up.
Is there anything you would like to share that I did not ask for?
One of the common struggles I have noticed in companies going from Series
A to B and sometimes even from B to C is team related. In the beginning, the
company’s goal is to build a revenue machine that needs to be repeatable,profitable,
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and scalable. The issue is that this process is not linear, and there are lots of ups
and downs.
When that happens, there is a huge temptation to start finger-pointing. I like
approaching that problem as a revenue problem, rather than blaming someone
or a department. It is our problem. We are not trying to find who is at fault. We
are finding out what is not working, and we are correcting it together. It does not
matter if it is in sales, customer success, or product. Usually, it is not a functional
problem.
That is one difference between Series A and Series B. When you want to go from
Series B to Series C, it is usually a system problem going from $5 million to $10
million annual recurring revenue. You need an upgrade of the revenue engine, and
you are able to have this upgrade only when working as a revenue team.It is a cross-
functional problem, and that is why we see the emergence of the chief revenue
officer: this is the person who has a role of creating this revenue machine and
ensuring that customer success, marketing, products, and sales are really working
together.
Instead of having silos trying to solve functional problems, chief revenue officers
view this as a closed, end-to-end system. I think that we make this mistake again
and again: approaching cross-functional problems as a functional problem.
That often happens with scale-ups if the system and pieces of the revenue engine
are not communicating with each other. If the system is not able to work together
and produce the result it was designed for, it does not matter whether you have the
perfect piece in each of the components of the system.
Do you have some content recommendations for the readers of this book?
A great inspiration is the Scaling Up book, by Verne Harnish. On team building,
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni, is a massive inspiration on
the subject of how to build leadership teams and make them collaboratively. It will
give you a better understanding of some of the biases you might have as a CEO
and a leader.
The Five Temptations of a CEO, also by Patrick, is something I also recommend.
Those five temptations apply not only to the CEO but also to any single leader
who leads the team. I recommend you check them out.
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An excellent resource is the Software as a Service napkin from Point Nine Capital.
It explains what needs to be checked as you go from Series A to B and C. In the
most recent versions, the series C column was removed from the Software as a
Service napkin, but you still can look into the previous napkins. That is a perfect
source and an excellent reference for founders and CEOs, or for leadership teams
who want to ensure they have the boxes in place to raise the next round.
Also, check out our podcast, Scaleup Valley.We have had interviews with the CEO
of Gainsight; with Nick Mehta, Chief Product Officer of Box; and with some of
the best CEOs around the world. We have over 170 podcast episodes so far.
Last, I recommend Saastr, another good podcast.
How can people find you online?
The most convenient and helpful places people can get ahold of me are at Scaleup
Valley scaleupvalley.com or at linkedin.com/in/mikescaleup/.