9 learnings from 10-20 years of SaaS and startup live. Slides from my presentation at SaaStock Paris.

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@chrija
Bonjour :-)

2. SaaS& Marketplaces

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@chrija

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@chrija
@louicop
@clemnt
www.theangelvc.net
@chrija

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@chrija
9 things I’ve learned about SaaS
… and startups and venture capital in general …
… in the last 10-20 years …

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@chrija

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@chrija
1. Raising Capital

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You get a
Term Sheet
nobody wants
to invest
everybody wants
to invest
Time
Investor interest

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2. „Sweat Equity“

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Is it Marc
Benioff?
F**k no!
YES
No
Hell yes!
Should I give 10% of the
company to an advisor?

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@chrija
3. Product/Market Fit

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Getting to PMF
Time
PMF
How you
get to PMF
How it’s probably
gonna look like
think you’ll

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4. Pricing

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SMB vs. Enterprise Pricing
How you’re
pricing
Price
How you should
be pricing
SMBs
Enterprises

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5. Rebuilding

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Rebuilding your product
How long you estimate it will take
How long it
will actually
take
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
2
4
6
8
10

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6. Scaling paid acquisition

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Scaling paid marketing
Marketing spend
CACs
Your projections
Your actuals

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7. Hiring a VP of Sales

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„The 48 Types of VP Sales“

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8. Unicorns

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@chrija
Which animal are you hunting?
ARPA
(in $ per year)
# of customers
(in 1,000s)
10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000
10
1
100
1,000
10,000

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@chrija
www.5waysto100.com
christoph@pointnine.vc

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@chrija
Escaping startup graveyard
CACs
LTV

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@chrija
9. Venture Capital

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@chrija
Company rank
Return
How you think
What it really
looks like
Power Law
301 15
Power Law looks like

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@chrija
Thank you!
christoph@pointnine.vc
PS: Thanks for the inspiration ===>

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Bonus slides

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Poor market
„Team vs. Market“
Great market
PoorteamGreatteam
0x 0-1x
1-5x 10x
EXCELLENT
team
EXCELLENT
market
100x

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@chrija
Meeting #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Investor excitement
SUPER excited
mmpff … nope
„We REALLY
need a decision“

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@chrija
Should I go through an accelerator?
Is it YC? YES
No
Go for it!
Do they
want
> 6%?
YES RUN AWAY!!!
No
Think
about it

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@chrija
Finding good engineers
engineers looking
for a new job
open positions

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@chrija
Contracts
Number of pages
% of pages with a
>0 chance of ever
becoming relevant.
100%
0%
50%
1 200100
Legal fees
¤5k
¤100k

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@chrija
When corporates discover „entrepreneurship“
We need more innovation!
Let’s start a
Corporate VC.
Let’s spin.-off the VC.
oops, we’re not attracting the
best and the brightest.
Let’s start an incubator.
Let’s do an
„intrapreneur program“
oops, we’re not attracting the
best and the brightest.
oops, we’re not attracting the
best and the brightest.