Venture capitalists make Series A investments expecting a future unicorn outcome with and an exponential growth trajectory. Founders need to become CEOs who form, norm and manage a high performing team. This dynamic environment requires weekly, monthly and quarterly cadences to operate and orchestrate the company.

1. Confidential
WUNDERVC
From Founder To CEO
From Product to Market
Christian Dahlen, March 2024

2. Confidential
WUNDERVC 2
Executive summary
• Venture capitalists make Series A investments expecting a future unicorn outcome
with and an exponential growth trajectory
• Founders need to become CEOs who form, norm and manage a high performing
team
• This dynamic environment requires weekly, monthly and quarterly cadences to
operate and orchestrate the company

3. Confidential
WUNDERVC 3
Series A investors expect ARR to grow 3 – 5X in the
subsequent 18 months
• Round Size: $5M – $15M
• Valuation: $20M – $60M
• Round Size: $10M – $40M
• Valuation: $80M – $200M
18 Months
ARR: $1M – $5M
ARR: $6M – $12M
Series A Series B
Source: Christoph Janz

4. Confidential
WUNDERVC 4
Series A has been raised on PMF and indications of
scalability
Product
Sales
Team
• Clear evidence of PMF (high usage, low churn, high
NPS) Con
• Compelling ‘why now’
• Large TAM and strong customer references
• Getting to a repeatable sale model vs. founder led
sales
• Success with at least one channel
• Early evidence of a repeatable, efficient sales motion
• Built a high performing tech team
• Recruited 2 -3 excellent individual contributors in
product/marketing/sales roles
• 10 – 20 FTE
Source: Christoph Janz

5. Confidential
WUNDERVC 5
Building the team to scale the company – and sales in
particular - are critical to get to series B
• Proven ability to recruit and lead
• Hired 1-2 excellent VPs
• Can handle the 20x size of today
• Strong evidence of scalable, profitable customer
acquisition
• Meeting/exceeding key sales cycle, NDR and CAC
payback benchmarks – and the ‘four vital signs of SaaS’
• Evidence of strong PMF in a multi billion dollar market
• First signs of a successful brand, platform and/or data
play
Team
Sales
Product
Source: Christoph Janz

6. Confidential
WUNDERVC 6
The founder has to evolve from team lead to CEO
☐ One North Star
Identify the highest leverage constituency and choose your North Star based on what
creates the most value for them
☐ Many constituents
Use the same techniques to delight customers to service other key constituencies -
employees, advertisers, partners, investors
☐ Peer advice
Inside out: Inner circle of few investors and peers -> quarterly advisors -> infrequent and ad
hoc discussions
☐ High leverage delegation
Internal communication and recruiting high caliber talent
☐ Deliberate trust building
Trust has three drivers: Authenticity, logic and empathy
Source: Nfx

7. Confidential
WUNDERVC 7
A North Star is essential to set direction and align all
constituents
Customer
value
A non financial north star that reflects the value
that customer gets
Leading
indicator
Bespoke metric that is a leading
indicator of success
Usage
Focus on one thing: People
are using your product
Source: Nfx

8. Confidential
WUNDERVC 8
The forgotten executive hire: Picking and appointing an
independent board member
First line adviser when things
aren’t going well – ‘the first call’
Non-judgmental sounding
board for early ideas
Adviser to the CEO
on HR issues
Reviewer of initial
compensation
proposals for the
management team

9. Confidential
WUNDERVC 9
The CEO needs to hire a real management to get to $10m
☐ Hire a real management team
Almost every SaaS start-up hits a wall around $4m-$5m ARR at the latest if they don’t have any true VPs.
☐ Don’t hire VPs sequentially
Do at least 20 Interviews a week.
☐ Don’t make a bad key hire
Get help and have your advisors review your picks. When in doubt — don’t do the hire.
☐ Hire someone to share the load
Maybe an Ex- Founder. Try to hire at least one that goes even further above and beyond the job.
☐ Get more advisors
Get help from folks who have been here and done it. For the tactical stuff.
☐ Get admin help
Get 1-2 inexpensive resources to help — everyone.
☐ Spend a few extra bucks
You’ve been scrappy to get to $1-$2m in ARR but now you need to open the coffers at least a little.
Source: Saastr

10. Confidential
WUNDERVC 10
The CEO job is to work the team, not the problem
1. Build the team
2. Assess people’s talents
3. Find the people that get stuff done
4. Get the people that cause tension off the bus
5. Bridge gaps when communication between team
members breaks down

11. Confidential
WUNDERVC 11
The CEO needs to evaluate and coach the players
1. Performing against expectations
Set a high standard and measure your executives against
that
2. Management skills
Building a strong and loyal team and not just achieving
the goals
3. Working with peers
Effective at communication, supporting and getting what
is needed from the other people on the executive team
4. Innovation and best industry practices
Looking beyond the black-box results and into the sausage
factory to understand how things get made for the future

12. Confidential
WUNDERVC 12
Learning is a key element for how the CEO and the team
perform and adapt
1. Personal Mastery
How you update long-held personal beliefs to adapt to the
business’ needs
2. Mental Models
How you approach problem-solving
3. Shared Vision
How your team comes together to form a shared vision
4. Team Learning
How your team collectively learns from a failure or a
challenge
5. Systems Thinking
How you and your team approach understanding the
ecosystem around you

13. Confidential
WUNDERVC 13
Weekly meetings are essential to build the organizational
pulse
‘Estaff - a meeting of the executive staff, where large issues and
strategic initiatives are discussed.
Estaff starts as late as 9:30 because the CEO may spend the early
morning talking to the East Coast, before people there go to lunch,
and meeting privately with any employee who has a problem that
can’t be solved through normal channels.
Friday at four-thirty:
‘comm’ meeting, where the entire company gathers to
communicate news, make announcements and give demos and
awards.
Following the comm meeting is a ‘beer bust’, with drinks and
munchies, a Silicon Valley tradition.
Friday
4:30pm
Monday
9:30 am

14. Confidential
WUNDERVC 14
Monthly meeting cadence: Month 1 is for planning
Marketing
Sales
Product
Engineering
Finance
oCEO
Source: David Sacks

15. Confidential
WUNDERVC 15
Monthly meeting cadence: Month 2 is for launching
Marketing
Sales
Product
Engineering
Finance
oCEO
Source: David Sacks

16. Confidential
WUNDERVC 16
Monthly meeting cadence: Month 3 is for closing
Marketing
Sales
Product
Engineering
Finance
oCEO
Source: David Sacks

17. Confidential
WUNDERVC
Venture capitalists make Series A investments expecting a future unicorn
outcome with and an exponential growth trajectory
Founders need to become CEOs who form, norm and manage a high
performing team
This dynamic environment requires weekly, monthly and quarterly cadences
to operate and orchestrate the company