The Super, Way Early Indicators They Presage Hyper-Growth SaaS Companies

Jason M. LemkinSaaStr + Fund

@jasonlk / @saastr

SaaStr: A Curious Mix of Media, Events, Venture

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk

Venture

Angel / BOD / Advisor

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk

Prefer — “Later Seed”

But done pre-product & pre-revenue,

all way to $29.9m post

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk

Investment Criteria:

• Founder Better Than Me / I Was (Adjusted for Time)

• Potential for Superior Unit Economics • > $15/user/mo (ideally, much more) • > $20k ACV for SMB • > $50k ACV for SME • > $250k ACV for Enterprise

• Can Be “Hot” By Series A (But Probably Not Today)

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk

SubMetrics• Is 1 or 2 = 10-20 = 100-200? Or Just Anomaly?

• Lead Velocity and Pre-Lead Velocity? • Any Leads At All? Why? • If Outbound — Why Is This Working? • Unusual Customers (outside of tech, YC, etc.)

• One Big Customer

• Can a VPS + VPM Tilt Curve?

• Is CEO (now) 110% Committed to Sales?

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk

Traction >ISN’T< Enough. Signs of “Suboptimality"

• Feel Sales is “Too Expensive”

• Numbers are really wrong. Not GAAP wrong, but really wrong. These ones >never< work out.

• CEO won’t move to SF Bay Area and customers are here. Don’t have to. But if won’t …

• CEO is Tired. It’s too hard & too long in SaaS.

• You wouldn’t work for them. Too much x-functional recruiting.

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk

THANK YOU!

Jason M. Lemkin @jasonlk