The Latest from SaaStr: Why It Matters Who Your Lead Investor Is

By Jason Lemkin · Monday, June 6, 2022 | Fundraising

A lead investor Is expected to lead any bridge round. This is super important. If the company does OK but Not Great, the investors will often be willing to do a bridge round (i.e., a smaller, second, all-inside round). But the lead investor has to … lead it. If they don’t do their pro rata or more, a bridge is really tough. Everyone loses confidence, etc. etc.

If you aren't sure your lead investor will do this or the six other items on our list, then ask.

Read the full article: Why It Matters Who Your “Lead” Investor Is

By Amanda Beaty · Monday, June 6, 2022 | Leadership, Marketing

To celebrate 10 years of SaaStr, we’re revisiting some classic podcast episodes. Up today: Plaid co-founder and CEO, Zach Perret. This interview with CNBC’s Ari Levy took place in February 2019, shortly after Plaid raised a Series C round at a $2.7B valuation. In 2021, Plaid raised $425 million in Series D funding that boosted the company to decacorn status at a $13.4 billion valuation.

In this episode, Perret shared highlights from Plaid’s journey and his thoughts on building a thriving platform-driven business.

Read the full article: The Plaid Journey with Co-Founder and CEO Zach Perret (Pod 561 + Video)

By Jason Lemkin · Sunday, June 5, 2022 | Blog Posts

A little while back we did a post on the Top 20 SaaStr surveys, and the results were pretty interesting.  I wanted to follow up with another 20 of the top surveys and learnings

Read the full article: 20 More of the Top SaaStr Surveys on Hiring, Support, Customer Demos, Turn-Over, and More!

By Jason Lemkin · Sunday, June 5, 2022 | Fundraising, Leadership

I’ve never gone Truly Big in any of my start-ups, not in the Slack or Datadog way, let alone the Calendly or Notion way.  But, over the years as both a founder and a start-up exec, I have raised over $40m in Venture Capital across 4 successful start-ups.  I’ve also pitched over 110 VCs.  Yes, 110.  A lot of them have come and gone in that time.  And 100 of those 110 were for just one tough Series C financing.

But of all those rounds, those 110 VCs, those $40 million dollars in capital, and all that, there’s just one little slice that Was the Best $500K I Ever Raised. 

Read the full article: The Best $500,000 I Ever Raised — And Why Party Rounds May Not Be the Way to Go in Slightly Tougher Times

By Amanda Beaty · Sunday, June 5, 2022 | Blog Posts

Each week, we round up our most popular content so you can catch up on anything you may have missed. Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos!

Read the full article: Top SaaStr Content for the Week: Airtable CMO, Frame.io CEO, Expensify CEO, Box CEO, and More!

By Jason Lemkin · Saturday, June 4, 2022 | Career Growth & Advice

The hardest part changes every 12–24 months, and the whole company changes every 30-36 months or so.

But here are some thoughts on “the hardest part” for the first few stages.

Read the full article: The Hardest Part About SaaS Companies, At Each Stage

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