So the markets are still down and multiples are still low, but growth rates in SaaS and Cloud are slowly creeping back.  AI has driven a number of rapid unicorns, and at SaaStr Europa 2023, Iconiq Growth noted that while they did 0 brand new growth investments in 2022, they’d already done 5 in the first half of 2023.

So unicorns remain rare but we may have bounced off the lows.

If you can raise at a high valuation today though … should you?

Let’s simplify.  If you somehow are able to raise at $1B, then your investors will be looking for at least a 3x return, i.e. that you’ll be worth at least $3B post-IPO.  Really more due to dilution, so probably at least $3.5 Billion.

One thing we’ve talked a ton about at SaaStr since inception is the power of going global as early as you have customer pull in other geographies. The internet works everywhere.

You should be selling everywhere, assuming there are no regulatory or related issues in your space.

Some examples:

• HubSpot gets 54% of its revenue from outside the U.S.
• Asana gets 39% of its revenue from outside the U.S.
• Monday gets 47% of its revenue from outside the U.S.
• Twilio gets 34% of its revenue outside the U.S.  Impressive since communications systems are different in different countries and geos.
• ZoomInfo gets just 11% of its revenue outside North America.  Data can have challenges crossing borders.
• Zendesk gets 49% of its revenue from outside the U.S., and 28% from Europe/EMEA

In an even deeper dive, Frontline Ventures took a look at the leading public SaaS companies as a group, and how much EMEA/European revenue they have.

The learning?  

The top quartile of SaaS leaders have 28% of their revenue from EMEA/Europa, and the median is 19%.

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It is important to decide which of 3 life tracks you want to be on:

Super-successful sales rep / individual contributor.

I.e., make $200k or even $500k+ someday, just closing deals yourself. Crush your number, live the life, take nice vacations, wear expensive suits, buy a cool condo. Live the high life. That can be great.

Successful sales manager.

I.e., become a VP of Sales someday.

Leverage “sales” to become a founder, business owner, etc.

You have to decide.

The biggest mistake I see is folks not carefully collecting the right skills for the right path.

Ok we’re in full swing for 2023 SaaStr Annual now that Europa is behind us and it’s going to be out biggest, best Annual ever! The 9th!!

It’s back again in the SF Bay Area Sep 6-8 again on our sprawling 40+ Acre, 10+ Stage campus.

We just launched the core agenda, and here's a look at just some of the epic speakers:

• Spenser Skates, Founder & CEO @ Amplitude
• Girish Mathrubootham, CEO @ Freshworks
• Roy Mann, Co-founder and CEO @ Monday.com
• Eran Zinman, Co-founder and Co-CEO @ Monday.com
• Michael Siebel Managing Director and Group Partner @ Y Combinator
• Kiren Sekar, EVP, Chief Strategy Officer @ Samsara
• Aliisa Rosenthal, Head of Sales @ OpenAI
• Scott Sanchez, Chief Marketing Officer @ Harness

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by Infinicept

Learn how to earn more revenue by embedding payments into your solution, without doing it all yourself.

In my first start-up, I found the Dream COO. He had 20 years of industry experience (vs. me, I had none). The customers loved, loved, loved him. And he had enough of a chip on his shoulder to still do a start-up and change the industry.

We shook hands and I closed him. And then I signed a term sheet to raise $8m in venture capital. All seemed good. Until he changed his mind and stayed where he was. The term sheet was pulled. The key initial customer that loved him got cold feet. I was out of options. And now, with only 2 weeks of cash left in the bank.

Lesson? Even with founder urgency, you can’t always rush key hires.

He wasn’t really ready. We needed to spend more time together. And we knew that. We could sense the risk. But it was a start-up, so we took the risk. But we should have just slowed this key hire down.

What are some qualities of a bad startup CEO/founder in Silicon Valley?

A few that I’ve seen across the handful of investments I’ve made … that didn’t work out:

Not really committed to going long.

This doesn’t so much make you a “bad” CEO as one that likely won’t get much past $2m-$10m in ARR. If you aren’t committed for 10+ years, you tend to exit one way or another … earlier.

Too reactive and emotional.

Yes, you do need to care to be a great leader, at least generally speaking IMHO. But if you are too reactive to all the downs and bumps, you will overreact to them. Again, you gotta go long.

Dishonest or at least, a B.S. artist.

The CEOs I’ve lost money in many cases lied about something, or at least, weren’t honest about something.

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