Hey everyone -

There's less than 30 Days Until the start off SaaStr Annual 2023 on September 6, 7 and 8. 

Don't Miss Out on the Biggest SaaS Event of the Year!

This year's Annual will bring together an impressive lineup of over 12,000 SaaS CEOs, founders, and investors, eager to share their insights and network with fellow industry leaders just like you.

If you're considering attending SaaStr, now's the time to act as this will be another SELL OUT SaaStr event. 

With so many amazing speakers, sessions, and networking opportunities, you'll have everything you need to take your business to the next level. Not to mention the chance to connect with some of the brightest minds in the industry and discover new partnership opportunities.

And the best news? You can still take advantage of our special offer to save 20% on your ticket when you register now – before it's too late!

So, don't miss out on this incredible opportunity! Register now to join us at SaaStr Annual 2023 in the San Francisco Bay Area this September.

We can't wait to see you there!

So while the media is full of stories of unicorns doing layoffs and massive cutbacks, the story is a bit different with leading public SaaS companies.  Yes many public SaaS companies have done some sort of layoffs the past 12 months, they were often more really reorgs, though, without any net decrease in headcount.  And yes, many have gotten tougher on spending for sure.  But almost every public SaaS leader has still grown at either pretty good or very good rates the past 12+ months.

What’s changed the most: the leaders in SaaS have gotten radically more efficient.  In many cases, for the first time ever.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

#1.  Toast:  From -5% EBITA to +6% in Just 12 Months.  While Still Growing 43% at $1.1 Billion in ARR!

So for years we’ve all advised founders about some rough numbers for dilution for each traditional venture round:

• 20% dilution in a Seed round, sometimes less if you don’t need much money, sometimes more if you do and it’s early
• 20% dilution in an A round, sometimes a smidge more.
• 15% dilution in a B round, sometimes a smidge more
• 10%-15% dilution in a C round, depending on how much you need the money, and how much
• 10% dilution in a D round, again, depending on how much you need the money

And pre-seed rounds really have been all over the place.

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

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One of our most popular additions to SaaStr content has been CRO Confidential, hosted by ex-Brex CRO and now Founders’ Fund Partner Sam Blond.

We’re getting one of the most popular guests, Jameson Yung, SVP Sales at Gong together with Sam Blond to do it LIVE with tons of time for Q+A and deep dives at SaaStr Annual 2023 in SF Bay Area Sep 6-8!!

I think there are no cons and this is a great idea.

First, a 6+ year vesting schedule protects you from the less committed founders.

The last thing you want is the flakiest founders quitting early and ending up with as much stock as you, or close to it. The fairest, simplest, most win-win way to protect against this is a long vesting period that more accurately maps to the 7–10 years it takes to IPO / Go Big.  The committed founders always, always lose with short founder vesting schedules.  Just don’t do it.

Second, a Double Trigger (you get 100% acceleration if you are fired after an acquisition) has modest upside but no downside and makes people feel good.

There’s an argument that especially VCs make (and one with some truth) that a Single Trigger can harm M&A outcomes and create issues in acquisitions. That may or may not always be true, but Single Triggers definitely create some issues whenever they exist, and almost always create frictionful re-negotiations these days. You just don’t see CEOs walking away 1 day after an acquisition anymore. So a Single Trigger certainly can be bad for many parties, or at least, can have negative effects.

But I’ve never seen a Double Trigger impact an acquisition negatively. “Worst” case the acquirer renegotiates it, and/or cancels it (yes, this can be done in M&A documents), and you lose it. Well, you are at least no worse off in that case.

A double trigger is a great security blanket for founders and certain top execs. It makes founders (and VPs of Sales and Finance) feel much better. Like they aren’t going to get scr**ed. So just do it for the founders and your VPS at least.

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

Webinars are a lot of work, and repurposing that content takes hours, and no one seems to want to own it. Using gen AI, Hubilo Webinar+ with it’s new Snackable Content Hub can create 40+ assets in minutes, including video snippets and video shorts, blogs, social posts, and even ebooks. 

We came right back on 20VC to do a deep dive on where seed investing is right now with Frank Rotman, one of the most successful fintech investors, Sam Lessin on Slow Ventures, with an incredible portfolio, and Jason Lemkin.

So there are plenty of lists everywhere but Lead411 tracks a superset of folks on LinkedIn to see who has the most followers, and the most growth.

We came out at #4.

There is probably no better business to fail at than to be a failing General Partner at a sizeable VC firm.

If you fail as an associate, principal, etc. … that’s just like any other job. But a little better.

You’re managed out, although usually slowly and gracefully. If you aren’t going to make it as a non-GP, the beauty is, you’ll have 3–6–9 months to go find your next gig. That’s as graceful as it gets. They’ll tell you, “next year we won’t have a spot for you”.

But General Partners … boy you can fail slowly.

VC’s contracts with their own investors (the LPs) last 10+ years (really 13 these days with extensions), and GPs usually fail slowly enough that they are GPs in at least two funds. Add a 3-year gap between funds, and that can be 16 years until you are no longer a General Partner at a VC fund, even if you are a terrible investor.

Of course, you have to do something right to get yourself into that position.  And you’ll see “Managing General Partners” often push out other General Partners well before this long.

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