Inc - Is 2024 The Year of Hitting Snooze?

So recently, for the first time ever, I called in some favors. Very minor ones, but just to get a little help as SaaStr goes into busy season.

#1 I asked a CRO I’ve worked with for quite a while and got one of his prior roles for him if he wanted to do our podcast with me sometime in the coming weeks. I didn’t need the content, but it would save me a tiny bit of work. He said No. Not later, but just … “No”.

#2 I asked a founder that I got their last role where they made millions if they’d do a call with a founder I invested in. He said “If you really, really, really need me to, but …”

#3 I asked a VC who I referred a one billon+ cash exit to if he could send an email just helping on something. Barely an ask. But he didn’t do it.

#4 I asked a CMO who I’ve promoted many times over the years just if he had an idea of someone I could talk to a certain company. Just who ran something in marketing. He said he knew the contact, but wouldn’t share who it was.

I get that everyone is “hitting snooze” on things these days. The fact alone that “hitting snooze” on things has become part of our collective vocabulary probably says a lot right there. I just didn’t realize how far it had all gone.

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by QA Wolf

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There’s only so much that a small team can handle.

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Most startups aren’t able to raise venture capital, they just aren’t in the sweet spot.  Growth isn’t on point, generally. Bootstrapping is more often not a choice — but the only option. If not forever, at least in the early stages.

Ben Chestnut CEO of Mailchimp had a great story here — they were flooded with VC offers only once they were large enough and profitable enough not to need it.

I think this is one of the Top 5 most important questions in start-ups. Possibly, Top 1 in ultimate significance.

The answer for most of us: (x) most of us benefit from an A+ co-founder but (y) do not settle.

While not a huge deal, one of the bigger challenges of building SaaStr has been the changing winds of social media.

SaaStr started as a blog and I never really thought of that as “social media”, but even then it was. Because you need the social part to get scale. Be it SEO, or promotion, or Likes, or Upvotes, etc.

Over the years, basically everything has gotten harder on social.

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

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No. But … Sort of.

What I’ve learned being on both sides of acquisitions, and being a 2x acquired founder — is:

• There is a List. There’s an informal CEO list of “jewels” the CEO would like to buy; and
• There’s often a more formal “targets” list that each SVP of core business unit would like to buy.

If you get on these lists, it does increase the odds you are acquired.

The thing is, for every start-up that gets acquired, there are 100+ others that could have been. That are just as good. Except they aren’t 100% on-point for what the acquirer wants to do.

So given how low the odds are, you can’t “flip” your start-up. This doesn’t work.

But build relationships with your potential acquirer. As high in the org chart as you can. This almost always pays off, in the medium and long run. Then, as you scale, become more Hot, get more PR, etc. If and when the time is right …

You may already be on the list.

Founder and General Partner of Craft Ventures, David Sacks, shares his perspective on what to expect from SaaS in 2024 and 2025 and beyond. Is everything going to be focused on AI? Can you raise a Series A if you’re not “AI SaaS?”

These are some of the questions Sacks and SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin discuss at SaaStr Annual.

See everyone at 2024 SaaStr Annual and SaaStr AI Summit on September 10-12 in SF Bay!!

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