Grant Crider

The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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Winning early GTM via founder led sales is an essential step in building a consequential start up. 🎯 But, while there are countless conferences focused on scaling GTM once you've hit a couple million in revenue, to date there hasn't been a conference focused on FOUNDER LED SALES and nailing the earliest days of GTM. 👀 😅 That ends now. 🙌 Pear VC has helped 100+ founders learn how to sell, how to build their 0-to-1 sales engine, how to get from $0 ARR to $1M ARR -- and now we're introducing the first ever GTM CONFERENCE for EARLY STAGE FOUNDERS. ⭐ "Zero to $1M: Winning Early GTM" will be held in San Francisco, CA this September 5th! ⭐ If you're at the idea 💡, pre-seed 🌰 , or seed stage 🌱 , this is the GTM conference for YOU. Come hear from Pear veterans, industry leaders, and successful repeat founders like Sanjit Biswas (Samsara and Cisco Meraki Co-founder and CEO), and leave with actionable guidance to supercharge your startup’s revenue from day 1. ​ ➡ APPLY NOW! Space is limited, and the early application deadline is July 15th. Pepe Agell and I will review applications on a rolling basis. 🚀 CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU THERE! 🚀 #earlystageGTM #zeroto1M #founderledsales

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Great analysis by the AGC team on SaaS public company comps. It's worth a look as we recalibrate mid-way through earnings season. The analysis aligns with the broader Nasdaq equity performance, where the Mag 7 (or fab 4 now :-)) have shown more resilience than the rest of the market. #AGC #SaaS #EarningsSeason #Nasdaq #EquityPerformance

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Let the wave begin! Pioneer Fund company Recall.ai *grew their revenue 10x* in the past year, has 300 enterprise customers, and just raised a $10M Series A led by Ridge Ventures. David Gu and Amanda Zhu dropped out of college at age 19 to start the company. They've grown it exponentially with a tiny team. They make it easy to build meeting bots that are cross-platform. They're aggregating all these different APIs into one unified API, the way Twilio did with cell phones. At first it "sounds" easy to build a meeting bot -- just integrate with the Zoom API. But in fact there's a huge long tail of things you need to build, security and privacy pitfalls, automations, transcription complexities, integrations, the calendar invites where someone is using Google Meet or Teams, staying up-to-date with the libraries, etc etc. Recall takes care of all of that. It's WAY easier to build on top of Recall.ai and focus on the features that make you unique. Congratulations to the Recall team!

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As a B2B SaaS VC 👩‍💻 and a huge data nerd 🤓, fewer things bring me more joy than a truly statistically significant analysis (600+ companies surveyed) of B2B SaaS metrics across early stage companies. Great work by our team at Emergence Capital! See comments for full report, and please let us know how we can make this better in the future!

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VC dealmaking in the enterprise SaaS space has leveled out. In Q1, deal value declined 15.5% from the previous quarter to $12.2 billion, while deal count ticked up 3.1% to 666 deals. https://bit.ly/3VuWvDA

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Going from Zero to Product Market Fit is like getting out of a Bermuda Triangle For every direction that works out, an equal and opposite direction works too It is shocking how few get to product market fit Only 15 out of 100 SaaS companies get to a million dollars in revenue When you have PMF, it is an awesome feeling Everything is going smoothly for you It also feels scary and out of control You push one unit, and ten units of progress happen But when you don’t have it…. You push ten units of effort, and not even a unit of progress happens It feels like a Sisyphean punishment Moving a boulder up the mountain In the GenAI age, I hear arguments that go “The focus should be on the core functionality. Like how musicians concentrate on the music itself” This is clearly a faulty analogy Businesses providing playback formats (cassette tapes, CDs) are obsolete today Gen AI brings AI below the API No more does one need to stand up a team in ML Spend a few million dollars to “translate languages” or “transcribe accurately” GenAI now assures that Getting to PMF boils down to the basics - Do you understand the problem deeply - Can you build a 10x better solution - Can you execute & iterate faster - Don’t die in the process (cash) What has worked for you to get out of the Bermuda triangle?

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Well said, Jen Abel. And even beyond these ARR guardrails, startups often instinctively throw in enterprise and SMB as dual strategies. Or direct and PLG. Outbound and channel. And more! #startup #sales #GTM #SMB #channel #enterprise #PLG #directsales

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PE - Gross & Operating Margins <> Unique & Compelling Value Proposition, from Pat Grady on the "Invest Like the Best" podcast Pat Grady, Growth Equity Investor: "Unique and compelling value proposition is a comment on margin structure. If you have a unique value proposition, that should show up in Gross Margin because if your product is truly unique, you should be a price setter, not a price taker. And if you are a price setter, you should be able to set a price that's going to provide you with nice gross margins. So unique value prop gets you to a good gross margin. Compelling value prop is a comment on Operating Margin. If your product is truly so compelling, you shouldn't have to bludgeon people to death with sales and marketing to get them to try it and to get them to pay you for it. So if it is truly compelling, that should show up in the efficiency of your go-to-market organization or maybe there's a number like new ARR divided by sales and marketing where there's a number like LTV to CAC or there's a number like payback period. There should be some number or maybe 99% of your new customers come in organically." Source: Pat Grady & Patrick O'Shaughnessy, CFA https://lnkd.in/e38cjdyG #growth #investing #pe #privateequity #sequoia

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Here are the top 4 reasons we walked away from Micro SaaS acquisitions in 2023: 1. The David and Goliath Problem: Imagine being a small business trying to compete in a market overflowing with venture-backed giants. These Goliaths have deep pockets, enabling aggressive marketing and pricing strategies. They dominate the landscape, ready to wage price wars, or invet in acquisition strategies with very long-term paybacks. It's a tough game for the smaller Davids. 2. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Issue: SaaS business model = higher valuation so keep your guard up. These wolves in sheep's clothing often rely heavily on manual processes or bespoke software, compromising scalability and profitability. Moreover, if a single product is propping up the whole business, there's a ticking time bomb of limited growth potential. 3. The One-Man Band Dilemma: A business overly dependent on key individuals is like a band led by a solo artist. What happens if the frontman exits, post-acquisition? The sweet music can quickly turn into a cacophony, disrupting performance and operations. 4. The All Eggs in One Basket Situation: High dependency on a few clients is risky. It's like putting all eggs in one basket. Lose a key client, and you can face a harsh fall, threatening the company's profitability and long-term survival. When investing in SaaS, understanding and assessing these risks is critical. Know your risks, make informed decisions, and ensure your success in the SaaS investment landscape. Your thoughts?

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The second set of breakouts at Kickstart Fund CEO summit phenomenal featured Josh Duncan and Stan James discussing the nuts and bolts of SaaS GTM motion and Grant Gordon and Jeremy Hanks sharing their perspective after their exits - What did they learn? What would they do differently? Here are some takeaways from each: SaaS GTM 1. Setting a solid foundation early on is crucial, including knowing your numbers, focusing on a narrow market, and aligning your GTM functions. Establishing a culture of truth-telling and active listening is essential for driving performance and understanding customer needs. 2. Reframe proof of concepts as proof of value. Shift away from traditional proof of concepts and instead focus on demonstrating proof of value. When engaging with potential customers, clearly define the expected outcomes, timelines, and a path to a commercial contract. Perspective after an exit 1. Embrace the journey, not just the destination. Find fulfillment in the daily process of building a company, rather than solely focusing on the exit.  Establish a strong company culture. Culture isn't just a buzzword, but a crucial element for employee satisfaction and productivity. Deliberately shape and iterate on your company's culture, treating it as a product for their employees. 2. Set personal firewalls to protect your well-being. Establish boundaries to safeguard your mental, physical, and relationship health. Separate your identity from your role as a founder. Build a solid support system - an executive coach, fellow entrepreneurs, therapist, etc.-to help you navigate the challenges of the startup journey. 

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I believe two of the big winners over the next 10 years in the SMB category will be PE who are rolling up the businesses and GenAI powered software that makes running these businesses significantly more turnkey and/or profitable. Thanks for having me on Jay Kapoor. If you want spicy takes fast forward to 25 min mark. If you want to get deep in market analysis buckle in for the whole thing. https://lnkd.in/d8M7Jyrx

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One of my proudest moments as an investor occurred today as Alaffia Health announced its series A because it shows how the Aperture® Venture Capital vision of multi-level, multi-generational #impactinvesting is succeeding in the marketplace. Here’s the model in its most basic form : ✅As diverse fund managers with meaningful capital to allocate, we are changing the VC landscape every day just by doing our day jobs. ✅As Black/Brown investors with ~40 years experience collectively, Aperture GPs have access to talent /excellence that others do not, so our portfolio *organically* is more inclusive by race, gender and geography even while optimizing for financial outcomes (all about the alpha). ✅Our most successful portco’s are using financial #innovation to solve market problems that impact underrepresented demographics and underserved communities. Alaffia Health is a shining example of the impact portion of our overall fund thesis, and we couldn’t be prouder of TJ Ademiluyi and Adun Akanni, MPH, PMP - the dynamic brother-sister founder duo whose vision we have steadfastly supported on their journey. Congratulations to TJ and Adun from William Crowder and myself, as well as the whole Aperture team- Marjorie King Philip McKenzie Yves Louis-Jacques Tanvi Lal Michelle Dhansinghani Lisha Bell Katie Kelly Amy Chung Cindy Chong, CFA Brian Fernandes-Halloran Monroe France Jayden Pantel Darren Herman Evan Wladis Neal Triplett Thomas Scriven Peter Ammon Irina Bit-Babik Tim Milanich Rob Rahbari

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Many SaaS solutions resonate most with directors/VPs/department heads. For the past 5+ years the approach for selling to these folks was to get them very excited about your solution and price in such a way that they could get a deal done with minimal sign off. In enterprise this could run as high as 500k. Now, there is scrutiny on 25k deals. Smart sellers realize this and are running a totally different play. A little different flavor of the traditional top down model. These folks are still doing well. Folks running the old playbook? In struggleville. P.S. - when times are hard it’s actually easier to do big deals…if you know how to sell transformations.

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A very helpful enablement tool that almost no one has? List of initiatives / tools / programs to steal budget from + WHY our solution is a better investment. In most orgs… There are 1000 one pagers about random features. Zero one pagers about initiatives that we could get $$$ from and how to position for it.

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To all my operators who want to "advise" startups: Stop waiting for the magical day when a VC fund anoints you with the title (e.g. "advisor" or "operating partner"). 👉 Instead ... Just jump in and start helping companies. How? 1) Cold email founders 2) Offer help & drive impact That’s it. Even if you have to do it for free initially. It’s rare, but Ironically, this is actually the *best* way to GET A TITLE or build a relationship with a VC fund. Plus … The founders you help will provide the best testimonials imaginable for you. To their investors And even to other funds. 📩 If you find this helpful, join my FREE newsletter to get more insights, recruiting tips, and job alerts. https://lnkd.in/ga4GhWiK #growthequity #venturecapital #privateequity #investmentbanking #vc #buyside #investing #interviewskills #finance #networking #interviews #recruiter #headhunter

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DeepCast shipped a number of really cool new features recently in advance of a broad outreach push to podcast listeners. One new feature is our new Daily DeepDigest tool that sends you a concise daily email including any new episodes from the trailing 24 hours from any podcasts you Subscribe to (on DeepCast). Think daily podcast cliff notes or podcast news ticker tape, with a hint of Morning Brew various brews or PitchBook News—it's increasing information throughput when you're pressed for time. And this feature is rapidly evolving to distill other key extractions from shows you're already interested in, but also exposing you to other shows you might be unfamiliar with that also have nuggets to share—and thus increasing your aperture yet still conscious of your time. Want to go deeper on any given episode? Click the episode detail and you're off to an episode on DeepCast, where you can subsequently read a longer form distillation of that episode or go straight to the source and listen to the episode. (And podcaster friends, these pages are definitely increasing indexing and thus Google entry points to your shows!) I'm loving this feature as a user, personally. Can't wait to see what others think! #BuildingInPublic #Podcasts #AllTheWorldsInformation #HowYouWantIt

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Interesting concept to rename rounds by milestones. But "Series Client Expansion Extension" just doesn't have the same ring to it 😋 . Maybe we can start incorporating it into a descriptor to add context, "Series Seed Extension: client expansion." #startups #venturecapital

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Valuations are starting to (only slightly) be in check. Investors looking for revenue, quality of revenue, margins, and repeatable GTM. This has the best founders focused on what matters, and reaching out to their Boards and advisors for real advice and guidance. Good stuff.

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