Tyler Hogge

This is fascinating. My two portfolio companies on the fastest path to Series A have kept the leanest teams. Both of them are lingering around cash flow positive on a monthly basis. One is growing gangbusters, one is growing nicely. Good data below to show that these activities are being rewarded. We're still in cockroach times. Also fwiw, I'm constantly amazed by and learning from Peter Walker. If you're interested in the data of venture funding (AND IF YOU'RE A FOUNDER, YOU SHOULD BE), then follow Peter.

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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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Founders, you're losing deals by not having a clear discovery call plan. I've seen this a lot where founders looking to scale up their early sales efforts are going into it thinking the product will get them through the sale In most cases, this isn't the truth You need to have some sort of framework to make the selling motion more repeatable Instead of demo'ing the product, try learning more about them and their challenges first. Your goal should be to know enough to build a customized demo for them. This will help in building solid relationships, build value throughout the process and likely speed up deals on the back end of it. If you don't know where to start, hit me up and I'm happy to lay out some early sales structure for founders! Go crush it out there 🤙

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THE PE OPTION Private company growth CEOs: if you're at ~$100M ARR and growing ~20% YoY, going public might not be an option. I'd suggest considering the option of partnering with a PE firm such as Thoma Bravo, Vista, etc (they will clean up your cap table and take a meaningful stake in your company). They will give you the dry powder to buy adjacent companies in your space, build scale, and eventually go public. Being the CEO of a PE-owned company is not for everyone, esp CEOs who are used to very little accountabilty from mostly fawning investors. That said, don't think of PE as the Gordon Gekko types - it's an outdated perception. These are exceptionally smart, savvy investors, whose goal is to build shareholder value. They are not going to strip down the company and sell it for parts. They will hold you to a higher standard of discipline (like public markets would!) but also be supportive (with capital) if you pursue high-ROI investment opportunities, including buying other companies. Also, either you become the acquirer and consolidator in your industry, or someone else consolidates you. Which do you prefer? Sitting still and hoping for a public market turnaround, is not a good strategy. Anaplan, which of course actually went public, is pursuing the first strategy after being acquired in a take-private by Thoma Bravo. --- Anaplan, an SF portfolio company of Thoma Bravo, agreed to acquire Fluence Technologies, a Canadian provider of financial close software. Fluence had raised around $17m from firms like Banneker Partners, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund and Graphite Ventures.

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If you plan on selling your company (or portfolio company), the math for expense management is extremely compelling. Let me explain... Let's take the lens of a PE firm portco we work with. Saving $5M annually on AWS isn't just about cutting costs—it's about maximizing value. Over five years, that's $25M in extra dividends. But the real kicker? With a 12x EBITDA multiple, that $5M in extra EBITDA translates to an additional $60M in equity value at exit. So, in total, you're looking at an extra $85M over 5 years. If you take the lens of a high-growth company (e.g. reinvesting all cash into R&D), the compounding effect is so large the numbers look unrealistic. Go ahead and compound $5M annually at a 40% IRR for 20 years and see for yourself...

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I've mentored countless early-stage SaaS founders. Here's one trait that predicts their success. The winners take action: - They make swift decisions. - They get things done. - They learn & grow. The strugglers avoid action: - They say one thing but do another. - They're busy with everything. - Except what matters. Be a doer, not a ditherer. --- Want more insights to help build and grow your SaaS? Get my 5-minute weekly newsletter (link on my profile).

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Pure B2B SaaS dealflow for VCs will reduce for sure. As a founder, if you can become profitable and make millions while growing healthily, begs the question why give away equity for extra cash? Thanks to AI, making software has become significantly cheaper than ever before.

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I have only worked at startups 😅 The first time I was part of the $10M to $200M journey as an AE / first line manager, I was forever annoyed by the constant changes in our segment 🙄 The second time I was part of the $2M to $100M+ journey as a head of sales, I was consistently stressed by my never ending to do list and all the changes I needed to drive 😰 The third time I was part of the $3M to $100M+ journey as a CRO I was consistently worried that we weren’t changing at a fast enough pace 😩 Moral of the story ^ the stress never goes away but *what* stresses you out changes with experience 🤓 🔑 Constant changes and healthy conflict is a critical part of hyper growth! Creating a culture that celebrates the chaos of company building is a key long term unlock 🤗 ✅ #companybuilding #cro #startups #techcompanies #hypergrowth #revenuegrowth

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Relatively uncommon POV: I encourage founders to take some money off the table early. It's good for them and their families and better aligns them with me and our LPs. By being more comfortable financially, they’ll be less likely to sell early and can focus on going big.

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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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SOOOO many PE acquisitions happening right now (dead companies that got bad VC terms) Problem??👇 Once you acquire them, you realize their ops suck. ↳ (unsophisticated) very few internal systems or processes 🤦‍♂️ ↳ everything is “growth hacked” 🥴 ↳ they’re not positioned for maximum valuation 🙄 ↳ teams are under utilized (but often EXTRAORDINARILY talented) ↳ no concept of capital origination… seeing a lot of this on Captal.co So how does Captal help?? Companies can quickly restructure to maximize VALUATION Hint: on average each company that joins, results in the formation of 4.3 new orgs (🤫 family offices love us for this) Cheers 🥂 to #raisingvaluations

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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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Loving your customers is an underrated attribute in building companies. Do you actually like spending time with the people you serve? When we were starting out, one of the things that gave me conviction was how much I enjoyed talking to and spending time with CFOs, controllers, ops folks, etc. Finance teams, accountants, operators are generally pretty no-BS people. They're more willing than many to give you honest feedback about what you're building. They're also an often under-appreciated part of most orgs. Tons of software has been built for product teams, engineers, and sales/marketing over the last decade. But comparatively speaking, there's been less built for the back-office. That's started to change, but there's still a lot to build in these areas. Building something that solves a problem for a customer you care about is an immensely rewarding feeling. Indexing on that is an underrated driver of whether or not you should start a company or build a product than a lot of the more commonly asked questions.

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How to pitch: The company has zero traction —> “We’re early” You only have 2 customers —> “We’re working with design partners” You currently have no revenue but hoping some pipeline finally closes —> “we’re on track to exit this year at $3M ARR” You’re in the natural kill zone of a FAANG —> “We view them as partners rather than competitors” There’s no way the tech can actually work —>“We’re manifesting the future” And of course: One of your developers uses Co-Pilot to write some front end code —> “We’re an AI company”

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What the "f***"? How is growth possible? I'd be thinking the same right now if I was trying to grow revenue as a new founder in 2024. What are you facing? Less capital and harder to access. (dammit) Outbound is not landing like it did. (Balls..) New prospects are getting hard to wrangle (work life balance has trended towards life). I know I have felt like doing less work. Resource cost is at an all-time high (You used to get a senior dev for around 100k in 2016...goodluck getting an AI one for under a $700k) Budget scrutiny is higher. (lame) It feels impossible. (definitely) Welcome to underdog territory. Once the confusion dissipates. Accept it and then start to move smartly and boldly. Here is what you have going for you? People want the underdog to win, monopolies eventually suck and everyone hates the one person always wins (prices always go up and service always goes down) This opens up the following for you mucker: 1. Big Companies that lost Market Leader Status needs innovation to grab back share. (I'm think revenue share and distribution for you, $$$) 2. Call out the bullshit - Getting Inbound through crafting a unique voice and social object that addresses "We deserve better" argument. (Build your Youtube and Linkedin, invest that time for nutured leads $$$) 3. Focus on Truths - Excite and amaze your customers through establishing moments of value that only your tech can do. 4. Meet the market - Commercial models shift, craft your commercial offer. It has to slap. Not be clunky. People can only help the underdog if you become the underdog. Put it out there, that you are coming and you are hungry. Need a bump in the right direction? Use one of our Free Breakthrough Sessions at Counterpart OS (we offer 3 a week) and we can help that underdog wake up.

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If you can avoid VC money, you should, and I’ll tell you why. With the high-profile successes of VC-backed companies like Facebook and Google, raising venture capital has become the default way to start a company. But it shouldn’t be. As Gregory Shove points out in his post, bootstrapped companies often show more sustainable growth and stronger customer relationships compared to those relying on VC funding. This resonates with me, as the decision to avoid venture capital has allowed me to steer my company through ups and downs with greater autonomy. The path was challenging, but the control over my vision and direction has been invaluable. What are your thoughts on bootstrapping vs. venture capital?

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Today Brex is launching a new, supercharged banking experience for startups with Stripe and Column 🏦 The banking process can be difficult for new founders — especially non-U.S. residents. They often have to wait 5+ weeks for an EIN from the IRS before they can even apply for an account. Then after receiving it, they’re often faced with slow, expensive banking options that make it harder for founders to run their business. Today, we’re solving both problems with two key updates: First, in partnership with Column, we’ve supercharged the Brex business account — already used by 1 in 3 US startups — to bring you checking, treasury, and vault in one. 💵Checking: Send and receive funds worldwide with no transaction fees on ACH transfers, checks, and domestic wires. 💰Treasury: Earn yield from day 1 with 100% liquidity and easy auto transfers — all with no fees, minimums, or waiting periods (the only player in the space to do this). 🔐Vault: Diversify your funds across more than 20 program banks for up to $6M of total FDIC insurance (20x the national average). Second, in partnership with Stripe, companies incorporated with Stripe Atlas can now apply for a Brex business account immediately after incorporation. We will also reimburse 100% of the Stripe Atlas cost for Delaware C-Corp Incorporation for new customers ($500 value). Plus, you can begin using your Brex business account immediately, even as you await your EIN! We’re excited to roll this out and fuel your next big idea. Link in the comments for full details!

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Most people don’t know that when a practical SaaS company raises money from a growth equity investor or private equity investor, those dollars mostly go to the founders. It’s not risky rocket fuel for the business like the VC funding game. It’s mostly money off the table—a partial exit prize—for the savvy founders who created fuel-efficient businesses with steady growth. This practical world of growing and funding unsexy B2B SaaS companies is where most of the action is in the software business right now. It’s also where founders are winning more overall. These founders created valuable companies, and they kept their option to sell all or part of the business when it made sense to them. Growth equity investors play a huge role in helping successful SaaS founders take money off the table and keep growing their practical software businesses. In this week’s podcast, I discussed the world of growth equity investment with Philip Dur, a 20-year investor veteran and managing partner of PeakSpan Capital. PeakSpan Capital is a growth equity investment firm that works with bootstrapped SaaS founders who are scaling up to become sizable market leaders. Phil has been funding capital-efficient software founders for over 20 years and has served on 40 boards with those companies. Phil explains that the growth equity approach is almost the opposite of the VC investment game. For starters, Phil works with founders who want to keep growing their business but still retain the option to sell all or part of it at practical points along the way. Founders can’t do that when they take on big VC funding. In the venture world, it’s go big or go home, but it’s the opposite with growth equity partners. As Phil describes it: “I recommend every founder do some honest reflection and ask yourself, what is really the first exit value where I might want to transact and sell all or a part of my business? “If you raised or want to raise outside capital, make sure that your investment partners are making interesting returns at that outcome so you can make it happen if there's a great place for you to pursue liquidity. “Alignment and optionality are two unsung heroes that are hugely beneficial to bootstrapped and capital-efficient founders. Growth equity aligns with that. "You have the option to raise outside capital or not and the ability to sell all or part of your business at the right time. Alignment with your founders and any practical investment partners is required to be able to do that. "I think every time you raise, you should take secondary and take a little bit off the table." VCs and VC-funded founders don’t try to keep their optionality. That’s just one way that growth equity is different than venture funding. Phil describes more ways that growth equity can be practical and useful on the Practical Founders Podcast this week. Listen to this podcast here. https://lnkd.in/giawRYuS #practicalfounders

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