Should I Sell for $50m … Or Push On And Try to Build a Unicorn?
BusinessInsider had a great story this week on Datto’s $1b exit to Vista Private Equity (more on the new role of PE in SaaS here). So much of it resonated with me, especially the story of the CEO’s 10 year journey, and turning down a $100m offer to sell. A decent offer to buy your […]
Why The LinkedIn Acquisition is So Important to SaaS
So, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $25.6 billion dollars. That headline shocked all of us the other day. But if you step back, it’s not that impressive, the raw number itself. After all, as a public company, LinkedIn was worth $32 billion just a few months earlier, and had been on one heck of a run […]
Raising More Than $20m in Venture Capital? It’s All Good — If You Are Even Better Than Box
For the past few years, it’s been pretty confusing trying to understand what’s going on in SaaS fundraising. Starting in ’13 through mid-’15, rounds dramatically grew in size and pace, and dozens of unicorns were minted. Things then slowed down dramatically in Q1 ’16, as the SaaS public markets crashed … and then recovered in […]
Where’s Our Facebook and WhatsApp?
Right now, a few doubts have creeped into the SaaS investor community. Multiples have plummeted since February. And for confusing reasons. Because … the best SaaS companies are growing faster than ever. And even the ones that haven’t missed a beat, like Salesforce, Atlassian, Marketo, Hubspot, etc. still have gotten hit: None of that worries […]
My 4 Year Anniversary. Thoughts on Selling Your Company.
So I’ve sold thrice. Twice as a founder, once as part of the management team of a start-up. And been through one failed Web 1.0 IPO. I’ve learned a lot. One time, the sale was clearly a friggin’ mistake. We sold to eToys for $900 million on paper, instead of a more complex deal with […]
