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Browse: Home / The Journey

The Journey

Jyoti Bansal and The AppDynamics Story: From Idea to $3.7B (Video + Transcript)

Jyoti Bansal and The AppDynamics Story: From Idea to $3.7B (Video + Transcript)

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 9, 2017

Jyoti Bansal, Founder & Chairman of AppDynamics joined Jason Lemkin on stage at SaaStr Annual 2017 to give us the inside scoop on his 11th-hour decision to sell to Cisco rather than going public — and the path he took to get IPO-ready. Jason opened the ‘17 Annual with an acknowledgment of the global nature […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged case studies, SaaStr Annual Sessions, The Journey, video

Last Minute Tips & Tricks for The SaaStr Annual!

Last Minute Tips & Tricks for The SaaStr Annual!

By Jason M. Lemkin on February 6, 2017

It’s almost here.  The 2017 SaaStr Annual. Just a few extra last minute tips: It Will Be Packed.  We’ll have ~10,000 nominal attendees which realistically means about 5,000 on-site at any given time at the Bill Graham (not everyone will be there at all times, etc).  The Bill Graham is a super fun venue, the […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, exit, growth, scale, The Journey

Josh Stein, Partner @ DFJ: What Makes a Great SaaS CEO (Video + Transcript)

Josh Stein, Partner @ DFJ: What Makes a Great SaaS CEO (Video + Transcript)

By Jason M. Lemkin on September 30, 2016

As a partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Josh Stein has invested in some of the most well-known SaaS companies in the world like Box and Yammer and spent plenty of time with truly remarkable SaaS CEOs. In this session he and Jason Lemkin sit down and dive into what really makes a great CEO, and how that […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged case studies, Getting Going, growth, Hiring & Operations, saas-startups, SaaStr Annual Sessions, The Journey, video

Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot: From Day 0 to IPO. What Went to Plan. What Most Certainly Didn’t (Video + Transcript)

Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot: From Day 0 to IPO. What Went to Plan. What Most Certainly Didn’t (Video + Transcript)

By Jason M. Lemkin on July 18, 2016

In anticipation of the upcoming SaaStr Annual 2017, we’ll be releasing the full series of transcripts and videos from all the awesome 2016 sessions. There are rules in starting an enterprise software company. You will fail if you: 1) try to build a suite of products out of the gate, 2) focus solely on SMBs, or 3) […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged case studies, Customer Success, growth, pricing, Pricing & Revenue, Product & Competition, SaaStr Annual Sessions, sales, Sales & Customer Success, The Journey, video

How to Avoid Being Replaced as CEO by Your VCs

How to Avoid Being Replaced as CEO by Your VCs

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 13, 2016

Worried about a bunch of VCs replacing you?  You should be a little worried, probably. Just the other day, a CEO that I know fairly well was fired by a VC.  Strange thing was, the VC didn’t talk to the rest of the board.  Who didn’t agree.  So he got un-fired. Awk. Ward. CEOs getting […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Fundraising & Exits, growth, The Journey, venture capital

The Difference Between Very, Very Good Founders.  And Truly Great Founders.

The Difference Between Very, Very Good Founders. And Truly Great Founders.

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 10, 2016

I consider myself a “Magna Cum Laude Minus” founder.  Nothing I’ve done has ever failed (although I’ve almost failed many times).  I returned 5x to my investors — twice.  Look, that’s pretty good.   And I think I was a pretty good CEO.  But not the very, very best. And I didn’t really know what […]

Posted in Featured Posts, Trends & Concepts | Tagged 2 - Topic, The Journey

Faking Being in the Bay Area

Faking Being in the Bay Area

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 3, 2016

There’s an endless and lively debate about the advantage of being in the SF Bay Area in SaaS. I’ve done 22 investments.  The vast majority got started outside of SF, and all but 2 moved here.  I’ve invested in founders from Paris (3x), Estonia, Portugal, London, Sweden, Belgium, Washington D.C., Chicago, New York, and more. […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, Getting to Initial Scale, scale, The Journey, Traction & Scale

Don’t Let Them (Your Best Employees) Go

Don’t Let Them (Your Best Employees) Go

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 26, 2016

Now that a handful of next-generation SaaS companies have IPO’d, you can start to see the turnover more viscerally that you can observer at quieter, privately-held start-ups.  You see the VPs moving on.  6-12 months after almost any IPO, and especially after one that doesn’t create a slew of millionaires … folks leave.  It’s a […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, growth, Hiring & Operations, scale, The Journey

So Your App Is Just a “Nice to Have”

So Your App Is Just a “Nice to Have”

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 23, 2016

In the old days, folks would criticize start-ups as “just a feature”.  Oh Google/Salesforce/Microsoft will just build that.  Back in the day when the world was a desktop OS, there was a lot of truth to that.  When the web became our OS, that started to fade.  The reality is, in SaaS, Salesforce has built […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, Getting to Initial Scale, scale, The Journey, Traction & Scale

Raising More Than $20m in Venture Capital?  It’s All Good — If You Are Even Better Than Box

Raising More Than $20m in Venture Capital? It’s All Good — If You Are Even Better Than Box

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 9, 2016

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 […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 2 - Topic, Fundraising & Exits, IPOs & Exits, m&a, The Journey, venture capital

At $50k in MRR, Running Out of Money Is No Longer an Excuse

At $50k in MRR, Running Out of Money Is No Longer an Excuse

By Jason M. Lemkin on April 27, 2016

We’ve talked a lot about SaaStr on the challenges in getting from nothing to that first $1m-$1.5m in ARR, “Initial Traction”.  That is takes longer than you think.  That if you get 10 customers, you can get another 10, 100, and so on. There’s a particular moment in time I want to focus on here […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, Getting Going, saas-startups, The Journey

Quality of Life:  What Does It Mean For A Start-Up?

Quality of Life: What Does It Mean For A Start-Up?

By Jason M. Lemkin on November 9, 2015

Recently, I spent several hours with a new but great friend who has been on a vaguely similar journey to me.  This friend is one of the hardest working people in the industry.  20×7, near as I can tell.  On jets.  Investing at a breathtaking pace.  Innundated with calls, Slacks, emails, and all the rest. […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged The Journey

My 4 Year Anniversary.  Thoughts on Selling Your Company.

My 4 Year Anniversary. Thoughts on Selling Your Company.

By Jason M. Lemkin on July 17, 2015

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 […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged IPOs & Exits, m&a, The Journey

Don’t Worry About Losing All Your Investors’ Money

Don’t Worry About Losing All Your Investors’ Money

By Jason M. Lemkin on April 10, 2015

In both my start-ups, I was constantly worried about losing all my investors’ money.  The first time, my first start-up which we haven’t talked about, NanoGram Devices, I mainly worried about it because I realized we’d almost never have enough capital to achieve our long-term goals.  So, FBOW, we sold for $50,000,000 after 12.5 months. […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged echosign, investment, Investor, Metrics & Operations, Seed money, Series A round, Startup company, The Journey, venture capital | 1 Response

The Second-Timers:  Mark Organ, CEO/Founder of Influitive and Eloqua: “10 Hard-Won Lessons”

The Second-Timers: Mark Organ, CEO/Founder of Influitive and Eloqua: “10 Hard-Won Lessons”

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 8, 2015

We’ve had a lot of fun with our Second-Timers series, from successful SaaS CEOs who are now on their second SaaS company.  It started with our overview here, and since then, we’ve had Lessons Learned for The Second Time from Nick Mehta from Gainsight, Kris Duggan from Betterworks, and more. Up next is one of […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged case studies, Entrepreneurship, saas, startups, The Journey

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