Get Funded, Stay Funded
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© 2021 SaaSOptics brings you top finance executives inspired by SaaStr, Drift, Jason Lemkin, Tim Ferris, Invest Talk, P&L, Startup Stories, think like a CEO, VC20, Startup podcast, Dave Gerdhart, Harry Stebbings, Hypergrowth, profitwell, SaaS Revolution Show, Seeking Wisdom
Description
This show is for entrepreneurs who want to learn the in's and out's of raising capital in today's marketplace. Learn from exclusive conversations with some of the top executives, leaders, and minds who have been successful and their real stories in front of investors. Hear from our team who has experience working with over 100+ VC's and 600+ B2B SaaS business on their road to raising over 9 billion in capital including the right metrics that matter. Welcome to Get Funded, Stay Funded with Derrick Thomas.
We hope that this podcast helps you on your own journey , whether now or in the future, to becoming the next Unicorn.
We hope that this podcast helps you on your own journey , whether now or in the future, to becoming the next Unicorn.
18 Episodes
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Lisa Calhoun, successful founder turned Venture Capitalist (VC), shares her insight on the current VC landscape and how to best prepare for investor meetings to continue fueling your business with cash.
What you’ll learn:
What investors expect in the next few months
How VC firms are supporting founders during crisis
How to ensure VC firms align with your values and goals
On this episode we sit down with Ben Murray, "The SaaS CFO" & CFO of Cartegraph as we kick off a 7 part series on How to Scale and Grow Your Financial Operations. Here is the link to view Ben's checklist on Closing Your Books. https://www.thesaascfo.com/saasoptics/
On this episode we look at a few solutions a growing B2B SaaS company must have and how we here at SaaSOptics can manage all of our FinOps with 1 full-time team member for 90 employees and almost 700 customers. For questions or comments reach out to me here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrickmthomas/
On this episode we speak with Jeff Haskett, President of Clarus R+D, on the Path Act, key tax advantages you can be getting to help you stay funded and extend your capital. Having raised multiple rounds of funding themselves, Jeff has helped hundreds of SaaS businesses get back money they deserve.
For more information on Clarus R+D: https://clarusrd.com/saasoptics/
In this episode, we speak with Peter Chase, co-founder and EVP of Scribe Software that was acquired by TIBCO for 7x SaaS arr, had 160% net retention and a 3% churn rate. Now the founder of AccelARRate, he is helping B2B SaaS companies achieve similar results.
Peter breaks down what made them successful, lessons learned from the acquisition, and 3 strategies you should be implementing to fuel your growth.
Visit AccelARRate: https://www.accelarrate.com/
On this episode we talk to VP of Finance & Operations Brian Montminy about what Lessonly has been up to, the 3 rounds of funding they have raised, how Lessonly's executive team prepared for each round of funding, the things the rest of the company doesn't hear about, the nuances that you should be aware of, what 2020 holds for Lessonly and 2 takeaways.
On this episode we cover: Differences between ARR/MRR. What goes into the calculation? How do you set it up? When do you use one vs the other? What are pain points of each? What your investor is looking for?
On this episode we chat with Peter Ord, forder VP of Sales at Dealer Socket and Founder & CEO of Beynd.
1. Being a first time founder, how Ord learned to navigate the waters of raising capital? Where to look who to turn to? Did he have mentors that helped him along the way?
2. How many investors did he need to speak with before choosing the right one?
3. What signs in their business told Beynd was ready for a seed round?
4. What is in store next for Beynd?
5. Anything Peter would do differently looking back?
What We Cover on This Episode: How CompuServe paved the way for software and B2B SaaS 30 years later. What it was like for Wilkins to take 2 companies public? What would he do differently if you had to go back and do it again? Why he decided to become the CEO of FMX? Why FMX decided to go with SaaS Capital for a line of credit vs an equity round? Next steps for FMX.
On this episode we cover: Why using recognized revenue isnt enough? What other metrics you should be looking at? Why waiting to make the change could be a costly mistake in your valuation? What story are you seeing in your business? How to make the change now before its too late?
On this episode, we sit down with Tim McCormick, CEO of SaaSOptics. Tim has 30+ years in the software business - leading sales and marketing teams. He has been apart of 2 successful exits - 1 with Internet Security Systems (ISS) in 2006 sold to IBM for $1.3B (lead global marketing) and the other was JouleX in 2013, sold to Cisco for $107M (lead sales & marketing). He joined SaaSOptics as 8th employee in 2016 as CEO, led our Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds.
What we cover: The three things to look for in raising a healthy round of funding? Why going for the biggest valuation doesn't always make the most sense for your business? Why different businesses have different size rounds of funding? Best practices to follow when raising your next round. And a bonus question about the hoildays.
What we cover in this episode: What is CAC and CLV? What divisions of the business care about it? What makes up the calculation? Why are they important for the entirety of a SaaS business to look at? What is an optimal ratio you should be achieving? What ratio will scare investors away?
What we cover in this episode:
How to understand the lifecycle of a startup and the benchmarks to be aware of when raising each round of funding? What should your ARR be when you start seeking out a seed round vs. series A? The difference between $0-$500K vs a business that is $10M+ in ARR and when your mindset should be to go get funding vs. making sure you stay funded.
Clayton Whitfield is the Chief Customer Officer and Co-Founder of SaaSOptics. Having served more than 800 customers over 10 years in business, SaaSOptics is an affordable, cloud based Subscription Management software for B2B SaaS businesses. Prior to SaaSOptics, Clayton was the VP of Product Development at MarketingCentral and has an MBA from Emory University.
Chad Hooker is the VP of Fulcrum Equity Partners. Prior to FEP, Chad was a VP of strategy and development and has spent time as an investment banking analyst.
What we cover in this episode: The current landscape of capital raising. Chad's thoughts on where the market is headed. What he looks for in an entrepreneurs pitch, key things to think through before your make your pitch, red flags that will scare investors, how many companies pitch Fulcrum annually compared to how many they invest in and best practices to keep in mind.
Nicolas Vandenberghe began his career selling newspapers in the streets of Paris in high school, studied
Maths at Ecole Polytechnique and then received his MBA from Stanford GSB. He started and sold 3 tech
companies with up to 65 employees and $11M in revenues, and also ran sales for a $2B telecom firm
negotiating billion-dollar deals with companies like Google. Most recently in 2016, he co-founded his 4 th
startup and presently is the CEO of the SaaS firm Chili Piper – a pioneer in Buyer Enablement. The
company is fully distributed – leveraging global talent with employees in 28 cities in 14 countries. Its
scheduling platform is used by Intuit, Square, Twilio and more than 300+ companies worldwide for
multiple use cases, from connecting prospects to sales reps instantly upon submitting a form to
automating their on-boarding process. Nicolas bootstrapped Chili Piper past $2M ARR before attracting
$3M in seed funding in 2019.
On this episode we cover: How and why Chili Piper is working 100% remote, the culture they are building, and a new competition they are hosting. We also discuss the signs he looks for in knowing when to raise a seed round of funding, when to start looking for a Series A investment, and some strategic takeaways for his years of experience building successful companies.
Thomas Bass, SaaSOptics head of Customer Success Managers, joins us to talk about the metrics that matter for your SaaS business. As he has launched CSM programs at other startups and currently launching the CSM program at SaaSOptics, he dialogues with hundreds of customers annually helping them understand these important metrics.
What we will cover in this episode: What if you dont have a CSM program? What counts as a renewal? Non standard renewals. What if a client cancels and comes back? How do you handle that? What do you do when the renewal isn’t back to back? What is a retention rate you should be achieving in your business. SMB vs enterprise customer? When should you start reaching out to your customers to have a renewal conversation. Some key take aways.
Clayton Whitfield is the Chief Customer Officer and Co-Founder of SaaSOptics. Having served more than 800 customers over 10 years in business, SaaSOptics is an affordable, cloud based Subscription Management software for B2B SaaS businesses. Prior to SaaSOptics, Clayton was the VP of Product Development at MarketingCentral and has an MBA from Emory University.
What we will cover:
How Clayton decided to segment the SaaSOptics customer base by different profiles? Why you should care about churn profiles for your customer base? How to speak to your churn number intelligently when pitching to investors? The steps to constructing a churn profile. How to segment your customer base logically to better understand the story your churn number is telling? Examples from Clayton's conversations with over 800 customers.
We are finally launching something we have been wanting to do for a long time. With a mix of conversations, inside content and SaaS metrics. We are going to dive deep on topics such as how to think like an investor, churn profiles, MRR vs. ARR, how to know you're ready to raise a seed round, CAC/CLV ratio, what it takes to raise a series B and much more. Plus we will be answering any questions you have with some bonus content along the way.
We hope you enjoy on your journey to get funded and stay funded.
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