saas Archives – The Syndicate

Product and Go To Market Fit, Funding Milestones and Enterprise SaaS with Tae Hea Nahm of Storm Ventures

December 23, 2019 by Matt

Tae Hea Nahm is co-founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures and co-author of Survival To Thrival. Survival to Thrival is a mind-meld of a 3x entrepreneur (Bob Tinker) and a VC/board member (TH Nahm), and other enterprise entrepreneurs, which demystifies building enterprise startups. Tae Hea was the founding CEO of Airespace, later sold to Cisco for $450m. Currently, he is interested in “AI + SaaS” companies.

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Passing on Tesla’s Seed Round and Why Greg Robinson Doesn’t Regret It, Plus Insights into Midwest Investing and the Tech Bubble

September 2, 2019 by Matt

Greg Robinson is the Managing Director of 4490 Ventures focused on underserved markets. Prior to that, Managing Director at Peninsula Ventures in Palo Alto, to cofounder & COO of Cogent Technologies, an enterprise software company that was acquired by a public company.

Listen and Learn:

Why Greg moved to the Midwest to focus on middle-of-the-country investing
The 4x cheaper reason to invest in the Midwest
Why Greg doesn’t regret passing on investing in Tesla
The big differences between the coasts and Wisconsin when it comes to entrepreneurs and funding
Greg’s thoughts on the creation of mega VC funds and what it does to the ecosystem
Are we in an investment bubble
When to think about corporate venture partners

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How to Break into VC and the Future of B2B SaaS Investing with Sumay Parikh of Quake Capital

December 17, 2018 by Matt

Sumay Parikh is VC with Quake Capital, a NYC based seed fund and accelerator focused on early-stage tech. He has experience in distressed businesses, marketing, strategic partnerships, product development, and operations. Before Quake he bootstrapped a Real Estate Investment Fund in the Midwest, constructing High-End hotels. He has experience leading strategy and growth at several velocity stage startups. He is also the host of The Unsexy Startup podcast.

Listen and Learn:

Is B2B SaaS beyond its peak and where should you look for long-term returns
What individuals interested in venture need to know about the industry and how to enter it
Why VC may be a bit bloated and Sumay thinks we’re heading for a bull market
How VC superfunds are changing the venture landscape and incentives for investing
What happens after the impending economic downturn
Why Sumay is worried about AI and skeptical about blockchain
How to optimize learning and grow as a VC
What would happen if venture capital had longer fund cycles

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FringeFM 17 – AI, Education and the Role of Women in Tech and Venture with Ann Miura-Ko, General Partner at Floodgate

July 23, 2018 by Regine

Ann Miura-Ko (@annimaniac) has been called “the most powerful woman in startups” by Forbes and is a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Stanford. The child of a rocket scientist at NASA, Ann is a Palo Alto native and has been steeped in technology startups from when she was a teenager. Prior to co-founding FLOODGATE, she worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company.

Some of Ann’s investments include Lyft, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Refinery29, JoyRun, TaskRabbit, and Modcloth. Given the success of her investments she was on the 2017 Midas List of top 100 venture capitalists.

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How Qualcomm Ventures Drives Returns by Investing Across Geographies and What the Future Holds with Varun Jain

April 30, 2018 by Matt

Varun Jain currently leads Qualcomm Ventures’ global early-stage fund, focused on Seed and Series A opportunities. This fund has scaled to $100M+ AUM and 75+ global investments, which include winners such as Cruise Automation (acquired by GM), 99 (acquired by Didi) and Zoom. He also serves the global lead for the fund’s investments in the automotive sector. In 2017 and 2018, Varun was recognized as one among the top 20 Rising Stars in the corporate venture industry by Global Corporate Venturing.

Qualcomm Ventures is one of the leading corporate venture funds in the world with 200+ active investments and numerous exits, including 8 billion dollar plus outcomes in last 7 years.

Listen and Learn:

The challenges of being a corporate VC (and the benefits)
How autonomous vehicles and transport changes will affect everyday life
Why Varun is big on IoT but not industrial
The unconventional way Varun invested in a unicorn
How Varun views crypto
Why AI is overhyped and drones are coming back in style
Why North America is still the best location for startup investing
How investing differs across regions and how to make it work
Continue Reading …

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Why Mobile and IoT are the Future and How Canada is Leading the Way with Alex Baker of Relay Ventures

March 19, 2018 by Matt

Alex is a Partner at Relay Ventures, an early stage venture fund exclusively focused on mobile computing. Alex oversees direct investments in a broad range of mobile applications and services companies. Alex is an active board member and observer in supporting Bionym, Influitive, ClearFit, TouchBistro, Kira and teaBOT. Alex overseas the Fund’s affiliate program investments that include Highline and Next36, and Alex is an advisor to DMZ (Ryerson).

Alex is a frequent speaker and panelist at corporate and venture capital events, including CIX, CTIA Wireless, IDCEE (Ukraine) and Mobile Monday.

Listen and Learn:

The art of taking advantage of unexpected opportunities
Why Canada’s startup ecosystem has been changing so drastically
Alex’s thoughts on mobile and where we are in the adoption curve
Why IoT is an interesting industry for both B2B and B2C
How Toronto compares to other tech hubs in terms of talent
The challenges with investing in multiple business models
How governments can help rather than hurt innovation
Why Canada’s immigration policy is attracting a ton of talent to the country
How much US investors are investing in Canadian startups
Why cryptocurrencies are very overrated

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Industrial IoT is Eating the World of Boring but Incredibly Lucrative Businesses with Scott MacDonald of McRock Capital

March 12, 2018 by Matt

Scott MacDonald is the co-founder of McRock Capital, a Toronto based VC firm focused on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). He is also the Director and Chairman of numerous high-growth public and private companies.

Listen and Learn:

The reason Scott only invests in IoT with recurring revenue
What investors and entrepreneurs need to know about Canadian ecosystem
How IoT startups can use software and data to differentiate
Why early stage IoT investing is a loser’s game
How to evaluate enterprise level IoT deals
The reason so much money is pouring into Canadian startups

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The Most Important Metrics and Milestones for SaaS Startups Raising Seed and Series A Funding with Mike Cardamone of Acceleprise

March 5, 2018 by Matt

Michael Cardamone was one of the first 30 employees at Box and went on to lead partnerships at AcademixDirect. After 6 years in operating roles, he started and is now the Managing Director of Accelerise in San Francisco (www.acceleprise.vc), an enterprise software focused accelerator backed by leading operators.

In addition to Acceleprise, he is a Venture Partner for the SaaStr fund, a $70M fund led by Jason Lemkin and also an angel investor in the seed rounds of Flexport, Naturebox and TalentIQ; among others.

Listen and Learn:

The evolution of SaaS as a business model
Typical targets for seed and Series A SaaS fundraising
How to build and scale a successful accelerator
What are most important KPIs for all SaaS founders to track
How running an accelerator and making investments occassionally create problems
The purpose and power of venture partners
How to think about index investing
Why SaaS is still a relevant industry
The problem and promise of AI

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Todays Tech Bubble, Why Many VCs Fail Founders and Managing Investor Expectations with Brad Svrluga of Primary.vc

February 23, 2018 by Matt

Brad is a co-founder and General Partner at Primary Venture Partners (formerly High Peaks Venture Partners). He has been a venture investor since the bubble days of the late 1990s, starting his investing career with The Berkshires Capital Investors and Village Ventures. Prior to his VC career, he was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group, leading projects out of the firm’s Cambridge, South Africa, and Brazil offices.

Listen and Learn:

The challenges with emerging market investing
What investors and VCs need to know about bubble and collapsese
How to balance investor expectations with founder goals
Is today a tech bubble?
How fund size affects outcomes on investment bets
Why the financial crisis was great for NYC
The one question Brad always asks founders
What founders NEED to know about VC commitment to portfolio companies

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Don’t Mine for Gold When You Can Sell Shovels

January 15, 2018 by Matt

Originally posted on mattward.io

Get rich or die trying — that’s a common mantra among entrepreneurs, gangsters and drug dealers.

I know that was my mindset. How can I hustle my way to a million bucks?

That was the question I asked myself every day, and night.

Looking back, this was the wrong question to ask. But as Kanye says:

“Money ain’t everything, not having it is” — Kanye West

When you’re broke and need a quick buck fast, nothing else matters. Food, shelter, survival… these are all dependent on wealth. And the poor rarely plan in advance — it is all hand to fist.

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