20VC: Lessons Learnt From Marc Benioff & Selling To Salesforce For $2.7bn, What Product Market Fit Really Looks Like & Why Pricing Is Startup's Biggest Problem with Scott Dorsey, Managing Partner @ HighAlpha
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2016
⏱️ 33 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Scott Dorsey is the Managing Partner @ High Alpa, the startup studio that both builds and invests in some of the most exciting SaaS companies today. Prior to HighAlpha, Scott was a successful entrepreneur who co-founded ExactTarget and led the company from start-up to global marketing software leader. ExactTarget went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2012 and sold to Salesforce.com in July 2013 for $2.7 billion. At Salesforce, Scott worked directly with Marc Benioff to execute the ExactTarget vision within Salesforce.
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In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Scott made his way into the world of venture from founding ExactTarget?
2.) What was it like to work directly for Marc Benioff? What were the biggest learnings and takeaways? What were the biggest challenges?
3.) With a startup studio producing companies and a fund investing in them, how does Scott avoid the negative signalling that is inherent within these 2 structures?
4.) Having seen so many successful SaaS startups, what does product market fit look like to Scott? From the studio, what are the biggest challenges his startups face in hitting product market fit?
5.) What are the fundamentals that all startups should focus on in the quest for product market fit? What are the challenges? How should this be measured?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Scott’s Fave Blog: SaaStr
Scott’s Fave Book: Good To Great by Jim Collins
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Scott on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the 20-minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings on Snapchat at H. Stebbings. |
| 0:04.7 | Now, I do have some extremely exciting news for you today, as the 20-minute VC is now a VC himself. |
| 0:10.4 | Yes, I'm delighted and very proud to say that I've joined Atomico, one of Europe's leading early-stage venture funds investing from series A and beyond. And if you'd like to find out more about that and the thought process behind the move and the future ahead for me, then you can read more on where else, mahitovc.com, |
| 0:25.4 | and I'd like to start by saying that there will be no changes to the frequency or the content |
| 0:29.1 | on the 20 minute VC or Saster. And you can expect play to be resumed as normal. I might just have |
| 0:34.3 | a little more thoughts and insight on the intricacies of VC and investing, one might hope. |
| 0:39.0 | However, to the show today, and I'm delighted to be joined by a great of the industry, as Scott Dorsey joins us in the hot seat today. |
| 0:45.0 | Now, Scott is the managing partner at High Alpha, the startup studio that both builds and invests in some of the most exciting SaaS companies today. |
| 0:52.5 | Prior to High Alpha, Scott was a successful |
| 0:54.6 | entrepreneur who co-founded Exact Target and led the company from startup to global marketing |
| 0:59.6 | software leader, and exact target went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2012, |
| 1:04.4 | and sold to Salesforce.com in July 2013 for $2.7 billion. At Salesforce, Scott worked directly with Mark Benioff to execute the exact |
| 1:12.7 | target vision within Salesforce. I'd also like to say a huge thanks to Jason Lemkin for the intro |
| 1:17.3 | to Scott's day, without which the show could not have happened. But before we meet Scott, |
| 1:21.5 | accounting always seemed like such a massive headache to me, but it doesn't have to be. Zero is beautiful, |
| 1:26.6 | easy to use online accounting |
| 1:28.0 | software for small businesses. With Zero, you can easily manage your accounting anytime, anywhere, |
| 1:32.5 | from your computer or mobile device. When you add zero to your small business, you're able |
| 1:36.6 | to send online invoices and get paid faster. You can get an instant view of your cash flow. You |
| 1:41.3 | can even track your payroll and keep tabs on your inventory, |
| 1:47.8 | and partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time, whenever you like. |
| 1:51.6 | You can also customize your Zero experience with over 500 business apps, |
... |
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