4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2017
⏱️ 34 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Jason Lemkin is the Founder @ SaaStr, now with the $70m SaaStr Fund, Jason has paved the way for the new wave of VC in what I describe the 'platformification of VC'. Jason has led or sourced the first VC investment in some of the fastest growing SaaS companies of today with the likes of Algolia, TalkDesk, Rainforest QA and PipeDrive. Prior to being in VC, Jason was the Co-Founder @ Echosign, leading to the very successful acquisition by Adobe where he oversaw Jason oversaw the growth of Adobe Document Services ARR from $50m in 2012 to $100m in 2013.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Jason made his way into the world of VC from being a $100m+ exit founder to founding SaaStr and SaaStr Fund?
2.) What is it like for Jason having his own fund vs being part of a bigger fund? What does the investment cheque size say to founders about the fund? Should they be concerned if the investment represents less than 1% of the fund?
3.) What was the fundraising process and environment like for Jason with SaaStr? Is all LP money the same? What differentiated value-add elements can LPs provide fund managers?
4.) Does Jason agree that most VCs do not add value? How does Jason look to add value with his 3 pronged approach? Where does Jason believe that most startups need help and advice?
5.) How does Jason evaluate the micro-VC stage at present? Where does Jason see opportunity? Where does he believe the space is over-heated?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:Â
Jason’s Most Recent Investment: Automile
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0:00.0 | This is the 20 minute VC and welcome back to another week in the world of venture capital with me, |
0:04.1 | your host Harry Stebbings on at H. Stebbings on Snapchat or writing some of my many learnings |
0:08.7 | from interviewing some of the world's best investors on MahitoVC.com. I'd absolutely love to hear your |
0:13.2 | thoughts and feedback on that. However, to the show today and I'm honoured to welcome a guest who's been |
0:17.4 | a focal point of my career and development. As a friend and a mentor and an |
0:21.0 | advisor, I would not be where I am today without this man and I'm so grateful for all he's done. |
0:25.4 | I'm also so delighted then to be joined by Jason Lemkin, founder at Sasta. Now with the $70 million |
0:30.2 | Sasta fund, Jason has paved the way for the new wave of VC in what I described the platformification of VC. Check out MahitoVC.com to read more about my thesis on this and the future of VC and platforms. |
0:41.5 | But back to Jason and he's led or sourced the first VC investment in some of the fastest growing SaaS companies of today with the lights of Algolia, Talk Desk, Rainforest, QA and pipe drive, just to name a few. |
0:51.7 | And prior to being in VC, Jason was the co-founder at Echo Sign, leading to the very successful |
0:55.7 | acquisition by Adobe, where he oversaw the growth of Adobe Document Services ARR from $50 million |
1:01.1 | in 2012 to a staggering $100 million in 2013. |
1:04.9 | But before we dive into the show today, there are some products that you simply cannot |
1:08.3 | remember what life was like before them. |
1:10.2 | For me, that's X.com. |
1:11.8 | They bring you Amy and Andrew, their AI-powered personal assistance for scheduling meetings. |
1:16.6 | And the beauty of Amy or Andrew is you interact with them like you would any other person. |
1:20.7 | And it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. |
1:25.7 | Even better, though. |
1:26.4 | There's no sign in, no password, |
1:28.3 | no download, all you do is CCAME at X.A.I. Absolutely fantastic. And you can check it out now |
1:34.0 | at X.coma.I. It really is a must. And on the topic of streamlining, traditionally long |
... |
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