20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Christoph Janz is the Co-Founder and General Partner @ Point Nine, one of Europe's leading early-stage firms with a portfolio including the likes of Zendesk, Algolia, Revolut, Nex Health, Loom and of course, Contentful. Prior to co-founding Point Nine, Christoph was a prolific angel investor and also the Co-Founder @ Pageflakes, leading the company from inception to their acquisition by LiveUniverse in 2008. Christoph is also one of the most thoughtful writers in SaaS and you can find his writing here.

In Today’s Episode with Christoph Janz You Will Learn:

1.) How did a cold email from the solo founder of Contentful convince Christoph to lead their first round? What was it about the email that made Christoph excited? How does Christoph advise founders today when it comes to crafting cold emails to VCs?

2.) The Market: How did Christoph analyze the market when making the investment? How much of a role does market sizing and analysis play in determining whether Christoph will make an investment? What matters more team or market? How did the market change in a way that Christoph was not expecting? How did it evolve in a way he was expecting?

3.) Business Model: How does Christoph advise SaaS founders today in crafting variable pricing mechanisms? How can you create a pricing mechanism that does not disincentivize usage but also optimizes for value extraction? Where does Christoph see many founders go wrong when it comes to pricing?

4.) Fundraising: How did the early fundraising rounds for Contentful come together? How does Christoph advise founders today on whether to take pre-emptive rounds? When can they be helpful? In what circumstances can they be very damaging? What is the best outcome that founders should be optimizing for today with fundraising?

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and it's time for a very special episode,
0:04.0	our episode of the month called The Memo. This is the show where we dive into the investment
0:07.6	decision of a unicorn company from the last 10 years with the partner that led that deal
0:12.1	at the firm. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by a friend and fellow European counterpart
0:16.2	in the form of Christoph Yan's point nine, and in this show, we'll be focusing on Christoph's investment in the unicorn that is contentful. For some context, point nine is one of Europe's
0:25.0	leading early stage firms, with a portfolio including the lights of Zendesk, Algolia, Revolut, Lume,
0:31.1	Nex Health, and of course, contentful. Prior to co-founding point nine, Christoph was a prolific
0:35.2	angel investor, and also the co-founder at Pageflakes,
0:37.9	leading the company from inception through to their acquisition by Live Universe in 2008.
0:42.7	Christoph is also one of the most thoughtful writers in SaaS, and you can find his blog on the site
0:47.0	at the 20-minutevc.com. That really is a must. But before we dive into the show today,
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	...

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