Raising a seed round is an accomplishment in itself, but it’s also the very beginning of a long story of ups and down in a startup journey. As Mikkel Svanne, CEO of Zendesk, emphasized at P9 Founder SaaScamp last year, the playbook changes entirely from 0–10k MRR, from 10k to 1M of MRR, from 1M to 10M, and from 10 to 100M when it comes to a SaaS business. Kolja at Delivery Hero would probably see it similarly for Marketplace businesses.
The presentation below focuses on this second stage: from 10k to 100k MRR for SaaS , or from 100k GMV to 500k GMV for marketplaces.
It consists of 9 parts, each of which tackles a specific topic: planning, target metrics for Series A, team and culture building, marketing and sales strategies, tech scaling, investors relationship and… fundraising strategies at the Series A stage.
4. Tech studies
Business studies
VC
Startup
Tech & Business studies
VC
MS in Applied Maths & Computer Science
Telecom Paristech
2011-2013 | Paris, FR
Master in Management
HEC Paris
2013-2014 | Paris, FR
Analyst
Alven Capital
2014-2015 | Paris, FR
Entrepreneur in Residence
OptioPay
2015 | Berlin, GER
Master of Science in Management Studies
MIT Sloan School of Management
2015-2016 | Cambridge, MA, USA
Associate
Point Nine Capital
2016-Present | Berlin, GER & Paris, FR
@louicop
5. @PointNineCap
SaaS - Data & ML
SaaS - Dev Tools
SaaS - App. Layer
@PointNineCap
Other
Marketplaces
Early-stage (100k-1m€), +150m€ in funds
80 portfolio companies, 20 countries
Berlin-based
7. A Series A: not just 1 target metric
Series A stage: PMF* or T/T/T** alignment
Plan for 18-24 months
12 months to be ready
1.
**Team/Traction/Tech
*Product Market Fit
@louicop
8. Net negative churn or viral acquisition
12-month Target for SaaS
Good idea of Payback Ratio
0 =>100k MRR - 3X YoY growth
2.a
@louicop
9. Unit economics work — at scale
12-month Target for Marketplaces
NR — From 50k€ to 200k€
GMV — from 50-200k€ to 500k-1M €
2.b
@louicop
10. Don’t hire expensive people
#1 Prio — Building Your Core Team
Attract AND Manage great people
Start hiring early
3.
@louicop
11. Spend time on onboarding employees
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast, technology for
lunch, and products for dinner”
Establish your culture
Don’t hire too fast
4.
12. Understand SQL costs per channel
Marketing for SaaS: Try, Fail, Succeed
Experiment with many channels
Keep on growing organic traffic
5.a
@louicop
13. Think about professionalizing supply
Marketing for Marketplaces: A Numbers Game
Start establishing a brand
Make sure 1 paid channel works
5.b
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14. Start selling in multiple countries
Sales for SaaS: Build and Monitor your Pipeline
Understand repeatability of sales
Monitor conversion rates in the pipe
6.6.
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15. Keep spending >50% your budget
Tech: Set up Processes but Maintain Agility
Make sure the tech does not break
Refactor the code early
7.
@louicop
16. Utilise VCs’ resources
Manage your relationship with investors
Maintain trust and transparency
Build the right reporting early on
8.
@louicop
17. Tell a story, don’t show only KPIs
12 months after: On the road(show) again
Ask for warm intros
Inquire about existing investors’ commitment
9.
@louicop
20. „PRE-SEED“ SEED SERIES A SERIES B SERIES C
$500k-$1MAMOUNT
VALUATION
INVESTORS
$1-5M
Friends & Family, Angels,
Pre-Seed Funds
$1-3M
$3-8M
$5-12M
Angels, Micro VCs VCs VCs VCs, PE
$10-40M $50-200M
$10-30M
MONTHLY GMV $50-200K $500k-1M $5-10M
TEAM Senior leadership in
most functions.
Proven ability to
recruit senior people.
$100M+
$20M+
$30M+
SUPPLY
&
DEMAND
DYNAMICS
Smart, committed guys/girls
with relevant expertise/skills.
No „star“ VPs yet.
Often good director-
level hires.
Proven ability to attract
& manage great people.
Complete senior
management team.
Demand is enthusiasts and early fans.
Supply is individual sellers, “mom and pop” shops.
Customer acquisition is (largely) organic.
MARKETING &
GROWTH
Understanding of best
practices; good ideas.
Strong indications of
demand (e.g. organic
trial signups).
Strong organic demand.
Success with at least one
(not necessarily scalable)
customer acquisition
channel.
Excellent understanding
of growth/marketing
costs and CAC payback
times by channel.
Increasing confidence in
the scalability of the
growth/marketing
machine.
Predictable, profitable,
scalable growth/
marketing machine.
DEFENSIBILITY
PRODUCT/
MARKET FIT
Market research
indicates strong need
for the product.
Prototype / basic product
with first activity.
Strong indications of PMF
from early customers/users.
Initial liquidity on the
platform.
MARKET /
POTENTIAL
Belief in $100M+ of GMV.
GooD LUCK! :-) Point Nine and Version One
MARKETPLACE FUNDING IN 2016
Clear PMF and Increasing evidence of PMF in larger market.
~ ~
TECH Stellar growth-hacking
co-founder.
Strong tech co-founder
with relevant experience
is a big plus.
Proven ability to move fast
& break things … with
emphasis on moving fast. :)
Starting to think about
building robust tech with
scalability and putting
processes in place.
Proven ability to attract
and manage great
engineers.
Product scales, but still
breaks once in a while.
Continued high product
development velocity.
Excellent tech leadership.
Product doesn’t break with scale.
Product meets security and trust and safety
standards for all activity transacted on the
marketplace.
~
MONTHLY NET
REVENUE
< $50K < $200K $200-500K $1M+
Demand moves towards mainstream buyers.
Supply is professionalised.
Customer acquisition is largely paid.
Conviction that there is
$100M+ of GMV.
Increasing evidence of
$1bn of GMV.
Increasing evidence of
$1-10bn of GMV.
Increasing evidence of
$10bn+ of GMV.
Increasing network effects
UNIT
ECONOMICS
Unit economics should
work based on intuitive
theory.
Some evidence unit
economics work.
Unit economics work and
indications they will
continue to work at
scale.
Conviction unit
economics work at scale
or they work already.
Unit economics work.
