Unveiling the 2023 SaaS Funding Napkin — At the annual SaaStr conference in San Mateo three weeks ago, I delved into fundraising trends in 2023, discussing the implications of investors’ new-found love for efficiency vs. growth at all costs for founders, and why you should expect AI to come up in (almost) every pitch meeting. Here’s a…

One of the lessons I, along with many other founders and investors, have learned in my roughly 15-year journey in SaaS investing is that most businesses adopt new technologies at a painfully slow pace. This might sound like an odd statement, considering how rapidly products like YouTube, Instagram, and, more…

Introducing the Founder Salary Calculator 2023 — Several years ago, I did a bit of research into founder compensation and created a simple model that calculates what a typical founder salary might look like based on a few input factors. The post became surprisingly popular — not because it was based on particularly extensive benchmarking research…

Everything you always wanted to know about cohort analysis (but were afraid to ask) — Back in 2012, I wrote a blog post titled “Know your user cohorts”, which began like this: “One of the most important tools to better understand the usage of a web application — or a service, a game or a mobile app, it doesn’t matter — is a cohort…

Last week, Marc Andreessen published a blog post titled “Why AI Will Save the World”. He begins by enumerating the ways AI will improve all aspects of life. I 100% agree with everything here. I can’t wait until every child has an “infinitely patient, infinitely compassionate, infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely helpful”…

Does the acceleration in AI make your SaaS company more or less defensible? — Last week, I looked into the question if AI is a platform shift as disruptive as the move from on-premise to the Cloud. My conclusion was that Generative AI is an asteroid impact event for B2B software, comparable to the launch of the iPhone or the Internet itself. But unlike…

A few months ago, I started to hash out some thoughts and draft up some wireframes for a blog post about a “Copilot for Office Workers” product idea. With everything that’s been happening in AI in the last few months, that feels like a very long time ago. :-) I…

Speed and Adaptability Will Define the B2B SaaS Winners in the Generative AI (R)evolution — To say there’s no shortage of opinions on ChatGPT and the future of AI would be an understatement. With voices ranging from AI researchers, builders, and investors to the notorious clickbait “AI influencer” on social media, it seems like everyone has something to say. Perhaps I shouldn’t add to the…

Easy-to-implement tips and tricks to keep your money safe — As I said on Twitter yesterday, most (if not almost all) VCs — ourselves included — have failed to talk to founders about where they store their cash. We spend enormous amounts of time discussing runway, burn, and financing with founders. But if a startup has stored its cash…