68 Insights by Chubby Brain

transcript

www.cbinsights.com 1

DON’Tdo these 68 things in your SaaS company

From HR to product to marketing, here’s some of our screwups.

Presented by Anand Sanwal, CEO & co-founder

First, some contextSome background on CB Insights so you can decide how much of what I’m about to say might be valid/valuable

“I just think it is serving a different kind of need. It’s a different business segment onto itself. And the segments that we are serving largely, I think, will remain separate and distinct from that. I don’t think customers suddenly woke up…and aid, ‘We really don’t care about consistently high quality products, and we don’t need service and we don’t need amenities.’ I just don’t buy it.”

– Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton on Airbnb

TECHNOLOGY IS EATING EVERY INDUSTRY

WE HELP YOU BITE BACKCB Insights’ technology market intelligence solution lets you predict, analyze and communicate emerging technology trends by mining millions of data points in ways that are beyond human cognition.

(if these three had a tech focused baby)www.cbinsights.com 5

Search engine organizing massive unstructured

data sets

CRM for big ideasand knowledge management

The tech industry’s most trusted and cited

analysts

See what other customers have to say at http://www.cbinsights.com/customer-love

“We use CB Insights to find emerging trends and interesting companies that might signal a shift in technology or require us to reallocate resources.”

TRUSTED BY THE WORLD’S LEADING COMPANIES

Beti CungCorporate Strategy, Microsoft

62 9 16

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 (YTD)

From the NY Times to Bloomberg, CB Insights data and analysts are cited by hundreds of leading media outlets every month.

THE MOST TRUSTED SOURCE FOR INSIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

CB INSIGHTS MEDIA CITATIONS PER YEAR (THROUGH Q3 2016)

Revenue-funded to 66 teammates

Raised $10M Growth Equity round (end ‘15)

Will be 150 at YE 2017 (vanity metric)

Because people are fixated on fundraising, the chart to the left shows our revenue of last year as funding rounds

Healthy 8-Figure Revenues

Grown revenue by 100%+ for last 3 years

Anand SanwalCEO / Co-founder, CB Insights

Ran American Express $50M Chairman’s Innovation Fund

Prior work in venture capital and M&A

Author of “Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management” (Wiley 2007)

Graduate of Wharton (Finance/Accounting) and University of Pennsylvania (Chemical Engineering)

@asanwal

Questions / Help

asanwal@cbinsights.com

3 Miscellaneous Facts

1. Worked at Kozmo.com –an infamous NYC dot com bust darling

2. Climbed Mt Kilimanjaro

3. Have run all 5 NYC borough ½ marathons

This will be useless forwantrepreneurs, people who believe VC is required to build a biz, folks who can’t grind, or folks selling $9.95/month SaaS products (and many others)

www.cbinsights.com 12quote by Mark Cuban

DON’Ttake advice from non-customers

“Only take advice from those who have to live with the consequences”

DON’Ttolerate high-performing assholes

They might provide short-term benefit but are cancerous to culture long-term.

DON’Tfall in love with pedigree

There are plenty of smart folks who aren’t Google or Stanford alums.

DON’Thalf-ass onboarding of new teammates

Teammates make decisions to stay quickly. First impressions matter.

DON’Tbelieve you have to raise VC

This narrative is great for VCs but is BS. Revenue is the best funding.

DON’Tbe pressured into raising VC

Just because a competitor did doesn’t mean anything.

DON’Tlet them call you a lifestyle business

You can revenue-fund a giant (Mailchimp, Atlassian)

DON’Twaste money on PR to get customers

Especially early, do it on your own. Know what PR is good for.

DON’Tchase press in sexy but irrelevant media

It’s easier to go after niche media which is less sexy and more useful.

DON’Tbelieve your own hype

People are saying your co is amazing. Enjoy & forget. Stay paranoid.

DON’Tget fixated on losses

If you’re doing it right, you’ll probably lose a lot. It sucks but try to forget.

DON’Tthink you know your end-market from day one

Be promiscuous in the early days. Sometimes, customers show up you didn’t expect.

DON’Tbe promiscuous about your market forever

At some point, you have enough data. Pick a market and attack it.

DON’Thire smart people and “figure it out later”

People do better with clear goals and priorities especially early on.

DON’Thire under pressure

Every time we’ve rushed a hiring decision, we’ve regretted it.

DON’Tfire slow

Easier said than done TBH but culture is driven by people you hire and fire.

DON’Tinflate people’s titles

When your startup scales, the inflated title holders get demoted. Not good.

DON’Tbe afraid to hire expert advisors

We did too much non-core stuff on our own in the beginning. Made mistakes.

DON’Tbe afraid to fire expert advisors

Sometimes, people/firms coast by on reputation. If you find this, run.

DON’Tdo what Slack, Dropbox, Evernote do

Everyone is super smart until they’re not. Do what is good for your biz.

DON’Tbelieve the easy hype BS

You can’t growth hack your way to $100M in revenue.

DON’Tdon’t believe being outfunded matters

Money buys you time. It doesn’t buy you the ability to execute.

DON’Tonly celebrate big wins or sales wins

Highlight big and small milestones and recognize folks behind them.

DON’Tsell to startups

No money. High churn. They die. The definition of SaaS hell.

DON’Tbe the lowest priced product in the market

This path generally sucks. Trust me.

DON’Tget cute with pricing

It’s confusing and nobody is buying your important, awesome product cuz of this.

DON’Tbe afraid to ask if your product idea sucks

Customers will tell you if it’s something they’d pay for. They want you to win.

DON’Trespond to trolls

Obvious but don’t. (TBH, I still do this to F with them from time-to-time)

DON’Tworry about perfecting your tech too early

Revenues > technical debt. This will change as you scale.

DON’Tbe boring

So much software marketing is boring. Have a voice. Be interesting.

DON’Tchase startup fads

Badges, AI. Big Data. Does it help customers?

DON’Tthink biz dev / CS will learn through osmosis

Not investing in training as you scale will hurt you.

DON’Twait to hire customer success

Even if churn is low, hire CS folks to ensure customers love you.

DON’Tbelieve in the one hire messiah

If you’ve got a mess, someone may fix it. But don’t bank on it.

DON’Thalf-ass reference checks

Whether it’s a new teammate, investor or important advisor, vet them hard.

DON’Tmeet with VCs unless you’re ready to raise

If you meet them, even casually, it’s a pitch.

DON’Tprice based on competition

If you’re indistinguishable from competition, that’s a problem.

DON’Tthink channel partnerships will save you

It’s hard to get someone else to do the selling for you.

DON’Tdominate conversations w/ customers

The more customers talk during conversations, the better.

DON’Ttry to delegate product management too early

In the beginning, the product managers are the founders & engineers.

DON’Tforget to ask for the sale

A quick yes is amazing. And a quick no is also pretty good. Don’t get strung along.

DON’Tlisten to people w/ no $ who want to “integrate”

99% of time, these people are collosal wastes of time. Show me the money.

DON’Tfear non-scalable work

Elegant solutions are often not worth the effort. Love the grind.

DON’Tworry about competition

Focus on the customer night and day. (Hint: Read Jeff Bezos on this topic)

DON’Tgive a shit about Hacker News

God – we wasted so much time trying to get on the HN front page.

DON’Ttry to innovate in HR

Focus your innovation efforts on your product.

DON’Tgive perks you can’t give forever

If the market turns downward, and the perk wouldn’t survive, don’t give it.

DON’Thire salespeople till you can sell it yourself

If you’re the founder and can’t sell the shit out of it, nobody else will.

DON’Tthink all leads are created equal

Double down on best ones. Some will never buy. Forget them.

DON’Ttry to please everyone

You’ll build a crappy product that doesn’t get anyone fired up.

DON’Tworry about your personal brand

Unless it helps recruit teammates or customers, why bother?

DON’Ttry to act like a “salesperson”

There is not one way to sell. Do what’s comfortable.

DON’Tignore sales advice

There is a lot of wisdom out there. Use it.

DON’Tdo ‘demos’.Have conversations

You’re not a tool with buttons and features. Position yourself as more.

DON’Tbe lazy after your first conversation

People are busy and aren’t fixated on you. You have to keep them interested.

DON’Tbuy whole grape / piece of watermelon thing

Focus on the narrative that works for you. Not one foisted upon you.

DON’Tbelieve the media/VC survivorship bias

79% of exits are < $200M. Google and Facebook are freaks.

2016 GLOBAL TECH EXIT VALUATIONS

www.cbinsights.com 70Source: 2016 Tech Exits Report

www.cbinsights.com 71Credit: Lockhart Steele

DON’Talways look for new channels

It’s better to be killer at a few channels than suck at many.

DON’Tpointlessly network

If you’re emailing to pick people’s brains, swap notes, etc, stop it. Now.

DON’Tbe a ‘conference ho’

See earlier slide on pointless networking. Don’t mistake activity for progress.

DON’Thesitate to ”flood the zone”

Once you find something works, milk the hell out of it.

DON’Tdeceive yourself on the size of your market

Build a product and price with your market in mind.

www.cbinsights.com 76Source: Christoph Janz

DON’Tfetishize failure

Failure blows. Don’t make it ok and say it was a learning experience.

DON’Tworry about your name & logo too much

Cuz you will never do worse than us. CB Insights began as ChubbyBrain.

DON’Texpect clients to tell you what product to build

First, it is not their job. Second, their feedback will often be incremental.

DON’Tdo feature demos

Nobody really cares. They want to know why it makes their lives better.

www.cbinsights.com 82Source: Chris Brophy

DON’Tever forget WIIFM

Nobody gives a shit about your product. They care about What’s In It For Me?

DON’Tblindly follow this advice

There is no playbook. Anyone who tells you there is one is stupid and/or a charlatan.

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