Tim Kaltofen

Sifted just released their list of the most promising SaaS startups in Europe. https://lnkd.in/erxJRGzi If you are looking to leave your corporate job for a startup but aren’t sure where to get started, do this. 1. Look at sifted lift of promising startups and pick 10 that really interest you. 2. Based on your skill set, use linked look up the lead of the department you think you would be interested in. For example, if you want to get into sales then look up the VP of sales. 3. Send them a DM on why you want to work for the company and what impact you could have in your first 100 days working there. Don’t send your CV until asked for it. 4. Follow up diligently every few days. If after the third try, no one has got back to you, move to the next 10 on the list. It sounds simple, and it is. Recruitment is the hardest thing for growth stage startups, and no one enjoyed paying 25% recruiter fees. Good luck

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Learn from OpenAI’s playbook: Prioritizing key projects and empowering a mission-oriented team are essential for startups aiming to make a significant impact 👇 ➡ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗲: Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI and Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI 🔌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿: Harry Stebbings, Founder at 20VC ✏ “20VC: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap on The Future of Foundation Models” ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲: "There are two strategies to build on AI right now: [...] (1) to assume the model is not going to get better and then you kind of build all these little things on top of it; [...] (2) to build assuming that OpenAI is going to stay on the same rate of trajectory and the models are going to keep getting better at the same pace." ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: "At any given point in a company's life, there's only one to three things that really matter. And that spills over into how we run the team because [...] if we can align on what those things are, [...] then it helps me to translate down to the teams that I'm building." ⭐ 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: "I think people criminally underrate how important it is and how much return you really get on just giving people access to the technology. [...] Someone who used to spend two days doing something now spends two minutes doing it and is freed up to do 85 other things in their daily life." ⭐ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆'𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: "I watched what has happened to other tech companies when they just become the place you want to work because it's a good resume item. [...] I think companies that lose their mission orientation and get taken over by mercenaries usually come to regret that." ⭐ 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀: "Find a way to make sure that there's this very flat and even playing field when it comes to how you look to the team for perspective, decision-making, judgment, and creativity." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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How do I know if my idea is a good one? Ask your customer. But most founders don't do this. Instead they ask, - Their friends, families, and colleagues about the idea. - Asking investors about the idea: Investors could offer unique perspectives, however, opinion does not equal validation. Their primary concern is potential return, not necessarily idea viability. - Showing the prototype to the wrong people: Asking someone who is not one of the target customers about the prototype when they are not experiencing the problems being solved can lead to misleading insights. - Listening to words not actions: "Great concept," "I love the idea," "This is so cool," "I think I will pay for it" is not validation. Where is their action? Did they use the prototype? Did they pay for it? To truly validate the idea, founders should speak directly with target customers to understand their pain points, needs, and preferences through interviews, surveys, or focus groups. However, even most founders fail in conducting interviews and surveys properly. So, we have shared a framework in the attached PDF. It includes: 1. Ways to Validate Startup Ideas 2. Customer Discovery and how to do it? 3. Building Hypothesis and Validating it 4. Rule: You are not allowed to talk about your idea! 5. Customer Interview Guide  6. Where the magic happens #1  7. How to Interview? 8. Number of question and no. of customers to speak? 9. Asking yourself: …Is it a Really Big Problem?  10. Customer Segments - Divided into 3 phases. 11. Customer Validation 12. Case Studies: B2B, B2C & B2B2Cetc. That's it. If you find this helpful - please like, comment & share so that it reaches founders . 👉 Check out my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dKZQKHg2 . #startups #startup #funding #founders #investors #entrepreneur #idea #entrepreneurship #vc #venturecapital #angelinvesotrs #ideavalidation #founder #mvp #ycombinator #validation #framework #startuptips

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#1 Rule for Scaling Founders: Never Delegate Product Market Fit. I once delegated product market fit. Over my dead body will I ever do it again. "Experts", VCs & big company operators will relentlessly pressure to delegate you to more experienced hands. Resist the smooth appeal of "executive function" to manage at a high level. Do the opposite. Hold everything as close as you can. Ultimately, you will need to delegate, and when you do, do so roughly in the below order. Your own order may change a little bit based on your exact business skillset. Delegate functions in this order: -Legal -Accounting -HR Administration -Strategic Finance -Operations -Demand Generation -Sales -Customer Success -Engineering -Storytelling -Recruiting **Product Market Fit** (never delegate) Product Market fit is the job of the founder. It's different by channel and segment and changes over time.

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Candidates are always asking me... “How can I still stand out even if I didn’t go to top schools or I didn’t work at the best company? Market Thesis is the key 🔑. I’ll explain: If you put in the work, prepare some markets, and find great prospects within those markets … You can still impress your interviewers. Even if: – You didn’t come from a prestigious school – You don’t have a ton of finance or investing experience – You’re liberal arts major, an undergrad or an MBA looking to gain experience. Because when you do well in Market Thesis, it gives an impression that: “Hey, even though I haven’t done this in my previous job … I can jump in tomorrow to your firm and start adding value already because I have decent ideas, I’m following the right markets and I have good instincts.” Sure, it’s a lot of work. But, in some cases, it can be a great equalizer for candidates. *** Need help preparing for a market thesis? Check this out: https://lnkd.in/gJWN8Hdh #growthequity #venturecapital #privateequity #investmentbanking #vc #buyside #investing #interviewskills #finance #networking #interviews #recruiter #headhunter

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Should you as a founder show vulnerability/unhingedness in front of VCs and let your guard down? Short answer: 9 out of 10 times, no, unless you're very visibly the sort of founder nobody would wanna bet against (read visibly great results). Longer answer: VCs are in the pattern recognition business. They're not just looking for patterns in your business model and product and market, but in your personal traits, too. If they're gonna have 1 or very few interactions with you, and your guard is down in those few instances, they could perceive you as weak, possibly incompetent or too inexperienced. They may not tell you, but pattern recognition works that way. One may argue that VCs who have been in the game for a long time may have dropped these biases (to adopt new ones), but I'd argue those VCs are less than 10 or 20% of all VCs. Every VC secretly wishes you're the founder they can invest in right now, but subconsciously they kinda have to look for reasons not to. And they do so by thinking of all the past founders they invested in, how those founders looked/sounded/acted like and whether you're kinda similar or different. The traits of a competent person in a low moment may be hardly distinguishable from those of an incompetent person. Add gender, ethnicity, accent, what you're wearing, where you worked at, and the culture of dynamics of the region the VC is in to the mix and boom. It becomes a mess. The only time when it's probably okay to let your guard down might be when you have established a relationship with them over a long time and your results have spoken for themselves or you are extremely in control of your public persona, so your personality, no matter how "differentiated" won't negatively affect the process 😅 It's very common for founders to be...weird, and in places like Southeast Asia this is not very often talked about so I thought I'd share :D The best people to be vulnerable/completely unfiltered with are nobody but other founders. That's why we've built LL. You get your own small tech CEO peer group with frequent video calls, and access to a broader community that's super supportive. Sign up today to get your CEO peer group – link in comments 💥

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65% of our new ARR last month came inbound. Our secret? We do one thing every early-stage startup should (but lots don't): Consistently publish social content. In March, we decided that we were going to go all-in on posting on LinkedIn + Twitter daily. A lot of Founders neglect it because they feel they don't have the time, or because they can't tie it to revenue effectively enough. We're 3 months in and it's clear that it is the easiest way to punch above your weight (especially in a competitive market like ours). Not to mention, it's been a huge money-maker for us. We're driving both top-of-funnel awareness and bottom-of-funnel conversions. When I was at the PLGTM conference earlier this year, I had multiple people come up to me and mention that they'd heard about me from my LinkedIn or Twitter posts. Opening a conversation with some familiarity to myself and Unify is insanely powerful. TLDR: Make social a core part of your GTM motion. Done right, you'll drive both top-of-funnel awareness and bottom-of-funnel conversions. ...unless you're in the outbound/GTM space. In that case, social is a complete waste of time and doesn't drive any results 😀 PS - as Reed called out in this tweet, a warning that you will 100% get roasted by your friends for being cringe 😁

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Insurance brokers spend almost 25% of their time dealing with paperwork instead of selling, and Pyq AI (YC W23) is helping them fix that. Here's a demo of one of our most popular solutions: policy comparison. Producers spend hours every week reading through quotes and policies in order to find the best fit for their clients. These documents are hundreds of pages long, densely packed with information and difficult to compare. This is also not a problem that they can simply ChatGPT their way through, as detailed in our recent post titled "LLMs and the Harry Potter Problem" (link to it in the comments). We talked to hundreds of producers, analyzed innumerable policies and built a solution that combines state-of-the-art AI with a simple interface that, as one of our customers describes it, "is something we've always wanted." This solution and others are already live within agencies, boosting their productivity every day. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing customer stories about how this solution and others have helped brokerages boost productivity, increase their time in the market and save on margins. If this solution is of interest, please reach out via DM or book a demo via our website (link in the comments). #Insurance #AI #brokers

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How Do You Tell A Compelling Story About Your Company To Investors? Every founder believes they have an awesome team and technology; the question is, what will investors think? In fundraising, most founders are tempted to jump straight into PowerPoint to get started. Don’t do it! Remember "It’s not about the slides; it’s about the story." So how do you tell a compelling story? - First, figure out which type of story you should be telling and make that narrative into a sandwich, emphasizing the key point at the beginning and again at the end. Next, use your problem and solution statements to emotionally and intellectually engage your audience, and be sure to adequately address all the expected areas in the deck. With all that in mind, you’ll be ready to follow three simple steps to craft your winning deck. - Choose The Right Story To Tell The first and most important thing to decide about your pitch is which story you should be telling. Fiction may have seven plot archetypes, but pitches tend to fall into one of four narratives, listed here in order of strength: Traction. This is the story you want to be telling. Maybe your revenue or user base is growing really fast (> 20% month-over-month), or you’ve closed deals with major customers or partners. If you have traction that will impress investors, then tell a traction story. Team. Maybe you don’t have wow-factor traction yet, but you and your cofounders are successful second-time founders or have a management team with impressive pedigree. In that case, tell a people story. Technology. Or perhaps you don’t have strong traction but have created a technological breakthrough in an important field. Then you could tell a technology story. Vision. This is the story of last resort. If you don’t have impressive traction, a highly regarded team, or a technological breakthrough, then you have to fall back on a vision story of how you want to change the world. Be realistic in your self-analysis of what qualifies as “impressive.” Every founder thinks they have an awesome team and technology; the question is, what will investors think? If you’re not sure which story you should tell, then get some feedback from investors or other founders. - Make A Sandwich To capture investors’ attention and help them remember you, open the pitch with your company’s single most impressive achievement to date, and then highlight that achievement again at the very end. "Open the pitch with your company’s highest achievement." We have covered this topic in detail in the attached document.👇 🚀 Check out my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dKZQKHg2 . #startup #venturecapital #funding #fundraising #vc #startup #venturecapital #funding #founders #entrepreneurship #startups #founderstories #startuptips #fundraising #mvp #founderlife #entrepreneur #ycombinator #startuptips #founder

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What makes one company startup-y versus other not as much, basically comes down to: - ability to take RISKS / carve very bold paths > that could lead to outsized impact 🔥 (OR not work at all! 👎) - constantly INNOVATE, whether it be the product, the CAC, the cross-sell opportunities, the strategic partnerships .. anything and everything that can get you to quantum jumps! 🌡️💊🧬 - how PEOPLE feel in the organisation, do they try to think differently and try new things, do they get rewarded for hacking whacking, do they understand the company is flat and zero ego and they can air any idea or feedback they have 🧸 That’s it!

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💌 saas.wtf newsletter update: +24 subs vs. last week 🫠 Could be better, but I was on vacation and therefore less active here (= less promo). Minimum goal for this year is to get to 5k subs. Let's see. ➡️ Newsletter KPIs (YTD): Net new subs: +754 Open Rate: 55.7% CTR: 5.7% Unfortunately, the LI posts in which I share my progress and announce new articles no longer generate as many new subs as a few months ago. I'm looking to use more freebies (templates etc.) as lead magnets, but I can't get around to creating any at the moment. At least not any I'd be satisfied with myself. There will also be more content collaborations. Any other things I could try? ➡️ Latest article: Micro M&A for SaaS Startups At a time when growth has become more difficult, it is worth trying ways off the beaten track. Small, strategic acquisitions can be one of them. This article is about “Micro M&A” as a growth hack and shows how buying small indiehacker projects, newsletters, etc. can potentially: 1. Drive more traffic to your website, 2. Generate more leads, and 3. Enhance your product offering. Link below - enjoy reading! If you have any specific questions about such acquisitions, feel free to reach out! #saas #startups #growth #growthhacks #mergersandacquisitions #newsletter #newsletters

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From 12-18 to 24+ months: Raising between two rounds is getting longer, but is it really bad for founders? •In the past couple of weeks several data points showed that the time between two successive financing rounds is getting significantly longer. •Pre-2022, most VC backed startups raised money every 12 to 18 months until the Series B. •It concretely means that startups had to hit specific milestones every 12 to 18 months to be able to raise again. •And these milestones depended on the “VC zeitgeist”. It could be growth rate, revenue level, product milestones etc… •Fast forward today it’s around 24 to 32 months between two rounds. While it shows that access to funding is getting tougher, is it really a bad thing? First of all, what does it fundamentally change for founders? ----------------------------------------------------------- •Obviously founders need to adjust their burn rate so that they can survive longer than 12/18 months with what they have raised. •They need to focus on sustainable growth. The current “VC zeitgeist” is not about “growth at all costs” milestones anymore but about “sustainable growth” oriented ones. To raise the next round you need to have healthy unit economics. •Board meetings have often dramatically changed. It’s sometimes an almost schizophrenic experience to go from a board that asks you to be super aggressive with growth to a board that asks you to build a sustainable business. •It’s better to have VCs that can support you through bridge rounds over a longer period of time. I know a couple of early stage founders that have raised €1-1.5M with syndicates and small VC firms and are now stuck because they cannot do bridge rounds. So, all in all is it a bad thing? ---------------------------- •If you make the correct adjustments (and most early stage founders have probably done it) I do not think that it’s such a bad thing for founders. •I know many founders that were uncomfortable with the pre-2022 VC Zeitgeist and didn’t feel good when they were pushed by VCs to hire aggressively or spend more money to grow faster. •And many prefer the current situation where the emphasis is on building a real business from day one and accelerate only when it makes sense. And not the other way. The real problem for most SaaS founders is not the longer time between two rounds, but rather to get the very first checks with VCs that are ready to support them over a longer period of time (through bridge rounds).

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We have been advising B2B SaaS companies on how to leverage community-led growth for over a year now. Those companies are tapping into the power of community to drive serious growth. They're winning trust, loyalty and priceless user insights. Five examples of companies who are killing it: 1. Notion - This workspace app has over 100K members in their buzzing online community. They get users involved in product development, creating a real sense of ownership. 2. Figma - The design platform brings its community together through virtual events, workshops and hackathons. Designers get to connect, upskill and directly shape the tool. 3. Personio - The HR tech firm takes community offline with regular meetups for HR pros to network and share know-how on the future of the industry. 4. Miro - Over 35 million whiteboard wizards make up this online community. Forums, user groups and events help members collaborate and innovate together. 5. Airtable - This spreadsheet-database hybrid harnesses its community's knowledge through forums, templates and integrations created by users themselves. Want to dive deeper into this community-led growth movement? Don't miss "The Power of Community in B2B SaaS" at the Personio office in Amsterdam on May 22nd. We'll have Julia Pilkes (HubSpot), Koen Stam (Personio) and Lorenzo Tiberi (Crono) breaking it down while you network with other community builders from the best sales and marketing teams in tech. Spots are limited: https://lnkd.in/eP8D3ymM

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Plaid’s new ‘Layer’ feature for customer onboarding is great, but they’ve missed something. Plaid is one of the world’s largest IDV players. And apparently Layer increases sign-up rates by up to 25%. That’s a big deal for companies spending $MM to improve onboarding by only 3%. Plaid use the customer’s phone number to see if the customer has previously been through an ID check at another Plaid-powered business. If so, the user is given the option to authenticate (via one-time password, mobile device check etc.), and decide if they agree to share the relevant ID data requested. Plaid then serves up that customer data to the business, from names and dates of birth, to bank account details and social security numbers. Stripe offers a very similar platform called ‘Link’. If you have previously checked out at an online merchant that uses Stripe, then you are now in the ‘Stripe network’. You simply check a box for Stripe to remember your ID and payment information for next time. Then whenever you need to check out at a merchant that supports Link, you just enter your mobile number, authenticate from your device, and voila, all your data is pre-entered for you. It’s a one-tap experience. Both Plaid and Stripe have nailed the ‘remember my data’ customer feature. And as a result have positioned themselves brilliantly for their respective markets (ID verification, and checkout). Why does this matter? Because this is all about ‘ID networks that store data’. And therefore all about the *business* side. But what if we take this idea even further? What if the customer themselves could carry that pre-verified data with them? And not just the onboarding data (Plaid). Not just the checkout data (Stripe). But both, and much, much more? What about adding other data? Like an entitlement to an employee discount? Or proof of a related account? Or a VIP status? Because a digital wallet can hold and share much more info than identity and payments. But let’s go further. In both Plaid and Stripe ‘remember me’ flows, the user must be sent a password, or a token, to prove it’s them. Why not have that step *already baked* into the checkout or ID transaction? Where the user can simply scan a QR code or tap a link? Or even do it in person in store? That all now becomes possible with Empowerment Tech. With Digital Wallets, Personal Vaults, and Personal AI. Joining another ‘data network’ is an excellent first step by Plaid. It improves conversion, improves the customer experience, and tackles fraud. But ‘being remembered’ doesn’t just need to happen on the business side. It can happen on the customer side too. While Plaid and Stripe could each add digital wallets, they are both B2B businesses. So another brand will need to step in on the customer side with a ‘remember me’ service. When that happens, it will take onboarding to the next level. And likely beyond 25% improvement. For more, check out the latest Customer Futures newsletter. Link below👇

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Wouldn’t it be nice to run a SaaS business if there was zero churn? Since this is not possible in this particular universe the next best to do is to do churn deep dives every now and then. In addition to the obvious exit survey responses we gathered all the information about customers that have ended their subscriptions: the source of these customers, stated intent at signup, product usage, support tickets, call notes from CRM — everything. Then myself and Markus sat down in a meeting room and pulled data from various sources for all of these accounts. It’s worth pointing out we focused on customers that had started the subscription during the last 18 months and more or less ignored older accounts that may have joined for legacy features or very old pricing plans. Here’s a sneak peek into our Q4 churn deep dive. Roughly 25% of churned customers stated cost/price as the primary reason. Fixing this is more nuanced than dropping prices. For example, when you don’t pay for the subscription of NYTimes - is it because you can’t afford it, because you think the content is not worth quite as much, or because you think you get the same information elsewhere for a better price or even for free? Further nuance: half of these users were only using one feature ie. getting relatively little value out of the product. Another 25% of churned accounts were cancelled by us because payments had started failing and we could not get these customers to respond. And almost all of these accounts were using the product relatively little. What about the remaining half? Around 12% of churns happened in a way where customers churned not only from Outfunnel but from CRM as well. For example they may have cancelled their Pipedrive and Mailchimp accounts and switched everything to HubSpot. Relatedly, 6% of churns happened due to changes in go-to-market and/or tools. 15% of customers left because of bugs/issues. (This is way too high but relates to a specific thing that kept breaking in Q4 and was largely fixed by the end of the quarter) 6% left because they were missing a feature. And then there were a bunch of smaller churn reasons that we see very infrequently. For example, a requirement to get advanced security documentation from all vendors we couldn’t immediately comply to. And here is where it gets interesting. We then made our best guess on what would have kept them as a user. In theory, we could have kept nearly half of said customers. Of the saveable ones: - 30% could have been saved with more/different features - 25% could have been saved with better communication and/or support - 17% could have been saved with better reliability / no issues - another 17% could have been saved by lowering the price - the rest we could have saved with one-off initiatives All in all, doing this analysis was a very good use of time and we’ll surely do this again. Any good tips for understanding and fighting churn on your end? 

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There is a new saas.wtf article! Topic of the week: Growth Benchmarks 📈 I've long wanted to dig deeper into revenue growth of bootstrapped vs. VC-backed companies. Mainly to check whether external capital really brings the expected growth boost you would expect. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to find reliable data. The only analysis I could find so far comes from SaaS Capital – and it only covers the boom times. Now ChartMogul just released it's latest SaaS Growth Report, which for the first time distinguishes between bootstrappers and VC-financed startups. This prompted me to take a closer look and compare the two sources. You can check out the article here: https://lnkd.in/eRmcqkPN Enjoy reading! 🙌 #saas #startups #bootstrap #vc #venturecapital #funding #growth #kpi #benchmarks

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💡 How to Validate Your B2B Startup Idea in less than 4 days: Almost every week, I receive messages from people seeking advice on validating a B2B startup idea. As a young founder, I had the same question, and even today, it seems like no one really has the answer. Nevertheless, I want to provide you with a simple and easy-to-follow framework for quickly validating your B2B startup idea. To execute this framework, all you need is a LinkedIn account (which you already have) and an idea. The Framework consists of 4 simple steps: 1) 🙏 Join Audience - Join at least 10 LinkedIn groups related to your target audience. 2) ❤️ Engage - Like and comment on all the posts in these groups. 3) 👂 Ask - Create an engaging and inviting poll in every group that pertains to the problem you are looking to solve. - For Example: “What's your biggest challenge when validating an idea?” Include a clear CTA. For Example: “Share your thoughts in the comments!” 4) 🤝 Connect - Connect with the people who engage with your poll and ask them for a more detailed conversation. Through this framework, you should be able to validate a B2B idea in less than 4 days without spending a single dime (normally B2B validation takes a lot of time and money, but not with this!). Did this framework work for you? — #startup #idea #validation #ideavalidation #B2B #sales #business #leadership #marketing #LinkedIn #framework #foryou

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Fundraising is a numbers game. But not just because most investors will say no. (though they will) The other reason is it takes some level of volume to find the best possible investors for your company. In the best case scenario, you don't want to just raise money you want to raise from the best investors possible. Unless you already know a ton of investors (and sometimes even if you do), you'll need to meet a lot of folks to figure out: - who you vibe with most - who sees the world similar to you - who shares your values - who understands your market the best - who else already shares or can get to the conviction you have on the opportunity you're pursuing - who's network can be uniquely helpful to what you're building etc. This is one of the times when cringe statements like "investor 🤝 founder partnerships are like a marriage" or "fundraising is like dating" bares some truth. You're not marrying your VCs. And fundraising is def not the same vibes as dating in most ways. But it is an evaluative process and it takes reps to find your people. When we were raised, I was surprised at how many investors I liked in general that didn't feel like good fits for the specific company we were building.

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I always see a common pattern among early-stage SaaS Founders I start coaching: The “one more feature” trap. As engineer-minded founders, we get into the game because we love our product. And with that love, there’s always room for one more feature. • Lost a deal? We just need one more feature. • Need to generate more leads? Just finish one more feature. • GTM? We’ll get to it after this one more feature. We gravitate towards building because it’s our comfort zone. But I learned the hard way that this approach just doesn’t work. An Investor once told me, “TK, you’re going to have to be OK with the product being 80% if that GTM can actually catch up to 80%.” This was an eye-opener. If my GTM doesn’t catch up, nobody would actually see my incredible product. Now, I help SaaS Founders avoid this trap and focus on driving growth through a solid GTM strategy. Is this something you’re struggling with? If you’re a SaaS Founder looking to hone in on your GTM strategy and start driving growth, grab a complimentary copy of my 5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide. Just follow the link in the comments below. 👇

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