What I've learned about SaaS - and startups and venture capital - in the last 10-20 years, in 23 back-of-the-napkin charts. Slides from my presentation at a recent event in Munich.

1. How to build a global SaaS winner
out of Munich

2. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Servus.

3. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
2010/2011 2011 2013/2014 2017/2018

4. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
What I’ve learned about SaaS
… and startups, venture capital, and life in general …
… in the last 10-20 years …
in 23 back-of-the napkin charts

5. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Raising Capital (I)
You get a
Term Sheet
nobody wants
to invest
everybody wants
to invest
Time
Investor interest

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@chrija
Meeting #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Raising Capital (II)
Investor excitement
SUPER excited
mmpff … nope
„We REALLY
need a decision“

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@chrija
Raising Capital (III)
Venture Debt
When you
need it most
When you
can get it

8. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Raising Capital (IV)
Contracts
Number of pages
% of pages with a
>0 chance of ever
becoming relevant.
100%
0%
50%
1 200100
Legal fees
¤5k
¤100k

9. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
„Sweat Equity“ (I)
Should I go through an accelerator?
Is it YC? YES
No
Go for it!
Do they
want
> 6%?
YES RUN AWAY!!!
No
Think
about it

10. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Is it Marc
Benioff?
F**k no!
YES
No
Hell yes!
„Sweat Equity“ (II)
Should I give 10% of the
company to an advisor?

11. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Hiring (I)
Recruiting executives
Candidates you’d
like to hire
Candidates
who want to
work for you

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@chrija
Hiring (II)
Finding good engineers
engineers looking
for a new job
open positions

13. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Product development (I)
Getting to PMF
Time
PMF
How you
get to PMF
How it’s probably
gonna look like
think you’ll

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@chrija
Product development (II)
The last 5%
Project decile
Time it takes
to get it done
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

15. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Product development (III)
Rebuilding your product
How long you estimate it will take
How long it
will actually
take
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
2
4
6
8
10

16. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Projections (I)
Forecasting revenue
Time
ARR
Your actuals

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@chrija
Projections (I)
Forecasting revenue
Time
ARR
Your actuals
Your projections
Your future
actuals

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@chrija
Projections (II)
Forecasting costs
Time
Costs
Your actuals
Your projections
Your future
actuals

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@chrija
Customer acquisition (I)
Scaling paid marketing
Marketing spend
CACs
Your projections
Your actuals

20. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Customer acquistion (II)
Channel partnerships
Companies
trying to
make it work
Companies
that made
it work

21. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Building a $100M business (I)
Which animal are you hunting?
ARPA
(in $ per year)
# of customers
(in 1,000s)
10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000
10
1
100
1,000
10,000

22. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Building a $100M business (II)
Escaping startup graveyard
CACs
LTV

23. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
VC investing (I)
Power Law (I)
Deals you see
Deals you make
Deals that drive 80%
of your returns

24. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
VC investing (I)
Power Law (I)
Deals you see
Deals you make
Deals that drive 80%
of your returns
Deals your LPs
wish you saw ;-)

25. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Company rank
Return
How you think
What it really
looks like
VC investing (II)
Power Law, continued
301 15
Power Law looks like

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@chrija
Poor market
VC investing (III)
„Team vs. Market“
Great market
PoorteamGreatteam
0x 0-1x
1-5x 10x
EXCELLENT
team
EXCELLENT
market
100x

27. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
VC investing (IV)
Deal Flow
Number of deals you saw last year
Number of deals
you fell in love
with last year
10
0
1
10
1010
100 1 2 3 4

28. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Bonus chart
When corporates discover „entrepreneurship“
We need more innovation!
Let’s start a
Corporate VC.
Let’s spin.-off the VC.
oops, we’re not attracting the
best and the brightest.
Let’s start an incubator.
Let’s do an
„intrapreneur program“
oops, we’re not attracting the
best and the brightest.
oops, we’re not attracting the
best and the brightest.

29. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Bonus chart II, since I’ve mentioned learnings about „life in general“ ;-)
The Germans and their weather
25°
24°
23°
22°
21°
20°
19°
18°
17°
}
}
I’M BURNING!!!
I’M FREEZING!
ok

30. www.theangelvc.net
@chrija
Thanks for the
inspiration!