What Investors Look For In SaaS Startups with Christoph Janz @ PointNine.com
Back in 2012, when I raised $1.6M in funding for Clarity.fm, I insisted on squeezing more out of my investors.
When I put together the final cap table, I made it clear that I also wanted introductions with other investors and businesses on their portfolio.
They told me, “Dan, you’re asking a lot here…”
But I put my foot down.
I knew you couldn’t put a price on leveraging contacts and networking. Every minute I’ve spent growing my network has paid dividends tenfold.
Since then I’ve realized that investors aren’t just a source of capital…
They are a gateway to the entire SaaS industry.
Which is why I love interviewing investors for their unique view of the market.
My latest Escape Velocity podcast guest, Christoph Janz, is the co-founder of Point Nine Capital, a very successful venture capital firm with over $75M of investments.
Christoph loves investing in SaaS. If you want to attract rockstar funding, then check out this eye-opening interview.
In this episode, you’re going to learn about:
- Why investors have to hustle too
- How Point Nine Capital was the first to invest in Zendesk
- How European investment firms are booming
- The bottleneck of Silicon Valley talent
- If freemium is right for you
- How to think critically about your pricing model
- Creating a built-in SaaS referral system
- What investors are looking for
Point Nine Capital has invested in big names in tech, such as Typeform, Algolia, Contentful, Geckboard, Delivery Hero, Revolut and more.
Christoph was even one the first investors of Zendesk back when it was a team of 4 people making only $7K MRR (now valued at over $2.1 billion).
His story of cold-emailing Zendesk with an offer is… just crazy.
You’ve got to hear it! Tune in to the episode here.
P.S. Prefer audio? Subscribe to the Escape Velocity Show directly on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and make sure to leave a rating and review if you find the show helpful.
—
Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get access to all my latest business hacks.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited three tech companies: Spheric, Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on Twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
Originally published at https://www.danmartell.com on November 19, 2020.
