SaaStr 133: 3 Fundamentals SaaS Founders Have To Nail To Get To $30m+ ARR & What First Time SaaS Founders Can Do To Increase Their Chances of Product Market Fit

Ashu Garg is a General Partner @ Foundation Capital whose portfolio includes the likes of Uber, Lending Club, Adroll and Netflix, just to name a few. As for Ashu, at Foundation he has led investments and naming just a few of them here, in the likes of Conviva, Localytics and TubeMogul, later going public in 2014. Prior to Foundation, Ashu was the General Manager for Microsoft’s online advertising business.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How Ashu made his way from completing to the Rubik's cube as a kid in 25 seconds to being a leading SaaS VC?
• How does Ashu really define scaling a SaaS company? What does product market fit really look like with regards to ARR growth?
• What are the 3 fundamentals that SaaS founders have to nail if they are to scale to $30m+ ARR? Why does Ashu believe it is so important to have a single insertion point? What does this mean for SaaS founders?
• What does Ashu advise first time founders making their first foray into the world of SaaS? How should they think about obtaining and building an ecosystem of mentors? How should they manage weaknesses within their own skill sets? Does Ashu believe with Aaron Levie @ Box, “anyone can learn to be a great CEO”?
• Where do technical founders most often struggle? What can be done to help them go from 0-1 on customer acquisition? Where do business led founders most often struggle? How must they think of the engineering element as a core part of the founding team?

60 Second SaaStr

1. What does Ashu know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
2. Chats: Fad in the enterprise or here to stay?
3. Biggest inflection points and breaking points in SaaS company growth?

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Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

Ashu Garg