Practical Founders Podcast

#102: Practical VC Shares Advice for SaaS Founders From Over 2000 Investments – Dave Lambert


Listen Later

Dave Lambert and the team at Right Side Capital Management are the most active venture capital investors, having invested in over 2,000 startups since 2009.

Right Side Capital is a “pre-VC” institutional investor that operates very differently from traditional VCs: investing when SaaS companies have just a little revenue using a submission form on their website, then responding quickly and making investment decisions in a week. They also invest in practical SaaS founders with capital-efficient approaches who expect to sell their companies someday for less than $100M.

In this expert episode, Dave shares practical insights for SaaS founders who don’t expect to play the big VC funding game:

  • Why raising Series A or B funding rounds from VCs reduces your odds of a successful exit
  • What founders should be focused on when they get their first customers and revenue
  • Why most VCs don’t invest when you have just a few customers and a little revenue
  • How the founders they invested in are using AI technology to grow more efficiently
  • What’s happening right now with acquisitions of SaaS companies for $25-$100M enterprise value
Quote from Dave Lambert, Right Side Capital

“More often than not, at the stages that we’re investing and someone has $4K, $8K, $20K MRR, the founders are still supremely confident and think they figured out their exact ICP and how it’s going to grow in scale. They think, We’re just going to take your money, and it’s going to be straight up from here. And it never does, or almost never does.

“We’re having conversations with founders where we’re sharing, Hey, just so you know, 90% of our companies miss their revenue targets massively in their first year. So you should assume that you are going to as well.

“But guess what? They all spend exactly what they thought they were gonna spend or more, usually. Just know that that’s gonna be the case and have a plan for where you’re still alive if things don’t go as expected.”

Links
  • Dave Lambert on LinkedIn
  • Right Side Capital Management on LinkedIn
  • Right Side Capital Management website
The Practical Founders Podcast

Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app.

Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Practical Founders PodcastBy Greg Head

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

26 ratings


More shows like Practical Founders Podcast

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,273 Listeners

Startups For the Rest of Us by Rob Walling

Startups For the Rest of Us

696 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,032 Listeners

The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship by Omer Khan

The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship

181 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

519 Listeners

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish by Shane Parrish

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

2,643 Listeners

Built to Sell Radio by John Warrillow

Built to Sell Radio

208 Listeners

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

175 Listeners

Founders by David Senra

Founders

1,906 Listeners

My First Million by Hubspot Media

My First Million

2,620 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

9,155 Listeners

The Startup Ideas Podcast by Greg Isenberg

The Startup Ideas Podcast

201 Listeners

Joys of Compounding by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Joys of Compounding

97 Listeners

Moneywise by Hampton

Moneywise

645 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

461 Listeners