The Pursuit of Scrappiness

#20 - Jone Vaituleviciute šŸ‡±šŸ‡¹ (Startup Wise Guys) on what investors want to see in founders, why B2B SaaS is so demanded, and how to avoid getting screwed when raising money

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Jone Vaituleviciute is Partner at Startup Wise Guys that was just named The Hottest Startup Accelerator in Europe. In this episode Jone shares the perspective of the accelerator - with 1-2% acceptance rate, what are they looking for in business models and founders. We also discuss why investors like to invest in B2B SaaS and the value that early-stage support organizations can bring to startups in the pre-accelerator stage.

The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps

[06:00] - Startup Wise Guys and early-stage investing/accelerating

  • Accelerator wants you to move 6x faster than without it
  • Itā€™s not school, nobody checks attendance
  • The key value add of the accelerator is the community of founders who are struggling the same as you
  • The average age of founders is increasing
  • Beware of passive accelerators - if you are giving up equity, you want to maximize the value
  • Think very hard whether you want and need accelerating as many companies are already matured past and might give up equity without the necessary value

[22:40] - What accelerators want to see in founders and companies

  • Revenue can be a vanity metric and not say anything about traction and trajectory
  • If founder just wants money, they should go to a Non-accelerator investor
  • If the founder is not committed to full time, itā€™s a big red flag
  • Founder decisiveness is a key requirement

[38:00] -Ā  What to expect from the acceleration program

  • The acceptance rate is 1-2%
  • This is a long term relationship, accelerator stays on your capable 5-7 years while the accelerating phase usually lasts around 12 months
  • Support for founders in the further round and help avoid big mistakes

[48:20]Ā  - B2B SaaS - Why is it the favorite business model for VCs

  • B2B SAAS is extremely broad, also Fintech can be B2B SaaS
  • The model is relatively easier to build for the founder
  • The traction metrics are easy to track and compare to others, thus it is less risky for the investor to take a bet
  • The importance of revenue in the earliest stages should not be overstated
  • Big corporates develop quickly from product user to acquisition of the provider
  • Edtech and health tech as biggest opportunities in B2B SaaS
  • The next generation of blockchain companies

[1:06:30] - The role of support organizations for startups

  • Internationalization of local startup ecosystems
  • Taking care of startups that are not ready for investment/accelerators yet

Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/Ā 

Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/

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The Pursuit of ScrappinessBy Uldis Teraudkalns & Janis Zeps
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