Startup Syndrome

Julia has been looking into the history of the term SaaS, and Andreas has been deep diving into why VCs love SaaS businesses so much.

They end up speaking about why repeatability, scalability and profitability are three major keys, what the rule of 40 is, and how your SaaS business can become a cash printing machine.

Alumni company of the week: Quinyx

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Andreas has been reading up on the new Gemini Business by Google, and Julia loves to talk about startups competing out the big tech companies. 

They end up speaking about why startups have better odds to launch a new idea than the big tech companies do, what are some great examples of success stories, and what they did right. Of course, the also give founders the correct way to answer the question all investors seem to love; “Couldn’t Google build this?”. 

Alumni company of the week: Froda

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Julia goes back memory lane to when she started the Activate program, and Andreas tells the story of why och how he started Ideate.

They end up speaking about how to MVP something like a startup program and how similar it is to getting early traction for your startup, sharing some behind-the-scenes stories of how scrappy the MVPs of the programs really were.

Alumni company of the week: Spring

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Andreas has recently spoken to a company which early on did a sweat equity deal, and Julia ran into an alumni company who did the same.

They end up speaking about why it is that they really don’t like sweat equity deals, what can go wrong if you choose to do them, and why they think the most common arguments for sweat equity don’t make that much sense.

Alumni company of the week: Färsking

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Julia has been chatting to multiple different founders about the basics of fundraising, and Andreas has been hearing more about how the US is influencing Sweden in fundraising.

They end up speaking about when to start planning for your fundraise, how to design a fundraising process, and how to work the magic of psychology to close investors; it’s all about social proof, FOMO, and momentum…

Alumni company of the week: Tilly

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Andreas has been mentored by an old acquaintance and Julia has been going through half a coaching program. Neither makes them equipped to give advice around mentors and coaches, yet here we are.

They end up speaking about how to find a mentor or coach for yourself, how to leverage the person’s experience and knowledge and why the SSE Business Lab coaching is structured the way it is.

Alumni company of the week: Caterbee

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Julia and Andreas have both been on an offsite with the team, going through the OKRs for the year, which reminded them of the most important metric to track as a startup; the North Star Metric.

They end up speaking about what a North Star Metric really is, how to figure out what it should be for your startuo and end off with a quiz on which metric a few famous startups use.

Alumni company of the week: Qasa

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Julia has been listening to Startup School from Y Combinator and Andreas has been wrapping up as application deadlines for the programs approach - this Sunday (Jan 28, 2024).

They end up speaking about how to apply to the SSE Business Lab programs, what to do right to increase the chances of being admitted and how to answer questions from the Board of Admissions at the pitch. This is an episode that gives you an unfair advantage of how to get into the Activate and Incubate programs at SSE Business Lab.

Alumni company of the week: Tidings

Other resources mentioned:

How to apply to SSE Business Lab: https://ssebl.com/apply

Pitch deck templates: Activate - https://[ssebl.com/deck-activate](http://ssebl.com/deck-activate) and Incubate - https://ssebl.com/deck-incubate

Program info: Activate - https://ssebl.com/activate and Incubate - https://ssebl.com/incubate

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Julia has been busy planning the annual LP dinner for SSE Ventures and Andreas has been figuring out if there’s a perfect way to manage your investors.

They end up speaking about how often investors actually want to hear from founders and in what format, as well as how you resolve conflicts with investors on your cap table for a smooth long-term collaboration.

Company of the week: Geil

Other resources mentioned:

Managing Your Boss, HBR: https://hbr.org/2005/01/managing-your-boss

The Investor Update Template https://medium.com/@juliadelin1/landing-your-first-investment-the-investor-update-email-df0f6618677f

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård

Andreas has been reading the New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, and Julia has been looking into similar legal disputes from the past.

They end up speaking about whether OpenAI will have to shut down ChatGPT and start from scratch, what the implications of this case could be for AI development, and why the timing might be perfect for the “Spotify of AI” to emerge.

Company of the week: Klimio

Other resources mentioned: Thomas Eriksson’s Linkedin post: [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/erikssonthomas_i-går-kom-nyheten-att-new-york-times-till-activity-7146117520255614976-v2gp](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/erikssonthomas_i-g%C3%A5r-kom-nyheten-att-new-york-times-till-activity-7146117520255614976-v2gp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop)

Hosted by Julia Delin & Andreas Johansson

Edited by Victor Ganguly

Responsible publisher: Lars Strannegård