Perspectives

Emergence CEOs Share The Secrets to Raising Growth Capital

May 1, 2018

Series known hardest round raise entrepreneurs evaluate investors data proves approximately 50 funded companies hard Teams product market fit figured ton risk scaling early success machine Emergence 6 years time every single Seed portfolio wanted subsequent successfully done outside investor higher price 2x average right 100 rate 20 investments went source truth asked five CEOs raised growth rounds last year share worked team generalize wisdom following 5 tips 1 fundraise fundraising entrepreneur focus important factors advance business mode waste talking cold emails ghost politely decline offer keep apprised developments via email re-engage timing Good fundraisers maintain pipeline 10 quarterly builds trust hit milestones touch points enable CEO solicit feedback help gives opportunity assess VCs future partner secret make customers happy built great successful Capital actively Sequoia approached plenty cash bank control destiny new come Eric Yuan Zoom 146MM 2 everything Finding takes requires full process start preparing cycle least 9 months list initial meetings understand gauge interest earnestly go pitch deck diligence materials zero date try cut close give heartburn mercy balance ticks Venture debt extend runway factored August Thanksgiving factor math need firm ultimately decision key makers firms others require pre-fundraising potential qualify top guide everyone within timeline Jett McCandless project44 46MM 3 Practice preparation critical smooth practically job iterate research pitching tailor story specific criteria hopefully learned prepare answers possible question predict keeping interested engaged prepared request brainstormed questions ahead together made sure room ready kept SalesLoft driver's seat helped weed see diving Kyle Porter 76MM 4 Choose individual want long term sheet best terms common refrain Silicon Valley choosing analogous getting married support times bad Selecting expense working preferred fire end divorce know person absolutely talk backed fund definitely meant making careful people partners running tight authentic strengths weaknesses find aligned run finish around option think fair lucky Kieran Snyder Textio 30MM Build transparency follow stretch metrics size anywhere else flaws half truths simply regain credibility lost Specifically pretend pilots proof concept deals signed show CAC LTV metric pro-forma basis unless denote formula slide say AI company regardless outcome allies believe pay dividends came typical number loved Partnering easy given reputation track record Enterprise space closing Mya laid liked updated progress preemptively led able quickly first proving hitting goals said going Eyal Grayevsky Systems 32MM

Stop Harvesting Us—Help Us!

March 28, 2018

internet fueled increasingly-targeted advertising know big companies tracking behaviors locations online homes recent technologies Alexa voice assistant Nest thermostats order help advertisers harvest Look happened 2016 outside parties tried influence election process targeting swing voters business model best interest want steer toward options consumers play deepest emotions buy selling plenty data supports latter behavioral mechanisms grew colossal scale today transform harvesting primal desires replaced helping improve lives learning make effective productive raise salaries turning robots Matrix-like new reality encouraging creative unique...more human consumer behavior drove first wave opened door minds two-way find explore anything imagined touch screen allowed see popcorn trail interested ways never possible understanding Facebook likes posts seeing shop knowing go physical world now mean excitement power expand outstripped sell think given marketers keys going use advantage pay ever money tech led current backlash becoming powerful controlling Something change Cloud software always driven different exploiting market quietly evolving mostly sold businesses answer misalignment created roots 50-year-old industry lie users manage tasks easily ultimately jobs sexy grounded core based performance old client-server prior paid thought workers perform better aka Service SaaS last 15 years tighten relationship pays return name implies allows rent exposed upfront costs installing millions dollars Clearly perfectly aligned buyers times buyer expected vendors consistently underperform die away versus pay-for-performance getting building product people crux question fundamental difference motivation behind models need please carnal needs consider whether ad loan car afford good job target pinpoint accuracy give products yes sometimes learn great time skin worlds deep combined add-value-or-you don't-get-paid happy share methods come back improves next social networks commercial economy part Introducing Coaching dubbed forms foundation major advance augment capacity believe drive creation generation iconic enterprise Gordon Ritter transformation five ago ability deeply understand makes writer salesperson manufacturing worker far nuanced system gather useful advice IoT mobile devices GPS accelerometers cameras modern communications infrastructure i.e Zoom available rivaling broad-but-thin Additionally machine algorithms massive systems feeds harm advise vs addict fall trap huge company become Google main reasons stated aligns improving continue making employees Second unlike more-unified evolve large specialized focused enormous Organized either function Sales specific domain known factors limit monopolistic third perhaps important factor follows Race automation Humanity wake slumber Especially developed countries period unequal abundance technology enriched left reaching breaking point fracturing political labor markets early stages long-term force artificial intelligence AI associated robotics enables systematically simple revolutions past tractor railroad sectors simultaneously Silicon Valley trend inAI wipe proposed broad welfare state Universal Basic Income depressing outlook group prides disrupting status quo harvested lab rats sure helps stay ahead using innate gifts insights designed allow works others instantly skills faster Turn page internet's mis-alignment simpler model.Helping employers paying improvement addiction Tech's engagement

Welcoming UpKeep to the Emergence family

March 20, 2018

delighted announce Emergence led UpKeep's Series financing UpKeep develops mobile applications help maintenance repair workers jobs done effectively market addresses made mostly deskless employees field working remotely comprise 80 percent global workforce huge segment largely overlooked technology providers heard Ryan Chan CEO Founder talk created product knew potential change collaborated saw challenges teams faced process development engineer manufacturing plant biggest problems Ryan's cumbersome used manage projects team write paper work orders take back desk enter desktop application forms lost time wasted set improve talked 1 000 customers clear app already helping save money example director engineering Marriott recounted former paper-based system required hours prioritize assign review request Marriott's technicians fraction Jet.com's facilities manager told now create company eliminated administration amazing customer testimonials received users getting accolades course recognized leading software analysts named Top CMMS Computerized Management Solution Advice's 2018 FrontRunners Report Facility Category Leader Combinator Winter 2017 alumni Forbes 30 radically changing improving excited partner continue make big impact lives around world Go

How Coaching Networks Will Create the First Facebook-Scale Enterprise Business

October 26, 2017

onset AI workplace raises set important questions deal directly reality use artificial intelligence help better jobs learning necessary new skills along big debate going policy tech circles whether turn good bad society side sees primarily job destroyer means liberate workers mindless administrative tasks sides missing bigger point coming matters respond instead far constantly used rise mundane automating away answer something dubbed Coaching Networks forms foundation major advance think businesses software augment capacity human believe drive creation next generation iconic enterprise companies 40 years business essentially replaced processes previously required paper Emergence seen power replacing via multi-tenant web-based first investment Salesforce.com shift cloud huge breakthrough largely experience users capabilities improve either treat crutch relieves thinking examples include Waze Google Maps asset helps brains effectively creatively hope choose win race automation choosing latter Otherwise overtaken curve simply cogs driven machines lost sound extreme give humanity fighting chance dynamic finally replace old forms-based paradigm giving static workflows reporting tools Gordon Ritter General Partner key ingredient gathers data distributed network identifies best techniques getting done acts real-time on-the-job coach guiding employees successful outcomes process gathering fed back system Rather dispensing one-size fits-all advice offers uniquely tailored worker task given moment gets time practices proven effective across variety situations identifying outlier cases creative person finds solution adds allows others learn humans become mutation engine evolving generating ideas benefit everyone else solve problems Remote trained easily work less flexible improving Network-based nearly every sector economy especially related sales service human-to-human interaction essential Interpersonal communication nuanced ways fully grasp changes place never automated decisions already showing forward exhibit core principles apart pack Go deep focus narrow within specific domain field avoid broad apply everything approach popular among startups today Sweat algorithm open source Google's TensorFlow Amazon Machine obsess creating unique company's intellectual property proprietary user behavior Make useful visible must hard build encourages UIs intrusive annoying discourage Lack leads fresh deadly networked Guru created clever Chrome browser extension links institutional knowledge need complete certain Inside company require workflow tends scattered several miscellaneous documents corporate intranet file storage mostly lives heads notices someone Gmail Salesforce Zendesk Slack applications automatically surfaces information context real saves takes look keep using high rate usage creates valuable works suggestions Since deploying Shopify five times increase base speeding critical Intercom 60 percent reduction support team customers hold large enterprises see ride effect achieve significant scale gorilla space whose market capitalization recently passed 70 billion mark smaller Facebook 500 cap Alphabet 650 reason disparity arguable exception LinkedIn harnessed consumer Internet giants built around dwarf today's gorillas

The Coaching Networks Playbook

October 21, 2017

onset AI workplace raises set important questions deal directly reality use artificial intelligence help better jobs learning necessary new skills along past decade Cloud given birth huge companies fortunate partner number visionaries including biggest winner Salesforce currently closing 75B market cap However despite success industry see B2B company come close scale B2C behemoths Alphabet Google 700B Facebook 500B believe largely due fact harness power data network effects think first enterprise breed built Coaching Networks dwarf today's gorillas uses machine guide workers toward effectively key ingredient software gathers distributed identifies best techniques getting done acts real-time on-the-job coach guiding employees successful outcomes process gathering fed back system Rather dispensing one-size fits-all advice instead offers uniquely tailored worker task moment humans become mutation engine evolving generating ideas turn benefit everyone else Gordon Ritter gets time practices proven effective across variety situations identifying outlier cases creative person finds solution adds allows others learn experience listen Founder General explain video 1 Gather Behaviors Sensors passively details user activity behavior written verbal physical 2 Combine Peers ML Analyzes identify 3 Predictive based findings coached unique individually 4 Human Creativity ingenuity advances brilliant outliers improve cycle continues build date SaaS primarily focused putting forms tools improved workflow reporting management typically end flip model head focusing value job reasons forms-based commoditize remain differentiated via data-driven insights proprietary domain-specific deploying critical technologies automate tasks away automation concentrate highest human-to-human interactions revolve around generated need specific domain focus relevant must generate substantial performed highly domain-focused unrelated context helpful in-line UI drives high usage useful active develop ways interacting drive adoption rans UIs intrusive annoying well-timed well-positioned building please feel free reach excited support development next big

How to Raise Seed Capital: Top Enterprise Seed Investors Share How They Analyze Investment Opportunities and What Founders Should Expect in Fundraising

October 2, 2017

Emergence fortunate partner closely amazing entrepreneurs top enterprise seed investors build iconic companies together Working instilled healthy respect challenge undertake invest early stage startups SaaS investing simply little evidence investor justify investment able consistently find back great interest helping hope shine light opaque process curating answers partners analyze opportunities Every says team important factor specific qualities look founding Missionaries Mercenaries words founders deep attachment problem solving communicators clear vision know market customer going clarity Balanced teams i.e Hacker Hustler Hipster possible execute learning machines metrics unafraid challenging assumptions politely course Marvin Liao 500 2 3 questions founder needs answer pitch right large business deeply space thoughtful win lose customers tell evolve time fit new landscape Additionally try validate ability hard people organized good respond quickly numbers Lastly assess CEO's recruit talent made key hires sell love product maybe need raving fans making sure first onboarded happy engaged advocates Ideally influencers type big enough funds want see realistic path 300M+ ARR company Understand tend prefer bottoms analysis looks number potential projected pricing vs estimate Michael Cardamone Managing Director Acceleprise technology risk minimal applications straightforward rarely cutting edge algorithms research play apps support dozen hundred users scaling issue result mostly skip tech due diligence despite engineer succeed round almost always set typically focus side approach better alternative approaches engineering main someone think evaluate seem kind CTO talented work Leo Polovets General Susa Ventures 4 unexpected form developed proprietary methods share areas explore walk changes values company's power strong indicator competitive advantage looking machine models perform across slightly different data used train varying vocabulary volume etc personal founder's upbringing figure core passions motivators experience cultures Sometimes meal interests web Ash Fontana Zetta Venture 5 product-market traction put simple health mainly determined factors lifetime value CLTV acquisition costs CAC say wholesale price sales retailer merchant buy products higher acquire lower early-stage public beta went live Getting meaningful takes since calculating based monthly churn rate cohorts reliable idea marketing programs various improve on-boarding along it'll take least 6 12 months following product's launch reasonably everything goes longer hiccups aim earlier leading indicators ratios future speak Visitor-to-trial conversion high indicates target audience interested communicate clearly essential sold online obviously equal Trial-to-paying-account extremely metric obvious reasons pay best sign delivering real means Engagement retention within often terminate accounts away stop using especially low point Therefore usage daily weekly logins application-specific basis viable Christoph Janz Nine Capital valuation caps hardest rounds incredibly situationally dependent last 400m IPO'd raise pre-seed 40m pre uncommon proof points lucky anything 2m generous pre-money crazy days sane super start-up worth 1m world let alone 6m thousand lines code 1 paying rational Unless hint something come said dig layer deeper fair 3rd less next money call 7m post add another dilution effective 8m 24m+ 30m+ 18 3x 2x Series beyond math end deal around Jason Lemkin SaaStr 7 pitching meet likely seen invested similarities expertise OK ask challenges expect years deliver give chance choice firms flip help mode learn portfolio failures successes lightly gauge investor's show starting learner's mindset Kevin Webb Network 8 level interaction post-fundraise firm person participates bucket smaller checks invariably mean lead major carve regular face-to-face formal board meetings place fund hour hold bi-weekly 30 minute slot case urgent discuss Life moves pretty brand change fast leaving month updates feel hearing completely interactions valuable parties absolutely second priority running dial schedule generally accommodate encourage ping text Slack medium needed cadence increases fundraising involved strategy introductions refinement launches milestones run bad decision rather act consigliere assisting Andy McLoughlin SoftTech VC

Jett McCandless, Founder and CEO of project44

October 2, 2017

Emergence partner Joe Floyd talks Jett McCandless journey entrepreneur founded project44 bringing digitization trucking logistics industry Watch video listen podcast

Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom

October 1, 2017

Emergence Capital partner Santi Subotovsky sits Zoom's Eric Yuan talk company's early beginnings importance company culture happiness Watch video listen podcast

How to Price Your Software: 101

October 1, 2017

months ago asked give talk Stanford students building early-stage businesses price products looked back notes classes inspiration realized learned almost nothing software Disclaimer learn useful stuff incredible time Go Card econ courses teach equilibrium found intersection supply demand curves turns easy draw real life constraints create allow cost-based pricing models ever popular amongst consulting case interview set SaaS art science past years SaaS-focused VC seen definitely product tried distill observations rough framework help founders marketers maybe profs think approach 101 Lesson 1 Structure Model make rookie mistake charging customers Put together allows discriminate different customer groups work effectively using two-axis commonly first axis volume e.g seats Salesforce storage Box contacts Hubspot etc second features sold either individually Single Sign capability admin control packages Basic Pro Enterprise grow via higher volume-based consumption upsells driven maturing needs careful overcomplicate particularly early less diversity base Generally speaking axes gets confusing sales team Extra Credit Try dissuade usage Sometimes seat-based discourage spread organization Find ways aligned success example Textio helps companies attract candidates want faster prices based number job recs open Lever recruiting space employees encourage broad enable vendors 2 Determining Charge hardest part fewest hard fast rules said startups underprice fan testing everything including Start highest straight face lower gradually hearing yeses level look types see best maximize obviously add ton value seems obvious need quantify created Understand levers affecting revenue cost assign dollar check ROI calculator template Nic Poulos Bowery Capital good sense reasonable 10 30 understanding viable ranges tying directly situation debate comes bill re Direct value-based creates risk ambiguity disagreement around causality externalities measurement issues 3 easier whatever annually vs monthly critically paid upfront absolute fund business cheaper raise money folks efficient tech exit history achieved distinction primarily selling large annual contracts front harder SMBs worth pushing move market Keep close eye deals Without constant feedback churn guide stay super happiness NPS 4 Discount tempting inadvertently reference industry vertical buyers trust contract keeps core per unit full count seat convince increase prove expands eventually feature 201 mastered basics whole slew advanced elements consider dive perhaps future article topics include use strengthen competitive moat Hint amount data professional services needed deploy Fight urge Cover costs hooked drug practices change phenomena AI become wider Potentially AI-enabled tools improve productivity substantially reduce additional disrupt per-seat grown love probably under-discussed important topic Hopefully spurs discussion hear Note illustrate points used examples portfolio Veeva Special thanks Dannie Herzberg dannieherz providing on-the-ground operator perspective inspired

Meet Guru: Bringing You Knowledge Everywhere You Need It

September 7, 2017

thrilled announce Series investment Guru reshaping information gathered shared within organizations Instead relegating knowledge seldom-accessed wikis simply letting live employee's heads provides all-knowing coach anticipates customer-facing teams need engaged given task delivers in-context moment system uses machine-learning understand pieces result customer outcomes improves recommendations time concept using behavioral data networks machine learning workers improve performance real-time phenomenon call Coaching think help create next generation iconic enterprise cloud companies add portfolio early leaders space spoke customers became clear profound effects example Intercom seen 60 reduction amount takes support respond Shopify 5x improvement consumption concurrent decrease average handle surprising talk Guru's end users heard folks told imagine jobs without Indeed become core part workflow fact higher engagement rates previous company Yammer stage interest initially driven strong fit thesis passion getting know co-founders Rick Nucci Mitch Stewart brought excitement level senior team worked together previously Boomi co-founded later sold Dell continued grow now amongst largest tech Philly experience comes done ambition tapped massive idea excited partner make ubiquitous