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Sammy Abdullah
Sammy Abdullah

13.3K Followers

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2 days ago

Startup learnings from the greats

The book ‘Founders at Work’ interviews well known tech founders about their earliest days. It’s well worth the full read, but below I summarized portions that really stood out to me. Note, these stories and companies came up in the 90’s and early 2000’s — we believe in learning from…

Venture Capital

13 min read

Startup learnings from the greats
Startup learnings from the greats
Venture Capital

13 min read


4 days ago

Strategic investors don’t matter

Entrepreneurs are always looking for “Strategic Investors” — corporate VC such as Intel, Verizon, SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce, Cisco, InQTel, etc. The view is that these investors provide not only capital, but also guidance on the product roadmap, engineering/dev resources, critical introductions, and they’re often customers themselves. Demand for strategic investors…

Startup

2 min read

Strategic investors don’t matter
Strategic investors don’t matter
Startup

2 min read


6 days ago

Learning from Yahoo’s mistakes

Nicholas Carlson wrote a fantastic book about Yahoo entitled “Marissa Mayer and The Fight to Save Yahoo.” Below I have paraphrased what I found to be valuable sections, verbatim; the full book is definitely worth the read. Allow employs to give feedback, anonymously. The questions were submitted during the week…

Venture Capital

9 min read

Learning from Yahoo’s mistakes
Learning from Yahoo’s mistakes
Venture Capital

9 min read


Jan 26

Average contract value in SaaS

Average Contract Value is an important metric in SaaS. If it’s trending up and to the right, it’s a sign that customers are upgrading more than they’re downgrading, the base is getting more “enterprisey”, and you’re really focusing on the ideal customer. However, the last 73 SaaS companies to IPO…

Venture Capital

3 min read

Average contract value in SaaS
Average contract value in SaaS
Venture Capital

3 min read


Jan 24

The 12 commandments of customer success

We’ve had the good fortune of learning from and investing in SaaS businesses with excellent customer retention and upsells. Below are some of the key learnings we’ve gathered over time. The Customer Success Team is not the only group in charge of customer success. Preventing churn is everybody’s job, so…

Venture Capital

4 min read

The 12 commandments of customer success
The 12 commandments of customer success
Venture Capital

4 min read


Jan 23

What big VC look for in a CEO

Recently, we got a hold of an investor letter from one of New York’s finest late stage venture funds. The letter shared insights into what the fund looks for in a management team, which resonated with us. Below we share these points, verbatim. We like CEOs that are patient with…

Venture Capital

2 min read

What big VC look for in a CEO
What big VC look for in a CEO
Venture Capital

2 min read


Jan 19

Layoffs at a startup done right

At some point you may have to lay off a chunk of your team to reduce burn, especially now. Large layoffs at a startup are particularly challenging because the team is small, everyone works in the same office or at least closely, and the impact to the culture can be…

Venture Capital

3 min read

Layoffs at a startup done right
Layoffs at a startup done right
Venture Capital

3 min read


Jan 17

Pulling off the acquihire

We just watched a company go through a very intense, distressed M&A process that fell apart in the final hour. It was an acqui-hire which has its own nuances relative to traditional M&A. Below are some tips to pulling off your own acqui-hire should it come to that. Protect your…

Venture Capital

3 min read

Pulling off the acquihire
Pulling off the acquihire
Venture Capital

3 min read


Jan 16

Q4 Consumer Tech Multiples

Below are revenue multiples for publicly traded consumer tech companies (B2C). Industries and therefore multiples vary widely. If you’re looking for data on SaaS multiples, that blog came out a week ago.

Venture Capital

4 min read

Q4 Consumer Tech Multiples
Q4 Consumer Tech Multiples
Venture Capital

4 min read


Jan 13

The state of Software Venture Capital

From time to time, we’ll share our views of what we’re seeing in the market for software venture capital. Below is the latest. The bid-ask spread is very wide. The “bid-ask” is as wide as we’ve ever seen it. The bid is what venture funds are willing to pay for…

Software

3 min read

The state of Softw
The state of Softw
Software

3 min read

Sammy Abdullah

Sammy Abdullah

13.3K Followers

co-founder at Blossom Street Ventures. Email me at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com

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