Deepak Singla

Are Dutch and European founders not ambitious enough? 🤔 I just read Techleap's latest report: "AI Scaling Challenges for Dutch Founders." (Okay, I got AI to read it and share the highlights with me. 😜) This quote caught my (& Claude's) eye: "𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 4% 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘈𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 10𝘔. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯..." Almost every day, I see posts and jokes about European founders thinking too small. As someone who works with Euro-founders everyday, I have a different view. I see: - Massive visions - Global mindsets from day one - Founders ready to take on the world It's not the founders who lack ambition. They're just working within the realms of what's possible in Europe. That's why many of them get funded from and/or move to the US. 💰 The real lack of ambition? That's from investors and governments in Europe. 🇪🇺 I'm still working on an article, "The Case for European Optimism." And I think it will show that European founders are just as ambitious as their US counterparts. The real question we should be asking is: - How can we create an environment that allows founders to dream bigger and reach higher? 🚀 And yes, I know this quotes mentions deep ecosystem issues... --- ↳ What's your take? Are European founders thinking too small, or is it the ecosystem that's holding them back? 👇

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Understanding the Rule of X for SaaS Scaleups For SaaS scaleups, the Rule of X offers a straightforward framework to estimate revenue multiples. It was originally developed by Bessemer Venture Partners and supplemented with data last week by Dealroom founder Yoram Wijngaarde. It emphasizes that growth significantly outweighs profitability, even amid VC crunches. However, when growth is constrained, profitability becomes essential. Framework Overview: The Rule of X combines growth rate and free cash flow (FCF) margin to evaluate company value, using a multiplier (typically 2-3x) on growth. Datadog Example: With a 25% growth rate and a 25% EBITDA margin, Datadog achieves a Rule of X score of 100%, implying a 15x revenue multiple for 2024. Importance of Growth: Growth has a compounding impact on valuation, significantly outweighing FCF margins. Subscribe to ‘Siliconnector’ Telegram channel for insights and news from Tech world and Silicon Valley: https://t.me/siliconnector

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Meet with the new ready-to-use #AITools to boost your sales operations 🥂 1️⃣ Outreach Message Generator Input: Enter the target email and your product/service information and click Run. Output: This tool will retrieve the LinkedIn profile and a profile summary, search for Industry trends, identify the top five Industry Trends, and generate an outreach message. 2️⃣ Lead Enrichment Tool Input: Enter the Potential Customer's Email Address Output: Get Full Name, Job title, Company Name, Company Industry, Employee Count and Employee Location. 3️⃣ LinkedIn -> Cold Email: Input: Enter the potential customer's LinkedIn URL, Your Company Information, and Output Language. Output: Get 3 engaging cold emails for a given LinkedIn profile. --- Tips 🤩 💎 These Tools are waiting for you in the Sales Category of the AI Template. 💎 Each Tool is customizable. Just click ''Clone to Edit'' and customize it as you like. 💎 With Run in Bulk, you can run Excel with Inputs and download the final version of Excel enhanced with Outputs. Enjoy! empler.ai #GTM #Sales #SDR #GenerativeAI #Workflow #AITools #marketing #growth #startups #enterprise #ai #yapayzeka #EmplerAI

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It’s always hard being a founder and running a company. But it’s been a tough year. No lie. Q1 nobody’s buying. Put us on back foot. Budgets didn’t increase or decreased. Spend on SaaS events seemingly down inline with software spend. Always feeling behind and late Pressure of delivering events felt harder. My dog and loyal companion of 12 years died. Second kid diagnosed with autism. Felt like one thing after the next. Sleep was shit. Almost felt like a year of what’s next? Yet: I felt these set of challenges made me and SaaStock stronger. USA event grew. SaaStock Europe experience improved and NPS up YoY. Lots of new client logos. Team stronger as a unit. Helped shape our focus for 2025 and beyond. Became a better dad and partner. Made some bigger bets for the company. We never gave up. Kept on keeping on and learning and improving as we go. Ready and better for 2025.

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Zepto raises $665 million at a $3.6 billion valuation. Here's why this raise is exciting for the Qcommerce space and startup ecosystem: Zepto's repeated fundraising success is impressive. > Pioneered the 10-minute commerce game. > Reached $1 billion GMV in under 2 years. > Founders are among the youngest in the startup world. > Built an exceptional team quickly. > Raised significant funds despite strong competition from Swiggy, Blinkit, BBNow, and others. > India is leading in aggressive Qcommerce growth. Reflecting on my TinyOwl days in the early FoodTech space, competition was fierce, and investors were cautious. However, things are different now: > Markets have scaled, unlocking multi-billion dollar opportunities. > IPOs are now viable, even for third or fourth ranked players with strong financials. Investors may feel relieved, but the Qcommerce space will remain highly competitive for the next few years. Consumers, meanwhile, are spoiled for choice. Interesting times ahead.

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Valuing Pre-revenue Companies One of the most common questions that every founder has is: How do investors value pre-revenue companies? Even most angel investors are not aware of the factors leading investors consider when valuing pre-seed or seed-stage startups. If you have similar questions, check this guide by Kauffman Venturing to learn about how to value pre-revenue companies... 👇 Check out my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/eggvJJRE . #startups #vc #funding #valuation #founders #investors #venturecapital #founder #startup #startuptips

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Valuing Pre-revenue Companies One of the most common questions that every founder has is: How do investors value pre-revenue companies? Even most angel investors are not aware of the factors leading investors consider when valuing pre-seed or seed-stage startups. If you have similar questions, check this guide by Kauffman Venturing to learn about how to value pre-revenue companies... 👇 Worth a read! 💫 Check out my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/d3QaTQwC . #startups #funding #founders #fundraising #money #founder #investors #invest #valuation #value #fund #investment

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I had an amazing chat with Tony Yang, and wow, this guy is a powerhouse for B2B scaleups! As Head of Growth at Mucker Capital, he works directly with founders to build scalable GTM strategies that drive results. MuckerLab, where he plays a major role, has a 𝟵𝟳% 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲, with 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 from top investors like Accel and Founders Fund. He is also the founder of RevOptica, a buyer journey visualization tool. During our chat, he dropped some real gold: 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝘃𝘀. 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 Treating the marketing funnel and buyer journey as the same leads to misalignment between company-focused sales processes and buyer needs. Separate the funnel from the buyer journey. Adjust outreach and engagement based on the buyer’s stage, not internal metrics. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝘀. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 Relying on demand capture methods like cold outreach or demos assumes prospects already know they have a problem. Focus on demand creation by educating prospects on their pain points and the need for change. 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 Using generic messaging that doesn’t evolve as the buyer moves through different stages is ineffective. Create value statements tailored to each buyer journey stage. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗡𝘂𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝘀 Creating content without alignment with the buyer journey stages can result in miscommunication or premature sales pitches. Audit content and tag each piece to specific buyer journey stages (e.g., tagging URLs with /BJS-1-2/). This will help nurture leads with the right content at the right time. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 Traditional lead scoring often relies on arbitrary point systems, assigning values for actions like clicks or downloads, which doesn’t reflect buyer readiness. A better approach is implementing a lead scoring system based on buyer journey stages. Separate scoring buckets for early, mid, and late-stage activities. We put these insights together in a playbook below. 👇 Don’t hesitate to download it and pass it along to others! _____ The full interview recording is up in our GrowthMasters community, where we share insights like these. It’s a laid-back space for B2B scaleups, VCs, PE, and M&A pros who love exchanging strategies, playbooks, and resources to help each other grow. We also meet in places like San Francisco and Vienna—a great way to connect, share ideas, and pick up new insights. Would love to have you there, too! Join us here: skool.com/growthmasters #gtm #startups #buyerjourney #VC #marketingfunnel

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Bootstrapping to 1M ARR as B2B SaaS company is hard. The first time I achieved this was in 2019. 😲 How many times I failed before? 2️⃣ times. How many times did my bank account go <0€ ? Just checked, 7️⃣ times. How many times I thought about quitting? oh well... can't count. I admire every entrepreneur for their perseverance. There are so many different companies, each with its own challenges. Nothing is comparable. Are you starting a new business? NOTHING is as you think, you always have to adapt to the market, the products, the business partners.  Of course there are some patterns that you can use again. But mostly you have to teach yourself everything again. What excites me the most? The personal development of the team/the people you work with. It's incredible to see how people develop in a positive environment. on that note: have a happy Labor Day 🚀 ☀

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I obtain comparable insights as a mentor with experience in over 100 startups and scale-ups, while also leveraging my own entrepreneurial background.

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Raising like a boss. 💰 Arnas is crazy. He gives away 100+ hours of work for free. Here is a complete playbook for founders who want to build a relevant community and attract investors on LinkedIn. And I can say it works, I found all my investments right here (or rather I was found). This is what you get: - 100+ ideas for writing inspiring posts - Powerful intro line examples - 10 rules for more visibility - How to use hooks, images, banners - Powerful ChatGPT prompts - Creating a profile that converts And so much more... This is probably the best guide you can download and I am a bit proud to have made it into his "inspiring posts" section. 🥹 Happy Fundraising 🚀 ____________________________ Sharing my experience as an entrepreneur and angel investor. Investing in early stage B2B SaaS startups. Happy to connect 👋

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The highest valuation in a financing round might be attractive but often it is not the option you should chose. Because it will hurt you later. 1.) With an established valuation you also create an expectation for the exit price. E.g. if you raise at 50m you need to build a 500m company - ask yourself how feasible that is in your industry with your model 2.) The highest bidder might not be the best fit for you in terms of know-how and/or on a personal level. Given you will be "married" to your investor for a longer period of time a 100% match is important. 3.) Often raising at a more aggressive valuation takes longer, so you will put the money to work later than with a less competitive but faster round. It is worth asking yourself if some or maybe all of the additional dilution of a lower priced round will be offset by putting the money to work earlier and spending less time on fundraising. 4.) The high price might come with additional asks that can hurt you later 2x liq pref, additional guarantees.... So don't raise the price at all cost

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The easiest way to sell more? Loving the product you sell. Might sound stupid. But so true. Beginning of the year, things were BAD. We had to fight heavy bugs in BetterContact. I relied on it for my own outbound. And became pretty frustrated myself. Asking: would I even buy it as a user? 4 months ago, we heavily invested in infrastructure. Now it works like a charm. Not only are our users happier. But also myself with the product. Allowing me to be more energetic about it. And sell more. Result: 88% Q1 MRR growth Do you love the product you’re selling? 👇

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Startup decks vs Business plans. It's accepted that a startup needs a deck. Dax Dasilva of Lightspeed Commerce made an important point on 20VC. Writing a business plan - including financial projections - is an important step. It requires discipline. It provides a rigorous framework for thinking deeply about the problem you're trying to solve. Harry Stebbings countered that he doesn't even want to see a deck since it's all dreams. We spent a lot of time and energy on our business plan with the expectation that we would show it to no one ever. The business plan was part of our roadmap for the company. We researched customers - including having 50+ conversations. We wanted to understand them: their background, their interests, their presence on social media. We also wanted to understand how they were evaluated by leadership and how integrated they were with the business of the company they were protecting. We researched pricing both with potential customers and other products in our industry to find out if OpEx or CapEx was a better fit. How did they buy today? How would they like to buy? We did market research to understand the verticals and map the right entry point - we were wrong but that doesn't reduce the value of the research. We looked at competitors in depth to understand what they were seeing that we weren't. Dax is right. This is an invaluable document that should be updated every year - the company is changing, the market is changing, there's more feedback about price and ICP. It's not for sharing with the outside world. It's a map for driving forward. Decks won't get you investment - VCs invest in people. We make decks but we know they don't tell our story. The deck is a calling card. Dax and Harry are both right. https://lnkd.in/e25M82xY

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Most B2B SaaS companies focus on the wrong numbers: • “We need to increase CLV!” • “We need to reduce CAC!” • “We need to reduce Churn!” They address symptoms, not root problems. I get it: - these metrics can be captured in spreadsheets. - the Industry focusses a lot on these metrics. - they provide quick information. However, focussing on these metrics is like driving in your car by only looking in the rearview mirror These metrics show what has already happened. Not why it happened, or how to do better. To truly understand how your business works, you need deep insights. In dashboards, we call this drilling down into data. (now you know my company is called Drilldown ;)) Here’s what you can find: 1. low CLV → poor customer onboarding. 2. high CAC → wrongly targeted marketing campaigns. 3. high Churn → low product activity in enterprise customers. This allows to identify the biggest bottlenecks in your business. And take actions that have the higgest return. Here’s the approach: 1. Identify biggest data needs. 2. Create a list of KPIs. 3. Design mockups. 4. Create data model. 5. Extract & store underlying data. 6. Process & transform the data. 7. Develop dashboards. 8. Monitor data flow in Slack. I do step 1 → 4 for absolutely free (yes, €0). No commitments. After, you can decide if you want to do step 5 → 8 yourself, or want my help. I’m reserving some spots in my agenda in Augustus to talk with B2B SaaS companies that need help with their data. Interested? DM me “Dashboard Blueprint” I’ll send you more info.

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Zip is one of the fastest growing B2B startups. 🚀 $0 ➡️ $1.5BN+ valuation in 18 months 💸 Raised $100M in a Series C 🏧 CRV, Tiger Global & YC Continuity Fund invested My 5 key takeaways from CEO & Co-Founder Rujul Zaparde 👇 1. Why Speed is the Most Important Thing   Our team has a thought exercise: “In an alternate reality, how would we compete against a Zip clone?” We’d rather be fast & iterate than slow & plan everything. No one can get it 100% right, so might as well learn quickly & move on. 2. Why Young Managers are More Creative I prefer to hire someone that has potential but no experience. They will first principle the problem & have more original ideas. They won’t be cutting and pasting a playbook from another company. 3. Platform vs Point Solution Founders need to identify that one pain point their product solves. You can build a platform BUT you will need to differentiate from your competitors. That original pain point will always be your wedge. 4. Why We Don’t Use Design Partners Our first 10 customers were cold off of Linkedin. No warm intros, no referrals, nothing. We want to build a generational company & if this doesn’t work we want to know early and move on. 5. Lessons from Brian Chesky @ Airbnb He is world class in his attention to detail. If a spacing is off in the app he will let us know. It reflects the company’s bar for quality. (links in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #seed #funding #B2B #SaaS

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profitability > growth for the past 3 years in SaaS

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Churn. Maker of ice cream 🍦. Destroyer of SaaS ☁ . The 'industry standard' for churn is <5% monthly. Higher if annual. A lower churn means stickier customers who see value in the platform. CompareHealth's pricing is unconventional for most insurance-related SaaS platforms. Our pricing is month-by-month only. There is no annual subscription option. There are no commitments (cancel anytime). Why? I let the platform speak for itself without making advisors feel 'locked in'. Plus, it motivates me to evolve the platform based on user feedback. The result? CompareHealth's churn is 3.5%. When advisors sign up, they stick around. Now if you'll excuse me, I need some ice cream. 🍦

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