1. Simple Metrics + Benchmarking Matters Most to VC’s
When a witty and successful Partner at a top VC firm presents on The Four Vital Signs of SaaS, we listen.
Rory O’Driscoll, Partner at Scale Venture Partners
While 90% of companies are not a fit for venture funding, it’s clear those that are need to focus.
Rory explained how measuring too many things means measuring nothing so look at simple metrics: revenue growth, sales efficiency, revenue churn and cash burn. Once you get these figures together, benchmark yourself against like companies and make sure you find a North Star, a non-money measure of customer engagement. Finding it tough to pull together this data? His firm actually created a tool powered by their own data set for companies to run reports for insights and data-based decision making.
2. Diversity + Inclusion Is Top of Mind
Four years ago Arlan Hamilton was on food stamps. Today she runs a venture capital fund investing in 100 startup companies led by women, people of color and LGBTQ founders. Breaking Rules While Breaking Ground was inspirational and informative about the venture capital funding culture in Silicon Valley and what needs to change.
Arlan Hamilton, Founder + Managing Partner at Backstage Capital
Minorities are disproportionally hurt by the cost of and lack of access to capital, and less than 10% of all venture capital deals go to women, people of color, and LGBT founders.
Why is that? For one, homogenous communities adopt homogenous approaches to evaluate opportunities; a.k.a. groupthink. Educating on the importance of bringing diversity to venture capital, the sentiment remains that VC’s are leaving money on the table. McKinsey observes that companies with racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns that are above national industry medians. Yep, diversity and inclusion matter because it’s the right thing to do and also because it is an opportunity.
3. Having Humility Is A Differentiator
The Merits of Discipline over Vision intrigued me since I wanted to hear from Sequoia Capital. I didn’t realize the talk would be more founder interview-focused and was pleasantly surprised at the insights shared by Mathilde Collin, a Y Combinator alum and one of Forbes 30 Under 30, Enterprise Technology 2017.
Mathilde Collin, Co-Founder + CEO at Front
When Mathilde shared that the vision of an idea matters less than the discipline it takes to bring it to light, I knew there was something here. She provided real-life examples of how to be successful running a company: have the discipline to focus on one thing at a time, be consistent in communication about priorities, stay transparent about tracking and structuring time, and above all lead with high humility.
Beyond the talks (many of which will be published here in the coming weeks), there were a number of people and companies who caught our eye in the exhibition hall. To name a few –
Paul Shapiro, CEO + Co-Founder, The Better Meat Co. Sustainable food tech benefits everyone — our health, our animals, and our planet. Paul created a plant-based protein to supplement meat products that feels like a step in the right direction to reduce our reliance on meat and decrease our meat consumption.
Ben Sainsbury, CEO, Marion Surgical. We love healthcare technology and Ben’s solution for surgery simulation through virtual reality (VR) is doing some great work. He has real patient case examples that offer a growing global catalogue for customers on a globally connected network. Excited to see how solutions like this advance surgery training and create new opportunities for patient health.
Bludot. Who isn’t a fan of productivity tools? Transforming how we work and engage in the modern workplace by focusing on the human element sounds like a great mission. It will be interesting to see what Bluedot does as they seek to illustrate what team members accomplish in a given day through a single workspace.
Did you attend the Startup Grind Global Conference 2019? What did you learn and what were you intrigued by at the event?