From MEMS Startup to $7.5B TI Acquisition
Over 15yrs ago Lux partner @Farshchi and I worked close with Lux family co Silicon Clocks (MEMS resonators on CMOS circuits for timing products) thru their sale to Silicon Labs… Today Silicon Labs got acquired by Texas Instruments for $7.5B
Turn a Simple Shopify Pain Into a Sellable App
Renata Raya (@reraya) built a profitable Shopify app called GoRecover and sold it on @acquiredotcom. She was running a Shopify agency in Mexico City and kept seeing the same issue. Customers abandoned carts and email recovery wasn’t working. Most merchants were...
Reviving the Lost Culture of Building Together
We used to build things? What happened? And what do we have to do to get back to building again? https://lnkd.in/gKUa7cNe
Scale Faster with Seasoned Talent and Evolving Leaders
Not everyone has the same skill set, and sometimes bringing in a more seasoned crew to help transition your company from early-stage to scaling up can be a smart strategy. On TWiST, Amanda Bradford, William P. Barnes and I discuss...
AI‑Powered SaaStr: 47% Revenue Rise, 3‑Person Team
We've spent the last year rebuilding SaaStr with 20+ AI agents. Revenue is up 47%. Team down to 3 humans. It's been the most intense learning curve of my career. I'm sharing all of it at SaaStr AI 2026. May...
MVPs Must Be Reliable Every Time, Not Feature‑Heavy
Even in its MVP form, the Uber app needed to be 100% trustworthy and reliable. When you use an app to get a ride somewhere, you need to know that you’ll also be able to get a ride back. If...
Standard Capital Helps Without Sitting on Your Board
"@Standard_Cap's whole model is that they don't need to be on your board to be helpful"
V7 Labs Go Scales Across Finance
wait til folks see @v7labs go is doing already at scale across finance, legal, insurance, tax - not in research preview https://t.co/S8OtBtIsvI
Public Markets Now More Concentrated; Non‑consensus Ideas Undervalued
to those worrying about the hyper concentration in VC: consider that public markets are more concentrated than they’ve been in ~ever. this isn’t a VC story, it’s an everything story. …which means: - the consensus is consensusing more than it’s ever consensed -...
M&A Often Beats IPO for Founder Liquidity
Many founders view an IPO as the ultimate goal, but going public doesn’t always deliver what founders actually want: true liquidity and diversified financial risk. In this video, I talk through why M&A is often the more practical and rewarding...
Persistence Pays: Curriculum Pitch Finds Funding Hope
2018 I attempted, pitched. Put it to the side. 2019 I came back to it, pitched, sent decks. 2021 I got really sick, had to start from scratch and completely forgot. 2024 I got a summer contract that reminded me of the...
AI Materials Startups Flooded with Pitches In
in less than 12h i got 3 inbound pitches for ai-first materials companies tis the season, again?
Evolving as a VC: Lessons in Firm Building
I've been thinking a lot about where I am as a VC in terms of firm building and what feels different now than when I first got started and put together some thoughts - a lot of this was inspired...
Invisible Economies Drive Exponential Value Through Relationships and Design
The most valuable signals are invisible. Most leaders are still optimizing for yesterday's. We're not in one economy anymore. We're in at least 10 at once. These are behavioral ecosystems. Basically invisible overlays intersecting with your brand, culture, innovation pipeline,...
Massive Pre‑Product Funding Could Bring AI To
Now that you can raise a 9-figure round pre-product, there's a non-zero chance we see a Super Bowl ad for pre-revenue AI company this year.
Varo Raises $124M Despite $92M Loss
The sunk cost fallacy is alive & well: Varo announced it has raised ANOTHER $123.9 million. Varo posted a net loss of $91.7 million in 2025, per its just-released call report. https://t.co/iGHX1ILeL9
Listing Isn’t Enough—Actively Drive Your Startup Sale
Sometimes founders list their startup and then wait. They assume buyers will just show up, ask questions, and magically move things forward. That almost never happens. Selling a business requires running an actual sales process. After NDAs are signed, you need to reach...
Build Deployable AI Workflows at SaaStr AI 2026
Not just talks. At SaaStr AI 2026, we're running 100s of hands-on workshops where you'll build actual AI workflows for your company. Sales. CS. Product. Ops. Leave with something you can deploy Monday. May 12-14. SF Bay. https://t.co/IsMOos9H4H
19‑Year Curated Lists Power New AI‑
I just went through my CS Academics list, moved everyone over to other lists, then deleted it. People have no idea how much time it takes to curate great lists. Been working on them for 19 years. While doing that...
Join Airstreet AI Meetups in Munich, Zurich, Paris
swing by the @airstreet ai meetup in: - munich 17 feb - zurich 19 feb - paris 11 mar more on: luma(dot)com/airstreet https://t.co/9ZuRL4Kk0A
Price SaaS Realistically: Focus on Profit, Not Hype
“I want to sell for 10x revenue because I heard that’s the average SaaS multiple.” That mindset usually leads to disappointment. Those outsized multiples exist, but they’re rare. They’re not the norm. And anchoring on them can stop you from selling at...
NIMBYism Costs U.S. Workers $8,775 Annually
I found a paper that actually quantifies the amount of money that is lost by society because NIMBYism prevents NY, SF Bay Area from building enough housing for their highly productive workers: $8,775 for every worker in America every year....
Unmasking EBITDA: From 1970s Cable to AI Era
EBITDA: the most quoted metric in finance… and the least understood. So we decided to make a mini documentary on its origins… yea, seriously. In our new segment, A CFO Explains, producer Ben Hillman and I try to “adjust” our...
Early Hires Need Passion, Later Scaling Can Diversify
Not everyone on the team really needs to be on your mission But almost all the first 50 employees do Hire pirates and romantics at least until you are truly ready to scale
Competitors Using AI Cut Mortgage Costs 25%
“It’s not AI that’s your competition. It’s your competitors using AI.” A real-world example from mortgage origination 👇 The frustratingly high cost to originate a mortgage (>$10K!) has persisted for decades. Except for originators on Vesta . Powerful stats from...
Accurate SaaS Gross Margin Is Critical for Valuation
Gross margin underscores the scalability of a business model and is therefore important for determining valuation. An unfortunate truth is that in SaaS, gross margin is almost never calculated or positioned correctly for investors/buyers. If you're talking to investors or...
Avoid the $50M ARR Plateau with Early Scaling Wisdom
I’ve talked about my CEO friend who raised $100M and got stuck at $50M ARR a lot. But if I could go back to 2019 when he was at $20M, and rockets were still firing, this is exactly what I...
Iceye Eyes $3B Valuation, $300M Revenue, No IPO
.@iceye_global: No IPO for now, $300M+ in 2025 rev, $3B valuation from latest funding round, wants @defis_eu & @esa to go faster in helping develop European space security network. #EuropeanSpaceConf.https://t.co/DM65XAjdCC
Early Private Deals Hide High Fees and Delayed Costs
Getting into hot companies before they go public sounds irresistible. But the fine print is brutal: high fees, opaque structures, long lockups, and risks most investors don’t see upfront. Access isn’t the same as advantage. Sometimes the real price of “early” is...
Prepare Fully Before Listing, Don't Just Test Market
“I’m just going to go out and test the market” is usually a mistake. What works better is preparing properly, listing at a fair valuation, and going to market with the expectation that you’re actually going to close a deal. Selling a...
California Risks Losing Future Startups to Austin, Miami
The Atlantic acknowledges the core risk: California could lose not just current billionaires, but the next generation of startups entirely. Austin and Miami are waiting. https://lnkd.in/gdwZ97WW
Skip Intros—Email Your Results Directly to SaaStr Fund
If you happen to want me to invest in you via @saastrfund, and it's a fit ... 📨Just email. Email me everything -- all the good stuff. No need for a warm intro, or any sort of intro. They just waste...
B2B AI Teams Achieve 5× Productivity as New Standard
The most impressive B2B + AI companies I'm seeing right now have 8 people doing the work of 40. That's not a flex—it's the new baseline. SaaStr AI 2026 is where you learn how they're doing it. May 12-14. SF Bay....
AI Secretly Powering Darren Aronofsky's Latest Film
My friend Darren Aronofsky texted me this earlier and my draw dropped. He told me it was AI. Lux is deeply invested in AI (esp @runwayml) but had he not told me I would have thought he made the movie...
Anthropic Chosen by 75% of New Startups
Insane data from @Mercury. Anthropic has quickly become the first model of choice for 75% of newly formed startups.
Even Industry Titans Can't Guarantee Startup Success
In 2020, Jeffrey Katzenberg raised $1.75 billion for Quibi. At CES, he faced a skeptical crowd and said: "I've been doing this before you all were f*&king born." Eight months after launch, Quibi was dead. Reality doesn't care about your résumé. https://t.co/ZYMpP1jLFX
Five Centuries of Venture Capital: A Visual Evolution
Cool graphic on how the venture industry has evolved over the past 500 years. h/t @pavelprata https://t.co/2CL76j0nvR
Vast VC‑LP Matching Opportunities Revealed in New List
Wow - that's a lot of opportunities for VCs and LPs to find each other...👇 🙏 Pavel Prata for collecting this list
Keep Re‑incorporating Daily Until Your Funding Closes
if you don't close your round in the first day just re-incorporate every day until you close
Wrong Leaders Cost Years of Lost Potential
Picking the wrong VP reverberates for 2+ years Picking the wrong cofounder reverberates for 10+ years You don’t fail, it’s just you could have done so much more. And that compounds, too.
Master Your Pitch, Meet Top VCs, Secure Term Sheets
- Know your worth - Hone your pitch - Meet the best VCs - Collect term sheets That's SaaStr AI VC -> https://t.co/XzJ5d0OqGr https://t.co/qulPugatLR
VCs Can't Fund Ex‑OpenAI Founders Indefinitely
“VCs can’t just keep giving OpenAI employees billions of dollars to start a new company forever” VCs: https://t.co/lVyo5wnDoI
Scaling AI Developer Infrastructure: Lessons From Meta’s Internal Agent
Office Hours: Building Developer Infrastructure at Scale with Jim Everingham In the world of AI, how do the very best companies build their developer infrastructure? To answer that question : On Tuesday, February 24, I’ll be hosting an in-person fireside...
Regulation Relief Fuels SaaS Boom in Cannabis Retail
Here’s how increased access to cannabis led to Sparkplug’s explosive growth… The startup — a LAUNCH portfolio company — offers a SaaS product that educates and rewards and benefits the dispensary clerks and “budtenders” who actually sell cannabis to clients,...
Intercom's AI Pivot Redefines SaaS Economics
Intercom has pivoted from traditional SaaS to AI better than any company I can think of. I spoke to the CFO behind the customer support juggernaut, and the outcome based product Finn. Dan Griggs is mastering the new economics of...
Don't Mistake High Volume for Real Market Size
Related, and also worth remembering: make sure you aren't chasing a small market masquerading as a large market. Big transaction volume doesn’t always translate to real market opportunity for startups.
AI Revolutionizes Enterprise Sales and Organizational Structure
New @ThePeelPod with @JacquelineSYC19 How AI is changing data, getting enterprise customers from cold emails during YC, building an AI BDR in-house, why most functions at @artie_labs report to the CTO (not CEO), and what it's like raising a Series...
Cheering on Gabriel Stengel’s Next Move
Let's go Gabriel Stengel @rogoai...
Startups Should Ditch Annual Plans for Quarterly Reset
Annual planning is one of the most over-copied “big company” rituals in startups—and it quietly creates a lot of bad decisions. In large companies, annual planning makes sense. They’re hiring hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people, mobilizing new strategies, changing systems,...
Acquiring Existing Startups Cuts Risk, Boosts Execution
One of the reasons people are successful acquiring startups is simple: they’re not starting from zero. Zach Simmons is a good example of this. Instead of building something new from scratch, he acquired Appraiva (@appraiva) on @acquiredotcom which already had real...