Survival Tactics for SaaS Startups

With twenty years of experience in the communications industry, Andrea Baptiste, President and CEO of Benbria, shared with us her considerable knowledge about what it takes to build a thriving SaaS startup.

Having established a solid track record in revenue generation, building teams, and delivering quality products quickly and profitably, Andrea is a seasoned executive in telecommunications networking and mobile communications. Holding management positions at Cambrian Systems, CrossKeys Systems, TeleSat Mobile and Newbridge Networks, Andrea has been on the ground during the rise of many of Ottawa’s greatest tech achievements.

It was with this umbrella of experience that Andrea began her chat with the L-SPARK cohort over a casual lunch n learn. Year over year the number of enterprise SaaS companies joining the unicorn club continues to grow. And with that exciting notion in the minds of many of our entrepreneurs, Andrea’s first piece of advice generates a buzz of excitement right off the bat.

1. Go out and find US VCs

Having just returned from a roadshow in Silicon Valley, Andrea had fundraising top of mind and was strong in asserting her observations — US VC’s are interested in Canada and they are investing in Canadian companies even more so than Canadian firms. To further demonstrate this, Andrea noted that in 2015 134 US VC’s invested in Canadian companies (versus 116 Canadian VC firms) and possibly the most promising stat; 40% of these investments were made in software.

2. Demonstrate the Path to Initial Traction

When you’re preparing to fundraise VC’s need to see that you have earned initial traction. Here are a few of Andrea’s key findings;

• Easy beats better — make sure your product is easy to use.
• Know your first customers — talk to them & service around their needs — this is critical.
• Get customer face time — don’t rely on automated ‘feedback’ tools to talk with your customers.
• In the early days having an advocate is important — leverage them as ‘referenceable customers’
• In Silicon Valley they all buy from each other — leverage your community for validation from fellow business leaders.
• Revenue is the end game — the whole team should be wholly focused on sales as a group effort.
• Inside sales — bring in this team when you have proven repeatability. You must have a process for repeatable sales first.
• Make customer success management a priority — this will provide insight into your product roadmap.

3. Be Mentally Prepared for the Long Haul

SaaS & Enterprise SaaS is a long haul according to Andrea. She notes that it will typically take 7–10 years for a SaaS company to come into full bloom.

This requires a long runway and a healthy amount of capital, however founders should expect to be bootstrapping for the first 18–24 months while the team finds the right product market fit. If $100million ARR is the goal, be mentally prepared for this to take 24 months.

In 2014 Slack went from $0 — $100million ARR … but they were founded in 2009. It takes 3 years in SaaS to become an “overnight success” so as a founder, hold on to your story and be mentally prepared with staying power.

Originally published at blog.l-spark.com.