Tim Milazzo

When we asked CPG founders who they wanted at Founderland... Their answer was clear: People who can help them grow their business & achieve their goals. Specifically: - The top retailers - The most founder-friendly investors, and - Other founders they can learn from and share with This conversation that I'm hosting at Founderland is a perfect representation of this group, plus one BIG bonus. We're also including Joel Toledano and ChargeUp.ai which is one of my favorite tech companies that is supporting consumer brands today. They automate the retail deduction and chargeback process for brands, saving them an insane amount of time and money. Such a cool co. Excited to teach, share and connect...and get some deals done, while of course having lots of fun. Joel Toledano Jen Zeszut Kim Coffin Deb Conklin

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Why we invested: Gratsi Wine 🍷💸 We led the seed round of Gratsi back in November of '22. At the time, they had zero distribution and their ecommerce revenue was modest. But we were blown away and ultimately decided to partner with the team for a few key reasons: 1. Metrics and efficiency: the underlying metrics of the business were unlike anything we've seen in the space. Gratsi's ability to acquire and retain customers (online and in retail) is unrivaled. 2. Potential for premium boxed wine: we remain convinced that premium boxed wine will continue to become one of the most important categories in the wine space. The volume, margin, and customer experience implications are massive. 3. Founder vision and execution: Stephen Vlahos has been executing relentlessly against his vision since day 1. As we met and got to know Stephen in the early days, it quickly became obvious to us that he would stop at nothing in his mission to build one of the most important wine companies in the world. It's been an amazing two years for Gratsi since we invested and I'm incredibly proud of what the team has accomplished. But I'm perhaps even more excited for the years to come. This team is truly just getting started. Exciting times ahead for Gratsi and the team! cc: Top Shelf Ventures Noah Slakter Jason Sherman

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Niche doesn't mean single-product. Data from TideMark's 2024 Vertical & SMB SaaS Benchmark Report backs this up. The sauce for Vertical SaaS is owning a niche and layering new products over time to grow 'share of wallet'... Here’s what I’ve learned from acquiring and operating Micro SaaS: // Product Expansion: - Start with your core offering, but always be mapping out adjacent pain points - Look for low-hanging fruit - features users are cobbling together with spreadsheets or third-party tools - Aim for products that increase switching costs and make your solution "stickier" // Acquisition vs. Development: - Sometimes it's faster to acquire a complementary product than build in-house - Look for small, bootstrapped tools in your vertical that solve adjacent problems - Assess potential acquisitions based on tech stack compatibility and integration ease // Pricing and Packaging: - Bundle strategically - not all products need to be sold separately - Use add-ons to increase ARPA without scaring off smaller customers - Consider usage-based pricing for auxiliary products to lower the barrier to adoption // Sales and Marketing: - Retrain your sales team on solution selling rather than product pitching - Develop clear ideal customer profiles for each product combination - Use your existing customer base as a testbed for new products // Technical Considerations: - Plan for integration from day one - whether building or buying - Prioritize a consistent user experience across products - Consider a modular architecture to facilitate future expansion // Metrics to Watch: - Track product adoption rates within your customer base - Monitor support ticket volume as you add products - Keep a close eye on churn rates for single-product vs. multi-product customers The multi-product approach isn't just about making more money. In smaller verticals, it's often the only path to building a substantial business. It's about creating an ecosystem that comprehensively serves your niche, making it harder for competitors to dislodge you. Depth plus breadth. But don’t diversify for the sake of it — be strategic, based on actual user needs and market dynamics. Follow me if you want to learn more about my journey of acquiring & operating Micro SaaS. For the love of the game 🏴‍☠️ ⚡ #Growth #Product #Strategy #Sales #Marketing

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Benchmarkit dropped its 2024 B2B SaaS survey, check it out! Confirms what many of the SaaS founders told me in a tough 2023: shrinking growth rates, tougher NRR environment, and lower "magic numbers". Still great businesses to own and scale, but a tougher operating environment spilled over into the M&A numbers. Lets hope for a 2024 bounce back! Thanks Ray Rike for the great work here. How does your business stack up? https://lnkd.in/gVpfQAdU #saas #benchmarking

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Our Micro SaaS portfolio company just hit ARR / FTE productivity rivaling $50M SaaS firms. Here are 4 lessons we learned along the way: Focus on operating leverage, not just revenue growth. EBITDA/FTE is an excellent scoreboard. Lean teams move faster and punch harder. Return on effort matters more than chasing scale or deal size. Where have you most recently created operating leverage in your business? #ARR #MicroSaaS #BusinessEfficiency

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There are Billions of dollars in non-dilutive grants and other funding for startups, especially those in Medical Devices, Digital Health, and Healthcare overall! Are you tapping into these sources of free capital where you don’t have to give up any of your equity? There are also people who can help you better prepare to win your grant applications (see below)!

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So a lot of scale-ups and startups have fallen off the venture track. They aren’t growing at venture-scale rates anymore. Triple Triple Double Double is now in the rear-view mirror. That can be tough. It quickly becomes impossible to raise any capital other than from insiders. Folks leave. It’s a big transition. Still … still … if you can’t get all the way back to venture-scale growth, at least stay or get to Private Equity levels of growth. What’s that? Roughly: - $20m or more ARR - 100% or higher NRR - 30% or higher revenue growth - Profitable, break-even, or close And - Don’t raise money at a crazy high valuation At that level, private equity firms will still be interesting in buying you in many cases. You’ll get calls, and especially if you are in a space they can combine with a large player, offers. You usually have to get to that level of scale, that level of growth, and that amount of efficiency. And the offers are lower in many (but not all) cases that you’d get in a hot deal from a tech buyer. But it can be real, good money for everyone

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I partnered with Kyle Poyar this week to uncover 10 PLG plays that can enhance your customer engagement, streamline processes, and drive revenue growth. Even if your company doesn't identify as Product-Led Growth (PLG), these are strategies from PLG that ANY company should be incorporating. Full post in today's GTM Newsletter by GTMnow, I’ll pop the link in the comments. The TL;DR: 1. Interactive demo on the website 2. Replace hard feature gates and paywalls with soft gates 3. Incorporate a usage-based component to pricing 4. Leverage product data to drive customer outcomes 5. Offer trials for new features 6. Correlate product usage with revenue growth 7. Automate resource-intensive processes with AI 8. Implement smart email nurture cadences 9. Build and leverage power user communities 10. Offer starter packages or proof of concepts ✍️

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CAVA (~$35M/restaurant) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (~$20M/restaurant) far outperform other industry comps for valuation per location. What's their secret? A recent conversation with investor Andy Giacone from Roark Capital summed it up brilliantly: "I've done due diligence on a LOT of public and private restaurants. One of the assets that consistently leads to the highest valuations is the robustness of a brand's loyalty program. For B2C businesses, a scale and high-performing loyalty program is almost as important as recurring revenue in B2B." Why? Performant loyalty programs offers predictability and therefore downside protection while also making it far easier to achieve robust future growth. McKinsey & Company concurs: "While growth is difficult to sustain, it is generously rewarded. In examining 15 major publicly traded restaurant companies... there was a more than 80 percent correlation between annualized same-store sales growth and annualized total shareholder returns.... Successful loyalty programs translate directly into financial results, often encouraging both larger order sizes and greater order frequency from program members. These programs can funnel customers into brands’ first-party delivery businesses, which offer the brand higher margins than it receives from orders conducted through third-party delivery services."

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Special feature post in The GTM Newsletter today: Kyle Poyar broke down 10 “PLG plays” that every company should implement - even if they’re *NOT PLG*. Kyle consistently shares exceptional content around PLG, growth and pricing. It was a ton of fun collaborating and seeing his breakdown. The first point is an interactive demo on the website. The fourth point is to leverage product data to drive customer outcomes. This fourth point I found particularly interesting. The CRM is the "source of truth" for go-to-market teams, but often lacks product analytics to provide customer behavior understanding from in-product activities without human or sales rep involvement. But in reality, even non-PLG companies can use this data to assess customer health and tailor sales conversations. I'll drop the link to the details on these 10, including examples and screenshots 👇 -- The GTM Newsletter is a weekly newsletter by GTMfund's media brand, GTMnow, that goes out to over 50k revenue leaders who are scaling their companies and careers. If you aren't already subscribed, you can do so through the Substack post in the comments.

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SaaS Buying Behavior Has Shifted: What Software Founders Need to Know The landscape for software purchasing has changed dramatically since 2021. Companies are no longer buying software for every need—instead, they’re categorizing products as either "nice-to-have" or "must-have." Here's what that means: Scrutiny is Higher Than Ever: Every purchase is heavily examined, with CFOs, head of sales, and RevOps teams now playing key roles in the decision-making process. Must-Have or Bust: If your SaaS product isn’t essential, you’re at risk. Companies demand solutions that solve critical problems. The game has changed. Has your SaaS strategy?

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I think we all have SaaS fatigue. There are millions of platforms out there that can do anything imaginable. And they all have competitors. So finding, researching, learning, and implementing a tool for every little task we do isn't realistic. What we do instead is: a.) make do with the tools that already exist within our companies b.) bring over any existing technologies that we already know and love c.) find new tools to solve our biggest pain points Everything else, we generally ignore. Obvious budget and bandwidth constraints aside, it's hard to even know where to start looking. 👉 There are tools that can schedule and repurpose your social content. Cool, do I really need that? 👉 There are tools that make it easier for staff to share and engage with company content. Will anyone actually use that? 👉 There are tools that automate mundane processes. Great, will I even have the time to learn that? So if you're a B2B marketer, especially at a smaller company with a lean team and even leaner budget, I feel for you. Finding traction is difficult, expensive, and elusive. I don't have the magic bullet. This post is purely for morale support. Stay strong and keep fighting the good fight. ✊ #b2bmarketing #marketing #branding

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Specter is on 🔥 Shipping again this week with Landscapes and Historicals! 🚢 🗺️ Landscapes: Identify market trends, assess competition, and refine your strategy with our powerful new market mapping tool. Use Recommended Landscapes, built by Specter or replicating market maps from top investors and insiders—or create your own custom market maps. 📈 Historical Growth Charts: You asked, we delivered—2 years of historical data across key metrics! Spot long-term trends, track seasonal patterns, and benchmark companies like never before. 💡 Want to learn more about these new features? Check them out here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e_9nKvXa

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Great post by Josh Wagner on the importance of urgency. If you don't want to build a company characterized by urgency and extreme intensity over a long period of time - at least a decade - you would be better off not raising venture capital.

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SaaS Operators…can you pass the Nathan Latka podcast test❓ I’ve spoken with a lot of SaaS founders, CFO's, etc. from $3M ARR to $200M ARR who cannot pass his test. What is Nathan’s test? Asking you on the spot about specific SaaS metrics. Seems simple. Don’t find yourself not being able to answer financial and metrics questions when talking to your Board, investors, and potential investors. Or on a podcast! Can you pass the Latka test? I had a student in one class who specifically wanted to avoid “embarrassing Board questions.” 😯 To help you on your SaaS metrics journey, download my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework below. It's an instant download…no email asks or paywalls. I teach my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework to my students at The SaaS Academy. And I implement this metrics framework for my SaaS clients. Why is this framework important? 1) Use this as your roadmap to implement your metrics 2) Right metrics at the right stage 3) Data-driven decisions 4) Better capital allocation 5) Understand what is working, what is not working 6) Answer Board and investor questions 7) Implement a repeatable metrics process; no fire drills! Download the framework here: https://rpb.li/LqK Learn more about my SaaS metrics course here: https://rpb.li/NUdSnK Please like this post if you find value in my framework. And tag a friend 🙋 who might find this useful. #SaaS

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SaaS Operators…can you pass the Nathan Latka podcast test❓ I’ve spoken with a lot of SaaS founders, CFO's, etc. from $3M ARR to $200M ARR who cannot pass his test. What is Nathan’s test? Asking you on the spot about specific SaaS metrics. Seems simple. Don’t find yourself not being able to answer financial and metrics questions when talking to your Board, investors, and potential investors. Or on a podcast! Can you pass the Latka test? I had a student in one class who specifically wanted to avoid “embarrassing Board questions.” 😯 To help you on your SaaS metrics journey, download my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework below. It's an instant download…no email asks or paywalls. I teach my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework to my students at The SaaS Academy. And I implement this metrics framework for my SaaS clients. Why is this framework important? 1) Use this as your roadmap to implement your metrics 2) Right metrics at the right stage 3) Data-driven decisions 4) Better capital allocation 5) Understand what is working, what is not working 6) Answer Board and investor questions 7) Implement a repeatable metrics process; no fire drills! Download the framework here: https://rpb.li/LqK Learn more about my SaaS metrics course here: https://rpb.li/NUdSnK Please like this post if you find value in my framework. And tag a friend 🙋 who might find this useful. #SaaS

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Throughout my years of being a SaaS Founder and GTM advisor, I've seen countless Founders navigate the Founder-led journey masterfully. How? 1. They embraced Founder-led GTM, Sales, and Marketing to get their scalable machine going. 2. As they got momentum going, they got leverage for their GTM machine by hiring (SDRs, Demand Gen, AEs). 3. Then as the machine started to work, they recruited and hired true GTM leaders to scale. AND since their GTM machine had proof points, they were able to de-risk the job and recruit great talent. Founders that embrace GTM win. Founders who try to outsource it and don't pay attention to it, lose. Period. If you're an early-stage SaaS Founder looking to build a scalable GTM machine and accelerate your path to $3M+ ARR (and beyond), grab a complimentary copy of my 5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide. Just follow the link in the comments below. If you don't see my comment, choose "Recent Comments" in the dropdown below this post. 👇

Jason Cohen's WP Engine hit $100M ARR in under 7 years — screen shot of pre vs post PMF revenue growth below. At SaaSOpen last month, he shared some key insights he learned along the way: 🚀 Initial Sprint: From $1M to $5M ARR in just one year. 📊 Hiring a CEO: What he calls his "second-best decision." 🔧 Operational Shifts: Transition from exploratory tactics to focused, scalable strategies. 🛠️ Shifting gears from rapid experimentation to solidifying operations. 🎯 Focusing on fewer, larger bets to maximize resources. 📑 Redefining roles: From developers to managers, transforming how teams operate to ensure scalability. Watch the keynote and download the full slide deck: https://lnkd.in/e55yJFCN

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The bar for efficiency is rising for SaaS companies. Here's ARR per FTE trends 2022 Vs 2023 (by Kyle Poyar): - 📈 $1-$5 million ARR: Good: $90k, Great: $150k+ - 📈 $5-$20 million ARR: Good: $150k, Great: $250k+ - 📈 $20-$50 million ARR: Good: $200k, Great: $275k+ - 📈 More than $50 million ARR: Good: $250k, Great: $300k+ #founders #startups #venturecapital #vc #tech #B2BSales #SalesDevelopment #LeadGeneration #SalesProspecting #OutboundSales #InboundSales #SalesStrategy #SalesEnablement #SDRTips #SalesTraining #SalesGoals #SalesSuccess #SalesTeam #ColdCalling #SalesTechniques #SalesEfficiency #SalesLeadership

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