Startup Mistakes

www.cbinsights.com 1
DON’T
do these 68 things in
your SaaS company
From HR to product to marketing, here’s some of our screwups.
Presented by Anand Sanwal, CEO & co-founder

First, some
context
Some background on CB Insights so
you can decide how much of what I’m
about to say might be valid/valuable

“I just think it is serving a different kind of need. It’s a different
business segment onto itself. And the segments that we are serving
largely, I think, will remain separate and distinct from that. I don’t
think customers suddenly woke up…and aid, ‘We really don’t care
about consistently high quality products, and we don’t need service
and we don’t need amenities.’ I just don’t buy it.”
– Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton on Airbnb
TECHNOLOGY IS EATING
EVERY INDUSTRY

WE HELP YOU BITE BACK
CB Insights’ technology market intelligence solution
lets you predict, analyze and communicate emerging
technology trends by mining millions of data points in
ways that are beyond human cognition.

(if these three had a tech focused baby)
Search engine organizing
massive unstructured
data sets
CRM for big ideas
and knowledge
management
The tech industry’s
most trusted and cited
analysts

See what other customers have to say at http://www.cbinsights.com/customer-love
“We use CB Insights to find emerging trends
and interesting companies that might signal
a shift in technology or require us to
reallocate resources.”
TRUSTED BY THE WORLD’S
LEADING COMPANIES
Beti Cung
Corporate Strategy, Microsoft

62
9 16
211
490
1200
1400
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 (YTD)
From the NY Times to Bloomberg, CB Insights data and analysts are cited
by hundreds of leading media outlets every month.
THE MOST TRUSTED SOURCE FOR
INSIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
CB INSIGHTS MEDIA CITATIONS PER YEAR (THROUGH Q3 2016)

Revenue-funded to 66
teammates
Raised $10M Growth
Equity round (end ‘15)
Will be 150 at YE 2017
(vanity metric)

Because people are
fixated on fundraising,
the chart to the left
shows our revenue of
last year as funding
rounds
Healthy 8-Figure
Revenues
Grown revenue by
100%+ for last 3 years

Anand Sanwal
CEO / Co-founder, CB Insights
Ran American Express $50M Chairman’s
Innovation Fund
Prior work in venture capital and M&A
Author of “Optimizing Corporate Portfolio
Management” (Wiley 2007)
Graduate of Wharton (Finance/Accounting) and
University of Pennsylvania (Chemical Engineering)
@asanwal
Questions / Help
asanwal@cbinsights.com
3 Miscellaneous Facts
1. Worked at Kozmo.com –
an infamous NYC dot
com bust darling
2. Climbed Mt Kilimanjaro
3. Have run all 5 NYC
borough ½ marathons

This will be
useless for
wantrepreneurs, people who
believe VC is required to build a
biz, folks who can’t grind, or folks
selling $9.95/month SaaS
products (and many others)

#1
DON’T
take advice from non-
customers
“Only take advice from those who have to live with the consequences” – Mark Cuban

#2
DON’T
tolerate high-performing
assholes
They might provide short-term benefit but are cancerous to culture long-term.

#3
DON’T
fall in love with
pedigree
There are plenty of smart folks who aren’t Google or Stanford alums.

#4
DON’T
half-ass onboarding of
new teammates
Teammates make decisions to stay quickly. First impressions matter.

#5
DON’T
believe you have to
raise VC
This narrative is great for VCs but is BS. Revenue is the best funding.

#6
DON’T
be pressured into
raising VC
Just cuz a competitor did doesn’t mean anything.

#7
DON’T
let them call you a
lifestyle business
You can revenue-fund a giant (Mailchimp, Atlassian)

#8
DON’T
waste money on PR to
get customers
Especially early, do it on your own. Know what PR is good for.

#9
DON’T
chase press in sexy but
irrelevant media
It’s easier to go after niche media which is less sexy and more useful.

www.cbinsights.com 21Quote by Mark Cuban
#10
DON’T
believe your own hype
You’ll get a great article or awesome testimonial. Enjoy it. And then forget it.

#11
DON’T
get fixated on losses
If you’re doing it right, you’ll probably lose a lot. It sucks but try to forget.

#12
DON’T
think you know your end-
market from day one
Be promiscuous in the early days. Sometimes, customers show up you didn’t expect.

#13
DON’T
be promiscuous about
your market forever
At some point, you have enough data. Pick a market and attack it.

#14
DON’T
hire smart people and
“figure it out later”
People do better with clear goals and priorities especially early on.

#15
DON’T
hire under pressure
Every time we’ve rushed a hiring decision, we’ve regretted it.

#16
DON’T
fire slow
Easier said than done TBH but culture is driven by people you hire and fire.

#17
DON’T
inflate people’s titles
When your startup scales, the inflated title holders get demoted. Not good.

#18
DON’T
be afraid to hire expert
advisors
We did too much non-core stuff on our own in the beginning. Made mistakes.

#19
DON’T
be afraid to fire expert
advisors
Sometimes, people/firms coast by on reputation. If you find this, run.

#20
DON’T
do what Slack,
Dropbox, Evernote do
Everyone is super smart until they’re not. Do what is good for your biz.

#21
DON’T
believe the easy
hype BS
You can’t growth hack your way to $100M in revenue.

#22
DON’T
don’t believe being
outfunded matters
Money buys you time. It doesn’t buy you the ability to execute.

#23
DON’T
only celebrate big wins
or sales wins
Highlight big and small milestones and recognize folks behind them.

#24
DON’T
sell to startups
No money. High churn. They die. The definition of SaaS hell.

#25
DON’T
be the lowest priced
product in the market
This path generally sucks. Trust me.

#26
DON’T
get cute with pricing
It’s confusing and nobody is buying your important, awesome product cuz of this.

#27
DON’T
be afraid to ask if your
product idea sucks
Customers will tell you if it’s something they’d pay for. They want you to win.

#28
DON’T
respond to trolls
Obvious but don’t. (TBH, I still do this to F with them from time-to-time)

#29
DON’T
worry about perfecting
your tech too early
Revenues > technical debt. This will change as you scale.

#30
DON’T
be boring
So much software marketing is boring. Have a voice. Be interesting.

#31
DON’T
chase startup fads
Badges, AI. Big Data. Does it help customers?

#32
DON’T
think biz dev / CS will
learn through osmosis
Not investing in training as you scale will hurt you.

#33
DON’T
wait to hire customer
success
Even if churn is low, hire CS folks to ensure customers love you.

#34
DON’T
believe in the one hire
messiah
If you’ve got a mess, someone may fix it. But don’t bank on it.

#35
DON’T
half-ass reference
checks
Whether it’s a new teammate, investor or important advisor, vet them hard.

#36
DON’T
meet with VCs unless
you’re ready to raise
If you meet them, even casually, it’s a pitch.

#37
DON’T
price based on
competition
If you’re indistinguishable from competition, that’sa problem.

#38
DON’T
think channel partnerships
will save you
It’s hard to get someone else to do the selling for you.

#39
DON’T
dominate conversations
w/ customers
The more customers talk during conversations, the better.

#40
DON’T
try to delegate product
management too early
In the beginning, the product managers are the founders & engineers.

#41
DON’T
forget to ask for the sale
A quick yes is amazing. And a quick no is also pretty good. Don’t get strung along.

#42
DON’T
listen to people w/ no $
who want to “integrate”
99% of time, these people are collosal wastes of time. Show me the money.

#43
DON’T
fear non-scalable work
Elegant solutions are often not worth the effort. Love the grind.

#44
DON’T
worry about competition
Focus on the customer night and day. (Hint: Read Jeff Bezos on this topic)

#45
DON’T
give a shit about
Hacker News
God – we wasted so much time trying to get on the HN front page.

#46
DON’T
try to innovate in HR
Focus your innovation efforts on your product.

#47
DON’T
give perks you can’t
give forever
If the market turns downward, and the perk wouldn’t survive, don’t give it.

#48
DON’T
hire salespeople till you
can sell it yourself
If you’re the founder and can’t sell the shit out of it, nobody else will.

#49
DON’T
think all leads are
created equal
Double down on best ones. Some will never buy. Forget them.

#50
DON’T
try to please everyone
You’ll build a crappy product that doesn’t get anyone fired up.

#51
DON’T
worry about your
personal brand
Unless it helps recruit teammates or customers, why bother?

#52
DON’T
try to act like a
“salesperson”
There is not one way to sell. Do what’s comfortable.

#53
DON’T
ignore sales advice
There is a lot of wisdom out there. Use it.

#54
DON’T
do ‘demos’.
Have conversations
You’re not a tool with buttons and features. Position yourself as more.

#55
DON’T
be lazy after your first
conversation
People are busy and aren’t fixated on you. You have to keep them interested.

#56
DON’T
buy whole grape / piece
of watermelon thing
Focus on the narrative that works for you. Not one foisted upon you.

#57
DON’T
believe the media/VC
survivorship bias
79% of exits are < $200M. Google and Facebook are freaks.

2016 GLOBAL TECH EXIT VALUATIONS
www.cbinsights.com 70Source:2016 Tech Exits Report

www.cbinsights.com 71Credit: LockhartSteele
#58
DON’T
always look for new
channels
It’s better to be killer at a few channels than suck at many.

#59
DON’T
pointlessly network
If you’re emailing to pick people’s brains, swap notes, etc, stop it. Now.

#60
DON’T
be a ‘conference ho’
See earlier slide on pointless networking. Don’t mistake activity for progress.

#61
DON’T
hesitate to
“flood the zone”
Once you find something works, milk the hell out of it.

#62
DON’T
deceive yourself on
the size of your market
Build a product and price with your market in mind.

www.cbinsights.com 76Source:Christoph Janz

#63
DON’T
fetishize failure
Failure blows. Don’t make it ok and say it was a learning experience.

#64
DON’T
worry about your name
& logo too much
Cuz you will never do worse than us. CB Insights began as ChubbyBrain.

#65
DON’T
expect clients to tell you
what product to build
First, it is not their job. Second, their feedback will often be incremental.

#66
DON’T
do feature demos
Nobody really cares. They want to know why it makes their lives better.

www.cbinsights.com 82Source:ChrisBrophy

#67
DON’T
ever forget WIIFM
Nobody gives a shit about your product. They care about What’s In It For Me?

#68
DON’T
blindly follow this advice
There is no playbook. Anyone who tells you there is one is stupid and/or a charlatan.

Anand Sanwal
CEO / Co-founder, CB Insights
Ran American Express $50M Chairman’s
Innovation Fund
Prior work in venture capital and M&A
Author of “Optimizing Corporate Portfolio
Management” (Wiley 2007)
Graduate of Wharton (Finance/Accounting) and
University of Pennsylvania (Chemical Engineering)
@asanwal
Questions / Help
3 Miscellaneous Facts
1. Worked at Kozmo.com –
an infamous NYC dot
com bust darling
2. Climbed Mt Kilimanjaro
3. Have run all 5 NYC
borough ½ marathons

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