Jason Back on 20VC: “Every VC Has a Fraud In Their Portfolio”

Harry and I did our latest deep dive on 20VC the other day and there’s a lot in it!

“Jason Lemkin is the Founder @ SaaStr one of the best-performing early-stage venture funds focused on SaaS. In the past, Jason has led investments in Algolia, Pipedrive, Salesloft, TalkDesk, and RevenueCat to name a few. Prior to SaaStr, Jason was an entrepreneur, selling EchoSign to Adobe for $100M where it is now a $250M ARR product.

In Today’s Episode with Jason Lemkin We Discuss:

1. WTF is Happening At Seed Right Now:

Why does Jason believe seed is more active than ever? Is the pricing of seed rounds impacted since the downturn? Why does Jason believe it is not only not the end of party rounds but just the beginning of them? Why does Jason believe you cannot fail if you have $1M in ARR and an amazing founder? Why does Jason believe that seed investors cannot participate in “hot seed rounds” anymore?

2. Is Series A a Dead Zone:

How does Jason analyze the Series A and B environment today? What has changed in what investors expect and want to see in potential Series A and B investments? What happens to the many companies who raised pre-emptive Series As and have 10 years of runway but no product-market fit? Why does Jason believe founders should offer to give the money back when it is not working? What happens to the Series A and B market in the next 18 months? When does it come back?

3. Growth: People are Too Negative!

Why does Jason believe that growth is more active than many are giving credit for? What are the ARR benchmarks required to get a good growth round term sheet today? Why does Jason believe that VC DD is a load of BS? Why does Jason believe that every VC has fraud in their portfolio? Will they come out?

4. Ring That Bell: IPOs and M&A:

Why does Jason believe 2024 will be an amazing year for IPOs? Why does much of the IPO market rely on Stripe and Databricks? What is needed for an amazing 2024 IPO market? How does Jason evaluate the M&A market in 2024? Will regulation get in the way?

5. Jason Lemkin: AMA:

Why does Jason Lemkin believe this generation of workers will never work hard again? What is the only way for seed funds to make money investing in serial entrepreneurs? What does Jason know now that he wishes he had known when he started investing?”