Startup Finance & Legal

North Star and Hero KPIs of SaaS

North Star and Hero KPIs of SaaS

While ARR is our "north star" KPI, it is an imperfect measure of progress, success, or company value. ARR does not tell the full story because it only shows quantity and not the quality of the revenue. As an operator, I rely on what I call "hero KPIs" to guide the...

Scalable SaaS Best Practices: The Legal Agreements Discipline

Scalable SaaS Best Practices: The Legal Agreements Discipline

SaaS is a beautiful business model. Over the last fifteen years, I got to build four companies in the B2B SaaS space. I love the efficiency of the model! Frankly, building companies would be so much more expensive without the cost efficiencies SaaS products bring. ...

Reflections on Raising Money and Fetishes of Those Watching

Reflections on Raising Money and Fetishes of Those Watching

For those of us in startups, opening up Twitter means seeing at least 1 or 2 funding announcements every couple of hours. And the congratulations and retweets roll in, if you are any good, journalists and bloggers need a piece of you too. But the fanfare and...

How To Create a Non-Disclosure Agreement People Can Understand

How To Create a Non-Disclosure Agreement People Can Understand

Like many of you in the startup world, I have read and signed my share of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). I have reviewed, edited, and sent hundreds of them in my career, but I am yet to come across one that really serves anyone but the lawyers who charged dearly to...

Coaching 1st-time founders and augmenting seasoned entrepreneurs