Jason Lemkin is Managing Director at Storm Ventures focussing on early stage SaaS and enterprise startups. Jason is an acknowledged thought leader in SaaS through his creation of the SaaStr community, connecting thousands of SaaS entrepreneurs and generating upwards of 1,000,000 views a month around core SaaS topics, with a particular focus on accelerating revenue and early-stage SaaS sales and marketing. Prior to Storm, Jason served as CEO and co-founder of Storm Ventures-backed EchoSign, the web’s most popular electronic signature service. Jason led EchoSign from inception through its acquisition by Adobe Systems Inc. in 2011. He then served as Vice President, Web Services at Adobe, where he oversaw the growth of EchoSign and Adobe Document Services to $100,000,000+ ARR in 2013. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Jason made his way into the SaaS and VC industry? What actions did Jason do to get his blog to 1m+ page views per month? What advice would Jason give to founders thinking of selling to large companies? What type of entrepreneur does Jason like to invest in? How does Jason see SaaS valuations, with recent enormous rounds from Zenefits? What areas of the SaaS industries are neglected or undervalued?   Is the 40% growth rule broadly correct and can this be applied to early stage tech companies? What is Jason's pre-investment meeting approach like? What makes a founder insane in a good way, rather than a bad way? How are SaaS companies innovating to acquire new customers? Quick Fire Round: Apple: Hit or Miss Most exciting SaaS companies and sectors Jason's favourite book and why? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: SaaStr: Jason's Blog Jason's Favourite Book: The Lion Who Shot Back Mark Suster: Both Sides Follow: @saleshacker (amazing content from VPs of Sales @ Top Tech Startups) Emergence Capital: Joe Floyd David Saks: Yammer Slack: Stewart Butterfield, Zenefits: Parker Conrad  

Anand Sanwal is the CEO and Co-Founder of CB Insights. Specifically, CB Insights tracks financing trends and private companies in the healthcare, industrial, technology, software, energy & utilities, renewable, internet and mobile industries. CB Insights works primarily with venture capital, private equity, angel investors, corporate development, corporate strategy and family offices. Formerly, Sanwal was the Vice President at American Express. Sanwal was responsible for managing three primary functions which included the (1) Chairman’s $50 Million Innovation Fund, (2) CFO’s strategic planning function and (3) Enterprise Investment Optimization group. He is the author of “Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management” which features a forward by former American Express and Citigroup CFO, Gary Crittenden. In Todays Episode You Will Learn: Why Anand chose not to take VC funding for CB Insights? Should all subscription based companies be revenue funded? What one key determinant has contributed to the success of CB Insights? How has Anand's hiring strategy changed over time? How strategies does Anand use to create this company culture? What is the biggest challenge facing Anand today? What tactics have not worked when trying to create a good working environment? Is CB Insights replacing VCs, potentially losing their core customers? What metrics Anand would most look for in a startup? We then delve into a quick fire round and discover what is Anand's favourite business book, what gets Anand excited, what advice Anand would give to himself 10 years ago starting out in the industry and finally the next 5 years for Anand and CB Insights.