The best books, podcasts, communities, and content treasure troves for Kiwi start-ups, recommended by Kiwi start-ups.
January 2024 by Icehouse Ventures posted in Startups, CEO, Technology, Growth, Community
December 2023 by Robbie Paul posted in Startups, CEO, Growth, Community
I noted there was a potential “backlog” of losses to come at our Singapore Limited Partner dinner in July. We had averaged more than five per year between 2017 and 2021. Despite a growing and maturing portfolio (215 new companies since 2017), “only” three companies had failed in the 18 months from the start of 2022.
The LPs were unfazed. They understood that many startups fail. I also laid out the factors leading to the relative dearth in recent losses: strong capital raises in 2021, round extensions and burn reductions in 2022, and convertible notes and down rounds in early 2023.
The LPs knew that venture capital was defined by backing winners, not avoiding losses. They were buoyed by the strong growth of many Kiwi companies. The aggregate revenue of the companies in Growth Fund I has scaled from $153m in 2021 to $254 in 2022 to $384m today. This includes remarkable execution by the likes of Halter, Hnry, Crimson, and Tracksuit.
Then Supie happened, prompting more than 50 articles by the press and ample negatively directed at startups (a lowlight). This was followed by an outpouring of support from seasoned entrepreneurs and investors for the Supie team and mission (a highlight).
Below are a few more highlights and lowlights and check out our 2023 NZ Startup Year in Review here.
Also, a final reminder of our year-end deadline for Growth Fund II.
This is our flagship Series A-D stage fund that will invest in 20 Kiwi tech companies over the next three years. It builds upon our first fund which invested in greats like those named above as well as Mint Innovation, Open Star, Sharesies, LawVu, Dawn Aerospace, and others.
We have >$75m committed including Generate Kiwisaver, Sir Stephen Tindall, an Iwi, and nearly 400 Kiwis and family offices. Interested? Learn more and review the Application here.
Here’s to an amazing year for NZ venture in 2024.
Thanks
Robbie
Check out the 2023 NZ Startup Year in Review
November 2023 by Robbie Paul posted in Startups, CEO, Growth, Community
February 2023 by Icehouse Ventures posted in Startups, Founders, Growth
Every year we take a look back at the year that was in our Startup Year in Review - a video that documents and celebrates the startups that have reached major milestones throughout the year.
December 2021 by Icehouse Ventures posted in Startups, Founders, Growth
Every year we take a look back at the year that was in our Startup Year in Review - a video that documents and celebrates the startups that have reached major milestones throughout the year.
What are the key metrics for Enterprise SaaS companies to track over time?
In creating this, I received some great input from Mike Carden of Joyous, Danny Tomsett of Uneeq and Mark Clare of Clare Capital – thank you for sharing and enabling others to see this.
What key metrics?
Mike Carden manages to these 5 key metrics:
LTV vs CAC
MRR & ARR
Growth Rate
Churn Rate
Cash Runway
Read Mike’s thoughts https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-key-saas-benchmarks-start-ups-michael-carden/
Mike also is a big fan of Return on Capital Invested. The theory is that for each $ you raise, it should result in a 5x increase in enterprise value for the next round. As Mike says, “let that one sink in”.
What do investors look for?
Danny Tomsett shared some perspectives around what an investor looks for:
Revenue Growth
Customer acquisition growth rate
MRR net retention rate - high churn likely at early stage, however some clients growing is key
MRR growth rate
LTV or if too soon, average MRR per client.
Sales Efficiency (showing tracking improvement ideally)
CAC:Revenue ratio and/or gross margin.
Conversion rates across each stage Inbound/Outbound> MQL > SQL> Closed won
Sales cycle
Product / Market Fit
Market segmentation data / buyer persona validation
Annual renewals
Survey data - this method provides some key insights - https://coda.io/@rahulvohra/superhuman-product-market-fit-engine
Operating Health
Cash Burn rate
Days to zero
Mike and Danny also both have adopted OKRs for their teams with a focus mostly around Team, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Product Health and Customer Advocacy.
What tools do people use for tracking?
So many different options, all use OKRs, to trail down the key metrics to everyone across the business, or One Metric (Rowan Simpson), others customise their CRM. I have also seen people work out the metrics and then just release them on a tool like Notion and let people iterate on the fly.
Icehouse Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm. We exist to back the bravest Kiwi founders, launching global companies from New Zealand. One start-up can define a generation. Our mission is to back them. Icehouse Ventures backs brave.