Other bloggers, most notably my partner David Skok, have written extensively about building a sales and marketing machine for a SaaS business.  This, in our Matrix view, is the true revolution enabled by SaaS — the ability to unseat the traditional enterprise sales process and its multi-year sales cycles, multi-year implementations, and direct enterprise sales forces for a more efficient sales and marketing machine, and an environment where the best ideas and products (and not necessarily the best salesman) wins.

I recently invested in a great fast-growing SaaS startup called Huddle.    Here I will lay out an element of their model that I think is working especially well, and one area of challenge for … Read More »

In my journey to transform myself from an entrepreneur into a Venture Capitalist, I’ve been surprised how many new things I’ve had to learn how to do.  Often asked how the transition is going, I know I should just answer “Great!” but find myself giving the $10 answer to a ten cent question instead, and the punchline always seems to be “this job is a lot harder than it looks!”

One of the main changes in mindset is that I really need to get out and spend time with a lot of people.  Being an entrepreneur fit well with my private nature — I could work in peace on my own business, and measure my success through the standard metrics of results.  In venture, on the other hand, it’s really hard to invest in the best entrepreneurs if you don’t have … Read More »