Novice Investor #14 - SaaS Marketing with Dave Kellogg, Crisis Investing and Presence
Happy Spring Everyone!
February was a crazy month, both geopolitically and personally. On the personal side, all guns are blazing and I hit the February goal of creating a new 3D model. This month, I crowdsourced the design on Instagram which was great for helping with the model and worked very well driving engagement. My return to socialising removed the nagging boredom of monotonous productivity and I even tried my hand at yet another racquet sport, Padel Tennis (not the best picture I have ever taken).
At Kennet, we are hosting an informational breakfast event on the 11th of March (more info below). We are also in need of an intern. If you know any willing candidates who are free to start right away, please send them my way.
Understanding SaaS Marketing as an Investor - Dave Kellogg
This month I had a great conversation with Dave Kellogg about understanding the SaaS marketing machine as an investor. Dave is a “Silicon Valley Celebrity” when it comes to SaaS Sales & Marketing and shared some incredibly useful operating learnings. The key points we covered were:
How to spot junk and quality in a pipeline?
What pipeline definitions and processes are in place and how well are they followed?
On the data, look out for big changes and bleed the air from the pipeline (early-stage placeholder values and deals that survive multiple quarters).
Focus on the quarterly pipeline, not rolling four quarters.
How to expand Sales & Marketing efficiently?
Understand if the pipeline is in a steady-state prior to investment?
We discussed the floating bar problem - very interesting.
How to approach and help CMOs as an investor?
“All models are wrong, but some are useful” - George Box - don’t just focus on the numbers
Chicken and egg problem.
Dave has an extremely popular blog, Kellblog, which you should definitely follow to absorb more knowledge from a seasoned SaaS operator.
Kennet’s Scaling SaaS Internationally | Breakfast Event
We are hosting an informational breakfast event on Friday, March 11th in London. It will be a fireside chat with two very impressive operators we work closely with.
Natalia Panowicz and Jeremy Roche will join us for an open discussion on scaling SaaS companies internationally. Natalia Panowicz is CEO at Codility. In various roles over the last decade (early business employee, COO, CEO), she has grown Codility from $200k to $20m ARR, expanding the company internationally and transitioning from bootstrapped to VC-backed growth. Jeremy Roche took FinancialForce from the UK to the US reaching a $100m annual run rate and now advises technology businesses of a variety of sizes on international growth.
The event will be a great opportunity to learn, network with fellow SaaS operators and meet the broader Kennet team and portfolio. If you are a SaaS operator and available on the morning of Friday, March 11th, get in touch for an invite.
The Power of Presence
During February, I choose presence as my virtue to track during the month. I have always agreed with the Zeitgeist that being more present and meditating is very beneficial to productivity and more so, general wellbeing. I have subscribed and unsubscribed to many meditation apps in my time, but never developed a sustainable approach to being more present. This month, unfortunately, was no different (only 40% of days hit). However, I did create an easier approach to be more present, more often.
I did this by making time for activities that automatically and naturally put me into a flow state. This is when you are so focused on the task at hand or enjoying it so much, that you are completely present in the moment. Here are the activities I have prioritised in my calendar to help attain more frequent presence:
Competitive Sports: My exercise regime previously was solely focused on the gym and running. These are great exercises but I find my mind runs even faster during these activities as I try to distract from the pain. When playing a competitive sport (squash, badminton), I am ruthlessly focused on trying to win and get a solid hour of pure presence.
3D Modelling / Jewellery Design: This activity is surprisingly challenging from a maths, spatial reasoning and logical point of view. Given my early stage in the learning curve, it acts as a constant puzzle. I can sit for hours at my desk in a flow state trying to figure out a new creation.
Highly Focused Work: When following the Pomodoro method and shutting off all distractions in 25-minute focused-work intervals, I can (most of the time) get into a flow state for any task. I’ve been trying my best to fit as many of these intervals into each day. It rewards with much better productivity too.
Socialising: Going out with the right group of friends is another great way to enter the flow. Although balance is needed here for the wallet and health.
Book & Podcasts
Invest Like the Best - Dan Rasmussen - Investing Through a Crisis
This episode interviews Dan Rasmussen who leads Verdad Capital, an asset manager with a strong focus on quantitative research. Dan’s firm published a research paper on investing during periods of market crisis which is discussed in detail. In summary, stock markets tend to become much more predictable in times of crisis. Once investors minimise bankruptcy risk when selecting investments, crisis period investing is arguably the best time for investors to deploy capital. I first listened to this episode back in March 2020. In hindsight, the learnings from the podcasts played out extremely well. Given some markets have entered a crisis period, it feels relevant again.
Becoming Supernatural - Dr. Joe Dispenza
Keeping in sync with my month of Presence, I indulged in a meditation/spirituality styled book. Dr Joe Dispenza makes a good attempt at bridging meditation/spirituality with hard(ish) scientific data in this book. One point that comes up is visualisation or the Law of Attraction. While I think it is definitely beneficial towards attaining goals, I have also cynically thought of it as useless without action. The book highlights some cool studies that may have changed my mind slightly. For example, one study tested the wrist strength of 30 people, then forced them all to wear a cast, preventing movement and promoting atrophy for the month. Half the group were told to do mental visualisation exercises of tensing and contracting their wrist muscles during the testing period. In the end, the visualisation group’s muscles were twice as strong as the control. It’s a nice story, although the statistician in me is still cynical. The book also covers some useful meditation techniques. Worth a read if this side of life interests you.
Kennet Partner’s Investment Target
Kennet Partners is a Growth Equity investor with over 20 years of experience partnering with European and US SaaS companies. If you know any companies which fit our criteria, please reach out.
Investment size: $8m - $30m
Maturity: Over $3m in ARR
Growth: > 30%
Type: Bootstrapped and capital-efficient B2B SaaS businesses
Geography: Europe & US