Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 14, 2014

Customer success (CS) within SaaS startups is a relatively new idea. Consequently, the benefits of CS aren’t widely appreciated within the ecosystem which means in many companies, customer success teams must educate management teams about the impact they can effect on an organization. This can be a long process.

SaaS 40

SaaS startup education leadership 40

AsiaTechDaily

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

We also place great importance on Customer Support (CS). Cloudike allows for UI customization, much like those companies. You can customize the logo and URL to reflect your company’s information. We believe that when using subscription-based services, customers should have full confidence in our technology and use it without hesitation.

collaboration 105

collaboration advice innovation development 105

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

AM: We went to a builders community we’d built the year before, and to [Stanford’s] engineering school [where I teach], and to the CS department at a number of universities and said, ‘Hey, if you’re interested in being a future founder, and you’re a great builder, then we are interested in talking to you.’

VC 96

VC networking incubation investing 96

Entrepreneurs' Organization

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Fewer women obtaining CS degrees means fewer women becoming software developers. That’s a significant drop from 1985, when 34% of CS degrees were earned by women. One positive development, however, is that more women are seeking graduate degrees in CS than before.

culture 247

culture leadership mentorship development 247

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 6, 2016

Series Cs are stable at about $35M, and seed rounds continue their ascent with the typical Seed round at more than $2M. Let’s break this overall figure into Series A, B, C and Seed median investment sizes. Series As have fallen from their late 2015 highs by about 20%. The Seed round figure might be spurious.

ventures 40

ventures incubation VC investment 40

AsiaTechDaily

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Our conversational chatbot works like a natural conversation with humans, enhances CS works, and reduces working time. CS, sales support, office help desk, and AI contact center, CHAT42 provides diverse features as a total solution. The third one is CHAT42, Integrated Language Intelligence and QA technology.

startup 52

startup SaaS financing finance 52

Tomasz Tunguz

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

In particular, Series As have grown in volume while Seeds, Bs and Cs have remained flat. But the fear over the pace of Series A investments declining isn’t borne out in the data. This slowing is true both on relative measures and absolute counts. The key: dollars at exit > dollars invested.

incubation 40

incubation entrepreneurship disruption education 40

Jason Malki

JULY 26, 2022

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, as a leader depending on great software, I did not see anyone in the space truly solving this new NRR challenge or creating a software that is powerful, but also modern and easy-to-use for the end-users; the Customer Success Managers, Account Managers and CS people doing the work.

SaaS 52

SaaS advice accelerator opportunity 52

David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

Private equity investors are seeking the “Three Cs” in Deal Executives: Credibility, Compatibility, and Deal-Catching: Credibility. Similarly, you should also present a Deal Memo , which should include: One-page teaser (the cover email); . Business plan; Executive profile; Forecasts – strategic, operational and financial ones.

consulting 129

consulting venture capital board capital 129

Y Combinator

MAY 1, 2019

” Jarvis Johnson [00:06:22] – Doing– Craig Cannon [00:06:23] – CS, following that whole path, that career path. Craig Cannon [00:06:17] – Was there kind of an inkling early on that you’re like, “Oh, okay. I could do this.” Jarvis Johnson [00:16:30] – Right.

peer-to-peer 46

peer-to-peer advice creativity opportunity 46

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

DECEMBER 10, 2021

This is a program that has run for two years now, led by my friend Mike Zamansky, who I like to call “the godfather of CS education in NYC.” This photo of incoming mayor Eric Adams and former Chancellor Richard Carranza was taken by me at PS24 in Sunset Park Brooklyn during CS Education Week in 2018.

education 202

education support capital ventures 202

Y Combinator

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Through these partnerships, we can communicate to even more CS majors about the startup opportunities available to them — and we can better reach people who are historically underrepresented in tech. Used in over 70 colleges, CodePath’s open source CS courses reflect the most important technologies being used in the tech industry.

support 140

support founder advice education 140

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

If you are a super young, well-connected, Stanford CS or EE, worked at Facebook early, have a bit o’ dosh and have VCs chasing you … you are exempt. I say ring the freaking cash register. I have said so for years. Not everybody agrees and in some cases they’re right so you have to decide for yourself.

VC 412

VC advice strategy accelerator 412

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

It’s not uncommon for incredibly smart and talented Phd’s or CS majors from Stanford to raise $10 million on an early-stage “platform&# that if it succeeds it will be huge. They not only have gotten bigger but they have an amazing track record of funding the biggest names in the sector: Cisco, Apple, Google, Facebook.

technology 290

technology advice entrepreneurs innovation 290

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Interested candidates should e-mail keyhirewire@firstround.com with "Knewton OMD" in the subject.

opportunity 231

opportunity development capital education 231

Jason Malki

MARCH 21, 2022

My first role in SaaS was in CS. But once I was in CS, hiring managers?—?externally Instead, I was the guy who invested a lot in cutting my teeth in finance (including getting several licenses that I later had to give up), then switched industries, and then switched functions within my new industry. externally and internally?—?wouldn’t

financing 98

financing finance SaaS creativity 98

TechCrunch

JULY 19, 2021

The city is well served by Bielefeld University, which turns out highly qualified CS graduates every year. As Bielefeld is in the heart of the German “Mittelstand”, there are huge opportunities for tech startups to help these large industries take a leap forward with technical solutions using AI, blockchain and other technologies.

startup ecosystem 100

startup ecosystem founder accelerator support 100

TechCrunch

AUGUST 31, 2022

” If you’re interested in optimizing revenue through CS, read the rest for a full overview of job design methodology, because “companies should not design their customer success roles in a vacuum.” ” Crafting a XaaS customer success strategy that drives growth.

real estate 98

real estate transportation disruption venture capital 98

TechCrunch

AUGUST 8, 2023

The relevant clauses from Zoom’s T&Cs are 10.2 Yet — from an EU law perspective — all the company has offered so far in response to the T&Cs controversy is obfuscation and irrelevant excuses. through 10.4 screengrabbed below). All of which is to say that Zoom is likely feeling the heat.

enablement 98

enablement frameworks accelerator media 98

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

In many ways, I am a stereotypical founder: I have a CS degree from Stanford, I worked as a PM at Google, I have an engineering background. That is one advantage of introducing it later: It did not define me because they knew so much else about me by that point. I have many advantages.

energy 90

energy health founder entrepreneurs 90

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 12, 2015

There is no optimum compensation structure for a CS team. This performance compensation is directly tied to up-sells and retention, and should be managed to reflect the priorities of the business. Like Hubspot’s sales team, customer success teams should align their goals with the overall goals of the business.

board 40

board accelerator investing investment 40

Entrepreneur's Handbook

OCTOBER 26, 2021

We followed the 5 Cs of credit framework by default for all of our customers. I couldn’t find any trail of what happened but we’d certainly been taken for a ride. Fool me once, shame on you but fool me twice, shame on me. I wised up and retired my ultra-friendly approach in favor of one that respected my time. Character? —?

founder 52

founder entrepreneurship entrepreneurs board 52

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 26, 2024

My roots are in theoretical machine learning and in theoretical CS, in general. Here are some highlights: [9:42] “I’ll admit to being a snob and being part of the camp that was, to begin with, quite skeptical of deep learning.

opportunity 100

opportunity accelerator innovation founder 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

Terms for less technical people. soft circle : when an angel gives a verbal commitment to invest but hasn’t actually signed any legal documents or written a check. follow-up reserve : money that an angel hasn’t yet invested, that they don’t have a legal obligation to invest, but that they might invest over over the lifecycle of the company.

entrepreneurs 302

entrepreneurs advice real estate networking 302

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 16, 2017

CS teams must suss out the customer needs, build an account plan, and help the customer achieve their goals. First, the pricing power of the business is less clear. How much is the VPS willing to pay? The startup must establish that through price discovery. Second, customer success efforts are less obvious.

SaaS 44

SaaS collaboration sustainability accelerator 44

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

Ever traveled on a cruise ship? Pre-COVID, most journeys started with a shipwide safety drill where passengers assembled, donned life vests and learned what to do in an emergency. The ocean has an average depth of 2.3 miles, yet these rehearsals were always a calm affair. You’re starting a vacation; what could possibly go wrong?

strategy 92

strategy VC economic environments ventures 92

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 17, 2010

How can we affect what CS students are learning? Let’s set a goal that 10%, than 15%, than who knows how many of local school graduates not only wind up in the innovation community, but with the kind of skills they need to be useful. What would a startup training syllabus look like?

communities 319

communities consulting venture capital financing 319

TechCrunch

AUGUST 30, 2022

Any job search platform these days will show there are thousands of customer success (CS) positions waiting to be filled. According to research by Gainsight, a customer success software platform, “companies that invest 10% or more of their revenue into the CS function have the highest net recurring revenue (NRR).”.

strategy 98

strategy technology support media 98

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

If you save the punch line that you’re from the industry, did CS at MIT, worked for 3 startups, whatever, then they don’t have that powerful knowledge as part of their evaluation set. Because management is so important I always tell people to make the bio slide the first in your deck.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 5, 2020

Meanwhile, Series Cs are flat to up. As, Bs, and Cs median round sizes remained level or grew. Round volumes in seed have been declining since summer 2018. The same is true for Series A and Series B. Median round size reverted violently to two-year lows after a significant spike in Q4 2019.

capital 119

capital investing investment founder 119

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Kellie Capote is chief customer officer at Gainsight , where she leads the entire post-sales organization, including customer success management, support, professional services and the CS Ops & Scale teams. Otherwise, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise. Now comes the tricky part. A DEAR solution.

health 90

health frameworks SaaS strategy 90

TechCrunch

JUNE 21, 2021

Series Cs now routinely include secondary capital for founders, and many Series Ds are above $100 million with valuations in the billions. The VC alphabet soup has been spilled, making A rounds look like Bs used to, and the Bs seem like the Cs of old. Which begs an interesting question: Is the seed round the new Series A?

VC 100

VC board capital ventures 100

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 11, 2020

Series Cs fell from $14M to $8.5M (a 40% drop). Seed rounds stayed constant at $300k (different era!). Series A round sizes fell from $4M to $2.6M (a 35% drop) and then rebounded over the next 8 quarters. Series B rounds fell from $10M to $6M. By deal count, however, it was business as usual across the early fundraising rounds by count.

ventures 143

ventures VC investment investing 143

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 10, 2020

For Series Cs, the round count increased from 74 to 76. The earlier the stage, the greater the delta. And of course, the earlier data under-reports the total round numbers. In the seed stage, Q2 data reported 427 rounds compared to 719 in Q4. Let’s look at those on a percentage basis.

venture capital 142

venture capital capital ventures investment 142

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 7, 2019

Kathy taught me valuable lessons about leadership, especially what I call the three Cs: character, confidence and caring. The three Cs highlight the value of the fundamentals—those simple things that appear naturally when you care for people and when you understand they work for more than a paycheck. Develop Your Leadership Skills.

peer-to-peer 130

peer-to-peer leadership financing finance 130

Tomasz Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2022

Series Cs dropped from 11x to 5.3x. Re-running the multiples math for today, return projections for the typical growth round collapsed. Series Ds cratered from 5.6x by 66% - which is inline with the public market drop. The more market caps on unicorns compress, the greater the downward pressure on rainbow foals’ valuations.

SaaS 116

SaaS VC investing investment 116

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 5, 2020

Meanwhile, Series Cs are flat to up. As, Bs, and Cs median round sizes remained level or grew. Round volumes in seed have been declining since summer 2018. The same is true for Series A and Series B. Median round size reverted violently to two-year lows after a significant spike in Q4 2019.

capital 81

capital investing investment founder 81