SaaStr 023: What It Takes To Make It From Seed To Series A in SaaS with Nakul Mandan, Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners

Joining us today on The Official Saastr Podcast is Nakul Mandan, Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, where he focuses on early stage SaaS investments. At Lightspeed, Nakul led the firm’s investments in Gainsight and Reflektive. Previously, Nakul worked at Battery Ventures, where he helped lead the firm’s investments in category defining companies such as Marketo, BlueJeans Networks, Gainsight, Intacct, 6Sense and Yesware. Prior to Battery, Nakul worked at Blue River Capital, a growth stage investor focused on India.

In today's show with Nakul we discuss:

• How Nakul came to be one of the leading SaaS investors in the US?
• What will the 2nd phase of the consumerization of the enterprise entail? What innovation will we see in business model?
• How important is predictable revenue for early stage startups? Hoe can they mitigate the circumstances of losing it?
• What more needs to be done to ensure the continuation of consumerising traditional enterprise software?
• What does Nakul hone in on when considering investing in a SaaS startup for Series A? What are the metrics and requirements that matter? At this stage are there large data sets and metrics to rely on?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

• Fave SaaS reading material?
• Greenfield Opportunities in SaaS?
• SaaS Founder Nakul most respects and admires?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Nakul Mandan