Navigating Fundraising and the VC Landscape in 2024 with 20VC and Visionaries Club Harry Stebbings, Founder @ 20VC and Robert Lacher, Founding Partner @ Visionaries Club

SaaStr Europa 2024

1. NAVIGATING FUNDRAISING AND THE VC
LANDSCAPE IN 2024 WITH
20VC AND VISIONARIES CLUB
Harry Stebbings
Founder
20VC
Robert Lacher
Founding Partner
Visionaries Club

2. VC DRYPOWDER SITS AT RECORD HIGH TOTALLING > EUR 300BN AND GROWING:
73% IS CONCENTRATED IN FUNDS FROM THE 2020 -2022 VINTAGES
$67.0
$71.5
$85.3
$103.0$104.4
$125.5
$143.9
$172.9
$226.8
$310.2
$316.9
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Source: Venture Monitor Report

3. EARLY STAGE ROUNDS HAVE TURNED INTO A “RED OCEAN” OF MULTISTAGE FUNDS
COMPETING TO LEAD ACCESS EARLIER
Bigger funds require bigger ownership
in their portfolio companies to deliver returns
Seed focussed funds
Series A focussed funds
Size of fund
Required ownership taken by fund
€100m
5%
10%
15%
20%
€400m €700m > €1bn
Early Growth focussed funds
Source: Visionaries Club

4. FLIGHT TOWARDS SEED STAGE: MULTI-STAGE FUNDS MOVING AGGRESSIVELY INTO
EARLY SPACE TO SECURE ACCESS

6. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT “EVERYTHING GETS FUNDED LIKE IN 2020/21: QUALITY
HAS BECOME KEY: TOP 10% OF SAAS COMPANIES STILL RAISE AT RECORD VALUATIONS
Top 10%
of SaaS performers
Remaining 90%
of SaaS performers
VCs being more disciplined focussing on the left door (strong metrics) only –
profitability matters more than ever

7. Unremarkable Good___ Excellent Outlier__
ARR <$500k -$500k-$1.5m $1.5m-$2.5m >$2.5m
LTM ARR Growth (YoY) <2x 2x-3x 3x-6x >6x
Net Dollar Retention <100% 100-110% 110-130% >130%
Gross Dollar Retention <65% 75-85% 85-95% >95%
Burn Multiple >3x 1.75x-3x 1.25x-1.7x <1.25x
Time to Recover CAC (Cash Basis) * 25+ months 16-25 months 12-16 months <12 months
Fully Ramped Quota Carriers 0 0-2 2+ 2+
Sales Cycle * 24+ months 12-18 months 9-12 months <9 months
Invoicing Terms (Recurring Revenue)
Monthly/quarterly in
arrears
Quarterly, upfront Annual, upfront Multi-year upfront
WHAT DOES TOP 10% QUALITY LOOK LIKE? EXAMPLE SERIES A
STAGE
Source: Visionaries Club
* differs for SME and Enterprise

8. SO WHAT? HOW DO SAAS FOUNDERS HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT?
MAJOR TRADEOFFS:
Achieve
Top Decile Unit
Economics
Achieve Top Decile
Landgrab / Growth
Pace
How much risk do you take
growing into efficient
economics?

9. DIFFERENT VCS HAVE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TOWARDS SAAS INVESTING AND
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE
PLATFORM APPROACH:
“DELEGATE SUPPORT TO INTERNAL
PLATOFRM SPECIALISTS”
ADD VALUE VIA GP ONLY
“INDIVIDUAL GP TIME IS KEY SOURCE OF
SUPPORT”
PROVIDE JUST MONEY
“TAKE RATHER PASSIVE AND INACTIVE
ROLE”
Degree of involvement of GP
HighLow
Degree of involvement of GP

10. OUR SPIRIT AS ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

11. GREAT FOUNDERS BUILD GREAT COMPANIES INDEPENDENT OF CYCLES
It is the best time ever to be a founder1
There is more than enough capital in the market for strong SaaS founders across
stages –dry powder has hit an all-time high
2
Choose your investors wisely across stages and with skin in the game –beware of
signalling risk
3
There is no right or wrong: different investors have very different value
propositions
4

12. Thank You!