Rob Walling

We are less picky, I would say, than like bigger venture funds. If they see that, they just walk away. So we're With your ownership percentages, which is what I'm referring to with cap table, you just want to be careful with that. I've been shocked at the number that we have seen. And it's common enough that we ask for the cap table after the first round.

We are less picky, I would say, than like bigger venture funds. If they see that, they just walk away. So we're With your ownership percentages, which is what I'm referring to with cap table, you just want to be careful with that. I've been shocked at the number that we have seen. And it's common enough that we ask for the cap table after the first round.

If we do like a verbal interview and then you go to the second round, we just say, give us a spreadsheet with your cap table. And probably half the cases, I have a question about it. Who is this person? What did they contribute? If someone owns 10%, 12% of your company, I'm always like, how did this happen? It also shows a judgment thing.

If we do like a verbal interview and then you go to the second round, we just say, give us a spreadsheet with your cap table. And probably half the cases, I have a question about it. Who is this person? What did they contribute? If someone owns 10%, 12% of your company, I'm always like, how did this happen? It also shows a judgment thing.

If someone's like, oh, they helped us a few years back and they did some design work and gave us some advice. And so they got 12% of your company, like that to me shows a questionable judgment is maybe a strong thing, maybe a lack of knowledge of the space of how things work. But it's at least something that we have to dig into to be sure that you don't make that mistake in the future.

If someone's like, oh, they helped us a few years back and they did some design work and gave us some advice. And so they got 12% of your company, like that to me shows a questionable judgment is maybe a strong thing, maybe a lack of knowledge of the space of how things work. But it's at least something that we have to dig into to be sure that you don't make that mistake in the future.

Our next thing that we've seen is subsequent fundraising. So when you join Tennessee, you do not commit to raising additional funds. You just keep the option to do so if you want, if it makes sense for you. And within the first few years, it was about a third of our companies went on to raise additional funding.

Our next thing that we've seen is subsequent fundraising. So when you join Tennessee, you do not commit to raising additional funds. You just keep the option to do so if you want, if it makes sense for you. And within the first few years, it was about a third of our companies went on to raise additional funding.

after the 2022 crash where funding valuations hit 10-year lows and money is just not as easily accessible, I think it's probably closer to about a quarter, like 25% of Tennessee companies. And this is not... You have to discount the prior year that we've invested, like the most recent year, probably...

after the 2022 crash where funding valuations hit 10-year lows and money is just not as easily accessible, I think it's probably closer to about a quarter, like 25% of Tennessee companies. And this is not... You have to discount the prior year that we've invested, like the most recent year, probably...

Zero to a handful of those companies have even thought about fundraising because they still have the tiny seed money, they're in the batch here. But we kind of look at anybody who's a year or 18 months prior to now, what percentage. And Ballpark, I would say it's around that one in four mark. We had a company apply with six co-founders. That was an interesting one.

Zero to a handful of those companies have even thought about fundraising because they still have the tiny seed money, they're in the batch here. But we kind of look at anybody who's a year or 18 months prior to now, what percentage. And Ballpark, I would say it's around that one in four mark. We had a company apply with six co-founders. That was an interesting one.

They had a lot of products, were very scattered. And yeah, we weren't able to fund them. Can you imagine? I mean, none of them owned more than 16% of the company. and making decisions would be very, very challenging. So that was a red flag of, frankly, decision-making when we got into that. Then we saw a company apply with zero founders. There was actually one founder, of course, working on it.

They had a lot of products, were very scattered. And yeah, we weren't able to fund them. Can you imagine? I mean, none of them owned more than 16% of the company. and making decisions would be very, very challenging. So that was a red flag of, frankly, decision-making when we got into that. Then we saw a company apply with zero founders. There was actually one founder, of course, working on it.

But they owned 25% of this early-stage company. So I'm kind of like, are they really a founder when they are basically working for someone else? To me, that feels like... A nice equity grant to an employee. You know, he called himself a founder, but in essence, this is one of those cap tables that we could not fund because a founder working for 25% equity, it just doesn't make sense.

But they owned 25% of this early-stage company. So I'm kind of like, are they really a founder when they are basically working for someone else? To me, that feels like... A nice equity grant to an employee. You know, he called himself a founder, but in essence, this is one of those cap tables that we could not fund because a founder working for 25% equity, it just doesn't make sense.

All right, to wrap things up, the most common topics that I advise on, that people pull me into one-on-one conversations conversations during my office hours are the following four things. Number one, raising prices or fixing, changing, correcting pricing. It's not always about raising. Sometimes the value metric's off. Sometimes they just don't feel right about the pricing. So we talk through it.

All right, to wrap things up, the most common topics that I advise on, that people pull me into one-on-one conversations conversations during my office hours are the following four things. Number one, raising prices or fixing, changing, correcting pricing. It's not always about raising. Sometimes the value metric's off. Sometimes they just don't feel right about the pricing. So we talk through it.

The second is I'm at a plateau or I'm about to hit a plateau, how do I break through it? And those are the conversations that have fueled this mythical doc that I've put together, which is just a bulleted list of all the plateau reasons that I know of with B2B SaaS that someday I'll figure out a way to package it up in a way that's actually helpful. But plateaus are a common thing.

The second is I'm at a plateau or I'm about to hit a plateau, how do I break through it? And those are the conversations that have fueled this mythical doc that I've put together, which is just a bulleted list of all the plateau reasons that I know of with B2B SaaS that someday I'll figure out a way to package it up in a way that's actually helpful. But plateaus are a common thing.