In this monologue, venture capitalist Jason M. Lemkin argues that the fundamental bar for VC investment – a founder’s insight that surpasses the room – has remained constant, even as the quantitative growth expectations have risen. He illustrates his point with personal anecdotes about three CEOs he admires: Peter Gassner (Veeva), David Sacks (Yammer), and Renée (Bill.com). Lemkin describes how each demonstrated a unique blend of deep product understanding, relentless intensity, and long‑term vision, which set them apart from their peers. He then shifts to his own experience as an investor, noting that out of roughly 30 deals since 2013, the winners all exhibited the same “founder‑as‑best‑advisor” quality. While the qualitative bar stays the same, investors now demand faster revenue growth—specifically 100% year‑over‑year growth at the $100 million ARR milestone. Lemkin concludes that VCs are looking for both this hyper‑growth metric and a CEO who is “at least as good as” the standout founders he highlighted, such as the Figma CEO.
Chapters
I don't think the bar has changed. And I'll step back a minute. When I was running my last startup, Adobe Sign, EchoSign, which I talked about too much, but in my, in my batch of founders for my series, it was called The Be Then and Be in A Today, was Emergence Capital. So in my group was Peter Gassner, who's CEO of Viva, which is worth $30 billion. David Sacks, who then was CEO of Yammer. Rene Lecerte, CEO of Bill, which I think is where it was almost at $1 billion in revenue. Some of the best, like, and so I was like, I think either the worst of the best or maybe the best of the mid-pack of that group of CEOs. And it was correlated with the size of the outcome, having a 9-figure exit. They had 10 and 11. And so I'm rambling for a point. I realized quickly where I stood in the hierarchy, right? When I met Peter Gassner, CEO of Veeva, and we did a great session way back at 2017 Annual on YouTube. It's one of the best SaaStr ones ever. I'm like, this fucking guy knows. Like, this is the best CEO I've ever met with Peter. And how did I know? It's not that he was, had been the VP of Engage at Salesforce or CTO. It's not that he was smart and wise. It's that he understood my business almost better than I did in the first meeting, and that was that, and he was so nice the way he said it, but that level of insight I had, I'd really never seen, and then I met David Sacks at Yammer, not when he was whatever, all-in pod dude, and I mean, I love David, but, and David was different than Peter, but he had this energy, this intensity to drive something off the cliff, and I'm like, I'm kind of, I have my own kind of energy, but not like David. Like, David's gonna build something bigger than I'm gonna build, and I met Renée from Bill, and a lot of people didn't get Bill for a long time, I mean, it's, and I wrote a SaaS post when they went public, our 5 interesting learnings, like, you've probably never heard of this company, but the CEO's really good, and I met Renée, and I really do think Renée is one of the top 10 CEOs, but maybe for a different reason. I think, Rene is smarter than me, but maybe not in the crazy way that Peter is. Rene had a 30-year vision even when I met him, and he'd done a startup before called PayCycle that had had a lot of drama into it, bought it for $100-150 million, which sounds like a lot, but there was executive turnover, and I don't think it was the greatest experience for him. I think he wanted— and he did build because he had a— he didn't just want to do payroll on the internet, he wanted to automate all the ways SME pay. And he had the same vision when I met him in 2006. He had it in 2008. 2009. And I remember with Renée, we were sitting at an event in Hawaii called The Lobby in like 2013, and I'd sold. I was kind of investing and chilling. And I'm like, Renée, who's running what, a $20 billion company today, right? And I'm like, Renée, how's it going in 2013? He's like, friggin' hard, Jason. He's like, it's so good to see you. He's like, no one understands SaaS. I can't find any great VPs. No one will fund me. Okay. I'm like, yeah, that's pretty bad, my friend. And, but he's like, I'm on this. I'm going to find a way. I'm on this 30-year journey. He actually had to raise I think around at really terrible terms and prices at the time. And whoever got it got an insane deal. Right. But then I saw someone truly on a 30-year journey, right, to revolutionize the way accounting, bill payment, this, this, this, this network for SMBs. And he was such a visionary across two startups. And I'm sharing those stories to say the bar's always been that. Okay. Right. And, and I will say as an investor, if you want, from an investor standpoint, I I think I've done only 30 venture investments since 2013. The ones that did really well, all but one, they were like that, right? And you walk into the meeting and, and the ones you wish you had invested, right? And so, and so the bar has gone up in the sense that investors are looking for even faster growth. Investors are hoping for 100% growth at $100 million ARR. That's what you can back into today. And it's crazy. Investors want 100% growth at $100 ARR, but The intangible piece, that founder that is better than me, that is better than even most people in the room, that's— I don't know if that's— that's what people want. It hasn't changed. It's that crazy thing, right? And like with Figma, talking to all the folks backstage that met— I don't even know him— he hasn't— that met Dylan at Figma. They all say he was just off the charts from the beginning. Right. And that can mean different things, but that's what they want. 100% growth at $100 million. And then a CEO at least as good as Figma. That's all the VCs want.
