Jason M. Lemkin advises SaaS leaders to maintain predictable revenue expectations—monthly, quarterly, and annually—and warns that major surprises undermine confidence. He emphasizes CEOs must listen and not assume investors will automatically provide additional funding, since VCs have limited reserves and follow-on checks are harder to secure today.
So you have a pretty good sense of where your revenue is going to be next month, next quarter even. You have a pretty good sense probably where it's going to be at the end of the year. So any big issues, any big dramas, they shouldn't come out of nowhere. They shouldn't come out of the blue in SaaS. And nothing undermines confidence more than the surprising or springer boom that just undermines confidence. The third checker is the CEO that doesn't really listen and keeps assuming, no matter how high the burn rate is, no matter how low the growth rate is, that their existing investors will keep funding them. And and be aware of this. It is harder than ever to get a second and especially a third check from VCs today. And so it's harder than ever to general to get an extra check, even if you're doing well. VCs are just out of what we call reserve.
