Brian Ascher of Venrock joins Nick to discuss Product is Paramount. In this episode, we cover:
- What is your story at Venrock and how have both you and your firm evolved over the past two decades.
- Talk a little about Venrock and your focus there.
- You were a product manager at Intuit, prior to Venrock.. what do you think is the VCs role in shaping product strategy?
- What are your thoughts on SaaS investing and this increasing focus on the “Intelligent Enterprise”
- You wrote an article a few years ago called “Goldilocks and the 3 SaaS Go To- Markets Models”… what are the three flavors of SaaS go-to-market and have they changed since you wrote the article?
- Business Model: Price/seat vs. metered service vs. price for value
- We’re about to close on our first fintech investment for fund I– can you talk a bit about fintech and why it’s so hot?
- Some have said that digital currencies and/or the blockchain itself will be as disruptive as the internet– agree or disagree?
- Something we’ve neglected a bit on the program is long-term governance. What are your thoughts on Managing a Board of Directors and what situations have you seen play out– for better or worse?
- What is the percentage of healthy, well-functioning boards vs unhealthy boards?
- How are chairman roles assigned/elected– are they often explicit and how useful is it to have an official Chairman?
Guest Links:
Quick Takeaways:
-
-
While innovation and product are important, individuals and teams are the backbone.
-
Product is an all-in commitment and one must be very detail oriented.
-
Brian prefers to be a heavy user of products he invests in.
-
Founders appreciate when investors go deep with the product management team.
-
Product architecture decisions are often overlooked.
-
A great indicator is when a company is constantly rebuilding their tech stack.
-
Access to interesting and rich data sets are necessary to keep learning loops running.
-
Three types of business models fit a SaaS driven business, and they all depend on product, pricing, and customer segmentation.
-
The Freemium business model works well for products with broad appeal and easy customer onboarding.
-
Inside Sales models are best for small businesses to mid-market companies that would otherwise have low conversion rates for freemium plans.
-
Enterprise models have higher price points, with a heavy requirement to sell + do it well.
-
It’s easier to start in the middle with SaaS models and then add enterprise features than vice versa.
-
Enterprises favor traditional pricing models because they have predictable expenses.
-
Digital Currencies and Blockchain will be as disruptive as the internet.
-
Crypto and blockchain parallel P2P with added complexity and unique governance structures.
-
Tech is experiencing a somewhat deserved backlash due to misuse of customer data.
-
We are still in the “Dial up Era” for Ethereum architecture performance. Once these setbacks are solved, more interesting applications will emerge.
-
When there is a healthy board dynamic, governance comes easy. Process and protocol are critical.
-
The most important quality for maintaining board relations is transparency.
-
There is often little difference between what the board and management want, especially in KPIs.
-
The chairman role is underutilized in most companies. Dividing responsibility between the CEO and Chairman, especially if the chairman is experienced, creates a competitive advantage.
-
In the tech ecosystem, it has become more important to “win at all costs,” forgetting customers and ethics.
-
Brian Roberts at Venrock has impressed upon Ascher how important it is to reject pattern recognition. When the patterns no longer apply, the most interesting opportunities present themselves.
-