Christoph Janz

Co-Founder & Partner, Point Nine · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderauthor@chrija ↗LinkedIn ↗theangelvc.net ↗

Christoph Janz is an early-stage venture capitalist and the creator of the SaaS Funding Napkin framework. He co-founded Point Nine in 2011 and has invested in companies including Zendesk, Contentful, Loom, Algolia, and Revolut.

17statements → 6claims → 3claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 3.88/5average certainty → 1.71/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 22said about them ↓

2 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 5 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Christoph argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

European enterprise software investors universally passed on Zendesk's early rounds

“Everybody in Europe, Who knew anything about enterprise software looked at Zendesk and passed because there were plenty of reasons why this would never work.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 15:04 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

How they sound: speaking style how? →

206 words/min while actually speaking · 1.8 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Christoph Janz: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 21 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 3,841 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Christoph Janz is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 4/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 1/10

setup questions received 40%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 10:35“Were you not taking a big risk in terms of like developers ability in terms of purchasing and their ability within organizations to try new tools and then spin them up?” ▶ 23:17“Are you concerned that actually funding advancement has changed company execution in a negative way?” ▶ 13:49“How do you retain mental plasticity and kind of a clear mind with every new opportunity, rather than have your mind tainted by past things that have done badly or well?”

when Christoph pushed back ▶ 12:04“I don't think that mediocre founders can build a very large company to start off with that.”

What they said17 What others said22 Episodes1

Everything Christoph Janz said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Janz: Founder quality matters more than market size at seed stage

“I think if you have a great team in a really, really bad market, there is a good chance that they will still turn it into like some decent level of success, or maybe they can pivot into a better market. So I think the team is the more important factor of the t…”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 12:32 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Disclosure

Christoph Janz: Point Nine's best investments were in unfamiliar sectors

“Some of the best investments that we've made at .9 or that I personally made as an angel investor were probably in spaces where I didn't know too much about it.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 14:52 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Assertion Supported

European enterprise software investors universally passed on Zendesk's early rounds

“Everybody in Europe, Who knew anything about enterprise software looked at Zendesk and passed because there were plenty of reasons why this would never work.”

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Christoph Janz: Early-stage venture deals in 2021 close within a week

“Totally unbelievable today with the current pace in this environment where everything gets done in a week, right?”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 6:59 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Disclosure

Janz: Point Nine does not expect market size clarity at seed stage

“It doesn't mean that we want or expect to have clarity on the market size by the time we invest. I think we've learned like many other investors that it's really, really hard to predict a market size”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 12:50 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Insight

Christoph Janz: Right SaaS pricing unlocks new customer acquisition channels

“If you have got your pricing wrong or right, because the right price doesn't only mean that you charge more. It opens up totally new ways to acquire customers. If you have much higher customer lifetime values”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 16:06 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Insight

Janz: Professional Services Revenue Does Not Harm Enterprise Valuations

“Obviously, it means that when you present this data to investors in your next round, you, like, need to show it clearly. You have probably two different line items, and it's clear that those different types of revenue have different margins. Maybe one is recur…”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 18:01 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Assertion Supported

Janz: $500k is now smaller than average VC pre-seed rounds

“And today, as you know, like 500 K is less than the average pre-seed round, right? And seed rounds are often in the millions.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 20:30 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Insight

Janz: Founders Are Better Off Running a Structured Fundraising Process

“And I think in most cases, founders are better off if they run a process, so they control the timeline, they talk to several investors in parallel, so they have more options.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 22:42 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Insight

Janz: Founders raising at high valuations must maintain disciplined burn rates

“So I think one of the best things you can do as a founder in this environment is raise a lot of money at a very high valuation, but don't use it, or at least don't spend it faster than you would if the money had been much harder to raise.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 23:51 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Disclosure

Contentful's seed pitch to Point Nine was a cold email in 2012

“He sent me that email in March, 20 12. It was an cold email with a subject SaaS seed funding storage room.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 4:02 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Contentful's original seed pitch deck targeted a $12M total addressable market

“I had a look at the original deck in preparation for this meeting with you, Harry, and it's unbelievable if you look at this from the perspective of today, that Sasha is the original market at twelve million dollar As the addressable market, he did mention tha…”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 8:30 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Janz: Contentful took years of slow growth and delays before succeeding

“It was not an overnight success, though. It's not like this company has taken off right away. Like, it took a couple of years of relatively slow growth and ups and downs, and re-architecturing the product takes a year longer than expected.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 10:10 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Disclosure

Point Nine invested under $250K in Contentful's $500K seed round

“Contentful's First round, we call the seed round, was 500 K. And we didn't even do it alone because we thought this was way too much for our tiny little fund. So we did less than half of it and helped Sasha fill up the round with others or help him get Balders…”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 20:11 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Disclosure

Point Nine's initial exit target for Contentful was a few hundred million

“I think we didn't dream beyond an outcome of a couple of hundred millions in exit valuation. Our ambition started to get bigger over time, but, like, we had a tiny fund, like, we, I guess the term unicorn wasn't even coined yet, like, we were not really expect…”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 25:18 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Assertion Partly supported

Contentful CEO Sascha Konietzke was an engineer with no sales background

“Sasha didn't have a sales background, right? It's not like he has learned how to do that. He's engineer by training.”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 4:40 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

Disclosure

Point Nine took three to four months to close Contentful deal in 2012

“It took us, I think, two months to do our work and come to a decision, and then probably another one or two months to actually do”

Christoph Janz Nov 24, 2021 ▶ 7:04 20VC: The Contentful Memo: Point Nine's Christoph Janz on The Cold Email That Led to a Unicorn Investment, How To Approach Market Sizing and Timing & The Pros and Cons of Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Do Them vs When Not To?

The other half of the tape: Christoph Janz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 21 times in 9 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nico Wittenborn 5 Joe Thomas 5 Jason Lemkin 5 Harry Stebbings 5 Rob Lacher 1

Statements about Christoph Janz, by other people (1)

Opinion

Tak Lo: Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital is a top must-read VC blogger

“Chris, Christopher Jans from .9 Capital out in Berlin, I think. Awesome, really great early stage founder, understands the B to B space, but just a really good, again, very insightful investor. Those are the four that I read a lot.”

Tak Lo May 18, 2015 ▶ 8:25 20 VC 037: How To Get a Job at a Startup, Startup Lessons and Brad Feld's 'Open Office Hours' with Tak Lo, Director @ Techstars