Kellogg: Expanding across verticals or use cases is high-friction for startups
Dave Kellogg · Dave Kellogg: How to Forecast in 2024 & Why CaC Payback is Flawed and CAC Ratio is Better | E1110 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jan 31, 2024 · at 59:18
Dave Kellogg, veteran B2B SaaS executive, explains his matrix framework for evaluating market expansion across distinct industry verticals and customer use cases.
0:00 / 0:29exact quote · 29.9s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The other thing, so I imagine this all as a matrix of vertical versus use case, and every time you're hopping a cell, it's danger, right? Like you know how to sell the custom publishing use case to publishers. Can I sell it to airlines? First, the first one is really, really hard, right? And once you've got one, then you can start to replicate. But any time you're hopping in this matrix, you should put a big, like, yellow, this is gonna be difficult, flag. And if you think you could just kind of knock these things down like dominoes, no way.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Dave Kellogg
Kellogg: VCs stop calling SaaS startups with CAC payback exceeding 24-36 months
“I do think somewhere around 24 to 36 months people stop calling you back, so you have a different problem. It doesn't matter how good your story is if you don't get the meaning.”
Kellogg: Startups blaming rising CAC on 'low-hanging fruit' underestimate market size
“I think most startups, when they make that argument to me, I think they're vastly underestimating the size of their market. That if you have a really, really big market, That, that you haven't picked all the low hanging fruit.”
Kellogg: SaaS NRR dropped to 105%, driven mainly by increased churn
“And by the way, if you asked, like, the most recent study, I think, said one oh five. The reason I said one oh eight is I just can't make my mouth say one oh five. But I think it may have come down from one 20 to one oh five, to be honest, and I think it's thr…”
Kellogg: Pitched against competitor hunters, SaaS customer success farmers always lose
“The single biggest sin in SAS is putting your farmer against someone else's hunter, right? Cause they will lose.”
Kellogg: Leaders should be unsympathetic to CS VPs missing churn forecasts
“So, so I just think CS for it, I am, if a VP of sales misses their forecast, I'm somewhat understanding. To me, it's I'm not very sympathetic to a VP of CS that misses their forecast, because how is it that you didn't know?”