Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner explains the foundational philosophy behind capital efficiency to Acquired hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal at the Emergence Capital CEO Summit.
“Cash generating business is always going to be valuable to somebody. At some point, a business that's not cash generating is going to be valuable to nobody, right? You might be able to sell it before it becomes It, you know, not valuable, but you can only, there's only, there's security in long term you know, so it starts with a mindset.”
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More from Peter Gassner
Insight
Gassner: Outlier success requires pursuing ideas most people expect to fail
“You have to pick something that most people think is going to fail to be an outlier. Otherwise, by definition, you're picking something that most people think is going to work, and therefore a lot of people are picking it, therefore you're not an outlier.”
Peter GassnerMay 19, 2022▶ 15:42Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner) · Acquired
“Cause I was always optimizing for the longterm value, which is the annual value per customer. So if I had to give the customer terms that would lock them in, I thought that's actually shrinking my market. Cause they'll pay less if they're locked in. That's one…”
Peter GassnerMay 19, 2022▶ 32:31Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner) · Acquired
Insight
Gassner: A company's second product should be radically distinct, not an add-on
“Your new product, if you have a chance, it should be way out here, and maybe have the potential to be bigger.”
Peter GassnerMay 19, 2022▶ 58:18Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner) · Acquired
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Gassner: Veeva's initial prospective customers rejected the idea but later all bought
“I talked to three or four potential customers for our first product, and they all said, we don't need that. You know, that's not interesting. It's not a good thing to do, but I wasn't listening for that. I was listening. Are they emotionally attached to where …”
Peter GassnerMay 19, 2022▶ 16:56Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner) · Acquired
AssertionNot publicly verifiable
Gassner: Veeva funded early development via a $3M upfront Pfizer payment
“I thought, oh, we've just raised a three million dollar round of capital here and it didn't cost us any dilution, right? The check came in.”
Peter GassnerMay 19, 2022▶ 29:07Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner) · Acquired
Insight
Gassner: High market share companies must expand to avoid disruptive over-engineering
“If you get a high market share in an area, and you don't expand to another area, what will happen? Just because the nature of your company and the creative people, You'll do more stuff in your established area than you should, right? And that creates its own s…”
Peter GassnerMay 19, 2022▶ 53:37Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner) · Acquired
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