People, every show

Jason Lemkin

Founder & CEO, SaaStr. On 5 shows, 242 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.

founderinvestorexecutivehostauthor@jasonlk ↗LinkedIn ↗saastr.com ↗

Jason Lemkin is the founder and CEO of SaaStr. He previously co-founded EchoSign, serving as CEO until its acquisition by Adobe, and now invests in early-stage SaaS companies through the SaaStr Fund.

5shows
242appearances
3,111statements
644resolved
356supported
105contradicted
55%fully supported
568said about them ↓

Everything Jason Lemkin said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

20VC Prediction Open · timeframe May 2027
Lemkin: AI will replace half of knowledge workers in 24 months
“Half of these knowledge workers are going to be gone in 24 months”
Jason Lemkin May 8, 2025 ▶ 31:31 Benchmark vs a16z: Why Stage Specific Firms Win · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Every crypto company offering an Earn program is a fraud
“I believe every crypto company that has an EARN program is a fraud.”
Jason Lemkin Jan 4, 2024 ▶ 14:24 Jason Lemkin: Predictions for 2024 - What Does a Trump Administration do for Startups? | E1099 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Lemkin: Coinbase's 10% high-yield crypto program is a pyramid scheme
“And even, I know Coinbase is the good one, but where are they getting this 10%? It's a pyramid scheme. It's fraud.”
Jason Lemkin Jan 4, 2024 ▶ 14:56 Jason Lemkin: Predictions for 2024 - What Does a Trump Administration do for Startups? | E1099 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: Every venture capital firm has a fraudulent company in its portfolio
“And every VC has a fraud in their portfolio. Every single VC has a fraud in their portfolio.”
Jason Lemkin Aug 9, 2023 ▶ 52:06 Jason Lemkin: Every VC has a FRAUD in their portfolio; The IPO market is about to EXPLODE | E1046 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
SAASTR Opinion
Lemkin: Do not hire people who complain about burnout
“Lazy people always say they're burnt out... But the people that complain about burnout, I think deserve a scarlet L burned into their forehead and don't hire them.”
Jason Lemkin Jul 17, 2026 ▶ 1:03:11 How Agents Will Steal Your Customers. Plus: The $10K App Our Agent Replaced and the $14 Migration
SAASTR Prediction Open · timeframe Jul 2027
SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI IPOs will exceed all past tech IPOs combined
“We're going to see three trillion dollar plus IPOs over the coming months. It's never happened before. The value of SpaceX plus Anthropic plus OpenAI will be more than all the other tech IPOs combined ever.”
Jason Lemkin Jul 8, 2026 ▶ 45:45 Agents Didn't Kill Sales. They Just Exposed It with SaaStrAI CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
20VC Prediction Open · timeframe Jun 2031
Lemkin: Will only invest in startups working in-office six days weekly
“I want small high paid teams that work in the office over six days a week. That's I'm not interested in investing in anything else. I'm just not interested. And it's not because I don't have empathy. It's because they're gonna fail.”
Jason Lemkin Jun 25, 2026 ▶ 1:14:55 DeepSeek Raises at $50B | The Rise of Open Source vs OpenAI & Anthropic | OpenAI Builds Own Chip · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
SAASTR Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: Four Upcoming Tech Mega-IPOs Will Eclipse All IPOs Since 2000
“SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, we'll add in Databricks, we'll have Arsan, one of the co-founders here in about half an hour after this. That's going to create more market value, more value, and more wealth than every other IPO since 2000.”
Jason Lemkin Jun 11, 2026 ▶ 13:41 $4 Trillion in IPOs, $100B in M&A, and Why B2B Spend is Booming
SAASTR Prediction Open · timeframe Jun 2027
Lemkin: A $100B Startup Acquisition Will Occur in the Next 12 Months
“I bet there'll be a hundred billion dollar startup acquired in the next 12 months.”
Jason Lemkin Jun 11, 2026 ▶ 14:26 $4 Trillion in IPOs, $100B in M&A, and Why B2B Spend is Booming
SAASTR Prediction Held up
Lemkin: Anthropic Will Reach $50B in Revenue in Four Years
“Anthropics revenue is like nothing we've ever seen. Okay. It'll be at fifty billion in less than four years or four years plus or minus.”
Jason Lemkin Jun 11, 2026 ▶ 27:35 $4 Trillion in IPOs, $100B in M&A, and Why B2B Spend is Booming
20VC Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2026
Lemkin: SpaceX market valuation will triple in 2026 driven by retail investors
“I'm going to take this bet that it's going to trade up three X, In twenty-twenty-six, just based on GameStoppers driving it up.”
Jason Lemkin May 21, 2026 ▶ 59:14 Anthropic Raises $30BN at $900BN Price | SpaceX Files S1: How Does it Trade | Cerebras Smashes Day 1 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Lemkin: Fire employees who brag about team size on LinkedIn
“Anyone on LinkedIn that talks about their team, fire them. My team this. They're all so precious about their team. Lead from the effin' front with AI.”
Jason Lemkin May 7, 2026 ▶ 0:44 Anthropic's Raise & What It Means for Potential IPO? Mag7: Google & Amazon Up, Meta & Microsoft Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Prediction Held up
Lemkin: A $100 billion startup exit will happen within a year
“The big exits will solve it, right? The whizzes and the, I mean, we thought whizz was big. Now we have cursor. Now I'm going to win the bet of a hundred billion dollar exit in the next year.”
Jason Lemkin Apr 30, 2026 ▶ 1:05:12 Anthropic Raises $45B but Falls Short on Compute & Thoma Bravo Hand Back Medallia Keys to Creditors · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Prediction Open · timeframe Apr 2031
Jason Lemkin: SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic combined IPO values will top past 20 years
“The big three, SpaceX plus OpenAI plus Anthropic, their value at IPO will exceed every other IPO for the last 20 years combined.”
Jason Lemkin Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 0:43 OpenAI Buys TBPN & Their Management Team Reboot | Mercor Hack & Why Now is the Time for Cyber · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Prediction Open · timeframe Mar 2033
Lemkin: Nvidia will reach $10 trillion cumulative bookings in 5-7 years
“I think there's a high degree of confidence that most of the roads lead back to Nvidia reaching 10 trillion of cumulative, cumulative bookings over the next five to seven years.”
Jason Lemkin Mar 19, 2026 ▶ 9:14 NVIDIA Predicts $1TRN in Revenue: Everything You Need to Know From GTC & Anduril Lands $20B Contract · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: Non-engineering software categories face existential seat shrinking
“Every category that I know of outside of engineering and product is at existential risk of shrinking seats.”
Jason Lemkin Feb 12, 2026 ▶ 41:06 Anthropic's Super Bowl Ad: Who Won & Lost? | Sierra Hits $150M ARR: Is Customer Support Too Crowded? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Lemkin: Governments should guarantee 0% financing for AI data centers
“We have to guarantee zero percent financing for all data centers. We'll get all our money back.”
Jason Lemkin Feb 5, 2026 ▶ 0:44 The SaaS Massacre: Public Market Collapse |Microsoft Lost $360B & NVIDIA’s $100B Dispute with OpenAI
LENNY'S PODCAST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: 1.2 humans and 20 AI agents match 10 human GTM reps
“At the end of the day, on 1.2 humans is plus 20 AI agents is doing about what 10 human GTMs is.”
Jason Lemkin Jan 1, 2026 ▶ 14:07 We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
20VC Opinion
Lemkin: 900 late-stage unicorn startups generating nine-figure revenues will never go public
“And then we've got 900 unicorns that are never going to IPO. Poor guys. We have nine, we all have one or two in our portfolio that are at nine figures in revenue that are still growing and will never IPO. And there is no PE buyer for them.”
Jason Lemkin Nov 20, 2025 ▶ 56:02 Peter Thiel and Softbank Sell NVIDIA - Why? & Why VC Will Hit $1TRN and The Opening of Retail · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
Lemkin: Fire half your team if AI hasn't reaccelerated growth
“If you haven't gotten a boost this year from AI, fire half your team right before the holidays, give them a turkey and three months of severance, but they failed. You have a, your team is not good enough. They had 18 months to ship a product that mattered in t…”
Jason Lemkin Nov 6, 2025 ▶ 58:06 Is a $4.5BN Exit Enough in VC? & Harvey Raises $150M & Why Google is a Buy and Amazon is a Sell · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: A Top VC Firm Will Give Sam Bankman-Fried $100M
“I don't think Rory or I would, I'll defer to Rory, but I think someone will fund him. He's smart as Rory, Rory said, like he showed the upside as well as the downside. I don't know if there's a lot of morality in the business. I think someone will give them ju…”
Jason Lemkin May 15, 2025 ▶ 20:47 OpenAI, SBF & Perplexity: What VCs Know That You Don’t · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
Lemkin Advises CEOs to Mandate RTO and Fire Non-S-Tier Engineers
“The only advice I gave to this particular CEO is immediate, like he was hybrid. So I said to force a hundred percent of people returned to office in 30 days and let everyone go, except your S tier engineers, letting them all go. Because you don't need them.”
Jason Lemkin May 15, 2025 ▶ 42:40 OpenAI, SBF & Perplexity: What VCs Know That You Don’t · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Prediction Open · timeframe May 2027
Lemkin: AI will replace half of sales and customer success teams
“Half of these sales teams will be gone in two years. Half of these sales and customer success teams will be gone in two years because they're mediocre. They'll be gone. They're all going to be laid off.”
Jason Lemkin May 1, 2025 ▶ 1:26:41 What Does it Take to Be Good at Series A and B Today? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Lemkin: B2B SaaS CEOs should be embarrassed to conduct layoffs
“If you're a great SAS CEO, you should never have a RIF. It's called recurring revenue. You should have the ability to, I get it in B to C or D to C or X and Y and Z to C. I don't think good SAS CEO should, I think it's an utter failing to ever have a RIF unles…”
Jason Lemkin Aug 23, 2023 ▶ 12:03 Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 24statements(3,087 left)

The other half of the tape: Jason Lemkin's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 535 times in 261 episodes across the shows. 33 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 245Sam Blond 39Eran Zinman 15Nathan Latka 12Nick Mehta 7Andy Wilson 7Ivan Mazour 6Brendon Cassidy 6

Statements about Jason Lemkin, by other people (33)

20VC Disclosure
O'Driscoll: Scale's portfolio companies bypass VC preferences in acqui-hires
“When I'm on the other side of the table and my late stage companies are trying to buy early stage companies, I do exactly the same thing. I don't give a shit about Jason and his bloody preference. I want to hire those five great engineers. Let's just give them…”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 1:14:26 a16z's $20BN Fund & Founders Fund's $4.6BN & Why Josh Kushner Has Mastered the Game · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
O'Driscoll: Megafunds with forgiving LPs should pursue late-stage investing over seed
“If you have access to capital that's large and forgiving, which is what these mega funds have, then you should play the big balls game. Cause you're exactly right. You don't do it. You have to do less work. If it works great, you make out the same as Jason who…”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 41:11 a16z's $20BN Fund & Founders Fund's $4.6BN & Why Josh Kushner Has Mastered the Game · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
LENNY'S PODCAST Assertion Supported
Rachitsky: Jason Lemkin replaced a 10-person sales team with 20 AI agents
“I just had Jason Lemkin on the podcast. He's very smart on sales, go to market, run Saster, and he replaced his whole sales team with agents. He had 10 salespeople. Now he has 1.2 and 20 agents.”
Lenny Rachitsky Jan 11, 2026 ▶ 1:11:29 Why most AI products fail: Lessons from 50+ AI deployments at OpenAI, Google & Amazon
SAASTR Disclosure
Ibarra: Managing 20 AI agents takes the majority of our time
“Right now it does take literally the majority, I would say, of both mine and Jason's time to run all these agents and use them successfully”
Amelia Ibarra Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 3:55 6 Months Later, How Our AI SDRs Actually Work as AI Runs GTM with SaaStr's CEO and Chief AI Officer
SAASTR Opinion
Norton: Inbound-trained sales leaders rarely succeed running outbound motions
“I wouldn't say hopeless, but I would say it's not very likely. If you want to run an out, if you want to run an outbound model and you've got a VP of sales who is being in 80% inbound models, it is Because for them to be to, for that person to really grok outb…”
Kyle Norton Apr 30, 2024 ▶ 39:44 How to Build Go-to-Market Efficiency in SMB Sales with Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton
SAASTR Opinion
Kellogg: Enterprise SaaS startups should wait until $100M+ ARR for second product
“In terms of second product, I talked about Jason Lemkin's work before, but he's done a series of tweets and blogs, and from his research to me, for most companies, it's probably a hundred million plus in ARR, and maybe multiple, for the companies I work with, …”
Dave Kellogg Jul 20, 2022 ▶ 30:45 5 Scale-Up Mistakes for Startups with Dave Kellogg | SaaStr Software Community
SAASTR Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schuck: ZoomInfo Drives 10x LTV to CAC on $20k-$50k Lands
“It's a lot of science that goes into the way that we generate the leads, we route the leads, and then we close new business, and that drives a 10 X LTV to CAC, a sub-thirty day sales cycle, often deals are closed same day, and these are not like, you know, two…”
Henry Schuck Jul 6, 2022 ▶ 6:54 10 Mistakes the CEO/Founder of ZoomInfo Made on His Journey to IPO (and Beyond)
20VC Insight
Early sales teams need collaboration over manufactured internal competition
“I think if you really need to rely on sort of like having people with the same cohort to drive competition, I think you may have hired the wrong people in my opinion, right? Because in that early stage, I'm actually trying to foster more than anything, a cultu…”
Oliver Jay May 25, 2022 ▶ 15:16 Oliver Jay: How To Create and Execute a World-Class Sales Playbook | 20VC #889 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Neumann rejects Jason Lemkin's view that VC is just packaging startups
“I don't look at it that way. If you say it that way, it makes it sound like you're trying to gild the lily, right? You're trying to sell them something that's not actually true. I do think that you need to know what the company needs to look like to raise more…”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 19:34 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
20VC Insight
Rabois: Replace executives whose personal growth lags company velocity
“When the individual's propensity to grow falls below the company's growth rate, I think you need to make a change.”
Keith Rabois May 15, 2017 ▶ 11:12 20VC: Khosla's Keith Rabois on How To Create Sustainability Behind Growth, How To Assess The Potential Of Individuals & Teams & The Biggest Takeaways from LinkedIn, Paypal & Square
20VC Opinion
Stebbings: Jason Lemkin says SaaS VC investing is exhausting compared to AI
“I was talking to my dear friend Jason Lemkin the other day, and he's like, fuck this. I've had enough of this. I just want to do an anthropic SPV and go home. I don't want to pick the winner in a SaaS company.”
Harry Stebbings Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 25:39 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
O'Driscoll: Doubling late-stage winners beats grinding early ARR growth
“That double from there. So, so much easier than grunting it out from a million to five million in ARR. Jason, because you did it as a CEO to ten million in ARR. Then the shitty year where you only go to 16. Then you re-accelerate a little. Oh my God. And now y…”
Rory O'Driscoll May 8, 2025 ▶ 10:16 Benchmark vs a16z: Why Stage Specific Firms Win · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Hyatt: Treating venture capital as a packaging industry is a losing strategy
“I hate that analogy deeply. Well, I to a certain extent- I understand it. I don't think it's good for startups and I don't think it's good for founders. And I also, maybe more importantly than just some kind of value judgment, I think it's a losing strategy wh…”
Nabeel Hyatt Feb 3, 2025 ▶ 9:08 Nabeel Hyatt, GP @ Spark Capital: To Win in AI, Investors Need to Change Their Approach | E1255 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Fillmann: Founders Should Hire Sales Reps Individually, Not in Competing Pairs
“If you want the environment where people perform at their best, you need safety. If you want safety, they have to know that you're trusting them, that you've got their back. And if you have two different people kind of competing in the same environment, I don'…”
Frank Fillmann Mar 22, 2023 ▶ 10:27 Frank Fillmann: How I Boosted Revenue by $500M at Salesforce; Tips for Hiring Salespeople | E992 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
SAASTR Insight
Hoffman: 10x performers take more management time than average employees
“The better the person, the less time it takes to manage them. That's the obvious thing, but that's only up to a point. The true 10 Xers actually take more time to manage than the average performers.”
Auren Hoffman Apr 18, 2021 ▶ 15:39 How to Build a Unicorn in 8 Simple Charts with SafeGraph
20VC Disclosure
Data Collective passes on standard SaaS deals favored by Jason Lemkin
“We regretfully either say no up front or don't follow on in the kind of companies that somebody like Jason Lempton is going to make a fortune in.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 16:30 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
20VC Opinion
Turner: B2B First Sales Do Not Guarantee Scalability
“I think in business-to-business software, that, that would be kind of a tough rule because we do see a lot of situations where a specific piece of software is developed for one customer with a pretty specific need, and that getting beyond that one customer to …”
Guy Turner Jul 22, 2015 ▶ 6:25 20 VC 056: The Life Cycle of Startups with Guy Turner, Partner @ Hyde Park Venture Partners
SAASTR Opinion
Ibarra: Most companies adopting AI agents fail to see impact
“So I think we're in this right now sort of paradoxical world in November of 2025, where a lot of folks have adopted at least one sort of AI or agent, but maybe to Jason's point that he just made, a lot of them aren't seeing the impact because either they're ex…”
Amelia Ibarra Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 9:58 6 Months Later, How Our AI SDRs Actually Work as AI Runs GTM with SaaStr's CEO and Chief AI Officer
SAASTR Opinion
Blond: Current challenging sales environment is a return to normal
“Well, my personal perspective on this, which is relatively aligned with Jason Lemkin's is we've sort of returned to normal. Normal is, is still much more challenging selling environment than we've experienced over the last two to three years.”
Sam Blond Feb 7, 2023 ▶ 1:51 How To Adapt Your Sales Strategy To The Current Sales Environment | Modern Health SVP of Sales
SAASTR Disclosure
Schuck: ZoomInfo Calls Inbound Leads Within 90 Seconds via Algorithmic Matching
“If you go fill out a form on the ZoomInfo website today, somebody will call you within 90 seconds. The person who's calling you has been algorithmically chosen as the SDR who's most likely to convert your type of company and your level of buyer into, ah, an op…”
Henry Schuck Jul 6, 2022 ▶ 6:02 10 Mistakes the CEO/Founder of ZoomInfo Made on His Journey to IPO (and Beyond)
SAASTR Insight
Peacock: SaaS NRR Benchmarks: 120% Enterprise, 110% Mid-Market, 100% SMB
“Some of the things that we've seen in terms of benchmarks are for enterprise companies, so B to B SaaS companies selling to the enterprise. You want to have a net revenue retention of a 120% or above. Oftentimes the best companies are way, way above this. If y…”
Karen Peacock Dec 13, 2021 ▶ 9:46 Shifting to the Next Gear: Proven Strategies to Accelerate Growth with Intercom CEO Karen Peacock
SAASTR Insight
Wilson: SaaS is a business model, not a company mission
“SaaS is a business model, and unless you're Jason Lemkin, it is not your mission.”
Andy Wilson May 20, 2020 ▶ 37:54 Lessons from Logikcull: $0 to $10M in 19 Months: The How, When & Why + 10 Mistakes Along the Way
20VC Insight
M&A prices drop in downturns as acquirers prioritize cost-cutting
“Yeah, no question. Because if there's a limited set of buyers and a whole bunch of companies that want to be acquired and remember my mindset at the start of the podcast was people right now are not paid to innovate. They're not paid to innovate. They're paid …”
Mark Suster Apr 20, 2020 ▶ 20:25 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds
20VC Insight
Stebbings: Creators should choose immortal content platforms over ephemeral ones like Snapchat
“And then just with the content, fundamental to choose immortal content platforms, so Snapchat for content isn't really great unless you're looking to create connections. It dies and is not searchable. The likes of Jason Lemkin have done incredibly well with Qu…”
Harry Stebbings May 1, 2017 ▶ 21:56 20VC: Explosion of First Time Funds, Only 1 Mega Fund Raised: What The Heck Happened in Q1 Venture Markets with Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director @ Sapphire Ventures

Show 9statements(9 left)

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0075251505020162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
0255020162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0022545020162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode

20VC 324the Official SaaStr Podcast 131Top Founders 75Lenny's Podcast 4My First Million 1

2026 92 mentions in 30 episodes 3 per episode
2025 59 mentions in 26 episodes 2 per episode
2024 51 mentions in 26 episodes 2 per episode
2023 62 mentions in 32 episodes 2 per episode
2022 33 mentions in 24 episodes 1 per episode
2021 17 mentions in 14 episodes 1 per episode
2020 17 mentions in 8 episodes 2 per episode
2019 18 mentions in 11 episodes 2 per episode
2018 17 mentions in 13 episodes 1 per episode
2017 58 mentions in 35 episodes 2 per episode
2016 111 mentions in 42 episodes 3 per episode

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Jason's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

ShowRole thereEpsStatementsRecord
20VCLEDGER Founder & CEO, SaaStr 88 1,605 51% 187/365 full record on 20VC →
SAASTRLEDGER Founder & CEO, SaaStrhost 150 1,353 62% 161/261 full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast →
LENNY'S PODCASTLEDGER Founder & CEO, SaaStr 2 103 40% 4/10 full record on Lenny's Podcast →
MY FIRST MILLIONLEDGER Founder & CEO, SaaStr 1 29 43% 3/7 full record on My First Million →
TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER Founder & CEO, SaaStr 1 21 100% 1/1 full record on Top Founders →
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