Accel

16 statements across 8 episodes · 3 bullish · 7 bearish · 6 people on the record · first statement Jul 7, 2017 by Jay Simons · said 54 times in 22 episodes since 2017 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Jason Lemkin (20), Eric Rea (6), Philippe Botteri (4), Harry Stebbings (4), Jay Simons (3), Andrei Brasoveanu (3), Vas Natarajan (2), Ryan Smith (2)

tap a year for its mentions
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0362017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0023462017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 3 mentions in 1 episode
2024 7 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2023 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2022 12 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
2021 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 17 mentions in 5 episodes 3 per episode
2017 3 mentions in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Accel, oldest first

Jul 7, 2017 neutral
Assertion Supported
Simons: Accel's $60M Atlassian secondary was its largest VC round at the time
“And the sixty million dollar round in 2010, even though it was secondary and didn't, ah, you know, didn't you know, hit the company's balance sheet. It was the single largest, ah, you know, venture capital round that Excel had done.”
Jay Simons Jul 7, 2017 ▶ 8:42 Jay Simons, President @ Atlassian - The Inside Story Through IPO
Jul 7, 2017 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Simons: Atlassian never raised institutional balance sheet capital pre-IPO
“Atlassian had been bootstrapped from the very beginning, had never raised institutional capital on its balance sheet. So we did two secondary rows, second, two secondary rounds. You know, one with Excel in, ah, 2010, and one with T. Rowe Price. In 2013.”
Jay Simons Jul 7, 2017 ▶ 6:51 Jay Simons, President @ Atlassian - The Inside Story Through IPO
Jan 2, 2019
Insight
Founders Should Close Initial Enterprise Deals Before Hiring Sales Reps
“One of the learnings I've seen is don't rush out too quickly to go hire the expensive enterprise sales reps. Learn how to sell those early enterprise deals yourself. Cause it is illuminating from a product marketing sales support and success standpoint.”
Vas Natarajan Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 27:54 Going Upmarket, How To Keep Growing When Your Buyer Is No Longer Your User
Jan 2, 2019 neutral
Insight
Enterprise Inbound Interest Typically Begins at $2M to $3M ARR
“It tends to be around the two to three million dollar mark where you're getting larger logos that are starting to knock on the door. The enterprise pipeline is starting to swell”
Vas Natarajan Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 6:43 Going Upmarket, How To Keep Growing When Your Buyer Is No Longer Your User
Feb 17, 2019
Disclosure
Ryan Smith: Qualtrics raised from Sequoia and Accel at $350M–$400M valuation
“We raised at four hundred million dollars, three hundred fifty million dollars with Sequoia and Excel.”
Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 5:03 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics
Feb 17, 2019 negative
Opinion
Smith: Accel and Sequoia totally underestimated Qualtrics' TAM
“And I think Excel and Sequoia totally shorted our TAM.”
Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 20:25 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics
Nov 30, 2021 negative
Opinion
Lemkin: Multi-stage seed without Series A preemption is a severe negative signal
“It's a huge signaling problem. Of course, if Sequoia or Accelerant recent or Lightspeed has two years of data and they don't preempt the A, of course it's a problem. Of course it's a bad signal.”
Jason Lemkin Nov 30, 2021 ▶ 36:14 Scaling a Successful SaaS Sales Team w/ 20VC Founder Harry Stebbings and SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin
Dec 2, 2022 bearish
Disclosure
Arun Matthew: Accel Made One 2022 Growth Investment Versus 20 in 2021
“We've made one growth investment this year. And so one this year, wow, one this year, and that's down from about 20 from last year.”
Arun Matthew Dec 2, 2022 ▶ 3:36 Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: "Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder" at G2 Reach
Dec 2, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Matthew: Accel SMB-Focused SaaS Companies Struggle with Retention Versus Enterprise
“In terms of gross retention, we're seeing varying degrees of success of gross retention across different customer segments, meaning SMB in this environment is more challenged than enterprise. And our companies that are exposed to SMB in particular are having a…”
Arun Matthew Dec 2, 2022 ▶ 34:05 Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: "Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder" at G2 Reach
Dec 2, 2022 negative
Insight
Arun Matthew: The Rule of 40 Applies Only to Public-Scale Businesses
“The rule of 40 is a measurement for public company scale businesses. And if you're at orders of magnitude below that at 10 to 15 in ARR, it's a different rule. You know, you'll never get to scale and have that sort of profitability margin at scale unless you'r…”
Arun Matthew Dec 2, 2022 ▶ 41:58 Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: "Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder" at G2 Reach
Dec 2, 2022 positive
Assertion Supported
Matthew: 1Password bootstrapped 15 years before raising a $600M round
“Iconic and Excel invested in one password, which had been bootstrapped for 15 years before they ended up. Before they ended up raising capital, you know, they raised a six hundred million dollar round over the last couple of years.”
Arun Matthew Dec 2, 2022 ▶ 26:02 Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: "Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder" at G2 Reach
Dec 2, 2022 neutral
Assertion Supported
Matthew: CrowdStrike trades at 12x current ARR and 9.5x forward
“You look at what CrowdStrike is valued at, it's valued on current ARR at 12 times. And you look at a forward number that's nine and a half times.”
Arun Matthew Dec 2, 2022 ▶ 19:35 Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: "Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder" at G2 Reach
Dec 2, 2022 bearish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Matthew: Under 30% of Accel Portfolio Expected to Hit 2022 Plans
“So I would say less than half of our companies are hitting original 20, 20, 22 plans. And I think by the end of the year, you know, it'll probably be closer to 25 to 30% that we're seeing across a very large sample size.”
Arun Matthew Dec 2, 2022 ▶ 10:53 Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: "Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder" at G2 Reach
May 18, 2023 bearish
Assertion Contradicted
Lemkin: Accel Growth made just one investment in 2022
“Accel Growth did one investment last year, 30 something the year before.”
Jason Lemkin May 18, 2023 ▶ 15:21 VC AMA with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Black Mangroves MD Arnaud Bonzom at SaaStr APAC 2023
Sep 15, 2023
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mathrubootham: Freshworks raised $1M from Accel with $2,100 MRR
“The first round of funding when we had 70 stranger customers from all around the world, Paying us an average of 30 dollars a month, so we had 2100 dollars of MRR, but that was enough to get us a million dollar funding, and that's why I said it's a big bet that…”
Girish Mathrubootham Sep 15, 2023 ▶ 6:09 Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
Oct 25, 2023 positive
Insight
Lemkin: VCs Love Bootstrapped Startups for Their Clean Cap Tables
“VCs love bootstrap companies. If you talk to Excel partners, one of the top VCs at all times, they'll say our favorite investments were Atlassian, right, which I think they bought 20% of, bootstrapped. Qualtrics, bootstrapped, on and on. Why do VCs like bootst…”
Jason Lemkin Oct 25, 2023 ▶ 41:41 What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024
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