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Christoph Janz

Co-Founder & Partner, Point Nine · 2 appearances 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.

78statements → 24claims → 3claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.51/5average certainty → 1.97/5average debate potential → 30said about them ↓

3 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 8 not checkable as stated how the 24 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 20 assertions · 1 opinion · 51 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 24 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 16 are resolved, and 8 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
Half of 2023 Seed-Stage SaaS Startups Raised Pre-Revenue
“At the seed stage, as you can see here, approximately half of them were pre-revenue, while the other half had some ARR, anything between just a couple of 100,000 dollars Up to about a million or even 1.5 million.”
Christoph Janz Sep 27, 2023 ▶ 5:49 What it Takes to Raise Capital with Christoph Janz of Point Nine

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
83% certainty 3
92% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

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

Insight
20-tab startup financial models are always poorly designed
“As a rule of thumb, I have never seen in my life an Excel plan or a Google Sheets plan that had dozens or maybe 20 pages or tabs where it actually made sense. None. I've seen a lot of these, but I think they are all just really poorly done. If anybody wants to…”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 10:26 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Insight
A 10-20 person sales team that never fires anyone indicates dysfunction
“If an investor sees a company with 10 or 20 salespeople and they've never let go a salesperson, that almost tells you something Tells you that something isn't working because it's unheard of, that every single salesperson works out.”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 25:31 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Insight
Cutting sales spend with fast CAC payback can actually reduce runway
“So if you're in that situation and you need more runway, it's probably a big mistake to cut your sales and marketing costs because the payback is so quick that it might actually decrease your runway if you don't spend on sales and marketing.”
Christoph Janz Oct 13, 2022 ▶ 29:17 Growth vs. Efficiency: How to Weatherproof Your SaaS Startup for Tougher Times | Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Efficient startups with high burn should increase sales spend and cut elsewhere
“If you have an efficient sales and marketing engine, try to spend more on it, not less, and try to save money in other places.”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 22:59 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Startups unable to become default alive should target becoming default investable
“If you can't become default alive, then try to become default investable”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 27:20 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Cutting bottom 5-10% of staff costs almost no productivity
“Every company has five to 10% or maybe even more of people on their team who are just not performing as well as the rest. There is just no company where everybody is at the same level. So just consider letting go, like, the bottom five to 10%. In the sales tea…”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 30:33 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Fire any VP who isn't amazing after a few months
“Move on from any VP that isn't amazing. I think this advice has been given and repeated many times over, but it's doesn't make it wrong. If you've hired a VP, say it's marketing or any other function, and if he or she isn't absolutely awesome after a couple of…”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 31:09 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Janz: VC markets may not see 2021-level valuations for a decade
“My guess is that we will not go back maybe never, or maybe not for 10 years to what we've seen in 2020 and 20 21, where there was a lot of craziness, like every round being done in just a couple of days at insane valuations.”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 38:10 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Assertion Supported
Half of 2023 Seed-Stage SaaS Startups Raised Pre-Revenue
“At the seed stage, as you can see here, approximately half of them were pre-revenue, while the other half had some ARR, anything between just a couple of 100,000 dollars Up to about a million or even 1.5 million.”
Christoph Janz Sep 27, 2023 ▶ 5:49 What it Takes to Raise Capital with Christoph Janz of Point Nine
Opinion
Incumbent SaaS Giants Are Adopting AI Rapidly, Avoiding Dinosaur Fate
“The learning is that the bigger SaaS companies are pretty fast to embrace AI, so it's not like they are the dinosaurs from the on-premise world that didn't manage to move to the cloud. If you look at what Intercom, HubSpot, Notion, Zendesk, and others are doin…”
Christoph Janz Sep 27, 2023 ▶ 21:43 What it Takes to Raise Capital with Christoph Janz of Point Nine
Insight
Strict 'default alive' goals can cause startups to underinvest and stagnate
“If you're planning to be default alive, which is a great goal, it might, depending on your situation, lead you to under-invest in, in product and R&D, sales and marketing. So the consequence of that might be that you that you sort of, you don't fail quickly, b…”
Christoph Janz Oct 13, 2022 ▶ 10:59 Growth vs. Efficiency: How to Weatherproof Your SaaS Startup for Tougher Times | Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Net new ARR reveals growth issues earlier than total ARR
“If you look at the net new AR, however, the difference becomes much more visible. It's a really, really simple math, but nevertheless, I think some people or maybe many people or two people, too many people don't really focus on looking at the net new ARR only…”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 10:56 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Good burn multiple for $1M-$25M ARR SaaS is 1.5 to 2
“As a general rule of thumb, for SaaS companies, around a million to twenty-five million in an ARR, which I'm assuming is probably the like, the range most people in the audience here are in one to five 1.5 to two is, is good. One to 1.5 or even lower is, is gr…”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 18:10 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: The Rule of 40 only works for SaaS over $10M ARR
“The problem is that this only really works if you're at I know, 10, fifteen million or so in, in ARR. At a much earlier stage, you will almost always have a not so good rule of 40 because the investments in product and engineering are just like so high that t…”
Christoph Janz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 50:39 Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz
Insight
Janz: Venture round definitions have shifted upward by an entire stage
“Like what used to be called a seed is now a pre-seed, what used to be called a series A is now a seed, what used to be called a series B is now a series A, and what used to be called A series C is now a series B. So you can almost shift the columns one step if…”
Christoph Janz Feb 4, 2021 ▶ 26:58 How To Raise Your Next Round: What Does it Take to Really Raise Capital | Point Nine Capital
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Janz: Series A investors now expect over $1M ARR from large-seed startups
“If you've raised a million dollar in pre-seed, And five million dollar in, in seed as an example, then Series A investors will usually look for more than the million dollars in ARR, which previously we considered to be a rule of thumb. So as we saw when we loo…”
Christoph Janz Feb 4, 2021 ▶ 27:58 How To Raise Your Next Round: What Does it Take to Really Raise Capital | Point Nine Capital
Insight
Janz: The top 20% of SaaS startups defy standard funding benchmarks
“The best or the hottest, if you will, 10 to 20% of the companies, they kind of defy all rules. So we've seen companies Raising at really very, very remarkable terms in the last in the last years, but even, even more so, or especially in the last 12 months. if…”
Christoph Janz Feb 4, 2021 ▶ 28:43 How To Raise Your Next Round: What Does it Take to Really Raise Capital | Point Nine Capital
Insight
Janz: Preemptive VC Discussions Benefit Investors, Not Founders
“Investors will often try to pull you into preemptive fundraising discussions. I think that's mostly good for them, not necessarily good for the founders, and I think in almost all cases you are better off if you decide when you go out fundraising, and then you…”
Christoph Janz Feb 4, 2021 ▶ 31:07 How To Raise Your Next Round: What Does it Take to Really Raise Capital | Point Nine Capital
Insight
SaaS early-stage financial projections should cover roughly two years
“I think projections should usually be for around two years. I think one year is usually not enough because you raise a certain amount that should give you runway for 18 months or two years, and so it's good to have a budget for that period.”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 5:12 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Insight
SaaS startups need 2x to 3x YoY growth for Series A interest
“As a rough rule of thumb, a company that has a million or a couple of million in ERR, I think needs to grow at two or three X to really get a lot of investor interest. If you are at five to ten million ERR, I think it's usually still two X year over year growt…”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 12:20 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Insight
Investors demand a clear path to at least 100% net dollar retention
“A hundred percent NDR is something that investors really care for. Doesn't mean that you necessarily have to be there at the Series A, but I think there needs to be some path of getting there because people are really afraid of investing in businesses that kee…”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 12:46 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Assertion Partly supported
SaaS valuation multiples have compressed by roughly 80% since 2020
“A lot of companies out there have raised a series A or maybe a series B in 2020 or 20 21, and they might not have grown into that valuation yet because the multiples in the markets have just compressed by 80% or something.”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 13:48 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Insight
Cohort analysis is the only way to track SaaS retention and payback
“A cohort analysis is really the only way to get a sense for churn and retention, customer acquisition costs, payback, customer lifetime value in a subscription business.”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 14:27 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9
Insight
Founders may highlight top customer segments in fundraising if transparent
“So a little bit of cherry picking in a fundraising process is allowed. You just have to be transparent about it. You have to explain it. And you have to, you shouldn't overdo it.”
Christoph Janz Sep 25, 2024 ▶ 17:54 5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Point 9

Show 24statements(54 left)

The other half of the tape: Christoph Janz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 29 times in 11 episodes on the Official SaaStr Podcast. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Jason Lemkin 13Mikkel Svane 11Robert Lacher 2Devdutt Yellurkar 2Guillaume Cabane 1

Statements about Christoph Janz, by other people (1)

Assertion Partly supported
Lemkin: Top VCs read every cold email and decide within a week
“Every single one of them said they read every single cold email they get, and every single one of them invests in one week.”
Jason Lemkin Nov 17, 2021 ▶ 45:55 The Highs and Lows of Fundraising from Founders That Have Raised $1B w/ Calendly, Coda, LaunchDarkly

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
008315620172018201920202021202220232024episodesmentions
03620172018201920202021202220232024episodes it came up in
007.5315620172018201920202021202220232024episodesmentions per episode
2024 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2017 13 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Growth vs. Efficiency: How to Weatherproof Your SaaS Startup for Tougher Times | Christoph Oct 13, 2022 32m
Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph J Jun 29, 2022 47m

Played on the show (3)

Episodes where a recording of Christoph Janz was played rather than Christoph taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
5 Metrics that Matter When Raising Your SaaS Series A and Series B with Christoph Janz of Sep 25, 2024 26m aired address
What it Takes to Raise Capital with Christoph Janz of Point Nine Sep 27, 2023 21m aired address
How To Raise Your Next Round: What Does it Take to Really Raise Capital | Point Nine Capit Feb 4, 2021 30m aired address
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