This episode carries Dave Kellogg's own address, with nobody on the show putting
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Dave Kellogg, SaaS advisor and former CEO, explains how investors view Net Dollar Retention metrics during fundraising.
“So it's not a valuation driver. I now think of it as a financing enabler, right? Okay. So a higher one isn't necessarily by itself going to drive a higher valuation, but I could tell you if you don't have a high enough one, you're not going to be able to raise money.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
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More from Dave Kellogg
Opinion
Kellogg: The SaaS IPO Bar Has Risen to $500M ARR
“The IPO bar is just spectacularly high right now. I think it's around five hundred million in ARR by my math.”
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Insight
Kellogg: PE Firms Want SaaS Companies Fixed Before Acquiring Them
“The biggest thing I've learned about working with PE is I thought they were fixer upper people... And I don't actually think many of them like to do that. They want it fixed first.”
Dave KelloggNov 4, 2024▶ 5:08What Really Matters in SaaS in 2025 with Jason Lemkin and Dave Kellogg
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Kellogg: Private Equity Can Turn Most Stagnant SaaS Companies to 20%+ EBITDA
“A lot of times founders think it's not possible and give that company to a PE person. And I guarantee you they're going to have 20% EBITDA, maybe 30% EBITDA in a couple of years. It can be done.”
Dave KelloggNov 4, 2024▶ 37:44What Really Matters in SaaS in 2025 with Jason Lemkin and Dave Kellogg
Insight
Kellogg: Executive infighting is a direct reflection of a weak CEO
“Another friend of mine has this expression from Machiavelli that warring princes means one thing, a weak king. And if you're CEO of the company, you cannot allow warring princes in your company. Everybody sees it. The whole company knows if two E staffers are …”
Dave KelloggSep 3, 2023▶ 9:38"The Top 5 Questions Every CEO Wrestles With Dave Kellogg, ex-CEO Host Analytics": SaaStr Classic
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Benioff dismissed early Zendesk threats to Salesforce to avoid fear-based leadership
“I did a year at Salesforce in the middle of all that, and I was mentioning Zendesk. I was like, hey, there's these guys called Zendesk, and they might be a problem for, like, our customer service business and I got the kind of uh-oh moment where, like, oh, and…”
Dave KelloggSep 3, 2023▶ 16:28"The Top 5 Questions Every CEO Wrestles With Dave Kellogg, ex-CEO Host Analytics": SaaStr Classic
Insight
Kellogg: Companies must be vision-driven publicly, customer-driven culturally, competitor-driven strategically
“Avoid this fake either or framing, which is you need to speak like you're vision driven. So when you're talking to customers and analysts, the markets, talk about the desired end state. Talk about the vision. Don't talk about competition. When you're building …”
Dave KelloggSep 3, 2023▶ 17:53"The Top 5 Questions Every CEO Wrestles With Dave Kellogg, ex-CEO Host Analytics": SaaStr Classic
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