May 16, 2023 · 21m · top-founders
How I'm transforming a $1b+ publicly traded company into SaaS and why
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this live SaaSOpen session, Nathan Latka interviews entrepreneur and investor Savneet Singh, detailing Singh's creation of CoVenture's two-billion-dollar niche credit fund and his playbook for transforming PAR Technology from a distressed hardware manufacturer into a premier enterprise SaaS business.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 27.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.8 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 1.8
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:12 Pushing back against angry shareholders
Savneet recounts forcefully rejecting angry shareholders' complaints about dilution when issuing equity at 25x revenue.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:30 Challenging stock price dropNathan presses Savneet on PAR's stock falling from $86 to $38 and asks how he keeps the team focused when the market signals decline.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:15 Counterintuitive low NPS outperformance thesisSavneet explains why mission-critical companies with negative NPS outperform high-NPS companies over long compounding periods.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:05 Synthesizing fast SaaS growth metricsNathan contextualizes PAR's growth numbers, demonstrating his SaaS market knowledge by showing how $5M to $100M+ ARR would make it top-tier among private SaaS peers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Savneet Singh and CoVenture's Niche Credit Evolution | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Nathan introduces Savneet and frames CoVenture's evolution into debt and royalties financing. Savneet gives detailed historical context about the credit strategy, while Nathan interjects with specific details about Spotter and AUM numbers. | |
| Stepping into PAR Technology Amid Complete Crisis | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Savneet narrates stepping into PAR Technology when it was in deep crisis, with negative NPS, SEC investigations, and weeks of cash. Savneet educates the audience and Nathan on the counterintuitive value of low NPS in mission-critical enterprise systems. | |
| Leveraging Public Capital Markets for SaaS Expansion | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Nathan drills into the mechanics of managing a public SaaS stock after a drop from $86 to $38. Savneet explains how they capitalized on peak valuations by issuing stock for M&A and refinancing converts. | |
| Modern Underwriting and Angel Investing in FounderPath | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Nathan asks why Savneet invested in FounderPath and moderates audience questions from Brad and Rajesh regarding interest rates and taking the company private versus staying public. |
Statements from this episode (13)
Singh: CoVenture is world's largest financier of YouTube royalties
“Today we're the largest financier of YouTube royalties in the world”
Singh: FinTech mostly puts acquisition engines on legacy financial products
“The problem with FinTech is that it's just taking all the stuff we do now and putting a consumer acquisition engine on it.”
Singh: CoVenture has $2B committed capital plus hundreds of millions in VC
“It's all committed capital. You know, most of it deployed now, and then we've got a few hundred million of venture capital as well.”
Singh: PAR Technology had $180M revenue but only $5M in software revenue
“Oh, so the business, I think, was a 180 hundred million of revenue, but only five million of software revenue, so it was really a hardware and services business that was growing, trying to become a software business”
Singh: Buying lowest-NPS stocks outperforms high-NPS companies over time
“I've always told investors just, you know, you'd be better off buying a basket of stocks that have the lowest NPS of all, and they'll outperform the companies that have the best NPS. And you'll be like, well, it doesn't make sense, but think about the companie…”
Singh: PAR Technology reached $350M–$400M total revenue and ~$115M SaaS revenue
“So our total revenues are, you know, I think, three 5400, something like that, and our SaaS revenues, you know, are hundred and fifteen-ish.”
Singh: No company deserves to trade at 30x revenue long-term
“There's no company that deserves to be trading at 30 times revenue for a long period of time.”
Singh: Public CEOs spend at least 25% of time on compliance overhead
“You know, at least, 25% of your time at least is on stuff that you wouldn't have to do if you were private. At least 25%, sometimes more.”
Singh: Sensor data underwrites restaurants better than bank tax returns
“I always said, I could underwrite a restaurant better than a bank. I don't need your tax returns. Just put a sensor in your restaurant, and I'll track the traffic and be able to lend you better than any bank could, and a bank can't do that, and in a similar se…”
Singh: PAR Turnaround Would Not Have Been Easier Taking Company Private
“So I thought about that a lot, and I actually think the answer would be no, and I'll tell you why. The operational changes were extreme. We replaced almost the entire management team, you know, we shipped a bunch of jobs offshore, did a lot of crazy stuff, but…”
Singh: PAR Raised $80M Convertible Debt on ~$200M Market Cap
“To give you an example, you know, the market cap of the company when we took over was a couple hundred million dollars. Our first financing was eighty million dollars. That's very hard to do privately in a convert,”
Singh: PAR Had -60 NPS and 40% SaaS Gross Margins at Takeover
“The product we took over, you know, I mentioned that the customer NPS was -60, because there's a lot, there was a stability issue. We were a software company that had 40 versions, so it's like we were cloud, but we weren't really cloud. We, you know, our gross…”
Singh: Company Values Must Repel Mismatches Rather Than Fit Everyone
“When you have 10 values, I challenge you to find, you know, find a Silicon Valley company whose values you're like, I wouldn't fit. Like, you're gonna fit, because you're like, eight or 10 of those are like, sound like me. And we wanted to be, like, incredibly…”