David Skok

Partner Emeritus, Matrix Partners · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderauthoroperator@BostonVC ↗LinkedIn ↗forentrepreneurs.com ↗

Before joining Matrix Partners in 2001, Skok founded four software startups and led one corporate turnaround. As a venture capitalist, he led early investments in breakout companies like HubSpot and JBoss, and authored canonical SaaS business guides on his blog ForEntrepreneurs.com.

10statements → 2claims → 1claims resolved → 3.8/5average certainty → 2.2/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 17said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 assertions · 1 opinion · 6 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 1 names 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 David argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of David Skok on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said10 What others said17 Episodes1

Everything David Skok said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Skok: Annual logo churn above 20% signals missing product-market fit

“Any logo churn number that's greater than 20% per annum is worrying, and it's evidence that you don't have good product market fit in one of your customer segments.”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 13:40 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Insight

Skok: Great software often has low engagement but high business value

“So don't focus in on engagement and usage because in all honesty, some of the very best products I've seen actually have very low engagement because you simply do a sign up for them and they simply just start working. And if they have great business benefits a…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 6:35 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Opinion

Skok: Namely leads mid-market HR tech while ADP is an easy target

“And to my mind, namely is the leader in that particular segment that we think is an important segment. And then if you look at the space that they're running, which is the 50 to, actually it's 20 to 2000 employees is the size range that they work in. There's r…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 22:50 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Insight

Skok: High retention requires doing work for less capable customers

“Some of them are not going to be actually great at competencies of using the product itself. And if that's the case and you really want to care about getting high retention rates, recognize that you're probably going to have to do some of that for them and wit…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 7:58 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Insight

Skok: Per-seat pricing works for sales software but fails for marketing tools

“And in the marketing area, that's not a great proxy, particularly in small companies, because There aren't really lots of people needed in marketing to make the product work well, and there typically isn't a large organization, not like sales, for example, whe…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 9:38 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Insight

Skok: SaaS startups at $5M ARR should use no more than 2-3 pricing axes

“So I think when you're at five million in ARR, you probably want to have two pricing axes, possibly three, but not, not more than that. And you want your pricing to be simple because the customer, it should be easy for them to buy and easy for them to understa…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 12:48 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Insight

Skok: Early startups should use professional services to discover product fit

“And in particular, in the really early days of a startup, I actually really like having services that are deeply engaged with one or two customers because That's how you really learn whether the product's actually going to work or not work and what are the iss…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 19:08 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Skok: SoftBank's kingmaker strategy has not disrupted B2B SaaS

“Fortunately, in the B to B space, which is where I focus, we don't see that half as much, and it's much more important than to have a rational strategy for customer acquisition. So we haven't yet seen SoftBank enter into the B to B space and do a kingmaker str…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 25:13 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Assertion Partly supported

Skok: HubSpot originally launched with flat $500/month pricing and no expansion axis

“So in, in HubSpot's case, we started with us with an idea that simplicity was going to be great. And so we had one price point, which was 500 bucks a month, 6000 dollars a year for every single customer, regardless of what was going on. And there was no expans…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 9:12 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Disclosure

Skok avoids reading startup commentary to keep his writing original

“I'm because of not wanting to pollute my brain with other people's ideas. I'm actually fairly careful to stay away from reading too much of what other people are saying about startups. And that's, it may sound like a really odd thing, but I always want to be w…”

David Skok Sep 4, 2018 ▶ 26:46 1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

The other half of the tape: David Skok's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 15 times in 11 episodes on Top Founders. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Mike Lapchick 3 Nicolas Vandenberghe 2 Nathan Latka 2 Ian Blair 2 Stefan Fountain 1 Sam Jacobs 1 Liam Martin 1 Lars van Wieren 1

Statements about David Skok, by other people (2)

Insight

Single-feature software products risk being swallowed by platform gravity wells

“The gravity well is that you build a software and then there's somebody next to you that can include your features in their offering. And so boom the, you know, the features fall into that product, the gravity well, and you don't want to be in that position wh…”

Nicolas Vandenberghe May 4, 2022 ▶ 31:48 $20m Payday and he still controls ChiliPiper with his Wife Alina

Opinion

Lapchick: SaaS investor David Skok is brilliant despite backing Shotfarm's rival

“No, I'm not a CEO, but I do follow David Skok quite, Closely. So North bridge. So these guys are ironically investors in, in my biggest competitor, but the guy's freaking brilliant.”

Mike Lapchick Jun 1, 2018 ▶ 25:11 1042 "We're selling the company right now" for $10m+