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Gustav von Sydow

Partner, EQT Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveinvestor@vonsydow ↗eqtgroup.com ↗

Gustav von Sydow is the co-founder and former CEO of Burt Intelligence, a data analytics software company for publishers and brands. He later joined venture capital firm EQT Ventures, where he serves as a Partner focusing on early-stage AI strategy.

15statements → 9claims → 0claims resolved → 3.6/5average certainty → 1.27/5average debate potential →

1 not yet assessed 8 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

9 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, 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 Gustav 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 Gustav von Sydow on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Opinion
Von Sydow: European ad-tech startups struggled against US partner ecosystems
“It was very tough as a European company to make a dent. It was very Americanized in terms of the type of partners that you needed and the type of funding that you needed.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 10:59 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Insight
Von Sydow: The only reason to raise SaaS capital is competitive risk
“I sort of feel like the only reason to raise money in, in SaaS if you have significant competitive risk, and right now I sort of feel like we're winning the deals that we want, and customers seem to be sticking around.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 15:22 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: above.ai generates about $3M in annual revenue
“So we carved it out last year. So we ran it as a product line. So it's doing about three million dollars right now.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 3:09 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Disclosure
Von Sydow: above.ai has not launched a public website yet
“So that's actually a URL called above, above.ai, which is not launched yet. So it's going to be launched in the next week or two.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 2:56 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: above.ai grows at 140% to 150% year-over-year
“It's growing about a 140, a 150% year over year.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 3:14 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: Three of the top 10 global media groups use above.ai
“So we have about three of the top 10 media groups in the world that use the platform in some capacity right now.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 4:26 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: above.ai signs $200K to $400K annual enterprise contracts
“Typically our contracts are sort of structured on the enterprise level. So it'll be like two, three, 400,000 dollars a year contracts.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 4:41 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: above.ai maintains roughly 140% net revenue retention
“So we're about a 140% net revenue retention.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 5:53 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Disclosure
Von Sydow: Burt downsized from 35 to 15 employees during a downturn
“So we had to go from 35 people to 15 people there for a while.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 8:44 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Disclosure
Von Sydow: Burt failed to raise Series A, took $3M bridge round
“So we raised a three million dollar seed, and then we completely failed at raising a sort of a decent sized series A, and we ended up doing like a three million bridge, and that was about it.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 9:13 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Von Sydow: Burt portfolio generated over $5M in combined revenue last year
“So we did about five and some and change last year.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 12:44 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Disclosure
Von Sydow: above.ai CAC is $100K for enterprise, $25K for mid-market
“No, it's about a 100,000 or so and about 20, 25 perhaps or a slightly less for the mid market.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 13:58 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: above.ai integrates with 50 to 60 systems per enterprise customer
“So I'd say typically we integrate with about. 50 or 60 systems on a reasonable size customer.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 4:01 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: above.ai operates with 20 people in engineering and product
“So we have a, 20 or so person team, and it's mostly engineering and product.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 7:30 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Von Sydow: 70% to 80% of above.ai revenue comes from the US
“And now we're building out sort of a geographical footprint with our office here in New York, because I think 70 or 80% of the revenues for this product line is in the US.”
Gustav von Sydow Dec 23, 2018 ▶ 7:40 1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How?

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1247 This SaaS Product Has No Website but Does $3m in ARR, How? Dec 23, 2018 9m
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