Stage 2 Capital

🎧 Add this one to your weekend listening list. Jeetu Mahtani, Stage 2 Capital Limited Partner and GTM Advisor on this week's 20VC podcast.

Take a page from QuotaPath's playbook at #Inbound: Start early, stay dynamic, and involve your whole team. We love to see an event strategy that ties activity to real pipeline. Their approach is a masterclass in effective event planning. Jot some of these tips down as inspiration for your next event. 👏

Our September update is here! Catch up on the latest content and news from Stage 2 Capital: 📈 New Catalyst Cohort Announced! 13 new companies 💬 Inside Catalyst: How to know when you're ready to scale? 🎙 Mark Roberge's podcast: Solving for a Siloed Marketing and Sales 📰 Portfolio News: Slang Open Table announce integration, Intelligems launches new personalization tools more. 💼 60 job opportunities with our portfolio companies

How do you measure and optimize Go-to-Market Fit? This week on #InsideCatalyst, we’re focusing on the core of scaling efficiently: unit economics. In Module #2, Jay Po, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Stage 2 Capital, and Anubhav Maheshwari, Partner at Stage 2 Capital, walked us through a framework to measure and optimize Go-to-Market Fit. 📊 While Product-Market Fit ensures you have a product that customers want and will keep using, Go-to-Market Fit Fit is about finding efficient and sustainable ways to reach and serve those customers. They broke it down into 4️⃣ essential metrics for efficient growth: 💰 CAC Payback: How quickly can you recoup the cost of acquiring a customer? 💸 Growth Efficiency: This metric looks at the overall efficiency of your cash usage, showing how well your business converts cash burn into net new ARR. 🏅 Rep Efficiency: Understanding how effectively each sales rep is converting their efforts into revenue is key to optimizing your sales team's performance. 📊 CCAC (Cohort Customer Acquisition Cost) and Cohorts: By analyzing customer cohorts, you can track how acquisition costs change over time and gain insight into long-term customer value and retention trends. Read the full article for a closer look: https://lnkd.in/gZRZkXy9 #GoToMarket #StartupGrowth #UnitEconomics #ProductMarketFit #SaaS #Stage2Capital Sean Po

🎙 Check out Daniel Heck, Stage 2 Capital Partner, on this week's Seed to Exit Podcast. 👇

"We just raised our A round. Should we push for annual contracts?" 🤔💼 This week on Dear Stage 2, we tackle a crucial question for growing startups: We're getting pressure from our board to focus on annual contracts, but most of our customers are on monthly plans. What are the pros and cons? Liz (Cain) Christo, Partner at Stage 2 Capital, consulted Mike Kavanagh, VP of Commercial Sales at OneTrust, to help address this common dilemma. Here are the key takeaways: - Distinguish between contract terms and payment terms - Be prepared to offer flexibility payment terms at first - Have a strategy for existing monthly customers - Align your sales team's incentives with your priorities Mike explains, "Annual contracts can be great for predictable revenue and customer stickiness. But they come with higher expectations and potential pitfalls. Start making the shift now, be flexible with payment terms, make sure your product delivers long-term value, and align your sales incentives. And remember, you don't need to flip a switch overnight. Start with new customers, then work on converting your existing base." 👉 Read our latest Dear Stage 2: https://lnkd.in/gb2y86Tb #dearstage2 #startups #gtm

🎙️ New Series Alert: Inside Stage 2 Capital Catalyst We're kicking off our #InsideCatalyst series, bringing you weekly insights from Catalyst. Learn the Science of Scaling alongside our founders, even if you're not in the program. (Read the full recap of Week 1 - link in comments) This week's Module #1 tackled a key question: "When is the right time to scale your startup?" ✅ The answer: when you achieve both Product-Market Fit (PMF) and Go-to-Market Fit (GTM Fit) - in that order. Product-Market Fit is the holy grail of early-stage startups. It's the point at which your product satisfies a strong market demand. But how do you quantify something that can feel so intangible? Enter the concept of Leading Indicators of Retention (LIR). The LIR is defined by a simple yet powerful formula: 👉 [P% of customers do E event every T time] Let’s break it down: P is the percentage of customers (This is usually somewhere around 70% give or take) E is a specific event or action (This is the most important - it has to be objective. It can't be "customer success person thinks they're good" - nope, that's an opinion) T is a time frame (usually this is monthly) These metrics go beyond vanity numbers like signups or downloads. They reflect actual product usage and customer value. Identifying your LIR is crucial because it provides an early signal of customer retention, long before you see it reflected in your annual renewal rates. Once you've defined your Leading Indicator of Retention (LIR), the next important step is measuring it. Read more in this week’s post to learn how to define your LIR and how to measure when you’ve achieved it. #stage2catalyst #startups #gtm Sean Po, Erin Olsen, Mark Roberge, Kyle Stout Alex Sukennik Steve Cornwell Ian Matthews Richard Tibbetts Jay Po Anubhav Maheshwari, Mandy Cole, Liz (Cain) Christo

📬 Dear Stage 2: We have a growing team of SDRs and are looking for creative ways to both keep them engaged and showcase the work they are doing to the rest of the company. This week on Dear Stage 2, we're talking about SDR engagement. Liz (Cain) Christo, Partner at Stage 2 Capital, shares insights from Valerie Teverovska, Head of Sales Development at Basis Theory, who's created a unique "Pipeline Club" program. Here are some key takeaways: 🎖️ Shift focus from "just setting meetings" to driving business outcomes  🚀 Create tiered Pipeline Clubs based on deal sizes (e.g., $250K, $500K, $1M)  🏆 Offer unique perks for each club level, from Slack stickers to personalized gifts  💼 Align incentives with company goals and SDR career growth As Liz puts it, "OUTBOUND STILL WORKS" - but it takes creativity to keep SDRs engaged - we all know how tough it can be in today’s market. We hope you get inspired from this week’s Dear Stage 2: https://lnkd.in/gN58XaEC #SalesDevelopment #SDRMotivation #StartupGrowth

Small Retailers Big Data. Get to know TrackFly, a member of the 2024 Catalyst Cohort! The idea for TrackFly came to Stephen Baird, Founder & CEO of Trackfly, while he was browsing at a local fly fishing shop and recognized a crucial gap: independent mom-and-pop retailers are making decisions similar to those of major players like Walmart, but without the same resources or insights. Surprisingly, independent retailers can represent a staggering 60-65% of revenue for many major brands, yet this channel has been largely overlooked in terms of tech innovation. Enter TrackFly: a game-changer bridging the gap between independent retailers and leading brands (think Patagonia). Here’s how TrackFly creates a win-win for everyone involved: 🔹 Brands gain real-time access to sales and inventory data for their products across independent retail channels. 🔹 Independent retailers can benchmark their performance against industry trends, make informed inventory decisions, and refine their purchasing strategies. Learn more about TrackFly and their exciting journey with the Catalyst program. https://lnkd.in/ggeuW-yK Bradlee Duncan Sean Po #stage2catalyst #startups #scaling

Meet the Catalyst 2024 Cohort! This year’s cohort stands at the forefront of how AI continues to transform how companies operate. Curious about what the 2024 Catalyst companies are working on? 🤖 AI that reduces errors and hallucinations in large language models 🔍 Supply chain visibility for retailers and brands 🍽️ AI co-pilot revolutionizing restaurant and hospitality operations 💸 Streamlining cash flow for transportation and logistics  🛍️ Curated online shopping experiences using buyer intent data And the list goes on… Read our blog to view the full list of Catalyst companies and their stories. https://lnkd.in/g-_xVmqk Pssst... Keep an eye out for behind-the-scenes insights from our Catalyst Curriculum in our upcoming LinkedIn series, "Inside Catalyst." Huge congrats to our 2024 Catalyst Cohort—we can’t wait to work with you on this journey! 🎉 #Stage2Catalyst #B2B #AI #GTM #Founders #Startups Aldoa, American AI Logistics, Champion, Curated For You, DayZero, Haize Labs, Korl, Nickel, Restoke.ai, TrackFly, Upwell, Wizerr AI, WingWork