BackStartups

Craft & teaching · Global & US

SaaStr

with Jason Lemkin

Everything about building and selling business software, from someone who has done it and now invests in it — the most specific operational content for B2B software on this list.

Format Regular, 20 to 45 minutesListen saastr.com ↗

Why an angel should listen

If a meaningful share of your portfolio is business software — as it is for most angels — this is the show that makes you literate in how those companies actually operate. Sales compensation, pipeline, churn, moving upmarket, hiring the first sales leader: the unglamorous machinery that decides whether a promising seed company becomes a Series A company.

The value in diligence is calibration. When a founder tells you their sales cycle, their win rate or their churn, this show gives you a sense of whether those numbers are plausible for a company at that stage selling to that kind of customer. That calibration is difficult to get any other way.

It is narrow by design. If you do not invest in B2B software, most of it will not apply — and if you do, very little else on this list is as directly useful.

Where to begin

Start with these

  • Anything on the transition from founder-led sales to a sales team, the most common failure point at Series A.
  • Episodes on churn and retention benchmarks, for diligence calibration.
  • Content on pricing and moving upmarket.

In short

Good for

B2B software diligenceBenchmarksSales mechanics
Listen at saastr.com

SaaStr: common questions

Is this only useful if I invest in B2B software?
Largely, yes — it is narrow by design. If you do invest there, very little else on this list is as directly applicable to diligence.
What is the single most useful thing to take from it?
Benchmark calibration. When a founder quotes a sales cycle, a win rate or a churn figure, this show gives you a sense of whether that number is plausible for a company at that stage selling to that kind of customer.