#AskAVC with Ryan Floyd

In this episode of 'Ask a VC', Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Go-to-Market Consultant Mark Stephenson discuss the pivotal role of customer success in B2B SaaS companies. They delve into the critical importance of transitioning customer success strategies from a defensive to an offensive mindset, emphasizing the importance of net dollar retention (NDR), and the need for a m...

Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Go-to-Market Consultant Mark Stephenson discuss how early-stage companies can hire the right VP of Sales using a few essential strategies. #b2bsaas #venturecapital #hiring #salesexecutive #gotomarket Here's what's covered: 0:00 Intros: Ryan & Mark 1:13 Hiring the Right VP of Sales 2:58 Preparing with a Strategic Plan 4:55 Importance of Defining t...

Will every SaaS company become an AI company? Will AI unlock guaranteed ROI? Is the promise of AI real and what’s the hype anyway? Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ajay Awatramani answer these questions and more in the latest episode of Ask A VC! #b2bsaas #AI #venturecapital Make sure to also: - Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd for more content on building...

Remote work is here to stay. But it’s not what you think. Storm Ventures’ managing director Ryan Floyd reflects upon the new way people work and what that means for founders and investors going forward. Make sure to also: - Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd for more content on building SaaS B2B startups, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in general - Subscribe to Ryan’s blog at https://ryanflo...

The venture capital world is notoriously elusive - even for the founders seeking investments. But the process isn't intended to be secretive. Venture Capital investor Ryan Floyd and fellow partner at Storm Ventures, Pascale Diaine take you behind the scenes, revealing their firm's process step-by-step.  Find out what happens after your initial pitch, what to note when talking to different VC...

The only certainty in business is uncertainty! No founder or investor could have predicted events like the Covid-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine - both of which had profound effects on the economy, and therefore SaaS and the venture capital investment trends. But there are ways that startups can prepare for unforeseen ups and downs. Venture Capital investor Ryan Floyd shares his advice on how Sa...

Net dollar retention and customer experience are highly critical for the success of your SaaS business. I had a chance to connect recently with Gaby Moran, director of customer experience at Workato . Before her current role, Gaby spent quite a few years at Medallia , customer experience management software with a world-class NPS of 60+. Our conversation turned out to be a fantastic "customer expe...

In this episode, I talk about the latest cybersecurity threats you should be aware of as a founder of a small business (what your startup essentially is). Alastair Paterson, Co-founder and CEO of a cybersecurity company Digital Shadows, joined me to answer your questions about the dark web and more.  How has the global pandemic affected the cybersecurity landscape? How security threats can im...

Net dollar retention (NDR) is critical to your SaaS startup's success. I talked quite a bit about churn in the early days of this channel. Mastering NDR is the next logical step you should consider as you continue to grow your startup. In this episode, I am sharing 4 tips that will help you take control of your net dollar retention metric - and take it to the next level:   What is the differe...

In the latest #AskAVC episode, we talk about understanding and the importance of diversity, inclusion, and equity in startups. I am joined by Aubrey Blanche, Director of Equitable Design at Culture Amp, The Mathpath (Math Nerd + Empath), and a startup investor and advisor. Aubrey is a recognized thought leader when it comes to building more equitable businesses - and our conversation is full of ac...

In this episode, I share with you 8 ways to finance your startup - and that doesn't include venture capital! It might seem odd coming from a VC investor. However, my goal for you as a startup founder is to be aware of all the options that are available to finance your business - along with their respective pros and cons. When you do partner with a VC like myself, you need to be sure that it is, in...

As you grow your enterprise SaaS startup, opportunities to engage various sales channel partners will most certainly come your way. The prospect of partnering with a leading telco or some other big corporation might seem very appealing. However, there is a lot you need to know before entering any agreements - and to make sure it works out well in the end.    What are sales channel partne...

Startup equity and convertible notes are about to be fully explained! Early-stage entrepreneurs have to learn a lot of new vocabulary, technical & legal details, to ensure their initial rounds of outside financing go well. In this video I am being interviewed by Fellows at ASIF Ventures, European micro-VC, focused on student-led startups, and we do a deep dive into:   Comparing direct sta...

"How much to pay startup advisors" is the question I often get asked by even experienced entrepreneurs. In one of my previous episodes, I gave an intro to the topic of startup advisors - what do they do, how to find them, etc. In this one, I dive deeper into the specifics:   What's the difference between consultants and advisors for your startup?  How should you think about cash pay vers...

This episode is something I have not tried on my channel before. This is a deep dive into a specific concept - in this case, enterprise automation - from a technical point of view. We dive deep into the idea of workflows automation, talking about its definition and benefits, as well as giving specific examples. In the 24th episode of the #AskAVC channel, you can expect to find answers to the follo...

As your startup company will become more successful, naturally there will be more and more people eager to share their advice with you. It's a smart strategy to surround yourself with people who know more than you in various business areas - be it sales or security. There are a few things any founder needs to keep in mind, however, to make sure that taking advice will help their company as opposed...

In this video, I talk about the biggest enemy of all SaaS businesses - customer churn. It is safe to say that nearly every single startup faces this problem at some point or another. As scary and uncomfortable it might be, having customer churn is not the end of the world - but you do need a war plan. Have you asked yourself:    How is your product contributing to the problem? What the e...

There is so much content out there about the legal language of term sheets, valuations, etc. However, it would be a mistake to see your interactions with potential investors as purely transactional. The key is to build a relationship with a person on the other side of the table. And a lot of goes into it:    - Should you be spending time with junior team members at VC firms?   - How...

When you are ready to raise some outside capital to scale your business, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered to make the process successful. For example, there are many different types of investors you can turn to. One of the most frequently asked questions I get is - what is the difference between angel investing and venture capital? In this episode I address topics like: What d...

The prospect of asking for multi-million dollar investment in a cold email to someone you never met is undoubtedly daunting. Do cold emails even work? Believe it or not, but that's how we met one of the most valuable investments in Storm Ventures' portfolio! Even if you do manage to get a warm introduction to a potential investor, principles and techniques outlined in this video will still be very...

Digital transformation might easily be one of the most hyped terms in the IT industry in the past couple of years. Separating myth from reality could be easier said than done. After all, it's something that many companies have invested millions of dollars in - and the results are not always there. Is digital transformation was truly dead on arrival? Find out in the second part of my interview with...

In the latest episode of the #AskAVC podcast, I "sat down" with Tim Crawford, one of the Top 100 Most Influential Chief Information Technology Officers (#4), and the host of the CIO In The Know (CIOitk) podcast. For SaaS founders, dealing with repercussions of the ongoing global pandemic while selling into the enterprise, this interview offers invaluable insights into the minds of modern CIOs. How...

Being a first-time founder & CEO presents a unique set of challenges. Thinking you might be able to avoid mistakes altogether is, of course, unrealistic - even geniuses have flaws! It doesn't mean, however, that tried-and-true advice is not available to you - and some of it might just make or break your business. In the latest episode of the #AskAVC podcast, I talk to Anshu Sharma, a founder o...

The past few weeks have been crazy for everyone in the world, not just me - hence, the pause I took with putting out the new episodes. Now I am back with the latest from my makeshift studio in the dining room. In this episode, I reflect on how the ongoing pandemic changed things for the entire venture capital ecosystem - both from an investor, as well as an entrepreneur's standpoint. How the next...

Remote teams are all the rage these days, especially in the tech industry. You get to hire the best people everywhere, and maybe even realize cost savings through salary arbitrage. However, as this trend is still relatively new, there is a lot you need to know if you'd like to leverage it for your business. In this episode of #AskAVC podcast, I talk to Anshu Sharma, a founder of Skyflow, who also...