SaaStr 064: Why Now Is A Really Good Time For SaaS Startups To Raise, How SaaS Startups Can Innovate Their Business Models & The Biggest Takeaways From Working With John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins with Matt Murphy, Managing Director @ Menlo Ventures

Matt Murphy is a Managing Director @ Menlo Ventures where he focuses on multi-stage investments across cloud infrastructure and AI-first SaaS applications. Since joining Menlo, Matt has led investments in Heap Analytics, Usermind, and Veriflow. Previously, Matt was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins for over 15 years.  Matt was also an observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in ’08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining applications on the iOS platform), and led KPCB’s investments in AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP, 2010) and Aerohive Networks (Nasdaq: HIVE, 2014). Before joining KPCB, Matt worked at semiconductor startup Netboost (acquired by Intel) and prior to that at Sun Microsystems.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How Matt made his way into the world of VC and enterprise investing? What were his biggest takeaways from working alongside John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?
• How is the enterprise investing landscape changing? What fundamental shifts have we seen and what have been the dominant repercussions of this?
• Nakul Mandan stated that ‘we would see the 2nd wave of consumerisation of enterprise through business model’. Does Matt agree with this and what key trends is Matt most excited about in SaaS?
• How does Matt look to evaluate early stage SaaS valuations? What are people fundamentally misvaluing and how should the topic be approached?
• Is it harder now for SaaS companies to raise than ever before? What metrics does Matt look for in a Series A investment opportunity?  

60 Second SaaStr

1. Matt's Fave SaaS reading material?
2. What are the greenfield opportunities in SaaS today?
3. What was Matt's biggest takeaway from working with John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?

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Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

Matt Murphy