Craft Ventures is a founder/operator-led firm (co-founded by David Sacks of PayPal/Yammer and Jeff Fluhr of StubHub) that backs B2B software and marketplaces from seed through growth. In their own words, "We focus on investing in B2B software companies because these are high-growth, high-margin businesses with recurring revenue," and "once these companies achieve category leadership, they are hard to dislodge and tend to compound value over time." Craft is unusually metrics-explicit: its partners publish operator playbooks (The Cadence, The Burn Multiple, The SaaS Metrics That Matter) that founders can reverse-engineer into a pitch, prizing efficiency of growth over growth at any cost.
An acute, expensive, real pain in a category large enough to compound — Craft's 'why we invested' posts consistently open by naming a concrete, quantified problem (e.g., 200+ software vendors to manage; factories buried in paperwork) before any solution.
“A typical mid-size company now has over 200 software vendors, all of whom need to be managed from original purchase to renewal and expansion.” — Why We Invested in Vendr
“Managing software costs, one of the largest categories of spend, is an obvious way to do so, but hasn't been easy until Vendr.” — David Sacks
“Advanced machinery hums away while staff are buried in paperwork and spreadsheets for everything from purchase orders to production scheduling.” — Jeff Fluhr
“Meeting management has emerged as a critical thing to get right — for managers to stay sane and for teams to optimize productivity.” — Lainy Painter
A product that delivers near-immediate value and solves the problem comprehensively rather than attacking one narrow niche — Craft wants revolutionary, not incremental, products.
“ClickUp is solving the challenges of the collaboration category comprehensively, as opposed to attacking just one niche.” — Why We Invested in ClickUp
“Vendr's time to value is nearly immediate and that it solves an acute pain point. In their words, Vendr is a 'no-brainer.'” — David Sacks
“most collaboration products are too opinionated...instead of letting the users decide for themselves” — David Sacks
“Bottom-Up SaaS companies, which have the ability to spread virally like a consumer product, are some of the most attractive opportunities because of their growth potential.” — Jeff Fluhr
A large, often multi-billion-to-trillion-dollar market where the company can reach category leadership — Craft cites concrete TAM figures and looks for markets big enough that a winner compounds value for years.
“In 2019, collaboration software was already a $45 billion market globally — and that was before Covid arrived.” — Why We Invested in ClickUp
“Manufacturing is massive — about $2.8 trillion in the US. It's critical to America's future.” — Jeff Fluhr
“Moreover, once these companies achieve category leadership, they are hard to dislodge and tend to compound value over time.” — David Sacks
Strong, ideally organic growth plus consistent forecast execution. Craft publishes explicit benchmarks: a CMGR of at least 15% below $1M ARR and 10% above, with seed rounds preempting around $500k ARR.
“we like to see a CMGR of at least 15% below $1M ARR and 10% above $1M” — The SaaS Metrics That Matter
“In the last year, ClickUp's ARR has grown over 600%” — David Sacks
“Our conviction about the need for this product has only grown over time, as the company has met or exceeded its sales forecast every quarter.” — David Sacks
“the threshold has been around $500k ARR, as rounds get preempted” — David Sacks
Founders with rare combinations of skill (e.g., technical + sales), prior wins/exits, deep domain insight, and the energy to incorporate customer feedback relentlessly. Craft, being operators, evaluates founders as peers.
“This combination of technical and sales skills is rare.” — Why We Invested in Endeavor.ai
“the Upwind founders have already experienced an exit (sold Spot.io to NetApp for $450M)” — Michael Robinson
“Fellow founders Aydin, Amin, and Samuel have been working together for more than a decade. They sold their last company to SurveyMonkey before turning their attention to making managers more productive.” — Lainy Painter
“The team is infused with an energy and passion that enables them to constantly incorporate customer feedback” — David Sacks
High-margin, recurring-revenue economics with efficient growth. Craft is explicit on benchmarks: gross margins of at least 75%, 120%+ dollar retention, and a burn multiple under 2 (under 1 is 'amazing').
“SaaS companies should have a Gross Margin of at least 75%” — The SaaS Metrics That Matter
“The best SaaS companies have 120%+ Dollar Retention each year” — David Sacks
“For fast-growing SaaS companies, a Burn Multiple of less than one is amazing, but anything less than two is still quite good” — David Sacks
“The more customers it negotiates on behalf of, the more information Vendr has about the real price of software.” — David Sacks
Durable defensibility — network effects, liquidity flywheels, deep moats, and a position that becomes hard to dislodge once category leadership is won. Craft especially likes marketplaces for their structural moats.
“Marketplace businesses are attractive for their strong network effects, liquidity-driven flywheels, and deep moats for defensibility.” — Announcing Craft III: $1.1 Billion for SaaS and Marketplaces
“once these companies achieve category leadership, they are hard to dislodge and tend to compound value over time.” — David Sacks
“ClickUp is solving the challenges of the collaboration category comprehensively, as opposed to attacking just one niche” — David Sacks
A clear inflection — a shift in technology (AI), behavior (remote work), or market structure — that makes the moment right. Craft's posts often explicitly state why the timing is now.
“The timing feels right. U.S. manufacturing is at a crossroads.” — Why We Invested in Endeavor.ai
“Remote work is here to stay… and managers are exhausted” — Lainy Painter
“buyers no longer want just visibility into their cloud (Posture Management); they now want runtime context and real time protection” — Michael Robinson
“The hyper-verticalization of marketplaces is now in full force.” — Jeff Fluhr
A raise sized to efficient growth, not growth at any cost. Craft frames the implicit 'ask' through the burn multiple: justify how each dollar raised converts into new ARR, since efficiency of growth is now a key performance indicator.
“In a tough fundraising environment, it won't just be growth but the efficiency of growth that are seen as key indicators of startup performance.” — The Burn Multiple
“Burn Multiple = Net Burn / Net New ARR” — David Sacks
“The startup that generates $1M in ARR by burning $2M is more impressive than one that does it by burning $5M.” — David Sacks
“The higher the Burn Multiple, the more the startup is burning to achieve each unit of growth. The lower the Burn Multiple, the more efficient the growth is.”
“Marketplace businesses are attractive for their strong network effects, liquidity-driven flywheels, and deep moats for defensibility.”
“we're thrilled to be doubling down based on Upwind's remarkable progress in transforming cloud security, the exceptional feedback from customers on their next generation cloud security platform, and the team's outstanding execution.”