SaaStr Fund is Jason Lemkin's early-stage B2B vehicle, attached to the largest community of SaaS/B2B founders. It writes first checks of $500k-$4m into 4-5 B2B/B2D/SaaS/AI startups a year, prefers to lead, and only invests in founders who are part of the SaaStr community. The fund explicitly backs 'Outsiders + Outliers' — founders who didn't go to elite schools or work at hot companies but earned 10+ unaffiliated customers on their own — and at the earliest stage, SaaStr's worldview is that 'SaaS is about metrics,' so the deck has to prove a clear, bottom-up path to $200m ARR.
A crisp, one-line statement of what you do and why it matters, summarized on a stand-alone first slide. Lemkin wants founders to skip the history lesson and state the problem in two sentences.
“Summarize the industry in two sentences...You do not need to hear the history of your industry since the 17th century.” — SaaStr Podcast #344: 16 Tips To Increase The Odds You Get Funded
“The first slide can totally stand on its own. What (you do — one line). Who. Why. Where (you are in terms of Progress). Next (you are going).” — Jason Lemkin
A clear answer to why you win deals, and the ability to distill the entire reason to invest onto the first slide. Lemkin pushes founders to be number one at something specific rather than generally good.
“Why do you win deals? That's the most important thing, founders just answer.” — SaaStr Podcast #344: 16 Tips To Increase The Odds You Get Funded
“Force yourself to do it...you're going to find you can distill the entire reason to invest your company in that first slide.” — Jason Lemkin
“You must be number one at something specific.” — Jason Lemkin
A clear, ideally bottom-up path to $200m ARR. Top-down TAM numbers without bottom-up logic are a top failure mode; Lemkin wants to see why you'll get to $200m ARR and beyond.
“Clear path to $200m ARR. Tell me why, ideally with some simple bottom-up data, why you'll get to $200m in ARR and beyond.” — 5 Things That Make a Good VC Pitch Deck Great
“The most common failure points are weak competitive differentiation (the 'why can't a big player copy this in 6 months?' slide is almost always thin), vague market sizing (top-down TAM numbers without any bottoms-up logic), and a team slide that buries the most important credential.” — Jason Lemkin
Real, unaffiliated traction — at least 10 unaffiliated customers and ideally $10k+ MRR — plus a founder who knows every metric cold. Pre-revenue is too early.
“Pre-revenue is too early. We can only invest if you have at least 10 Unaffiliated Customers, and ideally, $10k+ or more in MRR.” — SaaStr Fund
“Know your data, know your metrics, know your churn rate, know your revenue growth rate.” — Jason Lemkin
“Three consecutive great months can flip you from unfundable to fundable.” — Jason Lemkin
The founders, especially the CEO, in the room — not lieutenants. Lemkin backs 'Outsiders + Outliers' who earned their traction without elite pedigrees, and wants the most important credential surfaced, not buried.
“Investors want to meet the founders, and particularly the CEO, but the founders.” — SaaStr Podcast #344: 16 Tips To Increase The Odds You Get Funded
“Folks that didn't go to Those Schools, or Work at That Hot Company...that earned it.” — Jason Lemkin
“The most common failure points are weak competitive differentiation (the 'why can't a big player copy this in 6 months?' slide is almost always thin), vague market sizing (top-down TAM numbers without any bottoms-up logic), and a team slide that buries the most important credential.” — Jason Lemkin
A growth-first SaaS model that can triple, triple, double, double, double to a fund-returning outcome. Lemkin is blunt that profitability doesn't matter at this stage — growth does.
“You have to triple, triple, double, double at minimum, or you'll never get there in the 10-14 year lifetime of a fund.” — What it Takes to Get Funded with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
“No VC cares if you're profitable. Being profitable doesn't get you to a $2B outcome.” — Jason Lemkin
Founders who know their competition cold and respect it — and a credible answer to why a big player can't copy this in six months. The defensibility slide is the one most decks get wrong.
“The best founders know their competition cold.” — SaaStr Podcast #344: 16 Tips To Increase The Odds You Get Funded
“Great founders never...mock them. Great founders respect the ones that came before them.” — Jason Lemkin
“The most common failure points are weak competitive differentiation (the 'why can't a big player copy this in 6 months?' slide is almost always thin), vague market sizing (top-down TAM numbers without any bottoms-up logic), and a team slide that buries the most important credential.” — Jason Lemkin
A reason the timing is right now, in an AI era that has reset the bar. Lemkin notes AI-native companies are scaling far faster, so top-quartile metrics are now the minimum bar.
“Top quartile metrics are now the minimum bar, not the aspirational goal.” — VC Funding in the AI Era: What's Actually Getting Funded in 2025
“Traditional paths to venture funding have essentially closed for the majority of B2B companies.” — Jason Lemkin
A precise 12-18 month plan — hires, ARR goal, product goals — and an unambiguous statement that you are raising. Send the full deck, not a teaser or password-protected DocSend.
“Precise understanding of the next 12–18 months. There's no excuse not to know all your hires, your ARR goal, your product goals for the next 12–18 months.” — 5 Things That Make a Good VC Pitch Deck Great
“Don't send a teaser deck, don't send a DocSend or a password protected deck.” — Jason Lemkin
“The first slide can totally stand on its own. What (you do — one line). Who. Why. Where (you are in terms of Progress). Next (you are going).”