Mark Selinger

Excited to share our latest thoughts and findings on the emergence of AI / GenAI in the insurance industry. If you are a founder working in this intersection, please reach out!

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The Kalepa team is headed to Insurtech Insights USA to show insurers how Copilot powers better risk decisions, appetite adherence, and broker relationships - all with our day-1 deployment. Will we see you in New York? Reach out at hello@kalepa.com or leave a comment below - we would love to show you how Copilot can help you achieve underwriting excellence. #insurtech #ai #underwriting

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Valuations are a VERY intimidating topic for most Micro SaaS Founders / Sellers and Acquisition Entreprenuers. And rightfully so. There is almost no publicly available data to inform benchmarks and assumptions (think: what similar firms sold for and the performance metrics of those firms), and most deals come with unconventional deal structures (seller’s notes, earnouts, etc.). To make matters worse, other valuation methods rely on complex financial topics and require solid modeling skills. Oh ya, and the stakes are HIGH. For most, these transactions represent a life’s work or life’s savings. To demystify the topic, I'm excited to explain conventional valuation methods and discuss the challenges unique to Micro SaaS. Let's start with multiple-based valuations: Imagine you're valuing a house. You wouldn't just pull a figure from thin air. Instead, you'd consider similar properties, their sale prices, the size, the amenities, right? The same principle applies to multiple-based valuations – consider it the "real estate appraisal method" for businesses. For instance, you have a SaaS company earning $1 million ARR. Your industry's average ARR multiple is 2.5x. Your company's value? $1 million * 2.5 = $2.5M! Simple, isn't it? But, here's where we halt: DO NOT wholly rely on ARR multiples! Yes, ARR offers insights into growth potential and customer retention, but Micro SaaS is all about acquiring and growing profitable businesses to yield income. Hence, EBITDA multiples are your true marker. Be mindful, though, of limited public data, fluctuating market sentiments, and overhyped growth prospects—all these can sway your valuation, often unfavorably.

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As part of a recent #SaaSTalks session, I had the pleasure of speaking to two seasoned #GTM experts, Girish and Charanyan, and we had a very engaging discussion on GTM for SaaS firms focused on SMBs. Our discussion inspired me to put down a few thoughts of my own to guide startup founders venturing into the SMB space. If you’re a SaaS founder looking to get started on GTM, here are some suggestions! Arpit Maheshwari Sayantan Sarkar Naman Jain

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To all #founders and #entrepreneurs out there, our intro meetings are conversational and easy going. Feel free to message me to setup a call. Learn what Pioneera Ventures can do for you!

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A few Friday thoughts... After several days in Chicago surrounded by 200+ LPs at the ILPA Members' Conference covering everything from AI to NAV facilities, I'm headed into the weekend energized by what's to come. That may come at a surprise after the week we've had as an industry. The decision from the U.S. Fifth Circuit on the SEC's Private Fund Advisers rules was handed down just moments before we kicked off ILPA’s AGM on Wednesday. All along, ILPA has viewed the PFA as addressing areas that pose risks to both LPs and the industry around transparency, governance and alignment of interest. It was disappointing—albeit not a shock—to see the PFA vacated. But ILPA is choosing to turn our energy to the compelling opportunity before us as an industry. Together, we can chart the path for how we'll work better together, on our own terms. Particularly around transparency. Just days prior to the ruling, we had debuted the next evolution of ILPA reporting templates on fees and expenses and performance for industry feedback. The templates were developed by a broad industry coalition over a three-month period, partly to comply with the PFA quarterly statements rule implementation deadline, but largely because this work needed to be done. We've temporarily paused the comment period. Now we have the benefit of more time to ensure that these minimum reporting standards have cross-industry buy-in to ensure wide support and adoption. Will you join us in this effort, in paving the way forward as an industry? https://lnkd.in/e-6hspU4

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For those closest to me—be it founders, operators, or investors—you’ve probably found yourself unable to escape my excitement re: all things Vertical (Fintech) SaaS, especially during the past 6 months; occupational hazard I guess 😅. Bad jokes aside, I’m excited to finally share the fruits of that labor in form of this report and eager to trade notes and insights with other operators, founders and VCs who are equally passionate about the potential of Vertical SaaS. Check out the full blog post here: https://lnkd.in/gswiQijd #VerticalSaaS #EmbeddedFinance #Fintech #Investing

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I recently had the pleasure of speaking with and learning from several software execs from our portfolio companies and industry experts during Thoma Bravo's AI Summit in Miami. It was great to share our insights into trends and practices we see in our portfolio and how we manage opportunities and risks. At TB, we have a long history of guiding enterprise software companies through digital transformation, and we’re already navigating the transition driven by generative AI. Our focus is on managing this new innovation by absorbing the technology to bring meaningful benefits to our portfolio companies and indirectly to their customers. And it’s evolving fast! We see our portfolio companies today using gen AI in generally three ways: first, to create new products and provide customers with incremental use cases. Second, to defend against cyber attacks that have become much more sophisticated by bad actors. And third, as an enabler of talent to make business operations run more efficient and productive. In our view, AI presents a significant growth opportunity, but we also believe that to really maximize that potential, companies should carefully evaluate the risks and be thoughtful about governance, trust, security and data privacy. AI is poised to accelerate innovation and it’s hard to predict the full, transformative potential of AI, but we are confident that some of the advantages of incumbent knowledge and data will be key to unlocking its value.

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Episode 136 is live! Hanno Mijer joins James M. Benham and Rob Galbraith for an insightful discussion about the state of the insurance industry, how to build a company from scratch, and the role technology and insurtechs play in the industry. Tune in! https://bit.ly/ITG136YT

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Announcing VSC Ventures' inaugural Dirty Jobs Summit Across the world, companies relying on blue-collar workers face challenges in finding reliable labor as boomers retire and younger generations choose other paths over trade roles. We believe software, automation, and robotics in these Dirty, Dusty, and Dangerous industries is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Over the past two years, we have actively invested in seed-stage companies bringing automation, efficiency, and digital transformation to legacy industries through companies like PaintJet, Glacier, concrete.ai AI, Sesame Solar, Presso®, Homemade, and more… and we’re just getting started! ***Why a Dirty Jobs summit?*** Incredible founders are tackling key issues in slow-to-digitize, hard-to-decarbonize sectors like manufacturing, construction, recycling, and logistics, but they lack a space to share learnings and grow their network with kindred operators and investors. The Dirty Jobs Summit has curated a group of top founders, investors, operators, marketers, and decision-makers, creating a forum for founders to be seen and heard. Our Summit will distill specific takeaways, including strategies and tactics the most ambitious startups are deploying, the solutions legacy players are adopting, and the capital investors are deploying to bring huge transformations to dirty jobs ***Who’s going to be in the room?*** Seed through Series B Founders from Rapid Robotics, Inc, GrayMatter Robotics, Renewell Energy, Jacobi Robotics, @Kodama Systems, Reshape Automation, Olis Robotics, Raise Robotics, Urban Machine, Polymath Robotics, Bedrock Energy, Cambium Carbon LLC, First Resonance, Plantd, GaeaStar,CivilGrid, Gritt.ai, VoltAir Inc., and many more GPs and Partners from Lowercarbon Capital, Eclipse, G2VP, Lux Capital, Pathbreaker Ventures, HCVC, Outsiders Fund, Brick & Mortar Ventures, At One Ventures, Voyager Ventures, Congruent Ventures, AlleyCorp, Blue Bear Capital, F-Prime Capital, Union Labs Ventures, Wireframe, Bee Partners, Schematic, Ravelin, Counterpart, 81 Collection, Climactic, Dart Ventures, Sandhill Angels, and so many more ***What will be discussed at Dirty Jobs?*** Proposed topics we’ll cover in our roundtable discussions: — Accessing downstream capital in unsexy industries (Series A & beyond) — Navigating nearshoring of critical manufacturing — Frameworks for effective storytelling in legacy industries — Writing & winning grants in 2024 — What strategics actually care about and look for — Customer acquisition strategies that actually work We've got a great group already with just a *few* more open spots. If you'd be a good fit for Dirty Jobs please RSVP ASAP: https://lu.ma/4dus91nm Special thanks to our incredible sponsors Fidelity Private Shares, Trinity Capital, SVB and Goodwin. See you on June 4th. cc: Jay Kapoor, Vidush Jaipuria, Maggie Philbin

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Such an excellent conversation this week. For those in venture capital, this is a must listen. https://lnkd.in/gQUgM8q9

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Thanks to Kanhai Kapadia for hosting me on the Hindsight podcast. It was a lot of fun talking about the importance of data in helping brands manage profitability and also how both Consumer Brands and SaaS companies are transitioning to this post-zirp environment #dtc #analytics

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There was considerable buzz last week about the alarming statistic that a staggering 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, according to PayrollOrg. Instead of trying to diagnose the problem, I decided to dive into the secondary effects it has on emergency savings. Unsurprisingly, I discovered that over 30% of Americans report they would have difficulty covering an unexpected $400 expense. This highlights a critical vulnerability in our financial safety nets. 🚨 Introduce Emergency Savings Accounts (ESA) ... ! As part of Secure Act 2.0, the government introduced employer-offered ESAs to help address the difficulty many Americans face with unexpected expenses by separating emergency savings from retirement funds. And there are already some amazing companies like Sunny Day Fund ☀️, SecureSave, and Ezra Financial, helping make this more seamless for employers and employees, alike. But if you read my posts, you know there has to be a community bank play in here as well! So read the full article and find out more: https://lnkd.in/emiJgRvD And always, leave your thoughts, questions, or concerns in the comments! #communitybanking #emergencysavings #innovation

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It's important to understand the implications of AI for future benefits delivery including data security, accuracy and privacy implications from a real-world perspective. Thanks to our speakers Jeff Levin-Scherz Megan Hood from WTW and Alyssa Simpson Rochwerger from Blue Shield of California who gave helpful insights to how AI will be impacting the future of benefits administration at the Silicon Valley Employers Forum Global Benefits Conference today. #AI #BenefitsAdministration #FutureOfBenefits

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When the big deals dry up, Wall Street adjusts and digs deeper into the middle market. The headline story over the last few years is the significant decrease in funding and deal activity - particularly in the earlier stage VC and the later stage PE mega-deals. However, deals in the middle-market space have remained surprisingly robust, as detailed in this The Wall Street Journal article. From the story: "Middle-market deals made up a record 74% of private-equity buyouts by count in 2023, outpacing the previous high of nearly 72% set in 2019, according to PitchBook." It's important to remember that success in every industry comes down to the strength of relationships. Finance is no different. The upside to the big banks of getting involved with smaller companies is the opportunity to build those banking relationships earlier in the business maturation process. Without question those relationships will bear fruit down the road for the banks as those companies grow. Endeavor Colorado #privateequity #venturecapital #investing #innovation #entrepreneurship #Founders #startups #finance https://lnkd.in/gkqmUnRU

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“Many tech firms, especially software producers, do not provide tangible products,” says Matt Henry, senior underwriting officer for technology at Liberty Mutual GRS. “When their software doesn’t work, it doesn’t allow their customers to operate — and that sort of loss isn’t covered by traditional P&C insurance.” Tech E&O insurance provides coverage for financial injury arising out of these types of contingencies. In our recent blog for Liberty Mutual Insurance, you'll learn all the reasons why E&O insurance is a must-have for software companies and other tech firms. #riskmanagement #contentwriting #insurance #SaaS #tech https://lnkd.in/ewTmtCFr

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Now is the time to make money moves. 💰 Max Drucker, CEO of Carpe Data, joined me to discuss what he calls the "Age of Apathy" in Insurtech. In this clip, we talk about why now is NOT the time to be apathetic, but rather the time to make big moves. For those unfamiliar with the term popularized by Cardi B, Urban Dictionary defines "Money Moves" as "A term used to describe a bada$$ individual on their grind. This person works really hard to make moves in order to elevate their financial success, fame and or status." For those who may like more traditional references, Warren Buffet has famously said, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Either way, NOW is the time to invest in innovation. NOW is the time to let others be apathetic while you set up your company to thrive! Be sure to check out the whole interview over on the Leading Change page! 💬 And tell me in the comments, do you think now is the time to move, or play it safe?

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In the latest episode of Conversations on the Creek, recorded following a panel discussion at the Insurtech NY 2024 Spring Conference, Andrew Schwartz, a Senior Analyst at Celent, joins Duck Creek Technologies to explore the use of generative #AI and advanced analytics in #insurance claims management. Listen in for an analyst’s perspective on some of the hot topics in #insurtech: https://lnkd.in/eZHaPEhD #analyst #insurtech #propertyandcasualty

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Look forward to this session! the always-critical decision on: "build vs buy"...Unless you're a deep tech native company....IMHO 90% of the time corporations should buy because you can: 1. Leverage deep expertise of the technology provider  2. Quickly deploy and utilize features tailored to common business needs 3. Cost-effectiveness and lower initial investment 4. Benefit from tech provider's proven track record with a history of successful implementation

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