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tluyben2

Can you give examples of SaaS companies which did that in 4-5 years; I know you said 'by VCs', but i'm curious.

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Salesforce was founded in 1999 and IPO'd in 2004. Marketo was founded in 2007 and IPO'd in 2013.

Both are closer to 5-6 years. Salesforce had just over a $1B valuation post-IPO, Marketo was ~$500M.

That's both a lot less than $3.3B though. You meant 'this point' being an IPO only?

Yes, but that is also worth noting. Some of the more recent SaaS IPOs were built on lots of funding and, as a result, don't have great fundamentals.

Indeed. Those fundamentals and lack thereof are worrying. It seems everyone just goes for their own wallet content, not for building value over time. In the end bad fundamentals result in some kind of damage; not for the founders, but for the employees and others directly and indirectly involved when the axe falls. I don't really respect that if it is intentional. Billions or not. Hoped to see some different cases.

Veeva Systems (VEEV) took just a touch longer at 6 years and did it with remarkable capital efficiency. Founded 2007. Raised $4m from VCs. IPO in 2013. Opened at $2.4b mkt cap, closed day at $4.5b, $5.6b today.

I just came across their story the other day - really inspiring. I'd love to hear the full story of how they did it. They are in a super specialized market, so I'm guessing that helped.

yes, we are tackling a single vertical, life sciences - with multiple SaaS products. the core vision is the industry cloud.

by being super specialized, the cost of sale is massively lower. no need for an army of sales people. focus is on product and delivery/implementation - once it is proven that your stuff actually works, others take notice in a tightly knit industry.

Eli Lilly, one of our customers, just got awarded for their innovation around using our products: http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/executive-insig...

That's really interesting. I'd love to ask some questions - if you don't mind emailing me (address is in profile).

Great to see both workday and veeva mentioned here, both tri-valley software companies proving that success can come in the Bay Area outside of Silicon Valley and San Fran.

Workday (NYSE:WDAY) was founded in 2005 and floated in 2012 with the valuation of $4.5B (currently $15B). However the Workday story is different because it was started by grownups and well geared towards enterprise from the start (business model, marketing, connection, financing, etc).

As opposed to all other companies that are started by toddlers?

The "grownups" reference was snide and dismissive of the great work done by young founders - I should not have used it.

For context, I was comparing the origin of Atlassian and Workday. Atlassian was started by two 22 year olds through a sizeable credit card debt. Workday was started by a 65 year old ex-PeopleSoft CEO with his funds and an additional $15M in VC finance.

"Mature" would have been a better suited word. Thank you for calling me out on it.

That was quite a grownup mea culpa. Sorry, I meant mature.

I would add with similar fundamentals. Or even just the similar revenues...

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