Startup Lessons from a First Time SaaS Founder
Kelsey Recht the founder and CEO of VenueBook, a booking platform that connects event planners with venue managers.
VenueBook helps venues to manage their leads and bookings, and market their space. And it helps event planners to easily find and book the right venue for their event.
VenueBook was founded in 2010 and is based in New York. The company has raised over $9 million in funding.
Kelsey is a first time SaaS founder who came up with the idea for this business after experiencing the pain of finding venues and booking events herself. And one of the smart things that she did in the early days wasn't to start building a software product right away, but going and talking to prospective customers and talking about their pains. In fact, that's how she found her first few customers and her first developer.
We also talk about SaaS fundraising. Although Kelsey's raised over $9 million, it hasn't been as easy as it may sound. She started with a small family and friends round to get the business started, but raising a seed round was seriously hard work. In fact, she had to go out and talk to over 100 investors before she was able to get her seed round. So we talk about the lessons she's learned there, as a SaaS entrepreneur, as a first-time founder, and as a female entrepreneur.
So I hope you enjoy the interview…
Book Recommendation
- “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz