Hi there,

Here are 100 things NOT to do when building a SaaS company.

That's a whole lot of F ups.

I updated an old presentation I'd given at a conference, so figured I'd share in case it’s useful to others.

This is not a playbook on what to do but as Charlie Munger says, hopefully it might help you avoid stupidity.

I do have some "favorite" mistakes on pages 10, 24, 48, 92, 102, 103, 106, 108.

If you've made any of these, share your stories or even if you just really “like” any of these mistakes.

And if you disagree with any of these, please let me know as well.

Remember: these are just learnings, not laws. 

See the deck here.

Downtown

Corporate venture capital (CVC)-backed funding fell 12% QoQ to hit $12.8B in Q1’23.

This marked CVC’s lowest quarterly funding level since 2018.

Deal count came in at 842 in Q1’23, a 22% drop QoQ and a 44% drop from its record high in Q1’22.

Which deal stage saw median deal size hit a record high amid the downturn? Find out more in our State of CVC in 5 charts report.

Oopsie

Last week, we identified 10 startups that shut their doors amid the venture slowdown.

Two of these companies had raised more than $150M in funding. Ouch. 

While painful, these losses aren’t unique — we cover dozens of startups that failed after a $100M+ ride in this research brief.

Future of computing

NVIDIA was a pioneer in the field of accelerated computing, with an initial focus on gaming.

Its parallel processing breakthroughs allowed it to expand into new areas — and the company is now driving innovation across generative AI, autonomous driving, and more.

Discover how the semiconductor giant is shaping the future of computing in this report.

Work smarter

Recent major blackouts have exposed the limitations of traditional electrical grids.

Amid these challenges and the shift toward a low-carbon economy, smart grids are gaining traction and investor attention.

Bloomberg. Taiga Uranaka and Komaki Ito cover startup lending in Japan and cite CB Insights data.

Forbes. Katie Jennings (@katiedjennings) and Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) discuss generative AI in healthcare and quote CB Insights lead healthcare analyst Alexander Lennox-Miller.

Reuters. M. Sriram (@followthemani) covers the funding downturn in India using CB Insights research.
 

I love you. 

Anand 

@asanwal 

P.S. There are just 2 days left to apply for this year’s Insurtech 50. If you are one of the most promising insurtech companies in the world (or know one), don’t delay, apply today.