Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business

Chapter 1The Honeymoon

Believing that what you're doing is great and knowing nothing of what's to come

In March 2014, most of the publicly listed high-growth technology and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies started to experience large pricing corrections. Some stocks lost 25 percent in value in a matter of weeks. Some lost 50 percent. The media was reporting “Valuations Will Be Cut in Half”¹ and calling it the “Twilight Zone of SaaS.” Mad Money and Squawk on the Street host Jim Cramer famously yelled, “The software-as-a-disservice to your portfolio days are upon us.”² In Silicon Valley, people were drawing parallels to Sequoia Capital's famous “R.I.P. Good Times” milestone presentation from October 2008.³ All of the analyst's models were ...