The Busiest Man in Venture Capital with Neeraj Agrawal

In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, Neeraj Agrawal,
General Partner at Battery Ventures, joins our hosts John Kaplan
and John McMahon to discuss the nitty gritty of doing business in
today’s markets. Neeraj sits on more than a dozen boards and has
invested in several companies that have gone on to stage IPOs. As
a serial investor with a long list of companies in his portfolio,
Neeraj knows a thing or two about helping startups turn an idea
into a full-fledged company. Tune in to hear actionable tips on
leadership, growth, and revenue from the man himself, including
how he chooses the companies he works with as an investor. 


Additional Resources:


Donate to Hack Diversity: https://www.hackdiversity.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajagrawal2000/

5 Traits of Successful Leaders: https://forc.mx/3BrMkHh

Listen to More Revenue Builders: https://forc.mx/3bfW5Od



HIGHLIGHTS


4 key dimensions that determine the success of
companies 

Timing is more predictive of success than market size

Great product and sales processes are crucial for sustainable
growth

Lessons learned from successful and failed investments 

Technical founders aren't necessarily the best CEOs 

The bull market is on its way out, what about it?

Your company reputation is everything

How Neeraj chooses the companies that he works with



GUEST BIO


Neeraj joined Battery in 2000 and invests in SaaS and internet
companies across all stages. He has invested in several companies
that have gone on to stage IPOs, including Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ:
BV); Coupa (NASDAQ: COUP); Guidewire Software (NYSE: GWRE);
Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO, acquired by Vista Equity Partners);
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX); Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR, acquired by
Adobe); RealPage (NASDAQ: RP); and Wayfair (NYSE: W).


He also invested in several companies that have experienced
M&A events, such as A Place for Mom (acquired by Warburg
Pincus); AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco); Brightree (acquired by
ResMed); Chef (acquired by Progress); Glassdoor (acquired by
Recruit Holdings); Internet Brands (acquired by Hellman &
Friedman); Kustomer (acquired by Meta); OpsGenie (acquired by
Atlassian); Stella Connect (acquired by Medallia, Inc.); and VSS
Monitoring (acquired by Danaher). Neeraj also played a key role
in several other Battery investments including Groupon (NASDAQ:
GRPN); ITA Software (acquired by Google); and Sabre (NASDAQ:
SABR).


Neeraj is currently on the boards of Braze (NASDAQ: BRZE), Compt,
Catchpoint, Dataiku, Level AI, LogRocket, Pendo, Reify Health,
Repeat, Scopely, Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse), Sprinklr (NYSE:
CXM), Tealium, Wunderkind (formerly BounceX), Workato and
Yesware. He is a board observer for InVision and Mattermost.
Neeraj has also made seed investments in companies including
8fig, Dooly, PayStand, Proton, Reibus International and UserGems
since 2020.


QUOTES


Neeraj on the challenge of timing your
investment: "The challenge often is if you invest too
early, you've got a good idea but you run out of money before the
inflection point happens. And if you invest too late, somebody
else captures the market. Having a sense of the timing is really
important and like most things in life, luck has a lot to do with
it."


Neeraj on why both product and sales are crucial for
success: "Ultimately, great companies are built on great
products and great sales. You can kind of fake it for a while now
on the sales side, but the longer you wait to put in the
fundamentals, the harder it is to do later." 


Neeraj on how he chooses the companies that he
backs: "Life's too short. If this isn't a person that I
want to back from beginning to exit, they don't have the right
coachability and skill to read my mind, it's probably time to
move on and look at other investments."


Check out John McMahon’s book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064