I spent the whole day walking around Amsterdam yesterday inspired by the perfect September day.
Here is my early morning writing view from The Hoxton which is a great hotel on the canal:
I love Amsterdam and have been coming here regularly since my late teens. In 2011, I brought Rachel with to see the city and listen to me speak on the topics of my investing philosophies and that it was never a better time to start a business. Here is the talk. Today, I believe the same things but we are living in a world of higher valuations.
Speaking of higher valuations, I expect an expansion of the ongoing acquisition frenzy in the markets.
Last week almost all the leading Saas (Software as a service companies like Zendesk) hit all-time highs and I tweeted that their leaders should be in a frenzy buying all (post series B) well funded companies to both lock down the next stage of their product growth cycles and talent and fend off future competition now with their stock prices as the currency.
Tomas Tunguz, a great enterprise venture investor at Redpoint, said it a little differently by writing this great post titled ‘It’s Time To Disrupt Incumbents‘. There are 23 public companies in the sector with valuations greater that $5 billion:
My partner Gary is focused on this same thesis at our fund Social Leverage and we have invested heavily in the enterprise sector Kustomer, Narvar, and Validately to name a few.
Exciting times…
Have a great Sunday