{"id":4802,"date":"2016-06-28T17:12:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T15:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/?p=4802"},"modified":"2023-08-10T12:11:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T10:11:12","slug":"saas-open-mic-connect-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"The key qualities of a founder, with Pietro Bezza of Connect Ventures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4841 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pietro-connect-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"connect ventures pietro\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pietro-connect-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/pietro-connect.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>In the Venture Capital world, it&#8217;s becoming increasingly common to see VC firms specializing in one particular business vertical or niche \u00a0&#8211; whether marketplaces, healthcare or something even more narrow. With\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/connectventures.co.uk\">Connect Ventures<\/a>,\u00a0I saw a wealth of young, innovative products and services in their portfolio. The fund is certainly targeted towards seed companies, with numerous SaaS investments under their belt \u2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.typeform.com\">Typeform<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charliehr.com\/\">CharlieHR<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/marvelapp.com\">Marvel<\/a> to name a few.<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn&#8217;t until I sat down with Pietro and really dug into their philosophy as a team, that their <em>true<\/em> specialism really became obvious. They\u2019re fully committed to backing exceptional founders, who want to solve problems in the world through product innovation.<\/p>\n<p>Pietro also has a view of SaaS metrics that every business should probably print out and stick on their wall:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;MRR don&#8217;t lie.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8211; <cite>Pietro Bezza, Connect Ventures<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some things Pietro talked about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The global vision for Connect Ventures<\/li>\n<li>What he\u00a0learned building, growing and selling his own successful business (prior to Connect Ventures)<\/li>\n<li>Some common qualities seen\u00a0early-on in a successful team that he looks for<\/li>\n<li>The metrics that are\u00a0important when assessing\u00a0at the growth of a startup\u00a0(pre-investment &amp; post-investment)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Listen to the full conversation below, or listen to it on your daily commute:<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"text-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/saas-open-mic\/id1067803742?mt=2\" class=\"btn btn-primary\">Subscribe on iTunes<\/a><\/p><p class=\"text-center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/chartmogul\" class=\"btn btn-primary\">Subscribe on SoundCloud<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/chartmogul\/pietro-bezza-connect-ventures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Go to the website of London-based Connect Ventures and the first thing you&#8217;ll see is three statements: They invest early. They are product focused. They are hands on. But what drives this approach to investing in young startups? I spoke to Managing Partner Pietro Bezza to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[98,66,21,118,125],"class_list":["post-4802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gtm","tag-interview","tag-podcast","tag-saas","tag-saas-open-mic","tag-vc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Key qualities of a founder, with Pietro Bezza of Connect Ventures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What drives Connect Ventures product-first approach to investing in young entrepreneurs and startups? I spoke to Managing Partner Pietro Bezza to find out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Key qualities of a founder, with Pietro Bezza of Connect Ventures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What drives Connect Ventures product-first approach to investing in young entrepreneurs and startups? I spoke to Managing Partner Pietro Bezza to find out.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ChartMogul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/chartmogul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-28T15:12:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-10T10:11:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/open-mic-connectventures.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Shelley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Mr_Ed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@chartmogul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed Shelley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ed Shelley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/55ca03cbfebabf05e94258e529620fcb\"},\"headline\":\"The key qualities of a founder, with Pietro Bezza of Connect Ventures\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-28T15:12:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-10T10:11:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/\"},\"wordCount\":255,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/open-mic-connectventures.png\",\"keywords\":[\"interview\",\"podcast\",\"saas\",\"saas open mic\",\"VC\"],\"articleSection\":[\"GTM\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/\",\"name\":\"Key qualities of a founder, with Pietro Bezza of Connect Ventures\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/saas-open-mic-connect-ventures\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/open-mic-connectventures.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-28T15:12:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-10T10:11:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"What drives Connect Ventures product-first approach to investing in young entrepreneurs and startups? 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