223. Crisis Coverage w/ Byron Deeter - Why This is the Seminal Moment for Cloud and Lessons from 19 Unicorn Investments

Byron Deeter of Bessemer joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss Why This is the Seminal Moment for Cloud and Lessons from 19 Unicorn Investments. In this episode, we cover:

• Background and path to venture
• Stage and focus area at Bessemer?
• You’ve said that many of the lessons learned from the 08 crisis are applicable today -- what are the top 2 or 3 lessons that founders can directly apply to their business during the current crisis?
• From a startup standpoint, how is this crisis different from the last?
• What are your thoughts on the dynamics of the PPP and the role the government is playing amid the crisis?
• We’ve seen significant volatility in the public markets, but Cloud has remained pretty resilient... what have been your macros observations on SaaS and Cloud businesses over the past couple of months?
• Why is now “the iPhone moment” for Cloud? 
• We’ve seen a number of business models gain increasing momentum, such as freemium, low friction and developer centric to name a few -- what have you observed w/respect to evolving business models and which do you think will become more pervasive in the coming years?
• You’ve talked in the past about the importance of channel scalability for SaaS and cloud companies, define channel scalability for us and what some red flags that may reveal a lack of this?
• A lot of analysis that goes into these businesses and every situation is different, so I don't want to over simplify... but have you found some general characteristics that separate the winners from the losers?
• Trust is such an important part of a relationship between founders and investors, what's your approach to building relationships, and do you have a specific example/story?
• We saw substantial growth in the number of unicorns from the 2000’s to the 2010’s, what do you expect to see this decade?
• How do you feel about the trend of companies to stay private longer?
• From the 10 Laws of Cloud Computing... which are the ones most often absent from opportunities you're reviewing?
  • Law 1: In the cloud economy, scale wins
  • Law 2: Growth at optimal cost
  • Law 3: Invest behind the cloud sales and marketing learning curve
  • Law 4: Product as a competitive advantage
  • Law 5: Master the 5 C’s of cloud finance
  • Law 6: Discover your secret KPIs
  • Law 7: Customer success is company success
  • Law 8: Impact through engagement or insights
  • Law 9: Tone starts at the top
  • Law 10: Map your fuel stops
• In the last State of the Cloud report, you mentioned 5 predictions about the future of Cloud, can you highlight a few you're most excited about? 

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