I couldn’t be more excited to announce our partnership with Highspot in their Series D. Before I let Robert Wahbe, CEO and co-founder of Highspot, shed some light on our partnership, I’d like to outline why we are thrilled to join the extended Highspot team to build the next Company of Consequence.
Why Partner with Highspot?
While there are always many reasons we ultimately team up with companies, two differentiators were prominent with Highspot.
First, their product leadership. While some investors define category leadership as companies who have the most revenue, at Sapphire we fundamentally believe the business with a superior product can ultimately capture disproportionate share from incumbents. From years spent studying the sales and marketing technology landscape, we built a thesis in the space and strong conviction that Highspot offers a best-in-class platform to enable sales and marketing teams drive more revenue; Their platform innovates beyond what incumbents offer across multiple dimensions and is deeply rooted in sophisticated AI and search, coupled with a user experience that is uniquely engaging for sales and marketing professionals. Moreover, Higspot’s product vision contemplates creating a new category beyond sales enablement.
But without a world-class team to execute on product and go-to-market, SaaS businesses often fall short of lofty expectations. Fortunately, I’ve known Robert for several years and have watched him consistently perform ahead of his goals. More impressively, Robert’s command over every detail of his business and his focus on the “people engine” — not just ARR growth — is what drew us to invest in Highspot. He is maniacally focused on how to preserve company culture through high-growth. In fact, we spent half of our partnership meeting listening to his framework for grading both interviewees, but also interviewers, [as well as his detailed outline for promotion paths]. This was further reinforced by our visit to their Seattle headquarters where had the opportunity to tour the office, feel the energy of the full team, and meet the broader, just as impressive management team – Oliver, Haley, David, Gwen, Jennifer, Jason, Jon and Chris.
Why Partner with Sapphire Ventures?
Robert Wahbe
The leadership team and I had been talking with Rajeev for many years as Sapphire had made early investments in our category over a decade ago. This led to what can be best described as a multi-year conversation about how the market was likely to evolve, why earlier attempts to solve the enablement problem had faltered, and what was different this time. Through this dialogue it was clear that Rajeev and the Sapphire team were thoughtful investors and partners.
Even as we built a shared view of the broader market, Rajeev was conducting dozens of interviews to understand how various players fit into the market. When we began to fundraise in earnest, he came prepared with insights at a level of depth and nuance that was impressive. In my many reference calls, Rajeev’s incredible enthusiasm and persistence was a consistent theme. Bottom line, Rajeev was someone that could help our business grow and that we would want on our extended team.
The amazing thing about having Sapphire on your team is that you not only have people like Rajeev working to help your business, but you also get access to their entire Portfolio Growth team. Many firms talk about extended services, but through all of my reference calls and interactions, it was clear that Sapphire’s Portfolio Growth team delivers real value.
We are excited to partner with Rajeev and Sapphire.
