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Is Enterprise Hyper-Growth the
New Normal?
Alison Wagonfeld
Operating Partner, Emergence Capital
October 13, 2015

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About Emergence Capital
 MISSION: To invest in visionaries who are building the
most important enterprise technology companies
 OVERVIEW:
– Firm was founded in 2003 with the thesis that
enterprise software would move to the cloud
– 2015: Nearly $1 billion under management
 4 Institutional funds raised in 2004, 2007, 2012, and 2015
 LP base – Leading Endowments, Foundations and Fund of Funds
 ~40 active portfolio investments
 ~$50 billion of market capitalization
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Track Record:
5 Emergence “Unicorns” in 10 Years
2004 2009 2014
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Strong and Growing Portfolio

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What do these companies
have in common?

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They all sell to businesses
and they are satisfied with
nothing less than…
“HYPER-GROWTH”
Growing at >100%/year

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So we asked ourselves…
Is Enterprise
Hyper-Growth
the New
Normal?

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Why?

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Three Factors Impacting Growth
1. Rapid increase of connected professionals
2. Unprecedented access to growth capital
– Allows companies to stay private and invest
aggressively without worrying about quarterly
financials
3. New sales technology, process, and talent
– Cloud based applications enable teams to
operate differently
 Email marketing, video conferencing, remote
presentations, e-signatures, sales tracking, analytics

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BUSINESS MODEL
Product Driven Sales
 New business models: End-users can
search, try and buy:
– Freemium
– Free-trial
 Result: Buyers have interacted with
product before “sales” comes in,
enabling shorter sales cycles

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TECHNOLOGY
Machine Learning &
Predictive Analytics
 New technology improves
productivity
– Online training & simulations
– Productivity analytics
– Real-time decision making
 Not-too-distant future
– Voice analysis
– Natural language processing

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PLATFORM
Mobile First
Mentality
 New cloud platforms host
applications that optimize
mobile sales experience
– Messaging
– Mobile CRM
– Tablet Presentations
– Digital signatures
 Not-too-distant future
– Geo-targeting
– Wearables

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ORGANIZATION
Deep Specialization
 Organization includes specialized Sales Roles
– Sales Development Reps (SDR)
– Inside Sales
– Sales Ops
– Customer Success
 New “Sales Acceleration” tools for each role
– Sales prospecting
– Configure, price, quote
– Upsells/Customer Success

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Rise of the “Super-Rep”
Super-Reps equipped with
Hardware + New Sales
Applications

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Impact: Hyper-growth “S” Curve is
Increasingly Attainable
Time
$ ARR

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Success Requires Unprecedented Levels
of Sales Execution
 Winning teams have company wide focus on:
– Hiring, process, training, tools, process, reporting,
analytics, process
 Did I mention “process”? 
 Don’t have time to “learn on the job”
– Need experienced team, and/or bring in sales
consultants to accelerate learning
 The good news is that any company can design
for hyper-growth

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About Emergence Capital
@emergencecap
Emergence Capital, based in San Mateo CA, is the leading venture capital firm
focused on early and growth-stage enterprise cloud companies. Its mission is to
invest in the cloud visionaries who are building the most important business
applications. The firm's investments include Salesforce.com (CRM),
SuccessFactors (SFSF, acquired by SAP), Veeva Systems (VEEV), Yammer
(acquired by Microsoft), and Box (BOX). Emergence Capital has over $910 million
under management. More information on Emergence Capital can be found
at www.emcap.com.
Alison Wagonfeld, Operating Partner, Emergence Capital, @awagonfeld
Presentation references article published by Jason Green, Co-founder & General
Partner, Emergence Capital, @jasonegreen
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/08/is-enterprise-hyper-growth-the-new-normal/