BUS 144 — How to Build and Grow a SaaS Startup
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Sandy Diao, Shuo Chen
Date(s): Feb 21
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Saturday
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $360
Refund Deadline: Feb 14
Unit(s): 0
Enrollment Limit: 50
Status: Open
Quarter: Winter
Day: Saturday
Duration: 1 day
Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Feb 21
Unit(s): 0
Tuition: $360
Refund Deadline: Feb 14
Instructor(s): Sandy Diao, Shuo Chen
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 50
Recording Available: No
Status: Open
Building a venture-backed SaaS startup today requires more than just a great product. With global SaaS revenue projected to reach $900 billion by 2030, competition is fierce. This course is designed for both full-time and fractional founders who want to create profitable SaaS products that succeed in today’s landscape. You’ll learn how to validate your market through customer insights, craft compelling investor pitches, and implement early traction strategies to acquire your first paying customers.
We’ll explore key SaaS growth metrics such as customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), and retention rates. We’ll also cover revenue growth strategies, from generating new monthly recurring revenue (MRR) to managing expansion, contraction, and churn. Whether you are preparing for fundraising or focusing on customer acquisition, you will leave this course with a clear, actionable plan to drive your SaaS company forward.
SANDY DIAO
Growth Executive and Advisor
Sandy Diao is a growth executive who has scaled users and revenue from zero to hundreds of millions. She was the first growth hire at Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Pinterest, Descript, and Indiegogo. She is the founder of Drift International, a growth strategy advisory firm, and has worked with clients such as Adobe to early-stage fast-growth startups such as Limitless. Diao is on the faculty at UC Berkeley College of Engineering and is a keynote speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt and CES. SHUO CHEN
General Partner, IOVC
Shuo Chen is a general partner at IOVC, where she invests in early-stage startups in Silicon Valley with a focus on future of work and enterprise/SaaS. In her venture role, she has invested in companies acquired by Goldman Sachs, Ford, Caterpillar, Binance, and Dialpad, as well as unicorns including Boom, Checkr, GrubMarket, Instacart, and Rescale. Earlier, she worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking and at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she was involved with Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola and LinkedIn’s $119 million acquisition of SlideShare. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.