fullscreen background
Skip to main content

Fall Quarter

Fall Registration Opens Aug 17
shopping cart icon0

Courses


« Back to Professional & Personal Development

BUS 144 — How to Build and Grow a SaaS Startup

Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): Sandy Diao, Shuo Chen
Duration: 1 day
Location: On-campus
Date(s): Oct 3
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Saturday
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 9:30 am—3:30 pm (PT)
Tuition: $375
   
Refund Deadline: Sep 26
 
Unit(s): 0
   
Enrollment Limit: 50
  
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
 
Quarter: Fall
Day: Saturday
Duration: 1 day
Time: 9:30 am—3:30 pm (PT)
Date(s): Oct 3
Unit(s): 0
Location: On-campus
 
Tuition: $375
 
Refund Deadline: Sep 26
 
Instructor(s): Sandy Diao, Shuo Chen
 
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
 
Enrollment Limit: 50
 
Recording Available: No
 
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
 
 
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.