He exited for hundreds of millions—then invested in 20+ founders. Here's what he looks for. | Jason Van Gaal, Founder of ROOT

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

Jason built a data center company in the 2013. When he exited in 2019, it was the third-largest exit in Canada that year. He'd sold his previous startup and invested 100% of his capital into ROOT. He grew to 10s of millions and exited for 100s of millions.
Now he's invested in over 20 angel-stage startups. He shares the story of ROOT and what he looks for in the startups and founders he backs.
Why you should listen:

• Why seeing inefficiencies can lead to huge advantages vs competitors.
• How customer concentration can actually lead to a huge success.
• Why the 'Why Now' slide is so important.
• Why Jason values startups can get to free cash flow within 1-2 years.
• How to use the lead to conversation ratio as a leading indicator of PMF.

Keywords
data centers, investment, entrepreneurship, product market fit, angel investing, business growth, technology, risk management, funding strategies, customer relationships, investment, startup, venture capital, product-market fit, founder advice, business model, cash flow, total addressable market, team dynamics, entrepreneurial hunger
Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Chapters

1. He exited for hundreds of millions—then invested in 20+ founders. Here's what he looks for. | Jason Van Gaal, Founder of ROOT (00:00:00)

2. Getting into the Data Centre Space (00:02:19)

3. Winning through efficiency (00:07:10)

4. Closing customers before building (00:12:13)

5. Depending on a Single Customer (00:17:51)

6. The Pre-Seed (00:23:21)

7. Why Free Cash Flow is king (00:27:34)

8. Backing Hungry Founders (00:31:36)

9. Finding Product Market Fit (00:42:43)

10. One Piece of Advice (00:44:53)