Stage 2 Capital, a Boston-based venture capital firm, launches its second fund. It plans to invest $80 millions in B2B software companies.Venture capital expertise is combined with the diverse community of more than 250 limited partners and experts in go-to market who work with portfolio businesses to increase revenue growth.Jay Po, an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners and Mark Roberge (ex-chief revenue officer at HubSpot), founded the firm in 2018.Po shared with TechCrunch that he had met startup founders while working at Bessemer. They were not confident in scaling revenue or building a sustainable sales force. Po saw the huge skills gap in go-to market (GtM), so he began taking classes on sales development on weekends and nights to understand more.Roberge was also a Harvard Business School professor and was consulting startups. Roberge also saw founders struggling to build their GtM functions. He compiled a lot of data points and put them together in The Sales Acceleration Formula.Po stated that the firm was virtual before they were cool. This is why it has been able invest in different geographies and decide its own pace when curating its network or making introductions.Their goal is to help startups decide when it's time to scale. Roberge stated that startups should grow 100% to 200% while startups should not scale too quickly because they see other companies experiencing massive growth and assume this is the best way to go.He said that companies often jump in to a set of goals too early and aren't ready for them. We help them understand how fast and when they can move. They often look at the past success but don't appreciate the context.Po and Roberge started their first fund in 2018 and raised $15 million. They made 11 investments in companies in the late-seed stage and Series A stages and built a network with 97 LPs representing companies such as Procore, Atlassian and Asana. Although the firm is determined to help companies change the world, Roberge stated that it will take time and that their peers were impressed by the initial signals of the investment thesis.The first fund invests in companies from all over the United States including Sendoso Ocrolus Gosite, Reibus, and Sendoso Ocrolus.Stage 2 Capital is different from other VCs due to the partnership Jay, Mark, and the LPs, stated Kris Rudegraap (founder and CEO of Sendoso) in a written statement. We have seen a significant increase in our revenue since their investment, with almost 10x the amount they promised.Po stated that the firms' second fund represents five times more investment capital. Po expects to be in a position to invest in 20 additional companies, with an average check size between $2 and $3 million. They have made seven investments together so far, including DeepScribe and Arcade, QuotaPath, Sales Impact Academy, and QuotaPath.
