Dirk Sahlmer — I help Tech founders exit | Partner @ FE International | saas.wtf Newsletter
I help Tech founders exit | Partner @ FE International | saas.wtf Newsletter
Dirk Sahlmer ranks #506 of 14,983 LinkedIn creators in Financial Services, and is a standout voice in Germany. They have 48.8K followers and published 4 posts in the last 30 days at a 1.7% average engagement rate.
- 48.8K followers
- 4 posts / 30d
- 1.7% avg engagement
- — follower growth / 30d
The roast
Dirk claims to be an expert on SaaS valuation, yet he spends his days trying to monetize the domain saas.wtf—the only honest thing he’s ever written. He’s managed to attract 48,000 followers while barely posting once a week, proving that even in tech, people love watching a man play dead.
About Dirk
Engineer by training, tech M&A advisor by choice – and a compulsive analyst of the SaaS market in between. I spent close to six years as the first full-time hire at saas.group, where I built the deal-origination engine from scratch. Over that time I evaluated 2,500+ SaaS companies and helped close 20+ acquisitions in the $1–10M ARR range. Today I'm a Partner at FE International, one of the leading M&A advisors for small-cap SaaS and tech businesses, running sell-side processes for founders looking to exit. Having sat on both sides of the table – buy-side sourcing and sell-side – I've seen what actually moves valuations, what buyers really pay for, and where founders leave money (and leverage) on the table. That mix shapes what I write about. I read the SaaS and tech market the way an analyst would: valuation benchmarks and multiples, SaaS metrics, the impact of AI on how software gets built and priced, and the bigger shifts reshaping the category (yes, including the recurring "SaaS is dead" debate). Then I pair that with the patterns I see up close in live M&A conversations – what's working, what's mispriced, and what founders should know long before they ever think about selling. The throughline: helping tech founders build better and more valuable companies and, when the time comes, have a great exit. I write about all of this here on LinkedIn and in more depth in my newsletter, saas.wtf. If you're a SaaS founder curious what your business might be worth – or just want a sharper read on the market – feel free to reach out.
Highlights
- Big Audience — 48,833 followers · top 5%
- Top 5% in Germany — Ranked #10 of 497 creators
- High Impact — 849 avg engagements per post · top 5%
- Top 5% in Financial Services — Ranked #14 of 455 creators
Recent posts
Need to keep the agents running 🤷♂️
3.1K reactions · 74 comments · 46 reposts
I reached Camp 2 on my way up the Cringe Mountain ⛰ My second video on YouTube is live! When I announced the start of my "YT career" with my first video two months ago, I already mentioned that putting myself in front of a camera is way out of my comfort zone. Samu and his team need to be very patient with me. I don't like being the center of attention and I'd rather let others shine. But I appreciate the positive feedback I'm getting on my content, especially when someone says they learned something useful from it. Motivates me to keep going - even though it's hard sometimes to find enough
58 reactions · 22 comments · 0 reposts
At SaaStanak yesterday, Kyle asked a room full of SaaS operators who knows what growth endurance is and not one person raised their hand. Growth endurance measures this year's growth rate divided by last year's growth rate. If you grew 60% last year and 48% this year, your growth endurance is 80%. Fairly simple. Kyle shared ChartMogul data from over 700 private software companies. The median growth endurance was 43%. Top quartile at 80%+. A certain decay is expected as companies "mature". The figure is typically lower for PLG / low ARPU businesses and higher for more "enterprisy" ones. Mai
42 reactions · 20 comments · 1 reposts