Sramana: Who led your latest round of funding? That is a substantial amount of money to bring onboard. Rob Hull: We had participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as participation from others such as Salesforce.com and even ex-CFOs who found this to be a compelling platform like Jeff Epstein who used
Sramana Mitra: Regardless, in 2008 you were generating business at your own site. Talk to me specifically about your own site – developing your own site, business on your own site, the traffic. How much business do you do today on your own site? OJ Whatley: Back then, as it is today, it’s primarily keyword-driven.
Sramana: One of the things I like is that the type of software you are selling has a lot of exit barriers. Rob Hull: The important things to take away as an entrepreneur is that our product is sticky. Our software becomes an integral part of a business’s ongoing monthly process. We are a part
Sramana Mitra: You said in 2006 you were doing $6 million? OJ Whatley: Yes, $6 million – $500,000 in receipts per month. Sramana Mitra: What was the inventory situation at that point? OJ Whatley: I probably had closer to 50 to 80. Sramana Mitra: That’s still out of your home?
Sramana: How much money did you raise to start the company? Rob Hull: We raised about $4.5 million in our initial round in late 2003. Sramana: What were your milestones with that money? Rob Hull: We wanted to get the product built, hire an executive team, and have a set of reference customers. That is
Sramana Mitra: It sounds like your business was entirely Panerai until what year? OJ Whatley: Until about 2003. Sramana Mitra: What did you do after 2003? OJ Whatley: Again, I’ve always loved watches. Panerai has captured my heart. In fact to this day, my license plate is Panerai. I fell in love with Panerai like
Sramana: Once you recognized the problem area, what were your next steps? Rob Hull: Our goal with building Adaptive Insights was to apply the concepts of ease of use in a cloud-based format to really attack the space that Hyperion was in. Sramana: Which specific problem did you go after as your killer app? Rob
Sramana Mitra: So your system recommends where to move the dollars to? John Wallace: Correct. Sramana Mitra: How do you sell this solution? What part of your organization is buying and how is the sales cycle?