Sramana Mitra: In that strategy, were you actually partnering with Salesforce and going to market through the AppExchange? Brad Peters: We were. Salesforce is a fairly hands-off partner. I wouldn’t say that it was a huge help. That has generally been my experience talking to other people. You find Salesforce customers on your own and
Sramana: You started your reseller or distributor business right after college. How did you handle the crash when you realized the business was no longer viable? Fred Laluyaux: I was actually ready to move on. I did that business from the age of 23 to 27 years. There was no VC funding, so it was
Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about what happens after you did the reset. What was your go-to market strategy with the new horizontal product? Brad Peters: We had to sit down and figure out what the go-to market strategy was going to be. There was a lot of experimentation. We couldn’t make our enterprise product available
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. This story traces the mechanics of scaling an enterprise software company that is close to $100 million in bookings in 2014, and is contemplating an IPO soon. Sramana: Fred, let’s start out this story by learning a bit more about you. What is your backstory? Fred Laluyaux:
Sramana Mitra: What was your original estimate of the TAM for your application in the financial services area? As the market was shifting, what did you estimate it down to that made you explore other verticals? Brad Peters: The TAM for each application was probably $100 million. It had to be $100 million to get
Sramana: What has your overall financing strategy been for the business? I know you raised $1.3 million in your early angel rounds. Have you raised additional funds? Rajiv Kumar: We raised $8 million dollars during our first Series A, and this past fall, we did a $5 million Series B. Sramana: Where are you in
Sramana Mitra: Was the seed that you got enough to get you to the next milestone or did you have to raise? Brad Peters: We raised seed financing before we started. We couldn’t afford to make the mortgage payment without a little bit of seed financing. We got a little bit of seed financing from
Sramana: Was the transition process contentious or was it something that happened naturally? Rajiv Kumar: It was not contentious, although it was not easy. Change is hard, but it felt like the right thing to do. The ideas I was presenting and my evangelism were compelling. It took some planning, but I was impressed with