817: SaaS: DemandBase Raises $65m More, $90m+ ARR, Leading ABM Space, IPO Next?

Chris Golec. He’s built three, successful, technology businesses in the last 18 years. Today, he’s the founder and CEO of Demandbase and his mission is to transform B2B advertising, marketing and sales through innovations and digital technology. Today, hundreds of blue chip enterprises across financial services, hi-tech, manufacturing, healthcare and telecom industries have adopted a demand based on the B2B marketing platform and account-based marketing technology to dramatically improve the way they acquire and grow customers.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Straight from the Gut
• What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch and Sundar Pichai
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Don't start a company just to NOT work for someone else

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
• 02:28 – In the last two years, Chris has seen that there’s a dramatic increase in demand
• 03:13 – Chris is seeing 50% growth in revenue this year
• 03:22 – Demandbase just closed funding of $65M in May 2017, which is on top of the $90M they’ve raised
• 03:50 – Chris shares the reason that they’ve raised another round
  • 03:53 – The ABM category
  • 04:10 – Demandbase has developed new innovations
• 05:27 – ABM is more of a business process and Demandbase is much more of a platform
• 05:41 – Demandbase has multiple products integrated into their solution
• 06:10 – Demandbase was launched in 2007
• 06:22 – Demandbase currently has a lot of options
• 06:33 – Salesforce and Marketo are getting into the ABM category as well
• 08:25 – By the end of 2017, they’ll pass the $100M revenue mark
• 09:00 – Demandbase’s customer expansion
• 09:44 – Current customer count is around 400-600
• 09:57 – Team size is 300
• 10:17 – Demandbase will probably break even or be cashflow positive in Q1 or Q2 of 2018
• 10:55 – Demandbase is increasing investments ahead of plan and that allows them to generate new products
  • 11:13 – It makes new customers come to the platform
• 11:44 – Demandbase has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, New York and London
• 12:25 – Demandbase has 50-60 quota-carrying reps, 20-25 in marketing, 10-15 HR and the rest are in data, R&D and engineering
• 13:20 – Account-based marketing allows you to save a lot of money
• 13:58 – Customers pay annually
• 14:09 – Payback period is around 12 months
  • 14:33 – Chris is lenient with their payback period
• 15:13 – LTV
• 15:30 – Chris won’t barter just to acquire new customers
• 17:44 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Raising a large amount of capital will help develop the business quickly.
2. Account-based marketing can save you more money.
3. When you start a company, you’re working for EVERYONE.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives