Why Doodle, at $62k in MRR, is Going All-In on SaaS

Finding the perfect time for your busy team to meet can be exhausting, especially in today’s global working environment. It can be virtually impossible to coordinate across various timezones and calendar software.

Thankfully, Doodle has taken all of the guesswork and friction out of scheduling important meetings and calls. With their software and web application, it’s now easy to suggest times, invite participants, and pick a good meeting time, making scheduling quicker than ever.

How much is Doodle doing in MRR?

Founded in 2007, Doodle has grown to scale mostly through advertising revenue to this point. However, upon appointing Gabriele Ottino to CEO in 2016, the company has invested in the transition to a SaaS model and has had success early on. Today, with 200M active users annually, 85% of Doodle’s revenue still comes from traditional advertising revenue, but the company’s SaaS portfolio is growing.

On the SaaS end, the company prices their subscriptions on an annual basis, with new plans ranging from from $49 to $69 each year. Today, Ottino noted that the average customer pays Doodle between $30 and $40 on an annual basis.

The company is currently serving more than 25k total customers and is doing north of $62k in MRR right now. With a significant emphasis on SaaS, the company is also growing revenue 20% month over month and are aiming to cross $1.5M in ARR by early 2019.

What is Doodle’s CAC?

Thanks to their impressive traffic, a majority of Doodle’s paid customers are coming through organic channels at this point in time. Ottino explained however, that the company has been experimenting with paid advertising across Google AdWords and Facebook advertising and have invested roughly $10k in split tests.

At present, Doodle is spending approximately $8 to land a new free trial and are converting 20% of those trials into paid customers. Total, the company is spending around $40 to land a new annual subscription with immediate payback on a cash basis and a 12 month payback on a deferred revenue basis.

How much has Doodle raised?

Founded by two PhD students in Zurich back in 2007, Doodle was eventually purchased by Swiss media company Tamedia in 2014. The parent company ultimately orchestrated the hiring of Ottino back in 2016 and currently owns 100% of Doodle’s equity. Ottino mentioned that Tamedia has provided Doodle with two rounds of internal funding to fuel the transition to SaaS.

Doodle’s team of 60 full-time employees is spread across 4 offices in Europe and Israel.