Hi Platform Revenue, Valuation & Funding (2024)

guys highplatform.com was launched in 2017 the four co-founders owned 20 together and other investors from an earlier acquisite you know merger deal on the other eighty percent today the company is doing 13 million bucks in ARR up from 11 million about 11.5 million about a year ago they raised a seven million dollar round of funding their first outside funding last year at a 40 million evaluation which was about a 3X valuation multiple and the co-founders have gotten smart they bought back a bunch of equity over the years they now own 40 together which is great as Marcelo and team focus on growing High platform.com hey folks my guest today is Marcelo puglisi he's been an entrepreneur since the early 2000s and participated in the launch of eight different startups since 2017 he's been the CEO of high platform the largest customer experience SAS platform in Brazil he participated in fundraising operations M A and mentoring processes uh processes is a fan of conscious capitalism behavioral economics and corporate culture and he's a married father one kid named Benjamin uh graduated in MBA with specializations in management and sales Innovation Marcelo you ready to take us to the top all right so just to be clear put us on a timeline for us what year did High platform launch and when did you join as CEO uh We've launched uh January 2017 and me and three other co-founders and since day one I was the CEO of the company okay and why do I have your start date as 2000 oh I started other businesses uh in 2000 uh with other guys so my journey started as an entrepreneur started here in Brazil and in mid uh June 2000 uh with a company called direct talk and we've stayed uh for a while in the market and actually High platform direct talk originated High platform uh we got some of them so it's the same it's the same cap table then right it's a different cap table uh but with also when did when did you cut that then when did direct platform stop in high start uh January 2017. okay we got it yeah but with if with a different cap table and uh a different different some different products uh but me as as one of the founders how did you do that right so there's a lot of folks listening right now that might have raised a 200 300 500 000 seat round two three years ago and they're going man I love my investors I want to make them whole but this business is not working I want to shut it down and launch their own version of high platform how do you shut down that thing without pissing off the old investors at DirecTV uh we actually didn't shut down uh we merged with another startup it was a a Brazilian startup for uh uh social media Customer Care customer care care and I we started speaking talking with their investors and they are they were very into uh they wanted to invest in in some chatbot products here in Brazil and direct talk used to have this product and and these guys they they just asked me uh could you speak with the the other Founders and and see if you can work together uh can you can you imagine an angle where you put all these products together and the conversations went went pretty well uh the products were very uh complementary so okay so understood you you sold you merged that business then you're done and you move into high platform 2017. now you with your three other co-founders did you guys play nice on day one did you just split Equity evenly or was it sort of lopsided oh we actually we were we had a very little uh of of the shares so we got together the four of us with very close participations uh but we've worked the past three years uh to have more shares and to uh even balanced more our our positions oh what's going on there YouTube good to see you guys now imagine this you love watching these interviews with SAS Founders but imagine if we took all of the valuation data out from over 2807 interviews I've done manually saves you a lot of time well we've done this we've built the into the beautiful interface inside of founder path check this out I'll show you how you can access this in a second but you log in you connect your stripe account you see your valuation real time you can see what it changed over the past 88 days and even set goals for evaluation this year now the secret valuation is there's many different ways to value a SAS business so the reason you're going to see three or four different evaluations inside of your founder path dashboard this is all free by the way is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SAS company you're going to get a different valuation a VC is going to pay a different valuation private Equity Firm is different if you're going to do a minority sale that's different and if you sell the whole business that's a different valuation you can see all those when I hover over here here right so the teal is what a VC would pay yellow is what private equity and red is if you sold the whole thing outright now what's cool about this is this is not built off random data again you guys hear these interviews on YouTube all these datas are built from real-time valuation data points Founders share with us on the show so traction 1.2 million seed round 3.7 raise they sold 22 percent of their business go in here and filter by the event maybe you only want to see companies that have sold the whole business well here are a bunch that have been acquired the valuation and the multiple maybe you're going out right now and you're raising your seed round well go in here and look at all this recent seed deals that went down what they raised what valuation they raised at and what percent that they sold there's never been a larger data set of SAS valuation than what you can get now inside of founder path and we're thrilled to bring it to you all right we're gonna go back to the YouTube video here in a second but if you want to check this tool out if you want to jump in and sign up you can check it out for free to get your valuation at this link this link founderpath.com forward slash products forward slash valuations or if you go to founderpath.com and hover over products click on get your valuation here and go ahead and sign up to give it a whirl again all that valuation data live right inside the platform I hope to see you there all right let's jump back into the interview so when you started Martell like if somebody owned more why did you guys read it whoever that was was going to earn like or have more at the beginning uh yeah but that that was not that much different uh the difference was not the Gap was not that large uh and uh we we've uh we actually did get along pretty well and it was easy to choose our uh roles as Executives uh despite of the the shares we used to have okay so you need to own about 25 then at the start somewhere right around there no actually we we had uh way little than that because the investors are from both companies that merged they came together so we have a very uh how can I say that in English but uh we have a very fast of fragmented fragmented cap table uh so how much how much let me just ask it this way how how much of the company did you guys as the four Founders not own oh we actually had uh 20 of the company okay so other people investors from the merge company they own the other 80 and you guys split the 20 four ways five percent each yeah yeah I see and Marcelo why do that you're like a talented executive you're well known in Brazil why get involved with something where you only own five percent why not go start your own thing and own 100 uh my wife asked me that uh I'm not your wife but I still think that question yeah that's a very good one uh uh Nathan to be really honest I was so much into the business I was so excited about uh uh Division and the goal and and of course the challenge uh that really I I wasn't to me and I I've chosen the the the path uh the difficult one because uh with we've doubled our participation in the last two years so we've uh we bought shares from other uh yeah that's it that's it but I it was I it was a tough a a tough uh challenge where did you get the money to buy out earlier investors bonuses but where did you get the money from was it profits yeah bonuses from the company so you you have earned bonuses from the company since 2017 and you used your personal money to buy out earlier investors based off your bonuses yeah that's it I see if you're earning all those bonuses though how do you convince the early investors to sell at a price that you can actually purchase shares using your bonus dollars uh we had some we had some guys on the cap table that uh were on the on the company for a while uh they were tired uh they had a minority position so they didn't vote and they didn't participate on the company so they were not happy with this uh position and to then uh the even even though we bought a little a more cheap uh they had they had a good return so it was a good deal to to everyone yeah now guys I'm asking all these questions because High has significant revenues you know Marcel when we last spoke back in June I think it was of 2018 or 2019 you said something like you had 1100 customers paying on average a thousand dollars USD a month so you guys are doing 700 800 000 a month in Revenue back then right uh yes yes we we are doing uh what we are doing uh right now we had uh 1.7 000 uh different customers and we do have 1.1 million dollars in in mrr yeah yeah so 1 700 customers you're doing 1.1 million in mrr which is equivalent to about 13 million dollars of ARR right uh yes that's it correct and so why um I mean look that's good growth but it's not fast growth right if you went from 9 million in 2018 to 13 million today you're only adding about a million net new ARR per year why haven't you grown faster uh another good question for Nathan uh we we've chosen a past a path to the company uh to have um different products we didn't focus in one product so we've built a a whole platform that can help companies selling and help companies doing customer care so there are 10 different kind of features and we did some uh we did we had the merger but we did some m a uh uh during this this uh path during this uh the past three years so we had to put this out together as one product and [Music] try to find the right uh uh sweet spot and the right Market fee to to all these features so and and we've raised money very late uh we actually raised money last tag last August uh we raised uh uh uh seven million dollars uh uh that was our our first round uh so we had very little money we came all the out all the way with so you were Marshall just to be clear between 2017 when you launched and the 7 million round you guys were bootstraps yeah that's it okay and what did you the seven million around I mean most people are raising you know they're selling 15 of the company did you sell around 15 percent a little bit more okay got it so we're talking like a like a 35 million dollar evaluations 40 million valuations something like that yeah foreign looking back does that feel fair was that the right move uh uh I think it was a good move uh uh we we brought some uh a good a good company a good investor so he's very much into the Brazilian Tech Market uh very much into SAS uh it's an it's a new uh fund uh with actually the second company or the first company but now they have uh three or four uh so it was I think it was a good move it was a very good move and help me understand growth so if you're at 1.1 million today in Revenue where were you exactly one year ago uh we actually grew 28 the last year uh and we are probably uh 2020 to uh sorry 20 yeah 22. we are we are growing 20 22 so uh we are not growing really fast but we are we keep we are keep keeping some base uh but probably 20 uh to 2024 uh we will have some very uh strong growth around March what do you guys think you will hit this year in Revenue uh 15 um 50 million dollars how do you so you raised you're at 13 million run right last year when you raised the 7 million seed right most VCS when you raise that money they're going to want you growing 50 60 100 a year over year the projection you just gave me is like 15 one five year of your growth how did you get your board comfortable your VCS was such a slow growth rate uh because they we are looking for a five-year plan so our first our first year that's going to be 2023 it's good it's not going to be that fast but we will unlock uh our growth a path and and revenue streams uh throughout the year so probably the years to come will be really faster okay that makes sense what about team today how many folks are full time oh 100 full time we have uh to uh 200 and 150 people uh how many of those 250 are engineers 65 65. okay and how many sales reps are carry a quota how many sales reps carry their quota uh uh 90 no no how many like what's the number how many how many would you have 20 25 20. and that's pretty good night nine zero percent of them hit their quota each quarter huh yeah yeah what's the quota a million a year in ARR what's the quota uh each of them has a three thousand dollars per month uh uh as the initial quarter and the senior ones they have uh uh six thousand dollars uh per month I see so if those senior people do add six grand every month for 12 months that means they add 72 000 of mrr which is equivalent of about 850 000 of ARR so your top reps that's what they do yes okay very interesting well this is a heck of a story we didn't I want to wrap up talking about the product right I mean where do you see the customer success service space going over the next three four five years uh very good question I I actually uh think that every company and I think a high platform as well has to do first of all Basics uh to guarantee that our customers are using uh the products in the proper way and also being a hub of information and data uh benchmarking of using the products and and getting results of the product so I think this is uh step one for for customer success uh but what I do see different uh in the coming years is that Technologies make making things uh very different in the way that we can deliver uh content we you can deliver we can have education products you know programs in order to use our products and as well as the way uh WhatsApp messenger Facebook Messenger uh and and this kind of apps they are changing the way we relate to each other uh as a B2B uh software business uh so I think we have a a a very different same same purpose uh with the basics concept with the basic concept but delivering it in a different way well Martella we're certainly rooting for you we're out of time though now let's wrap up here with the famous five number one what's your favorite book uh onwards uh hard truths number two is there a CEO you're following or studying oh so many so many I I actually really like how it shoots uh uh and so on I'll put something yeah number three what's your favorite online tool for building High platform besides your own or goggle uh GoGo oh Google Google yeah Google Chat number number four how many hours of sleep do you get every night six okay and um what's your situation married single kids married with kids um one kiddo that's great and how old are you um 46. last question something you wish you knew when you were 20 years old most of most of the things I know today wow oh so stay to stay calm uh uh in in in difficult times guys highplatform.com was launched in 2017 the four co-founders owned 20 together and other investors from an earlier acquisite you know merger deal on the other 80 today the company is doing uh 13 million bucks in ARR up from 11 million about 11.5 million about a year ago they raised a seven million dollar round of funding their first outside funding last year at a 40 million evaluation which was about a 3X valuation multiple and the co-founders have gotten smart they bought back a bunch of equity over the years they now own 40 together which is great as Marcelo and team focus on growing High platform.com customer success and software tool Marcelo thanks for taking us to the top thank you Nathan good to see you bye one more thing before you go we have a brand new show every Thursday at 1pm Central it's called Shark Tank for SAS we call it deal or bust one founder comes on three hungry buyers they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back-end dashboards their expenses their revenue our poo CAC LTV you name it they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live it is fun to watch every Thursday 1 p.m Central additionally remember these recorded founder interviews go live we release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM Central to make sure you don't miss any of that make sure you click the Subscribe button below here on YouTube the big red button and then click the little bell notification to make sure you get notifications when we do go live I wouldn't want you to miss breaking news in the SAS World whether it's an acquisition a big fundraise a big sale a big profitability statement or something else I don't want you to miss it additionally if you want to take this conversation deeper and further we have by far the largest private slack Community for B2B SAS Founders you want to get in there we've probably talked about your tool if you're running a company or your firm if you're investing you can go in there and quickly search and see what people are saying sign up for that at nathanlacka.com forward slash slack in the meantime I'm hanging out with you here on YouTube I'll be in the comments for the next 30 minutes feel free to let me know what you thought about this episode and if you enjoyed it click the thumbs up we get a lot of haters that are mad at how aggressive I am on these shows but I do it so that we can all learn we have to counter those people we got to push them away click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys's support alright I'll be in the comments see ya