Company Interview
How PROCESIO Reached $5,000 in ARR With Its First 4 Paying Customers on a $12M SAFE Cap (Interview with Marian Voicu)
- Interview Date
- November 10, 2021
- Interviewee
- Marian VoicuTeam Member
Company Metrics at Interview Time
ARR (2021)
$5,000
Paying Customers (2021)
4
SAFE Valuation Cap (2021)
$12,000,000
Total Funding Raised
$1,200,000
Engineers (2021)
11
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Marian Voicu during his interview with Nathan Latka in November 2021 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. No currency is named anywhere in the recording — every amount he gives is bare ("5 ks", "500,000", "1,200,000", "12,000,000") — and PROCESIO was built inside a Romanian parent company, so the figures may not have been quoted in dollars. See PROCESIO’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01PROCESIO had 4 paying customers generating $5,000 in ARR as of November 2021
- 02The company charges on an annual recurring basis only, not per user or per process
- 03A $650,000 SAFE round was closed in 2021 at a $12,000,000 valuation cap
- 04A $500,000 seed round was raised in mid-2020 and a $650,000 SAFE round in 2021; Voicu put total funding at $1,200,000
- 05PROCESIO operates as a startup inside its parent company Lingal, which has about 50 to 55 existing clients to upsell
- 06PROCESIO's team was 23 people at the time of the interview, 11 of them engineers
- 07First line of code was written in March 2020
- 08The company was targeting a $4,000,000 raise at an $18,000,000 valuation in early 2022
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ARR (2021) | $5,000 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| Paying Customers (2021) | 4 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| Seed Round (2020) | $500,000 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| SAFE Round (2021) | $650,000 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| SAFE Valuation Cap (2021) | $12,000,000 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| Total Funding Raised | $1,200,000 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| Team Size (2021) | 23 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| Engineers (2021) | 11 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
| Year Founded | 2020 | Company interview, Nov 2021 (currency not stated on tape) |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
PROCESIO reported $5,000 in ARR from 4 paying customers as of November 2021. The company sells only annual contracts and does not charge per user or per process, billing customers based on usage value. Voicu noted that no customer complained about the price and assumed PROCESIO was a bit too cheap, but believed the usage-based pricing put the company on the right spot, since customers pay only for what they use.
Customers
At the time of the interview, PROCESIO had 4 paying customers and had only just started building its first sales pipeline. The company was also positioned to upsell PROCESIO to the existing clients of its parent company, Lingal, which Voicu put at about 50 to 55 accounts.
Team
PROCESIO had a team of 23 at the time of the interview, 11 of them engineers. Its parent company, Lingal, employed 53 people in total across all of its products.
Funding
PROCESIO raised a $500,000 seed round in mid-2020 — Voicu said it came in a bit above that — and a $650,000 SAFE round in 2021 at a $12,000,000 valuation cap. He put total funding across the two rounds at $1,200,000. The company was also supported by its parent company, Lingal, which provided additional runway and bootstrap capital.
Growth Strategy
Upselling to Parent Company Clients
PROCESIO's primary near-term growth track was upselling to the existing clients of its parent company, Lingal — a base of about 50 to 55 accounts. This gave the team a warm pipeline without cold acquisition costs.
Cold Outreach and Sales Funnel
The team was actively building a sales funnel through direct outreach to prospects. Voicu described a growing pipeline of discussions with potential customers outside the parent company's client base.
Value-Added Reseller Partnerships
PROCESIO was building a partnership program with companies that deliver software outcomes to end beneficiaries, aiming to extend reach through resellers rather than direct sales alone.
Migrating Internal Product to PROCESIO
Lingal's existing CRM and ERP product for the power and gas industry was being migrated onto the PROCESIO platform, which Voicu called the strategic product of the company.
Best Quotes
“We are building a no code and low code approach to classic coding, but we are for technical mindset. So procesio is used by companies that has, let's say, a technical department or for the software development companies that build software and provide outcomes to customers.”
“It's ARR. We are annual recurring revenue because we are selling only annual recurring.”
“Actually, nobody complains about the price. So I'm assuming that we are a bit too cheap, But I think we are on the right spot because we are selling the value that we offer to our customer because they will pay what they will use. We do not charge per user, per processes. It doesn't matter for us. Matters only what they will use.”
“Our parent company support us also with capital. So we have a better runway. We will use our current company customers. We are upselling it, Procesio to the other division clients.”
“My favorite tool is procesio because we are building procesio with procesio.”
What Happened Next
This interview captured PROCESIO at a very early stage in November 2021, just after the company launched into paid and signed its first 4 paying customers. PROCESIO was built as a startup inside its Romanian parent company, Lingal, and had not been spun out of it. At the time, the team was preparing to raise $4,000,000 at an $18,000,000 target valuation in early 2022; that round was not closed when this interview was recorded. Visit the PROCESIO company profile on GetLatka for current metrics and any updates since this recording.
View PROCESIO’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction to PROCESIO and Marian Voicu
- 0:19Who Is Buying the Product
- 0:49Early Customers and Pricing
- 1:27ARR vs MRR Clarification
- 2:00Price Point and Value-Based Billing
- 2:29First Line of Code (March 2020)
- 2:40Funding History: Two Seed Rounds
- 3:13SAFE Round and Valuation Cap
- 3:37Relationship with Parent Company Lingal
- 5:16Why PROCESIO Stays Inside Lingal
- 5:46Raising the Next Round
- 6:26How PROCESIO Gets More Customers
- 7:28Team Size and Engineering Headcount
- 7:42Marian's Background
- 8:55Famous Five: Books, Tools, and Personal Life
Introduction to PROCESIO and Marian Voicu
Nathan Latka
00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Marian Voicu. He's building procesio, an integration platform that provides a fast and scalable alternative to classic coding by using a low slash no code approach. Their technology is for organizations and individuals that wanna integrate applications and process data up to five times faster. Marian, are you ready to take us to the top?
Marian Voicu
00:18>> Yes. I am. Thank you.
Who Is Buying the Product
Nathan Latka
00:19No no code is a hot space. Tell me who's buying your product.
Marian Voicu
00:24>> Yes. Is. Actually, we are building a no code and low code approach to classic coding, but we are for technical mindset. So procesio is used by companies that has, let's say, a technical department or for the software development companies that build software and provide outcomes to customers. We are a bit technical as a mindset.
Early Customers and Pricing
Nathan Latka
00:49I see. And so what are customers paying you on average to use the technology?
Marian Voicu
00:55>> Yes, they're paying us, but I must say that we just launched and have four clients paying customers and starting to build our pipeline of sales.
Nathan Latka
01:06That's awesome. Okay. So four customers, how much are they paying per month?
Marian Voicu
01:11>> In total, like 5 ks And we are having like 1,000 in pipeline. And we are hoping to close this year with 50 k.
Nathan Latka
01:21So you have five customers paying on average $1,000 a month. So 5,000 in monthly recurring revenue?
ARR vs MRR Clarification
Marian Voicu
01:27>> Sorry. Not four months. It's ARR. We are annual recurring revenue because we are selling only annual recurring.
Nathan Latka
01:34Got it. So you have five customers paying $400 a month and you're doing about five so which is about, you know, Like that.
Marian Voicu
01:42>> Like that. Yes.
Nathan Latka
01:44Yeah. So five customers total pay $400 a month altogether. You're doing about 5,000 in ARR. That's exciting. We're getting you at the stage. You just turned on the paywall. So what are you learning? Is your price point the right price point? Are you too cheap?
Price Point and Value-Based Billing
Marian Voicu
02:00>> Actually, nobody complains about the price. So I'm assuming that we are a bit too cheap, But I think we are on the right spot because we are selling the value that we offer to our customer because they will pay what they will use. We do not charge per user, per processes. It doesn't matter for us. Matters only what they will use. And this is really helpful for us because we will understand the value that we provide
02:28>> for them.
First Line of Code (March 2020)
Nathan Latka
02:29And when did you start writing this platform? The first line of code?
Marian Voicu
02:33>> First line of code, like at the beginning of 2020, 2020, in March 20 And
Funding History: Two Seed Rounds
Nathan Latka
02:40have you raised capital or are you bootstrapped?
Marian Voicu
02:43>> Yes. We are also bootstrapped from our parent company, But with this capital, we have we had two seed rounds in total of 1,200,000. And now we are reaching out for round a.
Nathan Latka
02:58When did when was the first pre seed round? How much?
Marian Voicu
03:02>> It was, at the half of 2020, like 500,000 and now a bit above, 500,000.
Nathan Latka
03:10Okay. So point two.
SAFE Round and Valuation Cap
Nathan Latka
03:13And then you so you just raised another 700,000 this year?
Marian Voicu
03:16>> Actually, was 6,000, 6.5.
Nathan Latka
03:236.5, 650,000 this And what valuation did you raise that at?
Marian Voicu
03:29>> 12,000,000.
Nathan Latka
03:30$12,000,000?
Marian Voicu
03:32>> Yes. It was a it it was a SAFE round with a cap at, 12,000,000.
Relationship with Parent Company Lingal
Nathan Latka
03:37Okay. So cap at 12,000,000. And who's the parent company?
Marian Voicu
03:41>> The parent company is the Lingal company. It's a company from the energy space. It's a top provider for software for CRM and ERP for power and gas industry in Romania.
Nathan Latka
03:53And how much equity did the parent company keep when you spun it out?
Marian Voicu
03:57>> Actually, we didn't spin it out. We are still part of the company. We are build like a startup inside the company, but we are still part of the company.
Nathan Latka
04:05So you don't really have any, you don't have any equity then?
Marian Voicu
04:09>> Myself personally? Yeah. I have because I have from the entire company.
Nathan Latka
04:14I see. How many employees are at the entire company?
Marian Voicu
04:17>> 53.
Nathan Latka
04:1953. Okay. Is this the biggest product?
Marian Voicu
04:22>> Yes, it is. It's the strategic product of the company. We have one other product for powering this industry, the CRM and ERP, and we are migrating that product on our, Procesio technology because that Procesio technology, and we will, migrate the other product on this technology.
Nathan Latka
04:40What's the what's the URL for the parent company?
Marian Voicu
04:44>> Actually, it's Lingal. I will
04:50>> spell it.
Nathan Latka
04:51So just spell it.
Marian Voicu
04:52>> L I n g a l.
Nathan Latka
04:59Lingal.
Marian Voicu
05:00>> Lingal.
Nathan Latka
05:02Lingal. Got it. Very cool. Okay. So you've got you're growing Lingal. How many are I guess, why don't you just I guess I don't understand. Why don't you just leave the business and launch this from scratch so that you have a 100% of it?
Why PROCESIO Stays Inside Lingal
Marian Voicu
05:16>> Because we were and are boosted from it and our parent company support us also with capital. So we have a better runway. We will use our current company customers. We are upselling it, Procesio to the other division clients. We do not see that will not spin off, but at this point, it makes sense for us to still be part of the company.
Raising the Next Round
Nathan Latka
05:46Got it. Interesting. Okay. And you mentioned you're raising capital now?
Marian Voicu
05:51>> Yep.
Nathan Latka
05:51How much?
Marian Voicu
05:52>> We are looking for 4,000,000.
Nathan Latka
05:56So you're raising 4,000,000 now. And what valuation are you targeting?
Marian Voicu
06:00>> 8,000,000.
Nathan Latka
06:0118,000,000. 18.
06:0318. $18,000,000. Up from 12,000,000 earlier this year.
Marian Voicu
06:09>> Yep.
Nathan Latka
06:10Do you think do you think you'll get that valuation considering your revenue is just $500 a
Marian Voicu
06:14>> We hope so. We plan to raise at the beginning of the next year while reaching to this valuation and this amount.
How PROCESIO Gets More Customers
Nathan Latka
06:26Talk to me about how you plan to get more customers.
Marian Voicu
06:30>> Well, as I said, we are the part of the other company and we will upsell procesio to the existing clients.
Nathan Latka
06:40How many existing clients are there?
Marian Voicu
06:43>> Like fifty, fifty five like this.
Nathan Latka
06:48So you're gonna upsell to those 55 clients. And then how do you get more clients?
Marian Voicu
06:53>> We will get more clients because this is just one track that we are having right now, upselling. But we have built a sales team and right now we are outreaching it. Now we are building a sales funnel. We have a pipeline of like 1,000 k and the pipeline is going with prospects and discussion that we have. And also we are building a partnership. We have a partnership program and start to build partnership with, companies that provide
07:26>> outcomes to, to beneficiaries.
Team Size and Engineering Headcount
Nathan Latka
07:28So How many total are on the team today? On the procesio team?
07:34Your team, how many?
Marian Voicu
07:35>> 33.
07:36>> 23.
Nathan Latka
07:37Okay. So twenty twenty three on the team. And how many of those are engineers?
Marian Voicu
07:41>> 11.
Marian's Background
Nathan Latka
07:4211 engineers. Great. And what's your background, Marian? I mean, you launched a company before?
Marian Voicu
07:48>> I didn't launch a company myself. I've been part of another company like in, 2015. I closed that,
07:59>> part of
08:02>> that venture that I've been part of. I've tried to build another company, some other companies before, but failed. Failed to build one in 2015. And now I'm part of this new venture alongside our founder. And I'm part of it. I do not own it. I'm not the founder, but I'm part of it. And I'm building it together with
Nathan Latka
08:27How much equity do you own in the parent company?
Marian Voicu
08:31>> I cannot disclose that, but I I have a part. I'm I have my skin in the game, and I'm also an employee.
Nathan Latka
08:42Got it. When did you join Lingal?
Marian Voicu
08:45>> In 2020 at the beginning.
Nathan Latka
08:47You joined in 2020. The same was Lingal launched in 2020?
Marian Voicu
08:51>> No. Lingal was launched in 2011.
Famous Five: Books, Tools, and Personal Life
Nathan Latka
08:55I see. Very cool. We're rooting for you. We hope it grows great. We hope you're able to raise the valuation you want. In the meantime, though, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book?
Marian Voicu
09:04>> My favorite book. I don't have favorite things, but right now I can say, let's say The Four Steps to the Epiphany.
09:13>> The Four Steps to the Epiphany is a good one.
Nathan Latka
09:15Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Marian Voicu
09:19>> I do not follow specific CEOs, but I follow some people that I like. And there is a guy that recently from Cognizant. His name is Malcolm Frank, and I really love his way of leadership and his storytelling approach, and I love his way of of doing things.
Nathan Latka
09:41Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building procesio?
Marian Voicu
09:45>> For building procesio? Actually, there are a lot. I'm a big fan of tools. So we are using a lot of tools, but building procesio, my favorite tool is procesio because we are building procesio with procesio. We have a capability.
Nathan Latka
10:02Without naming your own, Marian, a different tool.
Marian Voicu
10:04>> Okay. Okay. A different tool. Let's say on the design side, I really love what we are doing with Figma and the Miro and with Maze on the usability testing.
Nathan Latka
10:20It's great Number for the four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Marian Voicu
10:26>> Let's take enough. I can do better, but How many? Between six and seven.
Nathan Latka
10:32Six and seven. Very good. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?
Marian Voicu
10:36>> I married with a wonderful woman that support me, and I have a daughter of 3.5 years old.
Nathan Latka
10:44Married, one kid. And how old are you?
Marian Voicu
10:46>> I'm 34.
10:48>> 34.
Nathan Latka
10:49Last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.
Marian Voicu
10:52>> Actually, that is not something like that. I cannot think of myself of knowing what I know now because I think that what I did when I was younger, I did with the knowledge that I have and I did a good job because I'm here right now.
Nathan Latka
11:08So to think about this. Procesio, helping you connect more applications faster, a low code, no code environment. Five customers today paying a $100 per month. So 500 in MRR, about 5,000 in ARR as they look to scale. $500,000 pre seed round raised last year. Another 650,000 raised this year at a 12,000,000 valuation. Now looking to raise 4,000,000 out of 18,000,000 valuation. We'll see if they can get it done. 23 on the team today. Marian, thank you
11:32for taking us to the top.
Marian Voicu
11:34>> Thank you very much, Nathan.
Nathan Latka
11:37One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM Central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. 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, ARPU CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday, 1PM
12:02Central. 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 SaaS world, whether it's an acquisition, a big
12:24fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you wanna take this conversation deeper and further, we have by far the largest private Slack community for B2B SaaS 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
12:46for that at nathanlatka.com/slack. In the meantime, I'm hanging out with you here on YouTube. I'll be in the comments for the next thirty 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
13:06got to push them away. Click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys'support. All right.
Marian Voicu
13:11>> I'll
Nathan Latka
13:11be in the comments. See you.