WeSoar Revenue, Valuation & Funding (2024)

guys we store helps you motivate your teams�� they just passed 23 000 a month in Revenue up���� from 14 000 uh just a year ago but buried under�� that is a lot of that Revenue a year ago was uh���� Consulting only 1K was SAS now almost 21 000 of�� this is SAS they went from 11 customers down to���� four so they're moving away from SMB and more into�� uh larger market larger Enterprise deals they're���� burning twenty three thousand dollars a month in�� Revenue with about a hundred Canada Banks so he's���� happy with three to four months of Runway small�� team of seven which they're staying and focused���� on being hyper efficient in terms of acquisition�� they're using Word of Mouth AI blog posts things���� of that nature hey folks my guest today is Nasheed�� pathaki is on a mission to L8 employee experience���� and fulfillment to A Billion Lives he's building�� we soar dot AI which is enables performance and���� Elevate elevated experience uh for uh employees�� all right Nasheed you ready to take us to the top���� yeah all right so give us an update you came on�� you came on a year ago and you had just broken���� 10 customers you're doing about 15 000 a month in�� Revenue where are you today we've gone to about 23���� 000 in Revenue but the split has changed�� quite substantially so last time we spoke���� I think we were doing about a thousand�� on SAS and about 14 000 on on Consulting���� we are now about 20 21k on SAS and 203k on�� Consulting obviously because I think changes���� congratulations that's exciting it's very�� hard to sell an employee engagement tool���� when everyone is laying people off in a�� recession how have you kept your turn low���� so uh we are we are actually uh moving upscale�� we a lot of customers that we did refer to in���� the last kind of meeting about a year ago we don't�� work with them anymore because initially when the���� product was new we were we had no choice but to�� work in the SMB space we no longer work in the SMB���� space we are working with much larger companies�� and how many Enterprises are you working with���� for right now okay so you went from�� 11 customers down to four but you���� increased Revenue yes that's right we had we had�� customers which which were giving us 20 a month���� so so obviously it does kind of show as a count�� on the customer table but it doesn't really give���� you much yep that makes sense yeah so what we�� are now what we are now kind of working on is a���� is the internal Target of at least 100K ARR�� per client and you're at about 6 000 a month���� right now per client about 70 000 ACB per client�� right now all right no so the some of the kind of���� some of the clients are at the very early�� stage of implementation so I'm not counting���� their revenue in right now so so basically we�� are talking about on an average 10K a month���� I see okay for each for each kind of properly�� implemented case and have you gotten the business���� to the point where it can be sustainable long term�� you are burning 25k a month last time we chatted���� it is still about the same maybe it has come�� down to 23 24. okay so have you raised more���� money or you're still using the 205 000 precede�� around you raised last year there is no money���� better than Revenue okay so you didn't raise�� more no we are not going to raise anymore okay���� that's right do you regret raising the 200k�� last year at the 10 million valuation no I���� think that was that was more around uh the�� kind of close circle of people who trusted���� me personally rather than trusting the product�� so so that's a separate thing we needed a little���� bit of money to get started but right now I�� think we are at a stage where I would very���� happily self-fund for another six months one�� year and how many folks are on the team today���� what about the product side of things what is it�� doing today give us a customer use case study here���� so um we've matured the product substantially�� while I said we are seven people we are actually���� doing the work of 25 because a lot of Junior roles�� are now being done by AI so we don't have any���� Junior product Junior information security Junior�� marketing any of those so all of those roles have���� been kind of taken over by AI interesting the�� existing people are managing so each one of us is���� literally doing the work of five people using AI�� well again name it name it name a task that you've���� used to have someone doing a person that now�� is done by AI information security policies for���� example right writing blogs well you don't need�� people to do that anymore 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 evaluations���� or if you go to founderpath.com and hover over�� products click on get your evaluation 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 okay so where I'm���� on your blog right now what what which of these�� can I click on that was written by a machine AI���� sorry guys didn't get that say that again I'm�� on your blog right now well actually how do���� I get to your blog so you can find the blogs�� on LinkedIn published by the resource handle���� oh I see you don't put them on your�� website uh we don't we don't we don't���� actually use the website so the website�� is there just for people to know that���� there is a website but we don't attract�� traffic through the website every customer���� we are getting these days is through�� Word of Mouth every single customer���� uh and literally after the first Enterprise�� customer the cost of client acquisition is zero got it okay um got it I guess so how do�� you go get you have four right now how do���� you get more customers faster we are in we�� are not in a hurry to get customers faster���� or you better be you're burning 25 Grand a month�� so we'll we'll cover it we'll break even by the���� time we get the next one paying their annual uh�� allow annual fee in advance so we will break even���� with the customer we don't need to worry about�� that which is why we don't need to raise cash���� urgently or anytime soon we're happy�� delaying the fundraising a year or���� two years down the line how much�� runway do you have in the bank today���� we've always had a three to four month Runway�� okay so you're comfortable operating with just���� today about 7 500k in the bank and then you're�� burning 25k a month so that's three to four months���� of Runway because because we know that there�� is constant kind of business coming through���� uh it could be a one-off Consulting deal which�� which is high value it could be uh we we don't���� uh so our pricing is also annual in advance we�� don't have the monthly payment kind of a thing���� so we get cash up front yeah I guess that makes�� sense it's just how do you keep top tier Talent���� when they know you only have four months of Runway�� left will be just three people in the core team���� we will not hit 10 people in the next seven�� eight months I don't need to hire more people you don't think you can pick off the top�� sales rep from your biggest competitor���� and add customers faster not not right now we�� are as I said we are we are building a product���� that takes time and skill and love�� to build we don't want to rush up���� and do anything which is sub-optimal we are�� competing with sap Oracle uh worked a glint���� those kind of companies we better be much better�� than what those companies offer for us to stand a���� chance so we are not in a hurry we want to take�� it easy we want to go with our close circle of���� initial customers who are helping us co-create the�� product building the product with us we are not in���� a hurry I mean if I'm listening to this as a�� listener to the podcast and I hear a Founder���� go we're willing to take it easy here I imagine I�� would be thinking this is going to be eaten alive���� this company's not going to exist in two years�� your your Airbus A380 doesn't take off vertically���� when did you launch the business uh the the�� kind of beta beta testing started happening���� late 2021 okay okay got it so over over�� two years you've gone from nothing to 23���� 000 bucks a month in revenue and you're happy�� with that growth rate yeah we we have we have���� grown so if you take the last kind of discussion�� we had we were at 1K so we've gone from 1K to 23k���� or 22k in in the space of 12 months well you�� were at you are at fifteen thousand that's���� what you told me at least is you were doing yes�� but Consulting a lot of that was Consulting and���� not I say recurring the ARR was the the mrr�� was about 1K so 1K goes up to 2021 okay are���� you seeing healthy economics are people still has�� anyone paid you on the SAS fee and also canceled uh the initial round of uh customers the SMB�� customers we are treated a lot of those yeah���� the product was not benefiting much from that�� Association uh they were using 10 or 20 of the���� product features the product was not becoming�� any richer so there was attrition in that lot���� but in this current round we also kind of insist�� on at least a two or three year contract we don't���� do a month on month kind of a thing anymore when�� someone signs a three-year contract with you do���� you build in a natural accelerator from year�� one to year two of four or five six percent���� we give them a discount for a long-term contract�� uh so we we kind of assure them of no price���� increase over the three-year term but why would�� you do that I mean a key thing of building a���� sales company is net dollar retention you handicap�� yourself if you basically tell them we're never���� going to try and sell you more or build more value�� for you we we build more by adding new features���� not charging more for the existing features right�� so for example yeah but if you build new well the���� other use cases that you just described is what�� if you build new features you can't now charge for���� that no no that will be a separate sale completely�� altogether okay so you cannot sell them absolutely���� and and in fact uh a lot of focus is on getting�� more closer value and more closer alignment with���� the existing set of customers where we we go very�� deep in our relationship with them understand them���� like a true partner and then build on uh the�� size of wallet that we have with that customer���� I see okay that makes sense um what other growth�� tactics are you trying here team of seven what���� linkedin's working AI blog post what else a word�� of mouth okay okay how do you incentivize how do���� you incentivize Word of Mouth how do you ask a�� happy customer for a review or an introduction���� we asked them and they do it we don't have to�� incentivize anyone they do it because what do���� you say so is it an email after you deliver the�� first product spec that says I hope you enjoyed���� this can you please introduce me to any of your�� other friends I mean specifically what do you ask���� for so it is it is generally an email or Whatsapp�� or a phone call where every where we asked for���� reference some of our customers have moved on to�� new jobs and we are in discussions with them in���� their new jobs as well so so yeah that's how�� it is working is that a good or bad thing if���� a customer of yours changes jobs do you lose the�� business that they were the internal advocate for���� uh we always try to make the product talk which�� is why the whole company should should start���� loving the product and it's not just one person's�� sponsorship and you know this is this is a fact���� of life people do move on people change jobs you�� can't change any of that you have to live with it���� all right very good let's wrap them here with the�� famous five number one what's your favorite book���� still the Black Swan all right box well number�� two is there a CEO you're following or studying���� no I've become a little bit decision�� illusion with a lot of CEOs recently���� number three what's your favorite online tool�� nashif currently it's 10 GPT number four how���� many hours of sleep do you get every night�� six okay in situation married single kids���� still married still two kids that's good as and�� I guess you had a birthday are you 45 now yes���� congratulations happy birthday last thing�� something you wish you knew when you were 20. no nothing in specific nothing in specific I I�� think uh in retrospect the life I've LED is a is���� a good life decent life guys we store helps�� you motivate your teams they just passed 23���� 000 a month in Revenue up from 14 000 uh just a�� year ago but buried under that is a lot of that���� Revenue a year ago was uh Consulting only 1K�� was SAS now almost 21 000 of this is SAS they���� went from 11 customers down to four so they're�� moving away from SMB and more into uh larger���� market larger Enterprise deals they're burning 23�� 000 a month in Revenue with about a hundred Canada���� Banks so he's happy with three to four months of�� Runway small team of seven which they're staying���� and focused on being hyper efficient in terms of�� acquisition they're using Word of Mouth AI blog���� posts things of that nature we'll see what happens�� next and chief thanks for taking us to the top���� so thanks Evan 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 their 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�� all right I'll be in the comments see ya