Chris Savage
- Co-Founder and CEO at Wistia
GetLatka interview
How Wistia Took $17.3M in Debt Instead of Selling and More Than Doubled Revenue (Interview with Co-Founder and CEO Chris Savage)
Chris Savage (Co-Founder and CEO of Wistia) spoke to Nathan Latka on December 17, 2019.
Wistia figures from the interview
- Revenue Run Rate (2019)
- More than double the 2017 $18M run rate
- Debt from Accel-KKR (2017)
- $17.3M
- Team Size (2019)
- 115
- EBITDA (2018)
- $6M
- Sales Reps (2019)
- 16
“We only ever raised two angel rounds. So for a total of 1,400,000, we raised 650,000 in 2008, and another about 800,000, a little less than that in 2010.”
“I think the revenue range was around like about like right at the time of the offer, I think we're about like an $18,000,000 run rate or so.”
“We decided not to sell in, June 2017. Hit on this idea of doing debt in probably July, and by October we had terms. And so we worked with Accel-KKR, to fund the debt, and they were willing to write debt against a company that was not profitable.”
Bio
Chris Savage is the co-founder and CEO of Wistia, a web-based software solution that helps marketers turn viewers into brand advocates to grow their businesses. After graduating from Brown University, Chris and his co-founder Brendan Schwartz, started Wistia in Brendan’s living room in 2006. They founded the company with the goal of helping businesses effectively market their products or services more creatively through video. Recently, Savage and Schwartz turned down an offer to sell Wistia and took on $17.3M in debt instead, which allowed them to buy out their investors, gain full control of Wistia, and take the path less traveled in the tech industry. Now, more than 500,000 businesses across 50 countries depend on Wistia's products to build their brands and their businesses, including HubSpot, MailChimp, Sephora, Starbucks, and Tiffany & Co.