Levin: SEMrush is still largely founder-owned and founder-managed
“We we're still business that largely owned by founders, managed by founders and, you know, team of people who they assembled over, over time.”
Levin: SEMrush employs 800 people and is cash flow positive
“I mean, you see, we have 800 people and we are cash flow positive.”
Levin: SEMrush has over 200 product staff with ~75% writing code
“So in product department overall, we have more than 200 people. Now, out of them, how many write code? Probably 75%.”
Levin: SEMrush revenue per customer grew 6-7x since 2008
“If you look back, you know, to 2008, I think comparing to the first version of the product that we had our revenue per customer increased more than six times, probably closer to seven times.
after I joined, you know,
I want to say almost doubled.”
Staged capital tranches allow venture investors to optimize their IRR
“They had an obligation to fund in certain point, but there was no big difference if money sits on their balance sheet, or not, not, not even balance sheet, or on our balance sheet, or it sits with them. In this case, they can optimize their, you know, IRR, whi…”
Levin: SEMrush raised its $40M round across multiple investor tranches
“We didn't raise forty million from the very beginning, so we announced it later, but it was actually multiple different transactions with more or less the same group of investors.”
Levin: Growing Companies Should Hold Cash Reserves Scaled to Expenses
“As company gets bigger technically you want to have certain amount of money on the balance sheet comparable to your revenue, like monthly revenue or, you know, better say monthly expenses. In case things happen, you want to be able to run the business for a wh…”
Levin: SEMrush Left Its Entire $40M Funding Round on Balance Sheet
“We raised some money, but frankly speaking, we didn't touch You know, this round. It's pretty much all on the balance sheet.”
SEMrush hit 40% EBITDA margins and one-month CAC payback before Levin joined
“Company was growing back, back then more than 60% year over year 40% EBITDA margin and one month customer acquisition cost recovered.”
Levin: SEMrush has up to 50,000 paying customers and 2 million users
“So we have a more than two million users, adding a lot of new users every month in terms of paying customers. It's Let's say between 30 and 50,000.”
SEMrush was a side project for four years before founders fully committed
“So the first version was in 2008. But till 2012, it was more like a hobby. Not, you know, not a serious business, and they used to have other businesses. And only 2012, they like really realized that SEM rush on its own is probably going to be bigger than ever…”