Don Mal
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Una Software. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestorLinkedIn ↗una.ai ↗
Don Mal is a B2B software entrepreneur who co-founded Vena Solutions and served as its CEO for eight years, scaling the company past $100 million in ARR. He also co-founded Fluence Technologies and Una Software.
2shows
2appearances
27statements
3resolved
3supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Don Mal said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Lead generation is the absolute number one first hire for a startup
“Not only did we hire, you know, our first person to generate leads, but I've done that in my last two startups since as well. So it is the number one hire in my opinion. If you don't have leads, you don't have sales. If you don't have sales, you don't have a c…”
Don Mal: Vena differentiated by embracing Excel rather than replacing it
“All of the vendors were replacing Microsoft Excel as the tool that most companies use for budgeting and planning. We actually embraced Microsoft Excel as the grid technology in our software, so we kept people in a very familiar environment, and you know, we us…”
Mal: Planning software vendors replacing Excel succeed mainly in enterprise
“The vendors that have done well, you know, extremely well in the market where they replace Excel have gone more to the enterprise segment of the market, larger companies.”
Founders should launch products in domains they already know how to sell
“I always tell young entrepreneurs, Hey, look, stick close to your nettings, you know, come to market with something you already know how to sell.”
Six new FP&A vendors have entered the market since Vena and succeeded
“Since Vena, there have been another, let's call it half dozen vendors that have entered the space that are all doing well.”
Vena landed Wells Fargo early, charging banks $500,000 for mission-critical reporting
“One of our first 20 customers was Wells Fargo, as an example, and we sold to all, you know, a lot of the big banks in the U.S. After that, but we were getting half a million dollars a year from the banks to use Venna for mission critical regulatory processes.”
Don Mal: FP&A software ROI comes from leverage, not headcount reduction
“The biggest thing in that space is, is really getting the most out of your team. You know, when you think about the manual Sort of archaic way of doing budgeting and planning of like sending spreadsheets, chasing the numbers, manually consolidating the results…”
Vena Solutions launched with a $10 million seed valuation
“So right out of the gate, we value the company at ten million dollars.”
Vena Solutions projects a customer LTV of $400,000 to $500,000
“And so we do, you know, sort of Project a customer staying with us for as up to 10 years. Imagine, you know, four to 500,000 dollars with a lifetime value.”
Mal: IBM discontinued Clarity Systems' product after acquisition, opening market for Vena
“When IBM acquired the company where we worked, they discontinued the product that we then re-entered the market with our own approach, so we fill that void in a sense. Their product, the company that was sold to IBM, had an Excel look and feel capability withi…”
Mal: Vena's early mid-market contracts averaged around $30,000 per year
“The primary one was budgeting and planning to mid-market, which, you know, might've been in that kind of 30,000 dollar per, per customer
per year range”
Vena took five years to hit $10M ARR, then eight to $100M
“If you go back to Vena, like those first five years, you're just building that first, like getting to five to ten million of ARR, you know, that's really what you're doing, I think, in most cases. But then if you think about where Vena is today, like eight yea…”
Don Mal: Vena reached $1M ARR in about 18 months
“A million would have been literally, I'd say maybe a year and a half.”
Mal: Vena spent over $1M launching enterprise go-to-market
“Early days at Vena, going back to Vena now, had invested over a million dollars launching a go to market motion for enterprise. Okay. Hired very expensive sales reps.”
Don Mal left a seven-figure salary to co-found Vena sight unseen
“I left my very, very high paying job to start Vena. I think like it was a seven figure income the year I left just to take a risk to start something, but I did it without even seeing the product.”
Vena Solutions is growing over 100% year-over-year
“What we know is that we're growing at greater than a hundred percent year over year.”
Vena Solutions generates around $50,000 per customer annually
“Yeah, so we're getting around 50,000 dollars per year per customer, so, you know, break that down 4000 a month, I guess, roughly.”
Vena Solutions has raised roughly $49 million in equity and debt
“So if you look at the total combined investments to date, it's right around forty nine million.”
Vena Solutions approaches 350 customers, adding 50 per quarter
“So we are approaching 350 customers. But just to get a sense of run rate, we will add 50 customers this quarter.”
Vena Solutions targets a CAC payback period under 12 months
“We'd like to keep our kind of, you know, cost to acquire customers below a kind of a 12 month cost of what we would normally see for revenue. So, you know, that ratio of one would be kind of ideal or, you know, and we know that anything kind of better than a .…”
Vena Solutions maintains under 10% gross customer churn
“It's, I would say our overall churn is less than 10%, which is within our industry standpoint.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Don's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 PRODUCT MARKET FITLEDGER | Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Una Software | 1 | 16 | 100% 3/3 | full record on A Product Market Fit Show → |
 TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Una Software | 1 | 11 | — | full record on Top Founders → |