Eric Rea
Co-founder & CEO, Podium. On 2 shows, 1 appearance, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveengineer@ericwilliamrea ↗LinkedIn ↗podium.com ↗
Eric Rea co-founded Podium in 2014, taking the business messaging platform through Y Combinator and scaling it into a multi-billion-dollar SaaS company. He previously worked as a software engineer for the International Atomic Energy Agency before launching Podium to help local businesses manage customer reviews.
2shows
1appearances
28statements
3resolved
2supported
0contradicted
67%fully supported
12said about them ↓ Everything Eric Rea said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Founders with PMF must demand VC partner meetings over analyst calls
“Once you have a vision, and once you have the product market fit, you need to, you will only get what out of your business what you expect of it. So if you expect only to ever talk to analysts at these firms, guess what? That's all you'll talk to. But if you d…”
Non-Valley founders face a higher risk of quitting due to disbelief
“And so outside of Silicon Valley, I think that all of us here are at far more risk of quitting because people just won't believe in what we're doing.”
To VCs, building in Utah is no different than Bucharest, Romania
“If you're in Lehigh, Utah, you may as well be in Bucharest, Romania when it comes to investors. Like, it doesn't matter. Once you're outside of the Bay Area, you're just outside, and there's nothing really matters.”
A $1M seed check in Podium would be worth over $200M
“The irony of that story is if that firm would have invested a million dollars into Podium at that time, today it would be worth over two hundred million dollars.”
Startups outside the Bay Area must fight harder for credibility networks
“Because we're not in the Bay Area, we are going to have to fight even harder to build a credibility network, and you just need it. You need to have people, you need to have investors, and you need, I think the first 25 hires that we made at Podium were, ah, re…”
Non-technical founders must hire engineers before building a sales team
“And I think it's really important to hire an engineer first if you're not, if you don't already have engineering power because if you don't have a great product, you're kind of screwed even if you're great at sales.”
Rea: Podium's gross monthly customer churn hovers around 1%
“We usually focus on a net churn, but our gross hovers around about one percent monthly, which in our space is extremely good.”
Rea: Podium's average customer lifetime value is about $10,000
“So our LTV, our average LTV is about 10 grand. So if you take, it's about three, three year lifetime.”
Podium scaled from $0 to $60M ARR in four years
“In the past five years, my co-founder Dennis and I have built a SaaS company outside of Silicon Valley from zero to sixty million dollars of ARR in four years.”
Podium grew from $1M to $10M ARR in just over one year
“That took about a year, a little longer than a year, but we went from one to ten million of ARR, and the whole theme of that year for us was building our credibility network.”
Podium scaled from under 10 to over 100 employees in 2015
“And that year for us, in the year of 2015, we went from one, we went from less than 10 employees to over a hundred, and because of the advice that Andrew Mason gave us, we focused on our values, we started hiring based on our values, and we decided to make a r…”
Podium tripled its ARR from $10M to $30M in 2017
“Now, next, the next year, in 2017, we went from just over ten million of ARR to 30.”
Podium doubled its ARR from $30M to $60M in 2018
“Now, the next year, ah, we went from 30 to 60, and that was another big year, not quite as big of a jump as 10 to 30, but in that year, we basically pulled away from the pack.”
Podium hit 550 employees and $92M in funding in four years
“Four years ago, it was me and my co-founder Dennis in the spare bedroom of my apartment. Today, we have 550 employees. Ninety-two million dollars of funding”
Podium pre-sold 10 businesses before the founders invested $750 each
“So, once we got about 10 businesses to sign up, then we invested our 750 dollars each, we built the MVP, and we just, and we launched it.”
Eric Rea: Podium Charges $299 per Month per Location
“So we charge it. 299 dollars a month. And that's per location.”
Eric Rea: Podium Customers Pay an Average of $400 Monthly
“So average customers paying us about 400 dollars a month.”
Podium expanded from 15 to 110 employees over 12 months
“End of 20 15. We had 15 employees. And then today we have a 110.”
Podium raised $500k seed in 2014 and $3.5M in December 2015
“We raised 500 grand in 2014. So that was our kind of seed round. And then we raised three and a half in December of 2015.”
Podium gave up about 20% equity for its $4M in funding
“We have given up About. 20% of the business.”
Rea: Small businesses go out of business at about 1% monthly
“Small businesses go out of business at about one percent monthly.”
Rea: Podium maintains a net negative churn of about 2% monthly
“And then we really focus on our net churn, which is about negative two percent monthly.”
The other half of the tape: Eric Rea's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 12 times in 4 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 5Jason Lemkin 4John Stern 3
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Top Founders 8
the Official SaaStr Podcast 4
2026 4 mentions in 1 episode
2021 3 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Eric's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Co-founder & CEO, Podium | 1 | 15 | 67% 2/3 | full record on Top Founders → |
| SAASTRLEDGER | Co-founder & CEO, Podium | 0 +1 | 13 | — | full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast → |