Matt Straz
Founder & Chairman of the Board, Bennie. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestor@mattstraz ↗bennie.com ↗
Matt Straz is best known as the founder and former CEO of HR software company Namely, and previously co-founded Pictela, which was acquired by AOL. In 2019, he founded the employee benefits platform Bennie, later becoming its Chairman.
2shows
2appearances
41statements
7resolved
6supported
1contradicted
86%fully supported
10said about them ↓ Everything Matt Straz said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Straz: Focusing solely on a single SaaS product is a dead end
“I would say that there's a lot of advice that says just go do one thing and do it really well, and I've found that not to be true, at least in the kind of business that we're building. Just focus on your product and just do one thing well, and while I understa…”
Founders shouldn't set pricing because they are too hypercritical of their products
“I think the number one advice I can give is don't let your founder set your pricing. We tend to be terrible at pricing because we always are hypercritical of our own product and don't aren't always aware of how bad the competitors products can be, or at least …”
The mid-market is the last white space in HR and payroll software
“Well, I think it's probably the last remaining white space left in the HR payroll benefit space.”
Straz: Software companies refresh executive teams 4.1 times before IPO
“It is said that by the time a software company goes public, on average, they will go through 4.1 complete leadership teams. Which means that they will have to cycle through an entirely new team about every 24 months or so.”
Matt Straz: Founders should part ways before recruiting executive replacements
“I don't believe in recruiting surreptitiously in the background to fill a position. I believe in being upfront with the person that's here and Saying goodbye, and then going out and recruiting.”
Straz: Companies should never publicly disclose why an executive departed
“The company can never disclose why somebody left, but the individual who leaves, that's a lot of times, especially at a senior level, will leave it up to them as to how they describe why they're leaving.”
Core HR and payroll breed multi-billion dollar companies
“Multi-billion dollar companies tend to be created in the core payroll and benefit space because those are the number one and two things that That businesses spend money on.”
HR software companies must choose their target market size early
“I think you have to do that in this space. The product needs are very different for a small, medium and large business. So you've got to decide really early on what swim lane you're going to get going to be in.”
Namely prioritizes expanding within the mid-market over moving upmarket
“Every year at the end of every year, I asked myself and our team, do we want to go up market or do we want to sell more things to the same, same customer? And we always decided on the latter because we're just so passionate about midsize companies.”
Mid-market HR software industry ARR churn tends to be around 20%
“Industry-wide you know, for our segment, churn tends to be around 20% a year. Logo? ARR.”
Namely maintains negative net churn driven by rapid customer expansion
“And in fact, we're, we have negative net churn. So our expansion is growing faster than people coming off the system.”
Seat additions drive Namely's expansion more than product upsells
“Seats. Actually we thought that upsells would be a big driver of that, and there's some element to that, but it's actually people just adding more seats to the product.”
Customer churn is the ultimate win-loss record for a software business
“Churn really tells you where you're at, ultimately tells you where you're at. So you can do all the customer data you want, right? And you can find out sentiment and all that. But ultimately at the end of the day, churn tells you whether, whether, how you're d…”
HR and payroll SaaS requires heavy high-touch service support
“Because there's a service component to HR payroll benefits business. The hard part of the business is not necessarily doing any one of these things. It's doing all three of these things well together in a coordinated way with a level of touch that may not be l…”
A 1-2 year CAC payback is acceptable in payroll due to stickiness
“One to two years is fine because of the stickiness and the, how long people are on a payroll product. Nobody who goes through a payroll implementation wants to do it again anytime soon if they can help it.”
Straz: Early title inflation forces startups to fire rather than demote
“A very common thing that I've seen happen, and I've done it too in each of my three companies, is title inflation. Giving somebody a title that they want now is Which will then sometimes box them out of being able to progress with the company longer term. And …”
Matt Straz: Giving startup executives multiple roles leads to failure
“And I found time and time again, when I give people multiple things to do, it's a recipe for failure because the company's growing so fast that they will end up Just being spread too thin.”
Matt Straz: Hire executives with a 4-to-5 year runway for 10x growth
“I think what I look for are people that can get us to 10 X more growth, right? There's people early on that will help you get to your first million in ARR revenue, and then you'll hire a next wave that'll get you from one to 10. And then you're looking for peo…”
Straz: Balance external hires with internal promotions 1:1 at mid-levels
“As much as possible, maybe not at the leadership level, but in the mid levels of the company, I think for every person you bring in from the outside, you want to try to promote somebody from within.”
Straz: Namely involves existing employees when hiring their new boss
“Even if we're going to add somebody or top somebody and we're going to bring in their boss, I'm very, very transparent and I'm very upfront with the person that's going to have a new boss and a new leader that they participate in the process.”
Straz: Every Namely board member must interview executive finalist candidates
“It is absolutely essential for senior leadership hires that the board is involved, and that I include every board member speaks with and interviews our finalist candidates, and I need buy-in from them, just like I need buy-in from our leadership team, so they …”
Straz: Vary candidate approval sequence between board and internal leadership by role
“Sometimes you need to have your own team sign off on the person before the board does, and then in other roles, you want to get the board's buy-in before you then run that person by your own leadership team.”
Straz: CEOs cannot save every departing employee and must retain selectively
“And I think the reality is if a CEO is a lifeguard, you can't save everybody, right? Some people actually do need to move on. And I think you need to be really, really careful About how much effort you have available to save people, to retain them, and be real…”
The other half of the tape: Matt Straz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 10 times in 3 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 8Pat Grady 1Harry Stebbings 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Top Founders 8
20VC 2
2018 8 mentions in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: How To Balance Between Vision and Stubbornness, Why Speed Is The Most Important Startup Superpower & The Main Role of A Startup Founder Today with James Currier, Managing Director @ NFX
- 20VC: Sequoia Partner, Pat Grady on Why Data Is The New Oil, Why We Will See The Return of The Apprenticeship Model in VC & The Defining Characteristics of The Next Generation of Great Software
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Matt'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 | Founder & Chairman of the Board, Bennie | 1 | 24 | 86% 6/7 | full record on Top Founders → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & Chairman of the Board, Bennie | 1 | 17 | — | full record on 20VC → |