Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: Early app makers rejected Braze because engagement raised server costs
“And even when we went and talked to some of our potential early customers, I remember someone telling me that they didn't want our service because the sooner people stopped using their app, the sooner they could stop paying the server bill for those people. An…”
Insight
Magnuson: Early GTM must target customers willing to overlook missing table-stakes features
“We needed to make sure that our go to market was targeted at the people that appreciated our differentiators enough that they were willing to ignore the things that we were missing that were table stakes.”
Insight
Magnuson: Early App Store pricing models held back mobile software businesses
“Paradoxically, even the purchasing of mobile apps in the app store, I think in the early days was holding back people thinking about building those businesses because you didn't have any recurring revenue or ongoing revenue streams from your mobile app users. …”
Assertion Supported
Magnuson: WeWork ran out of money building its Meatpacking location
“It was down in the meatpacking district. It was the early days of WeWork and they actually ran out of money while they were building it.”
Insight
Magnuson: Mobile apps freeze risk force-quits if latency exceeds 50 milliseconds
“And if it freezes for more than 50 milliseconds, you think that it's died and you're going to force quit it, right? Like you had to be interactive in terms of the personalization of the delivery.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: Braze never received multiple term sheets until its Series D
“It wasn't until our series D six years into the business that we ever had a fundraising round where we got more than one term sheet.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: 85% to 90% of mobile SaaS in 2012-2015 targeted gaming
“If you go back to 2012 to 2015, probably 85, 90% of the SaaS businesses that were in mobile were very focused on helping the gaming industry because it was the kind of quickest route to make money in the early days.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: Competitors burned out raising $50M Series As in an immature market
“We actually had a number of competitors in the early days who went out You know, at the same time we went and raised 10 to fifteen million dollar Series A, they went and raised a fifty million dollar Series A, and they actually burned themselves out. Despite h…”
Insight
Magnuson: Raising venture capital forces founders into relentless hyper-scaling
“There's a lot of businesses that people may start that are not appropriate to be venture backed. And when they go and they try to kind of back them with other investors, they very quickly lose control of exactly what trajectory it needs to be on and, you know,…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: Braze never rolled back features due to privacy or OS changes
“I feel confident saying, I don't think we've ever had to roll back a feature we've built over time because of new data privacy legislation. Legislation or new changes in the operating systems.”
Assertion Supported
Magnuson: Braze launched as a cross-channel platform, avoiding single-channel silos
“Unlike a lot of companies that are built to just be, oh, we're going to be a push notification service, or we're going to do email marketing. Like they all start on a single channel. We were just trying to solve a business problem. And so we knew that we neede…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: Braze targeted developers early on because mobile apps lacked marketing teams
“Interestingly, didn't start out building for marketers, which is interesting, but it's just primarily because mobile apps didn't have marketing teams when we first started the company. You know, if you don't have a business model, there's not a lot of reason t…”
Disclosure
Magnuson: Braze removed user feedback module after sales cycle distractions
“We actually removed the user feedback module entirely. You know, first we experimented with stopping demoing it because it ended up being a distraction during sales cycles. And we felt that the space we were working in around specifically in fully automated en…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magnuson: Only one of Braze's first 10 major customers was in NY
“Cause our first. 10 very large customers. Like one of them was in Berlin. One was in Norway. One was in Armenia. We had one in Singapore, you know, and then there were another half a dozen that were in the U S I think only one of them was in New York.”
Bill Magnuson