Buddy Media co-founder Mike Lazerow emphasizes the importance of radical transparency with startup boards.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Google offered $100 million more than Salesforce to acquire Buddy Media
“We had, I don't, I've never told this story publicly, but we had a term sheet from Google There was a hundred million dollars more than Salesforce.”
Insight
Mike Lazerow: Board decks are completely useless outside of financial data
“And so board decks are very useless other than the financials, because it doesn't really tell a story. If you can't sit there and communicate what you're doing, why you're doing, what are the top three areas of focus, why those areas of focus are so important,…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Buddy Media reached $50 million annual recurring revenue in three years
“We were the fastest at the time, like the fast growing company to reach fifty million in like annual recurring revenue. It took us three years on the back of Facebook.”
What-if
Mike Lazerow: Buddy Media would have struggled without the Salesforce acquisition
“It turned out that if we hadn't done that deal, I think, like, I haven't talked about this publicly either, I think we would have had a hard time as a business.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Advertisers spent over $1 billion on Facebook through Buddy Media's platform
“Their advertisers were spending at the time, it was early, over a billion dollars with fail, with Facebook through our platform, right?”
Disclosure
Mike Lazerow backed Scopely, Facebook, Tumblr, and eToro as early investor
“Companies like Scopely, which we were a seed investor that sold for five billion in cash, companies like eToro, and like, and originally, like, we were investors in Facebook, and Tumblr”