Noah Glass, founder and CEO of Olo (originally MOBO), explains how the startup adapted to the lack of smartphone adoption in 2005.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frankel offered Glass $500k seed funding to withdraw from HBS
“If you are so committed to this that you are willing to drop out of Harvard Business School, just withdraw your admission, not a deferred admission, you actually have to say you're not gonna go. Like, you're just withdrawing. And you can quit and tell Linda at…”
Insight
Glass: Software vendors must sell to restaurant headquarters, not just franchisees
“Enterprise restaurants, you need to go through the proper channels and sell into the enterprise and not just work with individual franchisees or operator groups. Cause it really upsets headquarters, if they haven't vetted the things that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olo hit profitability in 2012 by pivoting from B2C to B2B SaaS
“And we had just gotten to profitability as a company on the basis of being a B to B platform for restaurant groups in the enterprise segment. And I remember at the time I said, we used to spend a 150,000 dollars per month, and we would get 10,000 new guests fr…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glass pitched NYC restaurants on Shake Shack in 2006, closing in 2014
“I was saying that they were going to be a customer. I really believe that they were truly in my heart. Back in 2006, it took until 2014 for them to become a customer.”
Assertion Partly supported
Glass: Olo 2008 Series A Took 50% Dilution On $7M Pre-Money
“It was on a seven million dollar pre-money. There was a 20% option pool. Added post money. So new investors got half. Existing shareholders were squeezed down to 30% with 20% options for future hires. Highly dilutive.”
Assertion Supported
Glass: Olo reached $121M ARR with $6M lifetime net burn at IPO
“When we went public in March of 20, 21, we were coming right up on a hundred million dollars in revenue for the year 2020. And I'm very proud of this fact. We were, I believe, a hundred and twenty one million dollars of ARR at that point that we went public. O…”