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Sep 18, 2019 · 29m · saastr

Going from $0 to $60M ARR in 4 Years with Podium CEO Eric Rea | SaaStr Software Community

Eric Rea · 26m spoken
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At SaaStr Paris, Podium CEO Eric Rea details how he scaled a local business communication platform from an attic in Utah to $60 million in ARR in four years. He outlines the strategic framework of four growth phases, proving that relentless product-market fit and disciplined execution can turn operating outside Silicon Valley into a major competitive advantage.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →

Jason as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.8 Jason pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:0020:001:57–5:28 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Early VC Rejection in a Bike Shop Attic This is a solo keynote address given by Eric Rea without active host participation. Rea recounts an early VC analyst abruptly leaving their meeting in an attic above a bike shop.5:28–11:05 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Podium Overview and Four Phases of Growth Rea presents the initial zero-to-one phase of Podium and describes ignoring an influential founder's discouraging prediction that they would fail.11:06–16:52 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Phase 2: $1M to $10M ARR, YC, and Preserving Culture Rea details their acceptance into Y Combinator, meetings with tech leaders, and Andrew Mason's advice on culture.16:52–20:20 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Phase 3: $10M to $30M ARR and Raising Series A with Accel Rea explains scaling from $10M to $30M ARR and setting a firm boundary by insisting on meeting Accel partners rather than just associates.20:21–23:32 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Phase 4: $30M to $60M ARR and Outpacing Copycat Competitors Rea criticizes copycat competitors who photoshopped Podium screenshots and describes how vision allowed Podium to outpace them.23:32–29:30 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Conclusion: Building a World-Changing Company from Anywhere Rea concludes the talk encouraging founders outside Silicon Valley before answering submitted audience questions.1:57–5:28 · Guest teaching 0/10 Early VC Rejection in a Bike Shop Attic This is a solo keynote address given by Eric Rea without active host participation. Rea recounts an early VC analyst abruptly leaving their meeting in an attic above a bike shop.5:28–11:05 · Guest teaching 0/10 Podium Overview and Four Phases of Growth Rea presents the initial zero-to-one phase of Podium and describes ignoring an influential founder's discouraging prediction that they would fail.11:06–16:52 · Guest teaching 0/10 Phase 2: $1M to $10M ARR, YC, and Preserving Culture Rea details their acceptance into Y Combinator, meetings with tech leaders, and Andrew Mason's advice on culture.16:52–20:20 · Guest teaching 0/10 Phase 3: $10M to $30M ARR and Raising Series A with Accel Rea explains scaling from $10M to $30M ARR and setting a firm boundary by insisting on meeting Accel partners rather than just associates.20:21–23:32 · Guest teaching 0/10 Phase 4: $30M to $60M ARR and Outpacing Copycat Competitors Rea criticizes copycat competitors who photoshopped Podium screenshots and describes how vision allowed Podium to outpace them.23:32–29:30 · Guest teaching 0/10 Conclusion: Building a World-Changing Company from Anywhere Rea concludes the talk encouraging founders outside Silicon Valley before answering submitted audience questions.1:57–5:28 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Early VC Rejection in a Bike Shop Attic This is a solo keynote address given by Eric Rea without active host participation. Rea recounts an early VC analyst abruptly leaving their meeting in an attic above a bike shop.5:28–11:05 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Podium Overview and Four Phases of Growth Rea presents the initial zero-to-one phase of Podium and describes ignoring an influential founder's discouraging prediction that they would fail.11:06–16:52 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Phase 2: $1M to $10M ARR, YC, and Preserving Culture Rea details their acceptance into Y Combinator, meetings with tech leaders, and Andrew Mason's advice on culture.16:52–20:20 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Phase 3: $10M to $30M ARR and Raising Series A with Accel Rea explains scaling from $10M to $30M ARR and setting a firm boundary by insisting on meeting Accel partners rather than just associates.20:21–23:32 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Phase 4: $30M to $60M ARR and Outpacing Copycat Competitors Rea criticizes copycat competitors who photoshopped Podium screenshots and describes how vision allowed Podium to outpace them.23:32–29:30 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Conclusion: Building a World-Changing Company from Anywhere Rea concludes the talk encouraging founders outside Silicon Valley before answering submitted audience questions.1:57–5:28 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Early VC Rejection in a Bike Shop Attic This is a solo keynote address given by Eric Rea without active host participation. Rea recounts an early VC analyst abruptly leaving their meeting in an attic above a bike shop.5:28–11:05 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Podium Overview and Four Phases of Growth Rea presents the initial zero-to-one phase of Podium and describes ignoring an influential founder's discouraging prediction that they would fail.11:06–16:52 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Phase 2: $1M to $10M ARR, YC, and Preserving Culture Rea details their acceptance into Y Combinator, meetings with tech leaders, and Andrew Mason's advice on culture.16:52–20:20 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Phase 3: $10M to $30M ARR and Raising Series A with Accel Rea explains scaling from $10M to $30M ARR and setting a firm boundary by insisting on meeting Accel partners rather than just associates.20:21–23:32 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Phase 4: $30M to $60M ARR and Outpacing Copycat Competitors Rea criticizes copycat competitors who photoshopped Podium screenshots and describes how vision allowed Podium to outpace them.23:32–29:30 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Conclusion: Building a World-Changing Company from Anywhere Rea concludes the talk encouraging founders outside Silicon Valley before answering submitted audience questions.

speaking balance: gold is Jason, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%0:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%24:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%24:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%27:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%27:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 22:00 Calling out blatant copycats

Eric Rea expresses frustration over competitors directly copying Podium's marketing materials and Photoshopping their logo onto Podium's product screenshots.

 Hardest push from Jason ▶ 25:06 Moderator time check

The presentation is a solo keynote, so host pushback is non-existent apart from a brief administrative time check by the session moderator.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:25 Customer validation over expert skepticism

Rea explains how hard customer retention metrics proved an idolized veteran entrepreneur wrong about their business model.

 Jason holds their own ▶ 17:50 Setting investor boundary requirements

Rea demonstrates authority by establishing the precedent that high-growth companies outside Silicon Valley should require partner-level engagement from tier-one VC firms.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicJason as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementJason pushing backWhy
Early VC Rejection in a Bike Shop Attic 0010 This is a solo keynote address given by Eric Rea without active host participation. Rea recounts an early VC analyst abruptly leaving their meeting in an attic above a bike shop.
Podium Overview and Four Phases of Growth 0010 Rea presents the initial zero-to-one phase of Podium and describes ignoring an influential founder's discouraging prediction that they would fail.
Phase 2: $1M to $10M ARR, YC, and Preserving Culture 0000 Rea details their acceptance into Y Combinator, meetings with tech leaders, and Andrew Mason's advice on culture.
Phase 3: $10M to $30M ARR and Raising Series A with Accel 0010 Rea explains scaling from $10M to $30M ARR and setting a firm boundary by insisting on meeting Accel partners rather than just associates.
Phase 4: $30M to $60M ARR and Outpacing Copycat Competitors 0020 Rea criticizes copycat competitors who photoshopped Podium screenshots and describes how vision allowed Podium to outpace them.
Conclusion: Building a World-Changing Company from Anywhere 0000 Rea concludes the talk encouraging founders outside Silicon Valley before answering submitted audience questions.

Statements from this episode (13)

Assertion Supported
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 0:58
What-if
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 5:07
Opinion
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 10:40
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 11:12
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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…”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 15:33
Insight
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…”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 16:30
Assertion Supported
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 16:53
Insight
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…”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 19:54
Assertion Supported
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 20:21
Assertion Supported
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”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 23:52
Opinion
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 24:08
Disclosure
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 Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 25:46
Insight
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.”
Eric Rea Sep 18, 2019 ▶ 28:31
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