Insight
De la Nuez: B2B SaaS can support 25% professional services revenue
“Sometimes services, depending on where you are, especially if you're in B to B, like we were, or like we are, sometimes services can really add a lot of value, as long as you have this 75% rule, more or less, you know, if you can demonstrate that you have, you…”
Insight
De la Nuez: Invest in UX design before sales and marketing
“I would actually invest in product user experience, design, and, ah, and delivering a great user experience even before I invest in sales, before I invest in marketing.”
Insight
De la Nuez: European founders are more resourceful due to scarcer capital
“I think that if we're going to have more EU Based unicorns and references, we have to be bold, we have to think big, and by the way, I think we are much more resourceful in general. I feel like we're much more resourceful, again, because we have less access to…”
Assertion Supported
De la Nuez: UserZoom reached $800M valuation via Thoma Bravo deal
“We raised a thirty four million dollar round in 2015. Then we raised a hundred million dollar round in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. And then about a month ago, we closed a deal, a strategic investment a strategic growth investment with Toma Bravo…”
What-if
De la Nuez: UserZoom should have raised capital after three years
“Honestly, I think that if I could go back and do it again, the lesson I learned is that I, we could have raised maybe three to four years in, rather than seven years in. Because the problem with not raising is that you potentially miss opportunities, right?”
Disclosure
De la Nuez: UserZoom never picked the highest valuation across funding rounds
“We didn't worry about valuation in all three rounds, to be honest with you. You know, we didn't pick the partner or the, in this case, the private equity that gave us the highest valuation.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
UserZoom reached $10M in revenue on just $1.5M in funding
“In our case, we waited for seven years, guys, and I can tell you know, honestly, you know, we were past the ten million dollar mark, And we had only raised, I think 1,000,001 and a half million, more or less, between, again, friends, family, and fools, bank lo…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
De la Nuez: UserZoom raised $34M without pitching at $10M ARR
“Once we passed the ten million dollar mark, VCs were pitching to us. It was incredible. You guys are past ten million dollars in a growing market, and your EBITDA positive, they were pitching to us. I was, I'm not lying if I tell you that I was able to raise, …”
Assertion Contradicted
Qualtrics had one-third services revenue in its $8B SAP acquisition
“Qualtrics went public, and also before they went public, they sold to SAP for eight billion dollars, and, you know, when they, when you look at their S-one they were about to go public before they got bought. They actually had a third of the revenue was servic…”
What-if
De la Nuez: UserZoom should have invested in product marketing earlier
“Doing things simple when you're already at a hundred million, trust me, is a lot harder than doing it at the beginning. So my lesson, I guess, in this case is I wish I had done this earlier. I really wish I had done product marketing a little earlier, would ha…”
Disclosure
De la Nuez: UserZoom vetted Thoma Bravo for four years before partnering
“You know, we got to know the Toma Bravo guys for about four years before we eventually, you know, decided to partner up.”
Disclosure
UserZoom: Early enterprise contracts started at $30k to $50k annually
“So therefore, they were happy to pay us, you know, 50,000 or 30,000, I think is where we started, 40,000 a year, which we thought was quite a bit.”
