Hariharan: Zapier reached default alive after raising only $1.5M
Anu Hariharan · 5 Critical & Company-Altering Learnings from B2B Startups | Y Combinator MD Anu Hariharan · Sep 29, 2022 · at 24:07
This episode carries Anu Hariharan's own address, with nobody on the show putting questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Anu Hariharan (Managing Director at Y Combinator) highlights Zapier as an example of a B2B company scaling sustainably from cash flow rather than continuous dilution.
0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.1s
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“Zapier, way from Zapier, Never believed in fundraising, and I think that's why he hit default alive with one and a half million. He's never had to raise money. He doesn't need to because he prints cash.”
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More from Anu Hariharan
Hariharan: Founders should only hire sales reps after demos become boringly predictable
“You hire a salesperson when your sales call and demo calls become extremely boring and repetitive because that's when you've figured out what your go to market motion is.”
Hariharan: Slow growth after hiring sales leadership usually stems from product deficiencies
“The most common mistake is you hired a VP of sales, they've cranked up your team, you have all these sales accountants, but your growth is slow. And the root cause of that is not that the sales motion isn't working, your product is not appealing enough.”
Hariharan: Startups with $5M-$10M in ARR should be default alive
“I usually say if you have hit five to ten million ARR, you cannot get killed. You should be default alive.”
Hariharan: Fast hiring before PMF creates resistance to product changes
“If you hire too fast before you have product market fit, now you have a bunch of people whose jobs depend on you not changing the product.”
Hariharan: Startups lack PMF if under 40% of users would be very disappointed
“And if at least 40% of your customers don't say very disappointed, you probably don't have a good enough product. It's just moderately appealing. So we say a rule of thumb is at least 40% of your customers will be very disappointed if your product goes away.”