Spectora co-founder Kevin Wagstaff discusses SEO tactics for niche B2B software with Rob Walling on Startups for the Rest of Us.
Insight
Wagstaff: Startups fail because founders prioritize work-life balance over extreme effort
“Like, we wanted to do what most people wouldn't, So we could get a result that most people don't get because like everyone wants work life balance. We all want to be happy all the time, but like, that's why so few companies probably succeed.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wagstaff: Porch's CEO threatened to build a free clone to crush Spectora
“We got a little scared because the CEO told us he would, he'd basically make a free version of what we did. He'd spin it up and, you know, crush us. And so it was more like, we're going to get squashed like, you know, the little cockroach we are at the time.”
Insight
Wagstaff: Paid acquisition requires LTVs in the tens or hundreds of thousands
“Lifetime values got to be up there in the tens of hundreds of thousands to really spend that.”
Disclosure
Wagstaff: Spectora rejected a $12M buyout offer from Frontdoor in 2020
“That one we thought about because that was you know, COVID. So there's opportunistic buyers coming out and we thought, okay, like they do warranties. They're adjacent to us, but we just saw our growth and we were like, no, man, we're still growing. Like if som…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wagstaff: PE firm's retrade reduced Spectora valuation to $70M
“It effectively reduced the price, I think, by about five, but it was like by ten million. So I think it ended up being an effective kind of seventy million dollar valuation when you factor in the earn out and a call option, which is they wanted to reserve the …”
Disclosure
Spectora Walked Away From $80M Buyout After PE Firm Attempted Retrade
“And they said, no, no, no, we'll do the original deal. And we were like, You know what? We're good... We don't like how it felt.”