Semrush

includes SEMrush Competitive Intelligence, Semrush Traffic Analytics, Semrush Academy

34 statements across 9 episodes · 17 bullish · 4 bearish · 7 people on the record · first statement May 19, 2017 by Ryan Stewart · said 187 times in 40 episodes since 2016 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Nathan Latka (118), Eugene Levin (24), Ryan Stewart (4), Vasil Azarov (3), Stanislav Dimitrov (3), Michal Suski (3), Patrick Stox (2), David Daneshgar (2)

tap a year for its mentions
00505100102016201720182019202020212022202320242025episodesmentions
05102016201720182019202020212022202320242025episodes it came up in
007.5515102016201720182019202020212022202320242025episodesmentions per episode
2025 2 mentions in 1 episode
2024 26 mentions in 4 episodes 7 per episode
2023 6 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2022 4 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2021 10 mentions in 4 episodes 3 per episode
2020 33 mentions in 8 episodes 4 per episode
2019 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2018 97 mentions in 9 episodes 11 per episode
2017 4 mentions in 1 episode
2016 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Semrush, oldest first

May 19, 2017 positive
Opinion
Stewart: Ahrefs excels at link indexing; SEMrush wins for content analysis
“Ahrefs is much better for link indexing. SMRush is much better for content, keywords, tracking, competitors.”
Ryan Stewart May 19, 2017 ▶ 17:03 664: How Agency Did $750k First Year, Now $100k+/Month with Webris CEO Ryan Stewart
Nov 9, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
SEMrush hit 40% EBITDA margins and one-month CAC payback before Levin joined
“Company was growing back, back then more than 60% year over year 40% EBITDA margin and one month customer acquisition cost recovered.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 10:43 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
Levin: SEMrush has up to 50,000 paying customers and 2 million users
“So we have a more than two million users, adding a lot of new users every month in terms of paying customers. It's Let's say between 30 and 50,000.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 7:56 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush recovers its customer acquisition costs in five to six months
“And we are still recovering in five to six months.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 11:25 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 negative
Disclosure
Eugene Levin says SEMrush would reject a $300M buyout from HubSpot
“No. I mean, no, no. It's just too low. You know, then they know that that would be too low.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 22:39 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: Most SEMrush subscriptions cost less than $200 per month
“Majority of our subscriptions are still In you know, a little bit below 200 per month.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 4:23 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 neutral
Assertion Supported
SEMrush was a side project for four years before founders fully committed
“So the first version was in 2008. But till 2012, it was more like a hobby. Not, you know, not a serious business, and they used to have other businesses. And only 2012, they like really realized that SEM rush on its own is probably going to be bigger than ever…”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 5:41 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 bullish
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Levin: SEMrush net retention tops 100%, a rarity for SEO tools
“So so that's slightly above hundred percent, which is yet again, really unseen in our industry.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 19:20 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush enterprise accounts are approaching $500,000 per year
“We have huge accounts that, that I approach in half a million per year.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 4:48 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 bullish
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Levin: SEMrush counts 25 percent of the Fortune 500 as customers
“We have seven out of top 10 world biggest advertisers. We have 25% of Fortune, 500.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 4:56 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 bullish
Prediction Partly held up
Eugene Levin expects SEMrush to pass $80 million ARR in 2018
“I need to check the model, but yeah.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 21:06 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 9, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush outspent all search niche competitors on Google AdWords
“We started spending a lot of money on on AdWords to the point where we realized we already spending more than any other company in this niche.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 12:28 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Apr 14, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush has over 200 product staff with ~75% writing code
“So in product department overall, we have more than 200 people. Now, out of them, how many write code? Probably 75%.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 19:45 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Supported
Levin: SEMrush employs 800 people and is cash flow positive
“I mean, you see, we have 800 people and we are cash flow positive.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 25:37 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Levin: SEMrush net revenue retention is over 100%, much higher for 50+ employee firms
“In general, we are above a hundred percent. Okay. And then we also do segmentation like you know, if customers Work in a company with more than 50 employees, then it will be way, way higher than a hundred percent.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 23:29 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Supported
Levin: SEMrush has over 5 million registered users
“We have over five million registered users and then, yeah, paying customers would be relatively small percentage of total registered users.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 11:19 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush Operates Over 15 Freemium Conversion Funnels
“I mean, we have more than 15 different, different funnels.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 13:29 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 neutral
Assertion Supported
Levin: SEMrush Left Its Entire $40M Funding Round on Balance Sheet
“We raised some money, but frankly speaking, we didn't touch You know, this round. It's pretty much all on the balance sheet.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 2:45 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Levin: SEMrush will not hike prices to protect broad market reach
“Even, even if we at some point say, Hey, It would make a lot of sense to hike prices. we would not do this because the goal is to have very, very broad presence to have as many marketers as possible.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 18:10 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020
Insight
Levin: Growing Companies Should Hold Cash Reserves Scaled to Expenses
“As company gets bigger technically you want to have certain amount of money on the balance sheet comparable to your revenue, like monthly revenue or, you know, better say monthly expenses. In case things happen, you want to be able to run the business for a wh…”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 4:26 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush traffic analytics is among its fastest-growing product lines ever
“Our traffic analytics product. We, we've been building it for two, three years. It's extremely complicated technology. So it took us quite a while to get everything running. But now it's actually one of the fastest growing product lines that we ever had.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 10:41 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Levin: SEMrush has enterprise customers paying over $100k annually
“We have customers who pay more than a 100,000 per year.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 20:05 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush revenue per customer grew 6-7x since 2008
“If you look back, you know, to 2008, I think comparing to the first version of the product that we had our revenue per customer increased more than six times, probably closer to seven times. after I joined, you know, I want to say almost doubled.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 14:01 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 neutral
Assertion Supported
Levin: SEMrush is still largely founder-owned and founder-managed
“We we're still business that largely owned by founders, managed by founders and, you know, team of people who they assembled over, over time.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 28:51 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020
Assertion Supported
Levin: SEMrush Has Over 40 Products in Its Portfolio
“Over 40 right now.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 13:42 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 positive
Insight
Staged capital tranches allow venture investors to optimize their IRR
“They had an obligation to fund in certain point, but there was no big difference if money sits on their balance sheet, or not, not, not even balance sheet, or on our balance sheet, or it sits with them. In this case, they can optimize their, you know, IRR, whi…”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 8:28 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Levin: SEMrush raised its $40M round across multiple investor tranches
“We didn't raise forty million from the very beginning, so we announced it later, but it was actually multiple different transactions with more or less the same group of investors.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 7:50 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Apr 14, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levin: SEMrush employs roughly 60 quota-carrying sales representatives
“So we have, I think roughly around 60, , I would say.”
Eugene Levin Apr 14, 2020 ▶ 20:19 1725 SEMRush Broke $100m in Revenues in 2019
Sep 6, 2020 negative
Opinion
Dickey: Legacy SEO tools only track owned domain performance
“And where those platforms fall short is they focus exclusively on how your website or your own domain is performing, which is just like one of many ways that a customer may find you.”
Chris Dickey Sep 6, 2020 ▶ 2:20 Visably Helps You Manage Search Exposure, $700k Raised, Pre-Revenue, Launch Soon
Oct 5, 2020 neutral
Insight
Ahrefs and SEMrush metrics diverge significantly, requiring operators to use both
“Well, you know, both of those tools are just estimates and one can be way off from the other. It's interesting how different they can be on some sites. So we really have to use both of them.”
Brian Brewer Oct 5, 2020 ▶ 20:08 HumanProofDesigns Hit $2m Revenue Selling Starter Sites to New Entrepreneurs
Feb 5, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
Surfer SEO focuses on on-page content gaps rather than backlinks
“Like these tools are focused more on keyword research and on backlinks analysis, while we are more like a data-driven tool that gathers a lot of information from pages that are ranking the top 10 to tell you whether you are missing something or overusing when …”
Michal Suski Feb 5, 2021 ▶ 2:05 How SurferSEO hit $3m Revenue Bootstrapped Using Chrome Extension, Affiliates
Feb 13, 2021 bullish
Opinion
Qureshi claims BrandOverflow data is almost comparable to Ahrefs and SEMrush
“We are comparable to, we're almost comparable to Airtress and SEMrush, judging by the reviews that I get by the customers themselves. We compare our data with Airtress and SEMrush.”
Ahmed Qureshi Feb 13, 2021 ▶ 9:35 Wild! He Presold $250k Of His SaaS Idea. Now wants to beat SEMRush
Apr 26, 2023 negative
Insight
Suski: SEO in competitive niches is impractical for early bootstrapped startups
“Our niche was highly competitive, so we were to compete with Ahrefs, SEMrush, HubSpot, big domains, big players, so if that's the case, you will need to wait for results for a long time, like a year or so, and you'll need to invest a lot of money, and if you a…”
Lucjan Suski Apr 26, 2023 ▶ 6:08 How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
Jun 12, 2023 negative
Disclosure
Surfer SEO scrapped a fully built Semrush integration over legal terms
“We had everything ready, I can tell you. The design was done, ah, the product was done, everything was ready, and we had to turn it down, just because the terms and the legal stuff, we couldn't accept it.”
Michal Suski Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 13:54 Partnerships helped us scale to $10m+. Here's what we learned.
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.