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Steve Benson

28 statements across 4 episodes · 8 bullish · 6 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Mar 20, 2020 by Steve Benson · said 3 times in 2 episodes since 2017 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Steve Benson's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Nathan Latka (3)

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2017 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode

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Everything said about Steve Benson, oldest first

Mar 20, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Benson: Badger Maps offered 50% discounts to prevent early pandemic churn
“What we landed on was when an individual calls, we should offer them half off for three months. if they called to quit offer them half off for three months and then and then, and see if they do that instead of quitting.”
Steve Benson Mar 20, 2020 ▶ 6:28 1700 How A Bootstrapped $3m Revenue CEO Plans to Handle Virus, Potential Cashflow Issues
Mar 20, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Benson: Badger Maps generated about $355k MRR in March 2020
“I think we've lost about a grand in MRR so far. but The we're at about three 55 right now in MRR.”
Steve Benson Mar 20, 2020 ▶ 4:05 1700 How A Bootstrapped $3m Revenue CEO Plans to Handle Virus, Potential Cashflow Issues
Mar 20, 2020 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Benson: COVID-19 disruption is definitely not a two-year problem
“This is a, this is likely a shorter term bump. Is it a three month problem? Is it an eight month problem? I'm not sure, but it's certainly not a two week problem and it's certainly not a two year problem.”
Steve Benson Mar 20, 2020 ▶ 9:46 1700 How A Bootstrapped $3m Revenue CEO Plans to Handle Virus, Potential Cashflow Issues
Mar 20, 2020
Disclosure
Benson: Badger Maps only sold 8% equity in convertible notes
“I think we did about a. Eight percent convertible note. And this is, you know, eight, eight years ago, seven years ago, we did this. So, but no other equity other than that. So we've sold eight percent of the business in convertible notes, but no, no professio…”
Steve Benson Mar 20, 2020 ▶ 8:39 1700 How A Bootstrapped $3m Revenue CEO Plans to Handle Virus, Potential Cashflow Issues
Oct 21, 2022 positive
Insight
Benson: Tranching debt lowers capital costs by minimizing idle cash
“The more you can match your spend with the money that you're bringing in, the lower your ultimate cost of capital is going to be because you're holding the money in your bank account for less time.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 16:24 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 negative
Insight
Benson: Software sales drop severely across November, December, and early January
“There, I've got a seasonality problem, problem being that people don't buy software in November or December and hardly in the first half of January.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 7:05 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022
Disclosure
Benson: Badger Maps borrowed $1.5M over three tranches from Scaleworks
“I borrowed 1.5 million dollars over three tranches from them.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 16:14 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 negative
Assertion Supported
Benson: Early SaaS debt from Lighter Capital was capped at 3-4x MRR
“What didn't exist, well, I mean, the products that exist were more expensive, for starters, but they were also, they weren't willing to loan very much, right? So I think Leiter would do, like, three, and I'll get into this in my slides, I don't want to blow my…”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 4:26 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
Benson self-funded Badger Maps using $1M from early Google work
“I was able to fund the early parts of the business without equity because I had worked at Google and early enough. So I had like a million bucks to just light on fire basically and become broke again. And so that's what I did.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 8:53 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 negative
Opinion
Benson: Three quarters of SaaS lenders offer 1-year deals unusable for headcount
“Three quarters of the SaaS lenders are like, they want to do one-year deals, which you can't invest in, in human capital over one year.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 20:29 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 positive
Disclosure
Benson retained 65% equity in Badger Maps while his co-founder held 20%
“65. And the other co-founder owns like 20.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 5:33 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022
Disclosure
Benson: Scaleworks debt deal had a four-year term and 17% APR
“The terms on the Scaleworks deal was a four-year deal, 17% APR, so a little better, still for a year.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 17:41 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 positive
Disclosure
Benson: Badger Maps secured $308K upfront via 3-year competitor exclusivity
“I traded for three years, paying three years up front it was like 308,000 dollars or something. I traded away, not, I promised not to sell the product to their two biggest competitors for that three year period”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 10:54 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Benson: Lighter Capital required full 4-year interest on early exit
“They had a term that if we wanted to exit the loan early, like after two years, it was a four-year loan, if we want to pay it off after two years and take our money somewhere else, We had to pay them all the interest as if we had been there for four years”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 14:24 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022
Disclosure
Benson borrowed $888,000 in four tranches from Lighter Capital
“And so I borrowed 888,000 dollars, two years and four tranches.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 12:30 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 positive
Insight
Benson: Engineering delivers higher long-term ROI than sales but takes longer
“Sales or marketing or anything on the revenue side pays off at a pays off faster, but at a lower ultimate rate engineering resources and actually making the product better, creating that extra feature that wins you extra deals pays off at the highest rate, but…”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 19:58 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Oct 21, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
Benson: Lighter Capital RBF cost Badger Maps about 18% interest
“I think for me, it worked out to be about 18%, because we weren't that good at growing, but if we had been good at growing, it would have been a lot more expensive.”
Steve Benson Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 13:57 How I hit $5m ARR, kept control using 3 different debt providers
Nov 25, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
Badger Mapping raised $6M in total debt to reach $5M ARR
“I think I've done, well, I think I've done about six million dollars in debt over the years on and off. You know, and moving it around right now. I have about 2.25 with you guys at founder path, as you know”
Steve Benson Nov 25, 2022 ▶ 12:56 Bootstrapper hits $5m ARR using $2m in debt, keeps all his equity
Nov 25, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Badger Mapping lost 40% of revenue in 2020 but finished down 10%
“We probably lost 40% of our customers during like revenue wise during during 2020. That being said, we were able to sell to a bunch of new customers during that period. So we only ended up about down about 10%.”
Steve Benson Nov 25, 2022 ▶ 1:40 Bootstrapper hits $5m ARR using $2m in debt, keeps all his equity
Nov 25, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
Badger Mapping sold only 10% to 12% to non-institutional angel investors
“We've only brought in from an investor perspective, we've, I get, we've sold about, I think, 12, 10, 12% of the company to investors. So, and no, there's no professional money in there.”
Steve Benson Nov 25, 2022 ▶ 9:26 Bootstrapper hits $5m ARR using $2m in debt, keeps all his equity
Nov 25, 2022 negative
Insight
Steve Benson warns founders that one-year SaaS debt deals are highly risky
“The reason they assume this is because a lot of the SAS debt providers are doing year long deals. That's really risky because you're basically You're saying you're going to pay their debt back with more debt, but you know, we're standing on the barrel of a rec…”
Steve Benson Nov 25, 2022 ▶ 13:38 Bootstrapper hits $5m ARR using $2m in debt, keeps all his equity
Nov 25, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
Steve Benson retains over 50% ownership of Badger Mapping at $5M ARR
“So I own more than half of the business”
Steve Benson Nov 25, 2022 ▶ 10:11 Bootstrapper hits $5m ARR using $2m in debt, keeps all his equity
Nov 25, 2022
Disclosure
Badger Mapping grew from $4.2M to nearly $5M ARR in 2022
“A year ago, I, we started this year at three 50 in MRR. So I'd have to run that math, but what is that? 4.2 ish.”
Steve Benson Nov 25, 2022 ▶ 7:29 Bootstrapper hits $5m ARR using $2m in debt, keeps all his equity
Dec 28, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Badger Maps generates roughly 2,000 verified leads per month
“We count things either a first meeting or a signed up trial is, is a, you know, verified lead. And we're doing about 500 a week. So 2000 a month.”
Steve Benson Dec 28, 2023 ▶ 10:17 How to Generate $6m of Revenue and keep 100% Equity with BadgerMaps CEO
Dec 28, 2023
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Badger Maps has just over 4,000 paying customers
“We have just over 4000 customers.”
Steve Benson Dec 28, 2023 ▶ 13:40 How to Generate $6m of Revenue and keep 100% Equity with BadgerMaps CEO
Dec 28, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Badger Maps grew 29% in 2022 and expects 15% in 2023
“We grew like 29% last year. I think we're around 15% is where we'll come in for this year, but so it's, but it's off a bigger number.”
Steve Benson Dec 28, 2023 ▶ 15:24 How to Generate $6m of Revenue and keep 100% Equity with BadgerMaps CEO
Dec 28, 2023 positive
Insight
Benson: B2B SaaS podcasts should target micro-niches over audience size
“You don't have to have a huge podcast. You have to have a podcast that is very specifically valuable in some way to a very specific group of people, your ideal customer profile. And, you know, some people have larger TAMs than others, and so it can be more bro…”
Steve Benson Dec 28, 2023 ▶ 3:09 How to Generate $6m of Revenue and keep 100% Equity with BadgerMaps CEO
Dec 28, 2023 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Badger Maps revenue shrank 8% in 2020 due to COVID-19
“We still, we shrunk about eight percent in 2020, because as you say, it's a bad time to be meeting your customers face to face.”
Steve Benson Dec 28, 2023 ▶ 7:45 How to Generate $6m of Revenue and keep 100% Equity with BadgerMaps CEO
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