Oct 5, 2023 · 19m · top-founders
How We Bootstrapped Backblaze from $0 to IPO and $87m in ARR
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Backblaze Co-Founder and CEO Gleb Budman delivers a detailed keynote breaking down the company's fifteen-year journey from a bootstrapped startup to an $87 million ARR public company on NASDAQ. He offers practical guidance on capital discipline, corporate governance, IPO financial metrics, and navigating roadshow volatility.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 2.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 4.0 Guest disagreement 2.7 Nathan pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:40 Busting the 'Testing the Waters' Myth
Gleb forcefully rejects the banking euphemism of casual feedback meetings, bluntly calling the premise 'bullshit' and explaining it is an unvarnished trial run.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 0:05 Host Intro and Metric IndexingBecause this episode consists of a recorded live keynote talk, the host's participation is confined to the introductory framing of SaaS metrics.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:00 Exposing Banking Fee Incentives for IPO ThresholdsGleb educates the audience on why investment banks push for $300M revenue minimums to maximize percentage underwriting fees rather than founder suitability.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 0:05 Database Metric FrameworkThe host establishes analytical authority by directing listeners to his structured database evaluating SaaS companies across CAC, churn, ARR, and valuation.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Founding of Backblaze and the Bootstrapped Vision | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | In this solo keynote presentation, the host does not participate. Gleb Budman details the early bootstrapped founding journey of Backblaze, setting up a contrarian stance against typical venture capital pathways. | |
| Revenue Trajectory and Product Expansion to B2 Cloud Storage | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | Budman walks through Backblaze's revenue growth to $10M ARR and the launch of B2 storage. He challenges the standard venture playbook, arguing that bootstrapping forces necessary unit economic discipline. | |
| Evaluating Timing, Revenue Milestones, and IPO Transaction Costs | 0 | 5 | 4 | 0 | Budman disputes Wall Street advice claiming companies need $100M to $300M in ARR before going public, exposing how banking fees drive that narrative while Backblaze listed at $65M ARR. | |
| Assembling the Corporate Team, Banking Syndicate, and Advisors | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | Gleb provides practical tactical lessons on assembling advisors, picking analysts over bankers, and avoiding oversized name-brand board members who will neglect mid-cap companies. | |
| Maintaining Resilience Through Roadshow Crises and Regulatory Realities | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | Budman candidly recounts multiple IPO roadshow crises and dismisses the polite fiction of confidential 'testing the waters' meetings as high-stakes investor scrutiny. | |
| Keynote Conclusion, Blog Resource Promotion, and Q&A Transition | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Gleb concludes the keynote presentation within the allocated time, directs attendees to Backblaze's tactical blog posts, and opens the floor to audience questions. |
Statements from this episode (13)
Backblaze Founders Banned Pitching and Spreadsheets in Year One
“We said for one year, we're gonna do nothing in terms of venture funding. There's gonna be no PowerPoints. There's gonna be no, no spreadsheets. There's gonna be no pitches. Just focus on product, focus on customers, see how it goes.”
Bootstrapping Is Often a Better Path to IPO Than Venture Capital
“I think bootstrapping is actually, in many ways, a better way to get to be a public company.”
Venture Funding Would Have Prevented Backblaze From Building Custom Hardware
“If we had raised a whole bunch of venture funding, we probably would have done it and said, we'll figure it out later. Somehow we'll figure out how to make the math work. But we didn't have any money. So we had to start from first principles and figure out how…”
Backblaze's Technical Storage Blog Grew to Three Million Annual Readers
“We started writing a blog that was focused on storage and had about three million people a year that started reading it.”
Backblaze Went Public With Just $65 Million in ARR
“When we went public, this was the chart that we went out on the roadshow with. A few different numbers on there, but focus on the one that says sixty-five million of ARR. It was not 300. We still went public.”
Backblaze Paid $10M to $15M in Fees for Its IPO
“So it cost us, you know, 10 to fifteen million dollars to take the company public. Kind of a big number. Most of that went to the banks because they take seven percent of what you raised, but there are lots of other places where you actually have to spend mone…”
Preparing a Company for an IPO Often Takes Two Years
“Thinking about the kind of the story of timing and the metrics, but you got to start early, because it still takes often like two years to actually get ready.”
Top Banks Assign C-Teams to $100M IPOs and Drop Them Quickly
“If you are you know, 50, 60, a hundred million dollars in, in revenue, and you're raising a hundred million dollars, those banks are going to give you the C team if you go with them, and they will drop you at the in a second, if they have a different opportuni…”
Founders Should Choose IPO Banks Based on Their Research Analysts
“The analysts at these banking firms are who are hopefully going to be with you quarter after quarter after quarter after quarter. And so when you're picking your banks, you're actually picking your analyst. So start with the start by looking at the analyst, th…”
A Key Roadshow Partner Launched a Competitor Days Before Backblaze's IPO
“One of our key partners who was involved in our IPO roadshow launched a competitor like a week before we were going public.”
IPO 'Testing the Waters' Meetings Are High-Stakes Evaluations
“The testing the water is you're talking to investors, and when you talk to the investors, if those investors don't come back and tell the banks, hey, we're really excited about investing in this, the banks go, eh, I don't think that there's an IPO here to be d…”
IPO Share Allocations Require Short-Term Traders to Create Stock Liquidity
“Well, something that was non-intuitive is you want some of the investors who are actually going to hold for the long term, but you want some investors who are absolutely not going to hold for the long term, and part of the reason you don't want them to hold fo…”
Investor Sentiment Flipped From Growth to Breakeven Two Months Post-IPO
“When we were on the roadshow, every single solitary conversation was, hey, how can you spend more money
To grow faster. That was the only thing anybody cared about. Our very first earnings call, which was like two months later, nobody was asking that. You know…”