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Oct 31, 2022 · 23m · top-founders

High Volume, Low ARPU Sales Playbook: 14 Page Process We Used to hit $3m Revenue, Profitable

Chris Vanderslooth · 18m spoken Nathan Latka · 51s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

At the Founder 500 conference, software founder Chris Vanderslooth recounts his multi-decade journey building TimeControl into a profitable $3 million business, sharing tactical lessons on surviving economic downturns, buying out investors, and maintaining enterprise customer retention.

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 4.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 Nathan pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:0020:000:59–6:28 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Chris Vanderslooth's Company Journey and Timeline Overview Chris delivers a solo keynote presentation detailing his company's founding in 1984, early consulting projects for large enterprise clients, and buying out his co-founder during the 1993 recession. Because this is a conference stage monologue, host-side metrics are zero.6:28–9:00 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Launching TimeControl and Raising Late-90s Venture Capital Chris recounts productizing TimeControl, securing an early partnership with Primavera, and accepting venture capital and debentures right before the dot-com crash in late 1999.9:00–13:59 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Surviving the Tech Crash and Buying Out Investors Chris describes managing steep losses in 2002, laying off half the staff including his CFO, and systematically buying out the equity investors at a discount by 2006.14:00–17:55 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Product Adaptations, Security Compliance, and Enterprise Retaining Chris explains how retaining over 50% equity control enabled him to direct company strategy, prioritize customer retention, and maintain on-prem solutions for strict government clients like the Federal Reserve.17:56–20:39 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Designing for User Realities and Cross-Functional Engineering Chris outlines his product philosophy around minimizing user friction for timesheet entry and describes rotating every software engineer through QA and tier-one customer support.20:39–23:12 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Business Metrics, Profit Sharing, and Core Founder Lessons Chris shares current business metrics including 74% recurring revenue and staff profit sharing, concluding with core founder lessons about competing against giants like SAP and resisting investor pressure.0:59–6:28 · Guest teaching 0/10 Chris Vanderslooth's Company Journey and Timeline Overview Chris delivers a solo keynote presentation detailing his company's founding in 1984, early consulting projects for large enterprise clients, and buying out his co-founder during the 1993 recession. Because this is a conference stage monologue, host-side metrics are zero.6:28–9:00 · Guest teaching 0/10 Launching TimeControl and Raising Late-90s Venture Capital Chris recounts productizing TimeControl, securing an early partnership with Primavera, and accepting venture capital and debentures right before the dot-com crash in late 1999.9:00–13:59 · Guest teaching 0/10 Surviving the Tech Crash and Buying Out Investors Chris describes managing steep losses in 2002, laying off half the staff including his CFO, and systematically buying out the equity investors at a discount by 2006.14:00–17:55 · Guest teaching 0/10 Product Adaptations, Security Compliance, and Enterprise Retaining Chris explains how retaining over 50% equity control enabled him to direct company strategy, prioritize customer retention, and maintain on-prem solutions for strict government clients like the Federal Reserve.17:56–20:39 · Guest teaching 0/10 Designing for User Realities and Cross-Functional Engineering Chris outlines his product philosophy around minimizing user friction for timesheet entry and describes rotating every software engineer through QA and tier-one customer support.20:39–23:12 · Guest teaching 0/10 Business Metrics, Profit Sharing, and Core Founder Lessons Chris shares current business metrics including 74% recurring revenue and staff profit sharing, concluding with core founder lessons about competing against giants like SAP and resisting investor pressure.0:59–6:28 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Chris Vanderslooth's Company Journey and Timeline Overview Chris delivers a solo keynote presentation detailing his company's founding in 1984, early consulting projects for large enterprise clients, and buying out his co-founder during the 1993 recession. Because this is a conference stage monologue, host-side metrics are zero.6:28–9:00 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Launching TimeControl and Raising Late-90s Venture Capital Chris recounts productizing TimeControl, securing an early partnership with Primavera, and accepting venture capital and debentures right before the dot-com crash in late 1999.9:00–13:59 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Surviving the Tech Crash and Buying Out Investors Chris describes managing steep losses in 2002, laying off half the staff including his CFO, and systematically buying out the equity investors at a discount by 2006.14:00–17:55 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Product Adaptations, Security Compliance, and Enterprise Retaining Chris explains how retaining over 50% equity control enabled him to direct company strategy, prioritize customer retention, and maintain on-prem solutions for strict government clients like the Federal Reserve.17:56–20:39 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Designing for User Realities and Cross-Functional Engineering Chris outlines his product philosophy around minimizing user friction for timesheet entry and describes rotating every software engineer through QA and tier-one customer support.20:39–23:12 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Business Metrics, Profit Sharing, and Core Founder Lessons Chris shares current business metrics including 74% recurring revenue and staff profit sharing, concluding with core founder lessons about competing against giants like SAP and resisting investor pressure.0:59–6:28 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Chris Vanderslooth's Company Journey and Timeline Overview Chris delivers a solo keynote presentation detailing his company's founding in 1984, early consulting projects for large enterprise clients, and buying out his co-founder during the 1993 recession. Because this is a conference stage monologue, host-side metrics are zero.6:28–9:00 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Launching TimeControl and Raising Late-90s Venture Capital Chris recounts productizing TimeControl, securing an early partnership with Primavera, and accepting venture capital and debentures right before the dot-com crash in late 1999.9:00–13:59 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Surviving the Tech Crash and Buying Out Investors Chris describes managing steep losses in 2002, laying off half the staff including his CFO, and systematically buying out the equity investors at a discount by 2006.14:00–17:55 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Product Adaptations, Security Compliance, and Enterprise Retaining Chris explains how retaining over 50% equity control enabled him to direct company strategy, prioritize customer retention, and maintain on-prem solutions for strict government clients like the Federal Reserve.17:56–20:39 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Designing for User Realities and Cross-Functional Engineering Chris outlines his product philosophy around minimizing user friction for timesheet entry and describes rotating every software engineer through QA and tier-one customer support.20:39–23:12 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Business Metrics, Profit Sharing, and Core Founder Lessons Chris shares current business metrics including 74% recurring revenue and staff profit sharing, concluding with core founder lessons about competing against giants like SAP and resisting investor pressure.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 32.1% · guest 67.9%0:00 · Nathan 32.1% · guest 67.9%3:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:48 One dollar buyout offer to venture board

Chris recounts his most confrontational negotiation, submitting a literal one-dollar written offer to his venture investors to reclaim full equity ownership.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 0:10 Nathan mandates verified data and graphs

In the pre-recorded introduction, Nathan asserts strict requirements for conference presentations, demanding speakers include raw revenue charts and verified artifacts.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 21:20 VC capital does not equal operational expertise

Chris educates founders in the audience on the distinction between capital providers and domain builders, warning them never to forfeit operational expertise to investors.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 0:12 Nathan frames SaaS founder benchmarking platform

Nathan establishes his expertise by detailing his database and filtering methodology for SaaS operational metrics across thousands of founder interviews.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Chris Vanderslooth's Company Journey and Timeline Overview 0000 Chris delivers a solo keynote presentation detailing his company's founding in 1984, early consulting projects for large enterprise clients, and buying out his co-founder during the 1993 recession. Because this is a conference stage monologue, host-side metrics are zero.
Launching TimeControl and Raising Late-90s Venture Capital 0000 Chris recounts productizing TimeControl, securing an early partnership with Primavera, and accepting venture capital and debentures right before the dot-com crash in late 1999.
Surviving the Tech Crash and Buying Out Investors 0000 Chris describes managing steep losses in 2002, laying off half the staff including his CFO, and systematically buying out the equity investors at a discount by 2006.
Product Adaptations, Security Compliance, and Enterprise Retaining 0000 Chris explains how retaining over 50% equity control enabled him to direct company strategy, prioritize customer retention, and maintain on-prem solutions for strict government clients like the Federal Reserve.
Designing for User Realities and Cross-Functional Engineering 0000 Chris outlines his product philosophy around minimizing user friction for timesheet entry and describes rotating every software engineer through QA and tier-one customer support.
Business Metrics, Profit Sharing, and Core Founder Lessons 0000 Chris shares current business metrics including 74% recurring revenue and staff profit sharing, concluding with core founder lessons about competing against giants like SAP and resisting investor pressure.

Statements from this episode (11)

Disclosure
TimeControl is not pursuing an exit despite acquisition interest
“I'm not on a track for an exit, even though I've been tagged twice today by people who go, would you like some money? We'd love for you to exit.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 1:20
Prediction Not checkable as stated
TimeControl is on track to reach $3M revenue in 2022
“And things are on track for this year to be at about three. So ah, so things are generally going quite well.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 1:54
Assertion Not checkable as stated
TimeControl has never sold software to a company its own size
“We've never sold to a client our size. I mean, we're now, you know, twenty-ish people. But we've never sold to a company of 20 people. Our clients since the beginning have always been kind of conditioned to larger size firms.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 3:44
Insight
Buyout negotiations favor the founder who stays when a partner leaves
“If you need to buy your partner out, buying them out when they want to leave and you want to stay is a really good moment for negotiating.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 5:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Vanderslooth bought out his equity investors at 16 cents on the dollar
“In 2006 and I bought them out. And if you added it all up together, I bought them out in the end on about 16 cents on the dollar. But overall it was about 60 cents on the dollar. If you included the debentures and everything else”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 12:08
Opinion
Founders today can rarely raise venture capital and keep majority control
“I can tell you that a deal that I would get today would not be as good as the deal I got in 99, because I would not get a deal where I would be able to keep control. Only because I had more than 50% of control, even with all of that stuff that happened, was I …”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 15:09
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Federal Reserve rejected TimeControl's SaaS deployment over data localization
“Turns out the Federal Reserve Board of Governors doesn't want to use our SAS. I don't know. I think we're trustworthy, but they went, no, no, you're not even in the country. So, well, you're in the country, but the company's not, so no. The US Coast Guard don'…”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 17:19
Disclosure
TimeControl rotates every software developer through QA, support, and documentation
“Our technical people, we rotate them all. Every developer serves in QA. Every developer does a technical support. Every developer does documentation. Every developer does implementation because if you're a coder, you should have to go live with it with the cli…”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 19:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
74% of TimeControl's 2021 revenue was recurring
“74% of our revenue in twenty-twenty-one is recurring.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 20:54
Disclosure
TimeControl distributes roughly 20% of its profits back to staff
“We take about 20% of our profits and we give them to the staff.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 21:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
TimeControl generated roughly $700,000 in profit in 2021
“Last year there was about 700 K in profits.”
Chris Vanderslooth Oct 31, 2022 ▶ 21:16
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