Apr 10, 2021 · 19m · top-founders
Factory SaaS Hits $2.2m Revenue, Raises $6m on $24m Valuation
Renan de Villa · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken Eric Yuan · 4s spoken Frank Bien · 4s spoken Vivek Bhaskaran · 2s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this interview, Nathan Latka speaks with Renan de Villa, CEO of OSS Ventures, about how his industrial venture studio reached 2.2 million euros in ARR across 180 factories using an eight-product software strategy and an extensive consultant reseller network.
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 33.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.9 Guest teaching 3.7 Guest disagreement 1.1 Nathan pushing back 2.6
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:33 Clarifying venture studio entity model
Renan pushes back against Nathan's confusion regarding distinct software lines, explaining how each portfolio startup operates separate product teams within the studio.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:33 Nathan demands clarity on team headcountNathan explicitly halts the conversation to challenge Renan's phrasing regarding the rest of the different companies, demanding a clean breakdown of total company personnel.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:46 Educating on industrial consulting reseller channelRenan breaks down how traditional industrial giants are cutting R&D while expanding M&A, forcing independent shop-floor consultants to seek modern digital software tools to resell.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:33 Immediate pre vs post money calculationNathan demonstrates financial mastery by instantly clarifying whether the 24 million valuation was pre or post money and calculating the 30 million post-money cap without hesitation.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode Hook and Revenue Highlight | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Following the subscription intro, Nathan probes into Renan's customer ICP and pricing structure. Renan educates Nathan on why 15k to 75k is the sweet spot because factory managers can sign checks without corporate approval. | |
| Early Customer Acquisition and Lean Problem Solving | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Nathan presses Renan to quantify mid-market factory sizes and explain how he sourced leads via LinkedIn. Renan explains industrial lean management principles and why software has historically failed to penetrate plant floors. | |
| Scaling to Eight Software Lines and 2.2M Revenue | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Nathan rapidly parses Renan's ARR run rate, historical trajectory, and 6M fundraise. Nathan clarifies valuation mechanics (24M pre-money translating to 30M post-money), while Renan highlights low SAP net promoter scores. | |
| Team Composition, Engineering Distribution, and Direct Sales | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Nathan refuses ambiguity when Renan refers to other companies, interrupting to clarify the venture studio headcount structure. Renan lays out sales team quotas of 7x OTE and describes their two-quarter deployment sales cycle. | |
| Reseller Channel Strategy and Operations Consultants | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Renan outlines his reseller channel economics, sharing insights on boutique lean operations consultants acting as resellers. Nathan validates this model by mentioning his own curriculum on managing value-added resellers. | |
| Growth Forecast, Net Retention, and Community Strategy | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Nathan inquires about expansion metrics and calculates that a 30 percent in-cohort net retention boost equals 130 percent NRR. Renan explains their single-site churn record and organic community acquisition strategy. | |
| Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Standard rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire where Renan provides concise personal answers with zero friction. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Factory software sweet spot is $15k to $75k per site annually
“So the sweet spot is between 15 K one five 75 K per site per year. Why is it a sweet spot? Because it's roughly the price of a machine. So they are very used to making checks of that size. And also because when you are in a big company or a mid company you don…”
Renan de Villa: Pitched 20 factories for first customer, getting 19 rejections
“I literally went to 20 factories and said, look, we want to do that. And we want to make good software for our factories. So let us in. And 19 no's and one yes.”
Renan de Villa: 80% of factories lack software for Lean problem-solving
“Today, you go to a factory, 80% of the time, this kind of process is put in place. There is no software to collect it. There is no software to scale it. There is no software to get smart about it. And so it gets lost, even if the process is done.”
OSS Ventures operates across 180 factories and over 80 clients
“The number of factories, and we have a little over 80 clients in the portfolio.”
Renan de Villa: Manufacturing software is a $400B+ global market
“And it's a massive space. It's more than four hundred billion world, like just software from manufacturing companies.”
OSS Ventures reaches 2.2M euros ARR across eight software portfolio companies
“And now we have eight lines of software and those eight lines of software with eight separate companies that we are in those eight are total 2.2 million ARR.”
De Villa: OSS Ventures raised at a $24M pre-money valuation
“So we were able to get a valuation that is kind of floating according to what we will be doing. The total valuation should be 20, twenty four million.”
De Villa: Only SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft contest manufacturing software
“Basically you have SAP and Oracle and Microsoft is entering the fields, the field, and those are the only three who are really playing in the manufacturing for that whole space.”
De Villa: SAP's Net Promoter Score is 4
“The net promoter score of SAP is four, like not 40, four. It's four.”
OSS Ventures generates 40% of sales directly, the rest via partners
“So I would say that 40% of our sales are done like us, and the rest is referral and partner channels.”
Founder closed first $500K directly before hiring first sales representative
“I would say the first 500 K were them exclusively by me, that's for sure. And I would say the first was at like 600.”
OSS Ventures sets sales quota benchmark at 7x a representative's salary
“So basically we say that they need to bring home seven times in their salary. That's like our benchmark metrics.”
OSS Ventures pays resellers 10% to 40% commissions on first-year licenses
“So it range from 10 to 40% commission. Usually on first-year license.”
De Villa: Siemens, Bosch, SAP, and Dassault rely on startups to retain contracts
“Siemens, Bosch, SAP, Dassault System, and all those guys, they are all trying to get us to do better the part of what they used to do, but are losing contracts on.”
De Villa: Factory consultants are rarely skilled in both operations and digital
“And consultants in factories, they are either very good in lean or very good at implementing There's no like middle ground of people being good at operations and digital.”
De Villa: OSS Ventures does 60% of business in France, 40% abroad
“We are doing 60% of our business in France, 40% out of France. The thing is the 40% that we are doing out of France is Factories from French clients, but out of France.”
OSS Ventures achieved 130% net ARR retention on its prior cohort
“The number is, I would say, thirty-ish percent plus for in-cohort, like our net ARR retention from last year cohort is plus 30%.”