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Mar 15, 2021 · 23m · top-founders

Premise Breaks $20m Revenue, $400m+ Valuation in Two Sided Marketplace Play for Consumer Data and Feedback

Maury Blackman · 13m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m spoken Eric Yuan · 4s spoken Vivek Bhaskaran · 2s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

In an interview with Nathan Latka, Premise Data CEO Maury Blackman discusses the turnaround of the crowdsourced market intelligence platform from zero commercial revenue into a $20M+ ARR business valued at over $400 million. Blackman details the company's two-sided marketplace dynamics, high net dollar retention, enterprise customer expansion, and roadmap toward a $100M run rate.

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 35.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 7.0 Guest teaching 3.6 Guest disagreement 1.4 Nathan pushing back 3.4
05100:0010:0020:001:25–3:56 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Premise Data Mission and Market Positioning Latka demonstrates solid industry familiarity by contrasting Premise with ZoomInfo, Enigma, and Mechanical Turk. Blackman clarifies their unique distributed data collection model collaboratively.3:57–8:05 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Enterprise Use Cases, Credit Pricing, and High NDR Latka pushes back firmly when Blackman cites a 250-300% net dollar retention rate, citing benchmarks from Gong and UiPath. Blackman defends the number by contextualizing early POC expansions and corrects Latka's $8M run-rate estimate up to $20M.8:05–12:38 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Turnaround Strategy and Early Venture Capital Backing Latka drills into the company history, questioning how earlier founders raised $50M on zero revenue and asking pointed questions about Blackman's equity package and insider round negotiations.12:38–17:18 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Growth Forecasts, US Expansion, and Public Market Strategy Latka maps out dilution, ARR projections, and valuation bounds ($450M-$900M), asking if Blackman feels pressure to grow into those multiples. Blackman explains their $10-20M US expansion plan.17:18–21:38 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Workforce Scale, Marketplace Metrics, and Crypto Payouts Latka probes sales incentive structures and marketplace funnel metrics. Blackman reveals paying out $1M in Bitcoin to contributors and discusses the potential transition to a crypto token model.1:25–3:56 · Guest teaching 2/10 Premise Data Mission and Market Positioning Latka demonstrates solid industry familiarity by contrasting Premise with ZoomInfo, Enigma, and Mechanical Turk. Blackman clarifies their unique distributed data collection model collaboratively.3:57–8:05 · Guest teaching 5/10 Enterprise Use Cases, Credit Pricing, and High NDR Latka pushes back firmly when Blackman cites a 250-300% net dollar retention rate, citing benchmarks from Gong and UiPath. Blackman defends the number by contextualizing early POC expansions and corrects Latka's $8M run-rate estimate up to $20M.8:05–12:38 · Guest teaching 4/10 Turnaround Strategy and Early Venture Capital Backing Latka drills into the company history, questioning how earlier founders raised $50M on zero revenue and asking pointed questions about Blackman's equity package and insider round negotiations.12:38–17:18 · Guest teaching 3/10 Growth Forecasts, US Expansion, and Public Market Strategy Latka maps out dilution, ARR projections, and valuation bounds ($450M-$900M), asking if Blackman feels pressure to grow into those multiples. Blackman explains their $10-20M US expansion plan.17:18–21:38 · Guest teaching 4/10 Workforce Scale, Marketplace Metrics, and Crypto Payouts Latka probes sales incentive structures and marketplace funnel metrics. Blackman reveals paying out $1M in Bitcoin to contributors and discusses the potential transition to a crypto token model.1:25–3:56 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Premise Data Mission and Market Positioning Latka demonstrates solid industry familiarity by contrasting Premise with ZoomInfo, Enigma, and Mechanical Turk. Blackman clarifies their unique distributed data collection model collaboratively.3:57–8:05 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Enterprise Use Cases, Credit Pricing, and High NDR Latka pushes back firmly when Blackman cites a 250-300% net dollar retention rate, citing benchmarks from Gong and UiPath. Blackman defends the number by contextualizing early POC expansions and corrects Latka's $8M run-rate estimate up to $20M.8:05–12:38 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Turnaround Strategy and Early Venture Capital Backing Latka drills into the company history, questioning how earlier founders raised $50M on zero revenue and asking pointed questions about Blackman's equity package and insider round negotiations.12:38–17:18 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Growth Forecasts, US Expansion, and Public Market Strategy Latka maps out dilution, ARR projections, and valuation bounds ($450M-$900M), asking if Blackman feels pressure to grow into those multiples. Blackman explains their $10-20M US expansion plan.17:18–21:38 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Workforce Scale, Marketplace Metrics, and Crypto Payouts Latka probes sales incentive structures and marketplace funnel metrics. Blackman reveals paying out $1M in Bitcoin to contributors and discusses the potential transition to a crypto token model.1:25–3:56 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Premise Data Mission and Market Positioning Latka demonstrates solid industry familiarity by contrasting Premise with ZoomInfo, Enigma, and Mechanical Turk. Blackman clarifies their unique distributed data collection model collaboratively.3:57–8:05 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Enterprise Use Cases, Credit Pricing, and High NDR Latka pushes back firmly when Blackman cites a 250-300% net dollar retention rate, citing benchmarks from Gong and UiPath. Blackman defends the number by contextualizing early POC expansions and corrects Latka's $8M run-rate estimate up to $20M.8:05–12:38 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Turnaround Strategy and Early Venture Capital Backing Latka drills into the company history, questioning how earlier founders raised $50M on zero revenue and asking pointed questions about Blackman's equity package and insider round negotiations.12:38–17:18 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Growth Forecasts, US Expansion, and Public Market Strategy Latka maps out dilution, ARR projections, and valuation bounds ($450M-$900M), asking if Blackman feels pressure to grow into those multiples. Blackman explains their $10-20M US expansion plan.17:18–21:38 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Workforce Scale, Marketplace Metrics, and Crypto Payouts Latka probes sales incentive structures and marketplace funnel metrics. Blackman reveals paying out $1M in Bitcoin to contributors and discusses the potential transition to a crypto token model.

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

0:00 · Nathan 58.9% · guest 41.1%0:00 · Nathan 58.9% · guest 41.1%3:00 · Nathan 41.8% · guest 58.2%3:00 · Nathan 41.8% · guest 58.2%6:00 · Nathan 29.3% · guest 70.7%6:00 · Nathan 29.3% · guest 70.7%9:00 · Nathan 27.9% · guest 72.1%9:00 · Nathan 27.9% · guest 72.1%12:00 · Nathan 25.5% · guest 74.5%12:00 · Nathan 25.5% · guest 74.5%15:00 · Nathan 18.6% · guest 81.4%15:00 · Nathan 18.6% · guest 81.4%18:00 · Nathan 30.5% · guest 69.5%18:00 · Nathan 30.5% · guest 69.5%21:00 · Nathan 49.2% · guest 50.8%21:00 · Nathan 49.2% · guest 50.8%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:02 Blackman defends outlier NDR against SaaS benchmarks

When Latka calls his retention figures insane, Blackman firmly holds ground, explaining how enterprise POCs rapidly scale into full deployments.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 6:45 Latka calls out 250-300% NDR claim

Latka directly interrupts and rejects the feasibility of a 250-300% net dollar retention rate by contrasting it against Gong and UiPath.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:48 Blackman corrects Latka's revenue calculation

Latka calculates Premise's ARR as $8M based on average ACVs, but Blackman corrects him by revealing their top accounts push total run rate to $20M.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:45 Latka benchmarks retention metrics across market leaders

Latka displays deep domain expertise by citing exact NDR metrics and multiples from Snowflake, Gong, and UiPath to pressure the guest.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Premise Data Mission and Market Positioning 6211 Latka demonstrates solid industry familiarity by contrasting Premise with ZoomInfo, Enigma, and Mechanical Turk. Blackman clarifies their unique distributed data collection model collaboratively.
Enterprise Use Cases, Credit Pricing, and High NDR 8526 Latka pushes back firmly when Blackman cites a 250-300% net dollar retention rate, citing benchmarks from Gong and UiPath. Blackman defends the number by contextualizing early POC expansions and corrects Latka's $8M run-rate estimate up to $20M.
Turnaround Strategy and Early Venture Capital Backing 7425 Latka drills into the company history, questioning how earlier founders raised $50M on zero revenue and asking pointed questions about Blackman's equity package and insider round negotiations.
Growth Forecasts, US Expansion, and Public Market Strategy 7313 Latka maps out dilution, ARR projections, and valuation bounds ($450M-$900M), asking if Blackman feels pressure to grow into those multiples. Blackman explains their $10-20M US expansion plan.
Workforce Scale, Marketplace Metrics, and Crypto Payouts 7412 Latka probes sales incentive structures and marketplace funnel metrics. Blackman reveals paying out $1M in Bitcoin to contributors and discusses the potential transition to a crypto token model.

Statements from this episode (13)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Premise Data recruits contributors across 120 countries
“We're in a hundred different, 20 countries, and we find these individuals, they're ordinary individuals,”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 2:31
Disclosure
Blackman: Premise Data average customer pays around $100,000 annually
“Our typical customer is paying us around a 100,000 a year.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 4:47
Disclosure
Blackman: Premise Data net dollar retention is 250% to 300%
“Well, keep in mind, Nathan, we're still pretty early, but it's around 250 to 300%.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 6:40
Disclosure
Blackman: Premise Data has signed its 80th customer logo
“And so, the number of clients that we're serving today is, is, we just signed our eighty-eth, our eighty-eth logo.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 7:08
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Blackman: Premise net retention will normalize to ~120% in 2-3 years
“And so I would expect that to normalize over the next, you know, 24, 36 months, and to have, you know, maybe something around one 20, like you suggested.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 7:29
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Premise Data generated no commercial revenue from 2012 to 2018
“Between 25, 20 12, 20 13, up to 20 18, when I joined, there was really no commercial activity.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 8:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Premise CEO: Early enterprise customers increased contract spend by 500%
“These customers would spend on the average when we first signed them up somewhere between 5200 K. But that, you know, once we got through that initial year and proved out the business, and people got addicted to the data, they got addicted to the insights we w…”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 9:28
Disclosure
Premise CEO Maury Blackman owns more than 10% of the company
“Yes.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 12:13
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blackman: Premise scaled from zero revenue to $4M, $10M, and $20M ARR
“We went, you know, so the first year I was here, we did We did four million in revenue, which was, you know, that was exciting. We hadn't had revenue before. And then, you know, kind of following on the back of that, we did 10, and then we had a clear line of …”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 13:09
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Blackman: Premise will break $35M-$40M ARR by December 2021
“I do. Yeah. Yeah. We, you know, being a SaaS business, I mean, obviously one of the things that we love about it is that we're able to predict what our revenue looks like. And if we, You know, we have an opportunity to do much better than forty million, but I …”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 13:30
Disclosure
Blackman confirms Premise sold 10% to 20% dilution in Series E
“Is it fair to say you are in that same range? Yes.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 14:53
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blackman: Premise has 50K DAUs and over 1.5M weekly engaged contributors
“On a daily active user basis, we have about 50,000 daily active users. Engaged users, it's probably north of one and a half million.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 19:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blackman: Premise paid out $1M in Bitcoin to contributors in 2020
“We paid out a million in Bitcoin last year.”
Maury Blackman Mar 15, 2021 ▶ 20:49
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