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Feb 22, 2021 · 15m · top-founders

How Measured.com Grew 250% TTM To Break $5m in Revenues Helping WIth Marketing Attribution

Trevor Testweed · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m 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 this interview with Nathan Latka, Measured co-founder and CEO Trevor Testweed breaks down how the bootstrapped marketing incrementality platform achieved 250% year-over-year growth to surpass a $5 million ARR run rate on its path to $10 million. Testweed details the company's capital-efficient SaaS model, 80% gross margins, productized customer success strategy, and technical departure from traditional multi-touch attribution.

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 29.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.6 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 1.4 Nathan pushing back 2.6
05100:0010:000:12–3:00 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Podcast Promotion and GetLatka Subscription Overview Segment begins with promotional and subscription announcements before transitioning into Trevor's introduction. Trevor explains the mechanics of marketing incrementality and test/control experimentation cleanly with no friction.3:01–6:02 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Measured's SaaS Model, Customer Success Support, and Gross Margins Nathan demonstrates familiarity with SaaS business models that blend productized services with software to sustain high net dollar retention. Trevor explains their 80% gross margins and pricing structure based on channels and experiment volume.6:03–8:40 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Founding Journey, Multi-Touch Attribution Shift, and Bootstrapping Trevor explains the breakdown of user-level multi-touch attribution due to walled gardens and how that prompted the shift to incrementality experimentation. Nathan validates the bootstrapping and 50/50 co-founder equity structure.8:41–11:54 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Team Distribution, Sales Organization, and Quota Philosophy Nathan presses Trevor repeatedly on sales quota ratios, citing the typical 5x quota-to-OTE standard. When Trevor deflects, Nathan calls him out directly on not having the metric despite decades in enterprise sales.11:55–14:58 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 First Customer Win with Johnny Was and Scaling to 45 Clients Trevor recounts their first contract with Johnny Was and scaling to 45 clients, while Nathan quickly calculates run rates and estimates ARR, which Trevor confirms is currently north of five million dollars.0:12–3:00 · Guest teaching 3/10 Podcast Promotion and GetLatka Subscription Overview Segment begins with promotional and subscription announcements before transitioning into Trevor's introduction. Trevor explains the mechanics of marketing incrementality and test/control experimentation cleanly with no friction.3:01–6:02 · Guest teaching 2/10 Measured's SaaS Model, Customer Success Support, and Gross Margins Nathan demonstrates familiarity with SaaS business models that blend productized services with software to sustain high net dollar retention. Trevor explains their 80% gross margins and pricing structure based on channels and experiment volume.6:03–8:40 · Guest teaching 6/10 Founding Journey, Multi-Touch Attribution Shift, and Bootstrapping Trevor explains the breakdown of user-level multi-touch attribution due to walled gardens and how that prompted the shift to incrementality experimentation. Nathan validates the bootstrapping and 50/50 co-founder equity structure.8:41–11:54 · Guest teaching 2/10 Team Distribution, Sales Organization, and Quota Philosophy Nathan presses Trevor repeatedly on sales quota ratios, citing the typical 5x quota-to-OTE standard. When Trevor deflects, Nathan calls him out directly on not having the metric despite decades in enterprise sales.11:55–14:58 · Guest teaching 2/10 First Customer Win with Johnny Was and Scaling to 45 Clients Trevor recounts their first contract with Johnny Was and scaling to 45 clients, while Nathan quickly calculates run rates and estimates ARR, which Trevor confirms is currently north of five million dollars.0:12–3:00 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Podcast Promotion and GetLatka Subscription Overview Segment begins with promotional and subscription announcements before transitioning into Trevor's introduction. Trevor explains the mechanics of marketing incrementality and test/control experimentation cleanly with no friction.3:01–6:02 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Measured's SaaS Model, Customer Success Support, and Gross Margins Nathan demonstrates familiarity with SaaS business models that blend productized services with software to sustain high net dollar retention. Trevor explains their 80% gross margins and pricing structure based on channels and experiment volume.6:03–8:40 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Founding Journey, Multi-Touch Attribution Shift, and Bootstrapping Trevor explains the breakdown of user-level multi-touch attribution due to walled gardens and how that prompted the shift to incrementality experimentation. Nathan validates the bootstrapping and 50/50 co-founder equity structure.8:41–11:54 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Team Distribution, Sales Organization, and Quota Philosophy Nathan presses Trevor repeatedly on sales quota ratios, citing the typical 5x quota-to-OTE standard. When Trevor deflects, Nathan calls him out directly on not having the metric despite decades in enterprise sales.11:55–14:58 · Guest disagreement 1/10 First Customer Win with Johnny Was and Scaling to 45 Clients Trevor recounts their first contract with Johnny Was and scaling to 45 clients, while Nathan quickly calculates run rates and estimates ARR, which Trevor confirms is currently north of five million dollars.0:12–3:00 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Podcast Promotion and GetLatka Subscription Overview Segment begins with promotional and subscription announcements before transitioning into Trevor's introduction. Trevor explains the mechanics of marketing incrementality and test/control experimentation cleanly with no friction.3:01–6:02 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Measured's SaaS Model, Customer Success Support, and Gross Margins Nathan demonstrates familiarity with SaaS business models that blend productized services with software to sustain high net dollar retention. Trevor explains their 80% gross margins and pricing structure based on channels and experiment volume.6:03–8:40 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Founding Journey, Multi-Touch Attribution Shift, and Bootstrapping Trevor explains the breakdown of user-level multi-touch attribution due to walled gardens and how that prompted the shift to incrementality experimentation. Nathan validates the bootstrapping and 50/50 co-founder equity structure.8:41–11:54 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Team Distribution, Sales Organization, and Quota Philosophy Nathan presses Trevor repeatedly on sales quota ratios, citing the typical 5x quota-to-OTE standard. When Trevor deflects, Nathan calls him out directly on not having the metric despite decades in enterprise sales.11:55–14:58 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 First Customer Win with Johnny Was and Scaling to 45 Clients Trevor recounts their first contract with Johnny Was and scaling to 45 clients, while Nathan quickly calculates run rates and estimates ARR, which Trevor confirms is currently north of five million dollars.

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

0:00 · Nathan 61.4% · guest 38.6%0:00 · Nathan 61.4% · guest 38.6%3:00 · Nathan 21.8% · guest 78.2%3:00 · Nathan 21.8% · guest 78.2%6:00 · Nathan 10.8% · guest 89.2%6:00 · Nathan 10.8% · guest 89.2%9:00 · Nathan 32.4% · guest 67.6%9:00 · Nathan 32.4% · guest 67.6%12:00 · Nathan 22.8% · guest 77.2%12:00 · Nathan 22.8% · guest 77.2%15:00 · Nathan 16.4% · guest 83.6%15:00 · Nathan 16.4% · guest 83.6%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:51 Trevor rejects premise of standalone sales hire

Trevor firmly counters Nathan's premise about sales quota mechanics by asserting he does not have an exclusive sales hire and that selling is done as a shared effort.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:27 Nathan refuses Trevor's deflection on quota ratios

Nathan openly scoffs at Trevor claiming not to know his sales comp ratio despite having over twenty years of background in enterprise sales.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 6:45 Trevor explains the death of user-level path tracking

Trevor gives a technical explanation of how walled gardens made traditional multi-touch user-ID pathing impossible, necessitating experiment-based incrementality.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:47 Nathan cites 5x OTE benchmark for sales quotas

Nathan demonstrates operational expertise by breaking down SaaS sales hire compensation traps and the 5x quota-to-OTE benchmark.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Podcast Promotion and GetLatka Subscription Overview 4300 Segment begins with promotional and subscription announcements before transitioning into Trevor's introduction. Trevor explains the mechanics of marketing incrementality and test/control experimentation cleanly with no friction.
Measured's SaaS Model, Customer Success Support, and Gross Margins 6212 Nathan demonstrates familiarity with SaaS business models that blend productized services with software to sustain high net dollar retention. Trevor explains their 80% gross margins and pricing structure based on channels and experiment volume.
Founding Journey, Multi-Touch Attribution Shift, and Bootstrapping 5611 Trevor explains the breakdown of user-level multi-touch attribution due to walled gardens and how that prompted the shift to incrementality experimentation. Nathan validates the bootstrapping and 50/50 co-founder equity structure.
Team Distribution, Sales Organization, and Quota Philosophy 7248 Nathan presses Trevor repeatedly on sales quota ratios, citing the typical 5x quota-to-OTE standard. When Trevor deflects, Nathan calls him out directly on not having the metric despite decades in enterprise sales.
First Customer Win with Johnny Was and Scaling to 45 Clients 6212 Trevor recounts their first contract with Johnny Was and scaling to 45 clients, while Nathan quickly calculates run rates and estimates ARR, which Trevor confirms is currently north of five million dollars.

Statements from this episode (10)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Measured achieved approximately 80% gross margins in 2020
“But what I will tell you is, is last year we were right around an 80% gross margin business.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 3:54
Disclosure
Measured's pricing ranges from $7.5k to over $30k monthly
“On an entry point, it could be 7500 dollars a month for a very simple engagement on a high end. You know, 25, 30, sometimes north of that.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 4:44
Assertion Supported
Cross-channel user-level conversion tracking is no longer possible
“It's become now nearly impossible to do, and that's mapping like a user's ID. Nathan, your ID for being exposed on, let's say, Google media to Facebook media to Pinterest media to a conversion it is no longer possible within the realities of MarTech to build t…”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 6:53
Disclosure
Measured remains 100% bootstrapped and has raised no outside equity
“We haven't brought on any equity partners. No.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 8:08
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Measured has 42 employees, but only three work on go-to-market
“Of those 42 there are, there's one full-time marketing person, there's one marketing sales, and then there's me on the business side. There's three of us that are on the business side. The other 39 are engineering, product data science. Customer success.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 8:47
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Measured grew revenue by 250% in 2020
“So last year we wanted, we plan on tripling the business last year, but with, The COVID lightning strike in March. I adjusted that down to doubling the business last year. We ended up growing the company by 250%. So more than doubled the business last year.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 9:32
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Measured signed its first customer for $185,000
“We landed this contract first contract I'll share was as a 185,000 dollars.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 12:37
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Measured had 45 customers as of February 2021
“Today we have 45, 45 customers.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 13:00
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Measured expects to pass $10M ARR in 2021
“And we've got a clear line of sight on on, on, on passing that ten million dollar AR mark this year.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 13:56
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Measured has reached a $5M revenue run rate
“Closer to, you know, north of five million right now, right around five million.”
Trevor Testweed Feb 22, 2021 ▶ 14:20
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