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Nov 9, 2020 · 17m · top-founders

FullCast Hits $1.1m ARR, Pure SaaS From $1m Agency in Rev Ops Space

Dharmesh Singh · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken Frank Bien · 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

Fullcast co-founder Dharmesh Singh joins Nathan Latka to discuss transitioning from a $1 million RevOps consulting agency to a pure SaaS model pacing toward $1.4 million ARR. Singh breaks down the company's $70,000 average ACV, enterprise product strategy, and capital-efficient fundraising via a $15 million cap SAFE round.

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 34% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 3.2 Guest disagreement 1.4 Nathan pushing back 3.0
05100:0010:000:00–4:06 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Preview: Transitioning From Services to Pure SaaS Latka sets up the interview by asking foundational questions about RevOps market positioning and competitive displacement. Singh clearly outlines the structural gap between Excel-based planning and CRM operational execution.4:06–7:17 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Fullcast Pricing Model, ACV, and Expansion Levers Latka drills into pricing dynamics, expansion levers, and founding history. Singh shares specific ACV tiers and describes using an initial services business to fund their MVP development.7:17–11:47 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 SaaS Revenue Growth, ICP Evolution, and Customer Base Latka pushes on the unusual capitalization sequence of doing a priced equity seed followed by a SAFE bridge note. Singh methodically justifies the decision as a bridge to cross two million ARR before initiating Series A.11:47–14:03 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Seed Valuation History, Market Size, and Capital Discipline Latka questions how Singh maintained high valuation multiples despite having legacy agency revenue on the P&L. Singh details their platform narrative and near cash-flow-neutral burn rate.14:03–16:52 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Managing the Transition of Contractor Engineers to In-House Roles Latka asks how to poach outsourced contractor talent without offending agency partners before wrapping up with the Famous Five standard questions.0:00–4:06 · Guest teaching 3/10 Preview: Transitioning From Services to Pure SaaS Latka sets up the interview by asking foundational questions about RevOps market positioning and competitive displacement. Singh clearly outlines the structural gap between Excel-based planning and CRM operational execution.4:06–7:17 · Guest teaching 2/10 Fullcast Pricing Model, ACV, and Expansion Levers Latka drills into pricing dynamics, expansion levers, and founding history. Singh shares specific ACV tiers and describes using an initial services business to fund their MVP development.7:17–11:47 · Guest teaching 4/10 SaaS Revenue Growth, ICP Evolution, and Customer Base Latka pushes on the unusual capitalization sequence of doing a priced equity seed followed by a SAFE bridge note. Singh methodically justifies the decision as a bridge to cross two million ARR before initiating Series A.11:47–14:03 · Guest teaching 4/10 Seed Valuation History, Market Size, and Capital Discipline Latka questions how Singh maintained high valuation multiples despite having legacy agency revenue on the P&L. Singh details their platform narrative and near cash-flow-neutral burn rate.14:03–16:52 · Guest teaching 3/10 Managing the Transition of Contractor Engineers to In-House Roles Latka asks how to poach outsourced contractor talent without offending agency partners before wrapping up with the Famous Five standard questions.0:00–4:06 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Preview: Transitioning From Services to Pure SaaS Latka sets up the interview by asking foundational questions about RevOps market positioning and competitive displacement. Singh clearly outlines the structural gap between Excel-based planning and CRM operational execution.4:06–7:17 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Fullcast Pricing Model, ACV, and Expansion Levers Latka drills into pricing dynamics, expansion levers, and founding history. Singh shares specific ACV tiers and describes using an initial services business to fund their MVP development.7:17–11:47 · Guest disagreement 2/10 SaaS Revenue Growth, ICP Evolution, and Customer Base Latka pushes on the unusual capitalization sequence of doing a priced equity seed followed by a SAFE bridge note. Singh methodically justifies the decision as a bridge to cross two million ARR before initiating Series A.11:47–14:03 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Seed Valuation History, Market Size, and Capital Discipline Latka questions how Singh maintained high valuation multiples despite having legacy agency revenue on the P&L. Singh details their platform narrative and near cash-flow-neutral burn rate.14:03–16:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Managing the Transition of Contractor Engineers to In-House Roles Latka asks how to poach outsourced contractor talent without offending agency partners before wrapping up with the Famous Five standard questions.0:00–4:06 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Preview: Transitioning From Services to Pure SaaS Latka sets up the interview by asking foundational questions about RevOps market positioning and competitive displacement. Singh clearly outlines the structural gap between Excel-based planning and CRM operational execution.4:06–7:17 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Fullcast Pricing Model, ACV, and Expansion Levers Latka drills into pricing dynamics, expansion levers, and founding history. Singh shares specific ACV tiers and describes using an initial services business to fund their MVP development.7:17–11:47 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 SaaS Revenue Growth, ICP Evolution, and Customer Base Latka pushes on the unusual capitalization sequence of doing a priced equity seed followed by a SAFE bridge note. Singh methodically justifies the decision as a bridge to cross two million ARR before initiating Series A.11:47–14:03 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Seed Valuation History, Market Size, and Capital Discipline Latka questions how Singh maintained high valuation multiples despite having legacy agency revenue on the P&L. Singh details their platform narrative and near cash-flow-neutral burn rate.14:03–16:52 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Managing the Transition of Contractor Engineers to In-House Roles Latka asks how to poach outsourced contractor talent without offending agency partners before wrapping up with the Famous Five standard questions.

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

0:00 · Nathan 57.6% · guest 42.4%0:00 · Nathan 57.6% · guest 42.4%3:00 · Nathan 12% · guest 88%3:00 · Nathan 12% · guest 88%6:00 · Nathan 29.3% · guest 70.7%6:00 · Nathan 29.3% · guest 70.7%9:00 · Nathan 24.8% · guest 75.2%9:00 · Nathan 24.8% · guest 75.2%12:00 · Nathan 28.4% · guest 71.6%12:00 · Nathan 28.4% · guest 71.6%15:00 · Nathan 55% · guest 45%15:00 · Nathan 55% · guest 45%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:53 Defending bridge financing strategy against standard equity sequencing

Singh firmly rejects the idea that issuing a SAFE after a priced equity round is backward, explaining the deliberate plan to delay Series A until hitting two million ARR.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:45 Latka presses on reverse fundraising mechanics

Latka directly questions the founder's capital strategy, challenging why a company would go from a priced equity round backward into a SAFE note.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:53 Strategic trade-offs between on-demand hiring and bridge-funded scaling

Singh educates the host on the tactical trade-offs between cash-flow-dependent hiring and taking a targeted bridge note to invest ahead of customer demand.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:57 Latka questions agency revenue valuation discounts

Latka demonstrates sharp venture capital knowledge by pressing on how the founders avoided valuation penalties from VCs when presenting consulting revenue.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Preview: Transitioning From Services to Pure SaaS 4311 Latka sets up the interview by asking foundational questions about RevOps market positioning and competitive displacement. Singh clearly outlines the structural gap between Excel-based planning and CRM operational execution.
Fullcast Pricing Model, ACV, and Expansion Levers 5212 Latka drills into pricing dynamics, expansion levers, and founding history. Singh shares specific ACV tiers and describes using an initial services business to fund their MVP development.
SaaS Revenue Growth, ICP Evolution, and Customer Base 6425 Latka pushes on the unusual capitalization sequence of doing a priced equity seed followed by a SAFE bridge note. Singh methodically justifies the decision as a bridge to cross two million ARR before initiating Series A.
Seed Valuation History, Market Size, and Capital Discipline 6424 Latka questions how Singh maintained high valuation multiples despite having legacy agency revenue on the P&L. Singh details their platform narrative and near cash-flow-neutral burn rate.
Managing the Transition of Contractor Engineers to In-House Roles 4313 Latka asks how to poach outsourced contractor talent without offending agency partners before wrapping up with the Famous Five standard questions.

Statements from this episode (15)

Insight
Disconnected Spreadsheets Force Manual CRM Execution
“The basic problem that is that planning is extremely manual. That's done in Excel spreadsheets by sales strategy folks, and that gets, never gets you know, visibility on the ops side of the house. So ops is executed in CRM systems manually through custom code …”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 2:43
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fullcast's Average Deal Size is $70,000 Per Year
“Our average deal size across customers is about 70 K for the year right now.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 4:14
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fullcast Contracts Range From $30,000 to $200,000
“We've got some customers that have started with only about 20 reps and they're as low as, you know, 30 K. We got customers at 600 reps and they're all the way up to 152 hundred K.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 4:23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Anaplan Failed to Meet Salesforce's Sales Planning Needs
“So we had experience planning at Microsoft, which was a six month process, and Bala and myself, we were part of the sales planning customer for life team at Salesforce, dealing with 1500 sheets being sent to 400 managers August to February, and so we started l…”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 5:25
Disclosure
Fullcast Transitioned From Services to SaaS-Only in 2019
“We then built the platform moved to the mid-market segment and switched over from a services to a SaaS only business. And we launched the product. In what year? February, 2019.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 6:55
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Fullcast Will Close 2020 Near $1.4M ARR
“Close to 1.4.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 8:10
Assertion Partly supported
Fullcast Counts MongoDB, Udemy, and Auth0 as Customers
“So you, we sell to customers like MongoDB, Udemy you know, essentially the mid market space odd zero.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 8:23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fullcast Has 15 Paying Customers
“15.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 8:41
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fullcast Operates With 10 FTEs and Nine Engineers
“We got among, we've got 10 FTEs plus contract employees. So if you were to sort of mix the contract and FTEs, you got about nine engineers.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 9:30
Disclosure
Fullcast is Raising a SAFE Note at a $15M Cap
“We're raising at a fifteen million cap. It's a safe note.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 10:34
Disclosure
Fullcast Won't Raise Series A Until Passing $2M ARR
“We're looking at the safe note more as a bridge financing because we don't want to rule through a series A till we go past two million dollars in ARR.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 10:54
Disclosure
Fullcast Raised Its 2018 Seed Round at a $10M Valuation
“We did it at Tenpre.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 11:55
Opinion
The RevOps Software Market is at Least $10 Billion
“We think it's at least, if not anything, it's at least a ten billion dollar market.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 12:41
Disclosure
Fullcast Operates Almost Cash Flow Neutral
“We are almost cash flow neutral.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 13:22
Disclosure
Fullcast Runs Its Entire Company on Basecamp and Google Chat
“We love Basecamp. We love Google chat. Those are the two tools that we depend on. We run an entire company on that actually.”
Dharmesh Singh Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 16:16
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