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Oct 30, 2020 · 22m · top-founders

Supermetrics $40m Raise Included Secondary at $200m+ Valuation

Mikael Thuneberg · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m spoken Frank Bien · 4s 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, Supermetrics founder and CEO Mikael Thuneberg discusses scaling the company from a self-taught bootstrapped project into a €27M ARR marketing data powerhouse. He reveals the mechanics behind their $40M funding round, secondary share liquidity, enterprise cloud expansion, and organizational growth to 130 employees.

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 39.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.5 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 1.7 Nathan pushing back 3.2
05100:0010:0020:001:33–6:52 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Supermetrics $40M Raise and Secondary Share Sale Nathan presses on the secondary sale percentage and the strategic decision to raise venture capital after years of bootstrapping. Mikael politely refuses to disclose the exact percentage split but details his initial skepticism and ultimate adoption of the Google ecosystem.6:53–9:55 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Scaling from Solo Founder to Twenty-Seven Million Run Rate Nathan digs into annual revenue progression and clarifies the difference between run rate and calendar revenue. Mikael looks up exact turnover figures live to correct and confirm financial data.9:55–12:03 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Enterprise Data Warehousing and Customer Ecosystem Nathan calculates multi-year growth multiples and examines customer composition across direct clients and marketing agencies. Mikael breaks down their expansion into enterprise data warehousing.12:04–16:52 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Self-Taught Engineering, Content Strategy, and Affiliates Mikael corrects Nathan's assumption that he was a trained engineer by clarifying his social sciences background and self-taught programming journey. Nathan probes into affiliate commission terms, headcounts, and quota-carrying sales reps.16:52–20:18 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Funding Valuation, M&A Plans, and COVID-19 Impact Nathan pushes Mikael to reveal valuation figures and negotiate dynamics. Mikael explains how COVID-19 disrupted negotiations and cost them fifty to one hundred million in potential valuation.20:19–21:36 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through standard rapid-fire questions to close the conversation. Mikael offers brief personal and professional reflections.1:33–6:52 · Guest teaching 2/10 Supermetrics $40M Raise and Secondary Share Sale Nathan presses on the secondary sale percentage and the strategic decision to raise venture capital after years of bootstrapping. Mikael politely refuses to disclose the exact percentage split but details his initial skepticism and ultimate adoption of the Google ecosystem.6:53–9:55 · Guest teaching 3/10 Scaling from Solo Founder to Twenty-Seven Million Run Rate Nathan digs into annual revenue progression and clarifies the difference between run rate and calendar revenue. Mikael looks up exact turnover figures live to correct and confirm financial data.9:55–12:03 · Guest teaching 2/10 Enterprise Data Warehousing and Customer Ecosystem Nathan calculates multi-year growth multiples and examines customer composition across direct clients and marketing agencies. Mikael breaks down their expansion into enterprise data warehousing.12:04–16:52 · Guest teaching 4/10 Self-Taught Engineering, Content Strategy, and Affiliates Mikael corrects Nathan's assumption that he was a trained engineer by clarifying his social sciences background and self-taught programming journey. Nathan probes into affiliate commission terms, headcounts, and quota-carrying sales reps.16:52–20:18 · Guest teaching 3/10 Funding Valuation, M&A Plans, and COVID-19 Impact Nathan pushes Mikael to reveal valuation figures and negotiate dynamics. Mikael explains how COVID-19 disrupted negotiations and cost them fifty to one hundred million in potential valuation.20:19–21:36 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through standard rapid-fire questions to close the conversation. Mikael offers brief personal and professional reflections.1:33–6:52 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Supermetrics $40M Raise and Secondary Share Sale Nathan presses on the secondary sale percentage and the strategic decision to raise venture capital after years of bootstrapping. Mikael politely refuses to disclose the exact percentage split but details his initial skepticism and ultimate adoption of the Google ecosystem.6:53–9:55 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Scaling from Solo Founder to Twenty-Seven Million Run Rate Nathan digs into annual revenue progression and clarifies the difference between run rate and calendar revenue. Mikael looks up exact turnover figures live to correct and confirm financial data.9:55–12:03 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Enterprise Data Warehousing and Customer Ecosystem Nathan calculates multi-year growth multiples and examines customer composition across direct clients and marketing agencies. Mikael breaks down their expansion into enterprise data warehousing.12:04–16:52 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Self-Taught Engineering, Content Strategy, and Affiliates Mikael corrects Nathan's assumption that he was a trained engineer by clarifying his social sciences background and self-taught programming journey. Nathan probes into affiliate commission terms, headcounts, and quota-carrying sales reps.16:52–20:18 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Funding Valuation, M&A Plans, and COVID-19 Impact Nathan pushes Mikael to reveal valuation figures and negotiate dynamics. Mikael explains how COVID-19 disrupted negotiations and cost them fifty to one hundred million in potential valuation.20:19–21:36 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through standard rapid-fire questions to close the conversation. Mikael offers brief personal and professional reflections.1:33–6:52 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Supermetrics $40M Raise and Secondary Share Sale Nathan presses on the secondary sale percentage and the strategic decision to raise venture capital after years of bootstrapping. Mikael politely refuses to disclose the exact percentage split but details his initial skepticism and ultimate adoption of the Google ecosystem.6:53–9:55 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Scaling from Solo Founder to Twenty-Seven Million Run Rate Nathan digs into annual revenue progression and clarifies the difference between run rate and calendar revenue. Mikael looks up exact turnover figures live to correct and confirm financial data.9:55–12:03 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Enterprise Data Warehousing and Customer Ecosystem Nathan calculates multi-year growth multiples and examines customer composition across direct clients and marketing agencies. Mikael breaks down their expansion into enterprise data warehousing.12:04–16:52 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Self-Taught Engineering, Content Strategy, and Affiliates Mikael corrects Nathan's assumption that he was a trained engineer by clarifying his social sciences background and self-taught programming journey. Nathan probes into affiliate commission terms, headcounts, and quota-carrying sales reps.16:52–20:18 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Funding Valuation, M&A Plans, and COVID-19 Impact Nathan pushes Mikael to reveal valuation figures and negotiate dynamics. Mikael explains how COVID-19 disrupted negotiations and cost them fifty to one hundred million in potential valuation.20:19–21:36 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through standard rapid-fire questions to close the conversation. Mikael offers brief personal and professional reflections.

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

0:00 · Nathan 66.2% · guest 33.8%0:00 · Nathan 66.2% · guest 33.8%3:00 · Nathan 21.2% · guest 78.8%3:00 · Nathan 21.2% · guest 78.8%6:00 · Nathan 38.6% · guest 61.4%6:00 · Nathan 38.6% · guest 61.4%9:00 · Nathan 35.9% · guest 64.1%9:00 · Nathan 35.9% · guest 64.1%12:00 · Nathan 37.6% · guest 62.4%12:00 · Nathan 37.6% · guest 62.4%15:00 · Nathan 42.2% · guest 57.8%15:00 · Nathan 42.2% · guest 57.8%18:00 · Nathan 18.1% · guest 81.9%18:00 · Nathan 18.1% · guest 81.9%21:00 · Nathan 80.1% · guest 19.9%21:00 · Nathan 80.1% · guest 19.9%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:15 Refuting Engineer Label

Mikael explicitly refutes Nathan's premise that he is a trained engineer with a deliberate technical playbook, correcting him that he studied social sciences.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 2:36 Probing Secondary Share Split

Nathan challenges the vagueness around the $40M raise by pushing to know the exact percentage allocated to secondary liquidity versus primary capital.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:15 Social Sciences to Self-Taught Developer

Mikael educates Nathan on his background, revealing he had no coding knowledge and studied social sciences before building the initial script himself.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:45 Multi-Year Growth Math Drilldown

Nathan synthesizes historical revenue data on the fly, demonstrating domain knowledge by calculating a ten-fold run rate expansion.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Supermetrics $40M Raise and Secondary Share Sale 6224 Nathan presses on the secondary sale percentage and the strategic decision to raise venture capital after years of bootstrapping. Mikael politely refuses to disclose the exact percentage split but details his initial skepticism and ultimate adoption of the Google ecosystem.
Scaling from Solo Founder to Twenty-Seven Million Run Rate 6313 Nathan digs into annual revenue progression and clarifies the difference between run rate and calendar revenue. Mikael looks up exact turnover figures live to correct and confirm financial data.
Enterprise Data Warehousing and Customer Ecosystem 6213 Nathan calculates multi-year growth multiples and examines customer composition across direct clients and marketing agencies. Mikael breaks down their expansion into enterprise data warehousing.
Self-Taught Engineering, Content Strategy, and Affiliates 5433 Mikael corrects Nathan's assumption that he was a trained engineer by clarifying his social sciences background and self-taught programming journey. Nathan probes into affiliate commission terms, headcounts, and quota-carrying sales reps.
Funding Valuation, M&A Plans, and COVID-19 Impact 6324 Nathan pushes Mikael to reveal valuation figures and negotiate dynamics. Mikael explains how COVID-19 disrupted negotiations and cost them fifty to one hundred million in potential valuation.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 4112 Nathan runs through standard rapid-fire questions to close the conversation. Mikael offers brief personal and professional reflections.

Statements from this episode (14)

Disclosure
Thuneberg: Supermetrics' $40M raise included secondary share sales
“To be honest, part of that was secondary. So I also sold some shares.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 2:31
Disclosure
Thuneberg initially rejected Google's offer to feature Supermetrics at launch
“Some people from Google reached out and then they said that they are planning to launch this Google sheets, add on gallery. And I asked if I want, would I want to be one of the first add-ons to be featured in that gallery. And guess what? Actually, I said no t…”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 4:15
Opinion
Thuneberg: Gaining traction as a new Google Sheets add-on is now very difficult
“Now there are hundreds of different add-ons for Google Sheets and for any new entrant, it's very difficult to get to the top anymore and gain traction there.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 5:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thuneberg: Google asked Supermetrics first to build Data Studio connectors
“When Google released the Google data studio connector gallery. So you can bring your marketing data from non Google sources like Facebook ads, Twitter ads, and so on into Google data studio. And there we were also the first company that they asked to develop t…”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 6:24
Insight
Finnish labor laws force founders to keep cash buffers before hiring
“Of course, here in Finland, when you hire a person, you're kind of tied to that person. It's not very easy to get rid of the person. So I also wanted to be sure that I had enough buffer there.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 8:00
Prediction Held up
Supermetrics reached €27M ARR and projected €24M revenue for 2020
“Well, in ARR, we are now at twenty-seven million euros, and in turnover, I think we'll get to twenty-four million, maybe.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 9:15
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thuneberg: Supermetrics has around 15,000 paying customers, half being agencies
“We have in total around 15,000 customers, but then half of these are marketing agencies.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 10:41
Disclosure
Thuneberg: Supermetrics pays a 20% baseline affiliate commission
“I think it's 20% for most affiliates, and then they have some tiers on the best performing ones.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 13:17
Disclosure
Supermetrics ended lifetime affiliate payouts to cap commission duration
“It used to be in perpetuity, but I think there's now a limit. I don't remember exactly how, how long that is. I think it's more than a year.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 13:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Supermetrics grew sales team to 40 people after being fully self-serve
“So we started building out the sales operation two years ago. Before that, it was fully self-serve. But we've been aggressively expanding the sales team as we have been pushing the enterprise product offering as well that I just described to you. And now we ha…”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 15:49
Disclosure
Thuneberg: Supermetrics remains profitable even after raising $40M
“We are still profitable, but we are looking for ways to invest that cash in a sensible way, of course.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 17:06
Disclosure
Supermetrics explores acquisitions including Data Studio connector competitors
“Yes, we are looking at various options of acquiring companies. So data studio connectors, competitors there, of course, it's one area, but there are many other kind of companies that we”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 17:20
Disclosure
Supermetrics was valued between $200M and $500M in its $40M round
“The valuation is, is you know, let's say between 205 hundred million.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 19:16
What-if
Supermetrics lost up to $100M in valuation due to COVID-19
“I think we lost at least fifty million, if not a hundred million in valuation.”
Mikael Thuneberg Oct 30, 2020 ▶ 19:34
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