Sep 29, 2020 · 20m · top-founders
OnFleet Flirting With $10m ARR Processing 3m Deliveries Per Month for 900 Customers
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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, host Nathan Latka speaks with Onfleet CEO and co-founder Khaled Naim about scaling the last-mile delivery SaaS platform to $800,000 in monthly recurring revenue and three million monthly deliveries. Naim details Onfleet's Stanford origins, enterprise customer adoption, capital-efficient growth, and upcoming fundraising plans.
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 35.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 3.1 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 1.6
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 17:28 Polite correction of past recorded churn figures
Khaled directly clarifies that the host's recorded 72% gross churn figure was incorrect, affirming their actual gross retention sits around 85%.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 8:20 Pressing for exact software cut on a sample orderNathan cuts through general labor expense explanations to demand the exact software fee extracted from a theoretical $100 restaurant order.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:24 Explaining the SaaS per-task model over sales take-ratesKhaled explains why Onfleet does not take a percentage commission of retail basket size, distinguishing software infrastructure pricing from marketplace aggregator models.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 10:16 Instant mental math on task volume and daily unit velocityNathan instantly calculates that $900 per month at 20 cents per task translates to roughly 4,500 monthly tasks and 150 daily deliveries per client.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onfleet's Mission and Delivery Software Operations | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Nathan frames the macro environment around COVID-driven delivery demand and inquires about driver employment structures. Khaled cooperatively explains how retailers use Onfleet to manage both in-house and third-party fleets. | |
| The Origins of Onfleet at Stanford | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Nathan tracks historical customer growth metrics and challenges the use case of large enterprise clients like Gap and Sweetgreen versus delivery aggregators. Khaled explains the margin and omnichannel advantages of running dedicated internal fleets. | |
| Transparent SaaS Pricing vs Aggregator Take Rates | 7 | 6 | 1 | 3 | Nathan asks for a specific order P&L breakdown to understand Onfleet's take-rate. Khaled clarifies that Onfleet operates as pure SaaS charged per task rather than taking a percentage commission on merchandise value. | |
| Scaling to Three Million Deliveries and Breakeven Operations | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Nathan conducts quick mental math on unit economics, breaking down average customer spend into daily delivery volume, and probes into breakeven status and acquisition interest. Khaled confirms the math and discusses pacing growth efficiently. | |
| Mid-Roll HostGator Website Builder Advertisement | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Following a sponsor ad read, Nathan investigates Onfleet's balance sheet, debt financing with Lighter Capital, and target round sizing. Khaled shares their plan to raise a targeted $10M to $15M while remaining capital efficient. | |
| Team Composition and Sales Team Scaling | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Nathan drills down into sales team ratios and SaaS churn dynamics, pointing out a discrepancy in previously recorded gross churn figures. Khaled clarifies that annual gross retention is 85% with net retention exceeding 115%. | |
| Founder Transparency and the Famous Five | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Nathan asks why Khaled is willing to be transparent on public metrics before running through the standard rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire. | |
| Episode Conclusion and Onfleet Financial Summary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Nathan delivers a rapid solo recap of Onfleet's core metrics and valuation positioning at the close of the episode. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Naim: Onfleet sees demand spike from retail's shift to online delivery
“Retail is going through a massive sort of transition to online delivery focused models. So yes, we absolutely are.”
Naim: Onfleet recently announced a partnership with Drizly
“Drizzly, we announced recently they're an alcohol delivery service.”
Naim: Onfleet began at Stanford in 2011 as location-sharing app Addy
“Originally, down at Stanford, working on location-based services technology, so we were targeting emerging markets at the time, this is back in, like, 20 11 helping people that lack functional street addressing systems in their countries to communicate locatio…”
Naim: Onfleet serves approximately 900 customers
“Today we're close to 900. We're around, around 900 right now, actually.”
Naim: Gap powers international same-day delivery fleets using Onfleet
“So Gap in some of their international markets, they actually have Fleets of drivers that are doing same day delivery. So they offer same day delivery in some of the international markets and they use that fleet and that fleet that they use to do those deliveri…”
Naim: In-house delivery fleets are cheaper for large catering orders
“The cost is just, is a lot lower when you're talking about a large order.”
Naim: Onfleet charges per task and feature tier, taking zero order margin
“So we don't take a margin. So that's the nice thing about Onfleet is we charge you based on the feature set that you need within the software. It's a SAS model. So we talked about this last time, but it's, you know, depending on the feature set and the task vo…”
Naim: Onfleet customers pay an average of 20 cents per task
“So our average across all of our customers paying about 20 cents a task. Our highest volume customers are all the way down to, you know, 10 cents a task and lowest volume is, you know, a little higher than 20 cents a task.”
Naim: Onfleet processes over 3 million delivery tasks monthly
“We are worth of three million now. So, you know, a 100,000 plus a day.”
Naim: Onfleet remains at breakeven as revenue outpaces hiring
“Still breakeven, yeah. I mean, with the growth this year, you know, our revenue has, growth has outpaced our the ability for us to hire.”
Naim: Onfleet on track to double 2020 revenue
“This year we're definitely on track to double, probably more than double revenue this year.”
Naim: Onfleet has raised $5M in equity and nearly $1M in debt
“In equity? Yeah. And we raised close to a million in debt. So mentioned that we, you know, we work with lighter capital. So yeah, that's still the case.”
Naim: Onfleet targets a new $10M to $15M funding round
“Probably in the 10 to fifteen million range. You know, we don't need a ton of capital. We're super lean operation”
Naim: Onfleet targets 65 to 70 employees by end of 2021
“We grow the team, you know, by the end of next year, we'll be probably about 65 or 70 people on the team. And so, and a large, you know, large portion of that will be on sales.”
Naim: Onfleet's annual net revenue retention is 115% to 116%
“Our net revenue retention annually is about a 115, 116%.”