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Jul 26, 2020 · 17m · top-founders

EngageRocket Targets $3m Raise on $15m Valuation For HR Tech Platform

Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

EngageRocket co-founder and CEO Chitong Liang breaks down the company's HR analytics SaaS business model, 60,000 dollar monthly recurring revenue, and active plans to raise a 3 to 5 million dollar Series A 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 40.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.8 Guest teaching 1.0 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 3.5
05100:0010:001:42–8:02 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 EngageRocket Product Overview and SaaS Revenue Model Latka drills into the early go-to-market funnel, calculating Singapore dollar conversions to USD on the fly. He pushes back when Chitong claims Forbes drove meetup attendance, probing whether backlinking was permitted.8:02–11:16 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Scale, Revenue Run Rate, and Global Team Structure Latka rapidly translates Chitong's fundraising parameters of $3-5M for 20% equity into a $15-20M pre-money valuation and runs quick runway and burn calculations. The conversation is collaborative and metrics-driven.11:16–16:00 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Market Expansion, Retention Metrics, and CAC Payback When Chitong mixes up SaaS retention terms and claims 'dollar churn is above 100%', Latka forcefully steps in to correct him and explains the mathematical formula connecting gross churn, expansion, and net revenue retention.16:00–17:27 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Standard rapid-fire Famous Five sequence followed by Latka delivering an efficient recap of EngageRocket's core metrics.1:42–8:02 · Guest teaching 2/10 EngageRocket Product Overview and SaaS Revenue Model Latka drills into the early go-to-market funnel, calculating Singapore dollar conversions to USD on the fly. He pushes back when Chitong claims Forbes drove meetup attendance, probing whether backlinking was permitted.8:02–11:16 · Guest teaching 1/10 Customer Scale, Revenue Run Rate, and Global Team Structure Latka rapidly translates Chitong's fundraising parameters of $3-5M for 20% equity into a $15-20M pre-money valuation and runs quick runway and burn calculations. The conversation is collaborative and metrics-driven.11:16–16:00 · Guest teaching 1/10 Market Expansion, Retention Metrics, and CAC Payback When Chitong mixes up SaaS retention terms and claims 'dollar churn is above 100%', Latka forcefully steps in to correct him and explains the mathematical formula connecting gross churn, expansion, and net revenue retention.16:00–17:27 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Standard rapid-fire Famous Five sequence followed by Latka delivering an efficient recap of EngageRocket's core metrics.1:42–8:02 · Guest disagreement 1/10 EngageRocket Product Overview and SaaS Revenue Model Latka drills into the early go-to-market funnel, calculating Singapore dollar conversions to USD on the fly. He pushes back when Chitong claims Forbes drove meetup attendance, probing whether backlinking was permitted.8:02–11:16 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Customer Scale, Revenue Run Rate, and Global Team Structure Latka rapidly translates Chitong's fundraising parameters of $3-5M for 20% equity into a $15-20M pre-money valuation and runs quick runway and burn calculations. The conversation is collaborative and metrics-driven.11:16–16:00 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Market Expansion, Retention Metrics, and CAC Payback When Chitong mixes up SaaS retention terms and claims 'dollar churn is above 100%', Latka forcefully steps in to correct him and explains the mathematical formula connecting gross churn, expansion, and net revenue retention.16:00–17:27 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Standard rapid-fire Famous Five sequence followed by Latka delivering an efficient recap of EngageRocket's core metrics.1:42–8:02 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 EngageRocket Product Overview and SaaS Revenue Model Latka drills into the early go-to-market funnel, calculating Singapore dollar conversions to USD on the fly. He pushes back when Chitong claims Forbes drove meetup attendance, probing whether backlinking was permitted.8:02–11:16 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Customer Scale, Revenue Run Rate, and Global Team Structure Latka rapidly translates Chitong's fundraising parameters of $3-5M for 20% equity into a $15-20M pre-money valuation and runs quick runway and burn calculations. The conversation is collaborative and metrics-driven.11:16–16:00 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Market Expansion, Retention Metrics, and CAC Payback When Chitong mixes up SaaS retention terms and claims 'dollar churn is above 100%', Latka forcefully steps in to correct him and explains the mathematical formula connecting gross churn, expansion, and net revenue retention.16:00–17:27 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Standard rapid-fire Famous Five sequence followed by Latka delivering an efficient recap of EngageRocket's core metrics.

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

0:00 · Nathan 61.3% · guest 38.7%0:00 · Nathan 61.3% · guest 38.7%3:00 · Nathan 17.2% · guest 82.8%3:00 · Nathan 17.2% · guest 82.8%6:00 · Nathan 35.4% · guest 64.6%6:00 · Nathan 35.4% · guest 64.6%9:00 · Nathan 30.6% · guest 69.4%9:00 · Nathan 30.6% · guest 69.4%12:00 · Nathan 54.4% · guest 45.6%12:00 · Nathan 54.4% · guest 45.6%15:00 · Nathan 45.8% · guest 54.2%15:00 · Nathan 45.8% · guest 54.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:01 Defending Net Retention Definition

Chitong briefly pushes back on Latka's calculation of his churn rate, arguing that Latka is misunderstanding his definition of net retention.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 13:44 Refusing Confused Churn Metric

Latka immediately stops Chitong after he states his dollar churn is over 100%, telling him that would mean the business has lost all its revenue.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:50 Educating on the Southeast Asian HR Analytics Market

Chitong educates Latka on the nascent state of HR analytics in Singapore circa 2016 and how grassroots content marketing built their category.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:10 Explaining NRR and Gross Churn Mechanics

Latka demonstrates deep SaaS domain mastery by breaking down the exact mathematical relationship between gross revenue churn, expansion, and net retention.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
EngageRocket Product Overview and SaaS Revenue Model 5214 Latka drills into the early go-to-market funnel, calculating Singapore dollar conversions to USD on the fly. He pushes back when Chitong claims Forbes drove meetup attendance, probing whether backlinking was permitted.
Customer Scale, Revenue Run Rate, and Global Team Structure 6113 Latka rapidly translates Chitong's fundraising parameters of $3-5M for 20% equity into a $15-20M pre-money valuation and runs quick runway and burn calculations. The conversation is collaborative and metrics-driven.
Market Expansion, Retention Metrics, and CAC Payback 8127 When Chitong mixes up SaaS retention terms and claims 'dollar churn is above 100%', Latka forcefully steps in to correct him and explains the mathematical formula connecting gross churn, expansion, and net revenue retention.
The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion 4000 Standard rapid-fire Famous Five sequence followed by Latka delivering an efficient recap of EngageRocket's core metrics.

Statements from this episode (12)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: EngageRocket customers average roughly 600 employees
“Our customers on average have about 600 employees. We target mid-market enterprises, so between 500 to 5000”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 2:00
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: Over 90% of EngageRocket revenue is software
“Yeah, about 90, 90% 90 plus percent of its software revenue, and then the rest are services.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 2:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: EngageRocket ACV sweet spot is SGD 20k to 50k
“So in Singapore dollars, this is anywhere from 20 to 40, 20 to 50,000. So that's the sweet spot.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 2:59
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: EngageRocket's HR Meetup group reached 700 members within six months
“So, so we went from something like zero to 700 members in that community in less than six months.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 5:35
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: 'Employee engagement software Singapore' is EngageRocket's best converting keyword
“The best converting one so far is employee engagement software Singapore. So we get hit on that a lot and that converts within months.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 7:53
Disclosure
Liang: EngageRocket has 40 active customers and over 100 historical clients
“So we have 40 active customers. We've till now we've had more than a hundred, but we have 40 live and active ones that are with us today.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 8:07
Disclosure
Liang: EngageRocket grew revenue by about 2.5x over one year
“We were about less than half of this. We were at about. 400. Yeah, we've won and doubled. I think we bought, we've done about two and a half X. Okay. In one year.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 8:37
Disclosure
Liang: EngageRocket targets $3M-$5M Series A for under 20% dilution
“Between three to five three to five M. Okay. Well, you know, we like to see what the VCs offer us. And ideally that three to five M shouldn't be more than 20% of the company.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 10:03
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: EngageRocket burns about $20,000 per month and is unprofitable
“We're not profitable, but we are, we're quite lean on our burn. So our net burn per month, it's about 20,000 dollars.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 10:43
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: HR tech addressable market in Southeast Asia is $500M
“In Southeast Asia, it's a half a billion dollar addressable market today.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 11:47
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: EngageRocket's net revenue retention rate is 101%
“So our net retention rate is actually quite high. It's a 101%.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 12:15
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Liang: EngageRocket has SGD 11,000 CAC and 8.5-month payback
“Yeah, right now our average CAC is sitting at about 11,000, so our payback period is sitting at about eight and a half months.”
Chitong Liang (Chi-Tung Leong) Jul 26, 2020 ▶ 14:38
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