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Jun 22, 2020 · 15m · top-founders

Can SlidesUp Actually Threaten CVent, Bizzabo?

Kunal Bhatia · 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

In this interview, host Nathan Latka speaks with SlidesUp co-founder Kunal Bhatia about overcoming startup burnout, operating a lean bootstrapped SaaS company, and repositioning event management software to win $10,000+ enterprise pilot contracts against legacy incumbents like Cvent.

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 38.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 2.2 Guest disagreement 0.8 Nathan pushing back 2.2
05100:0010:000:28–2:53 · Nathan as informed peer 1/10 GetLatka Subscription Promotional Announcement Segment starts with Latka's subscription promotional announcement followed by introductory personal banter regarding Kunal's move from Boston to San Francisco and his temporary housing with Zeus Living.2:53–6:40 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 SlidesUp Product Purpose and Enterprise Repositioning Latka pushes Kunal on the financial specifics of his new positioning, distinguishing between one-time pilot deal bookings and actual true monthly recurring revenue.6:41–10:42 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Bootstrapping Roots Latka explores team structure and customer acquisition channels, clarifying that Kunal did YC Startup School rather than the funded core accelerator, and examining his Gen M marketing hires.10:45–12:52 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Overcoming Startup Burnout and Competing with Cvent and Bizzabo Kunal breaks down the event software landscape, comparing incumbents like Cvent and Bizzabo to Epic Systems in healthcare, explaining that enterprise clients use them out of necessity despite poor user experiences.12:53–15:12 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Famous Five Fast-Paced Q&A with Kunal Bhatia Latka runs through his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, and Kunal provides concise answers before Latka closes with a summary recap of SlidesUp's metrics.0:28–2:53 · Guest teaching 0/10 GetLatka Subscription Promotional Announcement Segment starts with Latka's subscription promotional announcement followed by introductory personal banter regarding Kunal's move from Boston to San Francisco and his temporary housing with Zeus Living.2:53–6:40 · Guest teaching 2/10 SlidesUp Product Purpose and Enterprise Repositioning Latka pushes Kunal on the financial specifics of his new positioning, distinguishing between one-time pilot deal bookings and actual true monthly recurring revenue.6:41–10:42 · Guest teaching 3/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Bootstrapping Roots Latka explores team structure and customer acquisition channels, clarifying that Kunal did YC Startup School rather than the funded core accelerator, and examining his Gen M marketing hires.10:45–12:52 · Guest teaching 5/10 Overcoming Startup Burnout and Competing with Cvent and Bizzabo Kunal breaks down the event software landscape, comparing incumbents like Cvent and Bizzabo to Epic Systems in healthcare, explaining that enterprise clients use them out of necessity despite poor user experiences.12:53–15:12 · Guest teaching 1/10 Famous Five Fast-Paced Q&A with Kunal Bhatia Latka runs through his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, and Kunal provides concise answers before Latka closes with a summary recap of SlidesUp's metrics.0:28–2:53 · Guest disagreement 0/10 GetLatka Subscription Promotional Announcement Segment starts with Latka's subscription promotional announcement followed by introductory personal banter regarding Kunal's move from Boston to San Francisco and his temporary housing with Zeus Living.2:53–6:40 · Guest disagreement 1/10 SlidesUp Product Purpose and Enterprise Repositioning Latka pushes Kunal on the financial specifics of his new positioning, distinguishing between one-time pilot deal bookings and actual true monthly recurring revenue.6:41–10:42 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Bootstrapping Roots Latka explores team structure and customer acquisition channels, clarifying that Kunal did YC Startup School rather than the funded core accelerator, and examining his Gen M marketing hires.10:45–12:52 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Overcoming Startup Burnout and Competing with Cvent and Bizzabo Kunal breaks down the event software landscape, comparing incumbents like Cvent and Bizzabo to Epic Systems in healthcare, explaining that enterprise clients use them out of necessity despite poor user experiences.12:53–15:12 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Famous Five Fast-Paced Q&A with Kunal Bhatia Latka runs through his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, and Kunal provides concise answers before Latka closes with a summary recap of SlidesUp's metrics.0:28–2:53 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 GetLatka Subscription Promotional Announcement Segment starts with Latka's subscription promotional announcement followed by introductory personal banter regarding Kunal's move from Boston to San Francisco and his temporary housing with Zeus Living.2:53–6:40 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 SlidesUp Product Purpose and Enterprise Repositioning Latka pushes Kunal on the financial specifics of his new positioning, distinguishing between one-time pilot deal bookings and actual true monthly recurring revenue.6:41–10:42 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Bootstrapping Roots Latka explores team structure and customer acquisition channels, clarifying that Kunal did YC Startup School rather than the funded core accelerator, and examining his Gen M marketing hires.10:45–12:52 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Overcoming Startup Burnout and Competing with Cvent and Bizzabo Kunal breaks down the event software landscape, comparing incumbents like Cvent and Bizzabo to Epic Systems in healthcare, explaining that enterprise clients use them out of necessity despite poor user experiences.12:53–15:12 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Famous Five Fast-Paced Q&A with Kunal Bhatia Latka runs through his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, and Kunal provides concise answers before Latka closes with a summary recap of SlidesUp's metrics.

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

0:00 · Nathan 68% · guest 32%0:00 · Nathan 68% · guest 32%3:00 · Nathan 24.6% · guest 75.4%3:00 · Nathan 24.6% · guest 75.4%6:00 · Nathan 50.1% · guest 49.9%6:00 · Nathan 50.1% · guest 49.9%9:00 · Nathan 25.3% · guest 74.7%9:00 · Nathan 25.3% · guest 74.7%12:00 · Nathan 16.1% · guest 83.9%12:00 · Nathan 16.1% · guest 83.9%15:00 · Nathan 69.7% · guest 30.3%15:00 · Nathan 69.7% · guest 30.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:58 Incumbents as clunky necessary evils

Kunal dismisses legacy competitors like Cvent and Bizzabo as frustrating, form-ridden software products that users only retain out of corporate inertia.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 5:51 Clarifying pilot bookings versus recurring revenue

Latka refuses to let Kunal treat one-time pilot deals as stable ARR, forcing him to separate uncollected bookings from actual monthly revenue.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:58 Explaining enterprise software inertia through Epic analogy

Kunal explains the enterprise dynamic to Latka by drawing a parallel to Epic Systems in healthcare, explaining why enterprise buyers stick with hated software to avoid risk.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:31 Calculating true revenue floor from pricing and customer counts

Latka immediately calculates baseline unit economics from customer ranges and pricing tiers to determine SlidesUp's actual monthly run rate.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
GetLatka Subscription Promotional Announcement 1000 Segment starts with Latka's subscription promotional announcement followed by introductory personal banter regarding Kunal's move from Boston to San Francisco and his temporary housing with Zeus Living.
SlidesUp Product Purpose and Enterprise Repositioning 6215 Latka pushes Kunal on the financial specifics of his new positioning, distinguishing between one-time pilot deal bookings and actual true monthly recurring revenue.
Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Bootstrapping Roots 5313 Latka explores team structure and customer acquisition channels, clarifying that Kunal did YC Startup School rather than the funded core accelerator, and examining his Gen M marketing hires.
Overcoming Startup Burnout and Competing with Cvent and Bizzabo 4522 Kunal breaks down the event software landscape, comparing incumbents like Cvent and Bizzabo to Epic Systems in healthcare, explaining that enterprise clients use them out of necessity despite poor user experiences.
Famous Five Fast-Paced Q&A with Kunal Bhatia 3101 Latka runs through his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, and Kunal provides concise answers before Latka closes with a summary recap of SlidesUp's metrics.

Statements from this episode (8)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
SlidesUp's average contract value exceeds $10,000 per year
“Our average contract value is now up above 10 K.”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 3:51
Insight
Bhatia: $1K to $5K ACV fails product-led and outbound sales models
“It was within that one to five K range, which is, you know, not very supportive of either sales model, whether it's product led sales or, you know, having BDRs.”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 4:34
Disclosure
SlidesUp shut down in early 2020 before enterprise interest spurred a reboot
“We actually shut down in the middle officially earlier this year, but you know, a couple months ago, we got some people knocking on our doors to run enterprise contracts the enterprise pilots that we ran.”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 5:04
Disclosure
SlidesUp generates between $5,000 and $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue
“It's still early because we're, you know, shifting that market. So I would have to say it's somewhere on the five to 10 K scale.”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 6:24
Disclosure
SlidesUp remains fully bootstrapped with zero outside capital raised
“We actually went through startup school, which is not the full YC program, so we haven't raised any fully bootstraps since day one.”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 7:39
Disclosure
SlidesUp operates with one full-time founder and two part-time co-founders
“So I'm actually the only full time person on this team. The other two co-founders are part time. And you know, once we are able to get that revenue higher, they'll be able to join full time as well.”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 10:03
Opinion
Bhatia calls Cvent and Bizzabo hated 'necessary evils' in event tech
“Yeah, I think in general, the event market event tech market is a very unloved space. I think everyone knows Cvent. Everyone knows visible, but that's sort of a necessary evil. You know, I personally came from the healthcare market and it's kind of like Epic. …”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 11:39
Insight
Bhatia: Legacy SaaS persists because enterprise buyers face zero career risk
“These are like form written products. Like you have to fill out multiple, you know, pages of long forms. And it doesn't really help you do your job any better. It's just, you know, everyone's on there. So you have to be on there as well. And, you know, they've…”
Kunal Bhatia Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 12:07
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