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Feb 4, 2020 · 15m · top-founders

1655 How He Got Enterprises To Pay Him $1m in ARR For Snapchat Story Creation

Thomas Harding · 8m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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In this podcast interview, Mish Guru co-founder and CEO Thomas Harding discusses how the company built a $1M+ ARR enterprise SaaS platform for Snapchat and Instagram stories. He details their pricing model, multi-platform expansion, distributed global team, and the broader shift toward vertical story-driven social engagement.

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 35.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.6 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 2.6 Nathan pushing back 5.6
05100:0010:000:46–3:12 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Mish Guru Platform Capabilities and Value Proposition Latka pushes Harding on Mish Guru's business model, questioning if claiming to be hands-on is merely code for being a services agency rather than a true SaaS product. Harding clarifies the distinction and provides their pricing tiers.3:14–7:47 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Company Origins and Pivot Beyond Snapchat Harding corrects Latka's assertion that stories did not exist in early 2014 by noting Snapchat launched the format in late 2013. Latka then probes their funding decisions and revenue breakdowns.7:48–10:44 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Story Format Adoption and Engagement Analytics When Harding evades giving year-over-year growth figures, Latka bluntly calls out the non-answer and questions whether SaaS growth has flattened amid Snapchat's market challenges. Harding counters with industry growth statistics and Facebook story trends.10:46–13:03 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Churn Metrics and Multi-Platform Expansion Revenue Latka presses Harding on specific net expansion percentages; when Harding demurs, Latka breaks down why cohort net revenue retention is essential for SaaS analysis before accepting that the multi-platform product is still nascent.13:03–15:29 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions and Latka's outro summary of Mish Guru's business metrics.0:46–3:12 · Guest teaching 2/10 Mish Guru Platform Capabilities and Value Proposition Latka pushes Harding on Mish Guru's business model, questioning if claiming to be hands-on is merely code for being a services agency rather than a true SaaS product. Harding clarifies the distinction and provides their pricing tiers.3:14–7:47 · Guest teaching 6/10 Company Origins and Pivot Beyond Snapchat Harding corrects Latka's assertion that stories did not exist in early 2014 by noting Snapchat launched the format in late 2013. Latka then probes their funding decisions and revenue breakdowns.7:48–10:44 · Guest teaching 4/10 Story Format Adoption and Engagement Analytics When Harding evades giving year-over-year growth figures, Latka bluntly calls out the non-answer and questions whether SaaS growth has flattened amid Snapchat's market challenges. Harding counters with industry growth statistics and Facebook story trends.10:46–13:03 · Guest teaching 2/10 Churn Metrics and Multi-Platform Expansion Revenue Latka presses Harding on specific net expansion percentages; when Harding demurs, Latka breaks down why cohort net revenue retention is essential for SaaS analysis before accepting that the multi-platform product is still nascent.13:03–15:29 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions and Latka's outro summary of Mish Guru's business metrics.0:46–3:12 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Mish Guru Platform Capabilities and Value Proposition Latka pushes Harding on Mish Guru's business model, questioning if claiming to be hands-on is merely code for being a services agency rather than a true SaaS product. Harding clarifies the distinction and provides their pricing tiers.3:14–7:47 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Company Origins and Pivot Beyond Snapchat Harding corrects Latka's assertion that stories did not exist in early 2014 by noting Snapchat launched the format in late 2013. Latka then probes their funding decisions and revenue breakdowns.7:48–10:44 · Guest disagreement 5/10 Story Format Adoption and Engagement Analytics When Harding evades giving year-over-year growth figures, Latka bluntly calls out the non-answer and questions whether SaaS growth has flattened amid Snapchat's market challenges. Harding counters with industry growth statistics and Facebook story trends.10:46–13:03 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Churn Metrics and Multi-Platform Expansion Revenue Latka presses Harding on specific net expansion percentages; when Harding demurs, Latka breaks down why cohort net revenue retention is essential for SaaS analysis before accepting that the multi-platform product is still nascent.13:03–15:29 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions and Latka's outro summary of Mish Guru's business metrics.0:46–3:12 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Mish Guru Platform Capabilities and Value Proposition Latka pushes Harding on Mish Guru's business model, questioning if claiming to be hands-on is merely code for being a services agency rather than a true SaaS product. Harding clarifies the distinction and provides their pricing tiers.3:14–7:47 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Company Origins and Pivot Beyond Snapchat Harding corrects Latka's assertion that stories did not exist in early 2014 by noting Snapchat launched the format in late 2013. Latka then probes their funding decisions and revenue breakdowns.7:48–10:44 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Story Format Adoption and Engagement Analytics When Harding evades giving year-over-year growth figures, Latka bluntly calls out the non-answer and questions whether SaaS growth has flattened amid Snapchat's market challenges. Harding counters with industry growth statistics and Facebook story trends.10:46–13:03 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Churn Metrics and Multi-Platform Expansion Revenue Latka presses Harding on specific net expansion percentages; when Harding demurs, Latka breaks down why cohort net revenue retention is essential for SaaS analysis before accepting that the multi-platform product is still nascent.13:03–15:29 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions and Latka's outro summary of Mish Guru's business metrics.

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

0:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%0:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%3:00 · Nathan 30.3% · guest 69.7%3:00 · Nathan 30.3% · guest 69.7%6:00 · Nathan 23.5% · guest 76.5%6:00 · Nathan 23.5% · guest 76.5%9:00 · Nathan 29.1% · guest 70.9%9:00 · Nathan 29.1% · guest 70.9%12:00 · Nathan 39.9% · guest 60.1%12:00 · Nathan 39.9% · guest 60.1%15:00 · Nathan 98.6% · guest 1.4%15:00 · Nathan 98.6% · guest 1.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:04 Defending platform viability against stagnation claims

Harding refuses to provide historical ARR growth figures and pushes back against the premise that Snapchat's troubles mean Mish Guru's core SaaS business is stalling.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 8:04 Latka calls out non-answer on YoY growth

Latka explicitly rejects Harding's deflection, telling him his vague response is unhelpful and pressing directly on whether the SaaS revenue is flat.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:18 Correcting the timeline of stories creation

Harding educates Latka on social platform history after Latka mistakenly claims stories were not yet created when Mish Guru launched in early 2014.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:25 Latka lectures on SaaS net retention mechanics

Latka demonstrates deep SaaS domain knowledge by explaining how cohort expansion revenue should be tracked and calculated after Harding is unable to provide exact retention numbers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Mish Guru Platform Capabilities and Value Proposition 5226 Latka pushes Harding on Mish Guru's business model, questioning if claiming to be hands-on is merely code for being a services agency rather than a true SaaS product. Harding clarifies the distinction and provides their pricing tiers.
Company Origins and Pivot Beyond Snapchat 5625 Harding corrects Latka's assertion that stories did not exist in early 2014 by noting Snapchat launched the format in late 2013. Latka then probes their funding decisions and revenue breakdowns.
Story Format Adoption and Engagement Analytics 7458 When Harding evades giving year-over-year growth figures, Latka bluntly calls out the non-answer and questions whether SaaS growth has flattened amid Snapchat's market challenges. Harding counters with industry growth statistics and Facebook story trends.
Churn Metrics and Multi-Platform Expansion Revenue 7237 Latka presses Harding on specific net expansion percentages; when Harding demurs, Latka breaks down why cohort net revenue retention is essential for SaaS analysis before accepting that the multi-platform product is still nascent.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 4112 The interview concludes with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions and Latka's outro summary of Mish Guru's business metrics.

Statements from this episode (6)

Disclosure
Harding: Mish Guru's SaaS fees range from $500 to $5,000 monthly
“On the SaaS side, so our fees can range anywhere between 500 dollars a month up to 5000 dollars a month. Depending on how much of our services you're using, how much of our software you're using.”
Thomas Harding Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 2:30
Disclosure
Mish Guru began as an agency because clients didn't understand Stories
“And back then we actually were because we're out there pitching the tools and we're saying, Hey, do you want to use our tools? And people were saying, I don't get this thing. Actually, you know, we want to reach this audience, but we don't understand this. Wou…”
Thomas Harding Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 3:46
Disclosure
Mish Guru pivoted from Snapchat-only to multi-network stories
“And for us, we did do a little bit of a pivot. I'd say away from being a Snapchat focus company to a stories platform.”
Thomas Harding Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 4:21
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Harding: Mish Guru generates over $1M in SaaS revenue
“I can say we're doing over a million dollars in SAS revenue.”
Thomas Harding Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 5:28
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Harding: Mish Guru has raised over $3M in capital
“It's above three million dollars.”
Thomas Harding Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 7:04
Assertion Supported
Story content volume across platforms grew 842% from 2018 to 2020
“Stories have grown 842% in terms of the amount of content posted and consumed in the last two years.”
Thomas Harding Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 8:39
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