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Oct 17, 2019 · 21m · top-founders

1545 Radius CEO on 3 Pricing Axis, 100 Customers, 150%+ Net Revenue Retention, $100m ARR by 2020?

Joel Carusone · 13m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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Radius CEO Joel Carusone explains how the enterprise B2B customer data platform drives 150 percent net revenue retention and targets 100 million dollars in ARR using a proprietary data consortium model, multi-axis SaaS pricing, and lean headcount efficiency.

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 30.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.1 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 3.3
05100:0010:0020:000:36–5:19 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Defining the B2B Enterprise Customer Data Platform Latka challenges the uniqueness of B2B data assets, pointing out how incestuous data vendors often are. Carusone educates Latka on their crowd-sourced data exhaust model, explaining how bounced email data from enterprise clients creates a proprietary verification moat.5:19–9:23 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Enterprise Pricing Tiers and Revenue Concentration Breakdown Latka drills down into ACV tiers, 80/20 revenue concentration, and the capital structure regarding debt versus equity. Carusone answers transparently about pricing bands and his background transitioning from VP of Platform/CTO to CEO.9:23–13:19 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Net Revenue Retention and Platform Velocity Expansion Axes Latka aggressively boxes Carusone in on net revenue retention brackets when the guest tries to stay vague. Carusone details their expansion pricing axes, educating Latka on how data velocity (requests per second) drives their infrastructure cost-to-serve.13:19–16:23 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Acquisition Channels and Path to Cash Flow Positivity When Carusone deflects direct CAC dollar figures, Latka reframes to ask about payback period and corrects Joel when he confuses time-to-ROI with CAC payback. Carusone reveals a sub-6 month payback and a timeline to reach cash flow positive.16:23–18:46 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Scaling to One Hundred Million ARR With Headcount Efficiency Latka demonstrates strong SaaS financial literacy by benchmark calculating ARR per employee against the industry average of $187k. He estimates Radius's current run rate and pushes Carusone to commit to an exact annual growth percentage range.18:46–20:53 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 The Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions With Joel Carusone Standard rapid-fire questions covering favorite business books, mentors, sleep habits, and advice to a 20-year-old self. Carusone responds casually and cooperatively.20:53–21:30 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Episode Recap and Key Enterprise Metrics Summary Closing solo recap by Latka summarizing the key metrics and insights from the interview.0:36–5:19 · Guest teaching 5/10 Defining the B2B Enterprise Customer Data Platform Latka challenges the uniqueness of B2B data assets, pointing out how incestuous data vendors often are. Carusone educates Latka on their crowd-sourced data exhaust model, explaining how bounced email data from enterprise clients creates a proprietary verification moat.5:19–9:23 · Guest teaching 3/10 Enterprise Pricing Tiers and Revenue Concentration Breakdown Latka drills down into ACV tiers, 80/20 revenue concentration, and the capital structure regarding debt versus equity. Carusone answers transparently about pricing bands and his background transitioning from VP of Platform/CTO to CEO.9:23–13:19 · Guest teaching 5/10 Net Revenue Retention and Platform Velocity Expansion Axes Latka aggressively boxes Carusone in on net revenue retention brackets when the guest tries to stay vague. Carusone details their expansion pricing axes, educating Latka on how data velocity (requests per second) drives their infrastructure cost-to-serve.13:19–16:23 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Acquisition Channels and Path to Cash Flow Positivity When Carusone deflects direct CAC dollar figures, Latka reframes to ask about payback period and corrects Joel when he confuses time-to-ROI with CAC payback. Carusone reveals a sub-6 month payback and a timeline to reach cash flow positive.16:23–18:46 · Guest teaching 2/10 Scaling to One Hundred Million ARR With Headcount Efficiency Latka demonstrates strong SaaS financial literacy by benchmark calculating ARR per employee against the industry average of $187k. He estimates Radius's current run rate and pushes Carusone to commit to an exact annual growth percentage range.18:46–20:53 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions With Joel Carusone Standard rapid-fire questions covering favorite business books, mentors, sleep habits, and advice to a 20-year-old self. Carusone responds casually and cooperatively.20:53–21:30 · Guest teaching 0/10 Episode Recap and Key Enterprise Metrics Summary Closing solo recap by Latka summarizing the key metrics and insights from the interview.0:36–5:19 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Defining the B2B Enterprise Customer Data Platform Latka challenges the uniqueness of B2B data assets, pointing out how incestuous data vendors often are. Carusone educates Latka on their crowd-sourced data exhaust model, explaining how bounced email data from enterprise clients creates a proprietary verification moat.5:19–9:23 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Enterprise Pricing Tiers and Revenue Concentration Breakdown Latka drills down into ACV tiers, 80/20 revenue concentration, and the capital structure regarding debt versus equity. Carusone answers transparently about pricing bands and his background transitioning from VP of Platform/CTO to CEO.9:23–13:19 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Net Revenue Retention and Platform Velocity Expansion Axes Latka aggressively boxes Carusone in on net revenue retention brackets when the guest tries to stay vague. Carusone details their expansion pricing axes, educating Latka on how data velocity (requests per second) drives their infrastructure cost-to-serve.13:19–16:23 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Customer Acquisition Channels and Path to Cash Flow Positivity When Carusone deflects direct CAC dollar figures, Latka reframes to ask about payback period and corrects Joel when he confuses time-to-ROI with CAC payback. Carusone reveals a sub-6 month payback and a timeline to reach cash flow positive.16:23–18:46 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Scaling to One Hundred Million ARR With Headcount Efficiency Latka demonstrates strong SaaS financial literacy by benchmark calculating ARR per employee against the industry average of $187k. He estimates Radius's current run rate and pushes Carusone to commit to an exact annual growth percentage range.18:46–20:53 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions With Joel Carusone Standard rapid-fire questions covering favorite business books, mentors, sleep habits, and advice to a 20-year-old self. Carusone responds casually and cooperatively.20:53–21:30 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Episode Recap and Key Enterprise Metrics Summary Closing solo recap by Latka summarizing the key metrics and insights from the interview.0:36–5:19 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Defining the B2B Enterprise Customer Data Platform Latka challenges the uniqueness of B2B data assets, pointing out how incestuous data vendors often are. Carusone educates Latka on their crowd-sourced data exhaust model, explaining how bounced email data from enterprise clients creates a proprietary verification moat.5:19–9:23 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Enterprise Pricing Tiers and Revenue Concentration Breakdown Latka drills down into ACV tiers, 80/20 revenue concentration, and the capital structure regarding debt versus equity. Carusone answers transparently about pricing bands and his background transitioning from VP of Platform/CTO to CEO.9:23–13:19 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Net Revenue Retention and Platform Velocity Expansion Axes Latka aggressively boxes Carusone in on net revenue retention brackets when the guest tries to stay vague. Carusone details their expansion pricing axes, educating Latka on how data velocity (requests per second) drives their infrastructure cost-to-serve.13:19–16:23 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Customer Acquisition Channels and Path to Cash Flow Positivity When Carusone deflects direct CAC dollar figures, Latka reframes to ask about payback period and corrects Joel when he confuses time-to-ROI with CAC payback. Carusone reveals a sub-6 month payback and a timeline to reach cash flow positive.16:23–18:46 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Scaling to One Hundred Million ARR With Headcount Efficiency Latka demonstrates strong SaaS financial literacy by benchmark calculating ARR per employee against the industry average of $187k. He estimates Radius's current run rate and pushes Carusone to commit to an exact annual growth percentage range.18:46–20:53 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions With Joel Carusone Standard rapid-fire questions covering favorite business books, mentors, sleep habits, and advice to a 20-year-old self. Carusone responds casually and cooperatively.20:53–21:30 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Episode Recap and Key Enterprise Metrics Summary Closing solo recap by Latka summarizing the key metrics and insights from the interview.

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

0:00 · Nathan 49.2% · guest 50.8%0:00 · Nathan 49.2% · guest 50.8%3:00 · Nathan 12.1% · guest 87.9%3:00 · Nathan 12.1% · guest 87.9%6:00 · Nathan 25.7% · guest 74.3%6:00 · Nathan 25.7% · guest 74.3%9:00 · Nathan 26.3% · guest 73.7%9:00 · Nathan 26.3% · guest 73.7%12:00 · Nathan 27.4% · guest 72.6%12:00 · Nathan 27.4% · guest 72.6%15:00 · Nathan 31.1% · guest 68.9%15:00 · Nathan 31.1% · guest 68.9%18:00 · Nathan 29.8% · guest 70.2%18:00 · Nathan 29.8% · guest 70.2%21:00 · Nathan 97.8% · guest 2.2%21:00 · Nathan 97.8% · guest 2.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:38 Joel resists giving specific NRR figures

Joel attempts to remain non-committal by answering 'north of 100' before reluctantly conceding to Nathan's forced bracket of 100% to 150%.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 13:56 Nathan pushes past Joel's CAC deflection to payback period

Nathan refuses to let Joel brush past customer acquisition metrics, cutting in to redirect the question specifically to months required to recover acquisition costs.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:38 Joel explains API processing velocity as a pricing metric

Joel corrects Nathan's assumption that velocity means records processed per day, explaining it means requests per second and detailing the infrastructure cost dynamics.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 17:27 Nathan estimates run rate and calculates revenue efficiency

Nathan rapidly synthesizes previously disclosed customer counts and ACVs to deduce a $40M run rate and highlights an impressive $1M revenue-per-employee target versus SaaS benchmarks.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Defining the B2B Enterprise Customer Data Platform 6513 Latka challenges the uniqueness of B2B data assets, pointing out how incestuous data vendors often are. Carusone educates Latka on their crowd-sourced data exhaust model, explaining how bounced email data from enterprise clients creates a proprietary verification moat.
Enterprise Pricing Tiers and Revenue Concentration Breakdown 6314 Latka drills down into ACV tiers, 80/20 revenue concentration, and the capital structure regarding debt versus equity. Carusone answers transparently about pricing bands and his background transitioning from VP of Platform/CTO to CEO.
Net Revenue Retention and Platform Velocity Expansion Axes 7525 Latka aggressively boxes Carusone in on net revenue retention brackets when the guest tries to stay vague. Carusone details their expansion pricing axes, educating Latka on how data velocity (requests per second) drives their infrastructure cost-to-serve.
Customer Acquisition Channels and Path to Cash Flow Positivity 7326 When Carusone deflects direct CAC dollar figures, Latka reframes to ask about payback period and corrects Joel when he confuses time-to-ROI with CAC payback. Carusone reveals a sub-6 month payback and a timeline to reach cash flow positive.
Scaling to One Hundred Million ARR With Headcount Efficiency 7214 Latka demonstrates strong SaaS financial literacy by benchmark calculating ARR per employee against the industry average of $187k. He estimates Radius's current run rate and pushes Carusone to commit to an exact annual growth percentage range.
The Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions With Joel Carusone 3101 Standard rapid-fire questions covering favorite business books, mentors, sleep habits, and advice to a 20-year-old self. Carusone responds casually and cooperatively.
Episode Recap and Key Enterprise Metrics Summary 0000 Closing solo recap by Latka summarizing the key metrics and insights from the interview.

Statements from this episode (13)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Radius dataset covers 8 million US businesses and up to 30M contacts
“So radius has its own proprietary B to B data set domestic only today we cover approximately eight million businesses in the U S and somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to thirty million contacts.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 2:39
Assertion Supported
Radius partners and co-sells with Dun & Bradstreet
“We've got partnerships. We just announced a big partnership. We're doing some co-selling with the folks over at Dun & Bradstreet. So the DMB global file is part of our ecosystem as well.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 2:51
Disclosure
Radius gives its 17M business dataset away for free with platform access
“We don't charge for data. So when you purchase our platform as part of that, you get unlimited access to our standard data offering. So that seventeen million business data set is just, it's kind of a free, a freebie that we give away as part of the relationsh…”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 5:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Radius derives 80% of its revenue from its top 20 customers
“Yeah, I would say the bulk, I think, 80% of our revenue comes from our top 20 customers, so it's fairly well concentrated.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 6:18
Assertion Supported
Radius has raised about $100M in total capital
“About a hundred million.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 7:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Radius has around 75 employees with 20 in sales
“Yeah. So team, the company is around 75 employees right now. Sales is around 20.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 8:40
Disclosure
Radius processes large third-party datasets for customer Comcast
“Comcast is a great example. Where we're running some of the stuff on their behalf, the large data sets that they may be getting from third party writers, just faster for us to do it internally.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 11:13
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Indexing requests per second is Radius's most expensive infrastructure scaling cost
“That is the single most expensive thing for us to be able to scale is how many requests per second do we need to be able to index into our platform?”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 12:56
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Radius achieves CAC payback and profitability within the first few months
“We make money after the first few months.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 14:29
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Carusone: Radius is expected to be cash flow positive by end of 2020
“We are expected to be cashflow positive at the end of next year.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 16:03
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Radius expects to reach a $100M ARR run rate by 2022
“So two to three years is probably about right. I mean, I think, yeah, that's probably a good estimate.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 16:42
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Radius claims it can reach $100M revenue by adding just 15 employees
“I think we can do a hundred million dollars in revenue with potentially 15, you know, plus 15 of where we are today.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 17:22
Disclosure
Carusone: Radius targets 50% to 90% year-over-year revenue growth
“Somewhere between, I would say, 50 and 90 at this point.”
Joel Carusone Oct 17, 2019 ▶ 18:39
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