StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Sep 4, 2019 · 19m · top-founders

1502 Branch.io Raised $129m To Cover 18 Months Burn (-$7m/mo) For Deep Linking Play

Mada Seghete · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m 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 with Nathan Latka, Branch.io co-founder Mada Seghete details how the mobile deep linking and attribution platform scaled to over 50,000 apps, raised more than $200 million in venture capital, and built an enterprise SaaS engine generating $60,000 to $80,000 ACVs.

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 43.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.3 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 2.1 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:000:00–2:52 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Executive Overview of Branch.io's Key SaaS Metrics Nathan introduces Branch.io with pre-calculated metrics before asking Mada to explain the core value proposition and whether they sell to CTOs or CMOs. Mada clarifies their link routing mechanics and explains that they sell primarily to CMOs and heads of product.2:52–5:37 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Branch.io's Hybrid Freemium and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan drills into pricing tiers and attempts to pin down whether their average ACV is startup-level or closer to enterprise tier. Mada explains their hybrid pricing where core links are permanently free while enterprise packaging prices on monthly active users.5:37–8:10 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Heavy Infrastructure Costs and Enterprise Pivot in 2016 Nathan openly questions why Branch needed nearly a quarter billion dollars in venture funding for deep linking technology. Mada defends the massive capital requirements by highlighting cloud infrastructure costs across 50,000 active apps.8:11–10:52 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Product Suite Evolution Driven by Customer Behavior Nathan lists the four primary products from Branch's pricing page and asks about expansion chronology. Mada outlines how observing bespoke developer workarounds led to packaged enterprise features like Journeys and Universal Email.10:52–14:10 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Retention Dynamics, Customer Churn, and Sales Conversion Motions Nathan asks about free-to-paid conversion funnels, but Mada corrects his premise by explaining that developers rarely convert directly; instead, developers introduce Branch to marketing teams who buy a separate enterprise product. Nathan then narrows down their paid customer band.14:10–16:54 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Company Scaling, Team Distribution, and Engineering Focus Nathan pushes Mada on ARR timelines and revenue thresholds, which she directly refuses to discuss. Nathan then calculates Branch's monthly burn rate at approximately $7 million by extrapolating her 18-month runway timeline from their $129M Series D.16:54–19:08 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Questions with Mada Seghete Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Mada lightly deflects giving her exact age before sharing reflections on growing up poor in Romania and building self-confidence as an immigrant founder.19:08–19:45 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Episode Conclusion and Summary of Company Metrics Nathan delivers a rapid solo recap summarizing Branch.io's key business metrics, ACV ranges, capital raised, and growth targets before closing the episode.0:00–2:52 · Guest teaching 3/10 Executive Overview of Branch.io's Key SaaS Metrics Nathan introduces Branch.io with pre-calculated metrics before asking Mada to explain the core value proposition and whether they sell to CTOs or CMOs. Mada clarifies their link routing mechanics and explains that they sell primarily to CMOs and heads of product.2:52–5:37 · Guest teaching 4/10 Branch.io's Hybrid Freemium and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan drills into pricing tiers and attempts to pin down whether their average ACV is startup-level or closer to enterprise tier. Mada explains their hybrid pricing where core links are permanently free while enterprise packaging prices on monthly active users.5:37–8:10 · Guest teaching 5/10 Heavy Infrastructure Costs and Enterprise Pivot in 2016 Nathan openly questions why Branch needed nearly a quarter billion dollars in venture funding for deep linking technology. Mada defends the massive capital requirements by highlighting cloud infrastructure costs across 50,000 active apps.8:11–10:52 · Guest teaching 4/10 Product Suite Evolution Driven by Customer Behavior Nathan lists the four primary products from Branch's pricing page and asks about expansion chronology. Mada outlines how observing bespoke developer workarounds led to packaged enterprise features like Journeys and Universal Email.10:52–14:10 · Guest teaching 6/10 Retention Dynamics, Customer Churn, and Sales Conversion Motions Nathan asks about free-to-paid conversion funnels, but Mada corrects his premise by explaining that developers rarely convert directly; instead, developers introduce Branch to marketing teams who buy a separate enterprise product. Nathan then narrows down their paid customer band.14:10–16:54 · Guest teaching 3/10 Company Scaling, Team Distribution, and Engineering Focus Nathan pushes Mada on ARR timelines and revenue thresholds, which she directly refuses to discuss. Nathan then calculates Branch's monthly burn rate at approximately $7 million by extrapolating her 18-month runway timeline from their $129M Series D.16:54–19:08 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Questions with Mada Seghete Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Mada lightly deflects giving her exact age before sharing reflections on growing up poor in Romania and building self-confidence as an immigrant founder.19:08–19:45 · Guest teaching 0/10 Episode Conclusion and Summary of Company Metrics Nathan delivers a rapid solo recap summarizing Branch.io's key business metrics, ACV ranges, capital raised, and growth targets before closing the episode.0:00–2:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Executive Overview of Branch.io's Key SaaS Metrics Nathan introduces Branch.io with pre-calculated metrics before asking Mada to explain the core value proposition and whether they sell to CTOs or CMOs. Mada clarifies their link routing mechanics and explains that they sell primarily to CMOs and heads of product.2:52–5:37 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Branch.io's Hybrid Freemium and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan drills into pricing tiers and attempts to pin down whether their average ACV is startup-level or closer to enterprise tier. Mada explains their hybrid pricing where core links are permanently free while enterprise packaging prices on monthly active users.5:37–8:10 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Heavy Infrastructure Costs and Enterprise Pivot in 2016 Nathan openly questions why Branch needed nearly a quarter billion dollars in venture funding for deep linking technology. Mada defends the massive capital requirements by highlighting cloud infrastructure costs across 50,000 active apps.8:11–10:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Product Suite Evolution Driven by Customer Behavior Nathan lists the four primary products from Branch's pricing page and asks about expansion chronology. Mada outlines how observing bespoke developer workarounds led to packaged enterprise features like Journeys and Universal Email.10:52–14:10 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Retention Dynamics, Customer Churn, and Sales Conversion Motions Nathan asks about free-to-paid conversion funnels, but Mada corrects his premise by explaining that developers rarely convert directly; instead, developers introduce Branch to marketing teams who buy a separate enterprise product. Nathan then narrows down their paid customer band.14:10–16:54 · Guest disagreement 5/10 Company Scaling, Team Distribution, and Engineering Focus Nathan pushes Mada on ARR timelines and revenue thresholds, which she directly refuses to discuss. Nathan then calculates Branch's monthly burn rate at approximately $7 million by extrapolating her 18-month runway timeline from their $129M Series D.16:54–19:08 · Guest disagreement 2/10 The Famous Five Questions with Mada Seghete Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Mada lightly deflects giving her exact age before sharing reflections on growing up poor in Romania and building self-confidence as an immigrant founder.19:08–19:45 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Episode Conclusion and Summary of Company Metrics Nathan delivers a rapid solo recap summarizing Branch.io's key business metrics, ACV ranges, capital raised, and growth targets before closing the episode.0:00–2:52 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Executive Overview of Branch.io's Key SaaS Metrics Nathan introduces Branch.io with pre-calculated metrics before asking Mada to explain the core value proposition and whether they sell to CTOs or CMOs. Mada clarifies their link routing mechanics and explains that they sell primarily to CMOs and heads of product.2:52–5:37 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Branch.io's Hybrid Freemium and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan drills into pricing tiers and attempts to pin down whether their average ACV is startup-level or closer to enterprise tier. Mada explains their hybrid pricing where core links are permanently free while enterprise packaging prices on monthly active users.5:37–8:10 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Heavy Infrastructure Costs and Enterprise Pivot in 2016 Nathan openly questions why Branch needed nearly a quarter billion dollars in venture funding for deep linking technology. Mada defends the massive capital requirements by highlighting cloud infrastructure costs across 50,000 active apps.8:11–10:52 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Product Suite Evolution Driven by Customer Behavior Nathan lists the four primary products from Branch's pricing page and asks about expansion chronology. Mada outlines how observing bespoke developer workarounds led to packaged enterprise features like Journeys and Universal Email.10:52–14:10 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Retention Dynamics, Customer Churn, and Sales Conversion Motions Nathan asks about free-to-paid conversion funnels, but Mada corrects his premise by explaining that developers rarely convert directly; instead, developers introduce Branch to marketing teams who buy a separate enterprise product. Nathan then narrows down their paid customer band.14:10–16:54 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Company Scaling, Team Distribution, and Engineering Focus Nathan pushes Mada on ARR timelines and revenue thresholds, which she directly refuses to discuss. Nathan then calculates Branch's monthly burn rate at approximately $7 million by extrapolating her 18-month runway timeline from their $129M Series D.16:54–19:08 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 The Famous Five Questions with Mada Seghete Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Mada lightly deflects giving her exact age before sharing reflections on growing up poor in Romania and building self-confidence as an immigrant founder.19:08–19:45 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Episode Conclusion and Summary of Company Metrics Nathan delivers a rapid solo recap summarizing Branch.io's key business metrics, ACV ranges, capital raised, and growth targets before closing the episode.

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

0:00 · Nathan 52.1% · guest 47.9%0:00 · Nathan 52.1% · guest 47.9%3:00 · Nathan 30.1% · guest 69.9%3:00 · Nathan 30.1% · guest 69.9%6:00 · Nathan 45% · guest 55%6:00 · Nathan 45% · guest 55%9:00 · Nathan 34.7% · guest 65.3%9:00 · Nathan 34.7% · guest 65.3%12:00 · Nathan 47.2% · guest 52.8%12:00 · Nathan 47.2% · guest 52.8%15:00 · Nathan 46.5% · guest 53.5%15:00 · Nathan 46.5% · guest 53.5%18:00 · Nathan 56.7% · guest 43.3%18:00 · Nathan 56.7% · guest 43.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:00 Refusing revenue targets and ARR discussion

Mada firmly sets a boundary and shuts down Nathan's attempts to pin down Branch's timeline for crossing $100M ARR, stating she is not comfortable talking about revenue.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 5:28 Challenging massive capital requirements

Nathan intentionally adopts a polarizing stance to challenge why Branch required nearly a quarter billion dollars in venture funding for link routing tech.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:24 Explaining developer vs marketer sales dynamics

Mada educates Nathan on why classical SaaS free-to-paid conversion rates do not apply to their model, as free developer usage serves as an introduction vector to market directly to CMOs.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 16:31 Deducing estimated monthly cash burn

Nathan leverages Mada's admission that their $129M round was raised for 18 months of runway to immediately calculate and state their implied monthly burn of ~$7M.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Executive Overview of Branch.io's Key SaaS Metrics 5312 Nathan introduces Branch.io with pre-calculated metrics before asking Mada to explain the core value proposition and whether they sell to CTOs or CMOs. Mada clarifies their link routing mechanics and explains that they sell primarily to CMOs and heads of product.
Branch.io's Hybrid Freemium and Enterprise Pricing Model 6424 Nathan drills into pricing tiers and attempts to pin down whether their average ACV is startup-level or closer to enterprise tier. Mada explains their hybrid pricing where core links are permanently free while enterprise packaging prices on monthly active users.
Heavy Infrastructure Costs and Enterprise Pivot in 2016 7536 Nathan openly questions why Branch needed nearly a quarter billion dollars in venture funding for deep linking technology. Mada defends the massive capital requirements by highlighting cloud infrastructure costs across 50,000 active apps.
Product Suite Evolution Driven by Customer Behavior 6413 Nathan lists the four primary products from Branch's pricing page and asks about expansion chronology. Mada outlines how observing bespoke developer workarounds led to packaged enterprise features like Journeys and Universal Email.
Retention Dynamics, Customer Churn, and Sales Conversion Motions 6635 Nathan asks about free-to-paid conversion funnels, but Mada corrects his premise by explaining that developers rarely convert directly; instead, developers introduce Branch to marketing teams who buy a separate enterprise product. Nathan then narrows down their paid customer band.
Company Scaling, Team Distribution, and Engineering Focus 8357 Nathan pushes Mada on ARR timelines and revenue thresholds, which she directly refuses to discuss. Nathan then calculates Branch's monthly burn rate at approximately $7 million by extrapolating her 18-month runway timeline from their $129M Series D.
The Famous Five Questions with Mada Seghete 4123 Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Mada lightly deflects giving her exact age before sharing reflections on growing up poor in Romania and building self-confidence as an immigrant founder.
Episode Conclusion and Summary of Company Metrics 0000 Nathan delivers a rapid solo recap summarizing Branch.io's key business metrics, ACV ranges, capital raised, and growth targets before closing the episode.

Statements from this episode (8)

Disclosure
Branch is completely free for apps under 10,000 monthly active users
“If you have under 10,000 monthly active users, it's actually, everything is free, but above that, we have a few tiers, and then we have, like, an enterprise tier for real customers.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 3:43
Assertion Supported
Branch has raised over $200 million in total venture funding
“Over 200.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 5:27
Assertion Partly supported
Branch powers 60% to 70% of the top 200 mobile apps
“We are in over 50,000 apps, and you know, I think 60 or 70% of the top 200 apps have branch, and that there's a lot of infrastructure.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 5:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Branch maintains less than 5% annual gross churn
“Five percent. [673] Nathan Latka: Less than five percent. [674] Nathan Latka: Okay, and that's gross churn. [675] Mada Seghete: Yes. [676] Mada Seghete: We do have very, very little churn. [678] Mada Seghete: Most of our churn is actually, I think more than ha…”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 11:12
Insight
Selling software to developers is hard because they prefer building internally
“The people that have started use us for free, and if you think are usually the developers and it's very hard to [754] Mada Seghete: To convert a developer into a paid product because they think they can build it themselves.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 12:29
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Seghete expects 70% of future growth to come from new customers
“I think it's probably going to be fifty-fifty or probably more like thirty-seventy. [847] Mada Seghete: 30 coming from expansion, 70 from new customers.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 14:03
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Engineers account for more than half of Branch's 300 employees
“Engineering is probably more than half the company.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 15:30
Disclosure
Branch targets 18 months of runway for every funding round
“Yeah, I mean, I think every, every fundraiser we've done, we've always thought between, usually the 18 months is usually the runway to go for. That's usually what we've done.”
Mada Seghete Sep 4, 2019 ▶ 16:31
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more