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Jul 20, 2019 · 22m · top-founders

1456 Hyper Secure CRM Tool Passes $10M in ARR

Jody Glidden · 12m 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 episode of The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews Introhive co-founder and CEO Jody Glidden to unpack how the enterprise CRM automation platform surpassed $10 million in ARR while tripling annual revenue. Glidden shares key insights into their enterprise-first sales model, robust security architecture, and balanced capital acquisition strategy.

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 5.7 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 4.7
05100:0010:0020:001:57–4:24 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introhive Product Positioning, Enterprise Pricing, and ACV Nathan clarifies basic pricing parameters, stepping in to redirect Jody when he confuses company-level ARR run rate with logo-level ACV.4:24–8:58 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Founding Introhive, Blackberry Exit, and Raising Venture Capital Jody explains why Introhive inverted traditional SaaS playbooks by going top-down enterprise first due to data security architecture requirements. Nathan challenges their website positioning for looking like a generic CRM.8:58–14:13 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Scaling Past $10M ARR and Managing Sales Pipeline Nathan challenges Jody's reliance on high valuation multiples, delivering a technical explanation of how rising Fed interest rates compress SaaS multiples. Jody defends his capital strategy by citing access to debt and founder financing.14:13–16:58 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy, Gross Margins, and Land Grab Nathan pushes back against Jody's misinterpretation of his CAC question, clarifying that scaling enterprise SaaS requires aggressive spending and cohort predictability.16:58–20:35 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Net Revenue Retention, Account Expansion, and Global Team Nathan presses Jody to quantify net revenue retention and expansion dynamics, helping him synthesize per-seat expansion and added seat counts into a combined 50% expansion figure.20:36–22:10 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Famous Five Questions with Jody Glidden During the rapid-fire questions, Nathan pushes Jody for a concrete tool recommendation when Jody names Tableau but admits they built an internal replacement.1:57–4:24 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introhive Product Positioning, Enterprise Pricing, and ACV Nathan clarifies basic pricing parameters, stepping in to redirect Jody when he confuses company-level ARR run rate with logo-level ACV.4:24–8:58 · Guest teaching 5/10 Founding Introhive, Blackberry Exit, and Raising Venture Capital Jody explains why Introhive inverted traditional SaaS playbooks by going top-down enterprise first due to data security architecture requirements. Nathan challenges their website positioning for looking like a generic CRM.8:58–14:13 · Guest teaching 3/10 Scaling Past $10M ARR and Managing Sales Pipeline Nathan challenges Jody's reliance on high valuation multiples, delivering a technical explanation of how rising Fed interest rates compress SaaS multiples. Jody defends his capital strategy by citing access to debt and founder financing.14:13–16:58 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy, Gross Margins, and Land Grab Nathan pushes back against Jody's misinterpretation of his CAC question, clarifying that scaling enterprise SaaS requires aggressive spending and cohort predictability.16:58–20:35 · Guest teaching 2/10 Net Revenue Retention, Account Expansion, and Global Team Nathan presses Jody to quantify net revenue retention and expansion dynamics, helping him synthesize per-seat expansion and added seat counts into a combined 50% expansion figure.20:36–22:10 · Guest teaching 1/10 Famous Five Questions with Jody Glidden During the rapid-fire questions, Nathan pushes Jody for a concrete tool recommendation when Jody names Tableau but admits they built an internal replacement.1:57–4:24 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introhive Product Positioning, Enterprise Pricing, and ACV Nathan clarifies basic pricing parameters, stepping in to redirect Jody when he confuses company-level ARR run rate with logo-level ACV.4:24–8:58 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Founding Introhive, Blackberry Exit, and Raising Venture Capital Jody explains why Introhive inverted traditional SaaS playbooks by going top-down enterprise first due to data security architecture requirements. Nathan challenges their website positioning for looking like a generic CRM.8:58–14:13 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Scaling Past $10M ARR and Managing Sales Pipeline Nathan challenges Jody's reliance on high valuation multiples, delivering a technical explanation of how rising Fed interest rates compress SaaS multiples. Jody defends his capital strategy by citing access to debt and founder financing.14:13–16:58 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy, Gross Margins, and Land Grab Nathan pushes back against Jody's misinterpretation of his CAC question, clarifying that scaling enterprise SaaS requires aggressive spending and cohort predictability.16:58–20:35 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Net Revenue Retention, Account Expansion, and Global Team Nathan presses Jody to quantify net revenue retention and expansion dynamics, helping him synthesize per-seat expansion and added seat counts into a combined 50% expansion figure.20:36–22:10 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Famous Five Questions with Jody Glidden During the rapid-fire questions, Nathan pushes Jody for a concrete tool recommendation when Jody names Tableau but admits they built an internal replacement.1:57–4:24 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Introhive Product Positioning, Enterprise Pricing, and ACV Nathan clarifies basic pricing parameters, stepping in to redirect Jody when he confuses company-level ARR run rate with logo-level ACV.4:24–8:58 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Founding Introhive, Blackberry Exit, and Raising Venture Capital Jody explains why Introhive inverted traditional SaaS playbooks by going top-down enterprise first due to data security architecture requirements. Nathan challenges their website positioning for looking like a generic CRM.8:58–14:13 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Scaling Past $10M ARR and Managing Sales Pipeline Nathan challenges Jody's reliance on high valuation multiples, delivering a technical explanation of how rising Fed interest rates compress SaaS multiples. Jody defends his capital strategy by citing access to debt and founder financing.14:13–16:58 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy, Gross Margins, and Land Grab Nathan pushes back against Jody's misinterpretation of his CAC question, clarifying that scaling enterprise SaaS requires aggressive spending and cohort predictability.16:58–20:35 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Net Revenue Retention, Account Expansion, and Global Team Nathan presses Jody to quantify net revenue retention and expansion dynamics, helping him synthesize per-seat expansion and added seat counts into a combined 50% expansion figure.20:36–22:10 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Famous Five Questions with Jody Glidden During the rapid-fire questions, Nathan pushes Jody for a concrete tool recommendation when Jody names Tableau but admits they built an internal replacement.

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

0:00 · Nathan 74% · guest 26%0:00 · Nathan 74% · guest 26%3:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%3:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%6:00 · Nathan 23.6% · guest 76.4%6:00 · Nathan 23.6% · guest 76.4%9:00 · Nathan 27.8% · guest 72.2%9:00 · Nathan 27.8% · guest 72.2%12:00 · Nathan 44.6% · guest 55.4%12:00 · Nathan 44.6% · guest 55.4%15:00 · Nathan 26.5% · guest 73.5%15:00 · Nathan 26.5% · guest 73.5%18:00 · Nathan 32.1% · guest 67.9%18:00 · Nathan 32.1% · guest 67.9%21:00 · Nathan 61% · guest 39%21:00 · Nathan 61% · guest 39%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:46 Guest defends capital access and downplays market risks

Jody pushes back against Nathan's skepticism regarding market froth, asserting Introhive's resilience across debt, equity, and founder financing.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 14:13 Host reframes guest's assumption about CAC conservatism

Nathan directly halts Jody's framing, clarifying that high-growth SaaS firms should proactively spend more to establish cohort predictability rather than boast about near-zero CAC.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 6:57 Guest explains why MVP constraints forced an enterprise-first model

Jody explains the structural necessity of building heavy enterprise security infrastructure from day one, educating Nathan on why bottom-up SMB adoption was unviable.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:09 Host explains SaaS valuation discount rates and Fed funds impact

Nathan displays deep financial literacy, walking through discounted cash flow mechanics and how Fed rate hikes directly deflate ARR valuation multiples.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introhive Product Positioning, Enterprise Pricing, and ACV 5214 Nathan clarifies basic pricing parameters, stepping in to redirect Jody when he confuses company-level ARR run rate with logo-level ACV.
Founding Introhive, Blackberry Exit, and Raising Venture Capital 5524 Jody explains why Introhive inverted traditional SaaS playbooks by going top-down enterprise first due to data security architecture requirements. Nathan challenges their website positioning for looking like a generic CRM.
Scaling Past $10M ARR and Managing Sales Pipeline 8347 Nathan challenges Jody's reliance on high valuation multiples, delivering a technical explanation of how rising Fed interest rates compress SaaS multiples. Jody defends his capital strategy by citing access to debt and founder financing.
Customer Acquisition Strategy, Gross Margins, and Land Grab 6325 Nathan pushes back against Jody's misinterpretation of his CAC question, clarifying that scaling enterprise SaaS requires aggressive spending and cohort predictability.
Net Revenue Retention, Account Expansion, and Global Team 6214 Nathan presses Jody to quantify net revenue retention and expansion dynamics, helping him synthesize per-seat expansion and added seat counts into a combined 50% expansion figure.
Famous Five Questions with Jody Glidden 4124 During the rapid-fire questions, Nathan pushes Jody for a concrete tool recommendation when Jody names Tableau but admits they built an internal replacement.

Statements from this episode (15)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive has reached eight-figure revenue and is tripling annually
“We're kind of in the, let's see, the eight digits sort of size now. So we're just kind of, we're tripling every year.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 3:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive customer contracts typically start around $100,000 annually
“A lot of companies start with us in around that a 100,000 dollars a year range.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 4:05
Assertion Supported
Glidden: Introhive has raised ~$15M in VC and ~$20M total
“So total financing in is probably closer to 20 total VCs would be closer to 15.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 5:35
Disclosure
Glidden: Introhive has around 50 enterprise customers
“So, we're around 50 customers or so.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 6:25
Disclosure
Glidden: Introhive has multiple customers paying $500K to over $1M annually
“We have a lot of customers in the, you know, half million dollar a year range. We have, we've got some in the million dollar or more a year range.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 6:37
Assertion Supported
Glidden: Introhive has 100,000 seats deployed at PwC
“We're not one of those companies that has, you know, five seats at PwC, you know, we've got a 100,000 seats at PwC.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 8:27
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive tripled revenue annually for three straight years
“It's been pretty consistently for the last three years. We've been tripling almost on the dot.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 9:25
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive's average sales cycle is dipping below six months
“Our sales it's somewhere around six months. We're just starting to get below six months now on the average.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 10:01
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive's valuation tends to be around 20x forward ARR
“You know, our valuations tend to be somewhere in the 20 times forward ARR level.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 10:45
Insight
Glidden: Capital markets rarely dry up for over 18 months in recessions
“So if you look at, you know, the really bad recessions, they usually don't take, you know, the markets usually don't dry up. Take Markets didn't dry up for more than like a year and a half.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 11:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive operates at 85% to 90% gross margins
“No, we're like 85 to 90%.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 15:42
Disclosure
Glidden: Introhive is comfortable with a one-year CAC payback period
“No, no, a year is, I think a year is still fine at this kind of stage. Right now, you know, the most important thing for us is if we're not operating in a bubble, right? There's, this is becoming a very, very hot space. And we have to make sure that we, it's a…”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 16:12
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glidden: Introhive has zero churn among enterprise customers
“Other than that, among our enterprise customers, we haven't had any churn at all.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 17:52
Disclosure
Glidden: Introhive has a headcount of 120 to 125 employees
“We're a hundred and 120, 125 people.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 19:50
Disclosure
Glidden: Introhive moved away from Tableau because of cost
“Yeah, exactly. It's expensive. And we're all still kind of in the reporting business.”
Jody Glidden Jul 20, 2019 ▶ 21:29
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