StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Apr 19, 2019 · 17m · top-founders

1364 Are you being acquired? "No comment"

Adam Sabin · 7m 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

SaaS podcast host Nathan Latka interviews PeopleGrove co-founder and CEO Adam Sabin to explore how the university mentorship platform executed a dramatic pivot, scaled to $4 million ARR, and achieved capital efficiency with 120% net revenue retention.

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 48.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 1.5 Guest disagreement 1.5 Nathan pushing back 2.8
05100:0010:000:00–2:27 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Book Announcement: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Nathan delivers a solo promotional intro for his book and summarizes PeopleGrove's core business metrics before the interview begins.2:28–8:15 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 PeopleGrove Mentorship Platform and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan breaks down PeopleGrove's SaaS revenue run rate by multiplying customer count by contract values, while Adam explains their university model and previous near-bankruptcy pivot.8:16–13:41 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Distributed Team Structure and Capital Efficiency Nathan grills Adam on sales payback periods and challenges why they only have two account executives if quota unit economics are so strong, while Adam defends measured hiring.13:42–17:26 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Capital Strategy, Acquisition Stance, and Famous Five Nathan probes whether PeopleGrove is currently in acquisition talks, receiving a guarded deflection from Adam before concluding with the Famous Five.0:00–2:27 · Guest teaching 0/10 Book Announcement: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Nathan delivers a solo promotional intro for his book and summarizes PeopleGrove's core business metrics before the interview begins.2:28–8:15 · Guest teaching 2/10 PeopleGrove Mentorship Platform and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan breaks down PeopleGrove's SaaS revenue run rate by multiplying customer count by contract values, while Adam explains their university model and previous near-bankruptcy pivot.8:16–13:41 · Guest teaching 3/10 Distributed Team Structure and Capital Efficiency Nathan grills Adam on sales payback periods and challenges why they only have two account executives if quota unit economics are so strong, while Adam defends measured hiring.13:42–17:26 · Guest teaching 1/10 Capital Strategy, Acquisition Stance, and Famous Five Nathan probes whether PeopleGrove is currently in acquisition talks, receiving a guarded deflection from Adam before concluding with the Famous Five.0:00–2:27 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Book Announcement: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Nathan delivers a solo promotional intro for his book and summarizes PeopleGrove's core business metrics before the interview begins.2:28–8:15 · Guest disagreement 1/10 PeopleGrove Mentorship Platform and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan breaks down PeopleGrove's SaaS revenue run rate by multiplying customer count by contract values, while Adam explains their university model and previous near-bankruptcy pivot.8:16–13:41 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Distributed Team Structure and Capital Efficiency Nathan grills Adam on sales payback periods and challenges why they only have two account executives if quota unit economics are so strong, while Adam defends measured hiring.13:42–17:26 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Capital Strategy, Acquisition Stance, and Famous Five Nathan probes whether PeopleGrove is currently in acquisition talks, receiving a guarded deflection from Adam before concluding with the Famous Five.0:00–2:27 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Book Announcement: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Nathan delivers a solo promotional intro for his book and summarizes PeopleGrove's core business metrics before the interview begins.2:28–8:15 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 PeopleGrove Mentorship Platform and Enterprise Pricing Model Nathan breaks down PeopleGrove's SaaS revenue run rate by multiplying customer count by contract values, while Adam explains their university model and previous near-bankruptcy pivot.8:16–13:41 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Distributed Team Structure and Capital Efficiency Nathan grills Adam on sales payback periods and challenges why they only have two account executives if quota unit economics are so strong, while Adam defends measured hiring.13:42–17:26 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Capital Strategy, Acquisition Stance, and Famous Five Nathan probes whether PeopleGrove is currently in acquisition talks, receiving a guarded deflection from Adam before concluding with the Famous Five.

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

0:00 · Nathan 97.8% · guest 2.2%0:00 · Nathan 97.8% · guest 2.2%3:00 · Nathan 38.4% · guest 61.6%3:00 · Nathan 38.4% · guest 61.6%6:00 · Nathan 26.9% · guest 73.1%6:00 · Nathan 26.9% · guest 73.1%9:00 · Nathan 36.3% · guest 63.7%9:00 · Nathan 36.3% · guest 63.7%12:00 · Nathan 38.5% · guest 61.5%12:00 · Nathan 38.5% · guest 61.5%15:00 · Nathan 50.6% · guest 49.4%15:00 · Nathan 50.6% · guest 49.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:35 Adam deflects acquisition rumors

When Nathan directly asks if PeopleGrove is in acquisition talks to sell the company, Adam flatly stonewalls with 'Couldn't share that.'

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 13:18 Nathan pushes on why sales headcount is so small

Nathan refuses to let Adam's conservative hiring pace slide, demanding to know why the team has only two reps instead of twenty if the sales model is highly profitable.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:54 Adam corrects Nathan on remaining pivot cash

When Nathan assumes Adam had $250k left in the bank during the company turnaround, Adam corrects him that they were down to their last $10k to $20k.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:53 Nathan breaks down deferred versus cash payback mechanics

Nathan demonstrates financial mastery by translating upfront annual contracts into deferred payback periods against AE commission costs.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Book Announcement: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital 0000 Nathan delivers a solo promotional intro for his book and summarizes PeopleGrove's core business metrics before the interview begins.
PeopleGrove Mentorship Platform and Enterprise Pricing Model 6213 Nathan breaks down PeopleGrove's SaaS revenue run rate by multiplying customer count by contract values, while Adam explains their university model and previous near-bankruptcy pivot.
Distributed Team Structure and Capital Efficiency 7335 Nathan grills Adam on sales payback periods and challenges why they only have two account executives if quota unit economics are so strong, while Adam defends measured hiring.
Capital Strategy, Acquisition Stance, and Famous Five 4123 Nathan probes whether PeopleGrove is currently in acquisition talks, receiving a guarded deflection from Adam before concluding with the Famous Five.

Statements from this episode (12)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove contracts range from $15K to six figures per year
“We've got initial contract size, and you know, you have 15 to 20 K per year, all the way up to six digits now.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 3:25
Insight
Universities resist per-seat software pricing due to budget certainty needs
“Universities it's tough, tough for them to do per seat cause they need certainty of budget.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 3:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove reaches 170 institutional customers
“A 170 institutions.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 4:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove approaches $4 million in ARR
“Oh, you know, running towards four.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 5:48
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove was at $1M ARR in August 2017
“At one.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 6:00
Assertion Supported
PeopleGrove has raised $2.5M in total funding
“So I have this whole other story of a failed company, but this particular one see around was 1.8. And then we had some convertible notes. So a 2.5 total.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 6:32
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove was down to $20K in the bank before closing Stanford
“We had our initial convertible notes at 500 K. We were down to 20 K in the bank.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 8:07
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove's cash balance equals the exact amount raised a year prior
“Like cash balance wise, the amount of money we raised a year ago is the exact balance we have today.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 9:51
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove maintains 96% logo retention, with only four churned customers
“Customer logos, 96%. So of our 170, I think four total have churned.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 10:35
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PeopleGrove generated over $500K in expansion revenue against $50K churn
“While the logos we churn represented about 50 K of ACV, our expansion revenue has been over 500 K.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 10:55
Disclosure
PeopleGrove is not seeking outside capital due to a strong cash balance
“We haven't sought it. Right now the cash balance is good. And we have all the incentive in the world to just keep growing the business organically if we have the cash.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 13:45
Assertion Contradicted
PeopleGrove operates without a VP of Sales or Customer Success
“We don't have a VP of sales. We don't have a VP of customer success.”
Adam Sabin Apr 19, 2019 ▶ 14:20
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