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Mar 23, 2019 · 22m · top-founders

1337 How RedisLabs Scaled to $60m+ in ARR More Efficiently than MongoDB

Offer Bengal · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 8m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Redis Labs co-founder and CEO Offer Bengal sits down with Nathan Latka to break down the company's automated database business model, remarkable capital efficiency compared to MongoDB, strong cohort expansion economics, and strategic roadmap toward an IPO.

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

Nathan as informed peer 5.8 Guest teaching 3.2 Guest disagreement 5.2 Nathan pushing back 6.2
05100:0010:0020:000:58–4:41 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Founding of Redis Labs and Database as a Service Architecture Nathan introduces the company and questions whether Redis Labs relies on manual services. Offer Bengal politely clarifies that they do not do professional services and manage the database service via automated code with only five DevOps engineers.4:41–8:50 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Breakdown, Team Distribution, and Revenue Growth Nathan performs real-time math based on customer numbers and ACV, catching a discrepancy that would imply $42M MRR. Offer corrects the misunderstanding by explaining that only 250 of the 8500 customers are high-tier enterprise software buyers.8:51–11:56 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Evaluating IPO Timing, Private Capital, and Enterprise Credibility Offer refuses to disclose exact current MRR figures and deflects Nathan's deductions. Nathan repeatedly challenges him on why an IPO is necessary when ample private growth equity is available for liquidity and secondary share sales.11:56–20:19 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Enterprise Field Sales, Churn Economics, and MongoDB Comparison A highly contentious section where Nathan presses Offer on unit economics, payback periods, and sales modeling. Nathan directly rejects Offer's comparison to MongoDB's capital efficiency, arguing that raising large amounts of capital can signal a repeatable, proven sales machine.20:19–22:42 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire and Episode Summary In the Famous Five segment, Offer is dismissive and non-cooperative, declining to provide a favorite business book, admired CEO, age, or advice to his younger self before Nathan summarizes the interview.0:58–4:41 · Guest teaching 4/10 Founding of Redis Labs and Database as a Service Architecture Nathan introduces the company and questions whether Redis Labs relies on manual services. Offer Bengal politely clarifies that they do not do professional services and manage the database service via automated code with only five DevOps engineers.4:41–8:50 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Breakdown, Team Distribution, and Revenue Growth Nathan performs real-time math based on customer numbers and ACV, catching a discrepancy that would imply $42M MRR. Offer corrects the misunderstanding by explaining that only 250 of the 8500 customers are high-tier enterprise software buyers.8:51–11:56 · Guest teaching 3/10 Evaluating IPO Timing, Private Capital, and Enterprise Credibility Offer refuses to disclose exact current MRR figures and deflects Nathan's deductions. Nathan repeatedly challenges him on why an IPO is necessary when ample private growth equity is available for liquidity and secondary share sales.11:56–20:19 · Guest teaching 4/10 Enterprise Field Sales, Churn Economics, and MongoDB Comparison A highly contentious section where Nathan presses Offer on unit economics, payback periods, and sales modeling. Nathan directly rejects Offer's comparison to MongoDB's capital efficiency, arguing that raising large amounts of capital can signal a repeatable, proven sales machine.20:19–22:42 · Guest teaching 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire and Episode Summary In the Famous Five segment, Offer is dismissive and non-cooperative, declining to provide a favorite business book, admired CEO, age, or advice to his younger self before Nathan summarizes the interview.0:58–4:41 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Founding of Redis Labs and Database as a Service Architecture Nathan introduces the company and questions whether Redis Labs relies on manual services. Offer Bengal politely clarifies that they do not do professional services and manage the database service via automated code with only five DevOps engineers.4:41–8:50 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Customer Breakdown, Team Distribution, and Revenue Growth Nathan performs real-time math based on customer numbers and ACV, catching a discrepancy that would imply $42M MRR. Offer corrects the misunderstanding by explaining that only 250 of the 8500 customers are high-tier enterprise software buyers.8:51–11:56 · Guest disagreement 6/10 Evaluating IPO Timing, Private Capital, and Enterprise Credibility Offer refuses to disclose exact current MRR figures and deflects Nathan's deductions. Nathan repeatedly challenges him on why an IPO is necessary when ample private growth equity is available for liquidity and secondary share sales.11:56–20:19 · Guest disagreement 7/10 Enterprise Field Sales, Churn Economics, and MongoDB Comparison A highly contentious section where Nathan presses Offer on unit economics, payback periods, and sales modeling. Nathan directly rejects Offer's comparison to MongoDB's capital efficiency, arguing that raising large amounts of capital can signal a repeatable, proven sales machine.20:19–22:42 · Guest disagreement 6/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire and Episode Summary In the Famous Five segment, Offer is dismissive and non-cooperative, declining to provide a favorite business book, admired CEO, age, or advice to his younger self before Nathan summarizes the interview.0:58–4:41 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Founding of Redis Labs and Database as a Service Architecture Nathan introduces the company and questions whether Redis Labs relies on manual services. Offer Bengal politely clarifies that they do not do professional services and manage the database service via automated code with only five DevOps engineers.4:41–8:50 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Customer Breakdown, Team Distribution, and Revenue Growth Nathan performs real-time math based on customer numbers and ACV, catching a discrepancy that would imply $42M MRR. Offer corrects the misunderstanding by explaining that only 250 of the 8500 customers are high-tier enterprise software buyers.8:51–11:56 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Evaluating IPO Timing, Private Capital, and Enterprise Credibility Offer refuses to disclose exact current MRR figures and deflects Nathan's deductions. Nathan repeatedly challenges him on why an IPO is necessary when ample private growth equity is available for liquidity and secondary share sales.11:56–20:19 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Enterprise Field Sales, Churn Economics, and MongoDB Comparison A highly contentious section where Nathan presses Offer on unit economics, payback periods, and sales modeling. Nathan directly rejects Offer's comparison to MongoDB's capital efficiency, arguing that raising large amounts of capital can signal a repeatable, proven sales machine.20:19–22:42 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire and Episode Summary In the Famous Five segment, Offer is dismissive and non-cooperative, declining to provide a favorite business book, admired CEO, age, or advice to his younger self before Nathan summarizes the interview.

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

0:00 · Nathan 30.3% · guest 69.7%0:00 · Nathan 30.3% · guest 69.7%3:00 · Nathan 18.7% · guest 81.3%3:00 · Nathan 18.7% · guest 81.3%6:00 · Nathan 53% · guest 47%6:00 · Nathan 53% · guest 47%9:00 · Nathan 43.5% · guest 56.5%9:00 · Nathan 43.5% · guest 56.5%12:00 · Nathan 46.5% · guest 53.5%12:00 · Nathan 46.5% · guest 53.5%15:00 · Nathan 45.8% · guest 54.2%15:00 · Nathan 45.8% · guest 54.2%18:00 · Nathan 42.1% · guest 57.9%18:00 · Nathan 42.1% · guest 57.9%21:00 · Nathan 82.6% · guest 17.4%21:00 · Nathan 82.6% · guest 17.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 18:40 Offer dismisses Nathan's capital deployment theory

Offer bluntly tells Nathan 'no, it's not the way you do it' when Nathan claims that raising more capital indicates superior sales rep modeling.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 18:17 Nathan refutes MongoDB efficiency comparison

Nathan explicitly counters Offer's argument by stating that raising less capital might demonstrate an inability to spend efficiently rather than superior capital efficiency.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:24 Offer clarifies customer tier segmentation

Offer stops Nathan from assuming all 8,500 clients pay the enterprise rate, explaining that only 250 are large software contracts while the remainder are lower-tier service accounts.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:46 Nathan reverse-engineers current revenue from growth targets

Nathan uses Offer's stated 60% growth target and $9M/month milestone to deduce an approximate current monthly run rate of $6M.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Founding of Redis Labs and Database as a Service Architecture 3434 Nathan introduces the company and questions whether Redis Labs relies on manual services. Offer Bengal politely clarifies that they do not do professional services and manage the database service via automated code with only five DevOps engineers.
Customer Breakdown, Team Distribution, and Revenue Growth 7347 Nathan performs real-time math based on customer numbers and ACV, catching a discrepancy that would imply $42M MRR. Offer corrects the misunderstanding by explaining that only 250 of the 8500 customers are high-tier enterprise software buyers.
Evaluating IPO Timing, Private Capital, and Enterprise Credibility 7368 Offer refuses to disclose exact current MRR figures and deflects Nathan's deductions. Nathan repeatedly challenges him on why an IPO is necessary when ample private growth equity is available for liquidity and secondary share sales.
Enterprise Field Sales, Churn Economics, and MongoDB Comparison 8478 A highly contentious section where Nathan presses Offer on unit economics, payback periods, and sales modeling. Nathan directly rejects Offer's comparison to MongoDB's capital efficiency, arguing that raising large amounts of capital can signal a repeatable, proven sales machine.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire and Episode Summary 4264 In the Famous Five segment, Offer is dismissive and non-cooperative, declining to provide a favorite business book, admired CEO, age, or advice to his younger self before Nathan summarizes the interview.

Statements from this episode (8)

Opinion
Bengal: Redis Labs rejects professional services model
“No, we do not do professional services. We are against this model. We think it's not good.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 4:06
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bengal: Redis Labs manages 8,500 enterprise clients with five DevOps engineers
“Well, we have today approximately 8500 enterprise clients and approximately a 100,000 free customers on our free tiers. And all that is managed by five DevOps.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 4:24
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Redis Labs has 250 enterprise software customers out of 8,500 total
“So we have, you know, we have 8500 customers. Out of them, approximately 250 are software customers, and these are the big enterprise customers. The service customers are much smaller.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 7:41
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Redis Labs grows revenue at approximately 60% year over year
“The company is growing approximately 60% year over year.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 8:55
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Bengal: Redis Labs is two to two and a half years from an IPO
“We think that, you know, in order to do You know, a nice sizable IPO we need approximately two, two and a half years.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 9:02
Disclosure
Bengal: 60% to 70% of Redis Labs future hiring will be sales staff
“I would say, 60, 70% of the growth in headcount in years to come will be in sales staff.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 12:23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bengal: Half of Redis Labs growth is expansion; accounts double in 24 months
“In any given quarter, half of our growth comes from expansions, and if you look at cohorts, et cetera, so, you know, typically, a customer doubles its expenditure in two years, in 24 months.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 13:14
Opinion
Bengal: Redis Labs is way more capital efficient than MongoDB
“If you take a company like MongoDB, they raised approximately north of three hundred million before they went public. This means that we probably are way more efficient than MongoDB, and that is considered a very successful company.”
Offer Bengal Mar 23, 2019 ▶ 18:38
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