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May 28, 2018 · 15m · top-founders

1038 How Prezly Bootstrapped To $1.6m+ in ARR

Gijs Nelissen · 7m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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In this episode of The Top Entrepreneurs, host Nathan Latka interviews Prezly co-founder and CEO Gijs Nelissen about how his team bootstrapped their modern PR software platform to over $1.6 million in ARR with strong unit economics and a fully remote workforce.

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 42% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 1.8 Nathan pushing back 3.5
05100:0010:000:49–4:00 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Guest Background and Founding Equity Structure at Prezly Latka pushes on specific details right away, drilling into exact equity percentages and refusing to accept vague customer numbers until Nelissen narrows the range down.4:00–6:07 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Analyzing Churn Economics and Platform Stickiness Drivers Latka explores SaaS churn metrics and probes what specific product triggers drive customer retention, with Nelissen explaining the role of contact imports and newsrooms.6:09–8:22 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Modern PR Workflows and Integrated Newsroom CMS Solution Nelissen firmly corrects Latka's pitch comparing Prezly to legacy wire services like PR Web, prompting Latka to admit confusion and press for clarification on what a PR newsroom CMS actually does.8:23–11:47 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback Period, and Remote Team Latka runs quick mental calculations on CAC payback and lifetime value from churn metrics, questioning whether 100-month spreadsheet assumptions are overly optimistic.11:51–14:24 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Revenue Growth Trajectory and Founder's Long-Term Independence Nelissen walks through yearly revenue milestones showing rapid growth from $15k to $1.6m+ ARR and adamantly rejects selling out at 4x ARR before completing the Famous Five.14:25–15:14 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Episode Recap and Summary of Prezly Business Metrics Host solo monologue summarizing Prezly's metrics, growth history, team size, and economics.0:49–4:00 · Guest teaching 2/10 Guest Background and Founding Equity Structure at Prezly Latka pushes on specific details right away, drilling into exact equity percentages and refusing to accept vague customer numbers until Nelissen narrows the range down.4:00–6:07 · Guest teaching 3/10 Analyzing Churn Economics and Platform Stickiness Drivers Latka explores SaaS churn metrics and probes what specific product triggers drive customer retention, with Nelissen explaining the role of contact imports and newsrooms.6:09–8:22 · Guest teaching 7/10 Modern PR Workflows and Integrated Newsroom CMS Solution Nelissen firmly corrects Latka's pitch comparing Prezly to legacy wire services like PR Web, prompting Latka to admit confusion and press for clarification on what a PR newsroom CMS actually does.8:23–11:47 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback Period, and Remote Team Latka runs quick mental calculations on CAC payback and lifetime value from churn metrics, questioning whether 100-month spreadsheet assumptions are overly optimistic.11:51–14:24 · Guest teaching 1/10 Revenue Growth Trajectory and Founder's Long-Term Independence Nelissen walks through yearly revenue milestones showing rapid growth from $15k to $1.6m+ ARR and adamantly rejects selling out at 4x ARR before completing the Famous Five.14:25–15:14 · Guest teaching 0/10 Episode Recap and Summary of Prezly Business Metrics Host solo monologue summarizing Prezly's metrics, growth history, team size, and economics.0:49–4:00 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Guest Background and Founding Equity Structure at Prezly Latka pushes on specific details right away, drilling into exact equity percentages and refusing to accept vague customer numbers until Nelissen narrows the range down.4:00–6:07 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Analyzing Churn Economics and Platform Stickiness Drivers Latka explores SaaS churn metrics and probes what specific product triggers drive customer retention, with Nelissen explaining the role of contact imports and newsrooms.6:09–8:22 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Modern PR Workflows and Integrated Newsroom CMS Solution Nelissen firmly corrects Latka's pitch comparing Prezly to legacy wire services like PR Web, prompting Latka to admit confusion and press for clarification on what a PR newsroom CMS actually does.8:23–11:47 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback Period, and Remote Team Latka runs quick mental calculations on CAC payback and lifetime value from churn metrics, questioning whether 100-month spreadsheet assumptions are overly optimistic.11:51–14:24 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Revenue Growth Trajectory and Founder's Long-Term Independence Nelissen walks through yearly revenue milestones showing rapid growth from $15k to $1.6m+ ARR and adamantly rejects selling out at 4x ARR before completing the Famous Five.14:25–15:14 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Episode Recap and Summary of Prezly Business Metrics Host solo monologue summarizing Prezly's metrics, growth history, team size, and economics.0:49–4:00 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Guest Background and Founding Equity Structure at Prezly Latka pushes on specific details right away, drilling into exact equity percentages and refusing to accept vague customer numbers until Nelissen narrows the range down.4:00–6:07 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Analyzing Churn Economics and Platform Stickiness Drivers Latka explores SaaS churn metrics and probes what specific product triggers drive customer retention, with Nelissen explaining the role of contact imports and newsrooms.6:09–8:22 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Modern PR Workflows and Integrated Newsroom CMS Solution Nelissen firmly corrects Latka's pitch comparing Prezly to legacy wire services like PR Web, prompting Latka to admit confusion and press for clarification on what a PR newsroom CMS actually does.8:23–11:47 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback Period, and Remote Team Latka runs quick mental calculations on CAC payback and lifetime value from churn metrics, questioning whether 100-month spreadsheet assumptions are overly optimistic.11:51–14:24 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Revenue Growth Trajectory and Founder's Long-Term Independence Nelissen walks through yearly revenue milestones showing rapid growth from $15k to $1.6m+ ARR and adamantly rejects selling out at 4x ARR before completing the Famous Five.14:25–15:14 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Episode Recap and Summary of Prezly Business Metrics Host solo monologue summarizing Prezly's metrics, growth history, team size, and economics.

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

0:00 · Nathan 50.2% · guest 49.8%0:00 · Nathan 50.2% · guest 49.8%3:00 · Nathan 39.7% · guest 60.3%3:00 · Nathan 39.7% · guest 60.3%6:00 · Nathan 26.9% · guest 73.1%6:00 · Nathan 26.9% · guest 73.1%9:00 · Nathan 34.9% · guest 65.1%9:00 · Nathan 34.9% · guest 65.1%12:00 · Nathan 55.1% · guest 44.9%12:00 · Nathan 55.1% · guest 44.9%15:00 · Nathan 96.8% · guest 3.2%15:00 · Nathan 96.8% · guest 3.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:26 Rejection of PR Web comparison

Nelissen flatly rejects Latka's attempt to summarize Prezly as a glorified press release distributor, calling it an outdated way of doing PR.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 3:31 Pressing to bracket customer count

Latka refuses to allow Nelissen to hide behind a broad 'in the hundreds' answer, proactively proposing ranges until Nelissen commits to a narrower bracket.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 6:35 Educating on modern PR workflows and CMS

Nelissen breaks down how modern digital newsrooms replace traditional distribution wires after Latka admits he does not understand the newsroom concept.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:53 Mental math challenge on LTV modeling

Latka rapidly calculates that a 0.9% revenue churn implies a 100-month customer lifetime, directly challenging the founder on whether such spreadsheet projections are unrealistic.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Guest Background and Founding Equity Structure at Prezly 6225 Latka pushes on specific details right away, drilling into exact equity percentages and refusing to accept vague customer numbers until Nelissen narrows the range down.
Analyzing Churn Economics and Platform Stickiness Drivers 5312 Latka explores SaaS churn metrics and probes what specific product triggers drive customer retention, with Nelissen explaining the role of contact imports and newsrooms.
Modern PR Workflows and Integrated Newsroom CMS Solution 4746 Nelissen firmly corrects Latka's pitch comparing Prezly to legacy wire services like PR Web, prompting Latka to admit confusion and press for clarification on what a PR newsroom CMS actually does.
Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback Period, and Remote Team 7325 Latka runs quick mental calculations on CAC payback and lifetime value from churn metrics, questioning whether 100-month spreadsheet assumptions are overly optimistic.
Revenue Growth Trajectory and Founder's Long-Term Independence 4123 Nelissen walks through yearly revenue milestones showing rapid growth from $15k to $1.6m+ ARR and adamantly rejects selling out at 4x ARR before completing the Famous Five.
Episode Recap and Summary of Prezly Business Metrics 0000 Host solo monologue summarizing Prezly's metrics, growth history, team size, and economics.

Statements from this episode (11)

Disclosure
Gijs Nelissen holds approximately 43% equity in Prezly
“Yeah, it's like, 43.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 1:47
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nelissen: Prezly averages $400 monthly revenue per license
“Well, so our average like our poor or something like is around 400 per license. So that's not like per user. So I like to use RPL or something here just to make sure that's not like a user metric, but.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 3:03
Disclosure
Nelissen: Prezly is bootstrapped without outside capital
“Yes. Bootstrapped.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 3:26
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nelissen: Prezly has more than 300 paying customers
“Well, it's more than four 300. That's all I can say.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 3:46
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nelissen: Prezly's fully weighted CAC is around $7,000 to $8,000
“So like I would say right now it's around seven to eight K fully weighted. Yeah. Fully weighted. So including salaries and like, but there's a really big difference in like self-service client and enterprise clients, which are our most important segments.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 8:33
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nelissen: Prezly's payback period on new subscriptions is 4 to 6 months
“So if you look at our newer subscriptions, the new clients we sign on right now, our pay book would be around like Four to six months.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 9:07
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nelissen: Prezly has 0.9% revenue churn and 1.2% logo churn
“No, it's like 00.9 on revenue churn and 1.2 on logo churn. And I use revenue churn as LTV driver.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 10:04
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Nelissen predicts Prezly will achieve net negative churn in 2018
“Yes, absolutely. Yeah. We're hiring for that. And yeah, absolutely.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 11:29
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Prezly grew from $150K in 2014 to $900K ARR in 2016
“So, like, bookings, and so, the next year, 2014, we did one 50 K so, that's, like, times 10, but that's easy on the loan numbers. The year after that, we did 400 K. And I think End of 2016, we're around, like, 900 K, 809 hundred K yeah.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 12:19
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Prezly reached $1.6 million ARR in 2017
“Yes, so we should have been at, like, one, 1.6 for two, two percent. Yes, we hit that one.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 12:52
Disclosure
Nelissen: Prezly would reject a 4x ARR acquisition offer
“No, absolutely not. We're not done yet. I mean, we are just getting started.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 13:13
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