Jan 27, 2018 · 18m · top-founders
917 SaaS: How To Help Non-Profits and Build $12m ARR Company
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, host Nathan Latka interviews Scott Chisholm, CEO of Classy, exploring how the company scaled its non-profit fundraising SaaS platform from a grassroots charity pub crawl to over $53 million in funding and $12 million in ARR. Chisholm breaks down Classy's hybrid monetization model, customer acquisition economics, multi-touch attribution strategies, and SaaS retention metrics.
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 36.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
When Latka suggests lowering transaction fees to aggressively undercut competitors, Chisholm rejects the premise, explaining that fee structures depend entirely on ROI curves and fundraising cost optimization.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 3:15 Latka demands a specific subscription averageLatka refuses Chisholm's broad generalization about tiered pricing plans and directly presses him to state whether customers pay ten dollars or a million dollars a month.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:57 Chisholm explains ARR modeling for hybrid SaaS and transaction modelsChisholm educates Latka on the complexities of calculating ARR when blending SaaS licensing with volatile transaction fees using trailing 12-month segmented averages.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 14:24 Latka's on-the-fly CAC calculationLatka instantly computes a $9,000 fully burdened CAC from payback periods and monthly ARPU, impressing the founder and demonstrating deep fluency in SaaS unit economics.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classy's Mission, Business Model, and Pricing Strategy | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Latka pushes Chisholm to move past vague pricing tiers and give a concrete subscription average, which prompts Chisholm to share their $500 per month sweet spot. | |
| Origin Story: From Charity Pub Crawls to Anchorman Inspiration | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Chisholm shares the founding story from charity pub crawls inspired by Anchorman to raising $53M across multiple institutional rounds. | |
| Customer Base, Revenue Breakdown, and ARR Modeling | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Latka multiplies customer counts by ARPU to deduce that Classy surpassed $1M MRR, and Chisholm explains their conservative trailing 12-month transaction run-rate methodology. | |
| Inbound Content Playbook and Team Composition | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Chisholm outlines their inbound content marketing engine modeled after early HubSpot, supported by inside sales and a 220-person headcount. | |
| Paid Attribution Tracking and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Latka performs mental math on the spot, multiplying an 18-month payback period by $500 monthly ARPU to calculate a $9k fully burdened CAC, which Chisholm validates. | |
| Retention Metrics, Lifetime Value (LTV), and Unit Economics | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Latka drills down into gross logo churn versus net revenue retention and unpacks Classy's unit economics and $30k lifetime value per nonprofit. | |
| The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | A standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire conclusion covering favorite books, sleep routines, and Chisholm's advice to his 20-year-old self. |