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Aug 30, 2017 · 27m · top-founders

767: With $10M Raised Will They Be Sytem of Record for Your COO?

Nick Candito · 16m spoken Nathan Latka · 8m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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In this episode of The Top podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews Nick Candito, co-founder and CEO of Progressly, discussing how the company raised $10 million to build an enterprise system of record for COOs while targeting a $5 million ARR run rate.

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 33.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.4 Guest teaching 2.9 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 3.9
05100:0010:0020:001:39–6:24 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Analyzing the Enterprise and SMB CRM Landscape Nathan redirects Nick when his initial answer on CRM leaders focuses purely on enterprise plays, specifically asking him to identify a player in the SMB space with ARPUs under $100. Nick readily pivots and shares insights on Base CRM and his background at RelateIQ and Crimson Hexagon.6:24–9:23 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Progressly's Value Proposition, Target Verticals, and Pricing Nathan repeatedly presses Nick to give concrete ARPU and per-seat pricing figures rather than high-level enterprise customer names. Nick explains the $49 enterprise ceiling and the more common $19 tier.9:23–14:27 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Capitalization Strategy and Raising $10 Million Nathan probes Nick on his funding decisions, net versus gross logo churn, and named-account strategies. Nick explains why net churn is positive due to land-and-expand deployment curves, and Nathan validates the niche vertical focus by referencing Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm.14:31–17:42 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Seat Metrics, Enterprise Integrations, and Pilot Conversions When Nick hesitates to give active seat counts and talks about usage patterns and Slack-like engagement models, Nathan interrupts to pin down the actual engagement metric and numerical range. Nick eventually confirms active seats are in the single-digit thousands across hundreds of customers.17:45–21:24 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Revenue Trajectory, ARR Targets, and Enterprise Sales Cycles Nathan deduces current MRR from seat numbers and pricing tiers, estimating Nick's monthly revenue at under $300k. Nick accepts the framing while noting their internal focus on long-cycle ARR and a $5M target.21:24–23:52 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Team Composition, Unit Economics, and Payback Periods Nathan asks about team breakdown and customer acquisition cost benchmarks. Nick explains their sales structure and states payback period is under 12 months due to enterprise ACVs.23:52–26:38 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Sponsor Promotion: HostGator Website Hosting Segment includes mid-roll sponsor reads for HostGator and GetLatka before transitioning into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.1:39–6:24 · Guest teaching 3/10 Analyzing the Enterprise and SMB CRM Landscape Nathan redirects Nick when his initial answer on CRM leaders focuses purely on enterprise plays, specifically asking him to identify a player in the SMB space with ARPUs under $100. Nick readily pivots and shares insights on Base CRM and his background at RelateIQ and Crimson Hexagon.6:24–9:23 · Guest teaching 4/10 Progressly's Value Proposition, Target Verticals, and Pricing Nathan repeatedly presses Nick to give concrete ARPU and per-seat pricing figures rather than high-level enterprise customer names. Nick explains the $49 enterprise ceiling and the more common $19 tier.9:23–14:27 · Guest teaching 4/10 Capitalization Strategy and Raising $10 Million Nathan probes Nick on his funding decisions, net versus gross logo churn, and named-account strategies. Nick explains why net churn is positive due to land-and-expand deployment curves, and Nathan validates the niche vertical focus by referencing Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm.14:31–17:42 · Guest teaching 3/10 Seat Metrics, Enterprise Integrations, and Pilot Conversions When Nick hesitates to give active seat counts and talks about usage patterns and Slack-like engagement models, Nathan interrupts to pin down the actual engagement metric and numerical range. Nick eventually confirms active seats are in the single-digit thousands across hundreds of customers.17:45–21:24 · Guest teaching 3/10 Revenue Trajectory, ARR Targets, and Enterprise Sales Cycles Nathan deduces current MRR from seat numbers and pricing tiers, estimating Nick's monthly revenue at under $300k. Nick accepts the framing while noting their internal focus on long-cycle ARR and a $5M target.21:24–23:52 · Guest teaching 2/10 Team Composition, Unit Economics, and Payback Periods Nathan asks about team breakdown and customer acquisition cost benchmarks. Nick explains their sales structure and states payback period is under 12 months due to enterprise ACVs.23:52–26:38 · Guest teaching 1/10 Sponsor Promotion: HostGator Website Hosting Segment includes mid-roll sponsor reads for HostGator and GetLatka before transitioning into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.1:39–6:24 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Analyzing the Enterprise and SMB CRM Landscape Nathan redirects Nick when his initial answer on CRM leaders focuses purely on enterprise plays, specifically asking him to identify a player in the SMB space with ARPUs under $100. Nick readily pivots and shares insights on Base CRM and his background at RelateIQ and Crimson Hexagon.6:24–9:23 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Progressly's Value Proposition, Target Verticals, and Pricing Nathan repeatedly presses Nick to give concrete ARPU and per-seat pricing figures rather than high-level enterprise customer names. Nick explains the $49 enterprise ceiling and the more common $19 tier.9:23–14:27 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Capitalization Strategy and Raising $10 Million Nathan probes Nick on his funding decisions, net versus gross logo churn, and named-account strategies. Nick explains why net churn is positive due to land-and-expand deployment curves, and Nathan validates the niche vertical focus by referencing Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm.14:31–17:42 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Seat Metrics, Enterprise Integrations, and Pilot Conversions When Nick hesitates to give active seat counts and talks about usage patterns and Slack-like engagement models, Nathan interrupts to pin down the actual engagement metric and numerical range. Nick eventually confirms active seats are in the single-digit thousands across hundreds of customers.17:45–21:24 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Revenue Trajectory, ARR Targets, and Enterprise Sales Cycles Nathan deduces current MRR from seat numbers and pricing tiers, estimating Nick's monthly revenue at under $300k. Nick accepts the framing while noting their internal focus on long-cycle ARR and a $5M target.21:24–23:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Team Composition, Unit Economics, and Payback Periods Nathan asks about team breakdown and customer acquisition cost benchmarks. Nick explains their sales structure and states payback period is under 12 months due to enterprise ACVs.23:52–26:38 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Sponsor Promotion: HostGator Website Hosting Segment includes mid-roll sponsor reads for HostGator and GetLatka before transitioning into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.1:39–6:24 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Analyzing the Enterprise and SMB CRM Landscape Nathan redirects Nick when his initial answer on CRM leaders focuses purely on enterprise plays, specifically asking him to identify a player in the SMB space with ARPUs under $100. Nick readily pivots and shares insights on Base CRM and his background at RelateIQ and Crimson Hexagon.6:24–9:23 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Progressly's Value Proposition, Target Verticals, and Pricing Nathan repeatedly presses Nick to give concrete ARPU and per-seat pricing figures rather than high-level enterprise customer names. Nick explains the $49 enterprise ceiling and the more common $19 tier.9:23–14:27 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Capitalization Strategy and Raising $10 Million Nathan probes Nick on his funding decisions, net versus gross logo churn, and named-account strategies. Nick explains why net churn is positive due to land-and-expand deployment curves, and Nathan validates the niche vertical focus by referencing Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm.14:31–17:42 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Seat Metrics, Enterprise Integrations, and Pilot Conversions When Nick hesitates to give active seat counts and talks about usage patterns and Slack-like engagement models, Nathan interrupts to pin down the actual engagement metric and numerical range. Nick eventually confirms active seats are in the single-digit thousands across hundreds of customers.17:45–21:24 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Revenue Trajectory, ARR Targets, and Enterprise Sales Cycles Nathan deduces current MRR from seat numbers and pricing tiers, estimating Nick's monthly revenue at under $300k. Nick accepts the framing while noting their internal focus on long-cycle ARR and a $5M target.21:24–23:52 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Team Composition, Unit Economics, and Payback Periods Nathan asks about team breakdown and customer acquisition cost benchmarks. Nick explains their sales structure and states payback period is under 12 months due to enterprise ACVs.23:52–26:38 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Sponsor Promotion: HostGator Website Hosting Segment includes mid-roll sponsor reads for HostGator and GetLatka before transitioning into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

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

0:00 · Nathan 67.8% · guest 32.2%0:00 · Nathan 67.8% · guest 32.2%3:00 · Nathan 7.2% · guest 92.8%3:00 · Nathan 7.2% · guest 92.8%6:00 · Nathan 15.9% · guest 84.1%6:00 · Nathan 15.9% · guest 84.1%9:00 · Nathan 20.4% · guest 79.6%9:00 · Nathan 20.4% · guest 79.6%12:00 · Nathan 29.6% · guest 70.4%12:00 · Nathan 29.6% · guest 70.4%15:00 · Nathan 25.4% · guest 74.6%15:00 · Nathan 25.4% · guest 74.6%18:00 · Nathan 36.1% · guest 63.9%18:00 · Nathan 36.1% · guest 63.9%21:00 · Nathan 42.5% · guest 57.5%21:00 · Nathan 42.5% · guest 57.5%24:00 · Nathan 45.7% · guest 54.3%24:00 · Nathan 45.7% · guest 54.3%27:00 · Nathan 98.4% · guest 1.6%27:00 · Nathan 98.4% · guest 1.6%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:32 Nick deflects seat count question towards pricing models

Nick resists giving a straightforward active seat metric, trying to reframe the discussion around digital transformation and Slack-style active billing models before Nathan interrupts.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 15:51 Nathan demands rough seat count bounds

Nathan cuts through Nick's conceptual explanations of procedure-based usage to demand back-of-the-napkin seat figures (thousands vs tens of thousands).

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 19:28 Nick reframes revenue metrics from MRR to ARR

Nick clarifies why monthly recurring revenue calculations do not match their high-ACV enterprise business model with lengthy rollout cycles, steering the conversation to annual run-rate targets.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 20:27 Nathan derives company revenue ceiling mathematically

Nathan synthesizes previously gathered data points (under 10,000 seats at ~$30 average price) to immediately pin Progressly's monthly revenue ceiling at under $300k.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Analyzing the Enterprise and SMB CRM Landscape 6314 Nathan redirects Nick when his initial answer on CRM leaders focuses purely on enterprise plays, specifically asking him to identify a player in the SMB space with ARPUs under $100. Nick readily pivots and shares insights on Base CRM and his background at RelateIQ and Crimson Hexagon.
Progressly's Value Proposition, Target Verticals, and Pricing 5415 Nathan repeatedly presses Nick to give concrete ARPU and per-seat pricing figures rather than high-level enterprise customer names. Nick explains the $49 enterprise ceiling and the more common $19 tier.
Capitalization Strategy and Raising $10 Million 6414 Nathan probes Nick on his funding decisions, net versus gross logo churn, and named-account strategies. Nick explains why net churn is positive due to land-and-expand deployment curves, and Nathan validates the niche vertical focus by referencing Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm.
Seat Metrics, Enterprise Integrations, and Pilot Conversions 6326 When Nick hesitates to give active seat counts and talks about usage patterns and Slack-like engagement models, Nathan interrupts to pin down the actual engagement metric and numerical range. Nick eventually confirms active seats are in the single-digit thousands across hundreds of customers.
Revenue Trajectory, ARR Targets, and Enterprise Sales Cycles 7315 Nathan deduces current MRR from seat numbers and pricing tiers, estimating Nick's monthly revenue at under $300k. Nick accepts the framing while noting their internal focus on long-cycle ARR and a $5M target.
Team Composition, Unit Economics, and Payback Periods 6213 Nathan asks about team breakdown and customer acquisition cost benchmarks. Nick explains their sales structure and states payback period is under 12 months due to enterprise ACVs.
Sponsor Promotion: HostGator Website Hosting 2100 Segment includes mid-roll sponsor reads for HostGator and GetLatka before transitioning into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

Statements from this episode (13)

Prediction Not checkable as stated
Candito: Enterprise CRM will be a tight race between Salesforce and Microsoft
“I think there's a lot of technology tied to the Related IQ acquisition. That makes that a pretty exciting play, and I have not taken my eye off what LinkedIn and Microsoft are going to be able to do together, where I've heard some good things about Dynamics, s…”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 1:53
Opinion
Candito: Base CRM is a top SMB CRM contender to watch
“Yeah, I was always impressed by base CRM. They were the one that we were kind of keeping an eye on at Relate IQ. We launched the company and we had some massive differentiators, and they closed the gap on us pretty quickly. And I also know the team over at Soc…”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 2:22
Assertion Supported
Candito: Shell Oil is a major customer and supporter of Progressly
“Shell Oil is one of our big supporters, and we should have some news coming on that.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 8:00
Disclosure
Candito: Progressly's highest tier is priced at $49 per user
“So the highest licensing price that we have is you're looking at probably 49 dollars a user.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 8:20
Disclosure
Candito: Progressly's most common pricing tier is around $19 per user
“Second tier is around 19, right? So that would be probably the most common one.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 9:03
Disclosure
Progressly has raised around $10 million in total funding
“So we're right around ten million dollars if you look at our seed round, series A round, and then And then a bit after that.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 9:49
Disclosure
8VC led Progressly's Series A financing round
“ABC was excited to lead our series A.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 10:32
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Candito: Progressly currently serves hundreds of customers
“We're still in the hundreds when we look at how we want to put that together.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 13:26
Insight
Energy sector software adoption benefits from contractor network effects
“And one of the things we really like about energy and utilities is that there's a high, high network effect there tied to how closely everyone works together and everyone understands the industry and also contractors.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 13:48
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Candito: Progressly earned over $100K in first-year revenue
“North of a hundred but really how we were thinking about it was what was our pilot to expansion conversion?”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 17:04
Insight
SaaS startups gain momentum to become real businesses at $5M ARR
“Once you get to your five million dollars of ARR, you're, you know, you have enough momentum to build a real business”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 19:41
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Candito: Progressly generates under $300k per month in revenue
“Yeah. Yeah. We're less than that now.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 20:41
Disclosure
Candito: NetSuite founder Evan Goldberg is a Progressly investor and advisor
“You know, Evan Goldberg, the founder and CTO of NetSuite, he's one of our investors and advisors.”
Nick Candito Aug 30, 2017 ▶ 22:55
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