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Aug 2, 2017 · 21m · top-founders

739: How Has She Has 3x'd Revenue to $700k MRR in Just 11 Months?

Nathan Latka · 10m spoken Mathilde Collin · 9m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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, host Nathan Latka interviews Front CEO Mathilde Collin on how the collaborative inbox SaaS tripled monthly recurring revenue to $700,000 in 11 months. Collin details Front's capital efficiency, net negative churn dynamics, product positioning against Slack and legacy help desks, and her long-term vision for company independence.

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 52.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.3 Guest teaching 2.3 Guest disagreement 1.2 Nathan pushing back 2.5
05100:0010:0020:000:50–4:15 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Episode Overview and Welcoming Mathilde Collin Latka opens by recalling historical performance from their previous interview and rapidly calculating ARPU, burn rates, and cash reserves. Mathilde confirms his calculations with high collegiality and humor.4:16–9:23 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Retention Dynamics and Gross Margins Mathilde clarifies that her negative 10% net churn is monthly rather than annual. Latka seizes the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive tutorial to the audience explaining how cohort ARPU expansion outweighs gross logo churn.9:23–11:56 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Product Positioning Against Slack, Intercom, and Helpdesks When Latka asks why customers choose Front over Slack, Mathilde reframes the comparison around synchronous versus asynchronous communication. Latka pivots smoothly to investigate competition with Intercom and traditional helpdesks.11:56–16:17 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Founder Vision, Acquisition Offers, and Company Purpose Latka presses Mathilde on whether she would accept a $95M acquisition offer and probes her strategy for personal wealth protection using Mark Cuban as a benchmark. Mathilde stays grounded, noting that building Front brings happiness and secondary sales can wait until Series B.16:17–19:07 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Evaluating the Real Business Impact of Press Coverage Latka queries the real ROI of press coverage following an Entrepreneur piece. Mathilde points out that press primarily fuels recruiting and investor interest rather than direct customer acquisition.19:08–21:19 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, where Mathilde candidly reflects on how starting a company is a daily struggle.0:50–4:15 · Guest teaching 1/10 Episode Overview and Welcoming Mathilde Collin Latka opens by recalling historical performance from their previous interview and rapidly calculating ARPU, burn rates, and cash reserves. Mathilde confirms his calculations with high collegiality and humor.4:16–9:23 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Retention Dynamics and Gross Margins Mathilde clarifies that her negative 10% net churn is monthly rather than annual. Latka seizes the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive tutorial to the audience explaining how cohort ARPU expansion outweighs gross logo churn.9:23–11:56 · Guest teaching 4/10 Product Positioning Against Slack, Intercom, and Helpdesks When Latka asks why customers choose Front over Slack, Mathilde reframes the comparison around synchronous versus asynchronous communication. Latka pivots smoothly to investigate competition with Intercom and traditional helpdesks.11:56–16:17 · Guest teaching 2/10 Founder Vision, Acquisition Offers, and Company Purpose Latka presses Mathilde on whether she would accept a $95M acquisition offer and probes her strategy for personal wealth protection using Mark Cuban as a benchmark. Mathilde stays grounded, noting that building Front brings happiness and secondary sales can wait until Series B.16:17–19:07 · Guest teaching 3/10 Evaluating the Real Business Impact of Press Coverage Latka queries the real ROI of press coverage following an Entrepreneur piece. Mathilde points out that press primarily fuels recruiting and investor interest rather than direct customer acquisition.19:08–21:19 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, where Mathilde candidly reflects on how starting a company is a daily struggle.0:50–4:15 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Episode Overview and Welcoming Mathilde Collin Latka opens by recalling historical performance from their previous interview and rapidly calculating ARPU, burn rates, and cash reserves. Mathilde confirms his calculations with high collegiality and humor.4:16–9:23 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Customer Retention Dynamics and Gross Margins Mathilde clarifies that her negative 10% net churn is monthly rather than annual. Latka seizes the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive tutorial to the audience explaining how cohort ARPU expansion outweighs gross logo churn.9:23–11:56 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Product Positioning Against Slack, Intercom, and Helpdesks When Latka asks why customers choose Front over Slack, Mathilde reframes the comparison around synchronous versus asynchronous communication. Latka pivots smoothly to investigate competition with Intercom and traditional helpdesks.11:56–16:17 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Founder Vision, Acquisition Offers, and Company Purpose Latka presses Mathilde on whether she would accept a $95M acquisition offer and probes her strategy for personal wealth protection using Mark Cuban as a benchmark. Mathilde stays grounded, noting that building Front brings happiness and secondary sales can wait until Series B.16:17–19:07 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Evaluating the Real Business Impact of Press Coverage Latka queries the real ROI of press coverage following an Entrepreneur piece. Mathilde points out that press primarily fuels recruiting and investor interest rather than direct customer acquisition.19:08–21:19 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, where Mathilde candidly reflects on how starting a company is a daily struggle.0:50–4:15 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Episode Overview and Welcoming Mathilde Collin Latka opens by recalling historical performance from their previous interview and rapidly calculating ARPU, burn rates, and cash reserves. Mathilde confirms his calculations with high collegiality and humor.4:16–9:23 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Customer Retention Dynamics and Gross Margins Mathilde clarifies that her negative 10% net churn is monthly rather than annual. Latka seizes the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive tutorial to the audience explaining how cohort ARPU expansion outweighs gross logo churn.9:23–11:56 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Product Positioning Against Slack, Intercom, and Helpdesks When Latka asks why customers choose Front over Slack, Mathilde reframes the comparison around synchronous versus asynchronous communication. Latka pivots smoothly to investigate competition with Intercom and traditional helpdesks.11:56–16:17 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Founder Vision, Acquisition Offers, and Company Purpose Latka presses Mathilde on whether she would accept a $95M acquisition offer and probes her strategy for personal wealth protection using Mark Cuban as a benchmark. Mathilde stays grounded, noting that building Front brings happiness and secondary sales can wait until Series B.16:17–19:07 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Evaluating the Real Business Impact of Press Coverage Latka queries the real ROI of press coverage following an Entrepreneur piece. Mathilde points out that press primarily fuels recruiting and investor interest rather than direct customer acquisition.19:08–21:19 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, where Mathilde candidly reflects on how starting a company is a daily struggle.

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

0:00 · Nathan 75.3% · guest 24.7%0:00 · Nathan 75.3% · guest 24.7%3:00 · Nathan 54.7% · guest 45.3%3:00 · Nathan 54.7% · guest 45.3%6:00 · Nathan 26.9% · guest 73.1%6:00 · Nathan 26.9% · guest 73.1%9:00 · Nathan 21.2% · guest 78.8%9:00 · Nathan 21.2% · guest 78.8%12:00 · Nathan 53.7% · guest 46.3%12:00 · Nathan 53.7% · guest 46.3%15:00 · Nathan 59% · guest 41%15:00 · Nathan 59% · guest 41%18:00 · Nathan 72.6% · guest 27.4%18:00 · Nathan 72.6% · guest 27.4%21:00 · Nathan 93.6% · guest 6.4%21:00 · Nathan 93.6% · guest 6.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:13 Mathilde dismisses buyout valuation premise

Mathilde flatly rejects the premise of selling at a 10x ARR multiple, stressing that company happiness and long-term upside outweigh any arbitrary acquisition figure.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 14:50 Latka presses founder on downside hedging

Latka challenges Mathilde to consider protecting her personal wealth like Mark Cuban rather than letting all her value remain tied up in startup equity.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:27 Mathilde educates on asynchronous communication

Mathilde dismantles Latka's comparison between Front and Slack by methodically breaking down internal synchronous chat versus external asynchronous collaboration.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:12 Latka delivers masterclass on SaaS retention metrics

Latka pauses the interview flow to demonstrate mastery of SaaS cohort economics, translating Mathilde's negative churn numbers into an actionable concept for listeners.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Episode Overview and Welcoming Mathilde Collin 6112 Latka opens by recalling historical performance from their previous interview and rapidly calculating ARPU, burn rates, and cash reserves. Mathilde confirms his calculations with high collegiality and humor.
Customer Retention Dynamics and Gross Margins 7312 Mathilde clarifies that her negative 10% net churn is monthly rather than annual. Latka seizes the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive tutorial to the audience explaining how cohort ARPU expansion outweighs gross logo churn.
Product Positioning Against Slack, Intercom, and Helpdesks 5423 When Latka asks why customers choose Front over Slack, Mathilde reframes the comparison around synchronous versus asynchronous communication. Latka pivots smoothly to investigate competition with Intercom and traditional helpdesks.
Founder Vision, Acquisition Offers, and Company Purpose 6225 Latka presses Mathilde on whether she would accept a $95M acquisition offer and probes her strategy for personal wealth protection using Mark Cuban as a benchmark. Mathilde stays grounded, noting that building Front brings happiness and secondary sales can wait until Series B.
Evaluating the Real Business Impact of Press Coverage 4312 Latka queries the real ROI of press coverage following an Entrepreneur piece. Mathilde points out that press primarily fuels recruiting and investor interest rather than direct customer acquisition.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 4101 The interview concludes smoothly with the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, where Mathilde candidly reflects on how starting a company is a daily struggle.

Statements from this episode (14)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Front doubled headcount to 40 and tripled revenue in 11 months
“So I think, so we doubled the team. We're 40 now. We tripled our revenues.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 2:09
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Front still holds 80% of Series A capital one year after raising
“We raised exactly a year ago and we still have 80% of what we've raised.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 2:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Front burns roughly $250,000 per month
“Very little, 250, I think.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 3:44
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Front maintains a negative 10 percent monthly net revenue churn
“So we track net churn, and it's always been negative, and so it's remained negative and. How negative? Minus 10%. Annually? Monthly.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 4:29
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Front sees 3.5 to 4 percent monthly customer logo churn
“We track user churn, and that's always been around three and a half, four percent. Monthly. So number of customers divided by, the churn divided by number of total customers.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 4:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Front operates at an 88 percent gross margin
“Yeah, 80 88.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 6:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Over one-third of Front's growth comes from existing account expansion
“I think over a third of our growth net of churn is coming from existing customers that have either new plans or just adding new teams.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 6:56
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: HubSpot expanded from one to 15 teams using Front
“HubSpot started with one team on front, their customer success team, and now they have about, I don't know, 14, 15 teams on front.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 7:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Collin: Historically, 95 percent of Front customers close within three weeks
“Historically, 95% of our customers close in three weeks.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 9:18
Insight
Collin: Slack is for internal synchronous chat, Front for external communication
“Slack is good for synchronous communication. So I want to tell you, ah, do you want to have lunch with me? Then Slack is great, but Front is better for asynchronous communication. And asynchronous means every communication that you're having externally, so not…”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 9:27
Insight
Collin: Intercom creates silos by excluding sales from customer communication
“Intercom is good for customer communication, but what we're trying to do is having more of your communication, so customer success, product, sales on front, and on Intercom, you don't usually have your sales team. You'll use Yesware or ToutApp, which will make…”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 10:22
Disclosure
Collin: Series B will be the moment to take personal secondary liquidity
“Right now, I'm confident at least that we can do a series B. With, and I think that's probably the moment when I'll think about putting some money aside.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 15:16
Disclosure
Collin: Front delays Series B to test enterprise scalability despite inbound
“Yeah, no, I do have some inbound. I have a lot of inbound, but I think we can still do better, and so I'd rather wait till probably the end of the year and make more progress and prove more things. For example, enterprise is new for us, and so I want to see if…”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 15:56
Insight
Collin: Press drives candidates and investors, but rarely drives new customers
“I think with press, people expect that they will have customers and people going to their website, et cetera. What we see is it triggers the interest of candidates and investors. That was, that's what press is good, at least for us.”
Mathilde Collin Aug 2, 2017 ▶ 16:42
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