Jul 3, 2017 · 20m · top-founders
709: 17,000 Using This To Manage Wardrobe Efficiently
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 Podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews Cladwell CEO Blake Smith on scaling an anti-retail wardrobe management platform to 17,000 subscribers, nearly $900,000 ARR, and $3 million in total funding. Smith shares insights into SaaS pricing experimentation, mobile product transformation, and streamlined onboarding built to promote sustainable fashion.
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 52.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Blake playfully pushes back on Latka's interview style, remarking that focusing solely on metrics is like only watching the scoreboard during the game.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 16:29 Latka parses engagement percentage claimLatka refuses to accept a blanket 60-70% daily active engagement claim, forcing Blake to admit that this metric only applies to the under 5,000 users who downloaded the mobile app rather than the full 17,000 paying customer base.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:34 Scientific testing at early SaaS scaleBlake reframes Latka's premise about SaaS elasticity testing, explaining that below massive scale, statistical elasticity tests are impossible and pricing must be approached through competitor benchmarking as an art.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:32 Latka probes revenue decline and quarterly billingLatka immediately notices an MRR dip from 75k to 60k and breaks down the accounting nuance of deferred revenue and quarterly billing cycles to identify the root cause.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcoming Blake Smith and Historical Metric Recap | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Latka recaps Cladwell's historical metrics from memory before prompting Blake on recent progress. Blake clarifies their strategic pivot from selling clothing to an everyday styling subscription app. | |
| SaaS Pricing Strategy and Elasticity Testing | 6 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Latka drills into potential revenue drops from 75k to 60k and questions pricing elasticity testing. Blake explains that small-scale elasticity testing is an art rather than a science and attributes past revenue spikes to quarterly billing cycles and pre-fundraise ad spend. | |
| 2016 Financial Results and Capsule Wardrobe Demonstration | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Blake playfully ribs Latka for obsessing over metrics like watching a scoreboard mid-game. Latka introduces his own stack of identical t-shirts to challenge the app's inventory and laundry tracking algorithms. | |
| Target Demographics and Streamlined Closet Onboarding | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Latka identifies onboarding friction as the traditional downfall for wardrobe apps. Blake educates him on how Cladwell solved this by letting users tap pre-populated clothing archetypes rather than uploading manual photos. | |
| Audio Technical Difficulties and Interview Reset | 6 | 2 | 2 | 6 | Following a brief audio reconnection, Latka challenges headcount expansion as added overhead and presses Blake to clarify whether high daily engagement figures represent the full 17k subscriber base or just mobile app downloaders. | |
| Sponsor Message: Hotjar User Behavior Analytics | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Segment features Latka delivering a mid-roll Hotjar advertisement before completing standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions with Blake. |