StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Apr 16, 2017 · 15m · top-founders

631: Saleswise Raises $3m, Launches Product, Helping 12 Customers Deveop Better Relationships with Their Data with CEO Gregg Freishtat

Nathan Latka · 6m spoken Greg Freishtat · 6m 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 serial entrepreneur Gregg Freishtat, CEO of Saleswise, discussing how the platform leverages deep API integrations to democratize relationship intelligence across enterprise sales teams. Gregg shares key insights from his multiple multimillion-dollar startup exits, the company's headcount-based pricing model, and early customer traction after raising over $3 million.

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 51.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 2.6 Guest teaching 1.8 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 1.0
05100:0010:003:02–5:08 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Origin Story, Pain Points, and Seed Funding Nathan inquires into the founding timeline, personal seed capital, and round structure. Greg cooperatively details putting in $500k of his own money alongside outside capital across priced rounds.5:08–7:10 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Technical Infrastructure, Customer Traction, and Low Churn Outlook Nathan quickly extrapolates SalesWise's monthly recurring revenue to around $12k based on average pricing. Greg explains their massive data synchronization scale and why direct integration will minimize churn.7:10–9:34 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Market Landscape, Data Integration, and Technical Differentiation Nathan prompts Greg to name specific competitors and asks whether SalesWise relies on web scraping. Greg corrects him, clarifying that they use direct API integrations and enterprise inbox aggregation rather than scraping.9:34–12:47 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Mid-Show Commercial: Traveling Nutrition and Superfood Powders Nathan transitions from an ad read into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Greg shares an entertaining story about underselling his first startup for $20 million.12:47–14:34 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Episode Recap, Audience Review Request, and HostGator Promotion Nathan delivers an outro monologue summarizing the episode's key metrics followed by promotional sponsor reads. Host scores are zero for solo monologues.3:02–5:08 · Guest teaching 1/10 Origin Story, Pain Points, and Seed Funding Nathan inquires into the founding timeline, personal seed capital, and round structure. Greg cooperatively details putting in $500k of his own money alongside outside capital across priced rounds.5:08–7:10 · Guest teaching 2/10 Technical Infrastructure, Customer Traction, and Low Churn Outlook Nathan quickly extrapolates SalesWise's monthly recurring revenue to around $12k based on average pricing. Greg explains their massive data synchronization scale and why direct integration will minimize churn.7:10–9:34 · Guest teaching 4/10 Market Landscape, Data Integration, and Technical Differentiation Nathan prompts Greg to name specific competitors and asks whether SalesWise relies on web scraping. Greg corrects him, clarifying that they use direct API integrations and enterprise inbox aggregation rather than scraping.9:34–12:47 · Guest teaching 2/10 Mid-Show Commercial: Traveling Nutrition and Superfood Powders Nathan transitions from an ad read into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Greg shares an entertaining story about underselling his first startup for $20 million.12:47–14:34 · Guest teaching 0/10 Episode Recap, Audience Review Request, and HostGator Promotion Nathan delivers an outro monologue summarizing the episode's key metrics followed by promotional sponsor reads. Host scores are zero for solo monologues.3:02–5:08 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Origin Story, Pain Points, and Seed Funding Nathan inquires into the founding timeline, personal seed capital, and round structure. Greg cooperatively details putting in $500k of his own money alongside outside capital across priced rounds.5:08–7:10 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Technical Infrastructure, Customer Traction, and Low Churn Outlook Nathan quickly extrapolates SalesWise's monthly recurring revenue to around $12k based on average pricing. Greg explains their massive data synchronization scale and why direct integration will minimize churn.7:10–9:34 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Market Landscape, Data Integration, and Technical Differentiation Nathan prompts Greg to name specific competitors and asks whether SalesWise relies on web scraping. Greg corrects him, clarifying that they use direct API integrations and enterprise inbox aggregation rather than scraping.9:34–12:47 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Mid-Show Commercial: Traveling Nutrition and Superfood Powders Nathan transitions from an ad read into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Greg shares an entertaining story about underselling his first startup for $20 million.12:47–14:34 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Episode Recap, Audience Review Request, and HostGator Promotion Nathan delivers an outro monologue summarizing the episode's key metrics followed by promotional sponsor reads. Host scores are zero for solo monologues.3:02–5:08 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Origin Story, Pain Points, and Seed Funding Nathan inquires into the founding timeline, personal seed capital, and round structure. Greg cooperatively details putting in $500k of his own money alongside outside capital across priced rounds.5:08–7:10 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Technical Infrastructure, Customer Traction, and Low Churn Outlook Nathan quickly extrapolates SalesWise's monthly recurring revenue to around $12k based on average pricing. Greg explains their massive data synchronization scale and why direct integration will minimize churn.7:10–9:34 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Market Landscape, Data Integration, and Technical Differentiation Nathan prompts Greg to name specific competitors and asks whether SalesWise relies on web scraping. Greg corrects him, clarifying that they use direct API integrations and enterprise inbox aggregation rather than scraping.9:34–12:47 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Mid-Show Commercial: Traveling Nutrition and Superfood Powders Nathan transitions from an ad read into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Greg shares an entertaining story about underselling his first startup for $20 million.12:47–14:34 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Episode Recap, Audience Review Request, and HostGator Promotion Nathan delivers an outro monologue summarizing the episode's key metrics followed by promotional sponsor reads. Host scores are zero for solo monologues.

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

0:00 · Nathan 70.1% · guest 29.9%0:00 · Nathan 70.1% · guest 29.9%3:00 · Nathan 27% · guest 73%3:00 · Nathan 27% · guest 73%6:00 · Nathan 25.2% · guest 74.8%6:00 · Nathan 25.2% · guest 74.8%9:00 · Nathan 59.4% · guest 40.6%9:00 · Nathan 59.4% · guest 40.6%12:00 · Nathan 79% · guest 21%12:00 · Nathan 79% · guest 21%15:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 0%15:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:43 Clarifying web scraping vs API integration

Greg immediately rejects Nathan's suggestion that their platform relies on web scraping, clarifying their reliance on direct API pipelines.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 7:38 Demanding specific competitor names

When Greg speaks generally about next-generation CRM and BI spaces, Nathan cuts in to demand concrete company names.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:43 Explaining relationship data compilation

Greg explains how SalesWise breaks the traditional linear email relationship by aggregating enterprise-wide inboxes rather than scraping superficial data.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:45 Synthesizing MRR from customer cohorts

Nathan demonstrates commercial fluency by immediately calculating baseline monthly recurring revenue from Greg's customer count and pricing tier.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Origin Story, Pain Points, and Seed Funding 3111 Nathan inquires into the founding timeline, personal seed capital, and round structure. Greg cooperatively details putting in $500k of his own money alongside outside capital across priced rounds.
Technical Infrastructure, Customer Traction, and Low Churn Outlook 4211 Nathan quickly extrapolates SalesWise's monthly recurring revenue to around $12k based on average pricing. Greg explains their massive data synchronization scale and why direct integration will minimize churn.
Market Landscape, Data Integration, and Technical Differentiation 4422 Nathan prompts Greg to name specific competitors and asks whether SalesWise relies on web scraping. Greg corrects him, clarifying that they use direct API integrations and enterprise inbox aggregation rather than scraping.
Mid-Show Commercial: Traveling Nutrition and Superfood Powders 2211 Nathan transitions from an ad read into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions. Greg shares an entertaining story about underselling his first startup for $20 million.
Episode Recap, Audience Review Request, and HostGator Promotion 0000 Nathan delivers an outro monologue summarizing the episode's key metrics followed by promotional sponsor reads. Host scores are zero for solo monologues.

Statements from this episode (8)

Disclosure
Saleswise prices by total employee headcount rather than per-seat
“We are a SAS company, but we do not charge by the seat. Rather we believe in what we call democratizing data, meaning that our customers should provide our relationship intelligence to every single employee that can use it productively. So we price based upon …”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 2:17
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Saleswise averages nearly $1,000 in monthly revenue per customer
“Somewhere just short of a thousand dollars a month. The entry level is 500 dollars for under a hundred employees. We go up to 500 employees for 2500 dollars a month.”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 2:53
Disclosure
Freishtat invests his own money in every VC round he raises
“I think I've raised about 20 rounds of venture capital over the last 20 years. I've participated in every round and will continue to participate in any time I ask outsiders for money, I tend to think I should be putting my own money alongside it.”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 4:26
Disclosure
Freishtat invested $500,000 of personal capital to launch Saleswise
“About a half a million bucks.”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 4:44
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Saleswise syncs over 800 million Salesforce records daily
“We're sinking over eight hundred million Salesforce records a day, and we have over five terabits of data.”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 5:21
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Freishtat expects negligible churn until direct competitors emerge
“I think we'll enjoy very, very low churn maybe even negative churn and expansion for some period of time until the market category gets established and we see some competitors”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 6:58
Assertion Partly supported
Freishtat sold unified messaging startup Talent for $20M in 1996
“Company called Talent internet company, unified messaging started in 1994, sold in 1996. The CEO flew up, said he wanted to buy the business. I said he can't afford it. He said how much? I said twenty million. He said sounds fair.”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 12:16
Assertion Partly supported
Freishtat sold a startup for nearly $200M in 1999
“Well, I sold one in 99 for just under two hundred million as well.”
Greg Freishtat Apr 16, 2017 ▶ 12:38
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more