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Deidre Paknad

CEO and Co-Founder, WorkBoard · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutivehostoperator@day_dree ↗LinkedIn ↗workboard.com ↗

Deidre Paknad is the co-founder and CEO of WorkBoard, an enterprise strategy execution and OKR platform. Previously, she was the founder and CEO of PSS Systems, which was acquired by IBM in 2010, where she subsequently led its Information Lifecycle Governance business.

16statements → 12claims → 1claims resolved → 3.81/5average certainty → 1.19/5average debate potential →

0 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 11 not checkable as stated how the 12 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

12 assertions · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 12 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 11 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Deidre argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Paknad joined PSS Systems when it had raised $60M without a product
“I started in 2003. The company had raised sixty million bucks and had nothing to go to market with.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 5:47 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Deidre Paknad on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Deidre Paknad said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Contradicted
Paknad joined PSS Systems when it had raised $60M without a product
“I started in 2003. The company had raised sixty million bucks and had nothing to go to market with.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 5:47 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard is generating approximately $520,000 in monthly recurring revenue
“In the neighborhood.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 7:52 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard generated almost $5 in revenue for every $1 spent on sales
“We even got to a point where for every buck we were spending in sales and marketing, we were generating almost five in revenue. Nathan Latka: When was that? What year? Deidre Paknad: Last year. Just before I raised, right? So for most of 2017, that was a ratio”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 8:29 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard claims zero logo churn despite layoff-driven revenue contraction
“So we don't have logo churn. We do have gross revenue churn and those that comes from two places. Literally layoffs are a real thing. Right. Companies like IBM, for example, which is a customer and the GM loses his job.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 12:06 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
WorkBoard's upfront onboarding fees recover most of its customer acquisition cost
“It does, and it drives that attach rate to leader number two, number three, and number four.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 14:17 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Disclosure
Paknad rejects the idea of selling Workboard for a $100M valuation today
“Not today.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 17:31 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard averages $125,000 ACV across its enterprise and growth customers
“Actually, we think of, we do annual contracts. We sort of think of what their ACV per customer is, and it's about a 125 K. We've got really large enterprise, like a Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, right? Do it to telecom. And we've got a bunch of growth companies, a…”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 3:49 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Disclosure
Workboard has raised about $12M to date
“We've raised about twelve million.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 5:15 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PSS Systems exited to IBM without a down round or recapitalization
“Ended up with an exit that was no down round, no recap. Got to value on, on that capital.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 6:08 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard has 50 enterprise customers and grows revenue 3x-3.5x year-over-year
“So we have about 50 enterprise customers, which I think of at that kind of scale we just talked about, and we're growing revenue three, three and a half X a year, so we're really kind of a good role.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 7:15 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard draws 50% of revenue from its existing install base
“We had 50% of our revenues coming from our install base”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 8:14 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Disclosure
Workboard targets generating $2 in revenue per $1 spent on sales
“We, we're actually not trying to hold quite that aggressive a ratio, right? So we really want to spend a buck and earn two.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 9:54 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard's net revenue retention rate is approximately 140%
“It probably comes out somewhere like one 40.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 11:44 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Workboard's enterprise sales cycle is about 60 days
“Sales cycle is about 60 days, super short, right?”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 14:51 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Disclosure
Workboard plans to delay its next fundraising process until Spring 2020
“So we probably won't raise until, even start the process until next April or May.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 16:48 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Paknad secured a $10M deal from her first business pitch at 24
“So I was in my first startup when I was 24. I, like, made my first business pitch to another company, and they ended up writing us a ten million dollar check.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 20:14 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Jun 28, 2019 12m
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