Frank Bien

Former CEO, Looker · 2 appearances on the record.

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Frank Bien led the business intelligence platform Looker as CEO and President from 2013 through its $2.6 billion acquisition by Google Cloud in 2020. He is also the co-author of the book Winning With Data.

9statements → 4claims → 0claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 1.44/5average debate potential → 254said about them ↓

4 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 assertions · 2 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 4 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 Frank argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

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 Frank Bien on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Insight
LTV-to-CAC ratios are almost meaningless for evaluating SaaS companies.
“Yeah, I mean, like when you look at lifetime value and that kind of CAC ratio in a SaaS company, it's almost meaningless.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 13:59 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Insight
Enterprise SaaS companies have a problem if gross retention falls below 90%.
“I mean, you want to, you know, as a SaaS company, you know, playing in enterprise space, if you're more than 10%, losing more than 10% or below 90% overall, you know, from a gross retention, you have a problem.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 11:21 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Disclosure
Looker avoids the downmarket to target enterprise growth modeled on ServiceNow.
“Yeah, we probably don't chase down market very much. I think, you know, if you were to look at us, you'd say, hey, you know, let's be probably a little bit smaller, but let's go after something like ServiceNow.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 16:43 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Looker's customer contracts range from $30,000 to $1 million annually.
“Yeah, I mean, our average customers, you know, the low end would be about 30,000 dollars a year, and the high end would be a million.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 2:41 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Looker has reached between 1,200 and 1,300 total customers.
“Yeah, so we're about 1200 customers, maybe 1300 now, somewhere in there, but, you know, we're growing really nicely.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 4:23 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Looker is growing its revenue by more than 50 percent year-over-year.
“You know, we don't go specific, but more than 50, that's for sure.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 4:33 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Disclosure
Looker relies on inside sales for roughly 80 percent of its revenue.
“We're about 80% inside sales. So it's an inside sales SaaS motion.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 6:51 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Disclosure
Looker targets a CAC payback period of under 18 months.
“We would look a little bit like a Marketo looked originally or something like that, but if it's more than 18 months, you know, we start to worry.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 7:17 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Looker sees 125 percent net revenue retention among enterprise customers.
“Oh, so you'll see like, you know, -25% on a cohort, you know, in the bigger customers.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 10:41 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018

The other half of the tape: Frank Bien's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 254 times in 235 episodes on Top Founders. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 250Derek Steer 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00100752001502018201920202021episodesmentions
0751502018201920202021episodes it came up in
001.57531502018201920202021episodesmentions per episode
2021 98 mentions in 94 episodes 1 per episode
2020 153 mentions in 140 episodes 1 per episode
2018 3 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Party.Space Makes $200k From One Customer, Hopin Challenger Next? Jan 9, 2021 4s
1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018 May 3, 2018 10m

Played on the show (100)

Episodes where a recording of Frank Bien was played rather than Frank taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
Keap Acquired CustomerHub For $1-2m in 2011, Founders Bought Back in 2018, Now $500k in AR Aug 26, 2021 4s clip played
400 Firms pay $1k/mo For This Investor Database, Growing 100% YoY Bootstrapped Aug 24, 2021 4s clip played
New Sales Enablement Tool, $1m to $3.5m in 2 Years, Now Raising $7m on $50m Valuation Aug 23, 2021 4s clip played
Gusto Killed Their $3m Business, Pivoted to $7.8m ATS Business in HR Tech Space Aug 22, 2021 4s clip played
Oil and Gas ESG SaaS Hits $1.2m ARR in 12 Months, $5m Raise Next? Aug 20, 2021 4s clip played
Retail SaaS Taking Off Post Pandemic, $1m+ ARR, Raising $8m Series A Now Aug 19, 2021 4s clip played
He's Beating Cancer While Building Fintech Health Tool, $1.6m ARR Bootstrapped Aug 17, 2021 4s clip played
Reviews.io Breaks $10m ARR Bootstrapped, Growing 150% YoY Aug 16, 2021 4s clip played
20 Year Old Sells $15k Lanyards, Now Ecomm Research Tool Aug 14, 2021 4s clip played
0 to $20k MRR in 4 Days? How This SaaS Startup Did It. Aug 12, 2021 4s clip played
$15k in MRR From $50k Raised Helping you Turn Blogs into Audio Content Aug 11, 2021 4s clip played
How He Built The Largest Rev Ops Community In The World (and $500k of revenue!) Aug 10, 2021 4s clip played
Egypt Based Seafood Marketplace Launches, Does 70 Orders, Makes 15% Commission Aug 7, 2021 4s clip played
EstateSpace Grows 200% to $2.2m ARR Bootstrapped Helping You Track Your Physical Assets Aug 6, 2021 4s clip played
$500k Consulting to $45m Prop Tech VC Fund Aug 3, 2021 4s clip played
vFairs Breaks $30m ARR bootstrapped, turns down $500m Offer Aug 2, 2021 4s clip played
Throwback: Before Loom Was Worth $1.5b, Founder Describes Paywall Launch Jun 8, 2021 4s clip played
Build a Website On Notion? Founder Gets first 70 Customers at $10/mo! Jun 6, 2021 6s clip played
Turning a $500k Course Into a $20k MRR SaaS Play. Next Russell Brunson? Jun 5, 2021 4s clip played
HRForecast Bootstrapped to $3m, Signed $300k Deal, How They Handle Profits Jun 4, 2021 4s clip played
Process Automation SaaS: From $600k Pivot to 300% YoY Growth, How Indico Turned the Corner Jun 3, 2021 4s clip played
How to Make Money On Top of Opensource Protocol with Linktree Alternative SingleLink May 28, 2021 4s clip played
$20k Upwork Side Gig to $200k ARR SaaS Project Editing Real Estate Photos May 27, 2021 4s clip played
Zoom Recording Tool Grain Hits 300 Teams, On Track for $1m ARR, New $3m Raise in Upround May 25, 2021 4s clip played
Referral Program Software Growsurf Bootstrapped to $26k/mo in Revenue, Pricing Page Secret May 21, 2021 4s clip played
Developer side project gets first 80 customers, $6k in ARR, how'd he do it? May 20, 2021 4s clip played
Deep Fake Tech Pivoted from $0 Last Year, $24m Raised, CEO teases new round May 19, 2021 4s clip played
With 1 Exit Done, Can He Automate Diligence for Financial Firms Using RPA? May 18, 2021 4s clip played
$20m Fund for Amazon Sellers Using Private AI to Uncover Gold Mines May 13, 2021 4s clip played
Virtual Leasing Tour SaaS Hits $5m Revenue, Sells 60% at $34m Valuation Bringing on New St May 12, 2021 4s clip played
How This 29 Year Old Bought a Micro-SaaS for $20k To Save Time May 9, 2021 4s clip played
How He Grew $5m Agency and Why He Exited for EBITDA Multiple Last Year May 7, 2021 4s clip played
Profitable UserZoom Hits $80m Run Rate, 1k Customers, $500m+ Valuation May 3, 2021 4s clip played
Oil SaaS! They Broke $7m, Can They Hit $10m This Year? Apr 23, 2021 4s clip played
How He Hit $2m in Revenue Cold Calling 20,000 PER WEEK Apr 19, 2021 4s clip played
They Track $15m in Cloud Spend, Make $17k/mo. How they plan to scale. Apr 16, 2021 4s clip played
Factory SaaS Hits $2.2m Revenue, Raises $6m on $24m Valuation Apr 10, 2021 4s clip played
He Makes $4m Selling Other Peoples Software, Inside The Head of A Power Reseller Apr 4, 2021 4s clip played
Real Estate SaaS Did $2.2m Last Month, 140% Growth, Mostly Affiliate Sales Mar 30, 2021 4s clip played
Manufacturing Plant Software Breaks $100m Revenue, Just $38m Raised Mar 29, 2021 4s clip played
He Quit His Fulltime Gig for $5k/mo Side Project, What He's Doing Now Mar 28, 2021 4s clip played
Looking Back: Listen to Founder 3 Years Before Exiting for $450 Million Mar 26, 2021 4s clip played
What a 440 Person Amazon Community Looks Like (and its $1m+ in Revenue) Mar 19, 2021 4s clip played
25m Wordpress Plugin Downloads, Now Raising $3m for SaaS Product Mar 12, 2021 4s clip played
Events.com Should Have Been Hopin, Can They Acquire Their Way Back To Top? Mar 11, 2021 4s clip played
Is This The Creator of Bitcoin? Crypto Fund Thinks So. Mar 4, 2021 4s clip played
Niche $2m Contractor Management SaaS Raising $7m on $30m Pre Feb 27, 2021 4s clip played
Brand to Influencer Marketplace Hits $4m On Just $2m Raised Feb 17, 2021 4s clip played
Wild! He Presold $250k Of His SaaS Idea. Now wants to beat SEMRush Feb 13, 2021 4s clip played
Yac Is Audio Slack, Hits 10k Weekly Users, Raising $8m on $30m Feb 11, 2021 4s clip played
SEO Secrets from Shopify, G2 Head of SEO Strategy Jan 28, 2021 4s clip played
How Pepperi Hit $11m Revenue Bootstrapped, Rollup Next? Jan 27, 2021 4s clip played
ScholarshipOwl Breaks $4m Revenue Helping 15k Students Get Loans Jan 26, 2021 4s clip played
Collabogence Pivoting from $300k Agency, Raising $1.5m on $5m Pre? Jan 20, 2021 4s clip played
FullFunnel.io Using 4k FB Community, Book to Grow B2B SaaS Business Jan 19, 2021 4s clip played
SalesImpact Hits $1.5m ARR Training SaaS Sales Leaders Jan 18, 2021 4s clip played
Hipotecalo Does $15m in Home Buyer Loans, Charges 13% gives investors 7%, they make the sp Jan 10, 2021 4s clip played
Packy McCormick Not Boring Substack Hits $50k Revenue, 25k Subs Jan 8, 2021 4s clip played
UnicornPlatform Bootstrapped, 500 customers, Doesn't Want "Scale at all costs" Jan 6, 2021 4s clip played
LeadCrunch Hits $24m Revenue, $650k Revenue Per Employee, Raising $30m for 20% Of Business Jan 3, 2021 4s clip played
FlockFreight Grows 400% YoY, 500k Pallets Shipped, Still Shy of $1b Valuation Jan 1, 2021 4s clip played
How GoSun Sold 50,000 Units, $4m Revenue, 250k Community, Software Next? Dec 25, 2020 4s clip played
WhatConverts Hits $2.1m Revenue, $300k Profits in Call Tracking Space Dec 19, 2020 4s clip played
AlgoPix Hits $2.4m Revenue Helping CPG Brands Monitor Competitors Pricing Dec 18, 2020 4s clip played
WIldJar Call Tracking, a 5 person $2m Revenue Business, wow! Dec 16, 2020 4s clip played
G2 Hits $50m in ARR (+$20m), and $450m Valuation Dec 4, 2020 4s clip played
ToucanToco Raising Right Now $10m on $50m+ Pre with $5m in Revenue Nov 29, 2020 4s clip played
GreySuit Hits $4m Revenue Helping 700 Furniture Brands Manage Meta-Data Nov 24, 2020 4s clip played
CoachMePlus raising $2m on $10m post money right now Nov 22, 2020 4s clip played
Daisy intelligence on track for $10m in 2021 Nov 21, 2020 4s clip played
SalesProcess Did $1m Last Month Helping Brands Drive Sales, 40% Net Profit Nov 20, 2020 4s clip played
Trustisto Hits $60k Revenue Helping Ecommerce Brands Increase Cart Conversion Rate Nov 16, 2020 4s clip played
FullCast Hits $1.1m ARR, Pure SaaS From $1m Agency in Rev Ops Space Nov 9, 2020 4s clip played
Limble is Maintenance Automation Software, hits $2m Revenue, Bootstrapped Using 5% Debt Nov 6, 2020 4s clip played
Penji Hits $4m Revenue Helping 1000 Customers With Unlimited Design Work Nov 4, 2020 4s clip played
Todoist Productivity Tool Hits $14m Revenue, Bootstrapped Oct 31, 2020 4s clip played
Supermetrics $40m Raise Included Secondary at $200m+ Valuation Oct 30, 2020 4s clip played
Ninety.io Used Community to Hit $2.8m Run Rate, Bootstrapped Oct 25, 2020 4s clip played
SanityDesk Gets Money From Founderpath, Hits $180k revenue Helping Digital Brands Scale Oct 21, 2020 4s clip played
Unstack CMS All In One Hits $10k MRR, Adding $2500/mo, 16k Uniques from ProductHunt Launch Oct 20, 2020 4s clip played
Synapse Breaking $1m Revenue, Using $500k Debt To Scale Productivity Tool Oct 18, 2020 4s clip played
UBIweb Makes $1.7m/year Helping Plumbers Launch Websites Oct 17, 2020 4s clip played
GreenPal Processes $60m in Lawn Cutting Annually takes 5%, SaaS Next? Oct 9, 2020 4s clip played
HumanProofDesigns Hit $2m Revenue Selling Starter Sites to New Entrepreneurs Oct 5, 2020 4s clip played
QuickOrder Hits $4m In Under 18 Months Helping Restaurants Survive Pandemic Oct 3, 2020 4s clip played
MyCroft Raises $5m to Ship Home Speaker Echo Competitor That Doesnt' Suck In Data Sep 26, 2020 4s clip played
Checkli Launches Enterprise Plan To Get Past $5k in MRR Sep 24, 2020 4s clip played
NightEye App Lands 2500 Customers Using Unique SEO Fiverr Writing Stratetgy Sep 13, 2020 4s clip played
JazzHR Has Record 40k Applicant Month During Pandemic, $15m Revenue Sep 4, 2020 4s clip played
Kovai $8.5m Revenue, India Bootstrapped, 3 Core SaaS Products Aug 21, 2020 4s clip played
Wavve Hits 9k For Audio Video Tool, $70k Monthly Profits! Aug 19, 2020 4s clip played
MonetizeMore Bootstrapped to $5m Run Rate in AdTech Space Aug 18, 2020 4s clip played
LogoPackage Sells $80k One Time To Fuel New SaaS Tool MVP Aug 14, 2020 4s clip played
SupportBee Ticket Software Hits $45k MRR, Bootstrapped, how? Aug 5, 2020 4s clip played
Closet.Tools 1 Man Show, $250k Profits, $360k in Revenue, Wow! Aug 4, 2020 4s clip played
1Huddle Hits $3.5m in Revenue, 250 Customers, Can He Get $30m Valuation on $10m Series A? Jul 19, 2020 4s clip played
AI Company Ople $15m Raised, Just $500k Revenue, Overvalued? Jun 25, 2020 4s clip played
"Ex VC Bootstrapping New G2 Competitor, 24 Customers, $12k MRR " Jun 9, 2020 4s clip played
Rosterfy Hits $1.2m Revenues Helping Superbowl Staff Volunteers Jun 8, 2020 4s clip played
They Spent $100k on MVP, Now Have Customers Expanding $100/mo to $1000/mo in First year, H Jun 7, 2020 4s clip played
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