Ivan Smolnikov

Founder and CEO, Smartcat · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveLinkedIn ↗smartcat.com ↗

Smolnikov founded Smartcat, an enterprise AI and cloud-based translation and localization platform that spun out into an independent company in 2016. Before Smartcat, he founded and served as CEO of ABBYY Language Solutions, building it into a top global language service provider.

16statements → 12claims → 0claims resolved → 3.81/5average certainty → 1.31/5average debate potential →

12 not checkable as stated how the 12 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 11 assertions · 3 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 12 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 12 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 Ivan 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 Ivan Smolnikov on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Insight
Free single-player SaaS solves the marketplace chicken-and-egg dynamic
“And that was our primarily idea to build something valuable for people, both for supply and demand and to give it away for free. Once we have it, people are coming to use our technology, both suppliers and customers. Suppliers are using our technology, even in…”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 9:46 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat has onboarded 20% of all global freelance translators
“And literally we have listed all of them already on our platform, and we have 20% of supply side, which is 20% of all freelancers globally.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 16:34 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Insight
Enterprise translation requires workflow automation, not just freelance marketplaces
“The difference is that first you don't have automation workflow technology on the platform, and without that, It can't work for big customers because if you're a big company with good budgets, you just can't deal today without automation technology. You can't …”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 2:10 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Insight
Raising venture capital requires a focused pure software business
“First to raise money from venture capital, you need to have a focused business, you know, just doing software development.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 5:53 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat monthly revenue exceeds $2 million
“We are above two millions.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 9:21 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat operates without a sales team and relies on inbound adoption
“We don't have sales team because we have a lot of customers coming because of that technology, you know, and then we see if a customer is starting to grow, a customer success team is focusing on them to help them grow better.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 13:51 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Smartcat grows 20% month-over-month and projects 7x revenue growth
“We have been growing 20% months to months. So this year we should complete these like seven, seven times growth compared to the beginning of the year.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 17:04 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat customers spend an average of $10,000 monthly
“On average, it's about 10 K but there are customers who are paying us, like, 100 K or 200 K even.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 3:23 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat generates 85% of revenue from marketplace and 15% from SaaS
“Actually, around 10, 15% is coming from SaaS model, and around 85% is coming from marketplace model, because we are more focused on it right now.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 4:31 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Disclosure
Smartcat raised a $4M seed after bootstrapping with $5M prior profits
“Right now, not much, actually just four million dollars because it was pre revenue around a year and a half ago. It was like seed round. But before that, we invested close to five million dollars from our own profits within two years when we started to develop…”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 5:13 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat has close to 300 paying customers
“I would say close to 300 paying customers at the moment.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 8:43 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat hosts nearly 100k freelancers across 150 countries
“And close to 100,000 freelancers from 150 countries at the moment.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 8:56 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat retains approximately 95% of its paying customers
“Actually right now, because we have not so many paying customers, the retention is around 95%. If you mean lower retention.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 13:08 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat accounts expand by 30% to 35% year-over-year on average
“I would say close to 30, 35.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 13:30 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat's fully weighted CAC is between $1,500 and $5,000
“They cost us from thousand and a half up to 5000 to acquire them fully.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 14:36 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smartcat maintains an LTV to CAC ratio exceeding 10 to 1
“The ratio of lifetime value to cart is like more than 10 usually what we see right now.”
Ivan Smolnikov May 11, 2018 ▶ 15:52 1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1021 How He Solved Translation Marketplace Space and Grew 7x YoY to $24m in Revenue May 11, 2018 11m
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