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Max Israel

Founder and CEO, Y.Chroma Apparel · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutive@maxisrael ↗LinkedIn ↗ychroma.com ↗

Max Israel founded Customerville in 2003, bootstrapping the design-driven customer feedback platform before selling it to enterprise software company IFS in 2021. Following the acquisition, he pivoted from tech to fashion to launch Y.Chroma, a Lisbon-based premium menswear and lifestyle brand designed for midlife men.

11statements → 7claims → 2claims resolved → 3.82/5average certainty → 1.27/5average debate potential →

1 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 5 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 Max argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
The enterprise feedback management industry is valued in the tens of billions
“I'm in a space called enterprise feedback management, EFM. And there are many companies that do this and it's a, an, Industry that is valued in the, you know, many tens of billions of dollars.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 5:54 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Americans will receive over 40 billion customer surveys in 2019
“Like, you know, Americans this year will get over forty billion surveys and they all look like you're taking the SAT test.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 3:28 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!

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 Max Israel on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Assertion Contradicted
Americans will receive over 40 billion customer surveys in 2019
“Like, you know, Americans this year will get over forty billion surveys and they all look like you're taking the SAT test.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 3:28 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Assertion Supported
The enterprise feedback management industry is valued in the tens of billions
“I'm in a space called enterprise feedback management, EFM. And there are many companies that do this and it's a, an, Industry that is valued in the, you know, many tens of billions of dollars.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 5:54 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Max Israel receives private equity or M&A inquiries every single week
“For the last two years, I've got a call from either a private equity fund or an M&A shop every single week, and I take them seriously.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 15:22 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Disclosure
Customerville's average enterprise client pays roughly $250,000 annually
“No, probably a quarter million a year as an average client.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 5:37 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Customerville serves between 50 and 100 enterprise customers globally
“So we keep those cards pretty close to the vest, but it's a number kind of, you know, between 50 and a hundred you know, globally.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 7:41 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Customerville is growing revenue between 50% and 100% year over year
“And then I would say about two years ago we started growing between 50 and a hundred percent a And today we're still at that kind of number.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 10:22 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Customerville aims to keep annual customer attrition at or below 10%
“We try and keep that at or below 10% because companies.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 11:01 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Disclosure
Customerville operates with under 40 employees and only two salespeople
“So we're under about 40 people, but really there, I only have two sales people, one in the U S one in Europe and I pitch in with that.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 12:25 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Disclosure
Customerville spent up to $400,000 annually on Google AdWords inbound marketing
“We kind of started out spending 50 to a 100,000 a year and then got up to the point where we were spending between three and 400,000 dollars a year on AdWords and related costs to drive an inbound marketing campaign.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 13:28 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Disclosure
Customerville avoided venture capital unlike its feedback software competitors
“I was one of the few players in my space that didn't raise like venture money.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 3:44 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Customerville's industry vlog gets 10,000 monthly viewers and is shot on iPhone
“If you've seen our vlog, Forty Billion Reasons, that was a side project and now some 10,000 people a month in customer experience watch it. Every second of that is shot on my iPhone.”
Max Israel Jun 22, 2019 ▶ 16:46 1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO!

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1428 Bootstrapped and $12m in ARR. My kinda CEO! Jun 22, 2019 10m
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