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RJ Friedlander

Founder & CEO, ReviewPro · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveinvestor@RJFriedlander ↗LinkedIn ↗reviewpro.com ↗

RJ Friedlander founded Barcelona-based ReviewPro in 2008, growing it into a guest intelligence and online reputation platform serving hotels globally. Prior to selling a majority stake in ReviewPro to Shiji Group for $28 million, he spent a decade as CEO of Grupo Planeta's Digital Media Division.

12statements → 9claims → 2claims resolved → 3.92/5average certainty → 1.08/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 7 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

9 assertions · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 7 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 RJ 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
ReviewPro reached 45,000 hotel clients globally on just €5M in equity
“We raised a total of five million euros in equity, which to build a global SAS business model where we work with, as we said 45,000 hotels, 150 countries. We support the product and account management in seven languages to have built all that on only five mill…”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 4:31 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today

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 RJ Friedlander on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Assertion Supported
ReviewPro reached 45,000 hotel clients globally on just €5M in equity
“We raised a total of five million euros in equity, which to build a global SAS business model where we work with, as we said 45,000 hotels, 150 countries. We support the product and account management in seven languages to have built all that on only five mill…”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 4:31 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ReviewPro's early investors saw returns between 2.5x and 28x at exit
“Our original investors, which were individual investors and some well-known, some well-known entrepreneurs, and then also a small venture capital fund, they ended Earlier on, they all exited with between a two and a half and a 28 time return.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 10:35 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ReviewPro has 35,000 SaaS hotel clients and 10,000 data clients
“It'd be about 35,000 hotels that pay us a monthly SAS fee for one or all of our, and then we have the balance of 10,000 pay us for our data.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 2:03 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Over 90% of ReviewPro revenue comes from dashboard SaaS tools
“So they're using our data through our dashboard and they have access to our analytics and our reports. That would be in terms of revenue would be like 95% or over 90.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 2:58 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Disclosure
Shiji acquired 80% of ReviewPro at a valuation above $35M
“Well, they acquired 80% initially and the price was higher than that.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 8:34 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Disclosure
Friedlander retains equity and put options for ReviewPro's remaining 20%
“Thirdly, that 20% I have the, you know, the significant part of that 20% And an agreement to stay with them and puts to, for them to acquire the rest of the shares over three years.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 9:53 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Supported
Shiji's $28M deal included secondary share purchases and primary growth capital
“The twenty eight million was not all into the balance sheet. There was secondary plus investment for growth.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 11:09 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ReviewPro grew revenue nearly 37% in 2017 and over 30% in 2018
“And in 2017, we grew 36, almost 37%. This year we're over 30% growth and we're expecting strong growth next year as well.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 13:01 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ReviewPro maintains an annual revenue churn rate under 10%
“We, our churn rate is less than 10%.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 14:14 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Disclosure
ReviewPro evaluates customer retention at the brand level, bypassing monthly cohorts
“And we don't really work on a cohort analyzing monthly cohorts. What we do is we look at brands.”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 15:30 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ReviewPro's average customer contract duration spans 26 to 27 months
“The shortest contract period is 12 months. Our average contract period is about 26, 27 months, right?”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 19:43 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ReviewPro had 62 full-time employees when acquired by Shiji
“When we sold the company, we had 62 full-time employees, right?”
RJ Friedlander Nov 21, 2019 ▶ 8:10 1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1580 Why ReviewPro CEO Sold 80% For $28M in 2016 and How He Grew to $15M in ARR Today Nov 21, 2019 14m
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