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Russ Heddleston

Co-founder & CEO, Distill · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveoperatorinvestor@rheddleston ↗LinkedIn ↗distill.com ↗

Russ Heddleston is the co-founder and CEO of Distill and former CEO of DocSend, which was acquired by Dropbox in 2021. He previously co-founded Pursuit, which was acquired by Facebook, where he served as a product manager.

12statements → 5claims → 0claims resolved → 4.08/5average certainty → 1.5/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 4said about them ↓

5 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

5 assertions · 4 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 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 Russ 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 Russ Heddleston on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Disclosure
Heddleston: A hedge fund tried to acquire DocSend for its data
“We actually did get approached by a hedge fund. About buying the company. And that would have been awful for everyone, but I thought that was flattering in a way, I guess that they were like, we've seen so many of your links that we would like we would like ac…”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 6:38 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Insight
Heddleston: One-time fundraising decks cannot sustain a large SaaS business
“You can't build a big business around, around like one time, right? After a few months they successfully raised and they're gone or it didn't work”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 6:22 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Insight
Heddleston: Selling outbound to 30-person teams takes no longer than 10-person teams
“We found that like selling to a team at 10 is the same amount of time as selling to a team at 30. And if you have outbound, it's expensive. And so, you know, it needs to make sense. If you get up into the hundreds of salespeople, the time it takes to get that …”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 9:46 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Insight
Heddleston: Venture debt extends runway but lender rights create hidden risks
“The ratio of venture debt to money in the bank that you have, it's really a insurance policy and it extends your runway a little bit, but it can really come back to bite you. Depending on like a few different scenarios, how it ends and things like that. Well, …”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 14:16 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Insight
Heddleston: SaaS businesses should target under 1% monthly churn
“One percent monthly is kind of a general target for companies to aim for. If it's much above that, then that's pretty worrying.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 19:30 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Heddleston: DocSend has had zero churn among customers with 10+ seats
“In the enterprise, we haven't had a customer churn yet of 10 or larger seats and they mostly expand.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 19:44 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Disclosure
Heddleston: DocSend targets outbound at 30+ seat teams for $30k ACV
“If there's screen sharing, if there's Salesforce involved in there, I think it comes out to around like 70 or 80 dollars a user a month. So let's just say roughly a thousand dollars a user a year. We for our outbound only target teams of 30 and above. So that'…”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 9:28 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Heddleston: DocSend has over 2,800 paying company customers
“So we actually have over 2800 paying companies right now.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 11:32 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Heddleston: DocSend has over 10,000 paid seats
“Definitely. I mean, it's definitely above 10,000.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 12:52 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Disclosure
Heddleston: DocSend raised $10M in equity and $1M in debt
“We've raised capital. We've raised about ten million in venture capital, and then another million in venture debt. So around eleven million in total.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 13:03 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Heddleston: DocSend made zero revenue in its first year
“We didn't charge any money for the first year, so it was for sure zero.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 5:22 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Heddleston: DocSend has around 25 employees including six salespeople
“The total team size is around 25 and it is just six salespeople.”
Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017 ▶ 10:31 EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston

The other half of the tape: Russ Heddleston's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 2 episodes on Top Founders. every mention, with the transcript →

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Every mention by year

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2017 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
EP 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attach Feb 25, 2017 13m
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