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Todd Olson

CEO & Co-Founder, Pendo · 3 appearances on the record.

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

founderexecutiveauthor@tolson ↗LinkedIn ↗pendo.io ↗

Todd Olson is the co-founder and CEO of Pendo, a product analytics and digital adoption platform. He previously served as VP of Products at Rally Software following its acquisition of his startup 6th Sense Software, and he authored the book The Product-Led Organization.

39statements → 22claims → 3claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.96/5average certainty → 1.14/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 24said about them ↓

3 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 18 not checkable as stated how the 22 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 21 assertions · 2 opinions · 4 insights · 11 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 22 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 18 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 Todd 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
Olson: Pendo reached $100M ARR while growing over 50%
“Announced that we crossed a hundred million dollars in ARR. Last year, we're growing north of 50%, so you can get a sense of where we are.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 5:49 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage

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 Todd Olson on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Insight
Olson: Startups must let systems break to know what to fix
“Sometimes things have to break and fall over to actually see what you need to fix.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 28:15 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Assertion Supported
Olson: Pendo reached $100M ARR while growing over 50%
“Announced that we crossed a hundred million dollars in ARR. Last year, we're growing north of 50%, so you can get a sense of where we are.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 5:49 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo will probably reach nearly $200M ARR by year-end
“We'll probably end the year just under two hundred million ARR, so and we've gone from basically zero to that in under eight years”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 5:57 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Disclosure
Olson: I still monitor Zendesk and work support tickets at Pendo
“Folks, I still am in the Zendesk queue, and actually, even this morning, I was communicating with my VP of support. We're looking at doing a sprint to burn down our backlog, and I volunteered to go into the tickets and burn down the backlog with our support te…”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 10:12 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Disclosure
Olson: I personally read every Pendo NPS response every morning
“This morning when I woke up, I read every Every single MPS response we got this morning from the last time I looked, which is last night when I got off the plane and got to the hotel”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 11:31 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Disclosure
Olson: Personally interviewed nearly every candidate until Pendo reached 500 employees
“It is a fun fact that I interviewed nearly every person at the company up until 500 employees.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 15:54 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Insight
Olson: Corporate layers sanitize frontline data shown to top executives
“The fact is you've got a lot of layers, and they all want to look good, and they all care about how they're perceived inside the organization, so if there's a presentation to someone high in an organization, you're gonna get three people's filter on what that …”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 25:20 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Opinion
Olson: Pendo and Intercom don't compete; Intercom targets Zendesk
“I see them trying to disrupt the support tools like Zendesk and Freshdesk more so than attacking Pendo. So I think there's plenty of room in the market for Intercom and Pendo to coexist. So I don't actually see them as competitive at all.”
Todd Olson Aug 13, 2018 ▶ 7:30 1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo is typically the premium-priced product in its space
“But our prices are typically higher. So we typically are the premium product in our space. And it's because we actually have a broader platform.”
Todd Olson Aug 13, 2018 ▶ 8:58 1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo generates nearly $1.2 million in monthly revenue
“So we're nearly triple that.”
Todd Olson May 19, 2018 ▶ 1:52 1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo maintains a net retention rate above 150%
“We still carry a very high net retention rate. North of one 50, so .”
Todd Olson May 19, 2018 ▶ 5:01 1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO
Disclosure
Olson: Pendo's CAC payback period exceeds 12 months
“More than 12. Yeah, I think it is. I mean, it, We should be under 12. But I think a little more than 12 is fine for the stage. Growing in our growth rates, I think it's fine.”
Todd Olson May 19, 2018 ▶ 6:57 1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO
Opinion
How Pendo positions its in-app messaging against Intercom
“I think intercoms focuses more around being a next generation communication platform. Think of our in-app messaging more like campaigns, like let's launch a campaign to do guided tour when you log in. So onboarding, new feature announcements, those sorts of th…”
Todd Olson Mar 30, 2017 ▶ 3:35 EP 614: Pendo Raises $31M Helping 200 Customers With In App Messaging To Drive Usage with CEO Todd Olson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pendo achieves net negative churn with net retention over 130%
“We have net negative. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Our net numbers are in the one 40 range. So north of one 30.”
Todd Olson Mar 30, 2017 ▶ 13:35 EP 614: Pendo Raises $31M Helping 200 Customers With In App Messaging To Drive Usage with CEO Todd Olson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo jumped from a $1.5k deal to $60k ARR
“It was a 60 K deal ARR when our largest deal previous was about 1500 dollars ARR.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 4:48 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Disclosure
Olson: I personally phoned every customer who emailed in early days
“In the early days of the company, I picked up the phone every single time a customer emailed me. Every time.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 9:29 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Battery invested in Pendo after an Austin CEO recommended it
“We heard about us because an investor, Battery, was here in Austin, and they were meeting with a local company, and the CEO, they asked the CEO Who, who's the interesting company that you use, and that Liz Pinto thing is like pretty good, and it's, they got gr…”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 10:51 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo processes over 100 billion events per week
“We now get over a hundred billion a week, and this is when we had a hundred billion cumulatively. This is probably back in that 20 17 range. We have tens of trillions of events now.”
Todd Olson Nov 3, 2022 ▶ 28:25 The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage
Insight
Olson: Moving upmarket to larger deals typically reduces customer churn
“When you move up market, you know, the larger the deal size, typically you see lower churn”
Todd Olson Aug 13, 2018 ▶ 3:58 1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo carries 98-99% CSAT with zero-negative weeks
“We carry a 98, 99% CSAT. We, you know, we've gone The last seven days, we haven't set a single negative response. So and on multiple seven day periods, we average that. So across weeks, I mean, not a single negative interaction.”
Todd Olson Aug 13, 2018 ▶ 4:27 1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: WalkMe is Pendo's most frequent competitor in deals
“Yeah, I think the company we see most frequently in deals is a company called WalkMe.”
Todd Olson Aug 13, 2018 ▶ 7:46 1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate
Assertion Supported
Olson: Pendo has raised $56 million in total funding
“We've raised now forty-five million dollars. No, 56, actually, in total.”
Todd Olson May 19, 2018 ▶ 1:30 1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Olson: Pendo has expanded to well over 400 customers
“Yeah, yeah, we're well over 400 customers. Our average revenue per customer has increased significantly since then as well. We've kind of moved up the market, selling larger deals to larger companies, but yeah, well over 400 customers now.”
Todd Olson May 19, 2018 ▶ 2:10 1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pendo's top 20 customers now each generate over $100,000 ARR
“So now if you look at our top 20 customers, It's all north of a 100,000 dollars in ARR and above, right? And that's complete change from a year ago this time where we probably had two or three.”
Todd Olson May 19, 2018 ▶ 3:08 1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO

Show 15statements(15 left)

The other half of the tape: Todd Olson's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 22 times in 4 episodes on Top Founders. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 17Eric Boduch 3Steve Pockross 2

Statements about Todd Olson, by other people (2)

Opinion
Boduch: Pendo CEO Todd Olson is driving to take the company public
“He's, his, he would love to take it public. He wants to, you know, have another public software company in Raleigh, and he's driving to that point, and the growth is accelerating, and things are great in the business.”
Eric Boduch Nov 5, 2024 ▶ 19:42 Pendo Shares Board Deck Slides, Breaks $200m Revenue, Lessons with Co-Founder Eric Boduch
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Boduch: Investor forced Pendo founders to abandon equal 25% equity splits
“We had one investor that insisted the CEO needed to own the most. We're actually gonna do 25, 25, 25, 25, and an investor actually caused it to change a little bit.”
Eric Boduch Nov 5, 2024 ▶ 11:17 Pendo Shares Board Deck Slides, Breaks $200m Revenue, Lessons with Co-Founder Eric Boduch

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
008115220172018201920202021202220232024episodesmentions
01220172018201920202021202220232024episodes it came up in
007.5115220172018201920202021202220232024episodesmentions per episode
2024 15 mentions in 1 episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2017 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate Aug 13, 2018 9m
1029 The Right Way to 18x Your Price Point With $1.2m MRR Pendo CEO May 19, 2018 8m
EP 614: Pendo Raises $31M Helping 200 Customers With In App Messaging To Drive Usage with Mar 30, 2017 8m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Todd Olson was played rather than Todd 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
The $100m Pendo Story: The Crazy Not-Scaleable Stuff We Did At Every Stage Nov 3, 2022 25m aired address
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