ID.me’s Post

"I was technically homeless at the time. I was sleeping on my buddy's couch. I had declined $250,000/ year at McKinsey... I had no idea what I was doing." Now, Blake has $150M in ARR, growing 30% per year, with 80% gross margins. He's raised $400M and his startup ID.me is worth over $1B. This is the story of how pivoted for a Groupon-like model to an identity verification platform. Blake Hall talks about how he raised the initial round, closed the first few enterprise contracts, and why he thinks finding product-market fit is more of a science than most founders think. After his pivot, ID.me doubled its user base every year. Now, over 40% of Americans have an ID.me account. Listen to the full episode here:

A few weeks ago I had the huge opportunity to sit down and talk with Nate Meir for an episode of Tech Salescraft. Nate gave us some great insight into his very own journey into the VC world and share some great take away points for early stage founders. Nate and the team at StageOne Ventures do an incredible job supporting and guiding their portfolio. It was a great honour to have Nate on the show and I'm looking forward to bring this one to you on Tuesday, watch out for it. #vc #venturecapital #techstartup #israelistartup #saasstartup #techfounder #saasfounder

It's been one year since the SVB collapse. What does that mean for startups building fintech? 🤔 Our co-founder and CEO Sasha Orloff is sitting down with Head of Startups & Strategic Partnerships Jason Mok to dive into this next week at #StartupGrind! You're not going to want to miss this. Get the details below 👇

A short story says it all... . . . Alright, here's the deal – having this killer startup idea, had to pivot cause money was tight. Hustled hard, pitched like crazy, got more NO`s than a two-year-old asking "why?" and just when we thought it was game over, met this investor who vibed with our vision. Did we get the cash? Nah, we didn`t close the deal. But the chat was a game-changer. They felt what we're about, and it felt like a win. Back to the grind, still broke but dreaming big. Here's the deal – we`re not giving up. No matter what, we're pushing through. **Lesson learned**: Even when the deal falls through, the right convo keeps the dream alive. 🚀✨ #startupjourney #motivation

Headed to #StartupGrind next week? Join us for this fireside chat ft. our Head of Startups & Strategic Partnerships, Jason Mok, and Sasha Orloff, Co-founder and CEO of Puzzle 🧩🚀. The two will be diving into how to to think about today's startup landscape, including how to navigate a rocky macroeconomic landscape, and more. Get the details: https://bit.ly/4aGbPDN

When you DO want to be a called a cochroach. You're bootstrapped and your team dont know any other way than to be "scrappy". You're used to running over hot coals and through brickwalls to get to solutions. Customer revenue is built into your core NOT something you are now trying to quickly bolt on. The investors you meet now do love hearing about that revenue, your margins and costs. Downrounds aren't your concern right now. You now have more senior engineers and c level candidates asking about roles with you. 🍻 Cochroaches! HT to Terry Hilsberg for being one of the first to tell us we were a cochroach startup. 🎮💪 #startupaus #bootstrapping #founders #investors

I met a founder who raised $11M off a deck—but only spent a third of it. Here's how he built a startup that grew 4x to 8-figures+ in ARR this year: Poojan Kumar raised $60M for his first startup and sold it. He raised $11M for his current startup off some PowerPoint slides. It sounds like it’s been easy— but founders know it never is. During his first startup, key execs wouldn’t meet with him. He couldn’t afford big booths at conferences. So instead he would hover beside competitors’ booths to see who showed up. One time he noticed someone asking deep questions. Like any good founder, he followed him and pitched his startup. That person became his first paying customer— he signed a $15,000 deal. He even joined the company as the first systems engineer. It sounds like Poojan got lucky. But really, it was the one move (of many) that happened to work. “You don't have the budget to put up a big booth… You don't even have a product… So you have to go and do this stuff behind the scenes to get access. It’s just hard work.” This year, Clumio took off. They grew 4x to $15M+ in ARR. Two months ago, Clumio closed a $75M Series D. I’ve noticed that the best founders put so much energy into the world, they’re bound to get something back. They take shot, after shot, after shot. They turn 0%-probability events into 10%-probability events. Most efforts fail— so often this work feels like a waste of time. But it’s not. It’s how magic happens. /// Listen to the full episode with Poojan Kumar the founder and CEO of Clumio on The Product Market Fit Show #startups #venturecapital #founders

Listen in on our conversation with Kevin, where we discuss industry experts. Can engaging an industry expert for startup advice help founders? We think so. When Kevin began building his company, he didn't feel the need for industry experts and relied on his own improvements and feedback. However, after a couple of years, he realized that it would've been smarter and better for his business to do so. An extra set of eyes is always a good idea! 👉 Watch now https://loom.ly/5Lob77Q

Great points. Circa pre-2022, VCs were focused on TAM expansion and land grab at any cost (as we all know) without a memory of the lessons learned from the past (e.g., market cycles, macro pendulums)...This was a compelling strategy for moated software companies, given unit economics but little attention was payed to the empty chair(s), with the assumption of the disco lasting into perpetuity -- the rise of thematic buzzwords such as edge compute, HPC, AI helped drive the craze. Once high flying startups hooked on easy money had to retrench. Startups, today (even with the recent market thawing), especially those looking to raise a series B+, without B+ metrics, by historical standards, have been confronted with a new reality and, in many cases, have pivoted to a sale process. Growth equity firms are still very much open for business but selection criteria has never been more stringent. As I've advised numerous clients, take growth down to expedite the path to cash flow break-even. The optics of doing so may bring an open minded growth equity investor into your corner, providing the requisite cash runway to pursue strategic alternatives properly without 0 negotiating leverage.

What a great Medium post by Hunter Walk ! It's all about timing! 🕰️ For years, "selling too early" was seen as shameful in the startup world, but it turns out that knowing when to get a good deal and exit is just as important as continuing to build. As we reflect on the past decade, we honor the success of those who took the right offer at the right time and got a great deal for their companies! #EntrepreneurLife #SellingSmart #StartupSuccess Congratulations to the founding team of Honey (a Punch Financial client) and the other companies (Mirror by lululemon and Frame.io) in this article!! 😍😍😍 What do you think? Is it all about timing?