The SaaS Podcast - AI, Growth & Product-Market Fit for SaaS Founders

SaaS Partnerships: Two Exits to 19,000 Companies

5 snips

May 9, 2024

Bob Moore, Co-founder of Crossbeam, discusses his journey from bootstrapping to a $60M exit. Topics include challenges of a two-sided marketplace, data collaboration between companies, evolution from bootstrapping to funding, building a data collaboration platform, and insights on escape rooms as a profitable business venture.

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Introduction

00:00 • 5min

Embracing Multiple Truths and Enhancing Data Collaboration between Companies

05:22 • 2min

Evolution of a Business from Bootstrapping to Significant Funding and Growth

07:46 • 27min

Strategic Transition and Technology Retention in SaaS Startups

35:08 • 3min

Building a Data Collaboration Platform

38:19 • 25min

Escape Rooms: A Profitable and Creative Business Venture

01:03:13 • 4min

Opportunities for Online Business Ownership and Growth Tools

01:06:50 • 2min

Bob Moore quit his VC job the day before Lehman Brothers collapsed. He bootstrapped RJ Metrics, sold it to Magento, then spun out the same technology as Stitch and sold it for $60M in 18 months. Now his SaaS partnerships platform Crossbeam serves 19,000 companies at 8-figure ARR.

Learn how to sell the same company twice, why SaaS partnerships require solving the cold start problem with joint onboarding, and how partner-led growth and network effects tipped after 100 companies on the platform.

🔑 Key Lessons

🔄 Spin-out exits unlock hidden value in SaaS partnerships: Bob kept RJ Metrics' ETL technology after selling to Magento, relaunched it as Stitch, and sold it to Talend for $60M in 18 months.
🤝 Solve the cold start problem by onboarding SaaS partnerships in pairs: Crossbeam created joint jam sessions that onboarded two partner companies simultaneously, because no single company could derive value alone.
📉 Monolithic products lose when buyers purchase ecosystem-led growth stacks: RJ Metrics went from rapid growth to flat revenue after Amazon Redshift let buyers assemble a modern data stack.
🎯 SaaS partnerships network effects take years before they tip: Crossbeam spent two years reaching 100 companies before the partner-led growth loop kicked in and users invited their own partners.
🚀 PLG and freemium accelerate SaaS partnerships adoption: Crossbeam's free tier attracted 19,000 companies and built network effects density, while paid tiers captured revenue from power users.

Chapters

Introduction
Bob's favorite quote and Crossbeam overview
Business size, revenue, and team
The RJ Metrics origin story (2008)
Quitting the day Lehman Brothers collapsed
Challenges acquiring the first customers
Surviving the emotional rollercoaster of early days
How Bob learned to code
Raising $20M in venture capital for RJ Metrics
How Amazon Redshift disrupted RJ Metrics
The modern data stack and losing to Looker
The $2.6 billion mistake
Spinning out Stitch from RJ Metrics
Selling Stitch to Talend for $60M in 18 months
The founding of Crossbeam and SaaS partnerships in 2018
Solving the cold start problem and data trust
Joint jam sessions and onboarding SaaS partnerships in pairs
How network effects tipped after 100 companies
How long Bob sees himself working on Crossbeam
Lightning round

Resources

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/396
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