SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
100% YoY Growth to $1m Today, Raising $5m on $30m Post
15 Mar 2022
Chapter 1: What is the current revenue and customer base of Tommy.ai?
So five grand times 24 customers, you guys are about 120,000 bucks a month right now in revenue?
Yeah, so we have some customers that are ramping up. So we reached 1 million ARR last December.
You are listening to Conversations with Nathan Latka, where I sit down and interview the top SaaS founders, like Eric Wan from Zoom. If you'd like to subscribe, go to getlatka.com.
We've published thousands of these interviews, and if you want to sort through them quickly by revenue or churn, CAC, valuation, or other metrics, the easiest way to do that is to go to getlatka.com and use our filtering tool. It's like a big Excel sheet for all of these podcast interviews. Check it out right now at getlatka.com. Hey folks, my guest today is Konstantin Bayondin.
He's the CEO and founder of Tommy.ai, also ex-CMO of Ozon, the largest e-commerce player in Russia. He's an ex-Martech Senior Director of Compass, ex-BCG, Stanford MBA, and spotted a $20 billion opportunity in digital ad optimization and real estate to now build Tommy.ai, $1 million pre-seed funding to turn lead-gen businesses into e-commerce.
He's also an Ironman finisher and theoretical physicist. Konstantin, are you ready to take us to the top?
Yeah, I'm really happy to be here. And I'm a fan of your podcast, Nathan.
Oh, very cool. Why did you agree? You know, people go, Nathan, why do people agree to come on? You ask them for so many data points. Why do you agree to come on?
We just, you know, to hang out with the guys from the industry, SaaS, enterprise SaaS, and, you know, expand my network in this way.
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Chapter 2: What challenges do long sales cycle businesses face?
Was that right?
Yeah. Yeah. By February, March, and I started to hire people February, March.
This was two years ago in 2020.
I started to hire people in 2021 in February, March. Got it.
Konstantin, sorry. What I'm trying to get to, I'm missing something here with the numbers. You said in 2020, you grew revenue to $30,000 a month. Last year, you said $22,000 a month. So you shrunk your first 12 months in business?
So I started in April 2020, was running it alone. By December 2020, I had $22,000 a month. I still run it alone and I started to hire people in February, March last year, 2021. And by that time I had a 35K run rate per month.
I see. So you went from sort of 20,000 bucks a month in 2020 to 80,000 bucks a month in 2021. That was a couple of months ago to now you're doing about 90,000 bucks a month. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. I see. I see. That makes sense. Okay. So just to be quick to answer my question, still bootstrapped or you raised?
So we raised $1 million in pre-seed a year ago, closing in April.
And what valuation was that at?
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Chapter 3: How does Tommy.ai price its services for customers?
So we could raise less because our revenue grew really well and we still didn't spend even half of the money. But I believe you should raise more than you need all the time in order not to be in a position when you strive for new funding.
Konstantin, how much of that money is still in the bank today?
More than half.
Oh, wow. So more than 500 grand sitting in the bank today. That's great. Are you looking at raising more capital now?
We are raising money right now. We want to raise a seed up to 5 million.
Okay. Assuming you get exactly what you want, what valuation would you love to raise at?
If I get an offer from a reputable firm for 30 post manipulation, I will happily admit the offer.
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Chapter 4: What was the growth trajectory of Tommy.ai over the past year?
That makes a lot of sense. This is a great story, Konstantin. Let's wrap up here with the famous five, right?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right. Number one, favorite business book?
Zero to one, Peter Thiel.
Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Yes, Daniel Perikatsky, my former boss from Ozone. I adore his leadership style and customer obsession.
Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building, Tommy?
Similar web, amazing tool. I was one of the early customers in Russia. I love it. So just to spy on your competitors and many more things.
Are you based in Russia right now?
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