SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Fund management tool breaks $500,000 revenue on way to $1m+ this year
13 May 2022
Chapter 1: What is the revenue target for LemonEdge this year?
And then, so is it fair to say five paying that average ACB you said earlier, about a hundred grand, you're about a half million run rate today?
Roughly.
Okay. Can you break a million this year, you think?
We aim to do more than that.
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.
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He's a technology professional with over 20 years of financial services software experience. His experience with the current legacy system approaches to data integration, customizability, modeling, complex accounting, and others show his and demonstrate his belief that there's a deep-rooted need for a powerful modern development platform with integrated accounting in financial services.
That's why he's building LemonEdge.com. Gareth, you ready to take us to the top?
Yep.
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Chapter 2: How did Gareth Hewitt's background influence LemonEdge's creation?
It's not obviously favored by our clients. We tend to do a user-based approach, but that also ties to complexity. So depending on the simplicity of the fund or the complexity, cetera, kind of have a matrix, but it's really about tying the software to the value that the company is getting back.
I guess that's why I'm asking, is the value tied to AUM managed, number of users, number of LPs in the fund, number of transactions? If you had to pick one that was the most meaningful in terms of capturing value, which one would you say it was?
I mean, like I say, it's a matrix of those things. It's not AUM, but it will be because you you know, a hybrid fund across special credit or debt with lots of investors, that's intensely more complicated. So it's really that, that gauges it more than the size of the fund does.
Understood. Okay.
But customers, again, paying minimum a hundred thousand a year, maximum, maybe five, six, 700,000 a year, depending on how- Minimum can be lower than that, but I would say, you know, on average, it's probably 110 plus.
Okay. Fair. Put this all on a timeline for me. When did you write the first line of code for the platform?
Uh, we started in literally as soon as the world locked down in COVID. So I think that was March, 2020. So like I just came back from New York, um, to London to start the company and literally like three days later that everything shut down.
Jeez. Okay. So 2020 and have you bootstrapped today or did you decide to raise capital?
Uh, we raised capital towards the end of 2020 when we, point everyone else was but then yeah we raised capital when we started going to market at the end of 2020 and how much did you raise in 2020 so we raised just over $2.5 million from a VC out in New York with two strategic investors alongside. One, Tico Bernstein, who did Parse.com and Scribe.com.
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Chapter 3: What unique features does LemonEdge offer for private capital solutions?
Got it. Got it. So I guess, would you consider that $4 million in your seed round, effectively?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Okay. And then most are selling in their seed round, anywhere between 10% and 20% of the business. Were you in that same range?
About that, yeah.
Okay, fair. So that would mean you raised a $40 million valuation, something around there?
Well, no, because we did it in two stages. trying to flex on coming in, but.
Oh, so the full 6.5 million, you sold somewhere between 10 and 20%. Total. Yeah. Oh, I see. I see. Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. Very cool. And then I guess flesh out more of the team, sort of the team for me today. How many folks are full time?
Um, well, everyone, um, we have, uh, I know, I don't know how many everyone is. We had, uh, we had 15 at the beginning of this year. We doubled that in the last three months to about 30. I'm 32. I think we've got a couple more coming on.
And how many are full-time engineers?
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Chapter 4: How much do clients typically pay for LemonEdge's services?
Lauren is one of the investors we brought in at the beginning of 2021. So she's the co-founder of Investran.
Got it. Okay. But you and Jason, did you guys just split 50-50 at the beginning?
Uh, no. Um, uh, Jamie, uh, so he's, uh, um, I wanted someone who didn't have experience on sale, selling and private equity, but could target more financial services as a whole.
Got it. So you own a little more equity than Jamie cause you started it.
Yeah.
I see. Okay. Uh, very cool. Um, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, uh, Gareth, what's the last book that you read?
The last book that I read, um, it was a long time ago. It was probably some space epic, but I can't remember if I'm totally honest.
Space epic. We'll put that at number two. Is there a CEO you're following or studying?
I don't.
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