SaaS Founder or Pop Star? CJ Gets Schooled
Mostly Growth
Are platform companies measurably different from point solutions?
Hosts discuss an a16z analysis on platform traits—market leadership, multi-module adoption, and higher retention and valuation multiples.
In this high-energy episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman dive into the hidden levers of SaaS growth and what truly separates startups that scale to $20M+ ARR from those that stall out. They explore eye-opening data from 6,500 companies, revealing how the best improve net retention, raise pricing, and re-engineer their revenue models over time. Alongside the metrics, there’s plenty of playful chaos—like a naming debate over “Yoshinobu Yamamoto Gustafson,” a rapid-fire game of “Founder or Pop Star,” and CJ’s accidental IPO embargo break. It’s part insight, part inside joke, and 100% for SaaS operators and C-suite climbers.
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LINKS:
Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com
CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/
Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/
Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/
Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/
Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-compounding-startup
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-odds-of-making-it
https://www.superme.ai/kylepoyar?conversationId=VgDXTOl2Z89mW7UYXstU0b
https://a16z.com/anatomy-of-an-enterprise-platform-company/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hhi.asp
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/navan-ipo-s1-breakdown
https://x.com/amendandpretend/status/1983588137453416763?s=46
https://x.com/ryan_c_walsh/status/1983705182371475630?s=46
https://www.reddit.com/r/TwinCities/comments/z6hxp8/how_much_are_people_paying_for_residential_snow/
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RELATED EPISODES:
Getting fired 4 times made me a founder | Sam Jacobs of Pavilion
Why Founders Are Posting Sad Dinners
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Preview and Intro
00:01:20 Sponsors Pulley and Metronome
00:03:24 Welcome Back Dodgers Banter
00:05:03 SaaS Founder or Pop Star Game
00:07:08 Growth Levers Report Overview
00:08:33 Building for Expansion and Retention
00:10:11 Figure It Out and ICP Discussion
00:11:47 Monthly Growth and Compounding
00:13:44 Pricing Lessons Fat Joe Quote
00:14:46 AI Avatars Introduction
00:15:35 CJ Tests the Kyle Chatbot
00:16:39 AI Costs Beta and Power Users
00:17:54 Using AI for Writing and Research
00:19:52 Cannibalizing Content and Platform Talk
00:21:28 A16z Platform Discussion
00:23:49 Herfindahl Hirschman Index Explained
00:24:33 HHI Applied to Market Entry
00:26:13 CrowdStrike Datadog Multi Product Models
00:29:17 Business Blunders and Navan IPO
00:33:08 Snow Removal Pricing in the Real World
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SPONSORS:
Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com
Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics
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