Embrace the Suck: How Olo Survived 10 Years to Product-Market Fit With Noah Glass
Founders in Arms
Intro
Rajat introduces Noah Glass and previews Olo's 20-year journey from startup to acquisition.
Noah Glass is the founder and CEO of Olo, an enterprise platform for mobile and online ordering that powers digital commerce for 800+ restaurant brands and nearly 90,000 locations. Founded in 2005, Olo went public in 2021 at a $3.5B valuation and was acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2024—a 20-year journey from scrappy startup to category leader.
What you'll learn:
- Why Olo's first 10 years required extreme "pain tolerance" waiting for product-market fit
- The B2C to B2B pivot that transformed their unit economics from burning $15 per customer to earning revenue while scaling
- How "embrace the suck"—borrowed from the Marine Corps—became the cultural mantra that kept the team going
- Why going public was about customer confidence and long-term credibility, not exit or liquidity
- The role of industry advisors in bridging credibility gaps when selling to traditional enterprises
- How adding delivery-as-a-service (Dispatch) in 2015 unlocked escape velocity and scale advantage
- The challenges and benefits of operating as a public company in a misunderstood industry
- Why partnering with Thoma Bravo PE offers better alignment than quarterly public market pressures
- Noah's philosophy on founder loyalty and the lifelong bonds formed with early team members
- Why the current "homegrown tech stack" trend in enterprise is a passing fad that misses SaaS fundamentals
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and the "embrace the suck" mentality
(01:03) Early days and the long wait for product-market fit
(05:30) Why YC's "grow fast or quit" advice doesn't apply to every company
(08:06) The deep bonds formed with early team members
(12:14) Deciding between B2B vs B2C business models
(13:34) The B2C beginning and Good Morning America moment
(16:08) The pivot to B2B enterprise software
(20:43) How third-party delivery and DoorDash changed the industry
(23:04) The journey as a public company (2021-2024)
(27:49) Why going public signaled long-term stability to enterprise customers
(30:15) Operating under private equity with Thoma Bravo
(36:10) Breaking into enterprise sales with industry advisors
(44:45) The importance of reliability at scale for enterprise
(46:58) Thinking about market size and expansion in vertical software
(48:25) Rapid fire: Which founder inspires you most
(49:01) Uncomfortable feedback on being overly loyal
(50:48) Current trend prediction: Homegrown enterprise software is a fad
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