Bob Moore is the co-founder and CEO at Crossbeam, a “LinkedIn for data” platform that helps companies find overlapping opportunities with their partners. Crossbeam has raised US$117M to date and recently acquired Reveal in 2024. Bob previously cofounded RJMetrics (now part of Adobe Commerce Cloud) and Stitch Data (acquired by Talend). He is also the author of Ecosystem-Led Growth.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

• The unique way he evaluated and validated startup ideas
• Lessons learned from falling in and out of product-market fit
• How to recognize and act on market shifts that impact your business
• Specific tactics for distribution and building with conviction vs. consensus
• Creating scalable and durable startups
• Unlocking network effects in software
• Getting mergers right

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Referenced:

• Adobe’s acquisition of Magento: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/21/adobe-to-acquire-magento-for-1-6-b/
• Amazon Redshift: https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/
• Chris Merrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merrickchristopher/
• Crossbeam: https://www.crossbeam.com/
• Crossbeam/Reveal merger: https://www.crossbeam.com/crossbeam-and-reveal-merger-announcement/
• Ecosystem-Led Growth: https://www.robertjmoore.com/book
• Jake Stein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakestein/
• Nick Mehta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmehta/
• Reveal: https://reveal.co/
• Rick Nucci: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricknucci/
• RJMetrics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RJMetrics
• Simon Bouchez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonbouchez/
• Stitch Data: https://www.stitchdata.com/
• Talend’s acquisition of Stitch Data: https://www.businessinsider.com/talend-acquires-stitch-2018-11
• The 4 Levels of PMF: https://pmf.firstround.com/levels

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Where to find Bob Moore:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjmoore/
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/robertjmoore

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Where to find Brett Berson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

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Where to find First Round Capital:

• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:44) Tactics for finding founder-market fit

(06:17) Speaking to founders about startup ideas

(11:16) Why founders loved Crossbeam

(19:34) How RJMetrics found market fit then lost it

(29:46) Lessons from RJMetrics’ exit

(38:06) The importance of intellectual honesty

(39:33) Building with conviction versus consensus

(42:41) Lessons from a three-time founder

(50:26) Building and distributing Crossbeam

(57:58) The “joint jam” sales tactic

(60:35) Unlocking network effects in a software business

(63:27) Why Crossbeam merged with its competitor

(72:51) Who had an outsized impact on Bob