SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 838: SaaS: Conga Passes 9,000 Customers, $77m Raised for Documents, Contract, and Data Management
Nov 9, 2017
31:16
Matthew Schiltz. He's an experienced, senior executive with a proven track record in building successful, high growth technology and cloud companies ranging from the private startup stage to public companies. He's responsible for his current company, Conga, and its growth strategy which includes financing, driving global sales and expanding product offerings. His extensive executive management and leadership experience is driving strong company growth which has resulted in several Inc 500, Fast 50 and Top 100 Places to Work awards. Past CEO successes include Insightful Corporation, CourtLink, DocuSign, Tier 3 and Blue Box Group. He has received several industry accolades in recognition of his past successes and is considered an expert on software, technology, and cloud business practices.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- What CEO do you follow? – Dan Springer
- Favorite online tool? — Email
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-7
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Matt would let others know that SaaS technology is about the people
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:58 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show
- 03:07 – Matt is the first professional CEO hired for DocuSign
- 03:38 – Matt was also recruited by the board of Conga as their CEO
- 04:41 – Matt has worked with founders who are great in product and technology, but were not able to grow their company as a CEO
- 05:25 – The partnership with DocuSign's founder was a successful experience
- 06:18 – Conga is one of the top 5 global ISV (Independent Software Vendors) in the Salesforce ecosystem
- 06:44 – Conga specializes in data and electronic contracts
- 06:57 – They take live, Salesforce data and turns it into dynamic documents that are automated
- 07:21 – Conga is pure SaaS play
- 07:45 – Renewal rate is astronomically high
- 08:08 – Conga has a negative revenue churn
- 08:44 – Conga has a mix of mid-market and enterprise customers
- 10:30 – The customers pay directly on the number of seats
- 11:05 – Customers can start with one product, then expand to five products
- 11:55 – Conga's customer base is two thirds midmarket and one third enterprise
- 12:33 – Conga's document generation product pricing starts at $200 monthly for 10 seats
- 12:59 – "It's a pretty low risk threshold"
- 13:30 – The Salesforce AppExchange is the number one customer vehicle for Conga
- 16:06 – 80% of Conga's customers regard them as offering a critical tool that they need to use
- 17:00 – Conga has over 9000 customers globally
- 17:30 – Conga is growing quickly
- 18:03 – Conga grew 200% last year and another 100% this year
- 19:59 – Conga is in a typical gross margin rate
- 20:10 – The majority of Conga is owned by Insight Venture Partners of New York
- 20:46 – Conga has announced Salesforce Ventures as a strategic investor in May 2017
- 21:15 – Matt shares how they decide which companies to acquire
- 21:50 – Is it a good strategic fit for Conga?
- 22:02 – Is it a great people fit?
- 22:30 – Conga has 250-500 employees
- 23:53 – Matt shares his thoughts on Conga taking the IPO route as a funding event
- 25:05 – DocuSign just announced their intention to go public
- 27:35 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Not all founders can grow their business; the right CEO can be the answer.
- The growth of a company isn't based solely on the product, but the people who are behind it.
- The IPO route for funding is a fantastic place to start.
Resources Mentioned:
- Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
- The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
- GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
- Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives