S2E2: Building a $1B Company with Only 100 Employees | Elias Torres (Agency)

Elias Torres, founder of Agency and formerly Drift (which sold for $1.2B), joins us to explain why he considers that exit his "biggest failure" and how he's reimagining business building in the age of AI with his new company, Agency.

The Billion-Dollar Failure That Wasn't

Despite selling Drift for $1.2 billion, Elias surprisingly calls it his "biggest failure." Why? Because his ambition was to build a $30 billion company that would go public:

"My mind for Drift was we were gonna build a $30 billion company. We were gonna take it IPO... And that did not happen, right?"

This stark honesty sets the tone for our conversation about what truly matters in company building.

The "100 People to $1B" Constraint

Elias's new mission is radical: build a billion-dollar company with only 100 employees. It's not just a catchy slogan—it's a deliberate constraint:

"I'm trying to create a constraint, right? Because a constraint forces creativity. You have to learn how to manage cost."

In his view, when companies grow to hundreds or thousands of employees, the mission changes from serving customers to managing humans:

"When you have too many people, it becomes a whole different job... Your focus is how do you feed all those mouths? How do you guide them? How do you coach them? How do you manage their emotions?... It becomes no longer the mission of the company."

Why "Seat Pricing Is Dead"

Perhaps the most provocative stance Elias takes is on pricing. He doesn't mince words:

"I think that seat pricing is dead. I think people ask me all the time and they say, how are you planning to charge it? You know, is it per seat? I think it's a stupidity to charge per seat nowadays."

Instead, he's eyeing a percentage of customer revenue—the ultimate alignment:

"Why couldn't I have a percentage of your revenue? And that's what I want. Right? It's like, if you don't make money, I don't make money."

First Hire: A Lawyer, Not a Recruiter

One fascinating contrast: Elias's first hire at Drift was a recruiter. At Agency? A lawyer. This subtle shift reveals everything about his new approach to scaling:

"Most companies delay hiring someone like that. And the founders spent all this time doing all the legal, all the contracting, all the payment, all the financing, all the budgeting."

By immediately delegating administrative functions, he's guarding his most precious resource—time.

The Extrovert Becoming an Introvert

In a moment of candid self-reflection, Elias (a self-described extrovert) admits:

"I'm becoming more of an introvert with age, right? And I realized that I don't want to interact with people, especially if it is to troubleshoot something for 20 days in a row. It's like, why can't it just work?"

This personal evolution mirrors his professional thesis: humans are the "hardest roadblock" to AI adoption, yet they'll increasingly prefer automated solutions that just work.

The Secret Lever Most Founders Miss

The conversation took a turn when Elias revealed the most underrated growth lever:

"Pricing is the most important lever in terms of effort... you make one subtle change to your CPQ or to how you or the number that you charge as the platform price... And that could make or break your business, right? You can increase revenue 50%, you can double revenue."

For founders chasing product excellence or distribution, this reminder about pricing's leverage feels like uncovering a secret weapon.

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