The Art of Stacking S-Curves: Olo’s Winning Vertical SaaS Strategy with CFO Peter Benevides

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Mar 24, 2025

Peter Benevides, CFO of Olo, dives into the world of vertical SaaS, detailing how Olo expanded strategically into payments. He explains the art of stacking S-curves to grow revenue while maintaining customer satisfaction without raising the take-rate. The discussion highlights the delicate balance of subscription and consumption-based pricing models tailored for restaurants. Peter also shares insights on the unique challenges of selling to franchise businesses and how innovative tech enhances guest engagement, all while navigating the realities of CFO life.

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INSIGHT

Payments and TAM

Olo's expansion into payments increased their total addressable market (TAM) in two ways. It opened up opportunities in GMV monetization and expanded the TAM for their Engage product suite.

INSIGHT

Payments as a Strategic Tool

Olo views payments as a way to understand customer behavior and inform broader business decisions. This goes beyond driving transactions to include site expansion and menu design.

ADVICE

Adding Payments Advice

Understand your customers' pain points by speaking with them directly.
Test your assumptions about value proposition with a subset of customers before broader rollout.

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In this episode, CJ is joined by Peter Benevides, CFO of Olo, a leading vertical SaaS company powering digital ordering, payments, and guest engagement solutions for popular restaurant brands. Peter explains how Olo successfully expanded into payments and used this as a strategic advantage. He breaks down how the company stacks S-curves through continued product expansion and adoption, and how this enables them to increase revenue without increasing the take-rate. The conversation also covers pricing strategy and how Olo balances subscription and consumption-based models. Peter also sheds light on what it's like selling into franchise businesses and lessons learned from other vertical SaaS companies like Veeva.

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@cjgustafson222 (CJ)

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(01:53) Sponsor – NetSuite | RightRev | Planful

(05:24) An Introduction to Olo

(08:34) Reaching Larger and Smaller Enterprises

(10:34) The Focus on Guest-Facing Technology

(13:22) The Evolution of Payments at Olo

(16:38) Sponsor – Brex | Vanta | Tropic

(20:33) The Card-Not-Present Offering and Fraud

(23:50) Knowing Who Your Guest Is and Olo’s Extended Value Prop

(32:04) Stacking S-Curves

(33:30) Increasing Revenue Without Increasing the Take-Rate

(36:27) How the Payments Module Makes Other Products Stickier

(37:39) Advice to CFOs Looking to Add Payments

(39:11) Pricing Subscription and Consumption-Based Products

(42:35) Forecasting and the Predictability of This Model

(44:43) Vertical Software Company Case Study: Veeva

(49:06) Working with Franchises

(53:42) Long-Ass Lightning Round: Planning for the Future

(56:16) Advice to Younger Self

(58:48) Finance Software Stack

(59:24) Craziest Expense Story

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