They hit $100M ARR—in a "crowded market". Here's how they got to $1M ARR in just 18 months. | Don Mal, Co-Founder of Vena Solutions

Don co-founded Vena & was CEO for 8 years. Last month, Vena became a Centaur crossing $100M in ARR.

Don & his team launched Vena in a crowded market, where everyone else was trying to replace excel. So they built a budgeting and planning (FP&A) solution that instead leveraged excel. As Don says, they "disrupted the disruptors".

Don knew the problem, he knew the space, he knew the customers— that’s why he grew from 0 to $1M in ARR in 18 months.

Here's exactly how he did it.

Why you should listen

•  How to close the first few customers
• How to close 6-figure deals without any proof points
• Having knowledge and a network in the industry you're entering makes it easier to find success as a founder.
• In crowded markets, a differentiated approach and the ability to solve pain points for customers are key to standing out.
• Why there's no feeling like the satisfaction of taking an idea and product to market, working with great people, and seeing others succeed.

Keywords
startup, scaling, Vena Solutions, network, crowded markets, budgeting and planning, differentiation, pain points, revenue intelligence, SaaS, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, venture capital

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:36) The Beginning of Vena Solutions
(00:06:06) Step 1 of Vena
(00:09:35) First Conversations
(00:11:09)The Market in Planning
(00:17:50) The Market in Workflow
(00:20:02) Wealth Fargo
(00:22:23) Getting to a Million
(00:26:05) The Biggest ROI
(00:29:03) Una
(00:34:33) Not Retiring
(00:35:55) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:38:29)One Piece of Advice

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