The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Monday.com: Scaling from $6M to $120M in ARR in 3 Years | How Monday Have Built the Best Performance Marketing Engine in SaaS | Going Upmarket, International and Multi-Product; The Biggest Lessons and Mistakes with Eran Zinman
Fri, 17 Jan 2025
The story of Monday.com is insane, turned down by most VCs, then scaled from $6M to $120M ARR in just three years. Today the company is public with a market cap of $12BN. Joining us in the hotseat today is Monday's Co-Founder and CEO, Eran Zinman. In Today's Episode with Eran Zinman We Discuss: 03:03 The Role of Video Games in Founders' Success 04:12 The Fail That Taught a $10BN Founder Everything 09:40 Pivoting to a $12BN Company: How, When and Advice on Pivots 14:15 Why 99% of Investors Turned Monday Down: Fundraising Lessons 17:05 Building a Performance Marketing Engine 21:25 How to Scale ACV and Move Upmarket 28:54 What Have Been the Most Effective Marketing Strategies 29:08 How Have Monday Been So Successful with Youtube Ads? 29:43 Biggest Challenges and Lessons in Channel Spend 30:50 Building a Multi-Product Strategy: The Rise of Monday CRM 34:37 Competing in the SaaS Market: Is Competition Good? 39:30 The IPO Journey: Why Then? Pros and Cons of Being Public? 42:38 How a Co-CEO Structure Works 43:55 How to Manage a Board 45:04 Quick-Fire Q&A
Full Episode
It was still hard for us to raise funds back in the days because people didn't get the idea. We grew from 6 million of ARR to 18 the year after, and then from 18 to 50, and 50 to 120 in three years. What I found about founders is that you try to avoid the hardest things in your business. If something is very painful, that's the right time to get into it and fix it.
The story of Monday.com is insane, turned down by 99% of VCs. The company then scaled from $6 million in ARR to 120 in just three years. Today, the company is public with a market cap of $12 billion. They have an incredible co-CEO structure, which is very strange. And Aaron, the guest today, does not use email. I'm so excited to bring this one to you today.
Joining us in the hot seat, we have Monday's co-founder and co-CEO, Aaron Zinman. This is a special one. But before we leave you today, Harvard Management Company is constantly seeking out the next generation of great investors and entrepreneurs. HMC has managed Harvard University's endowment for nearly 50 years and was one of the first institutional investors in venture capital.
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You have now arrived at your destination. Aran, I am so excited for this. I heard so many great things from Avi, from Nino, from Rajiv. I spoke to pretty much the whole cap table. It was a lot of fun. But thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me. I'm excited for this. Oh, so am I. I've wanted to do it for a while. I'm like the biggest Monday nerd. I love that.
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