SaaS Fundraising: How to Raise $20 Million for Your SaaS Startup
Pini Yakuel is the co-founder and CEO of Optimove, a SaaS product that uses its predictive customer modeling technology to help marketers understand customers and create personalized marketing campaigns.
The company was founded in 2009. It initially started out as a consulting business. And the co-founders used the consulting revenue to fund the SaaS business.
In 2012, they were offered $1.5 million in VC funding and turned it down. They continued self-funding the business until this year, when they raised $20 million in their first round.
Optimove is based in Tel Aviv and has offices in New York and London.
Getting to $10K MRR
Weekly coaching, proven frameworks, and a community of early-stage founders.
Learn More →
Scaling to $1M ARR
Strategic guidance, direct mentorship, and a peer group of 6-figure founders.
Learn More →
In This Episode You Will Learn
- How the co-founders came up with the right business idea
- How they were able to self-fund the business
- Why they walked away from $1.5 million in VC funding
- How they grew their idea into a business with over 100 employees
- How the founders raised $20 million in VC funding 4 years later
The Show Notes
Recommended Podcast Episodes
- From Bootstrapping Struggles to a $60M Exit and Beyond - with Bob Moore [396]
- Text Request: Bootstrapping a $15 Million ARR SaaS Company - with Brian Elrod [367]
- Kumospace: From $1M ARR to a Pivot Driven by Churn - with Brett Martin [384]
- Overcoming Rejection to Build a High-Growth SaaS Business - with Suneera Madhani [276]
- PSPDFKit: Bootstrapping a SaaS $20K to $1M ARR in 8 Months - with Jonathan Rhyne [407]
- UserZoom: Getting to $100M ARR by Falling in Love with a Problem - with Alfonso de…
- Lessons on Perseverance from a SaaS Startup That Almost Failed - with Panos Siozos [264]
- Banzai: Pivoting from a Near Collapse to 8 Figure ARR SaaS - with Joe Davy [371]
- Command AI: Mastering Cold Emails to Grow a 7-Figure SaaS - with James Evans [385]
- What to Do When No One Will Pay for Your SaaS Product - with Ryan Born [228]