No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
LATKA - B2B SaaS Blog
  • Full SaaS Database
  • Metrics
    • ARR
    • ARPU
    • ACV
    • CAC
    • Churn Rate
    • Run Rate
    • TCV
  • Analysis
  • Lists
  • Bootstrapped
  • Venture Backed
  • By Revenue
    • <$1m
    • $1-10m
    • $10-50m
    • Unicorn ($100m+)
  • By Category (A-E)
    • Analytics Software
    • Artificial Intelligence Software
    • Collaboration & Productivity Software
    • Content Experience Software
    • Content Management Systems
    • CRM & Related Software
    • Development Software
    • Digital Advertising Platforms
    • E-Commerce Software
    • ERP Software
  • By Category (H-Z)
    • Hosting Providers
    • HR Software
    • IT Management Software
    • Office Software
    • Online Appointment Scheduling Software
    • Project Management Software
    • Security Software
    • Supply Chain & Logistics Software
    • Value-Added Resellers (VARS)
    • Vertical Industry Software
  • Full SaaS Database
  • Metrics
    • ARR
    • ARPU
    • ACV
    • CAC
    • Churn Rate
    • Run Rate
    • TCV
  • Analysis
  • Lists
  • Bootstrapped
  • Venture Backed
  • By Revenue
    • <$1m
    • $1-10m
    • $10-50m
    • Unicorn ($100m+)
  • By Category (A-E)
    • Analytics Software
    • Artificial Intelligence Software
    • Collaboration & Productivity Software
    • Content Experience Software
    • Content Management Systems
    • CRM & Related Software
    • Development Software
    • Digital Advertising Platforms
    • E-Commerce Software
    • ERP Software
  • By Category (H-Z)
    • Hosting Providers
    • HR Software
    • IT Management Software
    • Office Software
    • Online Appointment Scheduling Software
    • Project Management Software
    • Security Software
    • Supply Chain & Logistics Software
    • Value-Added Resellers (VARS)
    • Vertical Industry Software
NEWSLETTER
LATKA - B2B SaaS Blog
No Result
View All Result
Home Workplace Management

Founder of $6m SaaS Pingboard Replaces Himself as CEO To Grow Faster

by Nathan Latka
April 25, 2022
in Workplace Management
5 min read
0
pingboard graph
2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As SaaS Pingboard closes in on its tenth anniversary, co-founder and CEO Bill Boebel made the hard decision to step down as CEO to help scale the SaaS organization chart tool’s business. Boebel and newly appointed CEO Laith Dahiyat recently sat down with the Latka team to discuss what drove Boebel to make this choice, how he found his replacement Dahiyat, and what the two of them expect next from Pingboard.

Bill Boebel Co-founded Pingboard in 2013 with Robert Eanes, CTO. The company grew from a $240,000 run rate in 2014 to $5m in 2020. That’s when CEO Boebel recognized that he was starting to struggle as the team grew to 40. Instead of letting his ego get in the way, Boebel spoke to his board and decided to make a change together, bringing Laith Dahiyat, former GM of Weedmaps, in as the new CEO after an 11-month search.

  • Team of 40 dropped to 25 during COVID
  • 2,500 customers, 2X from 2018
  • $7.5m raised to date, all Seed Rounds

CEO Realization in 2020 as Team Grows to 40

CEO Boebel realized that managing a small staff of 25 was his sweet spot. As his team grew to 40 in 2020, doing $5m in revenue pre-COVID, Boebel sensed that he was out of his element. He began to doubt his ability to scale Pingboard to the next level.

COVID Hits, Cutbacks to a Team of 25 Delay Plans

The global pandemic delayed Boebel’s plans to explore his replacement. Instead, he faced the challenge of scaling back his team. During this time, the Pingboard staff was cut to 25, and Boebel again managed to run the organization comfortably. However, as soon as the world began to open up again, Pinboard’s growth began clicking, and they again were “hiring like crazy.”

Support From Board in 2021

Once growth accelerated again for Pingboard, Boebel talked to the board about how to proceed. He explained that they asked him good, tough questions, including “do you want to be CEO in this phase?” Boebel said he thought about it for 30 seconds, then answered “no.” From there, the search was on to find the right CEO to scale Pingboard to the next level.

11-Month Search and Hire

Boebel explained that they hired an executive search firm, Caldwell, to help conduct the search, which lasted 11 months. Caldwell charged a standard 30% of the year-one salary for their services. Boebel quipped that half of that time was taken to decide on what the ideal profile of that right person would look like.

Caldwell Guided the Scorecard Process for a Product Expert

Boebel explained that although Caldwell had a scorecard process, he and the board had specific priorities for their ideal candidate. Pingboard needed a CEO who already had expertise with product and product-led growth. Boebel noted, “it takes a special person to understand the mechanics of how to engineer a well-oiled self-serve machine,” reiterating that, “We still don’t have a sales team today.”

Initial Meetings Quickly Accelerated to Future Strategy

Boebel first met Laith Dahiyat in January 2022. The Co-Founder and Weedmaps GM had overlapping connections in Austin and San Antonio but had never directly met. Boebel explained that “after the first meeting or two, Laith was different from the other candidates. We talked strategy quickly. Dahiyat added, “We started asking each other what is Pingboard, what it wants to be, and how it needs to evolve?”

Dahiyat: Super Intense, Dashboards Guy

Latka connected with Chargify’s Marcus Nicholson and asked him to describe Dahiyat. According to Nicholson, “Laith is a super-intense dashboards guy.”. Dahiyat chuckled at the description, explaining that he does use metrics to drive accountability and growth. Dahiyat explained that he and Nicholson launched Chargify together and that, yes, he is easily excitable about business, adding, “I love wins, and I love collaboration.”

Targeting 40% YOY Growth in the Next 12 Months

New CEO Dahiyat bluntly noted, “I am here to accelerate growth. It’s current at 26% YOY at $6.3m. I am targeting 40%+ growth in the next 12 months.” Latka quickly noted that to make most VCs happy, growth should be much higher than 40%, at which point Dahiyat stated that his target was purposefully conservative and has not yet been fully vetted by the board.

50-500 Employees as the Sweet Spot

Pingboard now realizes that their sweet spot is upper SMB/ lower mid-market companies with 50-500 team members. “A company has to have grown enough to realize they need the tool, and once they’re over 500 members they will be using an enterprise tool,” explained Dahiyat.

40% Growth in the Base

According to Boebel, there’s 40% growth potential in the base of 2,500 customers through upsells. “We’ve already had some success with the support-level model,” adding that the “Pingboard demo drives adoption and then assisted base.” Dahiyat added that although the new customer ARPU is $150, they closed a $1,200/month deal on April Fool’s Day. “It was no joke,” he quipped.

Scaling $6m B2B SaaS companies to $20m

According to Dahiyat, as GM at Weedmaps, he oversaw the entire B2B SaaS division at a $240m company. His roots and expertise before Weedmaps was scaling $6m+ B2B SaaS companies to $20m. He chose to join Pingboard because of its strong Board of Directors.

Series A in 12 months?

Dahiyat explained that Pingboard focuses on methodical growth instead of closing $50-100m in funding to “burn and grow.” Boebel and Dahiyat indicated an openness to exploring a Series A round a year or so. Meanwhile, Dahiyat plans to “under-promise and over-deliver.”

Continuing Touch Zero Operating Plan

Latka asked Boebel to restate his “Touch Zero Operating Plan”. From the beginning, Boebel wanted to get profitable with each round of funding before moving on to another funding round. He added that if you have a certain amount of cash, you need to invest it. He believes the best way to optimize a business is to invest all, and touch zero in the bank. “Its easy to raise money if you are doing well,” he added.

Engagement and Retention for Remote Teams

Pingboard is well situated to capitalize on the growth of remote teams as they hone their focus to keeping employees engaged and happy, as employers look for advantages to increase retention. “We don’t have the story told well yet,” noted Dahiyat. Pingboard is adding features like networking, recognition, and Slack integration in an attempt to attract People Ops teams. To increase retention, and engagement, “today’s employees want continuous feedback, 1:1 meetings, and other tools to see who’s doing well in real-time,” Dahiyat explained.

VC Series A vs. Buyout?

Lakta observed that Pingboard could make an ideal acquisition for massive companies like Vista Equity, K1 and others, and asked Dahiyat how he would balance a VC Series A funding deal vs. a buyout offer. Dahiyat exclusively replied that they believe Pingboard has lots of runway and opportunity for growth.

3 Seed Rounds Total $7.5m

So far Pingboard has raised a total of $7.5m over three seed rounds, with 40 angel investors. Latka noted that Pingboard is very capital-efficient with a high revenue per employee. He applauds Boebel for taking a step back, to which Boebel responded, “A lot more founders should replace themselves, Nathan.”

Fast Five with Laith Dahiyat

New Pingboard CEO Laith Dahiyat’s favorite current book is Good to Great by Jim Collins. Laith’s favorite tool to help build business is Google Sheets. As a father of 2 children under 2, he sleeps an average of 6 hours per night, but “only in two-hour blocks.” He is 47 and married. He wishes at 20 he had known and understood the importance of mentors, and building relationships as a young professional.

 

Tags: SaaS

Recommended

Her Best Friend Dies, She Launches Trials.ai to Help Solve Problem

Her Best Friend Dies, She Launches Trials.ai to Help Solve Problem

Venture Backed

4 years ago
A Complete Guide to SaaS Pricing Strategies & Models in 2022

A Complete Guide to SaaS Pricing Strategies & Models in 2022

Business

8 months ago
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
16 Steps Outreach.io Took To Build a $1.1 Billion SaaS Company

16 Steps Outreach.io Took To Build a $1.1 Billion SaaS Company

Analysis

March 13, 2022
How ClickFunnels Built a $160m Revenue Empire, $5 Billion+ Exit in 2023?

How ClickFunnels Built a $160m Revenue Empire, $5 Billion+ Exit in 2023?

Bootstrapped

January 16, 2023
Top SaaS Companies in Canada

Top SaaS Companies in Canada By Revenue in 2019

Analysis

February 9, 2020
Top 100 San Francisco SaaS Companies

Top 100 San Francisco SaaS Companies

News

April 14, 2020
Stratifyd: 0% Churn on $300k in MRR

Stratifyd: 0% Churn on $300k in MRR

Why Fixing Hotel Operations Has Netted RoomChecking $45k in MRR

Why Fixing Hotel Operations Has Netted RoomChecking $45k in MRR

How Brax Crossed $40k in MRR with Just 3 Employees

How Brax Crossed $40k in MRR with Just 3 Employees

How Skycision Has Used Drones to Help Farmers and Cross $11k in MRR

How Skycision Has Used Drones to Help Farmers and Cross $11k in MRR

Surefire Local

Surefire Local just raised $10m to hit $30m in ARR, how the king of capital efficiency did it

Marketing Software

November 7, 2022
Paddle

Paddle and Profitwell $75m Combined ARR, Whats Next After $200m Deal

Subscriptions & Tax

November 3, 2022
sumsub

SumSub did $1m ARR to $50m in 28 months. This SaaS is a secret unicorn.

Verification Solutions

November 2, 2022
Copado

DevOps tool Copado breaks $400m valuation, as new CEO ushers in 100% YoY growth with founders

DevOps

October 31, 2022

Popular Posts

What Is ARR? 2020 Guide

15 Types Of Revenue Models

Run Rate: Why Is It Important? 

How Do You Increase ARPU?

What Is Burn Rate?

Venture Debt: 50+ Options

How To Calculate Revenue Growth

Rule Of 40 For SaaS

SaaS By City

San Francisco

Boston

Chicago

New York

Seattle 

Atlanta

San Diego

Los Angeles

SEE ALL

SaaS By Industry

Analytics

Collaboration & Productivity

Content Management

CRM

ERP

HR

Healthcare

Marketing

SEE ALL

Learn More

SaaS Database

Community

Podcast

Magazine

Book

© Nathan Latka, Inc. Palo Alto, CA

No Result
View All Result
  • Full SaaS Database
  • Metrics
    • ARR
    • ARPU
    • ACV
    • CAC
    • Churn Rate
    • Run Rate
    • TCV
  • Analysis
  • Lists
  • Bootstrapped
  • Venture Backed
  • By Revenue
    • <$1m
    • $1-10m
    • $10-50m
    • Unicorn ($100m+)
  • By Category (A-E)
    • Analytics Software
    • Artificial Intelligence Software
    • Collaboration & Productivity Software
    • Content Experience Software
    • Content Management Systems
    • CRM & Related Software
    • Development Software
    • Digital Advertising Platforms
    • E-Commerce Software
    • ERP Software
  • By Category (H-Z)
    • Hosting Providers
    • HR Software
    • IT Management Software
    • Office Software
    • Online Appointment Scheduling Software
    • Project Management Software
    • Security Software
    • Supply Chain & Logistics Software
    • Value-Added Resellers (VARS)
    • Vertical Industry Software

©Nathan Latka, Inc. Palo Alto, CA

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In