As live music events finally begin to return to stages and venues, Prism.fm co-founder Matt Ford chatted with the GetLatka team about how his entertainment B2B SaaS survived the pandemic. The 30-something founder, a self-described entrepreneur, engineer, creator, and artist built Prism.fm to make live event planning easier. He discussed the silver lining for Prism.fm from the 2-year global shutdown, what revenue streams he added, his ultimate vision for Prism.fm, and what he’s eyeing to add next to the business.
- $150,000 MRR
- 240 customers
- “lean” team of 20
- $9m total funding to date, including Series A
$100,000 pre-pandemic MRR for Prism.fm quickly grows to $150,000 MRR in March 2022
According to co-founder Ford, before the global pandemic shut down virtually all live in-person events, Prism.fm was up and running, doing about $100,000 in MRR serving venues and promoters. While the number stagnated as events stalled, Ford leaned into optimizing his product. He came out in early 2022, launching a new revenue stream, which is already gaining momentum.
Added a 3rd line instead of pivoting
While Ford admitted that there was a moment during the pandemic when it was “hard to see the other side,” he stayed focused on the notion that the pandemic would end up being “a brief moment in time.” Instead of pivoting, he tackled the third leg of the live music tripod by adding a SaaS product aimed at talent agents and their bands. Now, Prism.fm is poised to make money from all three stakeholders in the live music business: the venue, the promoter, and the talent.
$8,000 ACV
Although a few legacy promoter clients still pay only $1-2,000 per year, the average Prism.fm customer pays the SaaS $8,000 annually. Co-founder Ford revealed that their largest enterprise client pays roughly $250,000 per year for SaaS access. Ford reminisced about the early days when he shared, “Promoters were beating us up at $1,000 per year at launch. It was only pure faith that I kept running the business at that point. Now some are paying $250,000 per year.” He added, “With this new paradigm shift, it’s encouraging to have customers pay us for our service.”
6 months into beta of new revenue stream with 20 happy customers
According to Ford, Prism.fm currently gets 90% of its revenue from the “mature side” of the business: the venues and promoters. The recently launched talent portion makes up only 10% but is quickly growing. The co-founder explained, “We are 6 months into beta, and the customers are loving it. We are adding a small list of to-dos.” Why is Ford so excited about such a small portion of the business? Because he’s now closing in on his vision to be the ubiquitous solution for all sides of the live music marketplace.
$250,000 enterprise client understood value after DIY
Co-Founder Ford revealed that their best enterprise customer, a company that launched a $100 million initiative to buy music venues, tried to build their own system. Quickly they understood the value that Prism.fm offered. “They knew how much it costs (to build your own system). We didn’t have to convince them of the value,” he revealed. Ford added that the client only pays for SaaS fees (not consulting) but that their insights are helping focus Prism’s efforts on what features to roll out.
$9m in total funds raised to date, less than $60m post-valuation
Ford shared that the company raised its first round of funding ($1m) in 2017. In 2019, they took out a bridge note that converted in late 2021. Latka queried Ford about the interest rate and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he negotiated a reasonable 3.5% annual rate. All told, Prism.fm raised $9m and has given up 10-15% equity in their Series A round. Without providing exact numbers, Ford confirmed that the post-money valuation was under $60m.
Lean team of 20 full-time employees for Prism.fm
Although co-founder Ford didn’t share the breakdown of engineers and sales, he did reveal that his team of 20 is “lean” and healthy. With an eye on the bottom line, Ford shared that they may raise again and are focusing on profitability. “We are healthy. We reinvented ourselves during the pandemic, and now we are a much better, more profitable future company,” he proclaimed.
6 months from ubiquity, transaction fee model a horizon project
Latka queried Ford about the size of the transactions that his customer base managers. “It’s in the billions,” replied Ford. Latka eagerly asked how the percent fee transaction model fits into their future, as Ford explained that they “sit close to the payment stream.” Ford chuckled and responded, “You just called out our playbook. We already track, account for, and invoice payments. But there’s extreme price sensitivity,” he cautioned. Ford reiterated that he’s expecting Prism.fm to “complete its mission” of being the ubiquitous solution for the live music industry in 6 months and that solving the transaction fee challenge is a horizon project.
Famous 5
Matt Ford recalled that the last book he read, which he raved about, was Leonardo Da Vinci’s biography by Walter Isaacson. When asked about a CEO he follows, Matt admitted that he likes to follow artists that think like a business CEO. He noted that he recently heard Grimes on a podcast and found her to be “super-smart and interesting.” Matt’s first thought about a favorite online tool to build Prism.fm was Referral Rock. He said it’s a great CRM referral program at an unbeatable price point. Matt sleeps 7-8 hours per night, adding that he believes he must sleep, meditate, and exercise daily to maintain the energy he needs to run his company. He’s single with one son. Matt beamed that his son is a big thinker who has already submitted toy ideas to both Lego and Mattel. 33-year-old Matt wishes when he was 20, he would have known the importance of emotional health. “Prioritize your emotional health as your life and success depend on it because it probably does,” he concluded.
