JB: Did you think about raising money at all?
Nope, didn’t even know what raising money was. I didn’t know that was a thing.
I didn’t go to any community events, didn’t even know they existed. I was just trying to build a business. I didn’t know there were these amazing organizations and community events, I wish I had. And today, fast forward 10 years, it’s a lot easier to find value-add events like those.
JB: Let’s go back to those 40 leads that became customers, what was your onboarding process like?
GB: It took some trial and error but the doctors were skeptical. They said there was no way our software could schedule for their specific program. I told them, “Okay, I don’t like to buy things unless I try it out first so, why don’t we onboard you and then you’ll have 90 days to cancel.” We charged for the onboarding and then all of them ended up paying for the product after 90 days. We didn’t have our first churned customer until late 2012!
JB: How did you onboard all of these customers when it was just you?
GB: We hired our first employee who is still an employee today, Lori. She did everything from sales, marketing, support, and has gradually shifted into Operations as the company has grown. She was employee #1.
This all leads me to say that at the end of ‘08 we had around 100 paying customers and were around $400K in ARR.
In ‘09 we hit our $1 Million ARR target and the whole time were extremely profitable. The concept of spending more than we brought for the sake of growth did not occur to me at that time, I was just trying to build a good ol’ fashioned business but with software as the product. We’ve never burned money, not once—but it’s something I would do different. I was building a parlor type business but the difference was customers kept paying each month or year and the software was doing the work.
JB: It seems so simple. What were some of the key takeaways getting to $1 Million ARR?
GB: The pricing model worked. We could bring on sales reps and they got paid and it was worth it to them and the company. Churn was just about non-existent. There were one or two onboardings that we learned from. We didn’t do any outbound except 5-6 trade shows a year. We just met the customer where they were.
JB: Now bring us to today, because there are a few other items I want to make sure we cover, including Francisco Partners’ investment and TechRise.
GB: Sure. We kept building in 2011, and then 2012 Venture Atlanta was a big deal for us. I think Bird Blitch called me out of the blue and said, “Hey, Venture Atlanta would really love to have you participate.” We weren’t fundraising, no one had ever heard of us. We had a couple million in revenue as well as a couple million in the bank. I ended up doing it to network and meet some folks. I did it and it was a phenomenal experience. I ended up meeting David Cummings at a dinner that week, who just a few weeks earlier had sold Pardot.
After Venture Atlanta, we hired 4 BDRs and 2 Account Executives, including Frank Tumminia. Beforehand, we were all inbound.
JB: And then y’all were off to the races?
GB: Yes, we were off to the races! At the end of 2013 we were around 20 employees and today we’re over 200. Francisco Partners came in around June of 2016. In revenue terms, we went from $5 Million ARR (2014), to $10 Million ARR (2015), to $20 Million ARR (2016).
JB: Why did you take chips off the table growing so fast?
GB: In 2014, we began getting very serious offers from strategic buyers. We received one formal offer. They gave us a term sheet, flew down here, met with us, and the offer wasn’t what we believed the business was worth. They ended up acquiring another company in 2015. This was a multi-billion dollar company and their game plan was to take the existing customers they had and spread that offering to them. That event caused me to really think about what we needed to do for QGenda to compete, because if they started executing on that plan, we needed to be ready and we needed to be sophisticated enough to ensure QGenda would be around for the next decade. That was when we called our investment bankers to start the process in approaching a private equity group that was healthcare specific.
JB: Three years later, how did the acquisition of your competitor by the strategic buyer turn out?
GB: We don’t run into them at all.
JB: Interesting.
GB: Yeah, the way I look at raising money is this. We literally brute forced our way to $20 Million ARR. We didn’t really have a real CRM, we had little automation, we didn’t have any tools, we literally hustled our way there, which is incredible and speaks volumes to what Frank and the team did. But to go from $20 Million ARR to $100 Million ARR, you can’t brute force hustle your way into that. You still need to do hustle, but you have to be more strategic, thoughtful, and you have to know pattern recognition. These were all things we weren’t experts at. So it was all about getting with a group of investors who had done this before, with this type of company and so much of it is pattern recognition.
JB: Very insightful! So today, you’re still CEO of a very fast growing SaaS business, investor, and...building owner. What’s next? You’re still young, 35, right?
GB: 35, right. Everyone asks, “Why did you buy the building?” The idea for buying the building came back when we signed our lease at the Ravinia in ‘09. Here I was, a 25 year old kid signing a 4 your lease. We ran out of space in six months there with just the 10 people we had in the company. We ended up having people on different floors and different rooms and it affected our culture. We ended up getting through it, but it burned something in my mind around: ‘Why is this not easier for fast growing companies?” The idea was burned into my mind then, but I didn’t have the funds or the time or wherewithal to execute. After being fortunate enough to take some chips off the table with the private equity group, it resurfaced. I went through the pain and the QGendas of tomorrow—of which most are coming out of the ATV or ATDC (post 10-15 employees), I want to make sure those companies have a place to call home with flexible terms and space.
JB: Has the explosion of co-working space solved that problem? Better put, how is TechRise different from WeWork, Industrious, or Spaces?
GB: TechRise lets companies create their own identity. At all the other places, you’re part of their culture, even at Atlanta Tech Village—which, by the way, is crucial when you’re starting out, but at some point you have to break away. You have to start creating your own identity and defining what your own company’s culture is going to be, and that’s where we come in. We let you do it in the most flexible way in the entire Southeast.
JB: So entrepreneurs reading this who have 10 employees up to 150ish are a good fit?
GB: Exactly. A whole floor can have up to 150 people.
JB: Did you look at any other building besides the one you bought?
GB: We looked at three or four buildings in the Buckhead area. We knew we wanted the first one to be in Buckhead.
JB: Nice. Will the next one be in Atlanta or another city?
GB: Atlanta.
JB: When is the first tenant moving in?
GB: September, 2018
JB: Great. Let’s wrap by putting on your investor hat. You’re still CEO and just closed a massive deal with QGenda.
GB: Yep, largest one in company history.
JB: Very cool. You’re also a building owner and you’ve got a team making that a success, you’re also investing, and QGenda is growing fast. Where do you spend your time?
GB: 90 percent of my time is on QGenda. We have something very special here and it has the potential to be very long-lasting for our customers, the Atlanta community, and our employees.
The other 10 percent is with TechRise and mentoring up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
I want to make a generational impact and I believe that is best done through entrepreneurship.