May 5, 2011 to Oct 12, 2020 — 9 years, 5 months to build a $3.2B SaaS company
Here’s some of the lowlights/highlights that come to mind:
Here’s some of the lowlights/highlights that come to mind:
2010: @asmith speaks at the MIT Founders Journey; after class, we ask him to drop by our dorm for a beer. To our complete surprise, he agrees
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙂" title="Leicht lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Leicht lächelndes Gesicht"> Meeting Adam inspired @calvinfo, @reinpk and I to startup together. Crazy how small actions can have such profound consequences.
2011: @paulg looks at 3 scared MIT kids and says: “I have a good feeling about you guys”. We celebrate by feasting on three complimentary bananas. (high point!)
2012: 2 years and 3 big pivots later, and we’re looking at a dwindling bank account. PG now says: “so you’ve burned half a million dollars and don’t have anything to show for it?”
2012: With a few months of runway left in the bank, @ianstormtaylor has an idea for a final pivot: a simple Analytics API for developers; we launch http://Segment.io"> http://Segment.io on HN, and developers seem to like it :)
2013: Now, 70+ companies are signing per week, we’re drowning in support tickets (and happy customers); the daily todo list looks like a week plan complete with frantic coding, sales calls, and recruiting emails.
2014: @hawkinsjon takes a huge bet on us by bringing us into XO Group. His conviction gives us the courage to pursue larger companies and build a sales team. Thank you for everything Jon!
2014: First board meeting is in the outdoor courtyard: my first question is “what are board minutes?” @jasonkwon laughs & remarks “this is my first board meeting outside”
2014: We’re having a lot of fun building product. To mark my heritage, I put “Russian Police - Get Lucky” on our 404/500 pages . C’mon its so good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vmkf_ZKexA">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
2016: we launch our first new products Warehouses & Sources: in weeks, hundreds of companies are using both. PMF feels good :)
2018: from humble beginnings, we move into our 7th and latest SF office (!!); from taking sales calls in a closet, we’ve upgraded to 20+ office rooms and 40k square feet; also higher rent!
2019: we launch our startup program: free Segment, free analytics+messaging stack, and YC growth bootcamps; this program has since provided analytics stacks to 10,000+ startups for free :)
2020: across the world, we have 550+ teammates working across SF, Vancouver, Denver, NYC, Dublin, London, and Sydney.
2020: we reach 20,000+ customers including companies Instacart, DigitalOcean, Glossier, Fox, VMWare, IBM who rely on Segment as their CDP. We are so grateful to all of you who believed in us.
Read on Twitter
Meeting Adam inspired @calvinfo, @reinpk and I to startup together. Crazy how small actions can have such profound consequences." title="2010: @asmith speaks at the MIT Founders Journey; after class, we ask him to drop by our dorm for a beer. To our complete surprise, he agrees https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙂" title="Leicht lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Leicht lächelndes Gesicht"> Meeting Adam inspired @calvinfo, @reinpk and I to startup together. Crazy how small actions can have such profound consequences." class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>