In 2005 most people didn't even have cellphones yet. Those who did used flip phones. That's when Noah started Olo, a webapp to let people pre-order coffee from nearby shops. Users had to login on web, add a credit card, create pre-made orders and then send a text to a preset number when they wanted to pre-order. It was way, way ahead of its time.
Noah and his team 7 years to hit $1M in ARR. In the meantime, they raised a round with 50% dilution the week before the financial crisis, went on live TV to an audience on 6M viewers and had to pivot from a marketplace to B2B SaaS.
But overtime smartphone penetration increased, on-demand ordering became a trend, and then, one day, Starbucks launched their app. All of a sudden, every single restaurant in the world wanted a way to let their users pre-order.
And there was Noah and his team at Olo.
Today, Olo is a public company worth over $1B and generating nearly $300M in sales. Here's the story of how it happened.
Why you should listen:
- How to use guerrilla marketing tactics to get early growth.
- Why PR can move the needle but not in ways you expect.
- How to pivot from a marketplace to B2B SaaS.
- Why it often takes much longer than you might hope to hit an inflection point.
- Why fundraising was so hard, even though Olo became a $1B+ public company.
- Why Noah thinks founders should embrace challenges and adversity.
Keywords
Olo, Noah Glass, entrepreneurship, product-market fit, restaurant technology, mobile ordering, startup journey, business challenges, marketing strategies, innovation
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:20) Building an app in 2005
(00:13:20) The Burn the Boats Moment
(00:16:31) Building A Network Business
(00:26:08) The Cold Start Problem
(00:30:33) A Happy Accident
(00:36:55) Going through the 2008 Financial Crisis
(00:51:20) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:57:20) Blueprint of Values
(01:05:11) Best Piece of Advice
(01:06:08) A Big Milestone
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