GE 253: How Evan Liang Went from a VC Straight Out of College to Running a SaaS Company Doing Almost $10M in ARR (podcast)

Hey, everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with Evan Liang CEO of LeanData, software that helps you visually manage leads and drive your sales process forward.

Tune in to hear how Evan discovered his love of entrepreneurship, how LeanData acquires customers, and how the company helps their clients become more account based.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Evan Liang Went from a VC Straight Out of College to Running a SaaS Company Doing Almost $10M in ARR TRANSCRIPT PDF

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:39] Before we jump into today’s interview, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [01:19] Evan started at a VC firm right out of college, which helped him find his passion for entrepreneurship.
• [02:18] He became a VC straight out of college, because it was the right time (the beginning of the bubble).
• [03:12] For B2C companies, the way LeanData works is pretty straightforward, whereas the methods for B2B’s is more complex.
• [04:10] LeanData seeks to deliver a better experience for those B2B companies.
• [04:00] They use a customer success team as opposed to junior salespeople when it comes to dealing with clients.
• [05:04] They charge on a per seed basis.
• [05:15] They are a little under $10 Million in ARR. Their goal is to double that within the next year.
• [06:26] LeanData worked with Cloudera, a fast-growing company that recently went public.
• [06:40] Their sales reps were getting too many leads and wasting time following up with the wrong people.
• [06:45] LeanData is helping them become more account based by making sure that they use matching and contextualization to determine if the lead is worth following up on.
• [09:20] They acquire customers on a face-to-face basis. They host events in order to bring “industry thought leaders together”.
• [09:42] They track their own ROI based on pipeline and attribution.
• [10:30] Caring.com is a site for eldercare resources at which Evan worked for a time.
• [11:31] Evan helped them build a directory for services and the site pivoted to focusing on that aspect.
• [13:05] Evan’s biggest challenge at LeanData is knowing when to scale, when to move quickly, and when to slow down.
• [14:10] Two years ago, when gearing up for fundraising, they hired a bunch of sales reps, but they hadn’t figure out the motion for each rep and they weren’t reaching their quotas.
• [14:25] When they missed their numbers, the company had to lay a lot of those people off.
• [15:03] Evan always makes sure to get 8 hours of sleep.
• [15:20] He also makes sure to takes breaks and check that he isn’t blocking anyone else from achieving their work goals.
• [15:45] Evan thinks Carta is a useful tool, as they make managing employee options a lot easier. They automated an offline process.
• [16:40] Evan recommends the book The Founder’s Dilemma.
• [17:26] He also likes to follow Jason Lemkin on Twitter and read Fred Wilson’s blog.

Resources From This Interview:

• Evan on Twitter
• Lean Data
• Cloudera
• Caring.com
• Must-read book: The Founder’s Dilemma by Noam Wasserman
• Jason Lemkin on Twitter
• Fred Wilson’s Blog

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