Darian Shirazi. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Radius. He was an early employee at Facebook and worked on the” Sell Your Item” Team at eBay. He’s founded, invested, and advised many successful technology companies. Prior to starting Radius, Darian studied Computer Science and Philosophy at UC Berkeley. He’s also a prominent keen speaker at Top of Technology Innovation.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – The Essays of Warren Buffet What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Yesware Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “How much harder building the business is than you originally thought and how once you get to scale how amazing it feels.”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:42 – Nathan introduces Darian to the show 02:15 – Darian shares about his time with Facebook 02:30 – Darian’s favorite project on Facebook was Facelift 02:45 – Darian shares what he thinks of Mark Zuckerberg 03:30 – Darian can’t think of a time when Mark was at odds with another team member 03:58 – Radius is about growing pipelines for B2B marketers 04:08 – The customers are typically enterprise and mid-market businesses 04:15 – Radius fixes data 04:30 – Radius’ services 04:48 – The whole foundation of the product starts with the Radius business graph 05:17 – Darian shares how they help the client 05:40 – Darian shares how Radius is different with CB Insights 05:50 – Radius’ data is powered by their customers which allows them to access their CRMs 06:20 – The activity data allows Radius to improve their data 06:50 – Radius doesn’t rely on publicly available data 07:30 – Radius was founded in 2011 and launched in 2013 08:00 – Average number of customers 08:30 – It is not really a seat model 09:10 – Radius has a used cased expansion 09:41 – Team size is currently 150 people 10:00 – Radius has currently raised $100M 10:25 – Radius still has a lot of net capital left 10:42 – Radius’ retention for enterprise customers is around 93% 10:50 – Gross monthly customer churn 11:24 – Darian shares what drives their revenue 11:48 – Radius’s implementation day is only 18 days so customers see the value quickly 12:11 – Radius’ pricing 12:23 – ACV 13:00 – First year revenue 13:25 – Darian has 2 co-founders 14:07 – Radius requires a team 14:28 – Darian hired people from enterprise companies 15:00 – Darian shares Radius’s CAC to LTV ratio 15:36 – Radius’s sales cycle 15:52 – “Customer trust is our number one value” 16:50 – It is difficult to measure CAC to LTV when enterprise companies rely on big events for marketing 17:53 – Radius’s growth rate 19:14 – Radius’ marketing budget 19:29 – The amount Radius spends on Dreamforce 20:27 – Dreamforce is an incredible way to grow a pipe 20:40 – Is Radius going to be the next Benioff’s acquisition? 21:48 – Darian shares how Microsoft has been an incredible partner for Radius 22:36 – The last funding 23:05 – Darian discusses Radius’ future 23:40 – Follow Darian at Twitter and email him 25:35 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
It takes a great team to create a great product. Take what you’ve learned from your last employer, be grateful for it, and leave graciously. Acquisition requires planning, an exchange of ideas, and thorough researching.
Resources Mentioned:
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket Ceo@Radius.com – Darian’s email address @Darian314 – Darian’s Twitter handle Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives