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Hey Everyone,
The fabric of society has changed since my last update; remote work has accelerated 10 years in what feels like 10 days. Everyone has simultaneously awoken to the fact that the future is remote, it's already here and they're now frantically chasing to catch up. We've been kicking like crazy to keep our heads above existing demand and are now faced with an influx of others who realize a remote strategy isn't just a nice to have but potentially a disaster continuity plan should anything unforeseen happen again in the future.
💨 TL;DR
Our Waitlist grew 79%MoM between 27th Feb — 27th March (608 ↗ 1,086). 4.1m aggregate employees spread across these companies.
Pilot with UK bank almost agreed. It could be much bigger than originally thought, they may get every critical worker setup at home. 40,000 working remote today, would = $80M ARR.
Proof of Concept (POC) with US startup. We've been approved by legal, about to sign an 18-month contract, $420K+ ARR at scale.
Moving toward final steps with a global tech company. Meeting with senior leaders went very well. Awaiting feedback and next steps. $2M+ ARR at scale.
Moving forward with four startups. It would initially start at 3-10 work sets per company. All are well funded and could grow to 50+ in the next year, $100K+ ARR at that scale.
Demo'd several massive healthcare systems. We submitted SOWs to them, each potentially 1,000+ seats immediately, ~$1.44M ARR. Slow-moving due to the current situation.
Early conversations with a Global real estate broker. Keen to become a channel partner and offer Firstbase as a solution to a problem their global clients have right now.
📊 Key Metrics:
Waitlist Growth
Momentum across the important metrics we are tracking have increased dramatically since last month. Waitlist growth, in particular, has exploded, all continuing to come organically from the content we have pushed out on LinkedIn, Medium or Twitter. In terms of the profiles of companies we are moving down the funnel right now:
Imminent Progress
Moving Down Funnel
Significant sign up to Waitlist in Last Month
As per last months update, we anticipate the range of metrics we report on growing in the next few months as we begin to onboard teams and they scale on the platform. We anticipate reporting on MRR next month as those first initial customers come online and are excited about how quickly this will ramp up as we start out small and the number of their workers on firstbase rises steadily over time.
💰 Financing :
We are considering raising capital to build the team and fulfill the demand we have, which continues to explode as companies realize how inept their existing capacity is. We've continued to have early conversations with investors and begun to share what we are likely to raise if we decide to do so. That consideration comes down to three things when we choose the partners we want to work with for the next 10 years and deliver the Remote Work Operating Systems that millions of workers will do their best work on top of:
How could they help us fulfill the existing demand we have
How does their portfolio/personal connections empower us as GTM strategy
How can they help as we grow the team and ramp up hiring
We have a number of investors ready to participate in the round and we will decide in the next couple of weeks what that will look like if it's the right thing for the business to do. If that's of interest and you'd like to chat more, I'd be delighted to find some time to connect
Left in Bank = ~$124k
Monthly Burn = ~$12k
Runway = ~10 months
You can check out our up to date pitch deck here
🤔 Learnings since last update:
The biggest companies on the planet are floundering as they recognize how unprepared they were for remote working. The adoption of remote has accelerated 10 years in 10 days and many of the smartest people I know will never go back to work in an office. Companies that move first on this have a massive opportunity to exponentially increase their average talent level. Going remote-first means that rather than hiring the best person they can afford within a 30-mile radius of the office, and disqualifying themselves from 99% of the talent globally, they can hire the best person on the planet. Expect an exodus of the most talented people inside office-first companies to their biggest remote-first competitors.
Companies who adopted technology 20 years ago replaced every company that didn’t.
Companies who adopt remote working will replace every company who doesn’t in 20 years.
This is being realized by companies of all sizes who reluctantly stood against remote working, doing things the way they had always been done because it's what they were comfortable with. Every day, we hear senior leaders at companies confess they were wrong, their workers are rising to the challenge of remote work, and they've been blown away by the quality of work that's being produced. All while offices stand derelict, collaboration and communication hasn't suffered.
We recently spoke to a leader of Innovation at a Global Real estate broker who shared the challenge their clients are demanding. Almost every single one wishes to cut real-estate by as much as 50%. Their options right now are co-working spaces or to going remote badly. They are interested in taking Firstbase to their clients as a third option: give your workers Firstbase, ensure they are safer, more comfortable and productive at home than they could be in an office while transforming your key pieces of real estate into destinations. Every worker will receive a setup at home and have the ability to go into a flagship office 2-3 days a week. The company slashes real estate costs instantly while developing a great remote work capacity which protects them in the event of another situation like this.
Disaster continuity planning is something I've heard a lot this month. Large enterprises approaching us not to transition their team to remote fully but to have the capacity in the event it's needed. As the largest financial institutions on the planet have contingency sites in New Jersey, they're intrigued by the opportunity to have this at home as well. We give them that capacity instantly. The implication is that our total addressable market of 255m desk jobs is not a zero-sum game. It's not a choice between having a Firstbase setup or keeping your office. Most of the largest enterprises on the planet will have both.
🔥 Team
I've been tremendously proud of how the team has continued to do incredible work during such a challenging time. Dave has produced awesome work while quarantined and is in the process of wrapping up all the accessibility features we have baked into the product as standard (a flat-mate had symptoms of the virus, so they were all on lock-down, Dave is fine thankfully). I've spent this month focussed on closing the deals that are furthest down the pipeline, while Trey has ensured the product is in great shape the minute they are onboarded. Huge respect to all the parents juggling work from home and homeschooling. As I write this, the soundtrack in the background is of my partner teaching my daughter a solution to a math problem.
😀 What I feel good about:
On the brink of closing the pilot with one of the biggest banks in the world, progressing towards an agreement with one of the most respected tech companies globally, and about to successfully complete the POC with the health-tech company that trusted us first.
It's been a great month and while we are still pre-revenue we are incredibly excited for that to change in the coming days. We are excited to show that all our handwork in getting the platform right was worth it and receiving the feedback that some of the most important businesses on the planet are operating far more efficiently using our platform.
👻 What I am freaked out about
To answers last months concern: we analyzed the waitlist, prior to the massive influx of interest since, and quantified it as accurately as we could. Spread across the 1,050+ companies there are 4.1m aggregate employees within the companies registered. To generate $100M+ in ARR, we need to sign up ~50,000 workers whose companies select a full at-home work package. We are talking to 2 companies right now who could eventually grow to at least match that number, if not double it, and there are a further 22 companies who fit that profile on our waitlist.
Knowing this, the challenge becomes progressing through the list as prudently as possible to ensure that those companies do not become cold. I need to make sure we progress with them as efficiently as possible and create a program of fulfillment that we can manage.
🔜 What’s next
This month is all about getting our first customers onboarded, up and running and generating our first revenue. We are continuing to have conversations and move companies down the pipeline, push out strong content that helps companies that are operating remotely for the first time, and connect with new potential clients. The current situation bears a unique confluence of circumstance creating tailwinds that remote work, and Firstbase, are direct beneficiaries of. We are incredibly excited for the next few months as the platform goes into production, and several workers begin using Firstbase to have the best remote work experience on the planet.
🆘 What I need help with
If you have a company perks program that you think your portfolio co's could benefit from our services we would love to be added to it. Any company you know that is remote or is considering making the transition we would love to talk to. Our sweet-spot is any company with 20+ employees hiring 2+ remote workers every month, Startups all the way through to the biggest enterprises on the planet. I'd be delighted to share a clean email you can forward on easily with our key value propositions.
Like last month, hiring is about to enter a critical phase as we ramp up for growth. We will be looking for an Operations Manager in both the UK and the US, as well as developers and a product manager. I'd be delighted to share a more detailed job description for these roles if that would be helpful for anyone.
🙌 Awesome People
Thanks to Vanessa for introducing us to her team and helping us get added to the perks program at NEA. Joe and Alex for inviting us to participate in their PodCasts. Raphael for providing great advice around channel partnerships. Claire, Whitney, Chaz and The EarlyGrowth team for some key introductions.
✍️ What we Wrote/Where we Appeared This Month
Long Form
Companies who Adopt Remote Work will Replace Every Company who Doesn't
Remote Work isn't About the Future of Work - It's about the Future of Living
Companies who Provide a Great Remote Work Experience will Beat Every Company who Doesn't
Every Office Worker Will Demand the Choice to Work From Home
Every Company Needs a Disaster Continuity Plan that Includes Remote Work Now
The 3 Tools Every Team Needs to do Great Remote Work at Home
How the Biggest Companies in the World are Thinking about Remote Work
Remote Work is Replacing the Office Don't Let it Kill Your Company
Boardroom briefing: remote working, telcos face rise in data usage - Business Advantage
Short Form
Podcasts
Thank you for all the support.
If you have any questions feel free to reply to this email or reach me on Whatsapp at the link below.
Thanks!
Chris