Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: So in 2010, you got a couple of mid-sized customers. What kind of revenue were you able to get to in 2010? How did that correlate with your burn rate?

Henry Albrecht: We were still burning fast. We got past the million dollar mark in 2011. I think we went about a million in 2010. We raised our first institutional round in the fall of 2012. Our run rate was in the $4 million to $5 million range.

Sramana Mitra: About six years from inception, you raised your first institutional round?

Henry Albrecht: That’s correct.

Sramana Mitra: Who did you raise your institutional funding from?

Henry Albrecht: From a San Diego-based enterprise SaaS venture fund called TVC Capital.

Sramana Mitra: Why them?

Henry Albrecht: They had a very specific thesis about the types of companies they like to invest in. They like to invest in companies who had proven product market fit and that had reached a certain level of traction. They only invested in SaaS companies that were B2B. Frankly, a lot of this is personal. Who do you want on your board and who do you think will provide value once they’ve invested? Their partner Steve Hammerslag has been CEO of a couple of public companies. Having been told ‘No’ by at least 50 venture investors and 400 angels in the last several years, I really valued having an operator and not a risk-averse venture investor on the board.

Sramana Mitra: What’s the next major milestone?

Henry Albrecht: Form a financing perspective, two years later, we raised our Series C round, which was a $25 million round including another $5 million from GVC and $20 million from Oak HC/FT. First of all, it’s the largest woman-run venture capital firm in the United States. Secondly, I think it’s the premier health technology investment company. Lastly, they had the exact same thing that GVC brought, which was real people who were extremely well-respected.

Sramana Mitra: What were some of the key strategic moves in terms of operations, go-to market, and product between the two rounds?

Henry Albrecht: In 2012, we started realizing that there was a big difference between having the most innovative and cool technology and delighting a very large Fortune 500 enterprise. I think we really doubled down in the 2012 time frame on true enterprise class customer service and success. That was an investment that we were really happy to make. We had to just make that positive and real investment so we could commit to serving the top Fortune firms. It’s a great strength of ours in the market.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht
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