Hit by Covid in New York: Pulsd CEO Mareza Larizadeh (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How did that grow?

Mareza Larizadeh: It went surprisingly well. We turned the shift around overnight. We had a lot of opportunities on the platform. We went ahead and built something that had 80% of the job description without giving away which company was recruiting.

We started charging people a monthly subscription access fee. The subscription business was extremely lucrative because a lot of people would sign up and use the product. It was well priced at $39 a month. In the first few weeks, we were signing up thousands of members and gaining hundreds of thousands of recurring revenues. 

Sramana Mitra: You’ve made this pivot and you have another validated monetization strategy. What happens next?

Mareza Larizadeh: We were growing that business and it was very hard to scale. The reason being that if you want to scale this by definition, its going to be hard to maintain the quality. We tried different things – filters and others but we realized that this was a niche product that wouldn’t scale. We had a couple of people that looked to acquire us in 2008 when things were doing well.

We decided to sell the company in 2011 when we were approached by Company Universe and Globe Boards, both of which were career platforms. We sold the company and took what we call a double. It wasn’t a home run and it wasn’t the outcome we could have gotten had we decided to sell early on, but it was a good outcome.

Sramana Mitra: Was the only round of VC financing that first $5 million plus the $1 million seed round or was there more financing?

Mareza Larizadeh: We raised a $3 to $4 million in 2010. 

Sramana Mitra: That’s about $10 million in financing. Do you disclose how much you sell for?

Mareza Larizadeh: We did not and we won’t allow to. 

Sramana Mitra: This exit happened in 2009?

Mareza Larizadeh: This was 2011, and by the time it closed, it was the end of 2011. 

Sramana Mitra: Did you have to go with the company? Did you have an earn out?

Mareza Larizadeh: We did not go with the company. We helped them with the transition. There was no earn out. It was all upfront and we didn’t have many obligations. In 2012, I just spent time thinking what I wanted to do and spent some time with my family in England.

In 2013, I put in some work for what I’m currently doing. I did some of the ground work and I decided to turn this hobby which was a Twitter feed for what was going on in New York city into a business in 2013. 

Sramana Mitra: Did you come back to New York at this point?

Mareza Larizadeh: Yes, I moved back to New York. 

This segment is part 3 in the series : Hit by Covid in New York: Pulsd CEO Mareza Larizadeh
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