Hit by Covid in New York: Pulsd CEO Mareza Larizadeh (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: The organic pull really drives the business? 

Mareza Larizadeh: The great majority of our active subscribers have joined organically. They have either heard about us or their friends have invited them to join the platform.

Sramana Mitra: How did the revenue land? It was bootstrapped mode going from 2012 when you started this?

Mareza Larizadeh: 2013 is when I started doing it full time. 

Sramana Mitra: What’s the growth trajectory? I’m just asking pre-COVID. 

Mareza Larizadeh: We’ve been doing about 30% topline. Its just a steady growing business. 

Sramana Mitra: What’s been going on in the COVID time? Is it a standstill?

Mareza Larizadeh: It is and it isn’t. It was for the first couple weeks of March. Our revenue just plummeted 95% and then we had to figure out what we were going to do if this thing goes on for a few months.

The stars and fitness category making up 20% is completely closed. The 40% events are also closed. We started doing work with our restaurant partners. Instead of dine-in experiences, we did delivery and take out. We also started doing home entertainment and delivering kits – pasta-making kits, wellness boxes, and cocktail delivery kits.

We started making a little revenue but as you can imagine it’s not enough to keep the lights on. What we are going with is money that we managed to put away in the past couple of years. 

Sramana Mitra: Very tough. 

Mareza Larizadeh: I tell everyone as far as COVID goes that the one place you wouldn’t want to be is New York City and the one industry you wouldn’t want to be in is hospitality. We’re smack in the middle of both. 

Sramana Mitra: What is your prognosis? Do you think you can sustain this?

Mareza Larizadeh: I’m confident. I think we have enough. The business is picking up a little bit. New York city went up to phase 2 this week and that includes outdoor dining, which we are seeing pick up.

Another factor that we are seeing is people are purchasing things to do for the future. We aren’t selling tickets to events because there are no events but there are haircuts, massages, manicures, and blowouts. People are starting to think about coming out of this and going into phase four.

What we are seeing is step function increase in outdoor dining and marginal increase in the other two legs of the table which is spa and others. 

Sramana Mitra: Is there anything else you want to discuss? One thing on my mind is, given the structure of the business you discussed and I’m talking in general and not COVID specific, how big of a team did you need to support and build this business?

Mareza Larizadeh: Right now its 10. Its small. New York city is a big place and there’re a lot of opportunities. Once we get big in this city then the question becomes, does this model scale our plan and if it’s a yes, then it’s a question of if we want to do it and where we want to go with it.

It is a small team and the flipside of that is, with COVID, we haven’t had to lay anyone off and everyone is doing a fantastic job getting the company through this. 

Sramana Mitra: I got the history. We will publish it. I hope everything settles into a managing rhythm for you. 

Mareza Larizadeh: It’s tough but we are seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel. A lot more encouraged than I was at this time last week. 

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Hit by Covid in New York: Pulsd CEO Mareza Larizadeh
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