Scaling a Pre-IPO Enterprise Software Company: Anaplan CEO Fred Laluyaux (Part 6)

Sramana: You have talked about your land and expand model. How does that play out in the sales process?

Fred Laluyaux: Finally, we are looking to build the community of users. We are looking to build a community of system administrators. We have an opportunity to build great community amongst business analysts. Business analysts build models and they are proud of their work. They want to share their models with their peers. Our goal is to enable that.

Sramana: When you penetrate an enterprise account does that occur primarily through the finance account?

Fred Laluyaux: We have three doors; sales, finance, and IT. We are focused on companies who have high growth or who are experiencing hyper change. We look at the big companies going through change in their core processes. If they are looking to improve their margin, then we target them. We have our reps focus on only 10 accounts in their region and we knock on all three doors. We have companies like FaceBook and Groupon, and those are companies who are constantly shifting and doing interesting things with business analytics.

We have not taken a position to go after the mid-market. Instead, we have recognized that we have a platform and we have specific accounts that we target via use cases. That has worked very well for us. I would advise every entrepreneur out there to take a focused approach. If you sell into the enterprise, you have to be hyper-focused.

Sramana: It sounds like your sales reps are pitching a very focused message to three doors.

Fred Laluyaux: Exactly. We look for the highest level of pain.

Sramana: You have described your funding strategy to date. Have you raised additional funds since your Series B?

Fred Laluyaux: Last year we raised $33 million. A year ago we had 60 employees, so since we raised that money we have grown substantially. We have also done a global expansion right away. At this time last year, we were opening our European headquarters in France. We did an expansion in the UK through an acquisition. We have offices in Sweden, Singapore, Russia, Malaysia, and we are opening Australia right now. That investment is paying off very well. I would estimate that 60% of our revenue is now coming from outside of the US. I am a firm believer that if you go after global organizations that you need a global presence. The pain that large companies face is exactly the same. This has allowed us to build a multicultural company which I love.

Sramana: With almost $60 million of financing, what kind of revenue levels are you at?

Fred Laluyaux: We will be close to $100 million in bookings this year. We multiplied our revenue by 4 last year and we will triple this year.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Scaling a Pre-IPO Enterprise Software Company: Anaplan CEO Fred Laluyaux
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