This bootstrapped SaaS startup took 5 years before it started growing steadily every month. Five years after that, the founders sold it for $300 million.
SaaS startups also take time and crazy effort to get moving before growth starts and momentum compounds.
A great SaaS business is often compared to a flywheel that keeps turning and builds momentum as it grows.
SaaS companies are highly valued when that flywheel is both efficient and unstoppable.
But flywheels start slowly and consume a lot of energy. They are heavy and hard to get moving.
Bill Spruill and his cofounder spent five years scraping by trying to figure out how to get the revenue flywheel going for their company, Global Data Consortium, an LSEG business.
Eventually, they pivoted the company to focus on identity verification and know-your-customer (KYC) with a new approach, and sales grew steadily every month.
Global Data Consortium (GDC) partnered with bigger data providers and fintech companies, who became loyal customers, trusted partners, and potential acquirers.
For the next five years,, the company grew over 100% a year, acquiring new partners and adding experienced leaders to its small team.
In 2022, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) acquired GDC for $300 million in an all-cash deal.
Bill describes the flywheel effect at GDC:
“There was a low point in the business where we were just struggling with, Why are we doing this? Are we going to make it?
“So we stepped back and said, We’re gonna do something very simple. We’re gonna focus on 10% growth every month, which wasn’t a big number then.
“We focused on moving the needle 10% every month with revenue. And then you get into the power of compounding. Every month we moved it 10% and we would celebrate. We kept moving that needle 10%, 10%, 10%.
“Eventually, that number got to be very sizable where we cracked through $5 million in revenue and we paid off all of our debt. And we became profitable and we kept growing fast. That unleashed the ability to accelerate our growth, growing 100% a year as we got bigger.”
Bill Spruill, Founder of Global Data Consortium
They survived and kept going long enough to find their SaaS flywheel that could scale.
It wasn’t easy, but it was totally possible. They didn’t give up.
Check out this insightful interview with Bill Spruill on the Practical Founders Podcast.
