Adding a C-suite as the company grows
Mark describes the transition from ten departments reporting to him to a C-suite, and how the team responded.
Summary ·Watch at 03:46
Founder conversationLeader $5m+
How Ninety Reached $30M ARR By Empowering Teams Through Adversity
How Ninety added a C-suite, built software for a coaching community, and plans to use AI on the road from $30M to $100M
Mark Abbott · Ninety.io
Published September 6, 2024About this resource
- Format
- SaaSOpen 2024 NYC
- Length
- 17 min video
- Inside
- 8 key moments
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What you’ll learn
Mark describes the transition from ten departments reporting to him to a C-suite, and how the team responded. Mark shares when Ninety began generating revenue and how its growth rate changed as the business scaled.
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Ninety’s revenue growth since 2017
Mark shares when Ninety began generating revenue and how its growth rate changed as the business scaled.
Summary ·Watch at 06:10
Using AI to build org charts and KPIs
Mark outlines a planned workflow that recommends an organizational chart and role-specific KPIs based on a company’s stage and size.
Summary ·Watch at 09:57
Building software for a coaching community
Mark explains how reading Traction and meeting its founder led him to build software for the EOS coaching community.
Summary ·Watch at 13:50
Partnerships and referral economics
Mark discusses Ninety’s relationships with Vistage and the Exit Planning Institute, including sponsorships and revenue sharing.
Summary ·Watch at 15:17
Building great companies
“Fascinated by the art + science of great company building”
Information should be free
“Information should be free and abundant”
Development stages
“Stages of Development”
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Video
How Ninety Reached $30M ARR By Empowering Teams Through Adversity - Slide Deck
Mark Abbott is the founder of Ninety.io and a sought-after business leader, writer, and executive team coach. With nearly four decades of experience with early-stage, small and mid-sized companies as a lender, investor and business builder, his passion centers on helping people build extraordinarily productive, humane, and resilient companies.
- Company revenue
- $7.9M
- Team size
- 200
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Slide by slide
Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.
23 passages
Introduction
Slide text
SaaSOpen, September 2024 Our Plan To Go From $30M to $100M ARR: AI in the New Age of Work Mark Abbott Founder & CEO, Ninety
Three themes frame the talk
The talk connects Ninety’s growth and operating process with changing work practices and AI. It will cover core competencies, useful intelligence, development stages, and a future vision.
Slide text
Over the next 20 minutes I’m going to show you OUR GROWTH Ninety Proven Process Core Competencies Value of Partnering NEW AGE OF WORK AI Evolution from industrial to self-actualization Future of learning and work Shift towards Useful Intelligence Useful Intelligence Purpose: Stages of development A vision for the future
Building great companies
A career shaped the company
Abbott traces Ninety’s origins through decades of work in technology, investing, board service, and company building. The timeline ends with Ninety’s founding in 2016.
Slide text
Origin & History It’s a long story that goes all the way back to the early 1980’s: Work-outs Early tech adopter Investing and sitting on boards in 20’s Fascinated by the art + science of great company building Platform visionary early 30’s Data collector Frustrated board member The Big Idea (2005) Introduced to EOS (2011) HLTX 2012 Ninety 2016
A platform for aligned teams
Ninety presents itself as cloud software for building productive, humane, resilient organizations. A large team photo and workplace awards give the company description a people-centered setting.
Slide text
‹#› What is Ninety? Ninety is an innovative, cloud-based platform that simplifies the hard work of building an an extraordinarily productive, human and resilient organization where everyone is focused, aligned, and thriving.
Nine competencies guide company building
The platform overview organizes company building around a wheel of competencies, including vision, customers, goals, people, structure, data, meetings, process, and exit. The framework is presented as a way to help teams stay focused and aligned.
Slide text
Platform Overview We give ambitious founders everything they need to build a company they’ll love forever. How? We help them master the 9 Core Competencies required to start, build, run and scale an extraordinarily productive, humane and resilient organization where everyone is focused, aligned, and thriving.
Tools support daily operations
A grid groups Ninety’s tools across planning, meetings, data, people, process, learning, and team coordination. It conveys a broad operating toolkit rather than a single-purpose feature.
Slide text
Platform Overview Tools
Five steps form the proven process
The process moves from assessing the company’s current state to committing to an operating system, focusing on vision and goals, aligning through regular meetings, and thriving as one team.
Slide text
Ninety Proven Process
ARR and ACV rise through 2023
The chart shows both ARR bars and the ACV line increasing from 2019 to 2023, with a sharper rise in ARR after 2021. Three operating-system logos sit alongside the growth chart.
Slide text
Our Growth
Companies and licenses both grow
From 2019 to 2023, the bars for companies and the line for licenses climb each year. Licenses accelerate particularly after 2021, alongside continued company growth.
Slide text
Our Growth
The talk turns to changing work
This agenda opens the section on the new age of work, grouping the discussion into how work is evolving, emerging trends, and why the status quo may need to change.
Slide text
Ages of work: Industrial through self-actualization Future of learning and work Why the shift to Useful Intelligence Let’s Jump into Work The New Age of Work EVOLUTION TRENDS Status Quo
Work eras build on earlier stages
The table traces work from hunting and gathering through horticulture, agrarian, mechanical, industrial, automation, information, and understanding. Self-actualization is shown as the next stage, with its date left open.
Slide text
Ages of Work
Learning and work keep changing
The slide groups future learning around lifelong learning, skill-based credentials, and decentralization. For work, it highlights more data, AI teaming, and soft skills.
Slide text
Trends The Future of Learning Lifelong Learning Skill-based credentials Decentralization What keeps you ahead of the curve as we move through ages The Future of Work Proliferation of Data AI Teaming Soft Skills
Information should be free
Useful information should reach everyone
The argument is that information should be abundant and delivered in a digestible way to each team member. That access is linked to workplaces where people feel they matter.
Slide text
The Status Quo is Not Enough… Information should be free and abundant Every team member should have information given to them in a digestible manner Resulting in building workplaces where people feel like they matter
Useful intelligence reframes AI
Two interlocking ring diagrams place artificial intelligence and useful intelligence in parallel, under a heading about moving toward an age of understanding for companies and individuals.
Slide text
A Drive towards Useful Intelligence and the Age of Understanding Companies and Individuals
AI supports five development stages
A stepped pyramid maps company development from survive and sustain through scale and succeed to steward. The slide proposes using Maz to help companies advance with useful information.
Slide text
How: AI Supporting the Stages of Development Using Maz to accelerate companies through the stages of development with Useful information (UI)
Maz pairs assistance with mentorship
The future vision gives Ninety Assistant routine tasks, understanding, and decision collaboration, while a career mentor helps people identify goals and follow a development path.
Slide text
A Vision of the Future Ninety Assistant Automates simple tasks Helps us better understand ourselves and others Collaborates to make decisions Personal Career Mentor Understands who you are & where you want to be Plots a development course Guides you along the path Maz supports the transition to the Age of Self-Actualization
The recap joins growth and work
The recap brings together Ninety’s operating process and core competencies with the shift in work, useful intelligence, development stages, and the vision for the future.
Slide text
Over the last 20 minutes, I showed you: … with real examples! OUR GROWTH Ninety Proven Process Core Competencies Value of Partnering NEW AGE OF WORK AI Evolution from industrial to self-actualization Future of learning and work Fostering future trends through Useful Intelligence Useful Intelligence Purpose: Stages of development A Vision for the future
Thanks and an invitation to connect
Abbott closes by thanking the audience and presenting himself as Ninety’s founder and CEO. The final card invites attendees to contact him.
Slide text
SaaSOpen, September 2024 Thank you! [redacted contact detail] Mark Abbott Founder & CEO, Ninety
Maz serves four workplace roles
The assistant and mentor concept is framed for coaches, visionaries, team leaders, and individual contributors. Each role gets a different kind of support, from tracking client progress to building skills.
Slide text
Your Future Assistant and Mentor Coach Checks on and is proactively informed of client progress. Visionary Help me see what teams or areas of the business can use help. Team Leader Understands what each team member needs to succeed. Team Member Uplevel my skills and meaningfully contribute to my team.
Operating tools cover core competencies
The platform overview links company practices to tools for vision, customer relationships, goals, roles, values, metrics, meetings, issues, processes, and task ownership.
Slide text
Platform Overview JUST CAUSECommunicate and share your Vision, goals, & strategies UNIQUE VALUE PROPLearn how to build great long-term relationships with your Ideal Customers. ROCKSSet and track Rocks to help your team consistently hit their targets RESPONSIBILITIESRemove ambiguity, get clear on roles and increase transparency CORE VALUESEstablishing Core Values that are consistently embodied by your team members fosters a healthy work environment SCORECARDCollect, organize, and track meaningful data MEETINGSAutomate and document your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings ISSUESDid a problem just show up? create an issue to add it to your next meeting agenda PROCESSCapture Company-wide processes and procedures for greater consistency TO-DOSCommunicate asks, assign owners, and track deadlines
Maz combines three capabilities
Personalization, contextualization, and collaboration are presented as Maz’s three superpowers. A person working with a tablet reinforces the theme of assistance in everyday work.
Slide text
3 Superpowers of Maz in Ninety Personalization Contextualization Collaboration
Targets span company and individual growth
The company targets are headcount growth of 20%+, enterprise value growth of 10%+, and employee retention of 90%+. Individual outcomes focus on more skill certifications, work throughput, and faster promotions.
Slide text
What to Expect from Maz and UI Company (annually) Headcount growth of 20%+ Enterprise value growth of 10%+ Employee retention of 90%+ KPIs that we are targeting to help users achieve Individual Increased certification of skills Increased work throughput Faster promotions
Development stages
Three sections introduce Maz
The agenda frames Maz through the reasons for building it, its evolution and three superpowers, and its future impact on work. The first section focuses on development stages and useful information.
Slide text
Stages of Development Useful Information 3 Superpowers of Maz Impact in the new age of Work Introducing Maz I’m going to show you WHY & WHAT WE’RE DOING EVOLUTION OF MAZ VISION OF THE FUTURE