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Founder conversationUnicorn $50m+

The Capital Efficient Founder

...Secondaries, Debt Driven Takeovers, IPO Pop

Henry Schuck · ZoomInfo

Published September 1, 2022
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About this resource

Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo shares key lessons at $23 Billion Market Cap:

- ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth

- How to Structure a Secondary

- Pre IPO: Key Metrics

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What you’ll learn

Henry Shuck shares ZoomInfo lessons on capital efficiency, acquisitions, and using debt without giving away the upside of a growing company. He also explains why operating metrics can be more useful than lagging revenue when managing a SaaS business.

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Key moments

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“san francisco he's a san francisco guy i'm actually in portland but i was in san francisco san francisco is open now huh yes okay all right very cool this is a little bit different attire than like dorm room days this is what i wear to work what i wear to work all right so take us back in the story over the next 25 minutes we're going to really chat about how you got going uh where you are today where you see markets going some of the key things that you were important for your first 10 million in revenue um how you did a big secondary 40 million bucks when”
Watch at 03:20

Plan acquisition exits

“we'll have the right to buy the other half at the same rate as what we're proposing today this is like really nasty and we'll help you figure out how to scale the business it's like what is this guy next course of course they will yeah and then i just said no and round of applause for saying no right to 90 90 delusion all right so let's let's keep going here with a story okay so you say no do you do anything in 2012 cap table wise nothing in 2012 right tickets to what”
Watch at 10:08

Use debt for upside

“give you and at what rates and so okay so do you take capital out any other time before ipo yes um post the rain king acquisition and before this when you put the two businesses together we made this acquisition of a company that was doing 40 million dollars in revenue and 10 million dollars of profitability we acquired the business and then three months later it was doing 45 million and”
Watch at 17:24

Lead with operating metrics

“million dollars that year before and they're happy to hold the investment for four to five years because that's the hold period they had i had to come in a year into that hold and pay them for what they thought they would get four years into the future and so they weren't going to transact with me unless i could tell them like i will pay you now for what you bel what would be a great return three or four years from now”
Watch at 24:07

Embrace the hard work

“you can do a small amount in the ipo get a kick get a bunch of press and excitement about it and then downstream you sell the rest of the shares at a higher value and so so you go to the ipo you do well by the way we're going to talk about founder dilution uh later on i think tomorrow uh we talked about some sas founders when they went public and how much they still owned of the company and some of these are very small numbers two 2.5 percent you were able to optimize a bit here are you comfortable sharing how much you owned at ipo yeah do you have it uh i can tell you it's not yeah it's”
Watch at 30:52

ZoomInfo’s strategy timeline

“ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded”
Read slide 3

Tactics to break $10M

“3 Tactics Used to Break $10m in 5 years 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows”
Read slide 5

How to structure a secondary

“How to Structure a Secondary”
Read slide 7

Key pre-IPO metrics

“Pre IPO: Key Metrics Pre IPO vs. Post IPO”
Read slide 13

Key post-IPO metrics

“Post IPO: Key Metrics Pre IPO vs. Post IPO”
Read slide 15

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Resource files

  • Video

    Watch video

  • $40m LOI at 27 Years Old

  • Inside Story on Building $300m ARR Machine before IPO

About the speaker
Henry Schuck

Henry Schuck

CEO and founder · ZoomInfo

LinkedInTwitter

Henry Schuck is a leading entrepreneur in sales intelligence and lead generation. Having founded DiscoverOrg in 2007 at 23, he has led the company on a rapid growth path including funding investments from the likes of TA Associates, Goldman Sachs BDC, FiveW Capital and NXT Capital. Before founding DiscoverOrg, Henry managed marketing and research at iProfile leading the company to a successful private equity sale

Company revenue
$1.2B
Team size
5000

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Slide text

Find a passage in the slides and open the original deck.

18 passages

Founderpath mastermind context

  1. Slide 1Open deck

    Founderpath CEO Private Mastermind When Founderpath finances your SaaS business, you get exclusive access to industry experts. Get your offer at Founderpath.com

The capital-efficient founder

  1. Slide 2Open deck

    March 2022 March 2022 | Henry Schuck, CEO ZoomInfo Henry Schuck CEO of ZoomInfo The Capital Efficient Founder Debt-driven Takeover, IPO Pop, Secondaries

ZoomInfo strategy and revenue growth

  1. Slide 3Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded

  2. Slide 4Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded $25k in Debt, Law school dorm, 23 yo Founded in 2007 as Org Charts 2007

Breaking $10M

  1. Slide 5Open deck

    3 Tactics Used to Break $10m in 5 years 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows

  2. Slide 6Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded 2012 $35.5m for 70% Letter of Intent, $53m valuation

Structuring secondaries

  1. Slide 7Open deck

    How to Structure a Secondary

  2. Slide 8Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded

  3. Slide 9Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded 2018 $1.5B Valuation Letter of Intent

  4. Slide 10Open deck

    How to Structure a Secondary

  5. Slide 11Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded ZoomInfo Acquisition $700m+ How to take over your biggest competitor using debt 2019

  6. Slide 12Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded

Pre- and post-IPO metrics

  1. Slide 13Open deck

    Pre IPO: Key Metrics Pre IPO vs. Post IPO

  2. Slide 14Open deck

    ZoomInfo Strategy and Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows DiscoverOrg Founded TA Associates & 22C Capital Investment RainKing Acquisition Carlyle Group Investment ZoomInfo Acquisition ZoomInfo Rebranded IPO Pop to $13B Day 1 Trading Founded in 2007 as Org Charts 2020

  3. Slide 15Open deck

    Post IPO: Key Metrics Pre IPO vs. Post IPO

  4. Slide 16Open deck

    $23 Billion Market Cap (3/6/2022)

  5. Slide 17Open deck

    Gold VIP Badge Required More private setting Limited to 20 founders Ask Henry more specific questions 60 MINUTES WITH HENRY VIP Room Henry Schuck

  6. Slide 18Open deck

    Founderpath CEO Private Mastermind When Founderpath finances your SaaS business, you get exclusive access to industry experts. Get your offer at Founderpath.com