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Bootstrapped to $5m

The five phases of a business operating system, how community drove growth, and the metrics investors cared about

Mark Abbott · Ninety.io

Published September 1, 2022
About this resource

Mark Abbott, CEO of Ninety.io, shares:

- 5 Phases of a Business Operating System

- How we used community to grow fast

- Top metrics VC cared about

Format
Founder500 Austin 2022
Length
22 min video
Inside
10 key moments
Read the full transcript

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What you’ll learn

Mark Abbott describes building Ninety through a service-led go-to-market, high-trust customer relationships, rapid support, disciplined payback, and fractional specialist teams.

Read the source passages

Key moments

Find the ideas you need and go straight to the source.

Serve rather than sell

“that you come to a holistic operating system because some of the systems don't have everything in it so as an example eos which i'm very close to really doesn't have anything about figuring out how to build value right because the reality is in our industry right we're not focused at least lots of us aren't focused on ebitda we're focused on growing revenues right and so the value of the business is based upon the revenues not the ebitda so get your arms around how you create value and then the last type of operating system is actually what we're doing we're creating”
Watch at 01:57

Build high-trust relationships

“all right so talked about the book so here you can go back to the book for a second yeah so so now we'll go back to that slide so do you guys do you own this so i do not own it yeah so how does that work yeah so we just pay a license fee to eos to use the terms so we pay 10 of our revenues to eos to be able to use their trademark terms in our software we got about seven trademark terms so we're paying almost a hundred thousand dollars a month for seven trademark terms right now cool huh should we talk more”
Watch at 06:20

Deliver rapid support

“love that right we want to get better and better and better but uh yeah it's the ui is really super simple people can get up and running on it and we start doing demos like oh i get it's just all right there boom you look click on it and it's obvious it's a meeting tool it's an accountability chart it's all obvious stuff is that cool yes you're up now to like 4 million in revenue and the next slide you're going to talk about when insight reached out like what do they think about so take us through that journey yep cool all right so going up went the wrong direction so”
Watch at 11:09

Manage payback

“than seven percent um annualized and that includes you know we have a lot of small companies you can get into our software for 14 bucks right so there's a lot of small companies in there there's a lot of one or two offs um but uh but generally speaking that's uh you know obviously less than close to it's it's been averaging less than half a percent per month for years um so why why did we raise the money um i've self-funded it for the first you know three four years um i didn't want to i could do that”
Watch at 15:31

Use fractional talent

“thanks um what they didn't see was they fell in love with our numbers but they never really wanted to understand our vision and where we wanted to go until after they got in there and now they see it and now they believe in it and now they're now they're really you know they're stepping up and they're giving us a lot of support but it was kind of funny because it's like good news bad news right it was like oh man we love your numbers these are amazing let's just do it and it's like wait a second where you guys”
Watch at 19:49

Leading Provider of “Company Building Systems”

“Leading Provider of “Company Building Systems””
Read slide 2

How we used a community to grow

“How we used a community to grow ARR faster”
Read slide 8

Ninety.io Revenue Growth

“Ninety.io Revenue Growth”
Read slide 14

Think Fractional “Heads” for these

“Think Fractional “Heads” for these:”
Read slide 21

In summary, I just showed you

“In summary, I just showed you”
Read slide 27

Preview slides

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Resource files

  • Video

    Watch video

  • Email from Insight Partners (Slide 15)

  • Bootstrapped to $5m - Slide Deck

About the speaker
Mark Abbott

Mark Abbott

Founder and CEO · Ninety.io

LinkedIn

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

More founder interviews

Slide by slide

Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.

28 passages

Ninety’s path to $5 million

  1. Slide 1Open deck
    Slide text

    March 2022 March 2022 | Mark Abbott, CEO Ninety.io Mark Abbott CEO of Ninety Bootstrapped to $5m … then Insight Venture Partners reached out

  2. Slide 2Open deck

    Growth compounded as the customer base expanded

    Ninety.io revenue rises from $136,000 in 2017 to $7,900,000 in 2021, while users grow to 62,000 and customers to 4,726. The conversion percentages edge down over the period even as revenue and customer counts climb.

    Slide text

    Leading Provider of “Company Building Systems” USERS 1,200 3,200 8,750 28,750 62,000 CUSTOMERS 112 275 769 2,266 4,726 CONV. % 9.3% 8.6% 8.8% 7.9% 7.6%

  3. Slide 3Open deck

    A business operating system matures in phases

    The model moves from an accidental, reactive operating system through intentional and designed practices toward holistic and integrated operations. Its progression links more purposeful leadership with coordinated disciplines, tools, and data.

    Slide text

    5 Phases of a Business Operating System

The growth playbook

  1. Slide 4Open deck

    The playbook combines community, activation, and metrics

    Abbott organizes the growth playbook around community, trial activation, and a short list of SaaS metrics. The measures include 5-8% monthly revenue growth, CAC payback under 3 months, and churn below 7% with 135% net revenue retention.

    Slide text

    # Coaches The playbook we used… What you’ll learn over next 20 minutes # Books in market Ratio Companies Coached vs. Aware Get 3+ seats landed during trial World class chat Educate to get tool adopted 5-8% MoM revenue growth CAC payback under 3 months User churn <7%/yr. 135% Net Revenue Retention COMMUNITY ACTIVATION TOP METRICS

Community-driven growth

  1. Slide 5Open deck

    Serve a community to grow faster

    Ninety.io's community approach emphasized serving rather than selling. It tracked books in market, coaches, and the relationship between companies coached and companies aware.

    Slide text

    1) How we used community to grow fast We don’t sell, we serve Books in market Coaches Ratio of companies coached vs. companies aware

  2. Slide 6Open deck

    More coaches brought more companies into the system

    The charts show coached companies rising from 5,000 in 2017 to 12,500 in 2021 as the coach count reaches 430. Coach numbers briefly dip from 248 to 240 in 2019 before increasing in the following years.

    Slide text

    How we used a community to grow ARR faster Number of Coaches

  3. Slide 7Open deck

    Books helped the community reach more founders

    The slide pairs a company-building book with a growing-inventory metric and points readers to dozens of other titles. It frames educational resources as part of the community's reach.

    Slide text

    How we used a community to grow ARR faster Number of Books in Market << Dozens of other great company building books

  4. Slide 8Open deck

    Coaches and marketing both added companies

    New client companies attributed to coaches rise to 1,283 in 2021, while marketing adds 1,005 that year. The stacked bars show both channels expanding, with coaches contributing the larger share in the final two years.

    Slide text

    How we used a community to grow ARR faster Non-Coached Companies Net New Client Companies

Trial activation and support

  1. Slide 9Open deck

    Activation starts with multiple trial users

    Ninety.io aimed to bring at least 3 users into an account before the trial ended, then use responsive chat and broader tool adoption to deepen engagement. The slide treats activation as a sequence of early team involvement and continued use.

    Slide text

    2) How we activate 3+ users before end of trial World class chat Expand use of tools

  2. Slide 10Open deck

    Three active users marked a conversion jump

    The chart shows predicted conversion rising from 15.72% for accounts with 1-2 active users to 94.39% with 3-5. The emphasis on getting 3 or more users active before the trial ends follows that sharp change.

    Slide text

    How we active trials to drive conversions Focus on getting to a 3+ initial users before end of trial # of initial users

  3. Slide 11Open deck

    Fast human support helped activate trials

    Ninety.io paired a response time under 5 minutes with real people who knew the product. The chat example directs customers to conversation, help resources, and product guidance.

    Slide text

    Chat helps us activate <5 minute response time Real people responding Support staff knows product well

  4. Slide 12Open deck

    Feedback encouraged product adoption

    The playbook promotes the feedback tool as an early product action and pairs it with webinars and in-app messaging. It claims churn below 1% once the feedback tool is used.

    Slide text

    Feedback Tool First Action <1% churn once feedback tool used Webinars In app messaging

Metrics and the decision to raise

  1. Slide 13Open deck

    Investors focused on durable SaaS metrics

    The metrics list combines market size and growth efficiency with retention: monthly revenue growth of 5-8%, CAC payback under 3 months, churn below 7%, and 135% net dollar retention. Together these measures frame the company's fundraising story.

    Slide text

    3) Top metrics VC cared about Multi- Billion dollar market 5-8% MoM revenue growth CAC Payback under 3 months User churn <7%. 135% Net Dollar Retention

  2. Slide 14Open deck

    Revenue climbed to $7.9 million

    Ninety.io's revenue chart rises from $136,000 in 2017 to $7,900,000 in 2021, with acceleration after 2019. It gives the growth narrative a clear financial trajectory.

    Slide text

    Ninety.io Revenue Growth

  3. Slide 15Open deck

    Relevant investor outreach opened a conversation

    An email from Insight Partners asked to learn about Ninety.io and offered relevant experience in team-management software. Abbott frames the outreach as the reason he agreed to a call.

    Slide text

    Ninety.io Revenue Growth The Insight Partners email.. Why we decided to take the call AUG 2021

  4. Slide 16Open deck

    The fundraise included a broad market case

    The slide frames coaching as a multi-billion-dollar market and compares estimates of coach practitioners with managers and leaders using coaching skills across regions. The table's global total is 86,900 across those categories.

    Slide text

    The top 3 metrics Insight Ventures cared about during the fundraise Multi-Billion Dollar Market

  5. Slide 17Open deck

    Retention stayed high as ARR grew

    The chart shows ARR rising to $7,900,000 in 2021 while net revenue retention is labeled 135.8% for that year. The headline characterizes monthly recurring-revenue growth as 5-8% and calls it 200% annualized.

    Slide text

    5-8% month over month MRR growth (200% annualized) with NRR of 135%

  6. Slide 18Open deck

    CAC payback stayed near three months

    Customer acquisition cost payback reaches 2.9 months in 2021, matching the headline's three-month target. The chart compares that payback period with customer lifetime value, which trends down from 25 to 20 months.

    Slide text

    CAC Payback of 3 months

  7. Slide 19Open deck

    Paying seats grew while churn stayed below target

    Paying seats climb to 62,000 in 2021 while the chart's churn line reaches 5.3%, below the stated annualized ceiling of 7%. The visual links a growing user base with churn remaining under that threshold.

    Slide text

    Paying User Churn <7% annualized

  8. Slide 20Open deck

    A lean team carried the business forward

    Abbott says he predominantly self-funded the company and began with one full-time employee leading client success. Other functional leaders, including Abbott, worked fractionally.

    Slide text

    I predominantly self-funded Only Full time employee to begin with was Head of Client Success All other heads were fractional, as was I From Bootstrap to Raise and Why

  9. Slide 21Open deck

    Fractional leaders covered core functions

    The team used fractional heads for marketing, coach support, data, engineering, finance, and talent. The list shows how a lean company could cover key functions without building a full-time executive team in each area.

    Slide text

    Marketing Coach Support Data Engineering Finance Talent Think Fractional “Heads” for these:

  10. Slide 22Open deck

    Consistent growth brought investors forward

    Although Abbott had not planned to raise until early 2022 and did not want to sell more than 20%, Insight offered forward credit based on consistent company, user, revenue, and churn trends. He says he was not interested in raising before $10 million in ARR.

    Slide text

    Pursued by long list of well known VC’s Didn’t Plan to raise until early 2022 Didn’t want to sell more then 20% Insight gave us forward credit given the consistency of our growth in: Paying companies Paying Users MRR Churn Not interested in Raising Capital Pre $10 million in ARR

  11. Slide 23Open deck

    Abbott delayed fundraising until $10 million ARR

    Despite investor interest, Abbott says he did not want venture capital before $10 million in ARR or to sell more than 20% equity. He had not created a pitch book, reinforcing that a fundraise was not the original plan.

    Slide text

    Didn’t Want VC Before $10m ARR Long list of VC’s chased us Didn’t want to sell more than 20% equity Never created a pitch book

  12. Slide 24Open deck

    Insight praised Ninety's SaaS metrics

    An Insight Partners endorsement describes Ninety as showing strong SaaS performance across the SMB market. The statement summarizes the metrics case made in the preceding slides.

    Slide text

    “Ninety demonstrates best-in-class SaaS KPIs across the board for the SMB market.” Insight Partners

  13. Slide 25Open deck

    The operating system became part of the value

    Abbott says Insight first focused on the company's numbers, then came to appreciate its Great Company Building System. He presents the operating system as a deeper source of value for the changing world of work.

    Slide text

    Insight fell in love with our numbers but only after its investment did it fully appreciate how powerful and necessary what we call a Great Company Building System is in what we call “The New Age of Work.” Bonus Share: What Insight Didn’t See but Now Does

  14. Slide 26Open deck

    Revenue growth continued through 2021

    The repeated chart traces Ninety.io revenue from $136,000 in 2017 to $7,900,000 in 2021. Its steepening curve reinforces the scale and consistency of growth discussed in the fundraise story.

    Slide text

    Ninety.io Revenue Growth

  15. Slide 27Open deck

    The playbook links community, activation, and metrics

    The recap returns to coaches and books as community measures, early multi-user trial activation, and growth, payback, and retention metrics. It presents these pieces as one repeatable growth playbook.

    Slide text

    # Coaches In summary, I just showed you … our full playbook # Books in market Ratio Companies Coached vs. Aware Get 3+ seats landed during trial World class chat Educate to get tool adopted 5-8% MoM revenue growth CAC payback under 3 months Logo churn <7%/yr. 135% Net Revenue Retention COMMUNITY ACTIVATION TOP METRICS

  16. Slide 28Open deck

    Abbott closes with thanks

    The closing slide thanks the audience and identifies Abbott as Ninety's CEO. It ends the talk after summarizing how the company grew and approached its fundraise.

    Slide text

    March 2022 | Mark Abbott, CEO of Ninety.io Mark Abbott CEO of Ninety