TCL Podcast: Hear how to Cambly found profitability before its Series A
Cambly was founded in 2012, and has since raised $80.29m from leading venture capital firms. Success didn’t come overnight. The company had to weather a failed fundraise and countless competitors on its way to becoming a market leader.
I had Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff and Benchmark partner Sarah Tavel on TechCrunch Live. It was the first event of the 2023, and the timing is great. Part of Cambly’s story involves tweaking its business model to become cashflow positive much earlier than initially planned. And after the company started making money, it was able to close its Series A and a Series B.
Hear this conversation in the TechCrunch Live podcast, or you can watch the video recap. Both are embedded below.
TechCrunch Live records weekly, each Wednesday, at noon Pacific. It’s free to attend. Register for the next event right here. It will feature Christina Ross of Cube and Rajeev Batra of Mayfield.
Outline
Why Cambly failed to raise a Series A, and how the company changed to keep it afloat.
How to keep an investor engaged after they say no.
When is the right time for a company to fundraise?
On the struggles of building a marketplace.
Assets mentioned in the episode
The Hierarchy of Marketplaces — Introduction and Level 1
, by Sarah Tavel
Building AI for remote patient monitoring
How MinIO built a unicorn in object storage on top of Kubernetes and open source
Identity and identifying a good deal
How Cambrian BioPharma is reinventing drug - and drug company - development
Who's playing the long game in edtech?
Managing uncertainty with Habi and Inspired Capital
AI innovation for in vitro fertilization with Root Ventures and Oma Fertility
Easing the transportation industry's pain points from AtoB
How to Scale Without Venture Capital with Vanta and Sequoia
How to battle burnout and profit off human thriving, according to Thrive Global's Ariana Huffington
Co-founder matchmaking with David Blumberg and Tanis Jorge
How to build a better board of directors
Why you should buy your kids a cash register according to Cube's CEO Christina Ross
The TechCrunch Live Podcast Teaser
Be the best listener in the room
How to bring life to (and fund) an API
One market is easy, scaling to a hundred is hard (obviously)
How to pitch a Series A, and other fun things
Why you must build a moat around early customers
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