Ed Sim’s Post

2024 has been a huge year for Decagon. Back in January, we were just two co-founders building out of our apartments. Over the past 11 months, our team has been hard at work helping us reach some incredible milestones. Here's what we've accomplished so far. 1. We’re on track to 10x our growth as a company this year. The team has also grown 15x so far (only a fraction pictured below). I'm proud of the talent density we've developed here. We've added some of the brightest minds in engineering and we're always on the lookout for more. Roles we're hiring for now: • Member of Technical Staff • Deployment Strategist 2. This year, we closed our first 7-figure deal. We also closed our first multi-year contract! We're really ramping our GTM motion this year. In addition to our first 7-figure contract, we signed our first 2-year contract and onboarded our first non-U.S. customer. 3. We raised $100M in funding. Decagon raised $100 million across our Seed, Series A, and Series B in rapid succession this year. These were all super hot rounds, with incredible support from our investors. Proud to have great investors like a16z, Accel, Bain, A*, and Elad Gil on our cap table. 4. Fun swag every $1 mil in ARR This year we started a cool tradition of sending out company swag for every $1M ARR milestone. There's a different color and design for each milestone so our team’s closets have never looked better. 5. Great reception for industry events here in SF. We started hosting different events to bring the SF engineering + GTM community together and we've found they're a great way to recruit engineers and a ton of fun. Being in person has been a core value of the company since its inception, and it's great to get folks in the industry together on a regular basis. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to join our next one. The last one was math-themed and let’s just say that problems x drinks = score. All of this deserves a huge shoutout to our team, customers, and investors who’ve made Decagon what it is today. We still have a lot of work to do. Excited to close out the year strong and head into 2025.

Our team at Clay just announced our $40M Series B expansion at a $1.25B valuation <33 It's surreal to see how rapidly we've grown even in the last two years—starting from a few people in a studio loft in Williamsburg (where I'd sometimes lug over my laundry) and now occupying (and outgrowing) an entire floor in Chelsea, where our almost 100 team members serve 5000 customers, from OpenAI, Canva, Notion, Rippling, and more. My favorite things about Clay: -My creative, humble, zany, and stunningly intelligent teammates. You've taught me how to level up at work, to DJ, to play soccer, to live joyfully in NYC. The colleague -> friend pipeline is so strong and that's irreplaceable <3 -Getting to know customers and experts at the top of their industry like Alexander DeMoulin, Davide Grieco, Adam Wall, Keith Jones 🚴🏻♂️, Pedro Azevedo, 🦾Eric Nowoslawski,🐰 Jen Igartua, Patrick Spychalski, Mathias Powell, 🤖 Jacob Tuwiner, and so many more. Thank you for all the time you've spent in person or on Zoom calls walking us through your ideas and shaping our product. Can't wait to follow each of you for many years to come and see what you create. -Having the blue sky opportunity to create an entirely new and very different category in a crowded market space. Growth is the lifeblood of any business and we ACTUALLY have a new way of thinking about it. Instead of building a tool that just does one thing, we're building a GTM development environment: one place to source data and put it to work in any use case. Like engineers need both IDEs and cloud platforms like AWS, GTM teams need a complete environment where they can source the best data, build automated workflows, and keep them running 24/7 for any growth use case: finding and messaging their best-fit customers, maintaining clean, updated CRMs, running better targeted ad campaigns, and more. (In Kareem Amin's words—we're not a microwave, we're a guitar :) Really proud of our memo, which explains the analogy in detail 🥰 Links in the comment below

“Convertible bonds are the capital market equivalent of a mullet — serious business in the front (debt), party in the back (equity).” Craig Coben https://lnkd.in/eMztg6PJ

How did we build the 11th fastest growing company in Silicon Valley? We kept a Slack Channel of customer quotes- our customer success team was active! Speaking regularly with customers, getting stuff like: "out of all the real estate tech you guys are by far the best... you're the new darling of the real estate industry... we 10Xed our fundraise with Juniper Square..., etc" If you followed Juniper Square from the beginning you saw us share massive amounts of customer testimonials on LinkedIn, almost every day a new quote. Remember 80% buying decisions are based on social proof. We were able to create FOMO in our ICP. Explain more later, especially on competitive sales. Those who know, know we crushed the competition. 👊

This Independence Day, we wish everyone a celebration of reaching new heights. As we all strive for excellence, may each of us touch the peaks of our potential and fulfil our dreams. May our collective journey be as inspiring and boundless as the skies we reach. Here’s to achieving new milestones and experiencing greater success. #Bloomrix #TechnologyPartner #CreativePartner #GrowthPartner #IndependenceDay #ReachNewHeights

Will Ahmed, Founder/CEO of WHOOP launched his company in 2012 and had version 1.0 out in 2015. As founders, we often rush to push out a product and validate demand. While everyone’s timeline is different, my conversation with Will highlighted 3 important points: 1) Never settle with a founding team that isn’t willing to spend long hours and expect failure at the first few iterations. 2) Building a sticky product requires you to be genuinely interested in the well-being of your customers. 3) ARR is a great metric, but seeing strangers use your product is an even better one.

No deck, no pitch, no script. This one hits different! Next week, I’m teaming up with my friend, Venn CEO Or Bokobza, for an unfiltered fireside chat at Optech. No moderators—just two passionate visionaries sharing our journey from first meeting to building a partnership that's reshaping the future of multifamily living. We'll dive into how our shared vision for revolutionizing multifamily tech led to the creation of Bozzuto's groundbreaking myBozzuto digital ecosystem. We'll have key takeaways for: - Property management companies of all sizes - Vendors seeking alignment with clients' future vision Bring your lunch, grab a seat, and discover what drives us. See you there!

Nas (Nasir Jones) is by far the hardest working artist in Hip Hop for decades and especially recently. He’s also a prolific entrepreneur and investor. Not only did he achieve the feat of 6 albums in 3-years across Covid-19, in the middle of turning 50-years old, but through his QueensBridge Venture Partners he’s invested in deals such as: -           Ring: Acquired by Amazon in 2018 for over $1 billion. Ring is a home security company known for its smart doorbells and security cameras. -           Lyft: Nas invested in Lyft, a popular ridesharing company, before it went public in 2019. The exact return on investment would depend on the timing and terms of his investment. -           Dropbox: QueensBridge Venture Partners invested in Dropbox, a cloud storage service, before it went public in 2018. The return on investment would depend on the terms of the investment and the stock performance post-IPO. -           Robinhood: Nasir Jones invested in Robinhood, a commission-free trading platform, before it went public in 2021. The exact return on investment would depend on the IPO price and subsequent stock performance. -           Casper: An online mattress retailer. Nasir Jones was an early investor in Casper, though the company faced challenges after its IPO in 2020. Follow me for Hip Hop News and how much it’s truly affecting the world around you in ways you may not have realised. #strategy #investor #HipHop #strategicbranding

We want to make second-hand the norm, not the exception. Today, after 6 months in stealth we're excited to announce our first limited Beta. Here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come: - Process done in seconds - Sell to friends & family sooo easily - Sell before it collects dust, not after it’s been in sitting in the basement or closet for years. - ...and many features we can't talk about yet (but early members will be the first to try 👀) Our Beta launches in a couple of days, and public sign-ups are open now! Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/g2-vZq6G First 50 get Founding Member status. 👀 Our mission is clear: To make the world's consumption sustainable, effortless, and accessible for everybody, redefining how we buy and sell items second-hand. Join us in this exciting journey - together, we can create a more sustainable future - one transaction at a time. The future of second-hand starts now - BuyBye 👋

Few ideas are truly market-ready at birth. Yet, we're indoctrinated with the myth of the "first impression," implying a limited audience and unforgiving consumers. This is ludicrous! ZZ Top's debut album, Def Leppard's first effort, and even the inaugural season of The Simpsons – all imperfect beginnings that led to enduring success. The truth is launching is paramount. Until your product or service is in customers' hands, your belief in its value remains just that – a belief. Pre-orders, whether through crowdfunding platforms or direct sales, provide invaluable market feedback. Don't waste years perfecting a product in isolation. Instead, build a minimal viable product, gather pre-orders, and let the market guide your development. This iterative approach minimizes risk, maximizes customer input, and increases the likelihood of success. Have you ever launched a product in this way? i would love to hear about it.