In 2004, they "almost bankrupted themselves". In 2024, they hit $500M ARR & a $5B valuation. | Mike Wessinger, Co-Founder of PointClickCare

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

Mike started selling SaaS before SaaS was a thing. PointClickCare is the Salesforce of healthcare. For the first 7 years, they raised just $600K from friends and family. With that funding, they grew to $50M in ARR.

Through that time, they went through the 2000 Dotcom crash and nearly went bankrupt in 2004 as they chased too many markets too soon.

Since then, the company has continued to grow at over 20% compounded rate and hit $500M in ARR in 2024 and a $5B valuation.

Mike shares how they started the company, the go-to-market strategy they used to go from 0 to $10M ARR and some of the most common mistakes he sees in the founders he works with today.

Why you should listen:

• Why you might need to live with your customers to really understand them.
• Why the first 10% market share is the hardest to achieve.
• How chasing the wrong sales opportunities can lead to customer disappointment.
• Why you need to focus on delighting customers before chasing revenue.
• Why TAM isn't nearly as important as founders are made to think.

Keywords
product market fit, startup growth, healthcare technology, customer delight, market entry, capital efficiency, company culture, founder advice
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:43) Target Market is as Important as PMF
(00:06:42) The Origin of PointClickCare
(00:10:23) Being a Pioneer in SaaS
(00:20:18) Measuring Customer Delight
(00:28:40) Common Mistakes when Trying to Find PMF
(00:34:32) Entering the US Market
(00:37:57) Surviving Payroll to Payroll
(00:40:13) Losing the Original Ethos of your Company
(00:52:08) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:53:48) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Kapitler

1. In 2004, they "almost bankrupted themselves". In 2024, they hit $500M ARR & a $5B valuation. | Mike Wessinger, Co-Founder of PointClickCare (00:00:00)

2. Target Market is as Important as PMF (00:01:43)

3. The Origin of PointClickCare (00:06:42)

4. Being a Pioneer in SaaS (00:10:23)

5. Measuring Customer Delight (00:20:18)

6. Common Mistakes when Trying to Find PMF (00:28:40)

7. Entering the US Market (00:34:32)

8. Surviving Payroll to Payroll (00:37:57)

9. Losing the Original Ethos of your Company (00:40:13)

10. Finding Product Market Fit (00:52:08)

11. One Piece of Advice (00:53:48)