Rob founded Outpoint in 2020 to help marketers optimize their ad spend. He was a growth marketer and his founder a data scientist. He had team-market fit, a solid thesis, and paying customers. But when the recession hit and ad spend dropped, growth ground to a halt. Nothing he did could revitalize growth. Ultimately, he decreased expenses and exited. He was able to return some cash to investors, find a home for his team and keep the product going.

You tend to hear about what happens to the best 1% of startups. Here’s what tends to happen to the other 99%.

Keywords

Outpoint, product market fit, startup journey, acquisition, growth marketing, venture capital, business strategy, lessons learned, entrepreneurship, market dynamics

Why you should listen

Why a great team and thesis won’t always lead to success
How things out of your control can completely change your trajectory
Why you should build something that works in both up and down markets
How to find an acquisition when things aren’t going well.

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:13) The origin of Outpoint
(00:04:40) Medium Mixed Modeling
(00:10:12) Speaking to Customers When their Revenue is Declining
(00:14:49) Outpoint's Runway in 2022
(00:19:21) Hunting to be Acquired
(00:26:07) Lessons Learned
(00:28:53) Almost Finding Product Market Fit
(00:30:23) Planning a Startup vs the Serendipity of Staring One
(00:34:30) Closing Thoughts

Send me a message to let me know what you think!

He raised $1.5M, hit $400K ARR in 9 months— & Had to Exit Early. Here’s the top 3 lessons he learned | Rob Palumbo, Co-Founder of Outpoint

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

He raised $1.5M, hit $400K ARR in 9 months— & Had to Exit Early. Here’s the top 3 lessons he learned | Rob Palumbo, Co-Founder of Outpoint