Bootstrapping to $2B When Everyone Says It's Impossible with Cloudinary’s CEO

Cloudinary is not your typical Silicon Valley success story. The company remains bootstrapped and has not taken outside VC investment. Yet in less than ten years, the company cemented its unicorn status by surpassing $100M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and receiving a $2B valuation from Blackstone Growth as part of its February 2022 secondary round. Only a handful of other SaaS companies have ever achieved this level of growth without VC funds; among them Atlassian and MailChimp.

So what’s behind Cloudinary’s success? Itai Lahan maintains the company’s secret sauce is its continued commitment to its founding value to put people first. Right from the start, Cloudinary has put its customers first, while simultaneously cultivating a passionate, employee-centric culture: hiring the right people, prioritizing work-life balance, and sharing in the rewards.

In this session, Itai Lahan will outline why prioritizing people can contribute to a business's success, and give advice for how to do it effectively. He will talk about:
How to maintain your company’s values as you scale - Cloudinary grew from 200-450 employees in less than three years and despite this growth, everyone still has a voice, no matter their title. For Cloudinary, this means continuing to invest in an annual week-long planning summit called the Gathering. This year, pandemic permitting, all employees will come together in Greece and every employee will be involved in planning the company’s focus and future.
How to invest in people beyond the obvious - Cloudinary offers the world-class benefits every job applicant looks for, but also offers some that differentiate from other startups. For example, the company just completed its 4th secondary round, which allowed employees to financially benefit from their vested equity. These benefits contributed to the company’s high retention rate.

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[Jasonlk]

Great session with one of the top SaaS / B2D companies you haven’t heard of

[binghoh]

Thank you for your advice.. I'm bootstrapping in Malaysia in a health tech company and have much doubts which you highlighted. Oh, we also using Cloudinary 😊

[El_Diablo_]

22:00 optionality of a bootstrapped company. Getting to stop at whichever time they wanted

[ranjitmenon]

what if we could bootstrap without a VC or any fundings based on your self suffcient revenue streams of income in billions $ going to zero debts thats an amazing strategy you have to follow the guidelines of bootstraping through a complete new method of bootstrapping which is not avaliable in the market .