From Zero to IPO: Lessons in Scaling Mimecast with Peter Bauer and Ari Helgason

Back in 2003, tech wasn’t exactly having its most glorious days. The bitter taste of the dot-com crash was still pungent. Few entrepreneurs would be blamed for not willing to take a punt by starting a new tech company. Peter Bauer, however, didn’t succumb to that too much. He sensed SaaS would outlive that and become the next big thing.

Peter placed a bet on a cloud-based email management system and Mimecast was born.

From the early days, Mimecast defied rules and expectations. While everyone advised Peter to focus on just one aspect of email, he and his co-founder were religious about creating a supercategory.

15 years on the journey, Peter has had the rare chance to lead the company through all stages, including an IPO. He knows equally well the problems of having 5k in the bank and 35 people on the payroll as well as having 140 million in the bank and figuring what is next.

Listen on to hear:

• How does the thinking behind the product change over time
• How do you know it’s time to move to a new market
• How Mimecast kept the cultural cohesion as it scaled
• What is the best way to approach compensation
• Which is the toughest stage on the journey and how to prepare for it

P.S.
This conversation was part of a fantastic first stop of SaaStock on Tour in London. The next stop on SaaStock on Tour is Paris on May 3rd. Find out more information https://www.saastock.com/ontour

 

 

 

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