This week, Matt Burns is joined by Sameer Shariff, CEO and co-founder of Cambly, and Sarah Tavel, a long-time investor at Benchmark and previously Graylock to talk all about raising first dollars.
TCL Podcast: Hear how to Cambly found profitability before its Series A
Cambly was founded in 2012, and has since raised $80.29m from leading venture capital firms. Success didn’t come overnight. The company had to weather a failed fundraise and countless competitors on its way to becoming a market leader.
I had Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff and Benchmark partner Sarah Tavel on TechCrunch Live. It was the first event of the 2023, and the timing is great. Part of Cambly’s story involves tweaking its business model to become cashflow positive much earlier than initially planned. And after the company started making money, it was able to close its Series A and a Series B.
Hear this conversation in the TechCrunch Live podcast, or you can watch the video recap. Both are embedded below.
TechCrunch Live records weekly, each Wednesday, at noon Pacific. It’s free to attend. Register for the next event right here. It will feature Christina Ross of Cube and Rajeev Batra of Mayfield.
Outline
Why Cambly failed to raise a Series A, and how the company changed to keep it afloat.
How to keep an investor engaged after they say no.
When is the right time for a company to fundraise?
On the struggles of building a marketplace.
Assets mentioned in the episode
The Hierarchy of Marketplaces — Introduction and Level 1
, by Sarah Tavel