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From $0 to $10 Million Revenue in 15 Months
How Adam Nathan got Blaze into the top 1% of companies on Stripe
Michael Houck
January 09, 2025
Hey y’all — imagine raising at a $150 million valuation and realizing that your best option was to pivot to something completely different.
Adam Nathan had to.
But then the new product became one of the top 1% fastest growing companies that use Stripe.
In 2019, Adam started Almanac, an all-in-one platform for remote teams. After raising a massive round from Tiger Global, Floodgate, and General Catalyst on the back of exponential growth, Adam realized their valuation was too high and Almanac would likely never grow into it.
Rather than call it a day, he set out on a mission to find a new product that did have the potential. And it worked. In the last 15 months, Blaze.ai has gone from $0 to $10 million in revenue with no signs of slowing down.
Here’s Adam’s journey:
As a reminder, each Thursday I interview a world-class founder about their unique paths to uncover tactical insights they've learned about how to fundraise, grow, validate, hire, scale, and lead teams.
Also, after each conversation I write up my candid takeaways. Become a member and grab them ✨ here ✨ along with lifetime access to my private founder community and more.
In our chat we discuss:
Intro & Background
(00:00) — Intro
(01:11) — Shutting down Almanac
(04:24) — Starting Blaze
Founder Mode
(16:54) — Prioritization during hyper growth
(24:32) — Knowing when to delegate
(30:02) — Not being the "idea guy"
(33:48) — Second mover advantage
(42:28) — Intentional branding
(49:34) — Overbuilding product features
(55:53) — How fundraising changes a business
Rapid Fire
(1:03:41) — Who is one investor you’d recommend?
(1:04:25) — One thing you'd change about startups?
(1:04:45) — Advice for first-time founders?
(1:05:20) — Something you believe that most disagree with?
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