Intercom's story has been a wonderful one to watch. They're a particular inspiration for those of us in Ireland; they've consistently aimed high, have set high standards for themselves, and generally raised the bar for Irish companies.<p>Their blogging has been interesting since before Intercom was even incorporated (at their consultancy company, Contrast's[1], blog).<p>They're also a bunch of smart, down to earth people.<p>Exceptional folks. Congratulations.<p>[1] <a href="http://contrast.ie/blog/" rel="nofollow">http://contrast.ie/blog/</a>
> <i>FOCUS ON ENGAGEMENT QUALITY BEFORE ENGAGEMENT QUANTITY</i><p>I'm glad they touched on this. I've heard from several sources that many VCs don't care about engagement <i>at all</i>, as long as growth is massive - which seems crazy to me.<p>For my own SaaS, I'm focusing entirely on engagement and getting the service right before scaling up. I'm constantly talking to early users, gathering feedback and iterating. It's a slow and painful process, but it's reassuring that Intercom also did this.
You should read Intercom's founder article about product management <a href="http://insideintercom.io/product-strategy-means-saying-no/" rel="nofollow">http://insideintercom.io/product-strategy-means-saying-no/</a>
> Your vision is the ceiling for your company’s potential. You’ll never be a billion dollar business if you’re not deliberately working to get there. And in venture capital, it doesn’t make sense to invest in anyone who isn’t at least trying to build a business that size.<p>If I read between the lines correctly:<p>Intercom <i>the CRM focused on medium to small web apps</i> as we know it will be gone soon. Intercom <i>the Big Serious Business CRM but with a friendly interface</i> is the new direction.<p>Congratulations to the team — Salesforce is definitely needing better competition. Congratulations to whatever is second-place to <i>the current iteration of Intercom</i>.<p>You don't get to a billion dollars without snubbing the initial customers.
Really great news for the guys & gals at Intercom, Delighted that they're from Ireland too. Nice to have some good news around here for a change.<p>I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of them and what can I say, they're extremely passionate about what they do!<p>Congratulations.
Great post. I met Eoghan a while back, not long after they'd graduated from 500 Startups and I remember thinking "Smart guy, simple idea, huge market." Great to see that they're knocking it out of the park.
" You’ll never be a billion dollar business if you’re not deliberately working to get there. And in venture capital, it doesn’t make sense to invest in anyone who isn’t at least trying to build a business that size."<p>It doesn't make sense to invest in anyone who might just grow to a 50 million dollar company? I think VCs must be missing out on a lot of opportunities.
Intercom is an exceptional example of tackling a large and hairy problem with dauntless focus. As a user, evangelist, fan, and investor - I'm proud of all of you and excited to see what comes next. My favorite part of the blog post? "fundraising is a pseudo-achievement" - smart, smart smart!
Just to play the armchair investor game...<p>With 2000 customers, what might be their annual revenue (they say in the millions)? $2-4 million?<p>Their evaluation must be a huge multiple of revenue. I therefore imagine their belief is they have conversion down so now it is time to buy marketshare?
“My hiring philosophy is aim high. Get people you think you can’t get. Shock people that you were able to get a certain person.”<p>And then go ahead and hiring executives and managers who're not outsiders.
Sorta like what Marissa did with that French dude.
I have always wondered what is the common definition for a billion dollar company . Is it the annual gross or net revenues or is it the valuation ? If it is valuation, what P/E multiple ?