Aaron Patzer lays bare Mint's numbers

At Juice Pitcher, Mint CEO gives behind-the-scenes look at Mint's internal growth strategy


Lessons learned from entrepreneur by Matt Bowman
October 7, 2009 | Comments (4)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/b0d

1436

Last night before a crowd of some couple hundred budding entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals in the entrepreneur community, Mint CEO Aaron Patzer presented a step-by-step narrative on how he built his company in three years to $170 million target for personal finance giant Intuit.

In a moment of nonchalance, Patzer, who spoke at the Juice Pitcher event, hosted by TheFunded.com and Vator.tv, admitted to Adeo Ressi, the founding member of The Funded, that he sold Mint for cash to Intuit, so it didn't matter to him what happened to Intuit's shares.

Nonetheless, it's a great resource for entrepreneurs. Keep this article and video bookmarked and share with your fellow entrepreneurs.

Here are some of the highlights of the presentation, in which Patzer used Mint's actual numbers to suggest a model for startup-building:

Raising Money:

  • Phase 1: Once you have a mature idea, raise $100,000 from friends and family to build a prototype
  • Phase 2: Prototype complete, raise $1 million and launch an alpha into the market.
  • Phase 3: Once you have some traction, raise $5 to $10 million to scale up.
Phase 1 Expenses (1st $100,000):
  • Founders: $30,000/year
  • Engineering 1st hires: $30,000-50,000/year
  • Office: $400/cube/month
  • Tech: $10,000
  • Legal: Deferred payments for 0.50 - 0.75% of company

 Phase 2 Expenses (seed round):

  • Salaries: $50,000 - $90,000/year ($450,000/year for 5 people)
  • Overhead: +20% ($100,000/year)
  • Legal: $25,000 + $2,000/month ($50,000/year)

Phase 3 Expenses (Series A)

  • Salaries + Overhead: $200,000/year/person
  • COGS: many one-time expenses add up to about $150,000/month
  • Legal: $10,000-$50,000/month

 

4 comments

Bambi Francisco
Bambi Francisco, 44 days ago
Adeo was an excellent emcee.

Login to reply Bambi


Steven Echtman
Steven Echtman, 44 days ago
Great to hear the inside story and get a peak at the blueprint for this amazing success. Thanks Aaron and the Vator team.

Login to reply Steven


Comment_gbg
Satyajit Sahu, 43 days ago
Aaron Patzer is too awesome an entrepreneur! And this presentation is a must-watch for every startup guys out there! Thanks Vator.tv for sharing this.

Login to reply Satyajit


Alexandra Danieli
Alexandra Danieli, 37 days ago
This is interesting and very insightful!

Login to reply Alexandra


Courses are developed to give you the tools and expertise you need to rapidly scale your business.

Latest company updates on Vator.tv

rentcycle - Tim Hyer (Founder)
Rentcycle lands another SF client, Big Swingin' Cycles! Check out the homepage: http://www.bigswingincycles.com/
See more about 2 hours ago, 1 thumbs up
Neputation joined the competition "Vator Splash Competition", vote for them! about 2 hours ago
Thumbtack.com's data was edited about 3 hours ago
Thumbtack.com's data was edited about 3 hours ago
RTM-Asia - Jeremy Geiger (VP, Business Development)
Japan economy growing at 4.8%. TOKYO - Japan's economy expanded at an annual pace of 4.8 ...
See more about 3 hours ago
© 2009 Vator, Inc.