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, 124 days ago
Adeo was an excellent emcee.

Login to reply Bambi


Steven Echtman
Steven Echtman, 124 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, 124 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, 117 days ago
This is interesting and very insightful!

Login to reply Alexandra


Create your venture's profile
Vator is short for innovator. If you have a new venture, create a profile so we can help you build awareness and a following. We'll distribute your voice to our users and our partners.

Latest company updates on Vator.tv

Smaato Inc.'s data was edited 16 minutes ago
Smaato Inc.'s data was edited 23 minutes ago
Yield Software, Inc. was featured in a article: "Social media marketing, Part 3" 28 minutes ago
Outline a strategy and an objective See more
Rentcycle - Tim Hyer (Founder)
Greetings from The Rental Show in Orlando, FL! Day 1 exceeded expectations. I think the rental ...
See more about 4 hours ago, 2 thumbs up
Touching almost every one of our segments today except LPs ( VCs, angels, founders, corp venture ...
See more about 6 hours ago, 1 comments
© 2010 Vator, Inc.