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Conga

Launched 2006via Nathan Latka Podcast
Growthplatform parasitic
Pricingsubscription
The Spark

Conga was founded in 2006 to solve a specific problem in the Salesforce ecosystem: the need to generate dynamic documents and manage contracts using live Salesforce data. The company identified a natural market gap—while Salesforce dominated CRM, there was no native solution for turning that data into actionable documents and managing the entire contract lifecycle.

Building the Platform

Conga positioned itself as one of the top five global Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in the Salesforce ecosystem, eventually becoming the fastest-growing partner among 5,000+ companies in that network. The product suite evolved to include document generation, data management, and intelligent contract management, all tightly integrated with Salesforce.

Finding the First Customers

The Salesforce AppExchange became Conga's number one customer acquisition vehicle, though Matt emphasized it's "not our sole source of new customer acquisition." The platform's natural fit within the Salesforce workflow—"when you send someone a contract, right? You get one user turns to two pretty predictably"—created organic viral potential. The low barrier to entry ($200/month for 10 seats) enabled customers to start small with pilot projects and expand over time.

What Worked (and What Didn't)

The subscription-based, per-seat model proved remarkably efficient. The company achieved negative churn on a revenue basis—substantially above the 100% net revenue retention benchmark common in high-performing SaaS. Matt noted that 80% of customers consider Conga's apps "mission critical to their business," driving exceptional renewal rates. Growth accelerated dramatically: 200% bookings growth the prior year, with 100% expected growth (doubling) in the current year—exceptional velocity for a company operating at scale with global footprint and 250-500 employees.

Where They Are Now

With over 9,000 paying customers representing hundreds of thousands of seats across 140+ countries, Conga maintains healthy 85-87% gross margins typical of mature SaaS businesses. The company is majority-owned by Insight Venture Partners (who invested $70M in 2015 when recruiting Matt as CEO) and received a strategic $7M investment from Salesforce Ventures in May 2017. Matt and his board are evaluating IPO opportunities as a potential funding mechanism, though they emphasize it's a financing decision, not a finish line event.

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