IAMIP
Demetrius Giannacaro founded IAMIP in 2013 after an extensive career in engineering and intellectual property. He saw a growing need to digitalize intellectual property work and help companies manage their IP successfully, and that need became the company's primary vision. The company's platform lets users collaborate in real time on patent data, find out what competitors are doing, and spot emerging technologies.
The company was launched as software in 2014 with a team of 14, almost all of them engineers, based in Stockholm. Demetrius co-founded it with one partner on a 50-50 equity split. He said he regretted not bringing in more founders early, because finding good people was difficult and slowed development. The company was bootstrapped for its first three and a half years. Demetrius said the team wanted to land a first client and show that the product was wanted before raising money.
IAMIP grew through direct outbound sales rather than advertising. Demetrius said the company did not meet clients in person and did not run ads: "We give them a call, over the video like this." Each prospect typically took two or three meetings before closing. Everyone on the team took part in sales, and the engineers spent about three to five hours per week on it. The company targeted small startups, mid-sized companies, and large corporations, and about 30% of its customers were Fortune 500 companies.
By April 2017 IAMIP reported 500 users and 62 paying customers, averaging about $1,000 per month, which put MRR at about $60,000. It had lost no customers since launch. Demetrius credited the sensitivity of the data stored in the tool, saying customers "don't switch tools and they love our tool." He also acknowledged that the company might be pricing too cheaply to lose clients, and expected churn of about 2% once it launched more broadly. The company had no dedicated salespeople. Nathan Latka noted that the team lacked real sales staff, and Demetrius said hiring salespeople was the next change they needed to make.
IAMIP passed $600,000 in revenue in 2016 and aimed to double that in 2017. It raised $1 million in an equity round at a $3 million pre-money valuation and was raising another $1 million at a $5 million pre-money valuation to expand into a new European region. The company was also accepted into the UCLA Anderson program to plan a go-to-market strategy for the US market.
- •Sales-led outreach through short video calls produced a high-value enterprise customer base with almost no marketing spend, which suggests B2B buyers responded well to a direct founder-led approach.
- •Customers storing highly sensitive IP data in the tool creates switching costs, which likely explains the zero churn reported to date.
- •Charging around $1,000 per month to large corporate clients produced $60,000 in MRR from only 62 customers, so a small base can still support a sizable business.
- •Bootstrapping for three and a half years let the founders prove demand before raising, which improved their valuation and reduced dilution in the first round.
- 1.Build a list of target companies in your niche and book short video calls with decision-makers rather than relying on ads.
- 2.Plan for two or three meetings per prospect and have the whole team, including engineers, take part in sales conversations early.
- 3.Position the product around data sensitivity and workflow lock-in so that customers have strong reasons to stay.
- 4.Price for enterprise value rather than the lowest possible price, and test whether lower pricing is limiting your revenue.
- 5.Prove paying demand with your first clients before raising outside capital, using the revenue to set a stronger valuation.
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Related Guides
Source quote for monthly revenue
today we have reached an MRR of approximately 60,000 US dollar a month
AI-extracted from the linked source. Monthly revenue can include one-time sales or donations, and may describe a later stage than the first-customer story.