Measured to Grow Customer Base 4X by 2021 with TIMIA Investment
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TIMIA’s investment in Measured will help the team invest in more product innovations to lead in the cross-channel analytics category.
In March 2020, TIMIA Capital announced a $2 million investment facility for Los Angeles-based Measured.
Trevor Testwuide, CEO, Measured
Measured is a web-based marketing insights platform that helps organizations make better media investment decisions. The company is unique as it specializes in incrementality measurement. In other words, brands use the Measured platform to understand the incremental marginal lift of each individual media tactic so they can make better investments and boost the overall return on investment of their media spend.
Following the announcement of the partnership, we spoke with co-founder and CEO, Trevor Testwuide, to dive a little deeper into where Measured came from—and where it’s going.
Where it all Began
Trevor Testwuide, his co-founder, Madan Bharadwaj, and COO, Nick Stoltz are veterans of the cross-channel analytics category and are widely recognized as thought leaders in their field. They have over 20 years of experience in marketing and have been immersed in the cross-channel analytics field for over 10 years.
They established Measured in 2017 and have been bootstrapping and building their SaaS business using cash from paying customers. “Having had venture capital fundraising experience in previous startups, we made the decision early on that we were going to bootstrap Measured,” said Trevor. “We partnered with a couple of great clients from the beginning who funded our early growth and helped us build a great product.”
Measured is a great solution for any brand that uses paid media in their marketing campaigns to drive some behavior on a website or in a physical retail location. It integrates seamlessly with eCommerce platforms like Magento, Shopify, and IBM; media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Pinterest; CRM platforms like Salesforce; and marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Hubspot, and Mailchimp. “We’ve invested heavily in ensuring our infrastructure integrates with all the key ecosystem players so we can support effective data collection for our analytics.”
Today, Measured serves clients across Europe, South America, Canada, and Australia and boasts an impressive client list that includes brands like Calvin Klein, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Upwork.
Capital Efficient from the Outset
Measured operates a very capital-efficient business model. Most of its 28 employees operate as a distributed team so they cut down on office costs and gain access to the best and brightest talent around the world.
“As we onboard new companies, we needed some more working capital to fuel our growth,” said Trevor. “Our capital-efficient approach will not change following our investment facility from TIMIA.”
With the TIMIA investment facility, Measured always has the option to consider additional investments to further fuel the profitable growth of the business. “This investment will give us more breathing room on our balance sheet and give us investment options if we want to accelerate investment in our innovation and growth,” said Trevor. “I typically use a simple net present value calculation based on the cost of capital and the cost of investments we can make to accelerate the enterprise value of the business.”
Measured chose TIMIA’s flexible and non-dilutive revenue-based financing to fund its growth as it wanted to retain control and equity in its business.
“We were looking at financing options where we didn’t have to give up any board seats or dilute our equity. I discovered TIMIA on LinkedIn and had some really great conversations with Mark in the beginning,” said Trevor. “As we were going through the discovery process, I found that TIMIA’s investment thesis really described Measured and what we were looking for in a financial partner really described TIMIA. It just felt like a really good fit.”
Looking for non-dilutive capital?
TIMIA Capital works with recurring revenue technology
businesses between $2 – $20 million ARR.
The Big Picture for Measured
Measured currently has 26 clients and aims to grow to 100 clients by the end of next year. “Our big goal is to win the cross-channel analytics category. The category is open for someone to win and we have a world-class team that’s primed to do it,” said Trevor.
Trevor wants to remain bootstrapped for as long as possible, continuing to build a profitable business. However, he will let his growth strategy drive his future financing decisions. “We like to keep our options open. We may consider an equity partner at some point in the future if that’s the responsible decision for the business and our stakeholders,” he said.
Has COVID-19 Affected Measured’s Operations?
Since Measured has operated as a distributed team from day one, they are used to living on Zoom, Slack, and Google. “I’m in Los Angeles, we have some team members in Boston, Toronto, New York, North Carolina, Chicago, and some in India,” said Trevor. “This distributed environment has been our normal since day one so, operationally, nothing has changed for us.”
Their biggest challenge? Culture. “Sometimes there’s no substitute for really spending time together, going to dinner together, meeting each other’s families, and so on,” said Trevor. “To get around that, we bring the whole team together once a year and we spend a week together. We also meet one a month at an All Hand meeting. The time zones can be challenging but we make it work.”
Since Measured already has the structures in place to operate as a remote business, they have a distinct advantage right now.
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