🎧 The Startup Growth Podcast, Ep. 11: Nathan Latka — Bootstrapping to $2M ARR, Turning Down $6.5M, and Funding 500+ Startups
He Turned Down $6.5M at 21 — Nathan Latka’s Wild SaaS Journey
Nathan Latka is the founder and CEO of Founderpath, a fintech platform that has deployed nearly $200 million in non-dilutive capital to 500+ software companies. He’s also the creator of GetLatka, a massive SaaS database built off the back of his top-ranked Latka podcast, where he’s interviewed thousands of founders. Nathan’s entrepreneurial journey began at 18 with the launch of Heyo, a Facebook fan page SaaS tool he bootstrapped to $2M in ARR before raising venture capital and eventually exiting.
In this conversation, Nathan shares hard-earned lessons from building and exiting companies, explains why most founders don’t understand the true cost of raising VC, and offers a compelling case for why debt and secondaries can be a smarter option. We also explore:
- How he bootstrapped Heyo to $2M ARR before raising VC
- The $6.5M exit offer he had to turn down (and regrets)
- What most founders misunderstand about venture capital
- How GetLatka became the #1 ranked SaaS benchmarking database
- Why the future belongs to tiny teams with huge revenue
- The three AI trends shaping SaaS company formation
- How FounderPath prices startup equity daily—instantly enabling secondaries
- Why hooks and attention matter more than ever
- And much more
Where to Find Nathan Latka
- X: https://x.com/NathanLatka
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanlatka/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlatka/
- Podcast: Latka Podcast
- SaaS Database: https://getlatka.com
- Book: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital
Where to Find David Phillips
In This Episode, We Cover
- (00:00) Intro to Nathan and FounderPath
- (01:30) The story behind Heyo and bootstrapping to $2M ARR
- (03:50) Raising venture and losing optionality
- (05:30) The $6.5M offer and why his board said no
- (07:10) Lessons from a slow death and how to move on
- (08:15) Why Nathan started the Latka podcast
- (09:30) Building GetLatka to 3,000+ daily organic clicks
- (11:00) The power of hooks and attention in modern SaaS
- (12:45) Inside FounderPath: non-dilutive capital for SaaS
- (14:30) How venture debt differs from traditional VC
- (16:15) Why secondaries are healthy, not harmful
- (18:00) How FounderPath prices startup equity daily
- (20:10) Big trends: tiny teams, chat-based dashboards, attention > tech
Referenced
- GetLatka – https://getlatka.com
- FounderPath – https://founderpath.com
- Heyo (archived) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyo
- How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital (Book) – https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Capitalist-Without-Capital/dp/0525534440
- ZoomInfo – https://www.zoominfo.com
- Techstars – https://www.techstars.com
- G2 Crowd – https://www.g2.com
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