Cloudinary is not your typical Silicon Valley success story. The company remains bootstrapped and has not taken outside VC investment. Yet in less than ten years, the company cemented its unicorn status by surpassing $100M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and receiving a $2B valuation from Blackstone Growth as part of its February 2022 secondary round. Only a handful of other SaaS companies have ever achieved this level of growth without VC funds; among them Atlassian and MailChimp.

So what’s behind Cloudinary’s success? Itai Lahan maintains the company’s secret sauce is its continued commitment to its founding value to put people first. Right from the start, Cloudinary has put its customers first, while simultaneously cultivating a passionate, employeecentric culture: hiring the right people, prioritizing worklife balance, and sharing in the rewards.

In this session, Itai Lahan will outline why prioritizing people can contribute to a business's success, and give advice for how to do it effectively. He will talk about:
How to maintain your company’s values as you scale Cloudinary grew from 200450 employees in less than three years and despite this growth, everyone still has a voice, no matter their title. For Cloudinary, this means continuing to invest in an annual weeklong planning summit called the Gathering. This year, pandemic permitting, all employees will come together in Greece and every employee will be involved in planning the company’s focus and future.
How to invest in people beyond the obvious Cloudinary offers the worldclass benefits every job applicant looks for, but also offers some that differentiate from other startups. For example, the company just completed its 4th secondary round, which allowed employees to financially benefit from their vested equity. These benefits contributed to the company’s high retention rate.

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the largest community for B2B software.

Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform

Twitter:   / saastr  

LinkedIn:   / 2724976  

Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud

Facebook:   / saastr  

Instagram:   / saastr  

Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh

Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8