Zvi Band is co-founder and former CEO of Contactually, which was CRM software for real estate and other relationship-oriented professionals. Contactually was founded in 2011 with initial funding and support from 500 Startups in Silicon Valley. In the next five years, they raised a total of $15.5 million from institutional VC investors.

Contactually grew to about $10 million in revenue before growth stalled, and it became clear they couldn’t raise additional capital or grow big without funding. The company was sold in 2019 to Compass, a major real estate technology company and brokerage, to power their internal CRM platform.

In this episode, Zvi candidly shares his personal experience with VC funding, their opportunities and challenges, and the strategic dilemmas they faced along the way. Zvi now owns and operates a bootstrapped contact management software business called Relatatable.

Quote from Zvi Band, co-founder and former CEO of Contactually

“I realized I spent seven and a half years of my life in survival mode as a CEO with VC investors.. And at no point did I feel that like we were safe and things were fun, because the bank account was always trickling down a little bit. 

“We always had big growth goals. And we were always thinking about, How do we get through the next VC funding round? At no point did I realize and celebrate that, hey, we built something really awesome. 

“We could have chilled out once in a while or taken the team to Mexico for a week or something like that. But everything was around short term goals and what we need to do to get there that month.”

Links

• Zvi Band on LinkedIn
• Compass on LinkedIn
• Relateable website

The Practical Founders Podcast

Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app or view on our YouTube channel.

Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com.