July 01, 2024

He fought Al Qaeda in Iraq, turned down $250K at McKinsey—& built a $150M+ ARR unicorn. Here’s how it happened: | Blake Hall, Founder of ID.me

52 minutes

"I was technically homeless at the time. I was sleeping on my buddy's couch. I had declined $250,000/ year at McKinsey... I had no idea what I was doing." Now, Blake has $150M in ARR, growing 30% per year, with 80% gross margins. He's raised $400M and his startup ID.me is worth over $1B.

This is the story of how pivoted for a Groupon-like model to an identity verification platform. Blake talks about how he raised the initial round, closed the first few enterprise contracts, and why he thinks finding product-market fit is more of a science than most founders think.

After his pivot, ID.me doubled its user base every year. Now, over 40% of Americans have an ID.me account.

Why you should listen
•Learn how even successful founders are often much closer to failure than you'd expect
•How to get credibility as a founder and close enterprise deals.
•Why fear of failure can be a powerful motivator if used constructively.
•How to use a niche market to quickly find product-market fit
•Why staying close to customers is the best way to pivot into the right problem/solution set.

Keywords
ID.me, military, tech founder, product-market fit, startup, business model, capital raising, mentorship, scientific approach, user base, revenue growth

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:56) The Origin of ID.me
(00:04:44) The Two Parts of Credibility
(00:11:16) To Win Big, Start Small
(00:14:53) Fear of Failure Can Be Positive
(00:20:54) Paypal for Identity
(00:23:59) Moving to DC and Raising 500k
(00:27:53) Belief in the Person Over the Business Model
(00:30:55) Pivoting to Identity Wallets
(00:41:07) The first big contract: Under Armour
(00:48:06) Getting to a Million
(00:49:39) One Piece of Advice