In IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs from the fastest growing companies and discuss the ins and outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment.
In our third episode, IVP's Tom Loverro sat down with Eric Rea, Co-Founder and CEO of Podium, and Adam Edmunds, President of Podium. Recently named one of Forbes' Next Billion-Dollar Startups and Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies, Podium is a next-generation customer interaction platform for local businesses.
Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, Podium started by selling to single location small businesses -dentists, doctors, car dealerships - eventually catering to larger, multi-location corporations and franchises. Podium has grown rapidly, from approximately $1 million in run-rate revenue in 2015 to $60 million in 2018. IVP led Podium's $60 million Series B financing in June 2018.
The idea for Podium came to Eric after witnessing his father run his own local tire company. The pain points of managing a small business, from filling the sales funnel to maintaining online reviews, revealed themselves as clear opportunities to Eric, who views himself as a natural entrepreneur. Eric set out to create a solution built on the thesis that modern small businesses depend on their online reviews and presence to grow organically and profitably.
Local commerce isn't going away, yet small businesses don't have the time or resources to keep technology updated. With that revelation, Eric created a set of online tools for small businesses to communicate with their customers by gathering customer feedback and reviews. Together, Eric and his team at Podium realized they were facing a massive market opportunity spread out in pockets of small business owners across the country all trying to solve for the issue of customer discovery and communication.
Today, Podium helps small businesses interact with their customers pre-sale (webchat, mobile text chat, appointments, etc.) and post-sale (reviews and feedback). Podium integrates with over 100 CRMs and scales to enterprises with thousands of locations.
To reach Podium's goals to win over investors and customers alike, Adam and Eric discovered a few valuable lessons along the way. Here are a few key takeaways:
Product Market Fit Should be Obvious That first zero to one is hard.
Podium figured out early on what customers needed and where there were gaps in the market from existing solutions. The reason people buy and stay with Podium is because we help them get customers, and then we help keep customers, Eric recounted noting. Podium's customers saw an immediate increase in sales. That qualitative feedback gave the Podium team confidence it was on the right track. Podium's product market fit also demonstrated itself quantitatively-the company kept zooming past its financial projections. There was little room for doubt Podium's product had excellent fit with its customers and market, even quite early on.
Use Engagement Data to Guide Product Expansions Just launch it and then you see what happens.
Podium didn't launch any major new functionality until they were in market for nearly three years. They wanted to go deep before they went broad. When they finally did feel ready to make a major product expansion, they tested and iterated quickly in search of fresh product market fit. They rolled out the new features to a few users at a time and looked for the signs of deep product market fit and engagement before committing to rolling those features out globally.
Selling Software to Small Businesses Can Be Profitable Our experience proves it.
Conventional wisdom in tech startups is that you shouldn't sell software to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) because they are difficult and expensive to reach and churn quickly. Podium has found that through a combination of focusing on a specific target profile of SMBs, namely larger revenue accounts in specific verticals, and selling a product with a measurable ROI that can be communicated over the phone and through a quick demo, SMBs can be a great customer set.
The company's numbers are still heading up and to the right, and perhaps more importantly, Podium continues to deliver value to its customers thanks in part to Eric and Adam's leadership.
The full transcript is below.
Subscribe in your favorite podcast client via iTunes or SoundCloud.
TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Welcome to IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast. In this series, we talk with CEOs of the fastest-growing companies and discuss the ins-and-outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment. If you like what you hear, consider following us on SoundCloud or subscribing to our podcast on iTunes. Thanks, and enjoy the show.
Tom: Welcome everyone. I'm Tom Loverro, an investor at IVP. On today's podcast, we are joined by Eric Ray, Co-founder and CEO of Podium, and Adam Edmonds, President of Podium. Podium is a next-generation customer communications platform for local businesses. Podium was recently named one of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups and was just named one of Fast Companies' World's Most Innovative Companies. Podium grew from a million in run rate revenue in 2015 to 60 million in 2018. And for those of you keeping score at home, it's pretty fast, especially for a company that burned very little capital to get there. The company is headquartered in Lehi, Utah, and has over 400 employees and IVP had the privilege of leading Podium's Series B in June of 2018. Eric is a graduate of BYU and former software engineer at the International Atomic Energy Agency. He co-founded Podium in 2014. Entered Y Combinator in January 2016, raised a Series A in 2017 and he hasn't looked back since. Adam is a graduate of BYU as well and was formerly the founder and CEO of
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
In IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs from the fastest growing companies and discuss the ins and outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment.
