Story
A 'freaking plugin' that does $100M/yr: the Grammarly reveal
Sam recounts cornering Grammarly founder Max at HustleCon and being stunned that a browser plugin could be a real business — Grammarly was doing over $100M/year and had just raised $100M at a north-of-a-billion-dollar valuation.
“I was like shooting the shit with him and I was like, dude, a freaking plugin. Who would have thought? And he kind of had like a funny shit-eating grin on and I was like, I was like, how big are you guys? He was like, we do over $100 million a year in sales. And I was like, would you ever believe it? He was like, yeah, I thought it could be done. And then, and then I go, you just raised money? He goes, yeah, we raised $100 million the other day. I go, why? He goes, because it was at a one north of a billion dollar valuation.”
Fact
Browser extensions birthed Honey and Grammarly, both multibillion-dollar companies
Rahul Vohra notes that what looked like hobby browser-extension projects have become real businesses, citing Honey (a multibillion-dollar company) and Grammarly (another multibillion-dollar extension company).
“It was the thing I built for myself. It was a hobby project, and then I realized that a browser extension could be a real company. And today we have outcomes like Honey multibillion-dollar company. Grammarly, another multibillion-dollar extension company. People are building real businesses on these platforms.”
Number
Grammarly raised $100M at a $1B valuation and is wildly profitable
Sam recounts the Grammarly founder saying at HustleCon that they raised $100 million at a billion-dollar valuation — and that the money all went to the company because they make so much, implying over $100M in revenue from what is 'just a plugin.'
$1000M
Valuation at $100M raise · USD
“And then the founder spoke at HustleCon, and he's like, yeah, we raised $100 million at a billion-dollar valuation. And I was like, that's crazy. And he goes, yeah, it's pretty awesome. All the money went to us because we make so much. So they must make over $100 million in revenue.”
Story
A startup raised $8M copying the org-chart idea from the show
After Shaan and guest Daniel Gross brainstormed a public, crowdsourced org-chart tool on the pod, a stealth startup called The Org launched doing exactly that and raised $8M from Sequoia and Founders Fund.
“There's actually a startup that came out of Stealth that is doing this after we talked about it. Clearly stole our idea. It's called The Org. They raised $8 million from Sequoia and Founders Fund, and it looks like they're doing exactly this.”
Number
Grammarly raised $100M selling only 10% of the company
Sam recounts the Grammarly founder telling him in 2016 that they raised $100M while only giving up 10% of the company, implying a roughly billion-dollar valuation for what was 'just a plugin.'
$100M
Funding round raised for 10% of the company · USD
“He's like, I'll tell you this, we just raised $100 million in funding and I took, and that money meant most to me and they only bought 10% of the company.”