Don’t Chase The Wrong Revenue with Christian Owens @ Paddle.com

About this video

Dan Martell interviews Christian Owens, the UK founder of Paddle, a SaaS commerce platform handling subscription management, payments, and taxes — collecting, filing, and remitting taxes so sellers never touch tax revenue. Owens dropped out of school at 16, had been in Forbes 30 under 30, and was invited to a Thiel Fellowship pitch day where he gave a two-minute, one-slide pitch. He was accepted and received $100,000 over two years with no equity, on condition he not attend university during the fellowship. He says the thesis was starting builders at positive $100,000 instead of negative $200,000 from college debt. At the time of the interview Paddle had been going seven years, had raised about $35 million, had 150ish people, about $14 million ARR, and about 2,000 SaaS businesses, charging only a transaction fee with no monthly fee or minimums. Owens started Paddle after his first software business — invoicing software for freelancers that grew to $4 million in revenue — left him spending his time on taxes, payments, and international growth. He stresses focusing on the right revenue, hiring middle managers deliberately, optimising the middle of the sales funnel through RevOps, and notes Paddle had lost only eight customers in seven years. He also contrasts the US, where credit card usage might be an 80-20 split, with Germany where he says that split is probably reversed.

Key takeaways

• Paddle bundles subscription management, payments, and tax collection, filing, and remittance into one SaaS commerce platform
• Owens received $100,000 over two years as a Thiel Fellow with no equity taken, provided he did not attend university
• Paddle charges only a transaction fee with no monthly fee or minimums, aligning its revenue with customers’ recurring revenue
• Owens argues the most important hires are the first middle managers, not just superstar individual contributors or executives
• He advises chasing the right revenue — customers who buy into the vision — and broadening only when winning a segment becomes expected

Episode details: published September 24, 2020 · 56:53 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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