Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld

Sandi Lin on how Skilljar raised $16.5M with her car breaking down on Sand Hill Road

Episode Summary

Skilljar raised $16M last year after tripling from $1M to $3M ARR. Hear how CEO Sandi Lin got bay area VCs competing for her attention during her Series A after barely getting any replies to her seed round.

Episode Notes

On this episode of The Built in Seattle Podcast, I talked with Sandi Lin, CEO and co-founder at Skilljar.

Highlights:

• How she struggled to raise a seed round, but then had a highly competitive series A.
• The mechanics of fundraising and the challenges for Seattle companies getting money from Sand Hill Road.
• The crazy story of her car breakking down between pitches.
• What happens when the tables turn and the VCs want you.
• Why she left Amazon, but doesn't see others doing the same.
• Sandi's lessons from building Skilljar and grinding out the enterprise sale.
• Her focus on preparation, he style as an introvert, and the way she thinks about customer success

Guest Bio:

Sandi Lin is the CEO and Co-founder of Skilljar. Prior to Skilljar, she led product management teams at Amazon. Sandi has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Where to follow Sandi:

https://twitter.com/sandislin

Where to follow Adam:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamschoenfeld/

https://twitter.com/schoeny

Feedback? Suggestions on who to interview? Email me anytime - adamseattlepodcast@gmail.com