In only six short years after its establishment in 2016, Dante Labs evolved from a small business to generate over $100M in sales. Andrea Riposati, the company’s CEO and co-founder, was recently questioned about its success trajectory.
Just two years after its creation, Dante Labs has reportedly been profitable since 2018. An achievement that is nearly unheard of among businesses that are anxious to get as much investor capital as possible during their early years, is the two founders still owning over 90% of the business. For other businesses hoping to prosper and overcome the difficulties of lean years where investors are less plentiful on the horizon, Andrea Riposati offers some sage advice.
Examining Investment Results Under a Microscope
Startups should also consider measuring the return on specific sorts of investments, suggests Andrea Riposati. According to Riposati, “it is simple to quantify the ROI of a new technology or the return on investment of a marketing campaign in today’s digital age.”
Spending on Software
One of the important aspects that Logan Plaster highlights are that Andrea Riposati and his partner continue to hold 90% of Dante Labs and generate sales in the neighborhood of $100M. Regarding such tactics, Andrea Riposati provides advice for fresh companies. “First and foremost, we decided to expand Dante Labs and prioritize income above attracting investors. We believed that merely concentrating on growing the firm with the resources at our disposal would be more beneficial to the company than diluting our shares. Focusing on the audience is Riposati’s other piece of advice for new businesses. “Focus on producing a product people will purchase,” he advises. Until revenues rise, the flip side of the coin is to limit investments. Then, he continues, “you may make investments without reducing share ownership.”
Riposati gives the example of how they lacked a lab to conduct the sequencing. “We would have had an empty lab with very few experiments to perform if we had made investments to create a lab at that point. However, by delaying and outsourcing the sequencing in the early phases, we were able to expand our business and do A/B testing to make sure that our tests were as accurate as possible. They only brought in an investor to expand the lab once they had enough samples to fill the facility. Riposati asserts that “this is the only way to manage a lab in a lucrative way.”
The Importance of Sharing a Common Vision With Investors
Finally, Riposati stresses the need to work with investors who genuinely share your viewpoints. Since they will act as a partner with your business, Riposati explains, “you will not have to argue with them to attempt to persuade them to do something that they do not want to do.”
