Once rolling in dough and eager to spend, Softbank ($TYO:9984) is reportedly backing out of funding some startups, leaving companies that were on a path toward growth trajectory short of funding goals and in need of future board leaders.
One of those shunted by Softbank is Seismic Software ($PRIVATE:SEISMIC), a sales platform based in San Diego that helps with B2B sales. It got $180 million in VC funding from a host of firms and got that all-important unicorn billion-dollar valuation. But apparently, behind the scenes at Softbank, it wasn't enough for them. Or they ran out of money and loved Seismic, who can say, really.
Seismic CEO Doug Winter can't, that's for sure.
Right off the bat, Seismic is growing its business, growing its platform, its reach, and growing in size. The company got real close to doubling in headcount in just over a year, and will hit a thousand employees in 2020 if it's aggressive in hiring post-Softbank rejection.
There was a lull in the summer when they were in talks with Softbank on a deal, but now that dream has died, Seismic is looking to ramp back up on manpower and elbow grease.
And the word of mouth is getting out there about Seismic; the Twitter followers has increased 57% over the last few years, which is something Thinknum can't even say, as a fellow tech startup looking for more eyeballs. A similar trend is happening with Facebook Likes (not shown here, buy our demo for more data analysis), so maybe it was a mistake for Softbank to abandon Seismic. Just a thought.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.