Fundraise or find profits with Benchmark and Cambly

This week’s TechCrunch Live features Sameer Shariff, CEO, and co-founder of Cambly, and Sarah Tavel, a long-time investor at Benchmark and previously Graylock. They’re the perfect guests to kick off the third season of TCL!

Cambly looks like a sure bet right now, but as you’ll hear from Sameer, it was a struggle to get to this point. After failing to raise a Series A, the company had to change its model overnight. When VC after VC said no, Cambly had to find a way to make a profit to keep the doors open. Since then, the company went on to raise a $20m Series A and $60m Series B, but only because the company took the hard steps to seek profitability earlier than expected.

Cambly’s Series B fundraise went wildly different from its Series A, and I hope you can join the live event to hear the lessons Sameer learned from both rounds. Sarah Tavel led Benchmark’s investment and can speak to what made Cambly a perfect fit for the firm – and you’ll hear from Sameer on why Benchmark was an ideal fit for Cambly too.

Questions I want to ask:

How did the company mindset change following the failure to raise a Series A, and how did the founders keep the team focused and on target?

What steps should founders take when seeking profitable growth before raising venture capital?

Cambly is a unique marketplace, and how did the company initially acquire customers, and when did the company outgrow and replace the strategy for scale?

There are countless language learning marketplaces and services, so what Cambly metrics lead Benchmark to lead Series B?