# Chili Piper Financial Model

B2B SaaS platform that automates inbound lead qualification, routing, and scheduling to eliminate friction between marketing and sales.

- Canonical: https://finamodel.com/startups/chili-piper
- Excel download: https://finamodel.com/startup-models/chili-piper.xlsx
- Category: Enterprise/Security
- Model type: SaaS ARR / Valuation
- Funding round: Series B
- Funding: $33M
- Founded: 2021
- Geography: Global (remote-first; 134 employees across 22 cities / 84 countries [DECK slide 15]).
- Customer: B2B

## About the company

Chili Piper automates inbound lead qualification, routing, and meeting scheduling for B2B marketing and sales teams. The platform is designed to remove the lag between a prospect showing intent and reaching the right representative.

Its value proposition sits within revenue operations: better routing and faster scheduling can improve conversion from marketing-qualified leads to meetings and opportunities. The product is sold as subscription software with seat-based and platform-fee characteristics rather than as a services business.

The model builds recurring revenue from customer additions, paid seats, platform pricing, expansion, and churn. Funnel conversion, sales capacity, customer retention, and gross margin are the key operating drivers, with scenarios showing how faster adoption or weaker renewal performance affects cash runway.

## What's included

- 5-year monthly revenue build with stage-appropriate growth assumptions
- Full P&L, headcount plan, and operating-expense schedule
- Cash-flow statement, runway, and burn-rate tracking
- Valuation via exit multiple with a DCF cross-check
- Returns analysis with MOIC and IRR
- Unit economics including CAC, LTV, payback, and cohort retention

## Product & value proposition

Two core products:
- **Concierge**: Web-form-triggered inbound routing - qualifies leads in real time, routes to the right rep, and lets prospects book a meeting instantly. Integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua, Outreach, Salesloft.
- **Instant Booker**: Chrome/Outlook extension for SDR-to-AE handoff scheduling; embeds suggested times in emails; one-click calendar booking.

Value prop: eliminates the 42-hour average B2B lead-response lag; claims "conversion rate doubles" at the point where a rep is assigned.

Roadmap expansions (slide 9): in-person event booking; stand-alone lead distribution for content downloads, webinars, lead sharing.

## Market

- TAM: $7.8B - calculated as 150,000 B2B companies on Salesforce + ~500,000+ on other CRMs × $12K ACV.

## Revenue model

- Subscription SaaS; ACV = $12K. No per-seat price broken out; segmentation implies seat-count tiers (<10 seats = low end; ≥10 seats = high end / core ICP).
- Channels: PLG + outbound sales (SDR/AE motion targeting enterprise accounts); integrations with Salesforce/HubSpot ecosystems act as distribution.
- No mention of usage-based, transaction, or marketplace fees in deck.

## Traction & metrics

- ARR trajectory:
  - 2018: $2.0M ARR
  - 2020: $3.0M ARR (+50% YoY)
  - Early 2021 target: $7.0M ARR (+133% YoY)
  - End-2021 forecast: $10.0M ARR (+43% from $7M mid-year)
- Bootstrapped until Seed Round in January 2019.
- Plan to double again in 2021 to $7.1M ARR; with Series B, ambition to triple.
- Customer logos include: Apollo, ChowNow, Workplace (Meta), PandaDoc, Salesloft, Twilio, Spotify, RingCentral, Expedia, Gong, Shopify, Intuit, Airbnb, Gainsight, monday.com, Clearbit, TripActions.
- Customer testimonials: Apollo - "5x as many meetings... revenue around 300% with half the sales team"; ChowNow - "4x conversion rate".
- 134 employees, 22 cities, 84 countries.

## Unit economics

Overall blended NRR: 141%.

**High-end segment (≥10 seats) - 88% of revenue**:
- Net $ Retention: +159%
- Annual Logo Churn: -13%
- CLV: $130K
- CLV/CAC: 9.7

**Low-end segment (<10 seats) - 12% of revenue**:
- Net $ Retention: +76%
- Annual Logo Churn: -57%
- CLV: $4K
- CLV/CAC: 0.3

## Competition / moat

Competitors named:
- Scheduling tools: Calendly, ScheduleOnce, YouCanBook.me
- Chat/conversational: Drift, Acquire, Qualified

Differentiation claimed:
- Only vendor that can instantly qualify, route, and schedule off a web form (including all major MAP platforms: Eloqua, Pardot, HubSpot, Marketo).
- Native Salesforce-first CRM integration - fewer bugs, deeper functionality.
- More sophisticated real-time routing: layered segmentation, account ownership, round-robin.

## Team & funding ask / use of funds

**Executive team**:
- Nicolas Vandenberghe - CEO
- Alina Vandenberghe - CPO & Co-Founder
- Santiago Arias - CTO
- Gemma Espirana-Cipriani - VP of Customer Success
- Julien Duhaubois - VP Sales EMEA

**Funding ask**:
- Raising: $33M Series B
- Stated runway without raise: sufficient cash to end-2021
- Use of funds (3 pillars): (1) marketing programs for growth/awareness; (2) enterprise sales hiring; (3) faster product development

Prior funding: Seed Round closed January 2019 (amount not in deck).

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## Recommended financial model

- **Archetype + why**: SaaS ARR model with seat-based expansion. The business is pure subscription with very strong NRR (141% blended, 159% high-end), making an ARR waterfall + cohort expansion model the natural fit. No transaction or usage fees in deck.

- **Forecast horizon & granularity**: 3 years (2021–2024), monthly for Year 1, quarterly for Years 2–3. Matches the Series B use-of-funds horizon and lets the model show the enterprise sales ramp from fresh hires.

- **Key drivers & assumptions**:
  - Starting ARR: $7.0M (mid-2021 actuals)
  - ACV - high-end (≥10 seats): $12K; implied higher than blended because low-end drags it down - model high-end at $15K, low-end at $3K, weighted to 88/12 split
  - New logo adds per month: ~15–20 new high-end logos/month in base case post-funding, scaling as sales team ramps; rationale: to reach $10M ARR by end-2021 from $7M requires ~250 new seats or ~25 new $12K logos in H2
  - High-end NRR: 159% → implies ~4.6% net monthly expansion; model as gross churn 13%/yr + upsell driving remainder
  - Low-end NRR: 76% → gross churn 57%/yr; de-emphasise in model (12% of rev, flagged for wind-down or repricing)
  - Blended NRR: 141% - use as sanity check on cohort outputs
  - Headcount: 134 today; grow to ~200 by end-2021, ~300 by end-2022 based on $33M raise and stated enterprise sales hiring
  - S&M as % of revenue: ~50–60% in Year 1 post-raise (aggressive enterprise push), declining to 35–40% by Year 3
  - R&D as % of revenue: 20–25% (product acceleration cited as key use of funds)
  - G&A as % of revenue: 10–12%
  - Series B raise: $33M; model as cash inflow at model start

- **Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex)**:
  - Base: ARR triples to ~$21M by end-2022; NRR stays at 141%; ~20 new logos/month
  - Bull: NRR expands to 155%+ as enterprise mix grows; 30 new logos/month; roadmap products (events, lead distribution) contribute revenue by 2023
  - Bear: COVID / macro dents new logo adds to ~10/month; high-end churn ticks up from 13% to 20%; ARR doubles to ~$14M by end-2022

- **Required sheets / outputs**:
  1. Assumptions dashboard (all drivers in one place)
  2. ARR waterfall (new, expansion, contraction, churn by month)
  3. Cohort table (high-end vs. low-end separately; NRR by cohort year)
  4. P&L (revenue, gross profit, S&M, R&D, G&A, EBITDA, net income)
  5. Headcount plan (by function: Sales, CS, R&D, G&A)
  6. Cash flow & runway (starting from $33M raise)
  7. KPI summary (ARR, MRR, NRR, logo count, ACV, CAC payback, Rule of 40)
  8. Scenario toggle (Base / Bull / Bear)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the Chili Piper financial model free?

Yes. The Chili Piper model is a free Excel download with live formulas.

### Can I change the assumptions?

Yes. The workbook is editable and its live formulas recalculate when assumptions change.