We see the opportunity for growth around every corner. Whether it's scaling our portfolio companies or our investment in continuous learning as a team, we're always looking to move up and to the right.

Growth

, a customer conversation management platform, today announced a $62.5 million Series B round led by 

, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors.

Respond.io enables mid-market B2C businesses to grow revenue from high volumes of customer chats and calls. It unifies WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, LINE, Telegram, WeChat, voice calls, email, web chat and 16 more integrations into a single platform with AI agents, automation, and CRMs. This turns fragmented customer conversations into a measurable revenue engine, purpose-built for real-world scale and complexity.

The company serves industries where customers initiate conversations before buying, booking, or committing, including education, healthcare, automotive, retail and travel. The platform powers 2 billion messages per quarter for more than 10,000 businesses in over 180 countries, including Toyota, British Airways, Radisson, Hertz, and Decathlon.

Respond.io generates $33M in annual recurring revenue, growing 153% year-over-year, at a 30% profit margin. It is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and an official Meta Business and TikTok Marketing Partner.

The funding was led by Camber Partners, a New York City-based growth equity firm that invests in only a handful of capital-efficient software businesses per year, with a pre-fund portfolio that includes Dropbox, PandaDoc, and Pipedrive. Camber brings deep operational engagement to their partnerships, including support in go-to-market, data science, and talent. As a US-based firm with European market experience, the relationship maps directly to respond.io's geographic expansion plans.

"When we started talking to Camber Partners, that conversation felt different," said Gerardo Salandra, CEO and co-founder of respond.io. "We built respond.io over nine years across markets most competitors never entered and did it profitably. Camber Partners and other investors backed us because they understand what that means: real product-market fit, with great unit economics, and a business that raises to accelerate, not to survive."

"Respond.io spent nine years building the infrastructure for high consideration, AI-native customer conversations - and they did it profitably in diverse markets. They have an exceptional team that has leveraged AI to accelerate rapidly. We believe respond.io is positioned to lead this category at a global scale," said Scott Irwin, founder and partner, Camber Partners.

From omnichannel inbox to native AI infrastructure

Respond.io launched in 2017 to solve a straightforward problem: customers were moving to messaging apps, but businesses struggled to respond from separate channel inboxes. The founding team built a platform that consolidated fragmented conversations into a single platform with automation and routing.

As frontier LLMs matured, the team realized this foundation was exactly what autonomous agents needed to operate on to enable rapid revenue acceleration for the high-consideration businesses they serve. Respond.io had spent years assembling the infrastructure — every major messaging channel, voice, email, CRM integrations, compliance controls — and accumulating the kind of operational depth that comes only from years of running high-volume conversations. This enabled it to roll out native AI technologies that meaningfully address real business needs.

This advantage is structural and compounds over time. Processing more conversations than any comparable platform creates a data flywheel — aggregate intelligence about how businesses actually deploy AI in high-volume messaging, the patterns that work, the edge cases that don't — that continuously shapes how respond.io's AI features are built and improved. Newer or lighter platforms building on the same frontier models cannot buy these operational signals or guarantee the same 99.999% uptime at the volumes AI brings. Today, 

’s AI Agents engage thousands of leads daily, qualify them and close B2C sales autonomously, handing off to human operators with full context for edge cases.

’s innovation attracted some of the largest partners in the ecosystem. Meta and TikTok chose respond.io for early rollouts of WhatsApp Business Calling API, TikTok Business Messaging, and TikTok Messaging Ads — making it one of the few platforms offering end-to-end integrations for both messaging and calling.

"Most businesses still treat customer conversations as a cost to manage. The ones winning right now treat them as the revenue channel they actually are, and they're automating everything that doesn't require a human so the humans can focus where they add the most value,” Salandra said. “We see it in our customers every day — we have case studies showing AI Agents are handling 600% more leads with conversation rates as high as 84%.”

Respond.io built category leadership across APAC, LATAM and EMEA — markets where mobile messaging is the primary commercial channel — and reached profitability doing so. The capital from this new round will accelerate the company’s expansion in North America and Europe, where social commerce on TikTok, Instagram, and WhatsApp is growing, and mid-market B2C businesses are increasingly running the same types of revenue-critical conversations that respond.io has powered for years.

"The customer conversation management space is at an inflection point," Salandra said. "North America and Western Europe are moving toward leveraging conversations as a competitive advantage to generate revenue, using similar workflows we've already built and tested in markets where this shift happened first. We know how to serve these businesses, and with this funding, we now have the resources to reach them faster."

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Chairman of Endeavor Catalyst commented: "We are thrilled to be investing in respond.io in this new round. Respond.io is exactly the kind of company we are proud to support — founders building profitable infrastructure in emerging markets and scaling them into the world's largest economies. So proud to have them in the Endeavor Catalyst family!"

Respond.io is a customer conversation management platform that unifies messaging, calls, email, and CRM to help mid-market B2C businesses drive revenue from customer conversations. The platform powers 2 billion messages per quarter for 10,000+ businesses in over 180 countries and territories with 99.999% platform uptime. Respond.io is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and an official Meta Business and TikTok Marketing partner. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it raised US$7 million in Series A funding in 2022. For more information, visit 

Respond.io Raises $62.5M Series B to Scale AI-Powered Customer Conversations Into North America and Europe

Respond.io Raises $62.5M

, a rapidly-growing SaaS platform that enables MSPs to unify and secure their clients’ Microsoft 365 instances, today announced it has closed a 

. The round was led by Camber Partners, a NYC-based growth equity firm focused on investing in and scaling high-velocity B2B software companies.

The additional capital will allow Augmentt to rapidly accelerate its product roadmap, expand go-to-market operations, and deepen its partnerships in response to strong demand from MSPs for an efficient, unified solution for tenant posture monitoring and management.

“We are excited to partner with Camber on this next stage of our journey,” said Derik Belair, CEO of Augmentt. “We look forward to leveraging Camber’s deep operating experience as we look to drive innovation for MSPs, accelerate customer success, and scale our global footprint.”

“Augmentt is setting a new standard for MSPs serving small and mid-sized businesses,” said Duncan McGillivary, Vice President at Camber Partners. “The team comes with deep industry expertise and has a history of exceptional execution. We’re confident that their vision, combined with a product this valuable to MSP workflows, will catalyze a new era of improved service and security for businesses globally.”

Modern MSPs have found themselves in an increasingly challenging environment. They’re faced with rising labor costs, increasing competitive pressure, and growing regulation. Simultaneously, client demands are becoming more complex — with expectations for faster response times, stronger security postures, and deeper visibility into cloud environments. Augmentt provides MSPs with the tools and automation they need to meet these demands efficiently, empowering them to deliver scalable, secure, and profitable managed services.

“MSPs are the backbone of modern IT delivery and cybersecurity protection, yet they’re often being asked to do more with less,” said Gavin Garbutt, Chairman of Augmentt and former CEO of N-able. “At Augmentt, our mission is to empower them through security automation, visibility, and control across both the Microsoft ecosystem and the broader cloud—helping MSPs deliver world-class security services at scale. This funding enables us to accelerate that mission and continue building world-leading Microsoft security tools MSPs need to scale and thrive.”


Based in Ottawa, Augmentt is a multi-tenant Microsoft 365 security and compliance management platform built for MSPs to help them deliver standardized, profitable Microsoft 365 services across all clients. The platform enables partners to secure, monitor and manage Microsoft 365 environments at scale. Learn more at 


Camber Partners is a New York City-based growth equity firm that partners with growth-stage B2B SaaS companies to provide flexible capital and dedicated go-to-market resources that drive long-term sustainable growth. To do this, the Camber team brings to its portfolio companies deep operational expertise across sales, marketing, growth, and product development. Learn more at 

Augmentt, a rapidly-growing SaaS platform that enables MSPs, announced a Series A financing round led by Camber.

Augmentt Raises $18M Series A from Camber Partners to Scale Security Automation for MSPs

, a leading cybersecurity software platform specializing in email security, data loss prevention, and security awareness training, today announced the successful closing of its $25 million Series A funding round. The investment was led by New York City-based software growth equity firm Camber Partners, known for backing innovative growth-stage B2B SaaS companies during their rapid scale-up phase.

This funding round emphasizes the growing market demand for Trustifi’s comprehensive secure email platform, which is designed to simplify and automate email security for businesses across all geographies and sectors. The new capital will be utilized to bolster and accelerate Trustifi's product roadmap, double down on go-to-market initiatives, and increase awareness and marketing efforts within the company's rapidly growing end-market.

"We are eager to partner with Camber for the chapter ahead,"

"Their collaborative approach, strategic insight, and deep experience in scaling software companies will be invaluable as we continue to innovate and deliver an industry-leading cybersecurity platform. This investment reinforces the strength of our technology and the exceptional value we provide our customers and partners."

Camber Partners, which takes a data-driven approach to software investing, recognized Trustifi’s unique positioning in the heavily funded and ever-evolving cybersecurity software landscape.

"We believe Trustifi has the potential to become the leading email security platform for MSPs, and we’re charging hard to support them in realizing this opportunity,"

 said Justin Johnson, Investor at Camber Partners.

 "Trustifi’s comprehensive and well-loved product suite, channel-first approach, and modern AI-first solution set it apart, and we're thrilled to be partnering with the Trustifi team on this journey."

Trustifi’s platform helps organizations protect sensitive information, prevent data breaches, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards through seamless integration with existing email systems like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The company’s intuitive platform is gaining rapid adoption across industries and geographies, reflecting increasing concern over AI-driven cybersecurity threats and the imperative to secure communication channels effectively.

This funding marks a major milestone for Trustifi as it continues to strengthen its market position and expand its product offering.

Trustifi is a cybersecurity leader specializing in email security, including encryption, data loss prevention, and advanced threat protection. Trustifi’s solutions simplify email security with automated compliance and comprehensive data protection, enabling businesses of all sizes to safeguard sensitive communications effectively. For more information, visit 

Camber Partners is a New York City-based growth equity firm that partners with growth-stage B2B SaaS companies to provide flexible capital and dedicated go-to-market and data science resources that drive long-term sustainable growth. To do this, the Camber team brings to its portfolio companies deep operational expertise across sales, marketing, growth, and product development. Learn more at 

Trustifi, a leading cybersecurity software platform, announced the successful closing of its $25 million Series A.

Trustifi Raises $25M Series A to Scale AI Email Security Platform

We are pleased to announce the close of our second fund above its hard cap, with $210 million in capital commitments, bringing total assets under management to $350 million. The oversubscribed fund received strong support from a diverse group of existing and new investors across foundations, endowments, insurance companies, fund of funds, health systems, and family offices. This is a significant milestone for the firm and a testament to the confidence our investors have in Camber’s mission and approach.

At Camber Partners, our mission has always been to partner with capital-efficient software companies in a way that goes beyond providing capital. We founded Camber with the belief that software companies should be architected for mass distribution, and our goal is to be a true partner to these companies — offering real resources and operational expertise in addition to funding. We believe this partnership model can be a force multiplier and is key to unlocking a company's full potential.

Hands-on support is at the core of how we work. Every company we invest in gains access to our dedicated growth team comprised of seasoned operators with deep expertise in GTM and data science. This team works closely with founders and their teams to tackle growth challenges and scale their businesses.

In parallel, we leverage our proprietary data platform (internally known as Horizon) to help portfolio companies make informed, data-driven decisions. Horizon acts as a revenue operations engine, analyzing key metrics and trends so that our portfolio companies can unlock the value in their data and gain a competitive advantage. By combining operational expertise with powerful data insights, we provide a unique operational collaboration that has successfully delivered faster revenue growth and increased growth persistence in the companies we have invested in.

We measure our success by the success of our portfolio companies. Fund II enables us to continue supporting a growing roster of innovative SaaS businesses, including SE Ranking, TaxCloud, and Userflow.

“The strong support for Fund II is a tremendous validation of what we’re building at Camber. We are honored by the confidence our investors have placed in us, and we’re even more excited about what this means for software founders. With this new capital, we can double down on our mission to support exceptional SaaS entrepreneurs and arm them with the resources they need to scale their businesses.” - Scott Irwin, Founder and Partner

With Fund II now closed, we’re eager to put this capital to work. Our team is already busy meeting with ambitious SaaS founders who are building the next generation of best-in-class software companies. We look forward to partnering with more exceptional teams, helping them accelerate growth while building enduring, sustainable businesses.

Preference for product-led-growth (PLG) and inbound customer acquisition models

Camber Partners believes that modern software companies should be architected for mass distribution. In our 25+ years of operating experience, this has meant scalable, data-driven, and capital-efficient growth methods that, when executed properly, accelerate growth and compound enterprise value. Camber provides the capital and operating expertise to support this rapid, disciplined growth.

Camber’s internal Growth Team provides functional support in marketing, sales and customer success. Our dedicated data team and platform unlock the power of marketing, product, and customer data to increase LTV and scale customer acquisition. Camber’s hands-on engagement helps achieve the go-to-market execution that growth-stage software companies deserve.

Camber prioritizes investments in growing B2B SaaS businesses with $3-20m in recurring revenue and has a strong preference for Product-Led Growth (PLG) and inbound customer acquisition models. For more information, please visit 

We are pleased to announce the close of our second fund above its hard cap, with $210 million in capital commitments, bringing total assets under management to $350 million.

Camber Partners Closes $210M Fund II

We’re excited to share that two Camber portfolio companies, Beamer and Userflow, were recently recognized at SaaStock 2024 in Austin, TX.

The SaaStock conference series brings together many bright minds in SaaS each year from around the globe. This year’s event featured keynotes, panel discussions, and plenty of networking opportunities, and was a chance for industry leaders to share insights, collaborate, and celebrate successes. Coincidentally, the 2023 SaaStock conference is where the Camber team first met Userflow, and where the partnership was seeded.

During this year’s conference, Beamer was awarded the “Austin Rising Star” SaaS Revolutionaries award, which is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and innovative spirit of every member of the Beamer team.

Fireside Chat with Satya and Esben: Unpacking the Beamer and Userflow Merger

One of the highlights of SaaStock Austin 2024 was a moderated fireside chat featuring Satya Ganni, CEO of Beamer, and Esben Friis-Jensen, co-founder of Userflow. The two shared their experiences and insights on how they successfully merged the two companies, which had previously been built as lean product-led-growth platforms. Additionally, the two discussed the present gap in software tools for the Product org, and the combined company’s vision of offering a robust and consolidated toolkit for Product professionals.

The discussion provided valuable lessons on navigating the complexities of a merger while maintaining a focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, which both companies have been known for historically.

The story Satya and Esben shared displays the power of collaboration and strategic thinking in driving growth and creating synergies that benefit both companies and their end customers.

 was a result of the growth equity firm's Executive-in-Residence ('XIR') program, an approach where Camber identifies and partners with exceptional operating executives to invest in or acquire high-potential product-led growth (PLG) software companies. Ganni, an experienced operator in the space with three successful exits, was the firm's first XIR and will now lead the combined company through this next chapter of growth.

Beamer announced the strategic acquisition of Userflow

, which reinforces both companies' positions as leading providers of no-code product adoption and engagement platforms and expands the combined company's capabilities by offering a consolidated toolkit for Product teams across the world.

Beamer, founded by Mariano Rodriguez Colombelli and Spencer Coon, is a leading platform for customers looking to build better products and improve user engagement. The company's Changelog, NPS, and Feedback products serve as intuitive tools that facilitate better communication and feedback between businesses and their end-users, ultimately helping to increase engagement and reduce churn.

Userflow has distinguished itself in the SaaS world with its innovative no-code builder, enabling businesses to be more product-led. Founded in 2019 by Sebastian Seilund and Esben Friis-Jensen, Userflow has garnered attention from the global SaaS community as a bootstrapper's success story, having reached 

 without any external funding, and doing so through implementing product-led growth (PLG) best practices.

Camber Partners is a San Francisco Bay Area-based growth equity firm focused on scaling product-led growth software companies by providing flexible capital and dedicated operational resources. For more information, visit Camber Partners' 

Beamer and Userflow recognized at SaaStock 2024, featured in Fireside Panel

Camber Partners Welcomes New Talent to Growing Team


At Camber Partners, we are constantly striving to unlock the potential of SaaS businesses through flexible capital and exceptional operational collaboration. Today, we are thrilled to announce the expansion of our team, welcoming seasoned experts who embody our commitment to growth, quality, and data-driven execution.

Welcoming Ashley Lundquist as Vice President of Talent


Ashley Lundquist has joined Camber as the Vice President of Talent, bringing a wealth of experience from her time at high-growth software companies like Houzz, Drip, and Telesign. This background uniquely equips her to drive significant impact at Camber and its portfolio companies. As the first hire in Camber's new Talent Center of Excellence, Ashley is developing comprehensive recruiting strategies and talent management programs to ensure that Camber's portfolio can successfully attract, develop, and retain world-class talent.


Sergei Anikin and Igor Kostenko Join as XIRs


We are also excited to welcome Sergei Anikin and Igor Kostenko as Executives In Residence (XIR). Their operating experience in the SaaS domain will be invaluable in guiding our portfolio companies and partnering with best-in-class management teams. Both Sergei and Igor have demonstrated a remarkable ability to drive product innovation and operational excellence, resonating with Camber’s focus on capital efficiency and product quality, and we’re thrilled to have them aboard.


Sergei joins Camber from Pipedrive, where he was CTO and co-CEO. Prior to Pipedrive, Sergei held engineering leadership roles at Microsoft and Skype.
Igor joins Camber from PandaDoc, where he held numerous cross-functional positions spanning GTM and Corporate Development.



Finally, we’re eager to announce an addition to the Camber team as Will Buehler joins as associate. Prior to Camber, Will spent time at Stripes, where he participated in numerous growth- and early-stage investments across multiple SaaS verticals. Prior to Stripes, Will was an investment professional at Primus Capital, a growth-oriented private equity firm focused on leading software and tech-enabled companies.


As we continue to grow, Camber remains focused on investing in a select few companies each year, ensuring that each one receives our full attention and benefits from our data-driven approach​​​​. The addition of Ashley, Sergei, Igor, and Will to our team not only strengthens our leadership but also reinforces our commitment to being an investment firm built like a software company: emphasizing product quality, user experience, and sustainable growth​​​​.

Adds VP Talent, Execs-in-Residence, and Investment Professional

In a strategic move that marks a significant milestone in the Product Management landscape, 

 in a deal valued at more than $60 million. This acquisition reinforces both companies’ positions as leading providers of no-code product adoption and engagement platforms and expands the combined company’s capabilities by offering a consolidated toolkit for Product teams across the world. Beamer completed the acquisition with financial support from 

, the company’s lead investor, as well as 

Beamer is a leading platform for customers looking to build better products and improve user engagement. The company's Changelog, NPS, and Feedback products serve as intuitive tools that facilitate better communication and feedback between businesses and their end-users, ultimately helping to increase engagement and reduce churn.

Satya Ganni, CEO of Beamer, expressed his excitement about the acquisition,

"We are thrilled to welcome Userflow to the Beamer team. The talent and innovation that Sebastian and Esben have displayed in building Userflow is tremendous, and their no-code builder for in-app onboarding experiences complements Beamer’s mission to help companies build better products. We are also deeply grateful for the support and partnership from Camber Partners and Arsenal Growth, who have been instrumental in this journey."

Userflow, based in San Francisco, CA, has distinguished itself in the SaaS world with its innovative no-code builder, enabling businesses to be more product-led. Founded in 2019 by Sebastian Seilund and Esben Friis-Jensen, Userflow has garnered attention from the global SaaS community as a bootstrapper’s success story, having reached 

Sebastian Seilund, Co-founder and CEO of Userflow, shared his enthusiasm, 

"This is a proud moment for us at Userflow after embarking on this journey in 2019. Joining forces with Beamer and aligning with Camber's vision opens up brand-new and exciting opportunities for our customers. We're impressed with Beamer's comprehensive toolkit and excited about the combined potential to serve our global customer base even better."

Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-founder and CGO of Userflow, reflected on the journey,

"Starting as a bootstrapped endeavor, our journey at Userflow has been incredibly rewarding. We're pleased with this outcome and eagerly look forward to contributing to the combined company's vision, enhancing the prospects of successful product-led growth for SaaS businesses worldwide."

 was a result of the growth equity firm’s Executive-in-Residence (‘XIR’) program, an approach where Camber identifies and partners with exceptional operating executives to invest in or acquire high-potential product-led growth (PLG) software companies. Ganni, an experienced operator in the space with three successful exits, was the firm’s first XIR and will now lead the combined company through this next chapter of growth.

Justin Johnson, Vice President at Camber Partners, commented on the acquisition: 

"We've been deeply impressed by both companies’ ability to develop such outstanding platforms with lean teams and no historical funding– a testament to the potential of a product-led growth distribution model. Userflow’s dedication to building great products that customers adore perfectly aligns with Beamer's mission, and we're eager to see what the future holds for the combined company."

The acquisition of Userflow is timely, as many analysts have proclaimed that we are in a 

. The accelerated pace of technology development and adoption, the increase in digital transformation initiatives, consumer-like expectations for software products, and data-driven decision-making are all key trends that have resulted in the rise of the Product function, as well as the demand for best-in-class software tools that serve these teams’ needs. The market for DAP Platforms and Product Management suites are forecasted to grow to a combined $29 billion by 2030 according to Gartner and Growth Market Reports.

Beamer is a leading no-code product engagement platform that offers Changelog, Notification Center, NPS, and Feedback products. Easy to install and requiring no coding knowledge, Beamer is the go-to solution for Product leaders worldwide. To learn more, visit Beamer's 

Userflow is a leading platform for SaaS companies to manage user onboarding, retention and ongoing communication. The company has pioneered a builder for in-app onboarding, guides, and surveys, empowering SaaS businesses to increase conversion and retention. For more information, visit Userflow's 

Camber Partners is a San Francisco Bay Area-based growth equity firm focused on product-led growth software companies, providing flexible capital and dedicated operational resources. For more information, visit Camber Partners' 

Arsenal Growth Equity is an execution-stage growth equity firm based in Florida. Founded in 1999, Arsenal invests in emerging software companies across a myriad of sectors — targeting capital-efficient, high-growth businesses where they can leverage their operational and strategic network to help founders scale. For more information, visit Arsenal’s 

Camber portfolio company completes first acquisition, sets sights on becoming market-leading product adoption platform.

Beamer and Userflow Join forces in Strategic Acquisition Valued at more than $60M

Product-led growth (PLG) can seem like a panacea to a bootstrapped founder who has a product or engineering background. Theoretically, if a product meets a specific need and is well-designed, it can attract, engage, convert, and retain customers en masse. The resulting organization could be filled with developers and PMs, while automation does all the heavy lifting on the go-to-market side. The result would be both capital and operating efficiency and a company where the primary activity is solving customer needs through product development resources.

However, functions such as sales, marketing, and customer success are necessary for any successful SaaS business. Take a look at any scaled publicly traded PLG company, and you will see that they typically have sales teams that number in the hundreds, even for products with a low average selling price. Despite the complexity it adds to a product-centric organization, sales work.

At Camber, we see dozens of <$15MM revenue PLG companies per week. Yet, despite understanding the importance of the sales function, very few of the founders we meet have cracked the code regarding sales, despite several attempts to build out the process. Over the years, we've seen two primary failure patterns when trying to build a PLG sales organization.

Failure Scenario #1: The mid-market sales leader

When looking for a sales leader, it makes sense to look amongst the mid-level ranks of competitors in your market. They understand the product, market, and customer needs already, ensuring you will be off to the races from day one - they may even be able to bring a couple of new customers with them.

However, successful SaaS companies follow a predictable pattern of moving up-market: First, SMBs as customers, to the mid-market, and eventually to the enterprise. The economics make sense - big customers are less price sensitive, churn less often, and almost always have better net dollar retention, the most critical component of growth and market value in SaaS. With that move up-market, successful SaaS businesses evolve their GTM motion, layering outbound sales to mid-market customers as part of the mix. Success at outbound sales requires a significant capital investment in the team, data, and tools and it is unlikely to be a success without meaningful brand awareness in the market (i.e.,>$10m ARR). It also requires a new marketing effort to produce the sales content and collateral to convince prospective customers to take a first call.

To a founder, bringing in a mid-level sales leader who is looking to make the jump to VP Sales or CRO from within the industry seems attractive. In addition to all the relevant experience, they promise to add a new channel, outbound sales, to accelerate growth and the ability to attract larger customers with higher lifetime values.

Yet, when a new sales leader is brought in to scale the business, they often fail to scale revenue and are fired in 12 months, leaving behind a company with less cash on the balance sheet, a culture reticent to invest further in sales, and perhaps most concerning, a year's worth of under-performance in its bread and butter SMB segment. Why did it fail? Building an outbound motion requires significant capital to hire a team, patience to deal with much longer sales cycles, brand awareness, and a product that meets the needs of larger customers. These are all things a bootstrapped or lightly capitalized SaaS startup lacks.

Early in a PLG company's life, deals typically come in via self-service, assisted by customer support, with more significant sales opportunities handled by the Founder. Eventually, the volume becomes such that the CEO hires a salesperson to offload that work so they can focus on more strategic issues. The expectation is that this salesperson will have more time to focus and, therefore, run a more efficient process while experimenting with outbound and uncovering new channels. Due to the lead volume and budget, hiring a single junior-level salesperson is often the answer.

While freeing up the CEO's time certainly has value, this "Lone Wolf" salesperson rarely gets traction and offers little value to the organization. They struggle to replicate the CEO's close rates and ACVs, and the CEO often has to step into the process to win critical deals. It's frustrating to both the CEO and the salesperson.

Why isn't the junior salesperson successful?

Early-stage startups are usually bad at vetting sales candidates. If you've spent your career in product or engineering, you likely haven't hired many salespeople and will struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Startups hiring their first salesperson rarely have an effective sales onboarding process. Even with the CEO and product team spending time with the new hire, they are left to figure most things out independently.

Selling low-ASP products requires making many unwelcomed phone calls, writing unresponded emails, and generally banging your head against a wall for most of the day. It's easy for a single sales rep to be frustrated and lonely, especially in a remote work environment. Early career reps need community, comradery, and active sales management.

Founders and CEOs often underestimate how much easier it is for them to close a deal than it is for others in their company. They understand the customer's problem at their core, know every feature intimately, and have the moral authority to make a small change to a particular element. They are also able to commit to an adjustment in the product roadmap, or get the dev team to work over the weekend to build a feature to land a big deal. The “Lone Wolf” has none of these things and will, therefore, never be as effective as selling.

An ambitious, high-potential early-career seller will likely leave for a more attractive opportunity with better career prospects within a year. If they're not, then they might stick around but will not move the needle at the company.

We've seen these failure scenarios and variants firsthand, which is why we've built a repeatable solution for our portfolio companies, the Camber Sales Center of Excellence in Austin, Texas. We've hired sales leaders with experience from successful PLG companies like Solarwinds, Datadog, Cornerstone on Demand, and ZenOss to recruit, onboard, train, and manage sales teams on behalf of our portfolio companies.

The benefit to Camber portfolio companies is that they leverage decades of experience hiring and managing low-cost, activity-based sellers instead of having to figure it out themselves or investing in sales leadership until their GTM is proven scalable. In addition, international portfolio companies benefit from our US-based team with native English speakers and US-timezone availability.

The result is that Camber portfolio companies are assured that a high-quality sales process is deployed to test the profitability and scalability of multiple sales motions and that the infrastructure is in place to scale the sales organization when the company is ready.

Highlighting where many PLG companies often stumble in their sales strategy.

Sales in a PLG World:  Challenges and the Path Forward

Camber Partners is excited to announce our Executive-in-Residence (XIR) program formally.  Our goal for the XIR program is to identify and work with exceptional operating executives on identifying and acquiring high-potential product-led growth (PLG) software companies.  During the roughly six-month program, the XIR will work closely with Camber’s investment team to identify acquisition opportunities, conduct due diligence and join the company as CEO post-investment.

For the XIR, the program provides an opportunity to evaluate markets thoughtfully, leverage Camber’s sourcing infrastructure to speak with many of the companies in a sector, and find the best fit and opportunity for their skill set and interest.  It also allows the XIR to get to know the Camber team and how we work with portfolio companies, setting the CEO/Investor relationship up for future success.  It’s a unique opportunity to chart the next step in your career proactively versus hoping a recruiter brings a great role to you.

While Camber doesn’t have a preference or bias toward replacing CEOs upon investment, we’ve found that many bootstrapped founders/CEOs are looking to transition out of a full-time capacity as a part of the transaction with Camber.  The XIR program allows us to identify future CEOs upfront and to jointly find investment opportunities that align with the XIR's experience and interest.  Camber also values getting to know the future CEO during the due diligence process, and jointly defining the post-close operating plan allows us to hit the ground running on day one.

Based on where we’ve seen success in the past, we’ve identified the following characteristics of an ideal candidate for the XIR program:

Even post-investment close, <$10MM SaaS companies are small with limited resources.  A successful CEO needs to be hands-on and scrappy, excited to talk with customers, close deals, write blog posts, and learn the nuances of the product. This is for builders, not managers.

Experienced in product-led growth done well: 

PLG is core to Camber’s investment thesis and allows for predictable and capital-efficient growth.  The successful candidates will understand the PLG dynamics intimately based on hands-on experience at the VP- or C-level in product, product marketing, growth, or marketing at leading PLG companies during their formative growth ramps.

  We’re looking for people that bring a strong perspective to the table.  Coming into the program with a market thesis based on experience increases the odds of finding a successful investment.  Post-close, building conviction on where the market is headed and why and aligning the stakeholders on that vision is critical to building a big company. We’re looking for thought partners, not someone that simply executes what they are told.

 We’re looking for people eager to build and accomplish something we can all be proud of.  The XIR program probably isn’t right for serial CEOs or typical PE Operating Partners.  We expect that for many of our XIRs, this will be their first CEO role, but that they have demonstrated the ability to build and lead high-performing teams, create cultures of alignment and accountability, and drive successful outcomes at outstanding companies that we admire.

Camber’s XIR program typically lasts six months and results in successful placement as CEO in a new investment or taking a leadership role at an existing portfolio company.  While we do not require a full-time commitment to the XIR program, we do expect that the majority of your time will be spent dedicated to sourcing and evaluating opportunities.

If you think you’d be a good candidate, please reach out to talent@camber.io.  Due to the high volume of interest, we may not be able to respond immediately.  We typically have one or two XIRs at any given time and will be adding additional people on a rolling basis.


For more on what it’s like to work with Camber Partners, please visit our 

Introducing our Executive-in-Residence program

Camber's XIR Program

 – Beamer, a recognized leader in no-code product engagement tools, announced a growth equity investment from Camber Partners, a B2B SaaS investment firm focused on product-led-growth (PLG) software companies. Valued at over $20M, the investment reflects both firms' commitment to building a unified platform for Product teams across the globe. As part of the investment, Beamer announced Satya Ganni as its CEO.

Beamer, headquartered in Boulder, CO, has steadily emerged as a trusted platform for customers looking to build better products and improve user engagement. The company’s Changelog, NPS, and Roadmap products serve as intuitive tools that facilitate better communication and feedback between businesses and their end user base, ultimately helping to increase engagement and reduce churn.

Mariano Rodriguez Colombelli, Beamer’s CEO, shared his insights on the partnership:

"Our core mission at Beamer has been to help companies across the globe build better products. With Camber's investment and partnership, we see a strong opportunity to expand our offering and further enhance the value of our platform. We’re pleased to have Camber joining us through this next phase of growth."

San Francisco-based Camber Partners brings an extensive track record of investing in and nurturing product-led growth (PLG) software companies. The firm’s decision to invest in Beamer is rooted in a strategic rationale: Product teams (Product Management and Product Marketing) are the new Sales & Marketing for PLG software companies, and these growing functions need a robust toolkit that enables data-driven decision making and measurable ROI. Camber perceives Beamer's existing data layer, which facilitates advanced user segmentation, as an optimal starting point.

Scott Irwin, Founder and Managing Partner of Camber Partners, expanded on this:

"We've observed a compelling shift in the software landscape. Product managers are increasingly leaning on tools to make data-driven decisions and our investment in Beamer is grounded in this observation. Their platform's potential, particularly in user segmentation, aligns perfectly with our vision for a more integrated product management toolkit. We’re eager to partner closely with the team and Satya to embark on this opportunity together."

In connection with the partnership, seasoned SaaS Chief, Satya Ganni, will join as CEO of Beamer. Ganni's impressive lineage in leading PLG B2B SaaS firms to success, along with multiple exits, echoes Beamer’s aspirations for scaling new heights in the User Engagement domain.

"I'm genuinely excited to embark on this journey with Beamer, a platform that has consistently redefined the boundaries of product engagement. Joining as CEO offers a unique opportunity to not only continue the company's legacy but also to explore new avenues of growth and innovation. Collaborating with Camber, with their deep insights and expertise, I am confident that together, we will drive Beamer to new heights and further solidify its place as a cornerstone tool in the Product Management landscape," said Ganni.

This partnership emerges at a time when the role of product management is rapidly expanding. With businesses beyond the tech sector relying more on cloud-based applications, the need for tools like Beamer is more-evident than ever– a market expected to surpass $5.06B by 2030.


Founded by Mariano Rodriguez and Spencer Coon, Beamer is a no-code product engagement platform that includes changelog, notification center, NPS and roadmap. With customers like Freshworks, Hotjar, MongoDB, Unbounce, CloudKitchens, Linktree, and Zenefits, Beamer’s mission is to help companies all across the globe build better products.
Beamer is easy to install and requires no coding knowledge. Just plug in Beamer script and go. Great for all product managers and product marketing managers. To learn more, please visit https://www.getbeamer.com


Camber Partners is a San Francisco-based growth equity firm focused on product-led growth (PLG) software companies. Camber Partners provides software companies with flexible capital and dedicated go-to-market and data science resources to drive long-term sustainable growth. To do it, the Camber team brings to its portfolio companies deep operational expertise across sales, marketing, growth, and product development. For more information, please visit http://www.camber.io or follow us on LinkedIn.

Company names new CEO, taps additional funding for growth

Beamer Announces $20M Equity Investment from Camber Partners

, the leading sales tax compliance platform for ecommerce businesses, today announced it raised $20 million in a growth equity round. 

 (“Camber”), the growth equity firm focused on product-led growth (PLG) software companies, led the investment round. The investment will enable TaxCloud to continue providing exceptional service to its customers, while expanding its product offerings, marketing efforts, and sales operations, ultimately driving growth in the ecommerce sales and use tax market. 

As part of the investment, TaxCloud announced the appointment of Nate Gilmore as its CEO.

TaxCloud’s platform helps merchants calculate, collect, and file sales and use tax for transactions in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The platform is trusted by more than 4,000 ecommerce businesses, and is a recognized leader in customer service and support in the sales tax management space.

“TaxCloud is a great fit for our portfolio: it delivers a complete tax compliance product to ecommerce businesses. It’s non-optional: if you do business online, eventually you must pay sales tax,” said Scott Irwin, Managing Partner at Camber. “We’re excited to provide TaxCloud not only the capital but also the operational expertise to help the company build on the phenomenal business they have brought to market. Nate and I have worked together for more than five years in a similar business. He will be an exceptional go-to-market and operational addition to TaxCloud.”

Camber’s investment in TaxCloud marks its first in the ecommerce sales tax and use space. TaxCloud matches the firm’s thesis to invest in SaaS and PLG products in large, addressable markets with under-optimized go-to-market muscle that can benefit from Camber’s in-house tools and expertise.

On the announcement, Mr. Gilmore said: “I am thrilled to be joining TaxCloud’s team at this exciting time for the company. Camber’s dedication to growing industry-leading SaaS solutions is a perfect match for our mission of simplifying sales tax compliance for ecommerce businesses.”

Mr. Gilmore will draw on his experience leading high-growth software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses, in addition to coaching and investing in growth companies, to help TaxCloud achieve its mission. Mr. Gilmore was most recently Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of PandaDoc and previously VP Marketing at Shipwire (acquired by Ingram Micro, now a CEVA Logistics company).

TaxCloud is the right-sized tax solution for companies who need to be compliant across the states they sell in. The TaxCloud team and technology automagically calculate the right tax rates across 13,000+ different tax jurisdictions in the US, collect the right amount at the moment of transaction, and file the right amount of sales tax with 100% accuracy. The company also manages audits as they arise. TaxCloud has been partnering with merchants in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia for the past 15 years. TaxCloud: We eat sales tax for breakfast. To learn more, please visit: 

Camber Partners is a San Francisco-based growth equity firm focused on product-led growth (PLG) software companies. Camber Partners provides software companies with flexible capital and dedicated go-to-market and data science resources to drive long-term sustainable growth. To do it, the Camber team brings to its portfolio companies deep operational expertise across sales, marketing, growth, and product development. For more information, please visit 

Camber Partners leads investment round to accelerate TaxCloud’s growth; Seasoned SaaS leader and growth advisor Nate Gilmore appointed CEO

TaxCloud Raises $20M in Growth Equity Round

Camber Partners works with SaaS businesses where we see promising potential for growth that can be unlocked through exceptional operational collaboration. At this milestone, it is critical to use or expand on a management framework that helps to focus everyone on the same opportunities. We’ve worked with dozens of fast-growing companies and a common framework for setting goals across the company is crucial to help the company scale.

The best-performing companies we know (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Slack) use OKRs. 

 and is a framework for goal setting. OKRs were first used at 

 written by Venture Capitalist John Doerr.

The OKR framework focuses on aligning the company to higher level outcomes, not procedures, while also allowing teams to see how their work impacts the business. Doerr attributes the framework's success to five key 

 that can be realized by companies large and small: (FACTS) Focus, Alignment, Commitment, Tracking, and Stretching.

: At any given point in time, there are many things a company and individuals at that company can invest time and resources into. The OKR framework forces focus on the key outcomes that will move the company forward. Not everything that the team is working on will be represented.

 In order to narrow in on the few items the company needs to focus on, there must be alignment across teams. OKRs require support from multiple functions as well as each individual. Every team and individual should know what they need to achieve and how their work impacts the outcome the business is trying to reach.

: To achieve cross-functional alignment, teams need to agree on what the OKRs are. That means writing them down, being explicit about what success looks like, and agreeing to collaborate together to achieve them. This adds a level of transparency that helps everyone know if they are heading in the right direction. 

: A key component of OKRs is tracking progress against them after they are set. This requires agreement on the measurement of success or the impact, and what completion of items looks like. Often teams need to make assumptions to set OKRs and the work involves experimentation. As OKRs are tracked, teams can not only see how they are performing against goals but should also have open conversations about what assumptions need to be adjusted or what initiatives no longer make sense.

: OKRs are meant to focus on outcomes that drive company growth. The operational successes of the business that are known and expected are typically not set as an OKR. Similarly, a goal that could be set as an OKR one quarter might eventually become business as usual once the company has learned how to repeatedly scale that result. When a company starts using OKRs, they often don’t immediately set stretch goals. As the process of implementing OKRs evolves, the company decides where and how to stretch.

These are some of the key reasons companies have flocked to using OKRs and why Camber likes to introduce them to companies in its portfolio. Next we’ll talk a bit about what an OKR is. As mentioned before, 

 which means there are at least two documented components to setting these goals.

 are the goals the company is aligned to achieve. These are often described as the outcome we are trying to achieve or where we are going. The 

 are measurable metrics that show progress against the Objective. These are often described as milestones or ways to see if you are getting to the Objective. The 

 that OKRs were originally conceived in is: 

I will (Objective) as measured by (this set of Key Results). 

For the time period that an OKR is set, it should be clear whether or not those outcomes were met [

. And again, not all the tasks that are being completed will be represented in the OKRs.

In thinking about Key Results, the concept of KPIs often comes up. 

and help to track metrics over time. There are many things that can be tracked as a KPI to help the business understand the progress it is making. A KPI can also be a way to set Key Results as the measurable metric. However, focus is critical for setting KRs, whereas KPIs allow for broader tracking. And it is important to keep in mind that Key Results are not something that you do; they are the successful outcome of what you did that shows measurable progress toward the larger Objective.

At Camber, we like the OKR framework as it helps teams focus on the key things that can drive growth. Not only does it provide alignment for the company, it also provides alignment across investors, the CEO, and the leadership team. Clarity and transparency of what matters and how we’ve determined if we’ve achieved our goals help teams set expectations appropriately and execute toward the right objectives.

The conversations around what the team learns as they execute against OKRs is just as important as the setting and tracking of the OKRs themselves. Each company will identify a cadence to set OKRs as well as track and review initiatives at various levels. We like to use a quarterly OKR process to set goals because it strikes a good balance between adding processes while maintaining the nimbleness and adaptability that gives small companies an advantage over larger incumbents. We then have a twice-monthly OKR meeting to track progress, where each owner of a Key Result can report on progress made so far as well as what they have learned from those initiatives. Sharing learnings with the cross-functional leadership team helps accelerate the team towards completing their sharing objectives.

When working with portfolio companies, we like to take an evolutionary approach. In the initial quarters we like to keep it simple while the team learns and adapts to the new operating framework. As companies learn the process and get better at setting and measuring goals, we’ll begin to add additional considerations, such as the timing of estimated impact, to help build predictability into the business. It is not uncommon to iterate on the OKR process for 6-12 months as it takes a few quarters of setting OKRs and learning from the outcomes before a company settles into a long-term cadence.

Some companies that talk about their experiences with OKRs are:

Overview of our use of OKRs with Portfolio companies.

How Camber Leverages OKRs

As a B2B SaaS entrepreneur, your funding choices today are to go the venture capital route or bootstrap your business.

On the VC path, if you lose momentum towards unicorn status you can lose investor support and your capitalization structure may become a hindrance to achieving your goals.

As a bootstrapped founder, you may not have access to the capital, talent, and expertise needed to maximize the opportunity in front of you.

Empower entrepreneurs to achieve the potential of their SaaS business by providing flexible capital and exceptional operational collaboration to drive long-term sustainable growth.

In support of our mission, we’ve outlined the four Core Values that drive how we engage with founders, portfolio companies, and each other.

We see the opportunity for growth around every corner. Whether it's scaling our portfolio companies or our investment in continuous learning as a team, we're always looking to move up and to the right.

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Camber Partners Closes $210M Fund II

Beamer and Userflow recognized at SaaStock 2024, featured in Fireside Panel

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Beamer and Userflow Join forces in Strategic Acquisition Valued at more than $60M

Sales in a PLG World: Challenges and the Path Forward

Camber's XIR Program

Beamer Announces $20M Equity Investment from Camber Partners

TaxCloud Raises $20M in Growth Equity Round

How Camber Leverages OKRs

Mission & Core Values

VC or Bootstrap: What Other Options Are There?

Partnering with Us

Horizon & the Opportunities of Data

Announcing Fund I

Team

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