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It's Nathan.
I interviewed Jared Yaman, co-founder of Boxed and now CEO of Spresso.
His first company shows what dilution does at scale.
$187m revenue at the end of 2020
$380m of equity raised
2.6% founder ownership at IPO
Boxed went public in 2021. In April 2023 it filed for Chapter 11.
His second company runs on a different playbook.
In 2023 Jared spun out the software division, Spresso, with $2.5m revenue.
BlackRock backed the spinout with debt.
Revenue doubled to $5m by the end of 2025, across 15 enterprise customers. Some pay him over $2m per year.
He shared the rules he uses to keep that debt safe:
Total debt stays under 10% of revenue. At $5m revenue, that caps the balance sheet at $500k
Interest rate around 10%
Warrants in the single digits, on top of the interest
Honestly, quite disciplined.
The one term I'd negotiate on is warrants.
Warrants give the lender the right to buy your equity later, at a price set today. They get exercised at exit, when your shares are worth the most.
I tell founders the same thing every week: the only way to get rich as a founder is by keeping your equity.
The fastest way to grow without giving up equity is through non-dilutive funding options.
Three founders who took debt and kept every share:
Ken Hoppe, CEO of Modigie, hit a wall at $950k revenue in 2021. He needed his first sales rep. He used his customer contracts as collateral through Founderpath Revenue Financing and hit $1.7m revenue profitably by June 2022.
He and his co-founder kept 100% ownership.
Joel Ullman, CEO of Exercise.com, took ~$3.5m from us across 19 draws. The first wire was $15,470 in September 2020, when he was doing about $60k in monthly revenue. He stayed bootstrapped, kept the company rule of 40 positive, and exited to a PE-backed strategy.
He told me staying bootstrapped grew his personal liquidity by around 10x.
BetterComp took $1.75m from us to fund the product and go-to-market. The founders kept 100% of their equity through that growth phase. In 2025 they closed a $33m Series A led by Ten Coves Capital, raised from a position of strength instead of necessity.
All three deals closed with zero warrants and zero board seats.
If you're at $1m+ in revenue and pricing out debt, run the math first.
Then compare term sheets.
If you're looking to get capital fast, I'd love to write you a check.
Send me a reply and I'll try to answer in the next hour.
(I usually reply to the first 5 founders who contact me after sending the email).
If I don't get back to you, you can get a term sheet in 2 minutes here.
Nathan Latka
CEO, Founderpath
PS: Watch my full interview with Jared here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vslJtgAtjuY
PPS: I'm in Europe to attend all these SaaS events. RSVP and LMK if you'll join:
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Get your ticket:
Tue, Jun 9, Amsterdam
Thu, Jun 11, Barcelona
Fri, Jun 12, London
Mon, Jun 15, Paris
Tue, June 16th, SaaSiest Paris (use code NATHANVIP for a free ticket)
Thu, June 18th, SaaSiest Munich (use code NATHANVIP for a free ticket)
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