Scaling Membership for the Long Game with Pavilion Founder Sam Jacobs

Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches

Do you believe in the adage "Kind Folks Finish First"? Entrepreneur Sam Jacobs certainly does, and it's the driving force behind his successful organization, Pavilion.

Sam is the Founder & CEO of Pavilion. In 2016, he started Pavilion, originally named Revenue Collective, and bootstrapped it to an impressive $10M in ARR.

In 2021, he secured a $25M growth financing round, with Elephant Ventures and GTM Fund leading the way. With 15 years of experience as a senior revenue leader at various VC-backed companies in New York, including Gerson Lehrman Group, Axial, Livestream/Vimeo, The Muse, and Behavox, Sam has a wealth of expertise in the industry. He resides in the West Village of Manhattan with his wife and two dogs, William and Oswald, and fondly remembers his beloved Walter who passed away in the Summer of 2022.

In this episode, Sam shares his belief in playing the long game when it comes to business growth. He also shares his experiences as the founder of Pavilion, a paid membership community for revenue executives, and how the key to success lies in creating human connections and continuous learning.

He also tackled the challenges of balancing investment in community versus learning, and the importance of aligning incentives for growth.

Is there a different way to do business that leads to both success and peace of mind? Tune in to find out!

Key Takeaways from this episode:

3:48 Different ways to do business

9:25 What is Pavilion?

17:45 The constant battle of centralization vs decentralization, consistency vs quirkiness, and how to have intimacy with consistency

24:20 The difference between Acquisition and Retention

29:49 Why bootstrapping is a strategy to achieve success

Other links and resources mentioned:

• Pavilion
• Kind Folks Finish First by Sam Jacobs
• Article: Following Five Years Of Significant Growth, Revenue Collective Rebrands To Pavilion And Announces $25 Million In Growth Financing
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
• "Topline Podcast" with Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno and Asad Zaman
• High Output Management by Andrew Grove
• Disney War by James B. Stewart
• Strava fitness app
• Ep. 29: How Strava Built a Subscription Business within a Social Platform with Strava CRO David Lorsch

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