Podcast interview (Tacos and Tech) with Nicole Carr, CFO of Measurabl. Neal Bloom interviews Carr about her Midwest upbringing, accounting education (University of Colorado), career at KPMG and Realty Income, and move to San Diego (2008). Carr explains Measurabl as a software platform for owners/operators of real estate to measure, manage, and report non-financial ESG data (energy, water, waste). She joined Measurabl shortly after the company closed its Series A (closed in February of the prior year; she joined in March), and described the company raising over $18M in a Series B in December and rapid team growth (she was employee #33). The conversation also covers product maturity, plans to invest in sales/marketing and expand to Europe/Asia, hiring from UCSD, and local San Diego culture/favorites.
Questions this episode answers
2008
Series A closed in February of the prior year; Nicole joined in March (shortly after).
Over $18 million (closed in December).
She said she was employee number 33.
Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast where we discover cutting edge technology and the builders making it happen. I'm your host, Neal Bloom, San Diego's tech ambassador, and together we're going to uncover what technology San Diegans are creating with our own blend of local lifestyle. This podcast episode is proudly brought to you by our friends at Cox Business, a broadband and cloud services provider to the modern tech company. As a longtime supporter of San Diego Startup Week and the San Diego startup community, Cox also puts on top Tech Awards. Get started. And most recently, quick pitch with San Diego Venture Group and Techcoast Angels. Thanks again to our friends at Cox Business for their support of the community. Welcome back to the Tacos in Tech podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom. I am here at the new Measurable HQ with CFO Nicole Carr. Thanks for being here.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Can you give us a quick bit on what Measurable is?
Absolutely. Measurable is a software platform that enables owners and operators of real estate to measure, manage and report on their non financial ESG data. So this is typically your energy, your water, your waste consumption data that kind of falls under the rain of non financial ESG data.
Okay, awesome. We're going to dive into that. We're going to learn what ESG is, But excited to get to know you. So tell us, where did you grow up?
I grew up in the Midwest, so. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is known as Brewtown.
Yeah. Go Brewers.
Yeah, exactly. My first job was actually at Miller park serving up lemonade, but just come from a long history of beer cities and beer lovers.
Yeah. That's awesome. So how'd you. I mean, what got you on your journey? Where'd you go to school after that?
So after I left the Midwest, I went to University of Colorado. I actually played volleyball for the Buffaloes, so spent four years in Boulder, which is a beautiful city, gorgeous town. Yes, Wonderful. Lots of places to get outdoors, get up to the mountains.
So indoor volleyball, I'm guessing now? Yes.
Indoor, yes.
What was, I'm curious, just first impressions of comparing Boulder to Milwaukee.
It was much more mountainous, much more beautiful, much more laid back. I thought I had reached that west coast culture and the laid back culture when I made it to Boulder and then started my career in Denver. But being out in San Diego, I can really see the difference in the culture and being out here. Just how more laid back the business world is and how much more collaborative it is and really wanting to work with your competitors and really enjoying that piece of San Diego.
Yeah. So you're studying, what would you study in undergrad?
Studied accounting, so got my BSBA in accounting. Did a very traditional path from there.
So always knew you wanted to be in finance. Always a thing.
I come from a background of engineers and accountants, so that was always where my brain was at. And when I graduated college, just did the very traditional path of studying for my cpa. Started working for one of the big four public accounting firms. So did my time at KPMG about six and a half years there between Denver and San Diego and from there continued on in tradition of when you get burned out with public accounting, you go and work for your best, best client.
Oh yeah, okay.
Yeah. So I was lucky enough to be brought on at Realty Income, which is another big S&P 500 San Diego Public Company and spent about six years there in various roles within accounting finance. But kind of my bread and butter there was more on the financial reporting side, so 10Qs, 10Ks, proxies, prospective supplements when we would go out to do debt and equity raises. So really all the financial documents that the market sees public company.
Got it. So between all these two companies, at least KPMG and Realty Income, yes, you're doing finance, but are you starting to see the convergence of technology and finance coming together at all? I mean, was that an area of your focus?
Yeah, absolutely. When I was at kpmg, they were just making that transition from very old school, big audit binders that you'd be trunking around the city. I still remember those days being heels in downtown Denver, trunking around binders. So they were making that transition to audit, automated audit flows. Realty Income had gone through some big ERP implementations on software. But I'd say real estate and financial institutions in general are kind of some of the late adopters on technology. So I had a desire to be more tech heavy and to be more efficient operationally using technology, which I don't think real estate is really known for.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
I guess I'm just curious. Ecosystem wise, we're eventually going to get to your story here in San Diego, but Boulder and Denver very much known as startup and tech towns. Did you know that at the time, was it, was it while you were there?
Yeah, it was definitely very visible. You know, even when I was with kpmg, I was in Denver, I was in the real estate sector, so that's kind of where I focused my time. But could definitely see that it was emerging markets, specifically in Boulder, but Denver was also picking up a lot of those Clients. So it was definitely out there. It was something that had always been attractive to me, mostly from a cultural perspective. Working in real estate and financial institutions. You walk in and you're in your business attire and conversations are just very formal. But I really appreciated the way that startups do business and that they're collaborative and, and that they're casual and that it's really just a meeting of the minds to find best ways to do business, not necessarily how to make it the most lucrative, competitive businesses.
Yeah, totally. So you worked at pretty massive kpmg, went to smaller but still public realty income. Apparently you're kind of on this trend of looking for smaller, maybe more impactful kind of roles. What led you to one San Diego and maybe start San Diego first, but then eventually kind of this startup Measurable?
Yeah, absolutely. I think the story of how I got to San Diego is definitely looking for a smaller city vibe I had.
Compared to Denver.
Well, compared to. I knew I wanted California and there was obviously the most opportunities up in either LA or San Francisco. Even up in Orange county was places that I was kind of initially thinking of making the move. I had some friends up in la and it just felt too big for me. You know, Milwaukee is a city, but it's a small city and, you know, that's really the environment that I think that I thrive best in. So when I came out to San Diego for my first visit, I was immediately sold just that you could still have a very, you know, city feel and you could be having. Still have lots of opportunities. There's a great market here, but you don't have to be commuting two hours for work. It's still. San Diego feels just very, very manageable.
Yeah, that's great. So what, what year did you come out?
I've been out here for decades, so I. Yeah, I came out at 2008.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Yeah.
Have you seen the city grow since then?
Absolutely, yes. I've seen my commute grow probably by at least 10 minutes each year. Yeah. But, you know, I'm a. I'm a transplant myself, so I can't. Can't be mad when there's more and more people moving out here to enjoy the sun.
Yeah. Feels like we all are transplants from somewhere else. For sure.
I think we've got a few locals in this office.
Okay. Yeah, for sure. So what got you down the road to find measurable? How did you come to find them?
So through my role at Realty Income, which I said, which is heavily financially focused, I got Very involved in esg and it was an ESG es Environmental, social governance reporting. It's really, I like to think of it as the expansion and the evolution and maturity of governance issues. So you know, that's always been a big hot topic at public companies is, you know, making sure that you have a board in place, that you have sound procedures on your governance side, that you have controls over executive pay. That's really evolved to now include responsible practices around, you know, social aspects. So how you're operating your company, how you're treating your employees and then from the environmental impact of what are the environmental impacts of you doing business and what are you doing to mitigate those. So you know, as I saw this evolve through being a public company and getting a lot of feedback and really getting pushed hard by investors to be disclosing, disclosing the practices that you're doing as a company and seeing that these types of factors are really affecting investment decision making. You know, this, it made sense to me. It says, you know, this is the way that the investment community is moving, this is where the money is going to be spent and this is something that we've really got to be taking seriously. So I really made a point in my career that I wanted to make this a bigger part of my career and that I wanted to really get behind it. And that's when I sought out measurable. So for me it was really more of being in the CSG industry. There's different opportunities to do it. You can be a consultant. You could have gone back to the firms. The firms have separate practices where they're actually doing audit work.
Like strategies. Yep, okay, yep.
They have their practices. But I went through a list of all the companies in San Diego, those old school attorney books of business. And I flipped it page by page.
San Diego Business Journal book, a list kind of thing.
Yeah, absolutely. I went through that and I had dog eared two separate pages. One was on measurable as a company and the second was as Matt Ellis CEO. It had another little kind of feature on him and the fact that I looked at every company in San Diego and that's what stood out to me. You know, I just knew that I was going to find a way to get in touch with Matt and learn more about the company. So I kind of just put it out in the world and started talking to friends about it. You know, I found this cool company. It's right in line with what I'm looking to do. It's a startup, you know, the culture is what I'm looking for. Let's make this happen.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
How long ago was that?
That was a year ago.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Okay.
Actually, we had lunch today to celebrate my one year anniversary.
Oh, congratulations.
Yeah, it seems like been here for a long time. Love the team, love the journey that we've. It seems like we've made a lot of progress already.
Yeah. Tell us about what it's been like a year later. Sorry.
Yeah, so I came in right after we raised our Series A. It closed in February of last year. I came on in March and we've actually since then closed another big round of financing. So we closed on over 18 million in December.
Okay.
Yeah. So that's our Series B. You know, we doubled in size. I was employee number 33. We're now over 16 employees.
In a year.
In a year. Yep. Yep. We've upgraded our space. Yeah, we're no longer in a small little brick building in Mission Hills. We're downtown in a high rise. So just seeing the progression and being part of this has been just a really rewarding experience and a big learning experience. But it just feels great to be taking some of the knowledge that I've gained of being on the public side. You know, dealing with investors, being grinded by analysts on public company data and bringing that into financial diligence calls. When we're doing our Series B. Kind of bringing some of that expertise to the company has been a really rewarding experience.
Yeah, I bet. I mean, for you, being at public companies now, being private, raising private capital, what's that been like?
So at Realty Income, we raised a few billion dollars a year. I mean, a big REIT is acquiring a few hundred properties a year. So I had done some really massive debt and equity raises on that side. And those happen in about five days, overnight offering. So it happens quick when you're ready to do it. It's pretty easy to get that capital when you have a good reputation. So on this side, it took us a little bit longer, but I think it was still for a lot less money. Yes. Yeah, but just much more rewarding to really be in there and having face to face meetings and, you know, really being able to sell your product. You don't, you don't really do that on, on the public side. You're out there kind of, you're selling your stock price.
Right.
You know, the liquidity of your stock and you know, it's. That it's not volatile. Here we're actually going out and pitching a product and pitching that there is A market for it and, and that's been just a really fun process to be part of.
Yeah, I bet.
I don't want to wish it too soon, but I think it's just fun to go out there and do it. And it brings the team together and there's a lot of excitement around it for sure.
What's it like being, I mean, 30 employees to have such a senior finance person on? I'm guessing there wasn't much of a finance team before.
There was not, no. It was really, it was outsourced for the most part. The core day to day accounting was outsourced. And then Matt, our CEO, Dana our coo, took on a lot of the other board reporting and billing. Everybody kind of pitched in and did what they need to. So me coming on, I definitely had to step in and kind of get my hands dirty. And anybody that knows should know that that's coming into this role of CFO at an assertive company and, and you're going to be doing, you know, you're going to be involved in financing and all the fun stuff and the, you know, strategic performing and helping with business decisions, whether it's modeling on price increases or compensation structures, but it's also managing cash. It's closing the accounting, like doing the core accounting, closing the books, billing collections, cap table management. There's really nothing that you're. If it involves money, you're going to be involved in it.
Totally.
Yeah. So you've got to have a really open mind and be ready to kind of dig in when you're taking in one of these roles.
Yep. And you're surrounded by sales and marketing and engineering. Right. A lot in the startup world. Are there other financial tech, professional startup finance people around that you can kind of bond with at other companies or what's that like?
Yeah, I'm definitely working to build my network. There's some organization in San Diego that help connect you, but it's also just, you know, getting out there and just meeting people at different events. Yeah, Startup San Diego relationships with svb, they do a great job of connecting the local community. San Diego Venture Group. So it's really just people are out there, it's just making the effort to get out and meet them. So yeah, I have felt very supported and if I have a question, there's always somebody that can help answer it. I'm very appreciative of that.
Yeah, I feel like our companies are maturing enough now that there should be senior finance people within the companies. Not just kind of like bookkeeper Office manager. You know, it's great to see the companies bringing on these kinds of roles. So it feels like an area of the ecosystem we should be maturing too. Right. Is helping finance startup people bond. So that's great. Tell us, like, I mean, obviously measure's been growing. Where are you guys headed? Where do you think? The next year to two years for you guys?
Yeah, I think we've spent the last three years really developing this product and we have something that we're proud of. I'm not saying that it doesn't take work on a day to day basis. We still have a pretty big dev team, prod team that's constantly improving the product. But we really are turning our focus back to sales and marketing and investing in growing that team so that we can just continue to kind of increase our top line. And we're also looking to expand into Europe and Asia. So we have some sales folks out there just starting to get on the ground. So that's been exciting as well of having those first few sales over in Europe. And you know, the product's in a good place to be able to expand over there, but I think that's kind of the next big step for us.
Okay, that's awesome. It's exciting to see. And obviously we'll see a bigger office too once it's ready here on the 10th floor.
Yeah, we're finishing our build out right now and we're. We won't be as smushed as we are right now into these two small spaces, but we're definitely looking to grow headcounts. You know, there's great resources in San Diego, so we've been really lucky to find the talent that we have, especially coming out of ucsd, which is where we pull a lot of our data scientists from there.
And there's a big like water polo contingent here, right?
There is, yes.
Okay. UCSD water polo alumni group here, right?
Yes. They are adding to our team every year. That's awesome. It is, yeah. A lot of college athletes on the men and women's side. We had a woman from. The girl on our sales team is also from or played water polo at ucsd. So they continue to add a lot of value to the company and a place that we continue to look for new hires and new recruits.
Totally. You got to have your differentiated talent pool. Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Yeah, there's a lot of. I don't know if you've noticed the average height around the office is pretty tall. Yeah, definitely. No, we have a basketball player from UCSD that helps him out. And a volleyball player from Ohio State.
Wow. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you guys are downtown, which we love having you downtown. Now, not that you're very far in Mission Hills, but you're just moving into the neighborhood. But you personally have been here a while. Do you have any kind of favorites about San Diego? Maybe on the food side?
Tacos or any favorite tacos? Yeah, yeah, we were over in Mission Hills. We were right across the from Carina's. Oh, yeah. So I have to say that's, that's probably my favorite spot.
Not far from Lucha Libre too.
Exactly. Yeah. Carina's was always the favorite though. Nobody wanted to wait in that line.
For sure.
Yeah. But we actually passed today at lunch at Tacos Gordo is coming in, so we're excited.
Oh, a new one coming in. Oh, that's a big deal.
Yeah.
Yep. What about coffee? Favorite coffee spots?
Favorite coffee spot? You know, I just, I was at the beach for about 10 years and I just moved over to Golden Hill, so I've been exploring that area and influx is my go to right now.
Oh yeah, yeah.
So that's a nice spot. Yeah.
Yep. Where were you at the beach?
Pb.
Okay.
Yeah, north pb.
Okay.
So this is my test year of getting away from the beach.
It's a big step.
It's hard. Yeah. But it's great being so close to the, to the office now just I'm a walk down here, so.
Yeah, that's great.
A big bonus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it just fun. You know, San Diego has all these little pockets that, you know, you can be very self sufficient and you don't really need to escape your pocket, whether it's North Park, south park, you know, the beaches. So I'm excited to have a different view of San Diego and to explore some new areas.
Yeah, totally. We also come from some great beer towns. Milwaukee, Denver, Boulder and San Diego. Absolutely. I'm not going to ask you to compare or name your favorite between the cities, but within San Diego. Any favorite breweries here or beers that stand out?
Yeah, I love Modern Times. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Are you on the coffee stout side.
Or their IPAs or where they do tarts and sours. So I'm a big sour fan, which Denver is known for. Fort Collins and Denver have a pretty big sour scene. So yeah, hopefully get more of that in San Diego, but long time does some great stuff.
Very cool.
Yeah. But I'll never turn down a Miller Light, so.
No.
You know, back to my roots for sure.
Well, it's great getting to know you.
Yeah.
Thanks for being on the podcast. Do you have a personal following on Twitter or LinkedIn that people can find you at?
I don't, but you can find measurable pretty easily. Measurable no E at the end. And you can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Okay.
Check it out.
Awesome. Well, thanks so much.
Thank you.
Appreciate it. Nicole, thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Blum. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. This has been a partnership with the San Diego Venture Group and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation's SD Life Changing Campaign. You can find Neil Bloom on Twitter eelbloom and on Linked.
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