RALEIGH – The last time cloud tech startup Pendo held its popular two-day conference, Pendomonium, back in March 2018, the more modest digs of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Raleigh sufficed.

Not anymore.

These days, only the  super-sized Raleigh Convention Center will do.

After years of explosive “100 percent” growth year on year, the startup has more than doubled in size – from 174 to 350 employees – in just the last 18 months. It’s also expanded into Europe, and is on the brink of reaching “unicorn” status – a moniker reserved only for companies valued at $1 billion or more.

On Monday, ground was broken for the new office tower in which Pendo will base its future headquarters. Adorning the top of the building will be Pendo’s logo.

Things are going up, up, up.

“This is an amazing time to be in products,” Pendo’s CEO and founder Todd Olson told the standing-room only crowd gathered in the convention’s main ballroom on Tuesday morning, kicking off the event.

“Never before have we seen this level of growth, level of investments, and it’s indicative of the trends that we’re seeing in the industry.”

Pendo CEO Todd Olson speaking at Pendomonium on Tuesday morning.

Here’s why Pendo picked 301 Hillsborough for HQ – What a view and more

Boon time

Pendo’s numbers speak for themselves.

Among the highlights from its first quarter this year, the startup’s bookings  grew 112 percent over the same period of the prior fiscal year, and the customer count topped 1000. Pendo collected data from more than 167 million end users, totaling more than 1 trillion user events.

Named No. 73 on the latest Inc. 500 list, Pendo reported an astounding 4,267% growth in revenue to nearly $21 million.

Pendo, 3 other NC firms crack top 100 in Inc. 5000 fastest growing company list

It also added six new executives to keep up with the growth. Among them:

  • Micky Csasznik-Shaked, Israel site leader and vice president of engineering
  • Joe Chernov, vice president of marketing
  • Ryan Goldman, vice president of product marketing
  • Jason Mueller, vice president of product management
  • Andrew Parker, vice president of engineering
  • Jennifer Dearman, chief customer officer

It also recently announced that it is planning to add additional workers at its operations in the U.K., which it acquired earlier this year, citing as one reason growth that is exceeding expectations.

‘Product-led growth’

Clearly, Pendo is a hot commodity and people are taking note.

Over the next few days, more than 1,000 attendees are expected to turn out for its conference featuring 40 panels, talks and workshops — covering everything from Pendo’s best-practices to product strategy and leadership.

Headlining keynote speakers include Dan Ariely, a Duke University behavior economics professor and founder of the research lab Center for Advanced Hindsight, and Vivian Howard, owner of Kinston restaurant Chef & the Farmer and host of PBS cooking show A Chef’s Life.

Pendo employees on Tuesday morning.

An all-star lineup of startup founders, corporate executives, product managers and design experts will also be on hand hailing from national firms such as Adobe, Netflix, LabCorp, Drift and Rapid7.

There’s a little something for everyone because, as Olson declared, “every company is a software company” these days.

“This is what we see as the most recent trend,” he said. “Every company sees software and products as a way to be differentiated.

“It’s not just about having great sales and great marketing. It’s also about the overall product experience. It’s not saying the other two are less important; it’s just saying that product-led growth is the new way of thinking, the next level of growth to help accelerate your business.”