The Next Big Opportunity in Software — Eric Crowley, GP Bullhound

Our guest today is Eric Crowley, a tech investment banker with GP Bullhound, focusing on consumer subscription software (CSS), enterprise software, and financial technology. With investments in companies ranging from Spotify to Fishbrain, and clients such as AllTrails, Partnerize, and Motif, GP Bullhound provides transaction advice and capital to many of the leaders in the consumer subscription software space.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

(8:52) Prediction: There will be 50 more publicly-traded CSS businesses in 10 years.

(25:38) Web 3.0 is subscription-only CSS services.

(32:30) Cost structures for CSS vs. SaaS; Calendly.

(49:08) The evolving investment ecosystem: what does the future of CSS look like? 

Follow Us:

David Barnard: https://twitter.com/drbarnard

Jacob Eiting: https://twitter.com/jeiting

Eric Crowley: https://twitter.com/crowxu

Quotes:

“An easy bet to make is that there will be 50 more CSS publicly-traded businesses in 10 years than there are today.” - Eric

“My thesis is that if you fast-forward 5 years or even 2 years, I bet most people will be subscribing to 4 or 5 different things — through their phone only. And I bet that’ll be closer to 10 in the next 3 years.” - Eric

“The exciting thing about this space is that entrepreneurs are building better products.” - Eric

“Consumers have been conditioned, just like CTOs and businesses were, to pay for software — because it makes your life better.” - Eric

“The thing that I get excited about with CSS is that it can be done with very little capital raised.” - Eric

“I think you’re going to see people see value in these services because they streamline your life. They make things easier, either in your professional work or your personal work, and the idea of $10 a year for something is not that material.” - Eric

“Looking at all these trends — people paying for podcasts, things like OnlyFans and Substack — we’re seeing these financial gatekeepers, or barriers to the direct exchange of value between very disparate creators and consumers, coming down.” - Jacob

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