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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

What if you knew data behind the fastest growing SaaS companies today? Each morning join Nathan Latka as he spends 15 minutes interviewing SaaS founders. You'll learn how SaaS CEO's launched their startup and grew it into a business. SaaS Founders range from bootstrapped to funded, MVP to 10,000 customers, pre revenue to pre IPO.
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Now displaying: Page 1
Aug 24, 2017

Jim Larrison. He’s the co-founder and president of Dynamic Signal, the leading, customer-employee, advocacy engagement platform. Jim has been involved in a handful of startups that were successful from within big companies to venture-funded businesses. With a couple of sold businesses and an IPO, he is set to come forward with Dynamic Signal which has already raised over $68M in funding.


Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Business Adventures and Into Thin Air
What CEO do you follow? – Tony Hsieh
Favorite online tool? — Owler
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “It’s important to fail and not to be scared of failing”

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:12 – Nathan introduces Jim to the show
01:53 – Dynamic Signal was founded 7 years ago with the mission to revolutionize how to communicate with your employee
02:03 – Big companies struggle to communicate with their employees
02:23 – Dynamic Signal focuses on simplifying this communication
02:34 – Some large companies don’t use the internet to communicate—they send snail mail, newsletters or magazines
03:09 – Dynamic Signal works with Slack which is a collaboration tool
03:20 – Dynamic Signal is a top-down communication tool
03:43 – Dynamic Signal is a SaaS business with monthly subscription plans
03:59 – Dynamic Signal goes after global businesses, enterprises and corporate businesses
04:40 – Dynamic Signal charges by number of employees
05:36 – Big companies grow faster than the small companies
05:56 – Dynamic Signal segment customers depending on the number of employees and where the employees are based
06:20 – Nestle is a global business with hundreds of companies under their brand
06:43 – Dynamic Signal has no cap in the number of employees
06:57 – Global 50 companies have 23K to millions of employees
07:11 – Global 1000 companies have 5K to 25K employees and 5K employees below are for corporate businesses
07:26 – Dynamic Signal was launched in 2010
07:30 – Jim and his co-founder sold their previous company Adify to Cox
07:43 – It was for $350M
07:52 – It was a quick exit and they’ve raised $20-30M
08:06 – The original idea for Dynamic Signal was to go after advocates and influencers
08:25 – Jim saw that the biggest advocates for businesses like Oakley and Nike are their employees
09:30 – Jim and his co-founder built Dynamic Signal because they like working together, even after their successful exit
10:06 – When they started the company, they told themselves that they wanted to build the technology the right way
10:32 – Team size is around 200, some are in the field and some are in San Francisco
10:45 – Around 80 people are engineers/technical and 40 are on sales
11:17 – First year revenue
12:10 – 2016 ARR
12:40 – Jim’s vision for the company is to go public
13:00 – Total customers is close to a couple of thousand
13:25 – Dynamic Signal has 20% of the global 200 companies
13:55 – Dynamic Signal’s costs are driven to the technology
14:03 – Gross margin is around 85%
14:23 – Jim and his co-founder had a good relationship with Cox
14:36 – Cox also funded Dynamic Signal
15:52 – Jim hasn’t seen any logo churn since they launched
16:03 – Dynamic Signal has a long sales cycle: from 240 days to years
17:15 – Jim has tried the seat bucket license but it hasn’t worked as well as their previous pricing
18:00 – “The way we drive growth is 100% based on getting more usage and that’s it”
18:35 – After the raise, Dynamic Signal is focused on expanding their business
18:50 – Paid spent is less than $500K
19:03 – Payback period
21:07 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Larger companies struggle to communicate and connect with their employees and oftentimes, need a solution.
The biggest supporters and advocates of a brand are the employees.
Get used to failing and don’t fear it—it’s part of your path to greater success and understanding.

Resources Mentioned:
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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