Nathan interviews Joel Holland, founder of VideoBlocks - a company that distributes over a million clips of royalty-free stock video and audio each month to over 150K customers in the television and video production industry, ranging from professional outlets like NBC to video hobbyists and enthusiasts. They're a 5x INC 500 out of 5000 fastest growing company, and Joel has been named one of the Top 25 under 25 by Business Week, and INC magazine’s prestigious 30 under 30 list.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Influence
- What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
- Favorite online tool? — Mailchimp
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “I do now”
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I have lived my college life”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:50 – Nathan introduces Joel to the show
- 02:57 – What is VideoBlocks and how does it generate sales
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- 03:00 – Stock media company
- 03:22 – Elements that creative professionals can incorporate to their projects
- 03:45 – VideoBlocks was founded 2010
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- 04:00 – Idea of VideoBlocks
- 04:40 – VideoBlocks’ model
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- 04:50 – Started selling by the collection
- 05:10 – Launched subscription plan as a test in 2010
- 05:20 – 150,000 paying members
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- 05:38 – Monthly and annual plan
- 05:43 – Total revenue in 2015
- 06:15 – Royalty-free
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- 06:30 – 6,000 videographers now shooting for VideoBlocks
- 07:10 – RPU
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- 07:37 – Created more premium plans
- 08:00 – The 80/20 rule
- 08:30 – How much would a videographer get if National Geographic buys his clip?
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- 08:40 – Standard pricing
- 08:50 – “If National Geographic bought it for 49 bucks, the videographer will get a check”
- 09:00 – 2 types of libraries
- 09:38 – VideoBlocks buy clips to put in the library
- 10:10 – Customers only need to download 2 clips in a year to avail unlimited clips
- 11:00 – “We want shooters to make as much money as possible”
- 11:24 – A few million dollars to acquire creative lights
- 11:40 – “Content is king”
- 12:00 – MRR
- 12:09 – Annual churn
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- 12:16 – Subscription business is like a puzzle
- 13:05 – Churn on monthly plan
- 13:26 – Returning cost acquisition
- 14:10 – Customer insights operation
- 14:25 – Direct response marketing
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- 14:33 – Million dollars spent monthly
- 14:40 – Example of direct response marketing
- 14:58 – Joel has a huge number of list
- 15:15 – Launching other products
- 15:42 – Weighted average cap
- 15:55 – Lifetime value on average
- 16:16 – Blended channels
- 17:17 – 80 team members
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- 17:25 – Based in Virginia
- 17:36 – Funding history: Raised under 20 million to date
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- 18:02 – North Atlantic Ventures
- 18:11 – SBA gives you leverage
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- 19:35 – “Currently, we are not raising nor in any acquisition talks”
- 20:15 – “Going public is a tough process”
- 21:07 – Connect with Joel through his LinkedIn and website
- 22:45 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Work hard but don’t forget to live your life.
- Give life to your ideas if you want your business to grow.
- Know your customers and the people who supports your products.
Resources Mentioned:
- Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
- Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
- Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
- Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
- Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
- LinkedIn – Joel’s LinkedIn account
- VideoBlocks.com – Joel’s business website
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives