Greg Raiz, founder of Raizlabs – a technology innovation firm for design custom applications, web platforms and other cutting-edge software. Listen how Greg earned the respect of startups and Fortune500 companies through his business.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Blink
- What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
- Favorite online tool? — Invision
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Just make sure to stop and smell the roses”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:41 – Nathan introduces Greg to the show
- 02:10 – What Raizlabs does and how it makes money
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- 02:14 – It is a software design company
- 02:21 – Build iphone and android apps
- 02:45 – Average project size and price
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- 03:10 – Raizlabs as a product business service
- 03:22 – Raizlabs helps with the technology side of the business
- 03:35 – Greg started Raizlabs in 2003
- 03:47 – Greg was making $ 60-70,000 when he was working with Microsoft
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- 03:57 – Greg was 23 when he left Microsoft
- 04:11 – First year revenue in 2013
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- 04:25 – Greg was living off his savings
- 04:55 – Total revenue in 2015
- 05:10 – 80 people in team
- 05:35 – Business has been cash deposited for more than a year
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- 05:44 – Margin and business capital
- 06:09 – “Paying yourself as a CEO has always been a challenge”
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- 06:23 – Reasonable salary
- 06:58 – Total annual personal expenses
- 07:37 – Total savings back then
- 07:53 – Greg had a day job when he was just starting his company
- 08:20 – Total monthly headcount expenses on an average
- 08:55 – Greg uses Basecamp and other tools
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- 09:24 – Spending on tools
- 09:47 – How Greg feels when their client earns more than them
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- 10:00 – They did some good stuff for HubSpot
- 10:25 – Just released an interesting product for The Perkins School for the Blind
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- 10:35 – Challenge for micro-navigation
- 10:50 – How to get people to the bus stop
- 11:10 – Launched earlier this week
- 11:30 – RunKeeper as a client
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- 11:37 – Fitness mapping idea
- 12:10 – Design development of the product with the iphone GPS
- 12:40 – Success to take in-house
- 13:04 – Equity with the companies
- 13:25 – How much RunKeeper pays Greg
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- 13:40 – Charged 15K early on
- 14:20 – Exploring apps that can help the employees betterment
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- 14:41- Methodology on how to facilitate feedback
- 14:48 – Product exploration and incubation
- 15:05 – Connect with Greg on his website and Twitter
- 16:40 - The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- As an entrepreneur, you have to manage your stability and your company’s.
- It is not about how much other companies earn – it is about how you become a part of their success.
- You can never turn back time – pause and enjoy the beauty of the present.
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.
- @graiz – Greg’s Twitter handle
- Raizlabs.com – Greg’s business website
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives