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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: 2016
Dec 31, 2016

Chad Brown, CEO and head of product along with his co-founder at Orangedox.com. He has a strong background in business intelligence and technology startups and has a passion for business documents and the color orange.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Good to Great
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Drew Houston
  • Favorite online tool? –  Stack Exchange
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep? –  Yes
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Be more confident”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:32 – Nathan introduces Chad to the show
  • 02:07 – Orangedox started as document tracking and was originally on Dropbox
  • 02:17 – Orangedox has premium services on top premium products
  • 02:48 – Why would people choose Orangedox over PandaDoc
    • 02:55 – Orangedox is integrated into your account
  • 03:22 – Orangedox is a SaaS business
  • 03:55 – Orangedox has over 20K product signups
  • 04:05 – Orangedox was in beta in 2014 and pre-launch in early 2015
  • 04:25 – Average weekly active customers: 2000
  • 05:05 – Average number of paying customers: about 300
  • 05:30 – Average pay per customer is $25-30 a month
  • 06:00 – MRR
  • 06:17 – Chad was looking at raising capital but still undecided about their focus
  • 06:55 – Chad is looking at their current customer base
  • 07:30 – Chad shares how the customers are using Orangedox and the commonality in paying customers
  • 09:15 – Team size: 2 full-time and few part-time workers
  • 09:30 – Gross customer churn around 5%
  • 09:57 – Chad shares how they acquire their new customers
  • 11:52 – Orangedox is based in Vancouver
  • 12:25 – Chad and his co-founders’ plan on the company
  • 12:45 – Chad hasn’t focused on a lot revenue at the moment, but is working on closing key enterprise clients
  • 13:21 – Connect with Chad through his email and Twitter
  • 14:55 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • At first, focus on the betterment of your product as opposed to revenue.
  • Analyze your products effectivity through your customers’ activities.
  • Have the confidence and motivation to do what you want.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @Orange_dox – Chad’s business’ Twitter handle
  • Chad@Orangedox.com – Chad’s email address
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 30, 2016

Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium.com which is based in Utah. He’s a software engineer at the International Atomic Agency and before that, the founder of FineGrain. He worked at Walmart as a software engineer and he has also interned at Orange Soda.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Multipliers
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Phil Knight
  • Favorite online tool? –  Domo and Apple Notes
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep? –  “I get 7”
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You can always tell them to go to hell tomorrow” –  Warren Buffet

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:46 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
  • 02:20 – Podium helps businesses generate reviews which drives purchase decisions
  • 02:30 – Podium charges $299 a month per location
  • 02:48 – Podium is a SaaS business
  • 02:58 – Average customer pays $499
  • 03:20 – Podium was launched in 2013
    • 03:25 – Eric started Podium because of his dad’s business
  • 04:01 – Team size
    • 04:44 – All employees are working full-time
    • 04:50 – Team is based in Utah
  • 05:35 – Podium raised $4M in total
    • 05:50 – First seed round was in 2014 and $500K was raised
    • 05:57 – Raised $3.5M in December of 2015
  • 06:36 – Eric has given up 20% of the business for the seed round
  • 07:38 – Podium has 25000 customers per location
  • 08:13 – Podium has $1M in MRR
  • 08:45 – Podium’s gross monthly customer churn is around 1%
    • 09:10 – Net churn is negative 2% monthly
  • 09:50 – Average CAC
  • 10:12 – Average LTV is $12K
  • 11:00 – 2015 ARR is $1.8M
  • 11:30 – 2016 ARR is around $11M
  • 11:41 – Goal for 2017 ARR is $25M
  • 12:55 – Connect with Eric through his website and Twitter
  • 15:05 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • It’s important to have some capital in case you make mistakes – with no capital, just 1 mistake will sink you.
  • Find a solution to the simplest problems to streamline your business processes.
  • The SMB market will continually grow, creating more opportunities for startups.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @EricWilliamRea – Eric’s Twitter handle
  • Podium.com – Eric’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 29, 2016

Usman Sheikh, CEO and founder of xIQ – an award-winning platform for personalized sales, marketing intelligence, and content marketing. He’s the former vice president of SAP AG and he’s pushing digital frontiers by delivering consumer grade experiences in B2B sales and the marketing space. xIQ is the winner of the prestigious 2016 Content Marketing Institute Award for best integration of mobile and content marketing.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Zero to One
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Bill McDermott
  • Favorite online tool? — Twitter and LinkedIn
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Take risks as early as you can.

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:49 – Nathan introduces Usman to the show
  • 02:30 – xIQ is a next generation sales intelligence tool designed for B2B sales and marketing professionals
  • 03:04 – Usman worked with the top leaders of the world in SAP
  • 03:30 – xIQ extracts the most relevant content from the most reliable sources
  • 04:00 – xIQ is a SaaS product
  • 04:16 – xIQ was founded in 2014, and released in early 2016
  • 04:44 – xIQ raised 2 rounds of seed round
  • 05:08 – Total amount raised
  • 05:37 – Team size is under 15 and is based in Silicon Valley
  • 06:05 – xIQ has 10 corporate customers and thousands of individual customers
  • 06:35 – Average pay of corporate customers
  • 06:57 – Average MRR
  • 07:24 – Usman discusses one of their clients, GenPact, and how they use xIQ
    • 07:42 – First, xIQ is used as a marketing intelligence tool to track competitors
    • 08:47 – All data is real-time
  • 09:20 – xIQ uses Apache Solr technology to index and for natural language processing
  • 09:50 – xIQ gets their corporate customers from organic traffic
  • 10:32 – xIQ’s process is the reason why corporate customers end up buying from them
  • 11:12 – List size
  • 11:24 – xIQ has 1 inside sales person
  • 12:29 – No cancellations/churn yet for xIQ
  • 12:53 – CAC
  • 14:10 – LTV to CAC ratio
  • 15:10 – Connect with Usman through LinkedIn, email and website
  • 16:50 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Experience is a great teacher—continue to learn and hone your skill set.
  • Building a business takes time and there is always room for improvement.
  • Take risks as early on in life as you can.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • LinkedIn – Usman’s LinkedIn account
  • Usman@xIQ.io – Usman’s email address
  • xIQ.ai – Usman’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 28, 2016

Nathan interviews Neil Berman. This guy knows SaaS and launched his company called Delivra, in 1999, in the email marketing space. Listen as Neil shares how Delivra has grown exponentially in 17 years, without the need to raise funds and get into debt.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Great CEOs are Lazy
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Mark Zuckerberg
  • Favorite online tool? — Twitter and LinkedIn
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “At least”
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Patience and determination will win the game”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:37 – Nathan introduces Neil to the show
  • 01:59 – Delivra is an email marketing software tool that helps clients “sell more stuff”
  • 02:10 – They are a high break-even business with a low variable cost, so the more customers the better
  • 02:15 – Delivra is a SaaS business
  • 02:25 – Delivra currently has 500 direct  paying clients, and a couple thousand resellers
  • 02:33 – Average customer pays $800-900 per month
  • 03:21 – Total revenue in 2016 about $4.8M
  • 03:33 – Total revenue in 2015 is $4.2M
  • 03:45 – Delivra has 3 marketing buckets
  • 04:00 – Total team size is over 40+
    • 04:12 – Main team location in Indianapolis
  • 04:23 – Gross customer churn per month is 1.5%
  • 04:45 – A customer stays with Delivra for 42 months
  • 05:00 – LTV
  • 05:10 – CAC is $1.08
  • 06:33 – Delivra hasn’t raised yet and they have no debt, but are looking at options
    • 06:45 – Neil’s target for their first round
  • 07:43 – Delivra has grown organically over the years
  • 08:17 – Neil is meeting with a capital markets team to learn about how to take Delivra to the next level
  • 08:50 – Neil would think seriously about an offer
  • 09:40 – Neil shares how their customers are using Delivra
  • 10:25 – Connect with Neil through his website Delivra
  • 12:20 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Before you do your first round of raising, get advice from an expert.
  • It’s incredible growing through organic traffic, but always aim to know what is the next level for your company.
  • Patience and determination will win the game.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Delivra.com – Neil’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 27, 2016

Chuck Sillari: He was born and raised in Boston and is a graduate of Boston College and Law school. He’s a lawyer and a real estate developer who is currently focusing full-time on the expansion of his nationally known Boston Burger Company – a new e-commerce business called BurgaBox.com. Burgabox is in the process of disrupting both the meal kit industry and full service casual dining experience.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Quench Your Own Thirst
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Samuel Adams
  • Favorite online tool? — Hotjar
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew that I should have travelled more and...spend a lot time meeting interesting people because that’s where you get inspiration from”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Chuck to the show
  • 02:21 – Boston Burger Company’s 2015 revenue is around $5.5M for three locations
  • 02:50 – Chuck has always loved the restaurant industry
  • 03:39 – Chuck jumped into the burger business after 13 years in a law firm
  • 03:45 – BurgaBox opened up in 2009, and Chuck went full-time in 2013
  • 04:07 – “People really loved what we’re doing”
  • 04:17 – BurgaBox was in different TV shows
  • 04:30 – BurgaBox became a must-try destination in Boston
  • 04:50 – Chuck brought on 1 investor
    • 05:13 – The investor approached Chuck for the second location
    • 05:31 – The investor knew about the Boston Burger Company because of its popularity in Boston
  • 05:56 – Chuck shares how much they’ve spent to open up a new location
    • 06:20 – There was no full burger joint in Boston before
  • 06:43 – Chuck shares why the second location costs 10x more than the first location
  • 07:55 – The first location’s growth was $700K in their first year
    • 08:24 – It was 450 sq. ft.
    • 08:30 – It is now doing a $1.85M
  • 09:15 – The amount the investor gets in return
  • 10:00 – Chuck has a good partnership with the investor
  • 10:20 – A restaurant’s gross margin
    • 11:49 – For every dollar you bring in, 20% should go to your pocket
  • 12:09 – The second location will do around $2.5M in 2016
  • 12:27 – Average profit of each restaurant
  • 12:45 – Chuck’s plan for the business
  • 13:03 – Chuck saw how the meal kit delivery industry was booming and wanted a piece of that market
  • 13:20 – The biggest percentage of the diners are tourists and students
  • 13:53 – Chuck started to get into the meal kit delivery in February
  • 14:00 – The meal kit delivery sold around 100 kits in the first month, 2nd month: 150 kits, 3rd month: 400 kits
  • 14:35 – Burger kit’s pricing
  • 15:36 – There’s a subscription: a monthly box or as a gift
  • 16:05 – Shipping process of the burger kits
  • 16:33 – Follow Chuck by checking out Boston Burger and BurgaBox
  • 18:00 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Do what you love and people will, in turn, love what you have to offer.
  • Trust and believe in your business partners.
  • Get your inspiration from people – learn and improve from their feedback.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Boston Burger & BurgaBox – Chuck’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 26, 2016

Nathan interviews Nick Bjorn. He is an entrepreneur by trade and digital marketer by evolution with over 8 years of professional agency experience. He has gained a national and global perspective on the evolving and digital world with an emphasis in search engine optimization or SEO. Nick is the co-founder of Power Digital Marketing which is based in San Diego, CA.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Good to Great
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Eric Schmidt
  • Favorite online tool? — Mixmax
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Commit to a skillset early on in life”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:45 – Nathan introduces Nick to the show
  • 02:12 – Power Digital Marketing is a full-service digital agency
  • 02:15 – Power Digital Marketing was created 4 years ago
  • 02:18 – Nick has 2 other business partners who handle finances and team management
  • 02:35 – Power Digital Marketing has 3 employees
  • 02:40 – Power Digital Marketing’s types of services described
  • 03:15 – First year revenue was around $500K
  • 03:33 – Power Digital Marketing has humble beginnings
  • 03:50 – 2015 total revenue is $3.2M
  • 03:57 – Estimate 2016 revenue is around $6M
  • 04:10 – Power Digital Marketing typically has 6-month contracts
    • 04:35 – Minimum amount per contract is $5K
    • 04:43 – Retainers are at $50K a month
  • 05:14 – Power Digital Marketing currently has 60 clients
  • 05:25 – Average MRR
  • 06:10 – 2017 revenue goal
  • 06:35 – Power Digital Marketing and what they do for their clients
    • 06:56 – Soccer Loco is one of Power Digital Marketing’s clients
    • 07:35 – SEO, organic rankings, paid ad initiatives are important for Soccer Loco
    • 08:17 – Power Digital Marketing uses the keywords “cheap soccer cleats” for Soccer Loco intentionally
  • 08:50 – Power Digital Marketing benefits well from link building
  • 10:30 – Power Digital Marketing has PR professionals that build relationships with the clients
  • 10:50 – Google now tracks backlinking and is reaching out to editors
  • 11:43 – Power Digital Marketing relationship with SoccerNation.com
  • 12:42 – “How do you find terms to target?”
    • 12:47 – Do your due diligence
  • 13:37 – Power Digital Marketing is currently in the process of developing their own page analytics software
  • 14:20 – Connect with Nick on Twitter and email
  • 16:35 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Creating content for SEO requires an understanding of the technicalities associated with backlinking.
  • Track every campaign’s effectivity as you step forward.
  • Do your due diligence when it comes to finding the right terms and keywords that sell.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Nick@PowerDigitalMarketing.com – Nick’s email address
  • @Nick_Bjorn – Nick’s Twitter handle
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 25, 2016

Samir Smajic, one of the founders of GetAccept. GetAccept recently moved to San Francisco from Sweden because they are part of YC—a solution where you design, send, track, and market your proposals to get more deals digitally signed. Samir has a bunch of experience in project management, consulting, CRM, IT, computer software, business and more.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Never Split the Difference
  • What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
  • Favorite online tool? —Trello
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Doing whatever I felt good to do”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:55 – Nathan introduces Samir to the show
  • 02:25 – Samir chooses skiing over snowboarding
  • 02:35 – GetAccept helps sales reps close more deals by focusing on their sales document workflow
  • 02:58 – GetAccept is a subscription-based SaaS business
  • 03:07 – Average pay per user is $40/month or $200 per business/month
  • 03:42 – GetAccept currently has 1,100 paying customers and 4,400 free customers
  • 04:15 – Average MRR is $44K
  • 04:20 – GetAccept was launched in December of 2015
    • 04:47 – GetAccept already had revenue their first month
  • 05:31 – Samir shares why GetAccept has a high conversation rate from free to paying customers
  • 06:00 – GetAccept calls their customers to give them product information and ask them questions
  • 06:50 – GetAccept helps their customers send their first contract
  • 07:17 – Fully weighted CAC
  • 07:35 – Total headcount expenses
  • 08:28 – GetAccept has 200 new customers monthly
  • 08:47 – GetAccept has paid marketing
    • 09:09 – Spending is around $4000 for paid ads
  • 09:20 – GetAccept’s biggest competitors explained
  • 11:00 -  Gross customer churn
  • 12:00 – LTV
  • 12:25 – GetAccept is currently based in San Francisco
  • 12:49 – GetAccept had raised capital and is still open
  • 14:20 – Samir’s focus is the growth of the company
  • 14:34 – GetAccept has 4 co-founders
  • 14:42 – If DocuSign offered to buy your business, would you accept?
  • 15:30 – Connect with Samir on LinkedIn
  • 17:10 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Focus on what YOU can do for your customers – assist them in ANY way possible.
  • Doing the work you love and enjoy is more important than the bottom dollar.
  • Let your competitors motivate you to improve what YOU are doing.

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • LinkedIn – Samir’s LinkedIn account
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 24, 2016

Dinesh Kandanchatha. He’s a founder, mentor, speaker, and above all, an entrepreneur. He encourages founders to ask all questions, navigate challenging decisions, and find the right answer that is sometimes difficult to face. He has bought, built, sold, lent, and/or invested in over 13 companies.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Essentialism
  • What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
  • Favorite online tool? — Asana
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t be the smartest guy”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:48 – Nathan introduces Dinesh to the show
  • 02:32 – Dinesh makes money by investing and capital gains against those investments
  • 02:52 – Dinesh does consulting work too
  • 03:45 – A board member’s average retainers
  • 04:33 – Dinesh total revenue as a credit investor in 2015
    • 04:48 – A credit investor is someone who has net assets greater than $5M and earnings in the last 2 years that are greater than $200K
  • 05:35 – Dinesh has built startups; some failed and some are successful
  • 06:04 – Dinesh invests $75K to $150K in a company
    • 06:14 – Dinesh often invests during Pre-Series A or Pre-seed
    • 06:20 – Dinesh takes his capital and amplify it with his network and experience
  • 07:08 – Dinesh’s biggest failure happened right after he sold Precise Software Technologies in the late 90s
    • 07:46 – The person that acquired Precise sued Dinesh
    • 08:09 – Dinesh spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal battles
  • 09:04 – Dinesh’s most spectacular success is yet to come
  • 09:20 – The business Dinesh is currently proud of
    • 10:50 – Dinesh’s equity rate in Protus IP Solution
  • 11:10 – Dinesh has helped Macadamian technology scale up
  • 12:03 – Dinesh has invested in real estate
  • 12:30 – “If you get a few over the fence, you can make up all the difference”
  • 12:45 – Dinesh usually sticks to B2B and SaaS
  • 13:22 – Dinesh is currently working on Patriot One Technologies
  • 14:49 – Dinesh is very passionate about the potential of technology
  • 15:04 – Connect with Dinesh through Twitter and at Clarity.fm
  • 17:27 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • “If you get a few over the fence, you can make up all the difference”—so, don’t get discouraged if you lose some.
  • Do what you know and stick to your strengths.
  • When you get an idea that could meaningfully impact the society as a wholeit will not just be an investment, but your baby.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @DineshAtWork – Dinesh’s Twitter handle
  • Clarity.fm/DineshkAtWork – Dinesh’s Clarity account
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 23, 2016

Joseph Walla, CEO and co-founder of a San Francisco based startup, HelloSign. The company launched in 2012 and it provides the easiest way for businesses to sign and collect legally binding documents online. The idea behind HelloSign was sparked by Joseph’s first successful product alongside his co-founder, Neil O’Mara, of HelloFax. HelloFax launched in 2010 after attending the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – High Output Management
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Bill Walsh
  • Favorite online tool? — Google Apps
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Joseph wished he had moved to the valley earlier

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Joseph to the show
  • 02:30 – Joseph first worked in HelloFax which is an on-the-go fax machine
  • 02:43 – HelloSign has premium products and free products
  • 03:00 – Pricing plans starts at $15
    • 03:12 – API pricing plans differs by bucket
  • 03:40 – HelloSign is cash flow positive in 2014 and 2015
  • 03:50 – Total of $3.5M raised
  • 04:24 – Joseph has been very disciplined with how they spend their money
  • 05:15 – 2016 MRR
  • 05:36 – HelloSign has 47,000 paying customers
  • 05:46 – HelloSign has a 5-6M user base
  • 06:05 – People convert from free to paid because of the volume of their transactions
  • 06:54 – HelloSign team’s operation
  • 07:30 – Average salaries in the valley
  • 08:45 – Total headcount expenses with 16 employees
  • 09:35 – Average MRR from Nathan
  • 10:00 – Average customer churn
  • 10:55 – HelloSign is mainly in the SMB space but they also have some big clients
  • 12:20 – Standard gross churn
  • 12:40 – The amount HelloSign is willing to spend for a new user
  • 12:49 – HelloSign doesn’t spend much for a new user, but spends for a new paid user
  • 12:55 – Joseph read an article on ForEntrepreneurs.com about SaaS metrics and acquiring customers that was beneficial for him
  • 13:35 – HelloSign’s CAC ratio
  • 14:53 – Connect with Joseph through LinkedIn and Twitter
  • 16:23 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Don’t wait for a job or overcomplicate the process of getting started—get out there and figure it out as you go.
  • Make that investment to turn a new user into a paid new user. 
  • Don’t just sit and wait for something to happen, take action!

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @JosephWalla – Joseph’s Twitter handle
  • LinkedIn – Joseph’s LinkedIn account
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 22, 2016

Max Altschuler, CEO of Sales Hacker – a rapidly growing media company focused on the future of B2B sales. Max wrote the book Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High Velocity Sales Machine which was recently published by Wiley. Aside from sales hack and angel investors, Max advises startups all around the globe.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The 48 Laws of Power
  • What CEO do you follow? – N/A
  • Favorite online tool? — Boomerang
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Max wished he could have studied Psychology a bit more

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Max to the show
  • 02:07 – Sales Hacker is a media company ushering the future of sales
    • 02:35 – Sales Hacker does crowdsourcing of content on their blog and holds conferences throughout the year
    • 03:12 – The conferences are Sales Hacker’s main revenue stream
  • 03:20 – Sales Hacker’s last conference was in June 2016
    • 04:09 – The sponsored revenue for the last conference was $1.2 M
    • 04:14 – Ticket sales was $300-400K
    • 04:22 – Average ticket price was $400-500
    • 04:28 – Total attendees
  • 04:41 – The cost per conference is less than $1M
  • 04:53 – Max shares how they manage the cost of the conference
  • 05:51 – You need to find venue sponsorship
  • 05:57 – Max helps clients with bigger conferences like Pulse
  • 07:00 – Sales Hacker finds out which businesses are interested in the conference
  • 07:33 – Have prospective sponsors sign up and pay early
  • 09:15 – Sales Hacker’s average revenue per event depends on the event
  • 10:54 – Sales Hacker takes a percentage from the total profit of SaaSters
  • 11:30 – 2015 total revenue is $2.5M
  • 11:45 – Team size
  • 12:04 – Max shares why he didn’t build a SaaS business
  • 12:59 – Sales Hacker’s list size
  • 13:55 – Max’s goal for a VC round
  • 14:07 – Max is from Udemy
  • 14:35 – Max had 2 companies before Udemy
  • 15:20 – Max’s second business was Last Call
  • 15:45 – Max’s 3 favorite investments at the moment
  • 16:50 – The average amount Max is investing in a business
  • 18:00 – Max sets expectations of what he will and will not do for a company
  • 18:36 – Max is trying to invest in B2B companies
  • 19:21 – Connect with Max through LinkedIn, Twitter and his website
  • 21:30 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Closing a business does NOT mean it was a failure – you gain experience and learn valuable lessons from that process.
  • Take the time to research and know where to invest.
  • Even if you’re working with SaaS businesses, that doesn’t mean you should or can build one as well.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @MaxAlts – Max’s Twitter handle
  • LinkedIn – Max’s LinkedIn account
  • Sales Hacker – Max’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 21, 2016

Chad Rubin. He builds e-commerce businesses. He owns a direct consumer e-commerce business called Crucial Vacuum and grew it from zero to a $20 million valuation in 7 years. He happens to be a Top 250 Amazon Seller. He co-founded Skubana with DJ Kunovac and built one of e-commerce’s hottest operational software. Skubana is the only software that you’ll ever need to manage and accelerate the growth of your ecommerce business. It’s beautiful, intelligent, and highly intuitive and it also incorporates every feature imaginable to drive your future success, especially in ecommerce.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Virtual Freedom
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Gary Vaynerchuk
  • Favorite online tool? — Trello or Asana
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Go after passion and change a major in college

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:28 – Nathan introduces Chad to the show
  • 02:17 – Chad shares how he made the zero to $20M valuation for Crucial Vacuum
  • 03:48 – Chad shares what he thinks is Walmart’s biggest mistake
  • 04:27 – Skubana is making 50,000 orders a month
  • 04:47 – Chad shares a mistake he made and how he lost money
    • 05:08 – Chad had to minimize his headcount from 20 employees to 2
  • 05:40 – Skubana is a SaaS business
  • 06:00 – Number of customers that Skubana is currently serving
  • 06:46 – Skubana’s pricing:
    • 07:07 – Minimum of $999 a month
    • 07:10 – Pricing is customized and is based on users
  • 07:34 – Average RPU
  • 08:00 – MRR
  • 08:05 – Skubana did a seed round
    • 08:41 – Raised 880,000 on the first seed round
    • 08:45 – Chad put in $1M
  • 08:59 – James Thompson is one of Skubana’s investors
  • 09:43 – Chad messaged 10 people that he looked up himself to try and get them involved
  • 10:10 – Chad starting building Skubana for 3 years and it just went live last year
  • 10:29 – Chad raised the $880K when they had the prototype
  • 11:15 – First year revenue
  • 12:30 – Chad wanted Skubana to be available for everybody
  • 12:40 – When Chad raised their pricing, a lot of their customers churned off
  • 12:53 – Skubana is not an entry level software
  • 13:27 – Chad individually called customers to inform them about the increase in pricing and they got emails too
  • 14:12 – Most of Skubana’s RPU growth is coming from new customers
  • 14:27 – Chad shares how people find Skubana
    • 14:48 – Chad wrote a book and hit #7 bestseller
    • 15:22 – Chad has a subscription list from their blog because they’re adding value
    • 15:45 – Number of people on their list
  • 16:22 – Skubana is pairing with other companies for a win-win sale
  • 17:30 – Chad cares more about the quality of the customers as opposed to the quantity
  • 18:05 – Chad shares about the successful webinars he held for certain companies
  • 19:00 – Chad spends a lot of time guest blogging
  • 19:25 – CAC is currently zero
  • 21:20 – Team size
    • 21:40 – Total overhead cost
  • 22:00 – Team location is in NYC and New Jersey
  • 22:10 – Chad is still thinking of raising another round
    • 22:29 – Chad wants to raise $1M
  • 23:30 – Connect with Chad through Youtube, Twitter and his email
  • 25:10 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Mistakes happen for us to LEARN from it.
  • Make your product KNOWN to the public at low costs by INCREASING your online presence.
  • Need direction? Go hard after your passion!

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Youtube – Chad’s business Youtube channel
  • Chad@Skubana.com – Chad’s email address
  • @Ecommrenegade – Chad’s Twitter handle
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 20, 2016

Bart Lorang, a proven entrepreneur executive and manager in the global technology industry. He’s very active in the startup community as an angel investor, strategic advisor, and speaker at many industry events. In fact, he supports entrepreneurs in his co-founder position and is managing director at V1.vc, a $5 million dollar, seed-stage fund dedicated to help crazy entrepreneurs change the world. More importantly, he’s an entrepreneur himself. He’s currently running FullContact which is responsible for communicating its vision and strategy. He’s a visionary technologist with extensive experience conceiving, designing, building, marketing, and selling enterprise software solutions on a global scale.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  • What CEO do you follow? – Warren Buffett
  • Favorite online tool? – DocuSign
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – It’s about how you make people feel.

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Bart to the show
  • 02:35 – FullContact is a universal contact management platform
  • 02:50 – FullContact is a SaaS business and payment is based on the number of contacts
    • 03:08 – Developers can pay for a developer platform
  • 03:17 – The developer access is Bart’s largest revenue stream
  • 04:00 – FullContact is continually building new features
  • 04:14 – FullContact also offers KPI services
  • 04:37 – HubSpot uses FullContact
  • 05:10 – FullContact was founded in 2010
  • 05:30 – There is no application yet that is focused on contacts
  • 06:01 – First year revenue
  • 06:28 – Bart had a couple of businesses before FullContact
  • 06:56 – FullContact was funded through raised capital
  • 07:17 – How can someone look at that market and tell that it is too big to bootstrap?
    • 07:53 – “It’s all about the size of your vision and how fast you want to execute”
  • 08:30 – FullContact has millions of customers
    • 08:55 – FullContact has above 50,000 paying customers
  • 09:03 – Bart shares what’s included in the free plan and paid plan
  • 09:40 – Average monthly RPU
  • 10:05 – Bart discusses the type of  individuals using FullContact
  • 11:05 – Average MRR
  • 11:40 – FullContact in ARR
  • 12:54 – Gross customer churn
  • 13:18 – FullContact has an inside sales team helping their customers
  • 13:37 – CAC
  • 14:20 – Team location: they have a global presence
  • 14:30 – Team size: 210-220
  • 14:40 – FullContact had their Series C last August 2016
  • 15:08 – How are investors in this space thinking about the SaaS valuation?
    • 15:47 – They are looking at the SaaS business’ multipliers
  • 16:00 – FullContact’s main competitors
  • 16:35 – The MDM space
  • 16:49 – Connect with Bart through FullContact and his email
  • 18:18 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Analyze your business well and have a goal so you know where you’re going to start.
  • Funding is a very important part of business.
  • It’s NOT about how smart you are but how you make people feel.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Bart@FullContact.com – Bart’s email address
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 20, 2016

Alexander Graubner-Müller. He’s the current CEO of Kreditech and started off as their CTO. He was a senior business development manager at Groupon and he was very active in the financial space such as an internship at Equity Derivatives in UBS. Alex is now in the Fintech space and running Kreditech.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — n/a
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? Spend more time learning how to manage and build companies

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Alexander to the show
  • 02:20 – Kreditech is an end-to-end consumer lending company
  • 02:45 – Kreditech has a powerful rating data
  • 03:05 – Alex shares what kind of credit score they’d assign to a customer as opposed to what a bank would
  • 04:15 – Kreditech is focused on consumers
  • 05:28 – Kreditech is a lending company
  • 05:55 – Current total loans outstanding
    • 06:23 – Most of the loans are short in maturity
  • 07:08 – The kind of person Kreditech loans to
  • 08:25 – Kreditech is growing fast—around 100% every year
  • 08:50 – Kreditech made $40M in revenue in 2015
  • 09:30 – Kreditech explains their interest rates
  • 10:15 – Kreditech offers higher loans with lower rates for specific consumers
  • 12:07 – Some people who apply for a loan won’t usually be able to pay
  • 12:33 – The fraction Kreditech will assume
  • 15:17 – Total amount raised in funding rounds
  • 16:40 – Loan origination
  • 17:12 – Alex had to make sure to run the company on a fully-funded business plan
  • 18:21 – Connect with Alex through LinkedIn, Twitter and his email
  • 20:30 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • You can always work your way up – just give your ALL and embrace your company.
  • Lending companies are different from the banks, but both have their advantages and disadvantages.
  • Learn how to manage your company; NOT just how to manage people, but how to have your people work to make it more profitable. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Alexander@Kreditech.com – Alex’ email address
  • @AGraubnerMuller – Alex’ Twitter handle
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 18, 2016

Henry Schuck, CEO of DiscoverOrg. He’s a leading entrepreneur in sales intelligence and lead generation. Under his leadership, DiscoverOrg built the industry’s most accurate, highest quality, contact database through a mix of technology and a team of live researchers who continually call into thousands of IT, marketing, HR, and finance departments.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Good Boss, Bad Boss
  • What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
  • Favorite online tool? — Gmail
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I do
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Work harder than you could ever imagine working”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Henry to the show
  • 02:13 – DiscoverOrg provides deep intelligence on the company and the contact information of buyers of 60,000 companies worldwide
  • 02:38 – DiscoverOrg is selling the data on a subscription basis
  • 03:09 – Henry worked for a company similar to DiscoverOrg when he was an undergrad
  • 03:28 – Henry’s colleague asked him to build a similar company which is now DiscoverOrg
  • 04:04 – Henry’s acquired iProfile
  • 04:40 – DiscoverOrg is owned by TA Associates
  • 04:58 – DiscoverOrg was self-funded in annual contract value in 2014
  • 05:56 – Henry was approached by different private equity firms in 2012-2014
  • 06:26 – Henry shares the reason why they chose TA Associates
  • 07:45 – Customers pay annual access to the platform which is a SaaS platform and they pay for specific data
  • 08:22 – Average annual RPU
  • 08:46 – Average ARR
  • 09:20 – How Henry manages churn
  • 10:46 – CAC
  • 11:16 – Henry and his team are based in Vancouver, Washington
  • 11:27 – Team size is 315
  • 11:40 – Lifetime value
    • 11:55 – Customers stay with DiscoverOrg for 3-4 years
  • 12:23 – What keeps you motivated in doing this?
    • 12:30 – Henry has a 6 month old daughter and he wants her to see that he works hard, he also wants to make it a success for TA
  • 13:29 – Connect with Henry through LinkedIn and Twitter
  • 15:27 – Annual renewal rate is over 90%
  • 15:46 – DiscoverOrg is continually building new data
  • 16:00 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Teach users not only how to use a platform, but how to utilize it to INCREASE their revenue.
  • Have a business that is profitable.
  • Work harder than you could ever imagine working, that’s where you add value. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @HenryLSchuck – Henry’s Twitter handle
  • LinkedIn – Henry’s LinkedIn account
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 17, 2016

Ian Cullen, a demand generation expert and the co-founder of Leadiro, an account-centric data platform designed to enable account based marketing and sales development efforts at named accounts. Ian was previously the co-founder of Internal Results, which was acquired by Madison Logic in May 2016. He started his first business, Target 250 in 2001, grew it to a team of 130 staff and it was a leading B2B technology based, lead generation company   which was sold in 2010.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Magic of Thinking Big
  • What CEO do you follow –  N/A
  • Favorite online tool? — SimilarWeb
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Work hard because nothing happens overnight and if you really focus and you can achieve anything”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:37 – Nathan introduces Ian to the show
  • 02:25 – Ian says he sold Target 250 for simply “not enough”
  • 02:35 – Ian received investments from bench capitalists for Target 250
  • 02:48 – After 6 months, Ian sold with a soft landing
  • 03:19 – One year, non-compete, Ian set up an another company and sold it
  • 03:48 – Chris is a partner and cofounder of Leadiro
  • 03:57 – What Leadiro does and how they make money
  • 04:00 – New startup, four months old, Leadiro is a B2b service platform that offers account-based marketing
  • 05:19 – You can send cold emails to leads that are relevant
  • 05:41 – Customers pay monthly or quarterly basis
  • 05:55 – Average customer pays $ 20,000-40,000 per year but can be much higher, $ 6-10,000 per month depending on customer’s volume
  • 07:00 – Launched July 2016
  • 07:06 – Serving under 20 customers
  • 07:29 – Customers are people we know in the industry
  • 07:57 – Our customers are people that are launching certain products into the market to a specific audience
  • 08:25 – Do they need help in reaching out to a larger audience as opposed to their first party list of possible customers?
  • 08:35 – Why are people buying your data instead of others?
  • 08:41 – Our platform is proprietary, easy to use
  • 08:59 – “You can upload a list of domains within 10 seconds [of using our product] and pull out a specific audience within those accounts” and get their email addresses
  • 09:12 – For example, there are 200 companies you want to target, upload that to our platform, and you have a list of everyone who works in those companies (job title, level, function), and can select what you want
  • 09:52 – Very common product, that people that win are those who market better
  • 10:18 – Like Siftery, but Siftery doesn’t get you the leads
  • 10:53 – Leadiro’s current revenue: $50,000
  • 11:06 – Leadiro is self-funded
  • 11:09 – Ian does not want to raise
  • 11:19 – Team size: 6 people
  • 11:31 – Hired people to develop full-time, remote, in New Zealand
  • 11:56 – 3 in UK, 1 in Ireland, 2 in NZ
  • 12:56 – 50,000 in MR divided by 20 customers = Monthly RPU: $2500 per customer
  • 13:11 – Early cancellations, because they’re in a learning stage
  • 13:25 – One big struggle with this particular product—companies can download everything they need and leave
  • 13:46 – Nathan wonders if these types of companies are SaaS companies or should there be a one-time fee where customers get what they need and leave?
  • 13:55 – Something they are still working out, perhaps a 1-2 month subscription
  • 14:22 – Discussion of competitors and who is doing the same thing well
  • 15:21 – To connect with Ian, go to his LinkedIn
  • 16:53 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Always think of how your product sets you apart from your competitors and SELL to that strength.
  • A startup and any business for that matter is a work in progress—just keep at it.
  • Work hard, focus in on your task, and you can achieve ANYTHING.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @Qwil – Johnny’s business Twitter handle
  • Blog - Johnny’s business blog site
  • Qwil.co – Johnny’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 16, 2016

Yoseph West. He dreams of a world where accountants and bookkeepers never have to ask their clients for documents—that’s why he joined HubDoc to lead growth. He previously co-founded Vuru, a stock analytics platform for retail investors and led it into its acquisition by Wave Accounting in 2012. Listen as Yoseph shares his experience with Vuru’s acquisition and how he ended up now with HubDoc.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  • What CEO do you follow? –  William Rockefeller
  • Favorite online tool? — Text Expander
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Stay patient

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:34 – Nathan introduces Yoseph to the show
  • 02:10 – Yoseph co-founded Vuru to make investing easier
    • 02:33 – Vuru was making money off ads, they then supposedly reached out to Wave Accounting
    • 03:15 – The acquisition was a soft landing
    • 03:36 – “All of us want to work with people that we’re excited about”
    • 04:29 – Yoseph and his team got a little excited as they talked more with angel investors
    • 04:50 – Vuru was having a fundraising
  • 05:30 – HubDoc offers SMBs a cloud accounting space
  • 05:42 – There’s a movement to make accounting space invisible
  • 06:13 – There’s a big shift in the accounting industry
  • 06:40 – HubDoc has a feature similar to how bills and other documents are being consolidated in a bank
  • 07:04 – HubDoc has over 700 web scrapers
  • 07:50 – Business owners won’t be bombarded with reminder emails from their accountants and bookkeepers using HubDoc
  • 08:25 – HubDoc was re-launched in early 2014
  • 08:55 – Number of HubDoc’s paying customers
  • 09:28 – HubDoc caters to bookkeepers and accountants who then add all their clients
  • 10:40 – Average monthly RPU
  • 11:20 – MRR
  • 12:00 – CAC is quite low
  • 12:18 – Customers stay for approximately 32 months
  • 12:30 – Gross monthly churn is usually negative
  • 12:40 – Bookkeepers are always continually adding new clients
  • 13:45 – Lifetime value
  • 14:10 – Team size is 22
  • 14:27 – The Australian market is 3-5 times ahead of the American market
  • 14:40 – HubDoc has raised capital
    • 15:00 – The funding market in Toronto described
  • 15:40 – 2017 revenue goal
  • 16:49 – Follow Yoseph on Twitter and HubDoc is looking for content marketers and other marketing people so touch base if you’re interested
  • 19:00 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • The future of accounting and bookkeeping is far better with technology; it’s much faster and paperless.
  • Acquisition is sometimes painful but there are always new opportunities ahead.
  • Stay patient AND optimize for learning—there’s time to learn and grow. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @YcWest – Yoseph’s Twitter handle
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 15, 2016

Wyatt Jozwowzki, co-founder and CEO of Demio, a smart, webinar platform on a simple mission. He’s passionate about creating a great customer and user experience. Listen as Wyatt shares about Demio; from its inception to a Wyatt creating a working, webinar platform that is earning a revenue from only a few days on the market. 

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Jason Lemkin
  • Favorite online tool? — Clarity.fm
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— seven to eight hours
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That it was going to be 10 times harder than I thought”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:42 – Nathan introduces Wyatt to the show
  • 02:08 – Demio is a web-based webinar platform built for marketing
  • 02:18 – “We wanted to create a webinar platform that is actually easy and ready to use”
  • 02:35 – Demio was just launched in November 9th of this year
  • 02:54 – Wyatt has a company called Drip Apps as well
  • 03:12 – Demio is the biggest software project that Wyatt has  ever  taken on
    • 03:15 – Wyatt has been working with Demio for 2 years now
  • 03:28 – Demio was in free beta for 3-4 months
    • 03:38 – People used Demio for their webinars for free
    • 03:48 – This was done to test Demio’s reliability and performance
    • 04:02 – Wyatt wants simplicity to be Demio’s  platform
  • 04:51 – Wyatt has invested about half of million on Demio
  • 04:48 – Demio has a team of 3 developers,  1 designer, and 1 QA manager
    • 05:40 – Some of the team members are from Upwork and other online job postings
  • 06:21 – Wyatt got his funding from Drip Apps’ revenue
  • 06:53 – Wyatt got the idea of Demio from a suggestion
  • 07:30 – First software project of Wyatt’s was a video ranking platform
  • 07:45 – Drip Apps has Drip Core which has a $47/month subscription
    • 08:09 – 470 users have signed-up
    • 08:23 – Drip Apps was launched 3 years ago
  • 08:53 – Drip Apps’ 2015 revenue
  • 09:15 – Drip Apps runs independently of Wyatt, freeing him up to work on Demio
  • 09:52 – Demio was not really planned
  • 10:20 – Nathan refers to Episode 252 and how Wyatt reminds him of Omar of Webinar Ninja
  • 10:38 – Demio already has paying customers
  • 10:46 – Demio is a SaaS business model and they currently have discounted annual pricing
  • 10:59 – On launch day, Demio’s price range was from $237 a year to $497 a year
    • 11:08 – Price range increased on November 16th
  • 12:20 – Wyatt’s strategy for Demio
  • 13:10 – Having a webinar is not that easy and is very challenging
  • 13:40 – Demio is web-based and does not require any desktop software to be installed
    • 13:42 – Wyatt is currently focused on expanding browser and mobile support
  • 14:05 – There are a number of unique customers that have signed-up
  • 14:30 – There are customers who have asked for refunds
  • 15:49 – Connect with Wyatt through Twitter
  • 17:20 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • There are huge challenges in the tech industry, but it’s definitely worth it to keep pressing on.
  • Streaming in real-time is one of the most difficult things to achieve in a webinar.
  • Be consistent in working out those hurdles and challenges. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @WyattJawz – Wyatt’s Twitter handle
  • Upwork – Where Wyatt found his team members
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 14, 2016

Gerry Colyer, head of growth at Siftery. He was previously the VP of growth at HealthSherpa and co-founder of two startups. He’s a graduate of Yale and Stanford. The CEO of Siftery was convinced there was a better way for companies to discover, select, and make better use of their software and so began their journey into filling this particular need in the market.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Hooked
  • What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — Buffer
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not quite
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Gerry wish he had studied more in Computer Science

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:32 – Nathan introduces Gerry to the show
  • 02:11 – Gerry’s 500 company is Central Mayoreo
  • 02:57 – Siftery helps users discover and choose the right software to reach their needs
  • 03:20 – Siftery is currently tracking 10,000 software programs
  • 03:30 – Siftery gets data from their recommendation engines
  • 03:57 – Siftery has a small team in SF
  • 04:11 – Siftery has 30 team members in Bangalore and Kiev
  • 05:24 – How Siftery collects data
    • 05:59 – There’s a combination of data scraping from the web and getting recommendations from actual software users
  • 06:48 – Siftery is trying to create tools for software buyers
  • 08:10 – Siftery has no pricing model yet and currently free
  • 09:13 – Monthly headcount expenses
  • 10:00 – Advantages of having a development team in Bangalore
    • 10:12 – Cost of living is Bangalore lower than in SF
  • 11:00 – What number are you focused on every day?
    • 11:11 – Data points being contributed in the community
    • 11:31 – Number of vendors engaged in the platform
  • 12:00 – Launched earlier in 2016
  • 12:30 – Siftery is more powerful than Techcrunch
  • 13:00 – How are you able to get updates so quickly?
    • 13:05 – We get feedback from software reviews, friends in the 500, and other software owners
  • 13:43 – 25 data contributors
  • 14:00 – Utility metric
  • 15:15 – Siftery’s target area
  • 15:50 – Connect with Gerry through email, Twitter and Siftery
  • 18:05 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Meet people and build connections or, better yet, build companies.
  • There are opportunities in the B2B space—find the gap and fill it.
  • Having a team in another country can help startups build their business at a lower cost but still maintain the quality of work.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Gerry@Siftery.com – Gerry’s email address
  • @Ggiaco – Gerry’s Twitter handle
  • Siftery.com – Gerry’s company website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 13, 2016

Abhimanyu Godara, founder and CEO of BOTTR.me. He previously managed portfolio investments at TLabs where he worked with over 40 startups around strategies and things similar to that. He’s very well educated and now sitting on a platform that he thinks is going to be very exciting for him coming up.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Zero to One
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Steve Jobs
  • Favorite online tool? — Trello
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “The world doesn’t work the way you want it to work”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:31 – Nathan introduces Abhimanyu to the show
  • 02:08 – BOTTR is a personal bot platform that one can converse with to ask questions they’d essentially want to be asking you (ex. How much for your services? When is the next podcast coming out?)
  • 03:01 – BOTTR is like a personal assistant or replica of someone
  • 03:09 – BOTTR is currently focused on influencers and celebrities
  • 04:10 – BOTTR’s current business model
  • 05:05 – Still validating the potential of the business
  • 05:40 – BOTTR currently has 250 paying customers
  • 06:40 – BOTTR’s next version will have all the data pre-filled for every user
    • 06:58 – BOTTR will gather information from social media channels like LinkedIn
    • 07:34 – BOTTR can make you save time because now you do not need to address every question that comes up in email as it can already answer most questions
  • 07:44 – BOTTR had a funding round
  • 08:25 – Current team size is 7-10
  • 09:35 – Abhimanyu shares how users of BOTTR can get paid
  • 10:00 – There are bloggers who have already reached out to BOTTR
  • 11:15 – BOTTR is an ecommerce product to find information and services
  • 12:16 – Connect with Abhimanyu through BOTTR.me/Abhimanyu
  • 13:55 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Create something that is DIFFERENT in your space.
  • Performing a pre-launch can help you gauge what you still need to improve upon.
  • What you plan to do won’t always work – ALWAYS have a plan B.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • BOTTR.me/Abhimanyu – Abhimanyu’s BOTTR account
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 12, 2016

Allan Wille, co-founder and CEO of Klipfolio – a SaaS dashboard company headquartered in Ottawa. He’s focused on making it easier and faster for SMBs (small to medium businesses) to monitor the health and performance of their businesses and they’re taking an interesting approach. It is self-served, in the cloud, right to business users, eliminating them the need to work with IT procurement or make huge upfront investments. He has over 59,000 customers including Jet.com, Zendesk and Lifelock just to name a few. They also have the funding to back them.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Good to Great
  • What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
  • Favorite online tool? — Mixpad
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I should have spent more time understanding people”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:31 – Nathan introduces to the show
  • 02:15 – Klipfolio is focused on SMBs or businesses that really want to grow
    • 02:36 – There’s a lot of difficult data a SMB just doesn’t monitor
    • 03:09 – Klipfolio helps SMBs monitor their business to make the best decisions
  • 03:28 – Klipfolio is 100% SaaS and a subscription based business
  • 03:35 – Average customer pays per month $70-80
  • 03:57 – Klipfolio does not have outbound sales people
  • 04:34 – Klipfolio is serving  7,000 customers for November 2016
  • 04:57 – Average MRR
  • 05:07 – Customers can start Klipfolio with payments as low as $24 a month
  • 05:40 – Klipfolio was launched in 2001
    • 05:56 – The cloud version was launched in 2012
    • 06:03 – “We’re always into monitoring real-time data”
  • 06:30 – Klipfolio started out bootstrapped
  • 07:06 – By the end of 2012, Klipfolio had 350 customers
    • 07:12 – In the end of 2013, Klipfolio had 1,100 customers
  • 07:54 – Klipfolio had their first seed round at the end of 2014
    • 08:02 – Klipfolio did their Series A at the beginning of 2015 with a $6.2M
  • 08:55 – Klipfolio is continuously raising capital
  • 09:05 – Team size is 70
  • 10:03 – Klipfolio is currently on Series B
  • 10:55 – Allan thinks that they are in a good space
    • 11:16 – SMB is a good field market for Klipfolio
  • 11:50 – Allan shares why he thinks Dasheroo didn’t do well in the dashboard space
  • 13:30 – Allan shares his thoughts on their competitors
  • 14:10 – Gross monthly customer churn
  • 15:45 – CAC
  • 16:00 – Lifetime value
  • 16:46 – Klipfolio does webinars to educate their customers on their data
  • 17:30 – 2016 revenue goal
  • 18:22 – Connect with Allan through Twitter and his blog
  • 20:30 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Focus on the needs of your customer in running their business AND be a part of their growth.
  • It’s important for businesses to have an editor or someone who can handle things that need to be customized.
  • Spend more time understanding people, especially how they work in a team.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal.
  • 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 to listen to audio books
  • 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
  • @Awille – Allan’s Twitter handle
  • Klipfolio.com/Blog – Allan’s blog site
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 11, 2016

Johnny Reinsch of Qwil which is a company that provides instant pay for the growing freelancer segment of the work force. He’s the co-founder and CEO and also a cryptocurrency nerd. Listen as Johnny shares how he shifted his career path and why Qwil is different from most startups.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Zero to One
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — Toptal
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I didn’t have to go to law school”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:24 – Nathan introduces Johnny to the show
  • 01:57 – Johnny got tired of making rich people richer so he started his own startup
  • 02:28 – Johnny shares his learnings from the cryptocurrency company
  • 02:50 – Qwil helps freelancers collect their pay on time
  • 03:21 – Qwil has a low price point
  • 03:40 – Qwil is a transactional based model
  • 04:05 – Qwil started summer of 2015
  • 04:20 – First year total transaction volume is in low seven figures
  • 04:51 – Target transaction volume for 2016
  • 05:05 – Qwil’s funding rounds
    • 05:45 – It is an equitable note
  • 06:07 – “We are not disclosing a round at the moment”
  • 07:20 – 2016 total transaction volume
  • 07:40 – Qwil has a similar metric with GMD
  • 08:51 – Some freelancers won’t release their payment right away
    • 09:35 – If freelancers keep their money in Qwil for 30 days, they won’t be charged any fees
    • 09:50 – Qwil can’t touch the cash of the freelancers
  • 11:30 – Qwil offers conveniences to the users
  • 13:28 – Profit margin base
  • 13:44 – Team size
  • 14:10 – Number of contractors who have used Qwil is in the thousands
  • 15:21 – “We are trying to make a freelancer’s lifestyle much easier than it currently is”
  • 17:10 – Connect with Johnny through his website, blog, and Twitter
  • 18:50 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Be sure to USE and APPLY what you learned well.
  • Be in a unique niche where competition is not very tough.
  • School does NOT always lead you to your future, don’t let it narrow your scope.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @Qwil – Johnny’s business Twitter handle
  • Blog - Johnny’s business Twitter handle
  • Qwil.co – Johnny’s business website
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 10, 2016

Lars Steiger, the co-founder of Mailplane. Nathan found Lars when he was searching in the Gmail space. Listen as Lars shares how he ended up managing Mailplane solo and the reason why he would never sell is company.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – N/A
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Jason Fried
  • Favorite online tool? — Basecamp
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Stay calm”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:38 – Nathan introduces Lars to the show
  • 02:05 – Mailplane started as GmailSender in 2006, which was then an iPhoto plugin
  • 02:28 – Mailplane was founded by Ruben, Lars joined in 2007
  • 02:53 – Lars has an equity now with Mailplane
  • 03:15 – Customers are more important for Mailplane
  • 03:33 – Mailplane has an average of 10,000 customers
  • 03:52 – Mailplane offers a 15 day free trial
    • 04:17 – 5,000 users a month try the free trial
  • 04:40 – Mailplane relies mostly on organic traffic
  • 05:00 – Mailplane is a one-time purchase business model
  • 05:30 – 10,000 people from Mailplane’s email list have tried the free trial
  • 05:57 – Lars does the coding for Mailplane
    • 06:15 – Lars uses business development tactics from time-to-time
  • 06:30 – Mailplane is completely bootstrapped
  • 06:53 – Average revenue in 2007
  • 07:40 – Ruben joined Evernote and left Mailplane to Lars in 2012
  • 08:24 – Lars’ goal for Mailplane
  • 09:36 – How much will make Lars sell Mailplane?
  • 10:37 – Lars won’t sell Mailplane because of the customers
  • 11:17 – The most important number for Mailplane is the number of users who are downloading updates
  • 12:25 – Connect with Lars through his email and Mailplane
  • 14:25 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Value and show appreciation to your customers, working to better address their needs.
  • Sometimes, there’s just no amount that can compensate for the hard work an entrepreneur has put into his business.
  • Stay CALM, nothing to be gained by choosing the alternative.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • MailPlaneApp.com – Lars’ business website
  • Lars@MailPlaneApp.com – Lars’ email address
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

 

Dec 9, 2016

Alex Saidani, founder and CEO of Indemand. Alex is a developer who started coding at the age of 11.  He started his first business at the age of 13 and was the youngest founder of a team to participate in the DotForge accelerator program with Hashtrack.  Indemand supports businesses with providing online ordering software and an hourly delivery network.  On top of this, Alex also finds time to mentor people in their start-ups and provide them with the necessary support. 

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs Biography
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — N/A
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t waste time pursuing people who are not going to help you or create value”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:25 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show
  • 01:52 – Alex went to the 500 startups program
  • 02:12 – Indemand sells software to groceries and other retail stores
  • 02:25 – Indemand charges the stores directly
  • 02:36 – Indemand is a SaaS business
  • 02:52 – Indemand started in 2015
  • 03:14 – First year revenue
  • 03:38 – Indemand’s usual customers
  • 04:15 – Indemand has worked with 150 companies and there are 25 active customers
    • 04:28 – Most of the inactive customers are startups
    • 05:04 – Indemand had to increase their fees to make money
  • 05:10 – ARPU per month is around $250
  • 05:22 – MRR
  • 05:55 – October 2016 revenue was $25,000
  • 06:45 – What do people get when they pay $400 a month?
    • 06:51 – help with start-up, customize branding, end up with a customer facing application
    • 07:14 – Users get to monitor all the orders in real-time
  • 07:40 – Total transaction volume in October 2016, is around 200 orders
  • 08:20 – Indemand had a capital raising
  • 10:30 – Indemand’s other expenses
  • 10:46 – Indemand sources people from Fiverr to find information
  • 12:00 – Alex and his team are based in California
  • 12:18 – Connect with Alex through his LinkedIn and email
  • 13:51 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • An entrepreneur can start as early as 13 years old—you’re never too young or old for that matter!
  • Raising fees is often necessary to meet your clients’ demands and update your services.
  • Don’t waste your time on “non-value creating” people.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • LinkedIn – Alex’s LinkedIn account
  • Alex@TryInDemand.com – Alex’s email address
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 8, 2016

Andrew Keene, president and CEO of AlphaShark Trading which is originally founded as KeeneOnTheMarket.com in 2011. Prior to that, he grew up working as a proprietary trader at Chicago Board Options Exchange. He began his career on a trade program and would eventually co-found the KATL group. He currently actively trades future equity options, currency options present in commodities, and was a regular guest/market commentator on such networks as Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business. His first love will always be trading but he’s arguably even more well-known for building a trading room. He is especially proud of having taught his personal strategies trading for over 50,000 guests for years.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Automatic Customer
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — N/A
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Not to date a girl for 8 years and be engaged”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:38 – Nathan introduces Andrew to the show
  • 02:32 – Andrew is based in Austin and San Diego
  • 03:17 – Andrew is part of Entrepreneur Organization
  • 03:55 – Andrew purchased a place in San Diego and put it on Airbnb
  • 05:18 – “This year I expect to make $20,000 from that $70,000 investment”
  • 06:24 – Andrew wants to get the “Super Host” status on Airbnb
    • 06:33 – Airbnb advertises Super Host’s properties more
  • 06:53 – Andrew looks at Airbnb hosting as an investment
  • 07:25 – The risk of having your properties in Airbnb
    • 07:31 – Stand-alone is not covered by HOA
    • 07:48 – HOA wants to ban short-term rentals in San Diego
    • 08:10 – Hosts can take advantage of their cash-flow situation
  • 08:50 – Andrew has made $5M from trading
  • 09:30 – Andrew shares how he got into trading
  • 10:32 – Andrew has a place in Chicago, too
    • 10:38 – Andrew is making around $8,000 a year for his place in Chicago
  • 11:16 – Andrew is starting his second deal
  • 11:41 – People ask Andrew how he makes money through the investment
  • 12:04 – Andrew is working on a book with Airbnb
  • 12:11 – AirBNBopen in LA
  • 12:25 – There are around 7,000 people who paid Andrew for trading information
  • 12:35 – Andrew has more than 50,0000 people in his email list
  • 13:09 – Andrew shares how his cash flow works with his property in San Diego
  • 13:45 – Andrew names software that he uses other than Revestor
    • 13:50 – AirDNA is where you can buy reports of any city
    • 14:23 – Mashvisor use to search for rental properties
  • 14:45 – You can use analytics and research by  Revestor to get into the market
  • 15:50 – Standard percentage for payment fees
  • 16:30 – Nathan makes an offer to Andrew
  • 17:55 – Email Andrew to connect with him
  • 20:05 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Find the right investment and STUDY it as best as you can.
  • Go to someone who is an expert in a market that you want to be in.
  • Stay independent as long as you can.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Andrew@AlphaShark.com – Andrew’s email address
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Dec 7, 2016

Pritesh Vora. He has over 10 years of experience specializing in building and growing innovative technology products. He was a formerly a partner at 1000Lookz and the business head at NotiPhi. He has also worked at TCS, one of India’s biggest IT service companies across US, Europe and India. He has a Bachelor in Technology from MSIT.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Zero to One
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — Buffer
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Definitely, knew more about how to see the business”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:22 – Nathan introduces Pritesh to the show
  • 02:10 – Uninstall.io is Pritesh’s current company
  • 02:14 – Uninstall.io is a niche analytics company
    • 02:40 – Uninstall.io provides analytics to popular mobile apps
  • 02:50 – Uninstall.io is a SaaS business with monthly subscription and fees depending on the number of users and modules
  • 03:02 – Average pay per customer is $100,000 a month
  • 03:11 – Uninstall.io was launched in 2015
  • 03:22 – Uninstall.io was bootstrapped for the first 6-8 months and raised $365K
  • 03:50 – Uninstall.io is currently serving more than 150 apps
  • 04:36 – ARR is currently $100K
    • 04:48 – MRR is around $10K
  • 05:00 – Uninstall.io currently has 15-17 customers
  • 05:23 – Pritesh shares why companies leave after just a few months
  • 06:37 – Pritesh and his team are still working on how to make customers stay
  • 08:30 – Pritesh and his team are learning more about their customers’ needs and data so that Uninstall.io can become indispensable to them
  • 09:00 – People have a typical analytic scheme in their company
  • 09:25 – Uninstall.io has 10 people on their team
  • 09:44 – Uninstall.io is using shared resources to take the data from each account
  • 10:00 – Average CAC
  • 10:38 – Average monthly salary
  • 11:12 – Pritesh and his team are based in India
  • 12:00 – Lifetime value
  • 12:47 – Pritesh still has around $150K in the bank
  • 13:02 – Pritesh is currently spending $20,000 for the expenses
  • 13:40 – 2015 revenue is around $45,000
  • 14:12 – Connect with Pritesh through his Twitter, website and blog
  • 15:55 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Work to know your niche and target market on a deeper level.
  • Having a business is a continuous experiment—it’s how one learns and adapts.
  • Focus on your team first and look after them well.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • @PriteshVora – Pritesh’s Twitter handle
  • Uninstall.io – Pritesh’s business website
  • Blog.Uninstall.io- Pritesh’s blog site
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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