Lauren Sullivan. She’s the co-founder of Flightfox, a site which Nathan recently used to book multi-country travel. Flightfox helped him understand the best way to leverage his points from his Chase Credit Card for travel purposes. Flightfox helps you search flights, manage your trip, and leverage your loyalty points, to help ease your trip planning experience and it is growing fast.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? –  John Mackey
• Favorite online tool? — PocketSmith
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes, currently
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Lauren wished she had stopped working for someone else and started building her own company earlier

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Lauren to the show
• 02:02 – Flightfox is an online and real-time platform that manages travel for individuals, companies and organizations
• 02:15 – Flightfox’s revenue model is to charge per trip and they make money from commission
• 02:32 – Flightfox’s expert will help match and plan a trip and they will authorize the credit card you use
• 03:33 – Flightfox books for companies, too
• 03:50 – The more complex the trip, the more expensive it is
• 05:10 – If Flightfox can’t find you a trip, they won’t charge you
• 05:34 – Flightfox was launched in 2012
• • 05:45 – Flightfox was originally launched as a contest based, cloud source system
  • 06:10 – There were a small number of the majority winning the contest
  • 06:21 – The model was switched to a one-on-one
• 07:04 – The experts are contactors
• • 07:15 – The experts get a fee per trip
  • 07:40 – Most of them are full-time
• 07:50 – Flights metrics
• • 08:03 – Flightfox is focused on companies and organizations
• 08:14 – CAC is a bit high
• 09:20 – There are at least 50 companies who have booked with Flightfox
• • 09:35 – 5-10 companies are booking at least 30 trips per month
  • 09:50 – Companies usually have 80 people
• 10:20 – In 2012, Flightfox has raised $850K
• 10:50 – Four Team members
• 11:50 – Flightfox has pivoted a couple of times already
• 13:19 – Lauren has been through alot with her company thus far, and has chosen to carry on
• 14:14 – 2016 total revenue
• 14:40 – Flightfox is close to breaking even
• 14:53 – Average MRR
• 15:11 – Raising another round will depend on the things that will happen in the future
• 17:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Changing your business model isn’t easy – but, it’s very normal to have to do so.
• Going through the most difficult times will test not just your patience, but your ability to make the best decisions.
• If it’s what you really want, just keep going.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Aseem Badshah. He’s the founder and CEO of the company called Socedo. Before that, he built his own full-service marketing agency called Uptown Treehouse that leveraged social media and digital channels to reach current and potential customers. He’s upgraded and improved that initial business model with his current company, Socedo.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Crushing the Cashman
• What CEO do you follow? – 
• Favorite online tool? —
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Aseem wished that he would have prioritized building relationships

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:15 – Nathan introduces Aseem to the show
• 01:50 – Aseem noticed that there was so much data on prospects for B2B marketers in an agency
• • 02:07 – Socedo’s goal
  • 02:13 – Lead generation is what Socedo uses to get more customers
  • 02:45 – Socedo provides behavioral data
  • 02:56 – Socedo makes money from their software license
  • 03:03 – Clients sign-up from 6 months to 1 year of license usage
• 03:11 – Average pay the company gives to Socedo monthly
• 03:25 – Socedo started in 2013
• 03:37 – In social media marketing, everything was setup for B2C marketers
• 04:25 – Social media is like a big CRM so Aseem leveraged it in a way to help B2B marketers
• 04:45 – There are 200 paying customers
• 04:50 – Socedo has raised $1.5M
• 05:00 – Socedo’s revenue has tripled in 2016
• 05:10 – Average contract price
• 05:25 – Socedo started with SMB
• 05:50 – 2016 total revenue
• 06:05 – Socedo has 25 people
• 06:20 – 2017 goal
• 06:30 – Aseem is targeting 2x for 2017
• 06:41 – Aseem wants to focus on their current customers
• 07:17 – “It’s not necessarily about growth at all costs; we want to focus on the fundamentals, focus on the relationship with customers”
• 07:35 – All 25 members are in Seattle
• 07:53 – The round was an equity round
• 08:32 – Socedo is currently cash flow positive
• 08:50 – Socedo is willing to take in new capital if they are ready
• 09:11 – Socedo has almost broken even
• 09:23 – How Socedo drives new customers
• • 09:37 – Socedo doesn’t spend much money on marketing
• 10:30 – The data source which Aseem thinks is the most accurate
• • 10:39 – “Everyone is accurate in their own way”
  • 10:52 – How Socedo matches data
  • 11:10 – Socedo’s goal is to get metrics as high as possible
• 11:31 – “We don’t guarantee an accuracy rate, but our accuracy rate is pretty high”
• 12:00 – The data sources that are connected to Socedo’s API are Full Contact, ClearBit and SellHack
• 12:34 – Socedo’s unique data advantage
• • 13:30 – As a B2B marketer, there’s a bigger chance of a higher conversion rate
• 13:50 – Data sources that have the most accurate revenue numbers are Marketo and Salesforce
• 14:22 – Socedo doesn’t have the marketing budget for each lead
• • 14:45 – Socedo has the company size which can be used as a revenue basis for each lead
• 15:15 – Gross customer churn
• 15:36 – CAC
• 15:45 – LTV
• 16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Social media is a big CRM that can be leveraged to build a better marketing space for B2B businesses.
• Focusing on fundamentals and customer relationships can be more advantageous than focusing on just growth.
• Each data source out there is accurate in their own way.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Calvin Correli. He’s the CEO of a holistically focused, multi-million dollar, online, all-in-one solution driven software company called Simplero. This company exists to reduce the stress associated with figuring out software systems and how to join them together. He’s passionate about helping online business owners do exactly what brings them the most life.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – There Is Nothing Wrong With You
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
• Favorite online tool? — FastMail
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not every night
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Invest in getting to know yourself, and who you are, and how you’re different”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:20 – Nathan introduces Calvin to the show
• 02:49 – Simplero is a tool that helps people sell online
• 03:20 – Simplero is a SaaS business model
• 03:30 – Simplero was launched in 2009
• • 03:39 – Calvin started to charge people in 2010
• 03:50 – Number of current paying customers is 700
• 04:02 – One of Simplero’s customers is Robin Green, who is an acupuncturist in California
• • 04:25 – Robin decided to teach acupuncture online
  • 04:42 – Robin made around $60K on her first program
• 05:10 – Simplero automates everything that can be automated
• 05:27 – Average customer pay per month
• • 05:31 – Simplero charges monthly and takes a percentage of the revenue
• 05:51 – Simplero’s main revenue stream
• • 06:25 – 10% is from the revenue fee and 90% from the SaaS model
• 07:15 – Average MRR
• • 07:21 – Average ARR per customer
• 07:50 – Average customer retention
• 08:25 – Calvin shares how he got their customer LTV
• 08:58 – Calvin is based in New York, but he has team members in Denmark and on the West Coast
• • 09:56 – Most of the people in the business started 6 months ago
• 10:20 – Simplero is self-funded
• 11:25 – Calvin is happy with how his company is doing at the moment
• 11:40 – Calvin wants to show the world a different way to live
• 12:01 – Calvin’s big dream is to be a presidential adviser for USA
• 13:00 – How do we measure happiness?
• • 13:07 – Calvin is not a metrics guy
  • 13:19 – There’s a sweet spot for every person where they are happy and work doesn’t feel like work
• 14:00 – How do we know if people are really happy?
• 15:10 – Productivity gains do not directly correlate to happiness gains
• 15:55 -  The source of happiness vs. the thing you do for others or with others
• 17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• There’s a feeling of contentment you can find in helping others.
• Invest in yourself, first.
• There’s a sweet spot for every person where they are happy and work doesn’t feel like 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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Russ Heddleston. He’s the CEO and co-founder of DocSend. Previously, he was a product manager for Facebook. He arrived at the B2B acquisition of the product Pursuit.com. Russ also had roles in Dropbox, Greystripe and Trulia. He received a BS in Computer Engineering and MS Computer Science at Stanford along with an MBA from Harvard.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? –  Keith Krach
• Favorite online tool? — Gmail and Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Do things well and be patient with them—and then, they will turn out well later”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:33 – Nathan introduces Russ to the show
• 02:03 – Pursuit was a human resources to management referral program for employees
• 02:22 – Russ shopped their company to Facebook
• • 02:38 – Russ explains why they made this decision
• 03:38 – Russ was the product manager for Facebook’s pages team
• 03:55 – Russ worked both for the brands and personalities
• 04:15 – DocSend was launched in 2013
• • 04:24 – DocSend’s first version was made in 2010
• 05:18 – First year revenue was zero
• • 05:27 – “We were focused on growth”
• 05:50 – DocSend was doing something of very high value; not necessarily for a broad user base
• 06:40 – DocSend has been approached by a hedge fund
• 06:59 – Most salespeople are using DocSend long term
• 07:37 – Average customer pay per month
• 08:42 – Most deals of DocSend are outbound deals
• 09:00 – Average enterprise prices:
• • 09:24 – The price varies from $50-90 per month
  • 09:40 – Outbound target for a team of 30 and above
  • 10:10 – Average contract value depends on the size of the company
• 10:30 – Team size is 25 with 6 sales people
• 10:42 – Team location is San Francisco with 1 in New York
• 11:08 – Pricing plan was introduced a year after DocSend launched
• 11:35 – The current number of DocSend’s paying companies
• • 11:48 – There’s a mix of logo and seat count
  • 12:04 – Average seats per company
• 12:45 – Total number of users under paid plan
• 13:03 – DocSend has raised capital for $10M in VC and $1M in venture debt
• 14:03 – Venture debt was done post-series seed
• 15:00 – Average MRR
• • 16:16 – Possible minimum average MRR
• 17:00 – Russ shares the difference of inbound self-serve and outbound
• • 17:25 – Russ gets excited with outbound
• 18:25 – Gross monthly customer churn
• • 19:01 – The churn for self-serve is quite high, but not for outbound
  • 19:45 – Net negative churn
• 20:12 – The expansion would benefit the team
• 20:38 – As the company gets bigger, the more they need DocSend
• 20:48 – DocSend closed their last financing last year
• 21:00 – DocSend doesn’t need to raise capital at the moment
• • 21:25 – “We don’t need to get acquired”
• 23:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Focusing on growth rather than revenue is never bad thing.
• Improve your product until you are no longer expendable to your customers.
• Do things well and be patient with them—in time, they will turn out for the better.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Pietari Suvanto, cofounder of the company, Vainu. Vainu was founded recently and is a tool that defines piles of data from the web and turns into fact check and actionable company information. His vision is to understand more organizations around the world more than anybody else and his company currently has about a thousand customers in Europe, including FedEx and Santander Innoventures.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People
• What CEO do you follow? –  Mike Bloomberg
• Favorite online tool? — Zoom 
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Be a bit more braver”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:12 – Nathan introduces Pietari to the show
• 01:50 – Vainu is a SaaS business model
• 02:40 – Pietari shares a company that is searchable in Vainu
• • 03:06 – Salesforce has a lot of organizations around the globe
• 03:50 – The uses of companies’ data in Vainu
• • 04:12 – Vainu gives the company’s in-depth data
  • 04:30 – Salespeople are the ones who uses Vainu
• 04:49 – Vainu’s revenue stream is from the subscription per seat
• 05:05 – Average customer pay per month is €400
• 05:21 – Vainu was launched in 2014
• 05:33 – Vainu hasn’t raised capital
• 05:37 – Vainu is based in Hilsinki, Finland, Amsterdam, and New York
• 06:00 – Number of paying customers is 1000
• 06:30 – ARR in 2016 €4.5M
• 06:55 – MRR goal in 2017
• 07:20 – Vainu is finding their customers through their software
• 08:07 – Pietari shares how they find the companies
• 08:50 – Vainu can check the company's’ data in preview
• 09:30 – The number of salespeople in Vainu’s team
• 09:55 – Gross customer churn is 1%
• 10:05 – CAC
• 10:24 – Assumed LTV per customer
• • 10:40 – €20K-30K
• 11:04 – Pietari is hoping to raise capital
• • 11:36 – Pietari would likely to raise €5-10M
• 12:30 – Pietari shares how they are different from their competitors
• 13:20 – Vainu hasn’t bought any API access to any data providers
• • 13:30 – Everything in their system is owned by them
  • 13:50 – The best asset of Vainu
• 14:50 – Pietari shares how they access the revenue data
• 15:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Be the BEST in your market, having an asset that will set you apart from your competitors.
• Raising capital is always an option, but not always a necessity.
• Be brave—step out and believe you can do it.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Drew Canole. He’s a nutrition specialist, transformation specialist, and national spokesperson for the benefits of juicing vegetables for health and vitality. He is the founder of Fitlife.TV where he shares educational, inspirational, and entertaining videos and articles about health, fitness, healing, and longevity. More recently, his company, Organifi, is getting directly into the green juicing space with a physical product.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “To stay fricking focused on one thing”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:30 – Nathan introduces Drew to the show
• 02:25 – Organifi is sourced from the best farms for their organic ingredients
• • 02:34 – The ingredients are high quality, organic, non-GMO, soy free, and vegan
  • 02:43 – Drew did clinical studies on their product and has sold over a quarter million bottles
• 03:20 – Drew started getting his audience from Youtube and Facebook, 6 years ago
• • 03:33 – “Influence marketing has been our focus for the past 3 years”
  • 03:48 – Drew has one of the largest, green juice followings online
  • 03:56 – Drew started working on a their own concoction by looking at the gap in the green juice market
  • 04:35 – The green juice that is available in the market is not good for the brain and body
  • 04:56 – Drew recreated the world’s most great tasting juice that helps mental cognition, weight loss, and boosts moods
• 05:14 – Organifi was launched in early 2015
• 05:44 – Organifi sold around 350K bottles
• • 05:55 – Around 150K people bought the product
• 06:00 – Average reorder rate is 2.8
• 06:17 – Organifi’s main product is a 30-day canister
• 06:55 – Organifi costs $79.95 on Amazon
• • 07:08 – 20% of the sales is from Amazon and 80% is from other traffic
  • 07:15 – 65% is from Organifi’s website
• 08:00 – The cost of making Organifi
• 09:07 – “We’re all about congruency”
• 09:25 – The most important ingredient of Organifi is the Ashwagandha
• • 09:40 – Drew is importing Ashwagandha from an organic farm in India
  • 10:18 – KSM Ashwagandha is the farm Drew chose
  • 10:35 – Organifi’s formulator is the one who visits India to check the farm and the farmers
• 11:25 – Gross margin is around 75%
• 11:45 – Marketing cost
• 12:25 – Software that Organifi is using
• • 12:37 – Unbounce, Infusionsoft, Exit Intel, and Shopify
• 13:02 – Organifi has a subscription model
• • 13:20 – The subscription has a 15-75% discount
  • 13:40 – The subscription cost
• 14:43 – Organifi’s 2015 revenue
• 15:15 – Net margin is around 15-20%
• • 15:40 – Drew’s influence benefits their net margin
• 17:04 – What Drew is doing with his wealth 
• 17:07 – Organifi has no investors
• 17:34 – Total list size is around 1.4M
• • 17:45 – Actively opening is 500K
• 18:15 – Team size is 70
• 18:45 – 2017 revenue goal
• 20:04 – Cost of affiliates
• 22:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Influence marketing is one way not just to increase your online presence, but also sales.
• A thorough study and being well researched is crucial in order to fill a gap in a field that is quite saturated.
• Stay congruent with your plans and actions.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Andrew Myers. He grew up in Denver, Colorado and recently left Yale before the start of his senior year to pursue Ripple Recruiting, full-time. He now serves as a CEO in a fast growing, 12-person startup.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Anna Karenina
• What CEO do you follow? –  Kevin Ryan and Reid Hoffman
• Favorite online tool? —PersistIQ and Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Go for it”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:34 – Nathan introduces Andrew to the show
• 01:56 – Ripple Recruiting allows employers to create their dream applicant
• 02:32 – The whole revenue model is based on the employers and Ripple Recruiting is subscription based
• 02:43 – Ripple Recruiting is both a marketplace and a SaaS business model
• 03:04 – Ripple Recruiting has three subscription packages
• • 03:15 – Average contract size is about $300 a month
• 03:25 – Andrew shares the differences between the packages
• 04:25 – Andrew won’t sell Ripple Recruiting at this time
• 04:50 – Andrew and his partner are first time founders
• 05:05 – Andrew and his partner both have strong opinions regarding their business
• 05:40 – Ripple Recruiting was launched in 2015
• 05:54 – First year revenue
• 06:03 – Andrew’s focus is on user engagement, rather than revenue
• 06:36 – Total debt Andrew has for Ripple Recruiting
• 07:00 – Ripple Recruiting has raised in a seed round
• • 07:12 – Ripple Recruiting will be in a series A, soon
• 07:24 – Ripple Recruiting has a syndicate
• 08:11 – No revenue in 2015
• 08:20 – Ripple Recruiting has 15 paying clients at the moment
• 08:30 – Average MRR
• 09:00 – Andrew shares the pitch to investors
• • 09:10 – Ripple Recruiting currently has over 10K Ivy League students signed up, on the platform
  • 10:36 – Ripple Recruiting’s valuation
• 11:18 – Andrew wants to raise $2-3M is series A
• 11:30 – Andrew wants the highest valuation possible
• 12:11 – Andrew already has the strategies to build the syndicate
• 13:05 – Andrew wouldn’t take a $13M deal
• 13:58 – Andrew has just started focusing on revenue in terms of sales stream
• 14:42 – The customers are paying for their access in Ripple Recruiting’s database
• 15:52 – Andrew believes that they’re doing it better than other competitors in the space
• 17:07 – Ripple Recruiting doesn’t have an official hire number yet
• • 17:23 – Andrew is seeing 20K students being hired on Ripple Recruiting
• 17:30 – No churn yet
• 18:58 – The whole Ripple Recruiting team ages between 22-25
• 20:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Being new to business allows you to be more optimistic, but listening to those who have done it can definitely help.
• A good pitch can drive good investors.
• Start early – if you truly feel that you should do it, then NOW is the right time.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Aditya Tulsian. He launched and led multiple small business focused software service and mobile offerings at Intuit India. He’s also a management consultant at Diamond Consultant which is now PWC. He’s a product manager. He’s got an MBA and he’s doing very big things especially in the SMB SaaS space.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? –  Brad Smith
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Adi just wished that he could have taken the chance earlier

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:07 – Nathan introduces Adi to the show
• 01:45 – Adi’s company is Numberz
• 02:14 – Half of Numberz’ revenue comes from their SaaS model and half is from commission
• 02:35 – One of Numberz’ customers is NH1 Design
• • 03:05 – How NH1 Design uses Numberz
• 03:50 – Numberz has receivable financing
• 04:15 – Numberz has 2 pricing plans
• 05:00 – Average customer pay annually is $185-195
• • 05:26 – Transaction fee is 2% of every transaction that is done in Numberz’ platform
• 07:00 – Adi was a business head in Intuit India
• 07:18 – Adi shares why he made the jump
• • 07:35 – Adi has a design agency and they’re stable financially
• 08:13 – First year revenue
• 09:20 – 2016 total revenue
• 09:33 – Numberz has more than 5,500 customers
• 10:02 – Average MRR
• 10:45 – Numberz’ paying customers is 1,200
• 12:15 – Adi shares Numberz’ growth
• 12:50 – MRR starting 2017
• 13:27 – Numberz has 3 channels of acquisition to get customers
• 14:20 – Numberz is spending $150 CAC
• 16:32 – Team size
• 16:38 – Numberz’ location is in India
• 16:51 – Numberz has raised capital
• • 17:23 – Total is $750K
• 17:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Taking the leap from corporate is more possible with financial stability.
• Having 2 streams of revenue for your business can increase your growth faster.
• Take the chance earlier – opportunities pass you by way too easily.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Rode Luhaäär. He’s an enthusiast and entrepreneur who has years of experience as an e-marketer and digital strategist. During his career in the digital field, he’s been overseeing execution and delivery of activities such as digital concept, e-business concepts, creative solutions design, software development, SEO, social media marketing, and global solutions. Over the last few years, he’s been an active member of a startup community and currently manages a large software company called, Paytailor.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? — Lean Startup
• What CEO do you follow? — n/a
• 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? – “Think faster”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:30 – Nathan introduces Rode to the show
• 03:10 – Paytailor is a smart payment solution allowing merchants to get paid the way they want
• • 03:26 – Paytailor gives merchants an app and the users a card wallet
  • 03:45 – Paytailor is a SaaS company
• 03:50 – Paytailor charges €10 monthly
• 04:05 – Paytailor’s revenue comes from the monthly fee
• 04:10 – Average number of customers is 40
• 04:20 – MRR
• 04:28 – Paytailor has raised €70K in a convertible note
• 04:45 – Paytailor was launched in 2015
• • 04:55 – Paytailor started as a side project
• 05:15 – Team size
• 05:24 – Paytailor’s development is based in Estonia
• 05:38 – Why did you give up good pay in the digital field to start Paytailor?
• • 05:52 – “We see a problem”
  • 06:31 – Paytailor also has a 1.8% per transaction fee
  • 06:58 – Paytailor’s payment gateway
• 07:14 – Rode is 32
• 07:32 – What Rode is being paid as a founder
• 08:09 – Rode’s plan for 2017 is to expand in Europe
• • 08:30 – “We don’t want to be a financial institution”
• 08:50 – Rode sees that they have to expand as they make adjustments
• 09:31 – Last month sales is €450 
• • 10:50 – Paytailor has 20 taxis as merchants
  • 11:22 – Some of the merchants’ usage is once a month
• 13:14 – Paytailor’s focus is to test out different kinds of users
• 13:24 – Paytailor currently has 4 bars as merchants
• 14:44 – Paytailor’s merchants are not using their service exclusively
• 16:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• If you can see a problem then try to create a solution.
• Expanding helps your company to improve and grow.
• You have to start somewhere – regardless of how small it is.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Laurence Girard. He’s the CEO and founder of Fruit Street. He was a pre-med student at Harvard University Extension School for three years before he decided to pursue Fruit Street full-time and move to San Francisco. In high school, he played soccer for the New York Red Bulls Academy as a goalkeeper, which sparked his initial interest in health. Later, he decided to pursue a career focused on social impact and spent a year volunteering in an emergency room unit in Huntington Hospital, Long Island. He’s now exclusively focused in Fruit Street.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Science of Growth
• What CEO do you follow? –  Milton Chen
• Favorite online tool? — eShares
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 5 out of 7 days
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Laurence would tell himself to put significant emphasis on the team when you are starting a company

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Laurence to the show
• 02:10 – Fruit Street is a telemedicine software product that is licensed to healthcare professionals
• • 02:19 – Fruit Street allows professionals to do HIPAA compliant video consultations with their client
  • 02:32 – Each patient has their personal info integrated with gadgets like Fitbit
  • 02:48 – Fruit Street uses a SaaS model and the professionals will pay a monthly licensing fee
• 03:09 – MRR is $15K
• 03:15 – Fruit Street was launched in May 2014
• 03:33 – Average customer pay per month is $200 for the software
• 03:43 – Fruit Street is starting to expand to get enterprise customers
• 03:57 – Current customer number is around a hundred
• 04:10 – 2016 total revenue
• 04:37 – Gross customer churn
• 05:30 – Current LTV
• 06:00 – Team size is 9 full time and Fruit Street has a joint venture agreement with Vsee
• 06:33 – Fruit Street is located in New York, and San Francisco
• 06:51 – Laurence wanted Fruit Street to be funded by physicians and not VC firms
• • 07:00 – Getting the feedback from the physicians would help Fruit Street to improve
  • 07:17 – Physicians can get Fruit Street more customers
  • 07:29 – “Fruit Street is actually a public-benefit corporation”
• 08:08 – There is no tax benefit in being a public-benefit corporation
• 08:26 – Laurence wanted to attract investors that are primarily motivated by social impact and not by the financial outcome
• 08:54 – Fruit Street reached out to physicians through LinkedIn advertising
• • 09:00 – Fruit Street gave the physicians a one-on-one call using Fruit Street’s telemedicine software
• 09:18 – Fruit Street’s lawyer is using eShares to manage their cap table
• 09:47 – Fruit Street has a structure that allows them to make quick decisions
• 10:00 – Fruit Street has 180 shareholders that are not in a syndicate
• 11:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• With new technology comes the advancement in telehealth, making it easier for patients to reach out to their physicians.
• Choose an investor that shares the same vision as you.
• Put a significant emphasis on the team you build when you are starting your business.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Luke Stronach. He’s spent the last few years raising money for his farmland fund. He’s got one single family office as an investor. He’s currently 44, he’s taught finance, and most of his background is in low-income housing. He’s really looking forward to coming to the show and he’s a listener.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Fish That Ate the Whale
• What CEO do you follow? –  Stewart and Lynda Resnick
• Favorite online tool? — Duolingo
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – If you want to have a meaningful life, you should be doing meaningful things

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:20 – Nathan introduces Luke to the show
• 01:46 – Luke shares what he likes about The Top
• 02:04 – Luke has raised less than $10M for his farmland fund
• 02:15 – Luke is currently in the process of moving to Atlanta
• 02:20 – Luke is about to close his first farm
• 02:28 – Luke’s second orchard is under contract
• 02:34 – Luke wants to develop a 100 acre orchard in Georgia
• 03:06 – Luke mentions what farmland investors are looking for in a farmland
• 03:24 – Luke’s first orchard had good irrigation
• • 03:43 – It has 600 acres and was almost $2M
• 04:41 – 40% of North America’s farmland is leased to farmers
• • 04:50 – Investors buy the farmland, lease to farmers who rent per acre or have a revenue share agreement
  • 05:35 – Many farmers are cash flow farmers
• 06:00 – There are differences across different crops
• 06:45 – Luke shares the farmer’s perspective on crops
• 07:01 – Average rent per acre
• • 07:40 – The farmers growing rice and corn are renting at $250 per acre
• 08:00 – Luke’s return on his $2M investment
• • 08:50 – The return will always depend on the yield which varies
• 09:06 – People look at farmland investing as a way to lock value into the land
• 09:12 – There are people who are after the yield and there are those who are not
• 10:05 – Luke shares what happened in 2007-2009
• • 10:10 – S&P 500 lost 50% of its value
  • 10:46 – Historically, farmland has done well with inflation
• 11:00 – Luke’s opinion regarding inflation
• • 11:14 – The returns in farmland can be attractive
• 11:57 – Farmland is not as big as commercial property
• • 12:03 – Farmland investment is a hard space
  • 13:10 – It is a persistence game
• 13:40 – Luke is currently in Alabama
• 14:00 – Nathan wants to study Luke’s field and work with Luke
• 17:17 – There are so many things to do in Georgia and Luke will keep Nathan busy
• 18:08 – Luke makes software for farmers
• 18:59 – In Episode 450 of The Top, Nathan had Robert Leclerc, the founder of AgFunder
• 19:23 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The farmland investment industry is a hard space and requires persistency.
• People look at farmland investing as a way to lock value into the land.
• If you want to have a meaningful life, you should be doing meaningful things.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Sean Moss-Pultz. He’s the CEO and founder of BitMark, the property system for the digital environment. It enables an individual to claim ownership of personal data and digital assets akin to how land registrars track land titles or patent offices track patents.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – High Output Management
• What CEO do you follow? –  Andy Grove and Yvon Chouinard
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Luck plays a big role and you just can’t quit”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:28 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show
• 01:53 – Anybody that has data coming out of Fitbit can establish ownership over that data and can list it for sale or protect it
• 02:11 – BitMark’s business model is that they earn a small commission
• 02:31 – Fitbit’s data is in your phone
• 03:08 – We don’t have property rights on our data
• 03:40 – Download BitMark’s software to sell your data or protect it
• • 03:58 – BitMark is currently on beta mode and only desktop software
  • 04:09 – BitMark works with IFTTT
  • 04:56 – BitMark’s software can generate a link for your data that you can share
• 05:40 – You can make around $50 a year for selling your data
• • 05:59 – This is for location data alone
• 06:15 – “Data is the next big asset class”
• 06:30 – Can I use BitMark’s data to sue someone for using my data?
• • 06:50 – Sean has talked to lawyers and his father is a lawyer
  • 07:42 – Sean thinks the court system will understand digital property titles
• 08:51 – BitMark was launched in 2014
• • 09:00 – Sean’s co-founders are from his previous company
• 09:42 – BitMark just closed a seed round for $1.7M
• • 10:18 – BitMark is based in Taiwan, with 12 people
• 10:41 – BitMark has raised from WI Harper Group, which is Taiwan-based
• 11:08 – BitMark is currently on pre-revenue
• 11:17 – Sean is hoping for revenue this year
• 11:53 – Sean mentions how part of their expenses go towards his travelling expenses—going to and from New York and Taiwan
• 12:33 – BitMark will launch both in Asia and USA
• 13:10 – BitMark is actively recruiting buyers who are interested in health data
• 14:30 – Sean looks into location data, health data, fitness data, and financial data
• 14:50 – Nathan proposes a deal with Sean
• 16:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Our data is as unique as our thumbmark—protecting it isn’t a bad idea.
• Data is the NEXT, big asset class.
• Luck plays a big role in your success and you just can’t quit.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Phil Town. He’s a two-time New York Times’ best-selling author, hedge fund manager, and founder of Rule One Investing. He’s teaching individuals how to take control of their financial futures so they don’t have to find a fund manager or financial advisors.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Intelligent Investor
• What CEO do you follow? –  Warren Buffett
• Favorite online tool? — Evernote
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – That USA will put us in a war and it will suck

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:30 – Nathan introduces Phil  to the show
• 02:00 – What makes you qualified to talk about this?
• • 02:08 – “By New York Wall Street standards,  I’m completely unqualified”
• 02:23 – Most people invest using the concept of modern portfolio theory
• 02:50 – There are people who Phil follows for 30 years now
• • 02:58 – Ben Graham developed the ideas and values of investing in the 30s and 40s
  • 03:12 – Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger
• 03:41 – Phil has a principle of picking good companies while they’re on sale
• 03:55 – Phil learned to use other people’s money to build up their funds
• 04:22 – How much outside capital have you raised in your hedge fund to date?
• • 04:32 – Under a hundred million
  • 04:40 – Phil started to manage money through separate, managed accounts
  • 04:58 – Phil can manage other people’s money that don’t have the investing capital for hedge fund
• 05:53 – The people who needed their accounts to be managed the most are getting the least attention
• 06:10 – How do you beat a company like Wealth Front
• • 06:24 – Wealth Front is run by modern portfolio theory math
  • • 06:58 – “It’s such nonsense and yet, it’s the only math there is”
  • 06:57 – A robo-advisor pretends that they can use volatility as a reference point for risk
  • 08:10 – People need to know how to invest on  their own
• 08:23 – Phil mentions the three things that he believes someone should do if they don’t want to be an active investor
• • 09:19 – Find a financial advisor who knows what they’re doing
• 09:30 – The gap Phil wants to fill
• 09:56 – “An active fund cannot be the index”
• 11:05 – If you’re not going to learn how to invest, you’ll have fewer choices
• 11:43 – It is simple to invest correctly
• 12:00 – It’s not true that there are losers and winners in investing
• 12:46 – “Investing is simply buying something that you understand for less than its worth”
• 13:20 – Phil started with real estate
• 14:02 – Warren Buffet is one of the best real estate investors
• 15:02 – Phil shares the essence of a good investment
• 16:05 – The essence of speculation or trading
• 16:40 – Nathan asks Phil for his opinion regarding Bill Ackman’s Chipotle Mexican Grill
• • 17:21 – Chipotle Mexican Grill has no leverage
• 18:40 – The one rule Phil applies to all different investment strategies is don’t lose money
• • 18:55 – Rule 2 is to remember rule 1
• 19:15 – Phil’s 4-rule process
• • 19:18 – First, am I capable of understanding this business?
  • 19:22 – Second, does this business have protective characteristics that keeps competition a leg?
  • 19:33 – Third, is this owned by people with integrity?
  • 19:36 – Fourth, am I buying this at a big discount to its value?
• 20:35 – How do you handle imperfect planning?
• • 21:13 – You have to have a big discount on the value that you’re purchasing
• 22:48 – Phil’s first book came out in 2005, second in 2010, and another one in 2018
• 24:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• People need to know how to invest on their own—if you’re not going to learn how to invest, you’ll have fewer choices.
• There is a difference between a good investment and speculation.
• Investing is simply buying something that you understand for less than its worth.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Neil DeSena. He’s one of the founders of SenaHill Partners. He was previously at Goldman Sachs, where he really led the creation of a pioneering and institutional training technologies system which has been used worldwide for over 20 years. He was the Managing Director, Global Head of REDI Products at Goldman Sachs from 2000 - 2006. Neil’s leadership helped build a leading, global, multi-asset training system that has expanded data centers and global networking through Europe and Asia.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – n/a
• What CEO do you follow? – Duncan Niederauer
• Favorite online tool? — Salesforce
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Pay a little more attention to the details”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:20 – Nathan introduces Neil to the show
• 02:20 – Neil shares how their company is finding businesses to invest in
• 02:40 – Neil and his partners are all entrepreneurs and have experience running businesses
• 02:54 – Neil shares why they focus on FinTech
• 04:25 – Average total transaction volume that they’ve had in 2016
• 04:54 – Fintech in 2017
• 05:40 – Distributive ledger of concept is ready for primetime
• 06:00 – Symbiont is well positioned in the distributive ledger of concept space
• • 06:24 – Symbiont will be at the point of formation for all other companies
  • 06:34 – Companies can now be registered digitally
• 06:46 – Symbiont’s founder, Mark  Smith, was Neil’s first advisor
• • 06:50 – Mark also founded Lava Effects
  • 07:00 – Mark teamed up with the most successful open source company
• 07:45 – Neil’s prediction of how people will respond to Wall Street and their new administration
• • 08:08 – “I’m not quite sure how things are going to work out”
  • 08:14 – Banks have to adjust to it
• 08:55 – Neil discusses the economy of the distributive ledger
• 09:45 – The company that Neil thinks is well positioned to take advantage of the no churn economy in the FinTech sector
• 10:10 – Neil is also interested in the retirement sector
• • 10:30 – There is still no new technology to work around retirement money
  • 10:50 – Neil has seen possible companies, but not one from their portfolio
• 11:00 – Fundamentals being displaced by quantimentals
• 12:10 – Neil’s opinion regarding Wealth Front winning over on the money the people currently have on Vanguard
• 13:20 – There are companies who are trying to bridge the gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation Y
• 13:50 – SenaHill hasn’t made an investment yet, on an insurance company
• 14:40 – SenaHill’s focus in 2017
• • 14:50 – “We try to find companies that we can invest in and help and be with them for the life”
• 15:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Pay attention to the details.
• Wall Street can be unpredictable because of the new administration – regardless, banks will have to adjust.
• There are companies who are trying to bridge the gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation Y.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Slater Victoroff. He’s the CEO and founder of Indico Data Solutions. He’s a poet, a coder, MMA fighter, vegan Buddhist, and Red Letter Christian.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – n/a
• What CEO do you follow? –  n/a
• Favorite online tool? — Stack Overflow
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Slater hoped he had realized how much he loved programming

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:26 – Nathan introduces Slater to the show
• 02:45 – Indico is a text and image analytics provider
• 03:25 – Indico’s business model
• • 03:52 – The enterprise client is their main revenue channel
• 05:09 – Indico was founded in 2013
• 05:25 – Indico has raised $4.5M
• • 05:30 – Indico started with a seed round
• 06:10 – How Slater managed having a bridge round
• 07:05 – First year revenue
• 07:31 – 2016 revenue
• • 07:38 – Slater is hoping to hit a million dollar revenue for 2017
• 08:03 – Average MRR
• 08:22 – Indico is a SaaS company
• 08:42 – Indico currently has 20 customers
• 09:11 – Manulife is working with Indico
• 11:30 – Each client of Indico wants to have their own set of algorithms
• 12:00 – Nathan summarizes how Indico works
• 12:30 – Indico gives their customers an engine
• 13:20 – Slater worries about Facebook’s echo chamber
• • 13:33 – “Facebook’s algorithm is not designed to create echo chambers”
• 15:17 – Customer churn
• 15:53 – Zero spent on marketing
• 16:00 – Most funding goes to the engineering team
• 16:12 – Team size is 10
• 17:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Having a bridge round does not mean you’re losing money—prove that you are growing and need more funding.
• Learn how to work around echo chambers.
• Find out what you love to do and go for it.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Bryn Jones. He’s the co-founder and CEO of GrowSumo. GrowSumo graduated from Y Combinator in the summer of 2015, and they’re building a marketplace for influencer programs. Prior to building companies, Bryn was also a member of a swim team.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? – 
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “To just go for it”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:15 – Nathan introduces Bryn to the show
• 01:41 – Nathan found Bryn through Product Hunt
• 02:42 – There are large enterprise clients who came from GrowSumo
• 02:53 – GrowSumo builds a marketplace for influencer programs
• 03:10 – GrowSumo charges a one-time annual fee
• • 03:14 – GrowSumo takes a percentage of every dollar the influencer earns from the brand
• 03:22 – GrowSumo is an affiliate program on top of an affiliate program
• 03:33 – An influencer can be anyone
• 04:19 – GrowSumo has a month over month fee which is $300 a month
• • 04:48 – It is for a new startup with no affiliate program
  • 04:56 – It lets you go in and manage the program yourself
• 05:16 – For an enterprise account, GrowSumo automates the entire program
• • 05:23 – GrowSumo helps you identify the influencers
  • 05:32 – The enterprise account: $10K annually
  • 05:36 – GrowSumo takes 10% from all payouts to influencers
• 06:20 – “You have a lot of customers today that are influencers and you just don’t know where to find them”
• 07:03 – Bryn shares how they identify the influencers
• 07:43 – GrowSumo doesn’t have the ability to qualify an influencer based on the list size they have
• 08:33 – GrowSumo was launched in August 2015
• 09:06 – GrowSumo has a lot of traction
• • 09:20 – Percentage of customers that GrowSumo is currently working with
• 10:30 – GrowSumo’s biggest competition are Commission Junction and Influitive
• 11:07 – GrowSumo hasn’t raised capital yet, but they’re going to soon
• 11:35 – Current Y Combinator terms
• 12:45 – Team size is 8
• 13:03 – Bryn is Canadian
• 13:50 – Number of unique new customers driven by GrowSumo
• • 14:00 – GrowSumo has driven over $100K recurring monthly revenue
• 14:20 – GrowSumo still qualifies and chooses the customers
• 15:20 – GrowSumo is software and there is no need for an internal tool
• 16:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Find new ways to grow your following by leveraging websites that are popular in your niche.
• Having a feature that your biggest competitors do not offer will give you an edge.
• There is no clear path to success—the only way to succeed is to START trying.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Tatu Koistinen, the CEO of Bonusway. His background is in loyalty and digital marketing and he has many growth stories to share. He’s now building the most social e-commerce loyalty platform on earth. He’s currently focused on building the leadership and culture of the business and he’s also an Ironman triathlete.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Halo Effect
• What CEO do you follow? –  n/a
• Favorite online tool? —  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? – Trust yourself, act quicker, and be brave

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:16 – Nathan introduces Tatu to the show
• 02:00 – Bonusway creates more sales for ecommerce businesses
• 02:09 – Bonusway gets compensated when they create sales for a particular business
• 02:21 – Bonusway inspires consumers by informing them of the newest sales and shopping opportunities
• 02:48 – Bonusway is similar to a marketplace
• 03:15 – The companies that are partnered with Bonusway
• • 03:40 – The biggest partner has the most amount of sales generated by Bonusway
• 03:53 – The sales that Bonusway has generated for Hotels.com
• 04:20 – The ways Bonusway connects with Hotels.com’s customers
• 05:15 – Total volume of sales from all the partners combined is €60M
• 05:39 – Bonusway gets commission
• 06:20 – Sample computation of Bonusway’s commission
• 07:17 – Bonusway’s commission percentage varies per company
• 08:00 – Average 2016 revenue
• 09:10 – Tatu’s idea for Bonusway’s business model
• 10:05 – Bonusway was founded in 2011
• 10:24 – The number of people who bought in Bonusway’s platform
• 10:50 – Bonusway is currently partnered with 3000 companies
• 11:10 – 2017 goal
• 12:00 – Total funding of Bonusway is €6.9M
• 12:20 – Bonusway had a previous capital raise
• 12:39 – Team size is 40
• • 12:50 – Based all in Europe
• 13:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Be in the space where you feel most confident and know how things work.
• Having a unique business model equates to less competition in the space.
• Trust yourself, act quicker, and be brave.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

K.C. Kanaan. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Envoy America – a Scottsdale, Arizona based national company that operates a wide-sharing platform and mobile application that matches seniors and patients that can’t drive or don’t want to drive themselves with driver companions. K.C. is a senior executive with more than 30 years of general management, operational sales and marketing experience. He’s known both for his command of the big picture and ability to execute on short-term strategies. He has inspired teams to strive for and achieve the impossible.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• What CEO do you follow? –  Rafe Furst
• Favorite online tool? — Trello and Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – K.C wished that he had known how to work more effectively with people

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces K.C to the show
• 02:33 – Envoy America provides service to seniors and patients that cannot, should not, and would choose not to drive
• 02:45 – Envoy America makes money on the time spent delivering the service based on hourly rate
• 03:05 – Envoy America is currently in Phoenix and will expand in Tucson, Arizona
• • 03:19 – The plan is to expand to 3-5 other states
• 03:30 – Envoy America currently has 30 drivers in Phoenix
• 03:35 – On an average week, Envoy America delivers 75-85 trips, usually 2 hours per trip
• 04:01 – Envoy America’s based rate is $39 per hour
• 04:20 – Average weekly revenue
• 04:25 – In 2016, Envoy America made $180K in revenue
• 04:55 – Envoy America was launched in 2015
• 05:15 – K.C. tried to help his parents find a reliable driving service—it was a challenge
• 06:00 – There are approximately 10M seniors in the US who need a reliable driving service
• 06:18 – K.C. and his partner invested about $100K in Envoy America and have raised $110K which is convertible note
• 06:36 – K.C has started a crowd funding campaign with crowdfunder.com and they’re trying to raise an additional $500K
• 06:53 – What K.C will spend the funding on
• 07:35 – The drivers are all independent contractors
• 08:10 – Clients can reserve
• 08:26 – Most seniors rely on phone to make reservations
• 08:55 – The drivers can stay with the seniors wherever they want to go
• 09:35 – The drivers are paid $18/hour
• • 09:48 – The drivers are responsible for their cars
• 10:00 – Envoy America has B2B sales and B2C sales
• • 10:16 – In B2B, they have clinics as key clients
  • 10:44 – Envoy America now leverages social media
• 11:03 – The keywords people use to find Envoy America
• 11:21 – Most of Envoy America’s clients come from the businesses that they serve
• 13:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Transportation services for seniors are not very good, causing them to be isolated at home.
• The most taken for granted problem could be the problem that only YOU can solve.
• Take the time to grow in working with people more effectively.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Lisa Tamayo. She’s the CEO of Scollar, an open platform, multi-functional, smart collar for pets. She has over 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship and financial and strategic planning. She’s the co-founder of Green Building Studio which was acquired by Autodesk in 2008. She’s also the chairman of SoCo Nexus, an incubator accelerator in Northern California.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Pitch Anything
• What CEO do you follow? –  Ben Horowitz
• Favorite online tool? — Evernote
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Trust Yourself”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:30 – Nathan introduces Lisa to the show
• 02:13 – Scollar is a smart collar
• • 03:10 – The first product, Scollar Mini, was designed exclusively for the under-searched cats and small dogs market
  • 03:29 – Scollar is currently on pre-order and has launched a Kickstarter campaign
• 03:52 – Scollar is like Fitbit for animals
• • 04:10 – The Fitbit engineering team has partnered with Scollar Mini
• 04:26 – Scollar Mini is currently at $99 for pre-order and will retail at $149
• • 04:35 – The pre-order started in mid-October
• 04:50 – Scollar is starting to build their following
• 05:15 – Scollar has negotiated with a bank to get credit
• 05:23 – Lisa and her partner have self-funded a part of it
• 06:00 – Lisa and her husband are the first founders of Green Building Studio
• • 06:18 – Autodesk has bought all the assets of Green Building Studio
  • 06:35 – Green Building Studio was Autodesk’s market partner for a long time
• 07:28 – Lisa has almost $600k in Scollar
• 07:44 – Lisa discusses the spending
• 08:07 – Finding someone in hardware to help build the product are typically employed elsewhere
• • 08:30 – It took Lisa a while to find the right team to work together
• 09:08 – Most funding went to the trial and error of the product
• 09:25 – Team size is almost 40
• 10:00 – Lisa shares the factors involved in asking for a loan
• 11:10 – It took the bank months to agree with Lisa and grant her the loan
• 11:40 – Working Solutions gave them the loan
• 12:10 – Working Solutions is a great option for quick capital
• 13:00 – The cost of making Scollar
• • 13:19 – Cost per unit
• 13:43 – Possible wholesale price
• • 14:50 – They might use the wholesale price in 2018
• 16:02 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Hardware is a far different process to create than software—it may take time to find and build the right team.
• There are many options for gaining capital – choose the one that suits your company best.
• Trust yourself and everything will fall into place.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Mikus Opelts. He’s the CEO at Giraffe360. He started this company 7 years ago, in February of 2010, when he got involved with Giraffe Visual which provides interactive visualization services. It has now developed into something so much more.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How Google Works
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Trello
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Everything I’m thinking about and planning for will take three times of the time than what I was hoping for”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:07 – Nathan introduces Mikus to the show
• 01:40 – Giraffe360 has the best visual tool technology
• • 02:00 - Giraffe360 has a virtual tool that works with virtual reality headsets
• 02:15 – 6 years ago, Mikus started the company
• 02:37 – It took 14 months to develop
• 03:16 – Mikus spent $200K on software development
• 03:34 – Mikus just raised $500K for their product development
• • 03:39 – It is a convertible note
  • 03:49 – Mikus describes how it’s like to raise capital in London
  • 04:15 – Mikus went through a hundred meetings before getting that $500K
  • 04:25 – 90% of the investment is from one company
• 05:15 – Giraffe360’s camera is free for companies who have a large volume of properties
• • 05:31 – Giraffe360 charges per property
  • 05:47 – Giraffe360 has developed their technology and it is on par with professional companies
  • 06:13 – 1 apartment tour costs €67 or $70
  • 06:28 – Minimum is 20 apartments per company
  • 06:45 – Payment is done monthly depending on the properties
  • 07:12 – Giraffe360 has sold their first 10 cameras in the market
  • 07:19 – There are 50 new cameras coming in at the end of February 2017
  • 07:39 – Giraffe360 already had 50 pre-sells who wanted to try the cameras
  • 08:00 – The incoming 50 cameras are almost sold out
• 08:30 – Average MRR
• 09:00 – Cost per hardware
• 09:10 – The hardware is made solely by Giraffe360’s engineering team
• 09:55 – People find out about Giraffe360 through word-of-mouth
• 11:20 - Giraffe360’s only team is the engineering team with 8 people
• • 11:28 – 3 people in the back office
• 11:50 – No customer churn yet
• 12:20 – Giraffe360 is similar to a SaaS model
• 13:13 – 2017 goal is to have 100 subscriptions and cameras in the market
• 14:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Create something of the BEST quality that will stand out from the rest.
• Raising capital takes perseverance; it may take 100 meetings before landing what you need.
• Great things take time—relax, be patient, and get things done.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Anders Fredriksson. He’s a Swedish, serial entrepreneur who recently moved to San Francisco to build his sales technology startup, ProLeads. He’s an engineer with a business mind and currently holds both CEO and CTO titles. Previously, he built and scaled ArrivalGuides.com as the founding CTO. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Tablefinder.com, which he sold. He studied computer engineering and management at Chalmers University of Technology, but dropped out before getting his degree when he got funding for his first startup, Table Finder. Additionally, in 2007, Internet World named him the most prominent entrepreneur in Sweden.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
• What CEO do you follow? –  Marc Benioff
• Favorite online tool? — Google Inbox
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I really wished I knew how easy it is to start a business, but also I wish I didn’t know how hard it was”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:20 – Nathan introduces Anders to the show
• 03:25 – Anders got $75K when he started Table Finder
• 03:50 – ProLeads is a platform that aggregates service data to optimize workflow
• 04:07 – ProLeads is a SaaS model with annual subscriptions
• 04:40 – Average customer pay per month is around $75
• 05:20 – ProLeads was launched in the USA, in 2014
• 05:40 – Anders was in 500 Startups, Batch 12
• • 05:43 – Anders was turned down 4 times
  • 05:58 – What Anders said to convince 500 startups to accept them
• 06:10 – ProLeads was doing $5K per month when they were just starting
• 06:53 – There were 2 co-founders and now they have 3
• 07:20 – Average MRR
• 07:50 – The amount ProLeads receives from 500 startups
• 08:08 – ProLeads also raised funds during the program
• • 08:20 – ProLeads totaled $500K from their fundraising
• 09:15 – Zesty is a longtime customer of ProLeads
• • 09:38 – Zesty has 50-70 seats in ProLeads
• 10:45 – ProLeads’ lowest pricing is $300 per month
• • 10:55 – ProLeads’ focus is mid-sized companies
• 11:14 – 2017 MRR goal
• 12:10 – Gross customer churn per month
• • 12:49 – ProLeads was growing their MRR
  • 12:56 – ProLeads had a problem during close demo day churn
  • 13:35 – ProLeads had monthly contracts
• 13:51 – Average monthly churn is quite low
• 14:22 – Team size
• 14:36 – CAC
• • 14:48 – No paid marketing
• 15:20 – The tools ProLeads uses:
• • 15:30 – Clearbit, Full Contact, and DiscoverOrg
  • 15:41 – DiscoverOrg was on The Top: Episode 512
• 17:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• BELIEVE in your own product—this will make it easier to convince other people to believe in it as well.
• Problems arise at the start of any business, learn from it and move on.
• Starting a business has both its hard and easy moments; either way, it’s worth the jump.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Devon Wijesinghe. He’s the founder and CEO of InsightPool. He co-founded the business in 2012; and, within a short time led the company from 2 to 60 employees. He is currently revolutionizing marketeering and sales across many social platforms.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? –  Travis Kalanick
• Favorite online tool? — Pardot
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Try and learn to concentrate on financial metrics and understand finance deeply

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:27 – Nathan introduces Devin  to the show
• 01:53 - InsightPool focuses on the sector of influencer marketing
• • 02:03 – “A brand needs to have an army of people syndicating their content with their own voices”
  • 02:15 - Insight Cool finds influencers for brands that they can work with
• 02:35 – InsightPool’s pricing model
• 03:10 – Average customer pay per month is $3K
• • 03:33 – What is included in $3K
• 03:53 – Devin was the solo founder
• • 04:00 – Devin sold a previous company for 9-figures in early 2012
• 04:50 – “Social became prevalent as the newest data set”
• 05:11 – Devin seeded a business idea for $250K
• • 05:33 – Devin has a formalized angel group
  • 05:41 – Devin is an advisor and investor
• 05:58 – David Cummings is Devin’s friend
• • 06:17 – David and Devin’s companies are the first ones in ATV lean and tech village
• 06:48 – He currently has 60 people on the team
• 07:21 – InsightPool is currently serving over a hundred enterprises
• 07:50 – MRR
• 08:23 – InsightPool has a sales team
• 08:49 – CAC LTV
• 10:00 – Average spending on CAC
• 10:25 – Gross churn
• 11:00 – Net revenue churn
• 11:53 – InsightPool did a series A round and got an investment of $8M
• 12:35 – InsightPool did a debt round last year
• 12:50 – The amount InsightPool is burning per month
• 14:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• A brand needs to have an army of people syndicating their content with their own voices.
• Go with what you think you are made to do.
• Learn how to make the metrics and finance dance – understand it deeply before taking that leap.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Nick Caruso. He’s the CEO and founder of Illumineto. He’s the VP of Sales in Eastern US & Canada with Notable Solutions and he was there for 6 years. Before that, he was at Kofax as a federal sales manager and he also served the country in the Marine Corps as a Captain.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Built to Last
• What CEO do you follow? –  Drew Houston
• Favorite online tool? — API.ai
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Nick wished he knew that starting a company was not as hard as he thought it would be and wished he’d started earlier

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:06 – Nathan introduces Nick to the show
• 01:45 – Illumineto is a SaaS company and they charge monthly
• 02:00 – Nick has been in the technology field for 20 years and in sales for 15 years
• 02:15 – Nick wasn’t able to find a tool to help him close more deals
• 02:34 – Illumineto focuses on the individual sales rep and not the whole company
• 02:58 – Illumineto has a lot of sales reps from Fortune 500 companies
• 03:14 – Illumineto has been running for 6 months now
• 03:48 – Illumineto currently has a thousand of sign ups or users that represent several hundreds of logos
• 04:25 – Illumineto was founded in mid 2015
• • 04:30 – Beta in 2016
• 04:50 – Nick has sunk in $700K before starting
• 05:00 – Illumineto had an Angel round
• 05:23 – Illumineto has 3 co-founders
• • 05:32 – All of them had successful exits in different companies
  • 05:55 – There are 5 Angel investors
• 06:15 – Current team size is 4
• 06:50 – Average pay per user per month is $30
• 07:00 – Average MRR
• • 08:00 – Nick won’t disclose the amount, but Illumineto is profitable
• 09:00 – Nathan explains why he asks for numbers
• 10:15 – Illumineto has more than 100 paying customers
• 10:30 – Gross customer churn
• • 10:52 – 0% churn rate on paying customers
• 11:31 – Illumineto had paid advertising
• • 12:07 – They had thousands of people coming in for the premium model
• 12:50 – Illumineto leverages their connections in LinkedIn to get their customers from IBM
• 13:11 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• It is possible for a startup to be profitable in as early as 6 months.
• Leveraging your connections can help you engage with customers and increase sales.
• Start your business as soon as you can, you’ll learn as you go.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ken Marlin. He’s the founder and managing partner of Marlin and Associates – an award winning mergers and acquisition business focused on investment banking. They are headquartered in New York city with offices in San Francisco, Washington DC and Toronto. Ken is also the author of The Marine Corps Way to Win on Wall Street: 11 Key Plans From Battlefield to Boardroom which was published in September. From 1971-1981, Ken rose in rank becoming a Marine Captain and Infantry Commander. He’s applied his Marine Corps principles to leading successful businesses.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? –  In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-run Companies
• What CEO do you follow? –   Fred Wilson
• Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn, Salesforce and Morning Star
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Pursue your passion and you’ll do well—play to your strengths and not your weaknesses

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Ken Marlin to the show
• 03:00 – Ken is not doing it for the money
• 03:13 – Marlin and Associates tries hard to be the trusted advisor to people who want to buy or sell middle-market, technology companies
• 03:26 – Buyers and sellers pay Marlin and Associates retainers
• • 03:55 – “The bigger the deal, the smaller the percentage”
• 04:20 – Ken shares their success in 2016
• 04:42 – Marlin and Associates gets 8-10 clients a year
• • 04:58 – Marlin and Associates is service-oriented
  • 05:45 – Marlin and Associates negotiate with all phases of the transaction
  • 05:54 – Marlin and Associates help buyers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the companies they’re planning to buy
• 06:21 – “We always try to play the role of the honest broker”
• 07:09 – There are no risk-free transactions, so the question that should be asked is how much risk is there?
• 07:38 – The average amount of transactions
• 08:27 – The types of seller and buyers
• 09:05 – The #1 reason a deal blows up
• • 09:31 – From a seller’s perspective, transactions are made from trust
  • 10:00 – It’s important that they have a set of financial projections they’re going to meet
• 11:25 – “Perfection is to give people a set of forecasts that you’re going to meet and to meet it”
• 11:52 – Key principle from Ken’s book is “take the long view”
• 13:12 – There are people who buy companies without a clear understanding of how that acquisition helps advance them towards a strategic goal
• 14:30 – Ken talks about the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft
• 16:41 – The Famous Five