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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: November, 2017
Nov 30, 2017

Rob Frohwein. Back in 2008, he recognized that companies like eBay offered automated access to small business transactional data via APIs. He also realized that small businesses could simply share this data to allow underwriters to make better, faster credit decisions and provide a great user experience. Because of that, he co-founded Kabbage in Atlanta, Georgia, to leverage the power of real-time data automation through technology. The company has since expanded to serve all small businesses throughout the U.S., providing billions of dollars to more than 100,000 customers.

Nov 29, 2017

Tom Coburn. He’s the cofounder and CEO of Jebbit. He left Boston College to pursue the company and is currently in the Forbes 30 under 30 list. He’s also the cofounder of Enjoy Life Education, a non-profit that empowers teens to be the best versions of themselves, and SSC Ventures which invests in Boston College entrepreneurs.

Nov 28, 2017

 Zach Benson. He’s the cofounder and CEO of Assistagram and he’s one of the standouts in the world of online entrepreneurship, especially, influencer marketing. He’s a TedX speaker, social media trainer for international brands like The 4 Seasons, Ritz Carlton and Vice Roy. He was a past participant on “So You Think You Can Dance”. He doesn’t only manages his own Instagram network of millions, he’s also guiding other influencers and Fortune 500 companies through Assistagram to social media success.

Nov 27, 2017

Nadim Hossain. He has over 17 years of experience in building marketing and selling cloud applications. Prior to founding BrightFunnel, he was VP of marketing at Power Reviews, paving the way for a $170M exit. He was also the marketing executive at Salesforce from 2007-2010. He has a BA from Cornell and an MBS from Stanford.

Nov 26, 2017

Greg Harris. His company is Quantum Workplace and he started with a vision to create tangible measures for leadership strength inside of companies. His company surveyed tools for measuring employee engagement and recognizing the best places to work. It’s grown into an engagement platform that talent-minded companies use now to accelerate performance.

Nov 25, 2017

Harpreet Singh. He’s one of the cofounders of Kvantum. He’s in a lot of positions based in data science including big companies like Target and Sapient.

Nov 24, 2017

Garrett Moon. He’s the CEO and founder of CoSchedule, the web’s most popular marketing calendar and the fastest growing startup in North Dakota. As a thought leader, Garrett has been blogging and speaking about content marketing, social media marketing, and startup businesses for more than six years.

Nov 21, 2017

Max Percherskyi. He’s a passionate SaaS entrepreneur whose mission is to connect professional SaaS companies and startup hubs to help them form long-term relationships and good, win-win partnerships. Currently, he’s connecting angel institutional investors, cofounders, exceptional talent and partner companies across three different countries to make the PromoRepublic ventures succeed at a global scale. Prior to cofounding PromoRepublic, he worked in marketing agencies for ten years and was responsible for business development, digital marketing and sales.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Top 101 Growth Hacks
  • What CEO do you follow? – Jason Lemkin
  • Favorite online tool? — WorkFlowly
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Max would tell himself that not all people will love him

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:37 – Nathan introduces Max to the show
  • 02:22 – PromoRepublic is a social media content automation tool that helps SMBs create their social media presence
  • 02:38 – PromoRepublic is a SaaS business
  • 02:45 – Pricing starts at $15 a month for an annual package
  • 02:55 – ACV is $20 a month
  • 03:00 – Max was in Episode 403
  • 03:27 – PromoRepublic will soon have a $100 plan
  • 03:53 – CAC is now $150-170
  • 04:18 – Paid channels spend varies every month
  • 04:33 – Affiliate network is the one that is working now
  • 05:28 – PromoRepublic has raised $1.85M in total
  • 06:12 – Team size is 22
  • 06:26 – PromoRepublic has 3 offices
  • 07:30 – PromoRepublic hired a sales guy to sell their high value plans
    • 08:29 – There’s commission for every plan sold
  • 10:00 – PromoRepublic has around 5,500 customers, 3000 are from AppSumo
  • 10:32 – Most of the customers from AppSumo just bought the product; some are active, some aren’t
  • 12:33 – Last month’s MRR was $20K
  • 12;54 – Logo churn is around 5.8%
  • 14:07 – 2016 revenue was €110K
  • 14:33 – 2017 total revenue will be around $300K
  • 15:08 – PromoRepublic is going to receive a grant and will take an additional loan
  • 17:25 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Your team size must align with your profitability.
  2. Paid advertising takes time—test to see which ads will work the best.
  3. Use your capital wisely.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 20, 2017

Sravish Sridhar. He’s the VP and General Manager at Kinvey Progress and was previously the CEO and founder of Kinvey before it was acquired by Progress. He’s also an angel investor in multiple startups with successful exits.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm
  • What CEO do you follow? – Matt Barbey
  • Favorite online tool? — If This Then That
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would never become a movie actor”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:50 – Nathan introduces Sravish to the show
  • 02:18 – Kinvey’s acquisition closed on June 1st and was announced on June 28th
  • 02:30 – Kinvey does “backend as a service”, which is a term that they coined
  • 02:58 – Schneider Electric has a lot of apps that are used to interact with its hardware, employees and customers
    • 03:13 – Kinvey is in charge of the backend features that an app needs
  • 03:44 – “We make every frontend developer become a backend developer”
    • 03:55 – Developers don’t have to learn the backend processes, they can simply drag and drop
  • 04:07 – Kinvey has three types of customers:
    • 04:10 – First, those who are building apps as a hobby or trial and pay nothing up to $200 a month
    • 04:22 – Second, business edition customers who pay an average of $24K a year per application
    • 04:44 – Lastly, enterprise edition customers who pay around 6 figures a year
    • 05:03 – ACV is around $80K to $90K
  • 05:24 – When Sravish came up with the idea for Kinvey, he knew it should be a venture-backed company
    • 05:46 – Sravish funded the initial capital of $150K
    • 06:06 – Kinvey has raised over $15M before the acquisition
  • 06:30 – It took Kinvey 15 month to launch their product
    • 06:43 – In the second year, they started to build their revenue
    • 07:10 – In 2013, they were doing high 6-figures in revenue
    • 07:24 – They broke their million dollar mark in 2014
  • 07:54 – Sravish invested in startups to learn strategies and build his financial portfolio
  • 09:20 – Sravish has three things he looks for when investing in a startup:
    • 09:22 – The team’s relationship with each other
    • 09:39 – The space of the startup
    • 09:55 – The potential he has to help the startup to grow
  • 10:40 – Kinvey has over 50 enterprise customers
  • 12:54 – The acquisition of Kinvey by Progress was for $50M
  • 13:13 – Sravish shares how the board and himself decided on the acquisition
  • 14:40 – Sravish’s discussion with Progress
  • 15:43 – Team size prior to acquisition was 44 and everyone stayed after the acquisition, current team size is 65-70
  • 16:00 – Kinvey had multiple offers and it took them 2-3 months to decide
  • 16:40 – Progress matched the best offer
  • 17:00 – Kinvey and Progress are both based in Boston
  • 17:58 – Kinvey had direct sales models and enterprise sales reps
  • 18:10 – CAC is $95K to $100K and LTV is $2.1-2.2M
  • 18:33 – Payback period is 13-14 months
  • 19:04 – Kinvey has 98% retention rate
  • 20:40 – Progress has been thoughtful with their employees’ restricted stock units (RSU)
  • 23:40 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Choose the deal that will be a great fit for the long-term.
  2. Always consider the company and, most importantly, your team’s future when making decisions.
  3. Investing isn’t just about the financial gains, it’s about your ability to believe in and help a company grow and succeed.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 19, 2017

Chris Savage. He’s the CEO and cofounder of Wistia, a leading video platform that enables business teams to harness the connective power of video. They help over 400K businesses connect better with their customers using video as the medium.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Masters of Doom
  • What CEO do you follow? – Ben Chestnut
  • Favorite online tool? — Quip
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Persistence is the difference between success and failure”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:51 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
  • 02:17 – Wistia is a SaaS business
  • 02:20 – Wistia is a platform where you can upload your videos and customize them for your site
  • 02:49 – Wistia charges based on the number of videos
  • 02:55 – ACV is $100 a month and it’s 25 cents per video
  • 03:38 – Wistia is already 11 years old
  • 04:09 – Wistia didn’t make money their first year
  • 05:08 – Chris and his cofounder needed at least 15K a month to live
  • 05:55 – Wistia made a mistake when they weren’t charging based on the storage
  • 06:35 – Chris explains their decision to change their pricing
  • 07:04 – Gross margin is in the 70s
  • 07:43 – Total number of customers
  • 08:00 – Wistia still has a free trial for 3 videos
    • 08:05 – There are a few hundred thousand free users
  • 09:21 – One the best things Wistia offers is inspirational and useful content for free accounts
  • 10:05 – Wistia gets 15% of direct, attributable conversion from free accounts
  • 10:30 – Wistia has raised two rounds with a total of $1M
  • 11:09 – “We are very focused on long-term”
  • 11:29 – Chris wants Wistia to be less complex for users
  • 12:27 – Customer churn is 1.6% a month
  • 12:47 – On a unit economic basis, Wistia is consistently expanding
  • 13:11 – LTV is approaching $5K
  • 13:20 – CAC
  • 16:00 – Stretch goal in December of 2017
    • 16:09 – Wistia is focused on profitability
  • 17:06 – Wistia is doing a more than million dollars a month in revenue
  • 17:22 – Wistia has raised less than what they’re making monthly
  • 18:50 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Changing the price of your product won’t necessarily equate to profitability—balance is the key.
  2. Converting customers from free to paid takes a lot of testing and patience.
  3. Persistency is the difference between success and failure.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 18, 2017

Roy Mann. He’s a career entrepreneur, artist and 3D printing enthusiast. His experience is in the field of product development and marketing and before co-founding dapulse, Roy was part of Wix’s senior management team, which is a big, runway success. Prior to joining Wix, he founded the online social game, Save an Alien.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  • What CEO do you follow? – Avishai Abrahami
  • Favorite online tool? — FullStory
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7-8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Whatever you learn, you learn—and in the end, we all die”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:50 – Nathan introduces Roy to the show
  • 02:27 – dapulse is a tool for managing operations for teams
  • 02:38 – dapulse is a SaaS product
  • 02:40 – dapulse has a free trial of 14 days
  • 02:52 – ACV
  • 04:00 – Roy was in Episode 404 of The Top
  • 04:06 – Team size is 70
    • 04:14 – 1/3 is in engineering and they’re expecting to grow to 100 this year
    • 04:40 – Most of the team are in Israel and some are in the USA
  • 05:00 – dapulse currently has 15K customers
  • 05:15 – dapulse raised $25M at the start of 2017
    • 05:34 – They’ve raised a total of $34M
  • 06:13 – MRR is over $1M and $13M ARR
  • 06:33 – dapulse is a B2B company, but their approach is like a B2C
    • 07:06 – dapulse aims at individuals who will potentially purchase the product for their team
  • 07:16 – dapulse has spent $1.5M just last month on online ads
  • 07:45 – CAC
  • 08:24 – Payback period
  • 09:37 – dapulse’s campaign can attract a high number of customers
  • 10:27 – Roy wants to build a product that fits everyone
  • 10:42 – dapulse has a negative net revenue churn
  • 11:18 – Monthly logo churn is between 1.5% to 2%
    • 12:13 – Churn is calculated on the top line
  • 13:48 – dapulse has -.05 net revenue churn
  • 14:20 – dapulse sells to large companies through their Instagram ads
  • 15:40 – dapulse doesn’t give an incentive for those who post about their user experience
  • 16:47 – 2017 ARR goal is $17M
  • 17:21 – December 2016 ARR is $6.5M
  • 18:10 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. A B2C approach can still get you customers, even if you’re B2B company.
  2. If people gain value from your product and enjoy it, they will share about it.
  3. We all make mistakes, just make sure you learn and move on.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 17, 2017

Mark Organ. He’s the founder and CEO of Influitive, helping companies mobilize their advocates to produce massive increases in referral leads, reference calls, social media participation and more. He revolutionized B2B marketing and the founding CEO of Eloqua, the world leader in marketing automation software, which was acquired by Oracle for $871M. In between, he was the go-to marketing consultant for SaaS companies in North America and Asia. 

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Getting to Yes
  • What CEO do you follow? – Dara Khosrowshahi
  • Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “How important it was to build new relationships with people”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show
  • 02:17 – Mark left Eloqua even before the acquisition
    • 03:25 – It was the VCs that pushed Mark to leave
    • 03:54 – Mark still had a great exit from the company
  • 04:10 – Influitive helps companies grow by getting more value out of their happy customers
  • 04:46 – Mark saw the importance of mobilized customers when he was still in Eloqua
  • 05:13 – Influitive created communities where companies invite their customer advocates
  • 05:51 – ACV is $50K annually
  • 06:10 – Influitive currently has 270 customers
  • 06:33 – ARR is close to $10M
  • 06:51 – it would take 4-5 years for Influitive to reach their $100M ARR mark
  • 07:02 – Influitive was founded in 2010
  • 07:21 – Influitive has raised $50M
    • 08:09 – Mark shares why he had to raise
  • 09:13 – Influitive’s growth is faster than Eloqua’s
  • 09:40 – 2016 revenue
  • 10:05 – Influitive is averaging more than 50%, year-over-year growth
  • 10:50 – Influitive is cash flow positive on some months
  • 11:08 – Team size is 125 with 8 people in sales
  • 11:22 – “I want all the sales guys to make money”
    • 12:03 – Increased quotas make it impossible for salespeople to hit their numbers
  • 12:55 – CAC is around $40K
  • 14:10 – Payback period is a year to 15 months
  • 17:01 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. VCs are there for a reason, trust them.
  2. Reaching one’s quotas takes a much longer time than it did a decade ago.
  3. Networking and relationships are crucial to your personal and business life.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 16, 2017

Naveen Gupta. He’s an entrepreneur with experience building startups and growing a hundred million dollar profit and loss statements. Before cofounding BirdEye, which is his current company, he held executive positions at RingCentral, Monster and Yahoo. He’s launched industry-leading products across advertising, consumer search, social media and monetization. He lives in Sunnyvale, California with his wife and two kids.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Predictable Revenue
  • What CEO do you follow? – Brian Halligan
  • Favorite online tool? — Outreach and ZoomInfo
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 4-5
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Naveen wished he would have taken more risks and pursued his dreams of starting a company

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Naveen to the show
  • 02:19 – BirdEye is the leading SaaS product that helps businesses on their customer journey
  • 02:54 – The two things that drive purchases are customer experience and business ratings
  • 03:20 – BirdEye grows 160%, year-over-year in revenue
  • 03:33 – BirdEye has 25K paying customers
    • 04:40 – Business model is based on location and not per seat
    • 05:20 – On average, a business would have 2-3 locations
  • 05:47 – BirdEye caters from SMBs to enterprise businesses
  • 06:07 – BirdEye has a broad platform which has different functionalities
  • 07:42 – Pricing on SMBs start at $3K and $100K for enterprise per year
  • 08:12 – ACV is around $5K
  • 08:33 – 50% of the revenue is SMB, 30% mid-market enterprise and 20% for channels
  • 09:00 – ACV is per location
  • 09:24 – MRR is close to $2M
  • 10:43 – BirdEye was launched in 2012
    • 10:55 – They came up with the idea after looking for a surgeon with great reviews to take care of their mother
  • 12:07 – BirdEye was initially bootstrapped
  • 12:33 – BirdEye has raised a total of $33M
  • 13:16 – Team size is 170 globally
    • 13:48 – Around 60 are on engineering, 70 on the sales sides and the rest are in different departments
    • 14:30 – BirdEye is investing heavily on hiring the best people
  • 14:45 – CAC is around $1K for a new business
  • 15:05 – Payback period is 3-4 months
  • 15:21 – 60-70% of their contracts are paid up-front, annually
  • 16:00 – Revenue churn
  • 16:11 – Net churn is close to 0.5%
  • 16:28 – BirdEye is still too young to calculate LTV
    • 16:48 – Naveen’s estimate is 3-5 years
  • 17:05 – Paid ads spent annually is $200K
  • 17:55 – Gross margin is 85-90%
  • 18:43 – To acquire new customers, they email potential clients and ask them if they want to know their competitors’ reputations and how they compare to them
  • 19:24 – 2016 ARR was close to $13M and 2017 will be close to $30M
  • 19:37 – 2015 ARR was $5M and 2014 was $1.5M
  • 21:10 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Have a business model that will benefit not just your own company but your customers as well.
  2. Most people rely on business reviews before trying out a product or service.
  3. Hire the best people and you’ll have the best product and provide the best customer experience.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Nov 15, 2017

David Barrett. He started programming at the early age of 6 and has been aspiring to become an expense report magnate ever since. He attended the University of Michigan where he worked in a virtual reality lab before moving to Texas to render 3D graphics engines for the video game industry. Next, he moved to California to join Travis of Uber in building a peer-to-peer file transfer technology called Red Swoosh, which was acquired by Akamai in 2007. In 2008, David left that company to start Expensify and has since been relieving the world’s frustration one expense report at a time.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Good to Great
  • What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — Google Docs
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “It is possible for everyone else around you to be wrong and for you to be right”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:46 – Nathan introduces David to the show
  • 02:38 – Expense reports have been overlooked
  • 02:56 – David took the opportunity that will take care of expense reports
  • 03:18 – Expense report is synonymous with any business
  • 03:52 – David shares how his eagerness to help the homeless led him to create an expense report reimbursement app
  • 05:09 – David was in Episode 655 of The Top
  • 05:16 – Expensify isn’t looking to raise another round at the moment as they just raised $25M
  • 05:23 – Expensify is currently profitable and not burning capital
  • 05:27 – Team size is 120
  • 05:33 – Expensify was founded in 2008
  • 06:04 – Expensify currently has 42K customers
  • 06:21 – Expensify also has millions of free users
  • 06:49 – Pricing has a free account which offers 10 receipts a month and a paid account starts at $9 per active user
    • 07:15 – Enterprise plans also start at $9
  • 08:21 – ARR is still under $100M
  • 09:44 – The expansion is the bulk of Expensify’s revenue growth
  • 10:40 – Expensify has a $5 plan for a group
  • 11:10 – Revenue retention is over 100% annually
    • 11:24 – Every 3 years, a customer pays 500% more
  • 12:55 – The most effective strategy to acquire customers is to hand their product to the individual employees and promote it within their own companies
    • 14:14 – David shares how the payment shifts from the employee's personal card to the company’s expenses
    • 16:16 – The target is to share to at least one other person
  • 16:35 – Expensify doesn’t have any paid channels
    • 16:40 – They do lots of conferences which is more for establishing brand leadership
    • 17:25 – They spend a single digit million, annually, for their conference
    • 17:32 – Their conference is ExpensiCon
    • 18:00 – Only 100 selected people can join
  • 19:35 – David believes that the cost of sales doesn’t equate to the cost of customer acquisition
    • 21:38 – The most important decisions are not quantifiable
  • 22:40 – David won’t sell Expensify for $300M
  • 16:10 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Getting your own clients to refer you is the best way to grow your customer base.
  2. The most important decisions for your company are sometimes not quantifiable.
  3. Focus on the best possible brand or product you can offer.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 14, 2017

Jeremiah Wilson. He founded Convirza over 15 years ago. As the patent-holding inventor of The Maculon, the original, passive, remote conversation monitoring device and sales management system, he shaped the call tracking and marketing analytics industry. He’s positioned the capital raises and recent acquisition.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – 48 Laws of Power
  • What CEO do you follow? – N/A
  • Favorite online tool? — Salesforce App
  • How many hours of sleep do you get? — 6
  • If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wished I believed in myself more”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:51 – Nathan introduces Jeremiah to the show
  • 02:22 – Convirza acquired a portion of their competitor’s assets to expand their customer base
  • 02:56 – Jeremiah shares how they found out about the acquisition
  • 03:29 – Call tracking is what drives the calls
  • 04:00 – Convirza also listens to the calls with machine learning to check the quality of the call
    • 04:46 – If a phrase that the sales agent used didn’t drive conversion, it should be changed
  • 05:00 – Convirza tracks the attribution rate
  • 06:20 – Convirza finds out which billboard led a prospect to call, the cost of the billboard and the actual sales made from those calls
  • 06:54 – Convirza only focuses on where the lead came from and the conversation itself
    • 07:01 – “Our objective is strictly the audio, strictly the call”
  • 07:54 – Convirza is a SaaS business and charges a platform fee plus minutes
  • 08:13 – ACV is around $600K
    • 08:40 – ACV is per business
  • 09:27 – Prior to Convirza, Jeremiah was a national trainer for a company in Ohio and was teaching people how to sell on the phone
    • 10:35 – In 2000, salespeople were looking into live call recordings
    • 11:20 – Jeremiah set-up the stick and the device that could plug into a computer and record calls
    • 12:00 – Jeremiah started with 100 units which cost him $70K
  • 12:20 – Convirza was launched in 2001
  • 13:30 – Convirza had their first client within six months that paid $20K
  • 13:47 – 2010 revenue is $3M
  • 14:05 – Convirza listened to their clients in order to improve their product
  • 14:17 – Convirza has raised $24M in total
    • 14:46 – The investors are private investors
  • 15:55 – Convirza has over a thousand customers
  • 16:09 – Convirza has 50K unique businesses using them
  • 16:42 – 2017 ARR goal is $10M
  • 17:33 – Gross logo churn is 3%
  • 17:44 – Convirza has been focused on having their net negative churn negative for the last 2 years
  • 18:56 – Team size is 66 with 7 in sales and 25 as engineers
    • 19:21 – They have a team of 40 in India who are augmented in their engineering
  • 19:47 – Convirza has an office in Utah and California
  • 20:08 – Pre-acquisition CAC is $1200
  • 21:00 – From the acquisition, they gained around 500 customers (more than double of what they had)
  • 21:23 – LTV is 4 years
  • 21:41 – Convirza’s best source for customers is their webinars
    • 21:52 – They partnered with similar associations and publications in the space to promote their webinars
  • 22:54 – Payback period is 9 months
  • 22:18 – Paid spend was around $6500 in July 2017
  • 24:01 – Gross margin is 60%
  • 24:24 – Convirza built their own platform
  • 26:05 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Acquire a part of your competitor’s assets to grow your own business and customer base.
  2. Having another team in another country can be your secret key to success.
  3. Focus on one specific goal at a time.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 13, 2017

Artem Borodatyuk. He’s the founder of NetPeak Group and cofounder of Seed Fund WannaBiz. He’s focused on the development of B2B SaaS product companies. His first SaaS company was an all-in-one SEO platform for professionals called Serpstat.com, with 2000 customers and 100K users.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – From Third World to First
  • What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — Google Spreadsheet
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Find some experienced entrepreneur and mentor”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:44 – Nathan introduces Artem to the show
  • 02:23 – Serpstat was born as a cure to a search tool that was built by Netpeak
  • 03:00 – Netpeak is the biggest SEO agency in Eastern Europe
  • 03:20 – Netpeak currently has 300 projects in 4 markets
  • 03:38 – Netpeak was founded in 2007 and was initially bootstrapped
  • 03:43 – They haven’t raised funds for the agency side of Netpeak
  • 04:27 – 2016 revenue of the agency side of Netpeak was $5-$15M
  • 04:50 – Serpstat was initially created to be used by Netpeak itself
  • 05:35 – In April 2015, Serpstat became independent
  • 07:00 – In 2016, Serpstat received $250K of funding for 15% equity from Digital Future, a local VC fund
  • 07:41 – Serpstat will almost hit their $1M ARR mark
  • 07:58 – July 2017 MRR
  • 08:26 – Igor Gor is Serpstat’s evangelist; he markets their product
  • 08:45 – Team size is 52 in Serpstat with 20 in marketing
  • 09:25 – ACG is $69
  • 09:39 – Total number of customers is between 1000 to 2000 paid customers
  • 10:36 – Serpstat can be paid in monthly payments or a one-time payment
  • 12:03 – Serpstat loses 1-3% of their users monthly
  • 12:40 – CAC
  • 13:50 – LTV
  • 14:20 – Serpstat spends $2K monthly on AdWords and $1K on Facebook Ads
  • 15:04 – Serpstat is based in Ukraine
  • 15:38 – Serstat plans to expand globally soon
  • 16:02 – Gross margin is around 89%
  • 17:23 – In July of 2016, monthly revenue was $20K
  • 17:54 – 2016 revenue is almost $190K
  • 19:30 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Create a product that can be used by your own company; that way you can attest to its usability and value.
  2. Europe offers different recurring payment plans than what is offered in the US.
  3. Take an offered fund as an opportunity to grow your company.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 12, 2017

Shaul Olmert. He’s the cofounder and CEO of Playbuzz, an award-winning, storytelling platform that empowers publishers, brands, and agencies worldwide to create interactive content for editorial and commercial purposes. The world’s top publishers and brands worldwide use Playbuzz's desktop and mobile-friendly storytelling tools to improve audience engagement, optimize social sharing, increase site traffic and lengthen page-viewing time.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – N/A
  • What CEO do you follow? – N/A
  • Favorite online tool? — Evernote
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 4
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Shaul would have told himself that everybody else in the world is as clueless as he is

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:40 – Nathan introduces Shaul to the show
  • 02:25 – Playbuzz is a platform that helps make one’s storytelling more compelling and engaging
  • 03:10 – Playbuzz's tools are completely free for publishers
  • 03:20 – Playbuzz currently has tens of thousands of publishers
  • 03:24 – Playbuzz has market leaders using their toolset
  • 03:46 – Playbuzz makes money when publishers opt-in to their monetization program
  • 04:11 – Advertisers want to present their brands to the audience that is listening
  • 04:54 – Playbuzz's revenue is in the dozens of millions on ad spent on the platform
  • 05:18 – Playbuzz's volume is high and consistently growing
  • 06:10 – Playbuzz manages the distribution of the content items which will benefit the publishers as well
  • 07:00 – Nathan summarizes how he understands Playbuzz to work
  • 07:50 – The brands create their content and Playbuzz shares them on their partnered website
    • 08:16 – Playbuzz charges per view
    • 08:35 – The charge depends on how long their content is being viewed or listened to
  • 10:00 – Playbuzz is creating new ways to grow their engagement
  • 10:37 – Playbuzz has two revenue streams
  • 11:53 – Playbuzz has been around for 5 years and has been in the market for 3 years
  • 12:36 – Playbuzz has 2 founders and 170 employees globally
  • 12:54 – Playbuzz has raised a total of $31M
  • 13:40 – Shaul shares what he thinks of Disney’s efforts in advertising
  • 14:43 – “The more value we create, the more our value increases”
  • 14:54 – Playbuzz is still burning capital and scaling up
  • 15:10 – Playbuzz is constantly creating to optimize data
  • 15:36 – The majority of the funds go to engineering, product and data
  • 15:49 – Shaul believes that eventually they will win the war by having superior technology
  • 16:50 – Shaul shares his take on using voice searches for collecting data
    • 17:30 – Shaul is looking to take podcasts to a wider audience
  • 19:15 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Content is KING.
  2. No matter how good your content is, if you can’t share it with an audience, it’s useless.
  3. Voice searches will change how we do advertising, and this change will happen soon.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 11, 2017

John Nardone. He’s the CEO of Flashtalking, a first generation adtech pioneer. He served as the founding board member of the Internet Advertising Bureau. He’s known for his groundbreaking work at Pepsi, Modern Media and Marketing Management Analytics and received the Adtech Industry Achievement Award in 2012. As CEO at [x+1], he helped transform that business into a top-rated data management platform or DMP. Rocket Fuel acquired the company for $230M in 2014.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Getting Naked
  • What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
  • Favorite online tool? — Amazon and eBay
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I might have started having kids a little bit sooner”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:52 – Nathan introduces John to the show
  • 02:40 – Flashtalking was a partner of [x+1], currently known as Rocket Fuel
  • 02:45 – Days after the acquisition, John got an offer to work with Flashtalking
  • 03:23 – John decided to give-in to the offer and saw Flashtalking as an opportunity to stay in adtech
  • 03:39 – John joined Flashtalking in 2015
  • 03:53 – Flashtalking had been around since 2000 and it was bootstrapped by the founders
  • 04:25 – Flashtalking came to the US in 2010
  • 05:36 – John joined the company, mainly because of his vision and excitement for innovation and marketing
  • 06:43 – John has bought a part of the company
  • 07:03 – Flashtalking uses real-time data to personalize the communication with each consumer
    • 07:10 – A simple example is retargeting
    • 08:04 – Retargeting can happen on multiple devices
  • 08:27 – One of Flashtalking’s clients is Walmart
  • 08:56 – Flashtalking analyzes the customer’s behavior on a website
    • 09:54 – Smartphone and current devices have changed the way we consume digital marketing
    • 10:50 – Location data is included with the data that Flashtalking gathers
    • 11:13 – Flashtalking makes the decision for what kinds of ads to show to the customers
  • 11:30 – Flashtalking charges per CPM
    • 12:05 – There are discounts for those with bigger volumes
  • 13:01 – Flashtalking is not currently using AI technology
  • 14:10 – Flashtalking currently has 40 clients that account for 80% of the revenue
    • 14:26 – Flashtalking focuses on their big, global clients
  • 15:20 – Average volume of impressions is 15B to 40B a month depending on the season
  • 17:00 – Flashtalking focuses on helping their clients improve and get the experience that will drive their success metrics
  • 17:50 – Team size is 280 globally
  • 17:56 – Flashtalking hasn’t raised any capital aside from the buyout and it has been profitable since Day 1
  • 19:10 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Your vision will lead you to the companies that will help you grow, and eventually change the world.
  2. Technology has significantly affected how we consume advertising.
  3. There are specific markets where AI technology can be used well.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 10, 2017

Shan-Lyn Ma. She’s the CEO and co-founder of Zola. Launched in October 2013, Zola is an online wedding registry for millennials. In just three years, it has become the fastest growing wedding registry in the country, seeing 10x revenue growth year-over-year and 3x growth in 2017. Over seven million guests have attended a Zola wedding and 350 million in gifts have been added by Zola couples.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – How to Create Products Customers Love
  • What CEO do you follow? – Sheryl Sandberg
  • Favorite online tool? — Headspace
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That stressing out about things do not make them better”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:47 – Nathan introduces Shan-Lyn to the show
  • 02:32 – In Q4 of 2016, Zola reached $120M in GMV runway
    • 03:30 – GMV is reflective of the number of wedding gifts that are given to couples when using Zola as a wedding registry
  • 03:56 – Zola is an ecommerce business, it’s a typical retailer
  • 04:40 – Most of the items offered in Zola are what the couples want as wedding gifts
    • 04:50 – Zola has added Airbnb as this was requested by couples
    • 05:20 – Zola takes a percentage from an Airbnb gift card purchased on Zola
  • 06:14 – Zola goes after the brands that are usually requested by couples and some brands have reached out to Zola for their products to be on Zola’s website
  • 06:54 – Since 2013, 300K couples have registered with Zola
  • 07:25 – The number of new couples signed-up in 2016
  • 08:10 – Over time, more and more couples are using Zola as their ONLY wedding registry
  • 09:40 – More guests will buy from Zola if the couples are using Zola exclusively as their wedding registry
  • 10:02 – Zola incentivizes couples by adding the gifts that they want
    • 10:24 – There’s an additional feature where couples can bring any product to Zola
  • 11:12 – First year revenue
  • 11:38 – Zola had a seed round of funding of $500K in a convertible note
  • 12:17 – Zola has raised additional capital with a total of $40M in VC funding
  • 12:36 – Zola has passed through the typical startup life-cycle
  • 14:14 – Paid ads spend is more than $100K
  • 14:41 – The hot KPI that investors are looking for is the LTV:CAC ratio
  • 15:51 – CAC depends on the channel and historical data of the channel’s performance
  • 17:42 – “We are not trying to create more lifetime value”
  • 18:30 – The challenge for Zola is getting newly engaged couples to find out about their services and sign-up for them
  • 19:49 – Zola currently has over 50K products
  • 20:22 – Zola just launched their new product, Zola Weddings, a free website for couples to manage their whole wedding
  • 23:25 – The Famous Five

 

  • Key Points:
  1. Listen to your customers desires and needs and respond accordingly.
  2. LTV:CAC ratio is what investors are usually looking for in a company.
  3. Create more products that could be an extension of your existing products—this will encourage your clients to use your products more.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 9, 2017

Matthew Schiltz. He’s an experienced, senior executive with a proven track record in building successful, high growth technology and cloud companies ranging from the private startup stage to public companies. He’s responsible for his current company, Conga, and its growth strategy which includes financing, driving global sales and expanding product offerings. His extensive executive management and leadership experience is driving strong company growth which has resulted in several Inc 500, Fast 50 and Top 100 Places to Work awards. Past CEO successes include Insightful Corporation, CourtLink, DocuSign, Tier 3 and Blue Box Group. He has received several industry accolades in recognition of his past successes and is considered an expert on software, technology, and cloud business practices.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  • What CEO do you follow? – Dan Springer
  • Favorite online tool? — Email
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Matt would let others know that SaaS technology is about the people

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:58 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show
  • 03:07 – Matt is the first professional CEO hired for DocuSign
  • 03:38 – Matt was also recruited by the board of Conga as their CEO
  • 04:41 – Matt has worked with founders who are great in product and technology, but were not able to grow their company as a CEO
  • 05:25 – The partnership with DocuSign’s founder was a successful experience
  • 06:18 – Conga is one of the top 5 global ISV (Independent Software Vendors) in the Salesforce ecosystem
  • 06:44 – Conga specializes in data and electronic contracts
    • 06:57 – They take live, Salesforce data and turns it into dynamic documents that are automated
  • 07:21 – Conga is pure SaaS play
  • 07:45 – Renewal rate is astronomically high
  • 08:08 – Conga has a negative revenue churn
  • 08:44 – Conga has a mix of mid-market and enterprise customers
  • 10:30 – The customers pay directly on the number of seats
  • 11:05 – Customers can start with one product, then expand to five products
  • 11:55 – Conga’s customer base is two thirds midmarket and one third enterprise
  • 12:33 – Conga’s document generation product pricing starts at $200 monthly for 10 seats
    • 12:59 – “It’s a pretty low risk threshold”
  • 13:30 – The Salesforce AppExchange is the number one customer vehicle for Conga
  • 16:06 – 80% of Conga’s customers regard them as offering a critical tool that they need to use
  • 17:00 – Conga has over 9000 customers globally
  • 17:30 – Conga is growing quickly
  • 18:03 – Conga grew 200% last year and another 100% this year
  • 19:59 – Conga is in a typical gross margin rate
  • 20:10 – The majority of Conga is owned by Insight Venture Partners of New York
  • 20:46 – Conga has announced Salesforce Ventures as a strategic investor in May 2017
  • 21:15 – Matt shares how they decide which companies to acquire
    • 21:50 – Is it a good strategic fit for Conga?
    • 22:02 – Is it a great people fit?
    • 22:30 – Conga has 250-500 employees
  • 23:53 – Matt shares his thoughts on Conga taking the IPO route as a funding event
  • 25:05 – DocuSign just announced their intention to go public
  • 27:35 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Not all founders can grow their business; the right CEO can be the answer.
  2. The growth of a company isn’t based solely on the product, but the people who are behind it.
  3. The IPO route for funding is a fantastic place to start.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 8, 2017

Aseem Badshah. He’s the founder and CEO of Socedo which is a twenty person, B2B, social media demand generation company backed by Techstars Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Divergent Ventures. Before this company, he was the founder of Uptown Treehouse, a social media marketing agency working with brands like Uniqlo, Nike, Western Union and Lenovo.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Good to Great
  • What CEO do you follow? – Satya Nadella
  • Favorite online tool? — Outreach
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Be patient and focus, above all, on people”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:34 – Nathan introduces Aseem to the show
  • 02:06 – Socedo helps B2B marketers find the relevant prospect on social media
  • 02:37 – “The last 9 months have been all about efficiency”
  • 02:47 – Socedo now has $4K in MRR per month per AE
  • 03:42 – Socedo is now moving away from the outbound and ABM model
  • 03:47 – Socedo targets SMB companies now
  • 04:03 – Socedo has free trials on their website
    • 04:18 – The point is to become a pipeline for their AEs
  • 04:58 – Socedo is helping Pendo’s growth
  • 05:08 – Socedo is looking at moving up their ACV
  • 05:57 – Socedo helps B2B companies cut through the noise
  • 06:24 – On the sales side, Socedo is more focused on selling to B2B as opposed to B2C companies
  • 07:00 – Average MRR
  • 07:23 – Aseem ties employee count to growth
    • 07:45 – The idea of scaling too quickly isn’t really healthy
  • 08:40 – Aseem wants to make sure that their focus is on the right segment of the market
  • 10:00 – Everywhere in SaaS is crowded these days
  • 10:21 – The outbound path is where Sodeco will bump into their competition
  • 10:54 – Sodeco is specifically serving the B2B social media marketers who are underserved individuals
    • 11:20 – Sodeco helps them grow their presence
  • 12:34 – Hootsuite is great for marketers who are managing their content for their audience
  • 13:00 – Sodeco finds and grows the audience by targeting the right prospects on social media
  • 14:44 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Scaling up does NOT necessarily mean growing your team.
  2. Even though your market may be crowded, you can find a way to stand out.
  3. Managing your audience is a very different process from growing your audience.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 7, 2017

Stefan Thomas. He’s the CTO of Ripple. He’s also the producer of the popular “What is Bitcoin?” video and the founder of the largest website for novice bitcoin users, WeUseCoins.com. He created a set of open-source bitcoin libraries called BitcoinJS, which today are maintained and used by Bitcoin businesses of all sizes including BitPay, Blockchain.info, BitAddress, Coinpunk and others.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – Draw to Win
  • What CEO do you follow? – Thomas Mcleod
  • Favorite online tool? — StumbleUpon
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 3 or 8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Schedule your blocks of time. Clean up and separate your spaces. Tell yourself to stick to what you should be doing.

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:38 – Nathan introduces Stefan to the show
  • 02:15 – Stefan got into crypto 7 years ago
  • 02:22 – “What is Bitcoin?” video now has 10 million views and two versions
  • 02:52 – Bitcoin is different from how current financial institutions work
  • 03:27 – Blockchain has a lot of definitions and for Stefan, blockchain is a shared ledger
  • 04:03 – With any technology, it is about how it can make a change that is beneficial to everyone
  • 05:43 – Stefan currently focuses on their project, Inter Ledger, which is essentially a protocol that can tie different ledgers together
    • 05:54 – It is an open project and Ripple is a contributor
  • 06:44 – Some of the crypto users have gotten a little too mainstream
  • 07:18 – People are now looking at the possibility of getting what they want without having to rely on clunky, shared ledgers
  • 07:41 – Stefan sold WeUseCoins to a company who has invested in bitcoin
    • 08:20 – Stefan didn’t make much from the exit
  • 08:36 – Stefan is responsible for the technical vision of Ripple
  • 09:00 – Ripple’s customers are mostly banks
    • 09:05 – Banks license Ripple’s technology and software
  • 09:33 – You can get the most from bitcoin technology without changing how financial institutions work
    • 09:53 – Small banks can interoperate with other banks without going through huge hubs
    • 10:04 – “Creating that efficiency by creating competition”
  • 10:20 – Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand is one of Ripple’s customers
  • 10:30 – Siam Commercial Bank and SBI Remit in Japan have partnered to license Ripple’s technology
    • 10:40 – Thailand expats staying in Japan can now send money to Thailand through their partnership
  • 12:18 – Shared ledgers are growing smaller and smaller with these new coins coming out and by private blockchains
  • 12:27 – Stefan believes that the next interesting technology will be the interoperability of the blockchains and central ledgers
  • 13:02 – Ripple has only been focused on payments, but there are hundreds of use cases for blockchain
    • 13:28 – Payments is the underlying thing for any kind of asset movement
    • 13:55 – Ripple is also focused on the crossing borders advantage to it
  • 15:21 – Licensing fee of Ripple depends on their customers
  • 16:21 – Team size is 170
  • 16:36 – Ripple has raised $94M and has sold some digital assets
  • 16:55 – Stefan joined Ripple before it was incorporated and he has equity
  • 18:31 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Changes in technology are intended to make life better for the collective.
  2. With bitcoin technology, payments have become more efficient and convenient.
  3. The vision that you had years ago will definitely change overtime.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Nov 6, 2017

Scott East. He founded his company MSIGHTS in 2004 to help marketers make better decisions with better data and reporting. His experience includes global ads and digital agencies of Fortune 20 telecom and AOL prior to founding MSIGHTS. He understands how to engage marketers as he has 20+ years in this area. His new book, The Cuttlefish Marketer: The Five Essential Traits of a Modern Marketer, focuses on helping marketers transform themselves into modern marketing leaders.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – E-Myth
  • What CEO do you follow? – Jason Fried
  • Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn Sales Navigator
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Scott wished he had focus more on “pull goals”, not “push goals”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:54 – Nathan introduces Scott to the show
  • 02:38 – Scott wrote a book because it was on his bucket list
    • 03:00 – Scott’s publisher is Advantage Media
    • 03:46 – The book is now available on Amazon and Apple
    • 04:06 – It has sold around a couple of hundreds of copies
    • 04:20 – Scott worked on his book for 10 solid months
  • 05:05 – MSIGHTS provides data management and performance reporting services for large marketing departments
  • 05:21 – MSIGHTS’ primary model is a SaaS model and they charge based on the data they integrate
  • 05:38 – “We giveaway licenses for free in our platform”
  • 05:58 – Scott wants as many enterprise companies as possible to use their reporting for decision making
  • 06:18 – MSIGHTS charges based on the volume that they’re integrating onto the system (in bulk)
  • 07:00 – MSIGHTS’ professional service is a recurring service
  • 07:40 – Scott shares why the SaaS model is different from a professional service, even if both services are recurring
  • 08:24 – ACV is $250K per client
  • 08:47 – MSIGHTS has 35 people
  • 09:20 – Scott shares how the data they receive needs to be analyzed
    • 10:15 – MSIGHTS integrated the data and added the translation key, but it took the founders more than an hour to decide if they would take it
  • 11:03 – Scott self-funded the company
  • 11:33 – MSIGHTS was officially launched in 2003
  • 12:00 – First year revenue is around $150K
  • 12:10 – 2013 revenue
  • 12:31 – 2016 revenue was $3.21M
  • 13:04 – Churn is less than 5% annually
  • 13:30 – Some of their clients have been with MSIGHTS for five years plus
  • 13:50 – MSIGHTS is still bootstrapped
  • 14:15 – Blended gross margins is a low 85%, platform side is 80% plus and 70% on professional service
  • 15:05 – Last month total revenue is around $264K
  • 15:30 – CAC
  • 15:54 – Payback period is around a month
  • 17:53 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. If you want something and it’s within your reach, GO for it!
  2. Having a great product could mean you’re bootstrapped for years, even a decade.
  3. Professional services can be a recurring service.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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