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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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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
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Now displaying: June, 2019
Jun 30, 2019

Zee Aganovic is CEO of HiConversion (https://www.hiconversion.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:25 – How HiConversion helps improve the buying experience on eCommerce sites

1:30 – Why the average customer pays them $5k per month

2:30 – How they launched the current version of the company in 2014

3:15 – Why they self-funded before raising $10M from institutional investors

4:15 – How their last round of $3.5M came last year

5:15 – Why several hundred customers are using their platform right now

5:45 – How HiConversion has built numerous strategic partnerships

6:45 – Why 100 companies are paying to use their platform today

7:40 – How they've grown 10x in the last twelve months

9:05 – Why they've scaled to 27 full-time employees

11:10 – Why they are aiming for payback within one month

13:00 – How they've hit 10% gross revenue churn per year

13:45 – The Famous Five



Jun 29, 2019

Tim Valishev is the CEO of JivoChat (https://www.jivochat.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:30 – How they help customers better convert using chatbots

1:00 – Why they are north of $5M in ARR right now

2:55 – How their growth has accelerated in emerging markets

2:00 – Why they have grown to serve 230k websites worldwide

2:30 – How the average customer pays JivoChat around $13 per month

3:00 – Why they are different from Drift and Intercom

4:00 – How they have incorporated the calling-in feature

5:20 – Why they launched the company in January 2012

6:50 – How he landed his first 10 customers through existing relationships

8:10 – Why they are exhibiting 45% logo churn annually

9:45 – How they've scaled to 32k paying customers

10:15 – Why they are landing 20k new sign-ups per month

11:15 – How JivoChat is growing via word of mouth

14:00 – Why they spent $300k to break into the Brazilian market

16:00 – How their team of 120 is remotely distributed

16:45 – Why he wants to remain bootstrapped

17:40 – The Famous Five



Jun 28, 2019

Deidre Paknad is the CEO and co-founder of Workboard (https://www.workboard.com/)


πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show
0:25 – How Workboard has been built to help companies acheive their stragtegic priorities faster
1:20 – Why the average customer is around $125k annually
1:45 – How they launched the company in 2014
2:45 – Why they've raised $12M in total capital thus far
4:45 – How they've landed 50 enterprise customers
5:15 – How they are doing around $520k in MRR today
6:30 – Why they decided to upsell based on number of seats
7:30 – How they are aiming for a 6 month payback period going forward
8:45 – Why they are hitting 140% net revenue retention
11:0 – How they are professional services and coaching to drive stickiness
12:20 – Why they are landing deals for around $17k with payback right away
13:35 – How their team of 55 is based in the Bay Area
14:15 – Why they aren't looking to raised until April 2019
15:00 – How she would view a $100M acquisition right now
15:50 – Why they are looking for a four month ramp period on their sales team
16:50 – The Famous Five

Jun 27, 2019

Michael Kamleitner is the CEO of Walls.io (https://walls.io/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:40 – How he runs two companies of roughly the same size

1:00 – Why they've built Walls.io as a social media marketing tool

1:45 – How the average customer pays around $225 today

2:20 – Why they launched the company in 2014 and bootstrapped thus far

2:40 – How 500 customers are using their product today

3:50 – Why they are doing around $110k in MRR

4:05 – How they've grown 70% from around $70k in MRR twelve months ago

4:45 – Why churn is naturally high

6:55 – How he made the decision to run two companies in parallel

8:55 – Why their other product is an enterprise social media scheduling tool

9:15 – "Would you sell for $3M today?"

9:45 – How he is interested in spliting the company and raising capital

10:25 – Why they are having success in content marketing and paid advertising

11:45 – How they are paying around 100 euros to land a new customer

12:20 – Why they aren't spending more money on paid acquisition

12:55 – How their team is headquartered in Vienna

13:30 – The Famous Five



Jun 26, 2019

Scott Shatford is the CEO of AirDNA (https://www.airdna.co/)
πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:


00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show
0:30 – How Scott built AirDNA to fill his own need
1:10 – Why they are pulling in data from property managers and individual users
2:05 – How Scott used corporate leases to his advantage
3:15 – Why he launched AirDNA in 2014
3:50 – How he makes the decision to purchase or lease
5:20 – Why he factors in regulation risk and seasonality demand when making decisions
7:00 – How AirBnB is maximizing experiences for customers
8:00 – Why the average customer pays $50 per month
8:10 – How he founded the company with his dad
8:20 – Why their team of 34 is spread between Denver and Barcelona
9:00 – How they've bootstrapped the company to 5k active paid subscribers
9:30 – Why they are doing around $375k in MRR right now
10:00 – How they've more than doubled year over year
10:40 – Why they've struggled with retention to date
11:20 – How they are churning 20% of logos each month
12:45 – Why they don't spend anything on customer acquisition
14:10 – How to get smarter around pricing your property
15:10 – Why they are scraping 10M properties every single day
16:10 – How AirBnB is approaching $100M in transcation volume per day
16:30 – The Famous Five

Jun 25, 2019

JP Narowski is the CEO of KarmaCRM (https://www.karmacrm.com/)
πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show
0:25 – How KarmaCRM has been built as a niche CRM for professional speakers
0:45 – Why the average customer pays around $50 per month
1:20 – How he launched the company in 2011
1:30 – Why they are doing around $30k in MRR right now
1:45 – How they've grown 50% year over year
1:55 – Why they've grown with just $100k in outside funding
3:20 – How they've scaled to a team of 4 full-time employees
4:00 – Why they landed their first customers through organic channels
4:40 – How they target a CAC of $300 with payback in 6 months
5:30 – Why speakers love their pre-populated email templates and language within the product
6:15 – How they've gotten to 5% gross logo churn per month
7:10 – Why they assume an LTV of $1k over 20 months
7:35 – How they are looking to scale their business with partnerships
9:15 – Why they are looking to publish more content around the speaking niche
9:55 – How he views the future of the company
10:40 – Why he is using his free time to run a family eCommerce business
11:20 – How he would view a $500k acquisition offer
11:55 – The Famous 5

Jun 24, 2019

Greg Soper is the CEO of SalesAgility (https://www.salesagility.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:30 – Why IT is heavily constrained with delivering value

2:00 – How competitive businesses leverage open source software

3:15 – Why some companies don't have enough capital to optimize out of the box software

3:55 – How they have built their business on top of an open source CRM

4:30 – Why they've had 1M downloads in the last 5 years

5:00 – How they make money doing consulting for their open source platform

5:45 – Why SalesAgility charges for hosting and usage

7:00 – How they are enabling businesses to own their data

7:30 – Why they are providing an alternative to cloud solutions

8:25 – How consulting is a large part of their business

9:50 – Why the average customer is paying them $10-15 per seat monthly

11:50 – How they are planning to launch a new SaaS product soon

12:30 – Why their SaaS product is subsidizing development

13:00 – How they've grown to serve 100 companies today

13:20 – Why they don't make their SaaS offering free

14:30 – How they are doing $5M in annual revenue overall

14:45 – Why their team of 40 full-time employees are based in Scotland

15:30 – How they've grown to scale by bootstrapping

16:00 – Why they are focusing on both SaaS and consulting

19:00 – The Famous 5



Jun 23, 2019

Richard Jones is the CEO of The Wayin Platform (https://www.wayin.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:25 – How Wayin helps 150+ enterprise customers create interactice experiences

1:20 – Why they collect explicitly shared data

2:40 – How they provide many different mechanisms for engagement

5:25 – Why they don't own or share the data they collect

5:45 – How the average customer pays them $65k annually

7:10 – Why they are doing $10M+ in ARR right now

7:30 – How he launched the company in 2011

8:20 – Why he still has meaningful equity after merging and becoming CEO

8:55 – How they've grown to 72 full-time employees internationally and in the U.S.

9:25 – Why they are growing 62% year over year

9:50 – How their growth is coming from both new customers and expansion

10:30 – Why they are driving 125% net revenue retention annually

12:45 – How they are spending 2% of their revenue on marketing



Jun 22, 2019

Max Israel is Founder & CEO of Customerville (https://www.customerville.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:30 – Why Max founded the company 15 years ago to scratch his own itch

1:30 – How he grew the business without venture capital

2:20 – Why they made the decision to pivot eight years ago

3:05 – How the average customer pays them $250k annually

4:05 – Why they decided to maintain bootstrapped

4:30 – How they funded the business with a small retail chain

5:30 – Why they serve more than 50 customers globally

6:00 – How they are doing around $1M in MRR right now

7:30 – Why they are growing 50%+ year over year

8:50 – How they've kept gross logo churn below 10% annually

10:00 – Why they are focusing on driving expansion revenue with new features going forward

10:15 – How their team has grown to around 40 full-time employees

10:45 – Why they spent up to $400k on Google AdWords in the past

12:10 – How they are evaluating new plans for growing their sales team

13:00 – Why they aren't in acquisition talks right now

14:00 – The Famous Five



Jun 21, 2019

Alex Raymond is the co-founder and CEO of Kapta (https://kapta.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:25 – How Kapta helps account management teams get increase visibility

1:20 – Why companies pay them between $25k and $100k annually

2:05 – How they launched the company in 2016 as an employee engagement platform

3:35 – Why 30 customers are using Kapta right now

4:45 – How they are connecting directly into CRMs and financial systems

5:20 – Why they are doing north of $60k in MRR

6:10 – How they've more than doubled revenue year over year

7:20 – Why they've raised $1.5M in total capital

8:00 – How they've gotten to 110% net revenue retention annually

9:30 – Why they are starting to get annual payment upfront

10:00 – How they are spending less than $10k to land a new deal

10:50 – Why Kapta has scaled to three full-time employees in Boulder

11:45 – How they would look to raise $3-5M in a Series A in 2019

13:15 – The Famous Five



Jun 20, 2019

Michael Beebe is CEO of Dstillery (https://dstillery.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:20 – Why they help unlock brand's growth potential through data science and insights

01:20 – How they are fueling their offering with top advertising performers

02:10 – Why they are creating unique audiences based on limited information

03:20 – How they have created a competitive advantage with behavioral data

04:30 – Why they are still selling a data product on a CPM basis

05:20 – How they spend on revenue share or CPM model

06:00 – Why they are charging 20% regardless of the advertising platform

08:45 – How they have raised $60M with the most round coming in 2018

10:00 – Why they are building a pure-play SaaS product right now

10:45 – How starting out on a consulting basis can have a massive impact on launching a SaaS business

11:50 – Why they are taking up to 50% for every dollar spent on their platform

12:30 – How they have process $50M+ in transaction volume this year

12:50 – The Famous Five




Jun 19, 2019

Mickey Patton is President and CEO of Clear C2 (https://www.clearc2.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:30 – How they launched the company as an electronic rolodex

0:55 – Why they are built as a CRM for manufacturers

1:35 – How they average customer pays them $60 per seat monthly

2:20 – Why Mickey joined the company to launch the software division

3:00 – How they've scaled to 50 full-time employees

3:40 – Why they are working with 450 total customers today

4:30 – How they are serving around 100,00 total seats

5:20 – Why they put their sales teams on annual quotas

6:15 – How they exhibiting less than 10% gross logo churn annually

7:25 – Why they are transitioning to a more user-friendly model

8:55 – How they are paying around $10k to land a new customer right now

11:25 – How they are doing more than $3M in ARR

12:30 – Why they are growing 60% year over year

13:00 – Why they are past $5M in ARR

13:20 – The Famous Five


Jun 18, 2019

Craig is the founder and CEO of SalesNexus (https://salesnexus.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:40 – Why he transitioned to SaaS

1:00 – How SalesNexus has grown to scale by bootstrapping

1:15 – Why the average customer pays them $150-$200 each month

1:30 – How he launched the company back in 2003 as a side-hustle

2:30 – Why they have grown to serve 5,000 total customers today

3:00 – How they manage implementation in-house to drive customer success

3:50 – Why SalesNexus is doing $3.5M in ARR

5:20 – How they added marketing automation features to increase pricing

5:55 – Why they have scaled from $3.25M in ARR 12 months ago

6:20 – How the average customer stays with them for 5 years

7:35 – Why driving customization leads to stickiness for SalesNexus

8:20 – How they are landing new customers via online advertising

9:15 – Why they are spending $300 in CAC right now

10:20 – How their team has grown to 20 full-time employees in Houston

11:10 – Why they are cash flow positive today

11:30 – How Craig still seems room for growth today

13:50 – The Famous Five


Jun 17, 2019

Alexander Hoogewijs is the CEO of SiteManager (https://www.sitemanager.io/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:40 – Why SiteManager has found a niche serving freelance web designers and small agencies

1:40 – How the typical customer pays them $105 each month

2:35 – How they serve 138 customers with 350 total users

3:10 – Why SiteManager is doing $14k in MRR right now

3:30 – How they are landing customers via outbound sales

4:20 – Why most of their team is based in Belgium and remote

4:45 – How their gross monthly revenue churn is around 1% today

5:30 – Why they raised more than $850k in outside funding

7:20 – How they are shooting for $60k in MRR within the next year

8:00 – Why they are paying $1,400 in CAC today

8:55 – Why they are spending most of their cash on their sales teams and onboarding

9:30 – The Famous Five

Jun 16, 2019

1422 Nicolas Vandenberghe How He Drove $300k Expansion on $1m ARR Cohort in 12 Months

Nicolas Vandenberghe is the CEO of Chili Piper (https://www.chilipiper.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:35 – Why they help businesses close more sales

2:10 – How the average customer pays them around $10k annually

3:55 – Why customers are pairing this technology with SDR's

5:05 – How they launched the company in January of 2016

5:20 – Why more than 200 customers are using their software today

6:10 – How they are at $2M in ARR right now

6:30 – Why they have hit net negative revenue churn annually

8:10 – How a majority of their growth has come from driving expansion revenue

8:35 – Why they have decided to bootstrap up to this point

9:35 – How they recieve payback

10:20 – Why the Chili Piper team has grown to 14 full-time employees

11:00 – How they are receiving payback within one month

14:40 – Why he would look to raise $5M at a pre-money valuation of $40M

15:35 – The Famous Five

Jun 15, 2019

1421 Michal Sadowski How He IPO'd $2m ARR Company on Polish Exchange

Michal Sadowski is the Founder & CEO of Brand24 (https://brand24.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:24 – Why Brand24 now serve 2k customers each month

03:35 – How their average customer pays them $100 monthly

04:35 – Why they are doing $2.4M in ARR

05:05 – How they launched the company back in 2011

05:15 – Why their team of 65 full-time employees is based in Poland

05:45 – How they've grown to scale with just $300k in venture capital

08:40 – Why they are up from $1.8M in ARR twelve months ago

12:20 – How Brand24 is exhibiting 5% to 7% gross logo churn per month

13:21 – Why they are landing new customers for $280 in CAC

13:45 – How they assume an LTV of $1,500 over 15 months

14:00 – The Famous Five

Jun 14, 2019

1420 Joshua Keller He Went Zero to $1m in ARR in 6 Months, Bootstrapped

Joshua Keller is the Founder and CEO of Maximus (https://maximus.live/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

01:30 – Why their customers pay them $1k per month

02:55 – How they launched the company in 2017

04:00 – Why they have grown to scale by bootstrapping thus far

04:20 – How they have landed 25 total customers

04:50 – Why Maximus is doing $75k in MRR right now

07:00 – How their gross churn is between 2-3% monthly

08:05 – Why their team of 20 full-time employees is based in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Austin, Ukraine, and India

09:20 – The Famous Five

Jun 13, 2019

1419 Bill Kahlert "I Don't Know What Logo Churn Means", I Predict They'll Be Dead in <12 Months

Bill Kahlert is the Co-founder of INBOX25 (https://www.inbox25.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:15 – Why INBOX25 provides marketing automation and customization

00:35 – How they charge their average customer $300-$400 per month

00:55 – Why he launched the business in 2007

01:40 – How they have grown to serve 4k user and 2k paid customers

03:30 – Why their pricing scales based on the size of your database

04:45 – How they are retaining more than 95% of their customers annually  

06:10 – Why their customers typically stay with them for years on end

06:45 – How INBOX25 thinks about lifetime value and CAC

07:40 – Why they are aiming for payback within 6 months

08:10 – How their team has less than 50 employees

Jun 12, 2019

1418 $1m on $10m pre would raise. Would sell for $10m today. Sean Leonard $2.4M ARR Marketing Automation Company CEO Would Sell for $10M Today

Sean Leonard is the CEO and co-founder of ActiveDEMAND (https://www.activedemand.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:35 – How ActiveDEMAND functions as a marketing automation platform

1:15 – Why they've decided to feature professional services

1:50 – How the average customer pays them $400 monthly

3:20 – Why he launched the company in 2014 out of an agency

4:40 – How they've scaled to serve 500 agencies

5:00 – Why they are doing between $200k and $300k in MRR

6:00 – How ActiveDEMAND is growing 30% year over year

6:50 – Why they are growing through a land and expand model

7:30 – How they are landing agencies through partner webinars and content marketing

9:40 – Why they spend $800 to land a new customer

11:10 – How they've grown to less than 50 full-time employees in Alberta

11:40 – Why they are planning on raising capital

13:00 – How he would be happy with a $10M pre-money valuation

14:00 – "Would you sell for $10M today?"

15:00 – The Famous Five

Jun 11, 2019

1417 Tom Axbey CloudHealth CEO On $500M VMWare Exit, 70% yoy Growth, $50m+ in ARR

Tom Axbey is the President and CEO of CloudHealth Technologies (https://www.cloudhealthtech.com/)

πŸ•’ Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:25 – How CloudHealth helps businesses manage visibility, cost management, security, and governance of their cloud infrastructure

1:40 – Why the average customer pays them between $50k and $1M annually

2:10 – How they launched the company in 2012

3:20 – Why they've raised $86M in total capital thus far

4:15 – How CloudHealth has grown to serve 3,500 total customers

4:50 – Why they are doing between $50M and $100M in ARR today

6:30 – How they are growing 70% year over year

6:50 – Why they are at 104% net revenue retention at this point in time

7:45 – How they are targetting a payback period of 6 months

9:40 – The Famous Five

Jun 10, 2019

Addicted to mobile products and services after more than 15yrs in different executive roles in media&entertainment, product development for leading publishers and brands with his agency clapp, started tchop as MVP project 3 years ago.

Jun 9, 2019

Kermit Kuehn is a Professor of Management at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, where he teaches strategy, international business and entrepreneurship. He operates Silvrback.com, a subscription blogging platform for writers seeking a less mainstream alternative in their blogging experience, as well as blogplatformsreview.com.

Jun 8, 2019

Anda Gansca is the CEO and Co-Founder of Knotch, the leading, independent provider of real-time intelligence for marketers. Founded in 2013, Knotch has been recognized as one of the most innovative marketing technologies in the world, as it seeks to change the way global brands engage and understand their audiences. Amongst Knotch's clients are GE, JP Morgan Chase, Unilever, Prudential and HPE. A regular thought leadership contributor to the trade media and industry at-large, Anda has been named to both Forbes’ and Inc.’s annual 30-Under-30 lists, AdWeek's Young Influential List and AdWeek's Top 100 Creatives, to name a few.

Jun 7, 2019

Kyle Sherman is the Founder and CEO of Flowhub and serves on the board of directors as Chairman. A legalization advocate and entrepreneur, Kyle is finding ways to use technology to help drive cannabis legalization forward responsibly in the United States.

In 2014, Kyle began lobbying the Colorado Department of Revenue to build an API to Metrc, the State's cannabis tracking system, so that third parties like Flowhub could send data directly to the database instead of manual entry. This Metrc API is now the standard in more than 7 states.

Kyle continually defines Flowhub's vision, strategy, and growth as Flowhub innovates the way cannabis businesses manage complex compliance mandates, supply chain data, sales transactions, and reporting.

His goal is to simplify business operations, keep companies and government transparent, keep cannabis products off of the black market, and build a robust scalable industry that is approachable for all adults and medical patients. This inherent motivation keeps Kyle and the Flowhub team passionate about providing fanatical customer service, and building delightful products and user experiences.

Jun 6, 2019

Darren M. Jer
CEO and Co-Founder

Darren co-founded MarketFactory in 2008 with a vision of providing clean, fast code to the FX market, and is currently CEO.

Prior to founding MarketFactory, Darren led sales and operations in the financial services markets for over a decade. Darren was head of new business sales Americas for EBS / ICAP. Prior to that, he was sales executive for IBM wall street accounts.

Darren earned a BA in English and political science from Duke University.

Outside of MarketFactory, Darren is an active member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York and All Souls Langham Place in London. When necessary, Darren can hurt a lot of people’s ears at karaoke.

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