00:30 – How Kahuna focuses on customer engagement
03:05 – Why they price based on volume and usage
03:50 – How he made the decision to join Kahuna after they approached him
04:50 – Why both of Kahuna's founders are still involved in the company
05:10 – Their team of 40 full-time employees is based in Redwood City
05:40 – Why they've scaled to serve 100 total customers internationally
06:40 – How they have more than doubled revenue year over year
07:00 – Why they've raised close to $50M in outside capital
07:40 – How they are managing churn across
08:30 – Why Kahuna's net revenue retention is well north of 100%
10:30 – How they aim for payback on customer acquisition within 12 months
12:00 – Why computing power is their main expense
13:00 – How their margins are still well within the average SaaS range
13:30 – Why they did an inside round in Q4 2017 and not looking to raise at present
14:00 – How they are still burning cash today
14:15 – Why they are north of $3M in ARR and targeting 100% growth YoY again this year
15:15 – The Famous Five
0:55 – How SaaS PayKickstart launched inside agency
1:25 – Why their average customer pays $99 per month
2:10 – How they've hit $50k in MRR today
2:40 – How $0 to $10k/mo in under 12 months
3:40 – Why they've bootstrapped to this point
4:15 – Tactic used to hit 20% gross revenue churn
9:40 – How they are landing customers through affiliates and cold outreach
10:50 – Why 10-15% of their revenue is coming from affiliate deals
Time Stamped Show Notes:
0:55 – Why he spun the company out of his agency one year ago
3:45 – Average customer pays them $3,500 annually
4:15 – How they've scaled to 250 paying customers
4:35 – Did $9k in MRR last month
5:20 – Less than 1% gross revenue churn monthly
6:05 – They are raising $1m right now on $2.5m pre money value
7:10 – How they've scaled with just two full-time employees
8:00 – Why they are paying under $100 to acquire a new customer
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show
00:25 – Why Kellogg was named top CEO by Glassdoor
00:45 – How Madwire has grown to 600 employees
01:25 – Why they operate on a hybrid SaaS and professional service model
02:30 – How they view revenue per employee and prioritize it
03:15 – Why they are doing $175k in revenue per employee today
03:30 – How Madwire is doing $105M in ARR right now
04:00 – Why they help small businesses with marketing at scale
04:50 – How they are serving 10k active customers at this point in time
05:05 – Why their average new account is paying around $1,500 each month
05:45 – How Madwire has scaled with $7.5M in outside funding
06:15 – Why they are cash flow positive
06:35 – How they are still growing 40% year over year
07:45 – Why they track churn in two unique ways
10:00 – How they receive payback within 3 months on a $3k CAC
11:10 – Why they are landing customers entirely through digital channels
12:10 – How he started the company with his father in 2009
13:45 – Why they've set aside stock and equity for top performing employees
14:40 – How they are targeting an IPO in the next few years
15:30 – Why they would look to IPO in two years
16:30 – The Famous Five
JB Kellogg is the co-founder of SMB marketing platform, Madwire and Marketing 360. JB was named the Top CEO in the country by Glassdoor in 2016.
Company website: https://www.madwire.com/
SaaS Metrics:
Founded: 2009
Customers: 10,000
ARPU: $875 (monthly)
Annual recurring revenue: $104 million
Founded: 2009
Funding: $7.5m
Team: 600
French, 24yo. I have lived in the US, Cambodia, South Korea, and Switzerland. I launched my first company 4 years ago doing smartphone repairs for students in campuses. And 18 months ago, I started Ease.space with 3 other people.
Christopher Reid is the founder and CEO of Sortable, a Waterloo Region startup on a mission to Empower Publishers. With an engineering background from the University of Waterloo, he is a serial entrepreneur on his fifth venture and has led tech ventures in industries ranging from educational technology to the consumer web and B2B SaaS.
He is the driving force behind Sortable (formerly Snapsort Media), which uses machine learning to help online publishers automate ad operations. Previously a web publishing company, Snapsort Media was acquired in 2011 and bought back in 2014 to relaunch to Sortable’s current day business.
Distinguished track record in technology, with a 20-plus year career spanning the development, marketing, and sale of technology. Spent the past 10 years on the cutting edge of social media, helping media companies and marketers more effectively use technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to power their social media efforts.
Valentin Radu is a serial entrepreneur from Bucharest, Romania. He has founded four companies and had one important exit and one useful failure. Currently, he is the Founder & CEO of Omniconvert, a growth marketing platform for websites looking to become customer-centric.
Byron White is one of the original content marketing revolutionaries, and founder of WriterAccess. He’s started several other businesses including Freelance Access, LifeTips, ideaLaunch and more. Byron is the Chair and Founder of Content Marketing Conference, an event featuring 65 speakers and 20 keynotes in 2018. He has authored four books on content marketing topics, is a popular speaker at dozens of conferences, and hosts a Webinar and Podcast series.
Frost Prioleau is the Co-Founder and CEO of Simpli.fi. An experienced online advertising executive specializing in targeting, optimization, and technology, Prioleau focuses on corporate strategy, driving Simpli.fi’s growth, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Prior to Simpli.fi, Prioleau was the CEO and Founder of Personifi, a contextual and behavioral targeting company. The firm was acquired by Collective Media in 2008. While at Collective, Prioleau served as General Manager of the Technology Solutions Group.
A thought leader in online advertising, Prioleau often speaks on the topic at industry trade shows and in the press. Prioleau is a graduate of Princeton University, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering Management Systems.
Jay is responsible for all revenue-generating activities of Atlassian,
including customer success and retention, operations and marketing. Jay
joined Atlassian in 2008 as vice president of sales and marketing to lead
Atlassian’s pioneering efforts to develop a high-velocity, low-touch sales
model. He’s overseen the company’s global expansion, introduction of its
Starter License program (a disruptive approach to “freemium” where the
company donates all proceeds to a charitable cause), and its growing
worldwide customer community and programs. In 2011 Atlassian
introduced its cloud-based offering Atlassian On-Demand, an evolution of
its fast-growing SaaS platform.
Jay has more than 18 years of experience in the software industry. He
began his career at Plumtree Software where he held a variety of senior
marketing and sales roles. Significantly, Jay oversaw the company’s
expansion throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. When Plumtree was
acquired by BEA Systems in 2005, Jay became vice president of marketing
for BEA Systems, which was later acquired by Oracle in 2008. Jay holds a
bachelor’s degree in political and environmental science from the
University of Washington.
Carbon Black solutions enable customers to defend against the most advanced cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and non-malware attacks.
Ryan Carson is the CEO & Founder of Treehouse, an online technology school with more than 80,000 enrolled students and 850,000 students taught in the past 8 years. Treehouse takes people from zero experience to job-ready in as little as six months. He also founded Carsonified and DropSend.
Kevin is the founder and CEO of TribeBoost, the first company to offer Twitter audience growth as a service.
He is a serial entrepreneur and has also founded ThoughtFlame, MoSquatch, and others.
Early in his career Kevin one of the first employees of USinternetworking – maybe the first SaaS business ever.
Jon Wuebben is the CEO and Founder of Content Launch. He's also the author of 3 marketing books, including "Future Marketing: Winning in the Prosumer Age"
Entrepreneur, journalist, developer and passionate about innovation. More than 8 years building software in Brazil and deep learning how to deliver value to customers through IT. Today I advocate a safer, faster and more scalable internet through entrepreneurship. Have you met Netzei yet?
Internet strategist and entrepreneur Fritz Brumder is the founder and COO of Brandlive, a SaaS live video platform used by brands and retailers to create highly engaging live content for marketing, training and commerce events. Fritz has been developing digital media solutions for the world’s best brands for over 10 years.
Ricky is CEO at Shorthand, maker of the visual storytelling platform trusted by the BBC, Business Insider, Refinery29, Honda UK, Save The Children, Cambridge University and hundreds of other publishers, brands, non-profits and universities. We make it simple for storytelling teams to create memorable stories that audiences want to share.
In 2009 I pulled a life 180, quit my sales job, taught myself how to code and launched a profitable SaaS in exactly one year. Seattle native, Texas Hill Country transplant. Working with an entirely remote team across three countries.
Ricardo Lasa – Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Ricardo and Don Berndt co-founded SiteWit to bring the power of digital marketing to small business owners. Ricardo is product owner for SiteWit and has a deep understanding of website builder platforms, ecommerce platforms, predictive analytics, digital marketing, and SMB SaasS solutions.
Matt is the Founder & CEO of Stackify. He has been a developer/hacker for over 15 years and loves solving hard problems with code. While working in IT management he realized how much of his time was wasted trying to put out production fires without the right tools.
Stacey has extensive experience in generating demand, fueling growth, and building brand name global recognition for technology companies. She brings two decades of cloud, social, and mobile enterprise technology experience to her role as CEO of Zinc. Prior to Zinc, Stacey was Chief Marketing Officer at ServiceMax where she helped fuel 5 consecutive years of triple-digit growth leading to a $1b acquisition by GE in 2017. Before ServiceMax, Stacey was the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at SuccessFactors. Stacey pioneered the marketing function at SuccessFactors in 2005, and was instrumental in the company’s successful IPO in 2007, which led to a $3.4B acquisition by SAP in 2010. Prior to SuccessFactors, Stacey held leadership roles at Oracle, Clarify, and ServiceSource. Stacey holds a BA in English from Emory University, where she was a four time first team all-conference soccer player. She loves deep steep powder, chasing around her two young daughters, and cheering loudly as her husband coaches basketball. She frequently writes on leadership, innovation, and women in business for Inc, Fast Company, and BizJournals, which can be found at staceyepstein.com.
Jeremy Bodenhamer is the Co-founder and CEO of ShipHawk, a Smart Transportation Management System. He is a leading expert at the intersection of shipping and commerce, and has been featured in TechCrunch, AOL, WSJ, Fortune, Internet Retailer, Inc. and Entrepreneur, and is a frequent speaker on innovation and technology.
I started Hiver in late 2011, and over the last 7 years, have virtually bootstrapped it to $1.5 million in ARR. Our MRR grew 60% in the last 5 months, and we're now growing 10% mom. Announcing Series A soon.