Steve Kirsh. He’s the CEO of Token, a Silicon Valley startup company developing a modern platform for open banking. He’s pioneered several computer core technologies like optical mouse, Internet search, spam filtering, and secure identity and founded 7 high tech companies—two with billion dollar market caps such as Infoseek and Frame Technology. He received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1980.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Like A Virgin
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — SimplyFile
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Just hire good, strong and experienced people”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:25 – Nathan introduces Steve to the show
02:04 – Token supplies open banking software to banks
02:24 – There’s no real API that works with banks and this is the problem
03:00 – One of Token’s customers is Fidor Bank
03:02 – The problem is most banks don’t have an open API where you can do things like move money
03:19 – Token can get into Fidor’s API to drive its API
04:13 – Token has spent time creating an end-to-end secure architecture that is based on digital cryptography
05:24 – Steve thinks that there’s no real need for blockchain for a lot of financial applications
05:38 – “The technology for blockchain is just not appropriate”
05:48 – The Bank of England did an experiment with etherium
06:24 – Token was launched in 2015
06:50 – Steve shares how Token came to life
07:15 – Token raised $18.5M in a series A
07:26 – There’s legislation in Europe that requires banks to open their APIs and that’s when Token came in
08:07 – Token charges per API calls
08:10 – Token gets the calls for free from the banks
08:50 – The charge depends on the API calls
09:18 – Nathan simplifies how the model works
10:05 – There’s no equivalent to PSD 2 in the USA and it’s only for banks in Europe
10:20 – This can only happen in the USA if people want to be compatible with the banks in Europe
11:33 – Token’s first bank
12:11 – There are currently around 5 banks that are integrated with Token
12:25 – Team size is 25, split between San Francisco and London
14:20 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Find the perfect timing and opportunity to pitch your business.
It is easier and more secure for banks to adapt a technology that has been tested than it is for them to create their own.
Hire good, strong and experienced people for your business—it just makes like easier.
Resources Mentioned:
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
James Smith. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Bugsnag, the leading crash monitoring platform for web and mobile applications. The company helps companies like Airbnb, Lyft, Cisco, Pandora and Yelp catch and fix errors on their applications. Originally from London, James moved to the Bay area in 2009, leading the product team as the CTO of Heyzap. In his spare time, he likes hacking open source software, eating junk food and practicing his American accent.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Radical Focus
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
Favorite online tool? — eShares
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? – “If you don’t ask, you don’t get, apply it to your life”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:11 – Nathan introduces James to the show
02:00 – If a company has a software, Bugsnag detects when the software is broken
02:22 – Bugsnag charges monthly
02:28 – The price varies depending on the company’s needs
02:36 – Price starts at $29 a month to tens of thousands a month depending on the scale of the business
03:17 – Customer cohorts
03:57 – Team size is 35 and will be 45 at the end of the year
04:30 – James and his co-founder quit their job in 2012 and started Bugsnag in 2013
04:40 – James was the CTO for Heyzap which was a Y combinator company in the gaming space
04:59 – Heyzap wasn’t able to solve the problem James had with Bloomberg
05:59 – James invested in Heyzap and learned a lot from his time with them
06:40 – Heyzap was acquired by the German company Fyber
07:06 – James’ experience entering the startup world
08:30 – With Heyzap, James had to decide whether or not he’d buy his shares before the acquisition
09:43 – James’ price was low because he was an early employee of Heyzap
10:41 – James was 29 when he left Heyzap
10:50 – Bugsnag was initially bootstrapped, then raised in 2013
11:08 – Bugsnag went with Matrix Partners
11:32 – Bugsnag raised a total of $9.5M
11:49 – Customer number is around 4000 companies
12:04 – Bugsnag has a free and premium model
12:14 – There are 60K software engineers who are using Bugsnag
12:21 – One third are organizations and the rest are using it for free
13:00 – First year revenue was $4.5K in ARR
13:27 – Bugsnag has broken $2M ARR already
13:47 – “The expansion revenue is really, really strong”
13:50 – Bugsnag is constantly in a net negative churn
14:06 – Logo churn is around 1%
14:40 – Bugsnag started with low deal sizes and grew them slowly
15:05 – People try Bugsnag for free and see its value
15:45 – Healthy net negative churn in the industry is around mid-single digit to low double digit negative churn
16:41 – The best driver of growth for Bugsnag is word of mouth
17:01 – Bugsnag also does conferences and had 18 conferences last year
17:10 – Sponsorship price per conference can go up to $10K
17:28 – Large companies go to conferences as well
17:35 – Payback period is the 12-month which is the rule of thumb
18:17 – Bugsnag is in a typical SaaS gross margin
20:25 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
If you don’t ask, you won’t receive; therefore, just get out there and ask for what you want.
Small deal sizes can grow and expand to large ones once people see your value.
Consider owning a part of a company—especially if it’s a company that you truly believe in.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Jim Larrison. He’s the co-founder and president of Dynamic Signal, the leading, customer-employee, advocacy engagement platform. Jim has been involved in a handful of startups that were successful from within big companies to venture-funded businesses. With a couple of sold businesses and an IPO, he is set to come forward with Dynamic Signal which has already raised over $68M in funding.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Business Adventures and Into Thin Air
What CEO do you follow? – Tony Hsieh
Favorite online tool? — Owler
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “It’s important to fail and not to be scared of failing”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:12 – Nathan introduces Jim to the show
01:53 – Dynamic Signal was founded 7 years ago with the mission to revolutionize how to communicate with your employee
02:03 – Big companies struggle to communicate with their employees
02:23 – Dynamic Signal focuses on simplifying this communication
02:34 – Some large companies don’t use the internet to communicate—they send snail mail, newsletters or magazines
03:09 – Dynamic Signal works with Slack which is a collaboration tool
03:20 – Dynamic Signal is a top-down communication tool
03:43 – Dynamic Signal is a SaaS business with monthly subscription plans
03:59 – Dynamic Signal goes after global businesses, enterprises and corporate businesses
04:40 – Dynamic Signal charges by number of employees
05:36 – Big companies grow faster than the small companies
05:56 – Dynamic Signal segment customers depending on the number of employees and where the employees are based
06:20 – Nestle is a global business with hundreds of companies under their brand
06:43 – Dynamic Signal has no cap in the number of employees
06:57 – Global 50 companies have 23K to millions of employees
07:11 – Global 1000 companies have 5K to 25K employees and 5K employees below are for corporate businesses
07:26 – Dynamic Signal was launched in 2010
07:30 – Jim and his co-founder sold their previous company Adify to Cox
07:43 – It was for $350M
07:52 – It was a quick exit and they’ve raised $20-30M
08:06 – The original idea for Dynamic Signal was to go after advocates and influencers
08:25 – Jim saw that the biggest advocates for businesses like Oakley and Nike are their employees
09:30 – Jim and his co-founder built Dynamic Signal because they like working together, even after their successful exit
10:06 – When they started the company, they told themselves that they wanted to build the technology the right way
10:32 – Team size is around 200, some are in the field and some are in San Francisco
10:45 – Around 80 people are engineers/technical and 40 are on sales
11:17 – First year revenue
12:10 – 2016 ARR
12:40 – Jim’s vision for the company is to go public
13:00 – Total customers is close to a couple of thousand
13:25 – Dynamic Signal has 20% of the global 200 companies
13:55 – Dynamic Signal’s costs are driven to the technology
14:03 – Gross margin is around 85%
14:23 – Jim and his co-founder had a good relationship with Cox
14:36 – Cox also funded Dynamic Signal
15:52 – Jim hasn’t seen any logo churn since they launched
16:03 – Dynamic Signal has a long sales cycle: from 240 days to years
17:15 – Jim has tried the seat bucket license but it hasn’t worked as well as their previous pricing
18:00 – “The way we drive growth is 100% based on getting more usage and that’s it”
18:35 – After the raise, Dynamic Signal is focused on expanding their business
18:50 – Paid spent is less than $500K
19:03 – Payback period
21:07 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Larger companies struggle to communicate and connect with their employees and oftentimes, need a solution.
The biggest supporters and advocates of a brand are the employees.
Get used to failing and don’t fear it—it’s part of your path to greater success and understanding.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Brendan Candon. He’s the co-founder and CEO of SidelineSwap, an online marketplace for athletes to buy and sell their sports gear. The company has over 100K users, participated in 500 startups and has raised $1.5M in venture funding.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Leaders Eat Last
What CEO do you follow? – Jack Ma
Favorite online tool? — Slack and Appear
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? – Brendan wished he could have been more active in entrepreneurship while in school
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:20 – Nathan introduces Brendan to the show
01:43 – Brendan was in Episode 359 of The Top
02:33 – Brendan believes that SidelineSwap will make $5-6M in sales by the end of 2017
02:43 – SidelineSwap just launched their iOs app
03:28 – SidelineSwap is where athletes list their items for free
03:35 – You can list any new or used sports equipment
03:43 – SidelineSwap takes a 12% cut
03:49 – Their top KPI is gross merchandise volume
03:53 – They look at the number of sales they drive to the platform
04:51 – SidelineSwap currently has 15K sellers and around 23K buyers
05:22 – There are 2 sides of a marketplace:
05:30 – SidelineSwap gets supplies from the sellers which drive traffic
05:35 – There should be a balance between supply and demand
05:45 – SidelineSwap started by their search to see how many people had sports gear lying around
05:58 – They went to former college athletes, professionals and others in the industry
06:35 – They got some highly desirable gear from former known athletes
06:39 – SidelineSwap started with social media to drive traffic to the website
06:45 – They now have around 70K Instagram and Facebook followers
07:34 – SidelineSwap has marketing ads highlighting some gear that can be considered collector’s items
08:25 – Total transaction volume since the launch of SidelineSwap is around $3.5M
08:35 – 70% happened in just the first 6 months
08:57 – Brendan thinks that getting the right supplies affects their growth significantly
09:08 – SidelineSwap also educates the buyers on the items that they’re getting
09:30 – SidelineSwap tries to avoid jockstraps
09:43 – There are also different accessories that target the younger buyers
10:28 – eBay started in a similar way as SidelineSwap
11:00 – “We want to be the resource for every sports family”
11:21 – SidelineSwap wants to build the best possible shopping experience
11:45 – Average order value is $80
11:56 – SidelineSwap focuses on the number of gear listed
12:23 – In May, there were 3K buyers and 1500 sellers
12:48 – SidelineSwap has recently $1.5M in summer
12:56 – Total will be around $3.5 including a current negotiation
13:23 – Brendan shares how he pitched SidelineSwap as a marketplace
13:45 – Brendan believes there will be a sporting goods marketplace
14:19 – SidelineSwap is currently growing 30%, month over month
14:43 – Current team size is 10, some are in Boston and some are in New York
17:10 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
There will be a marketplace for sports equipment in the near future.
For every business, aim to achieve a balance with your supply and demand.
Research where you can find the BEST resources for your supply—this will attract your target market.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Eric Tang. He’s a computer programmer and co-founder of Live Peer, a decentralized video live streaming platform incentivized with the blockchain. He was introduced to the blockchain in 2014, and it’s pretty much everything that Eric thinks about now.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Jerry Colonna
Favorite online tool? — MetaMask
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Eric would tell himself to be more focused and worry less
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:06 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
02:07 – Wowza does video transcoding in a centralized way
02:30 – One of the big CDN players is Akamai
02:59 – There are two different cases for why people would use Live Peer over the other players in the industry
03:05 – Live Peer is in a decentralized world
03:11 – App developers nowadays are building decentralized applications
03:18 – The applications do not have a server
04:13 – They can duplicate their projects over the blockchain
04:17 – Live peer is the only solution for decentralized apps
05:20 – The government wouldn’t be able to figure out the IP of Live Peer
06:06 – The idea of blockchain is the participants are the stakeholders
06:16 – When you use Facebook live, you’re just a user and not actually benefiting from it
06:27 – In a decentralized world, if you’re a participant of Live Peer, you earn tokens which grow and become more valuable
07:07 – From an ecosystem standpoint, the companies building businesses around bitcoin and ethereum are early coin holders
07:28 – Joseph Lubin, Ethereum’s co-founder, is now hiring 400 people for ConsenSys to build applications around the ethereum ecosystem
07:55 – Ethereum provides a smart contract platform which bitcoin doesn’t provide
08:47 – How Ethereum and bitcoin are competitors and how they are not competing explained
09:17 – Anyone can build their own bitcoin blockchain but they won’t be always successful
10:18 – Eric thinks co-blockchains will also exist
10:50 – Eric thinks bitcoin is a great way to hold value as it has a great network now
11:11 – Ethereum has its own value and for a completely different purpose
11:29 – We use the ethereum platform to hold our tokens
11:50 – In the open blockchain world, anyone can be an investor
12:10 – There’s just more risk in investing earlier
12:44 – Can someone cheat the system by having fake miners grow the value earlier?
13:00 – Some are pumping the tokens and selling them
13:13 – When a company comes, Eric would have them hold their tokens at first
13:48 – If you have a lot miners, you’re already contributing a lot to the network
14:00 – The network will leverage the access capacity
14:12 – if you spun out a bunch of miners, Live Peers will have a large capacity in terms of amount of transcoding and live streaming work we can do
14:23 – This creates a cheaper price for the amount of live streaming
14:43 – Nathan makes a comparison using Live Peer 1 and Live Peer 2 as competitors
14:49 – When investors spend money on the 2 companies and contribute more resources, the prices of the service will go down for the consumers
15:07 – The longer they spend money, the more users they can drive
15:55 – If Nathan launches an email marketing tool, how can he create traction if people don’t understand crypto
16:18 – There’s actually a need for people to simplify the complexity of crypto
16:59 – Eric is thinking of providing incentives for individual stakeholders to get new users on board
17:23 – The big investors can put aside a big percentage of tokens and just incentivize it
17:37 – It’s like an employment equity pool
17:54 – The early participants will benefit more from the ecosystem
18:03 – The first bitcoin transaction was 10K bitcoins for a pizza
18:16 – The bitcoin price to buy a pizza is a little over $2500 (a coin)
20:30 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
More developers are building decentralized applications because of the security piece.
The participants in the blockchain are the stakeholders as well.
The one who will win is those who can spend more money and contribute resources for a longer span of time—this will attract more users and create cheaper prices for the consumers.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Anthony Diiorio. He’s a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, community organizer and thought leader in the field of digital currencies, blockchain technology, and decentralized technology. He’s the founder and CEO of Decentral and Jaxx and co-founder of the Ethereum project. He previously served as the chief digital officer of The Toronto Stock Exchange.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — LastPass
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? – Anthony wished he didn’t waste his time in university
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:55 – Nathan introduces Anthony to the show
01:38 – Anthony got into the industry in 2012 and thought that crypto was going to be more important than the internet
01:57 – Before, there was disruption in the internet—now, you can send value without third parties getting involved
02:21 – We’re now moving onto the age of the movement of value
02:34 – Some third party disruptions come from banks and credit bank companies
02:53 – You can remove third parties in the value chain and connect more individuals at a lower cost
03:11 – With smart contract, you can now automate on blockchain and see a reduction cost
03:38 – A blockchain is a ledger system or an accounting system that tracks entries using cryptographics
04:20 – Digital currency didn’t work before because there was no technology for it
04:48 – Since you can’t duplicate something digital, you can claim what is yours
05:33 – Decentralized ledgers track what people are sending and receiving
05:57 – The decentralized networks are replacing centralized services
06:14 – Blockchain is the technology, bitcoin is the example of that technology
06:22 – All cryptocurrencies have blockchains below them
06:28 – Bitcoin is the first one to have its blockchain
06:30 – Ethereum has a blockchain behind it
06:39 – Blockchain makes the transactions visible and transparent
06:50 – Blockchain provides trust between two individuals
07:40 – Tokens are coins but are found on other platforms
07:45 – Ethereum is a platform that is made to build other platforms on top of it
07:51 – Ethereum provides the infrastructure layer
08:05 – There are now tons of projects building coins on the ethereum platform
08:38 – Bitcoin has its own coin while ethereum is like a product that incentivizes people to contribute to the network
09:39 – Ethereum is like an SDK depending on the developers
11:03 – Anthony had a talk with someone who's in the cannabis industry
11:06 – Anthony is creating a coin card system where you can buy any coin or currency in convenience stores
11:18 – Banks don’t want to set up accounts for bitcoin companies because they’re scared
11:47 – Anthony sees the same characteristics within the crypto space and cannabis space
12:40 – Ethereum is from Decentral, the hub that Anthony made in 2013
12:55 – Anthony sees people jumping to the crypto space without even researching
13:15 – Look online before investing because scams are everywhere
13:47 – Anything that states there’s a fixed return is fishy so you should seek advice
14:03 – Do your due diligence
14:39 – Decentral is the brand and Jaxx is the product
14:48 – Anthony shares his initial experience with the industry
15:13 – Anthony bootstrapped Etherium
15:23 – Anthony left Etherium in 2015 to focus on the wallet space
15:30 – Anthony realized that the wallet is the browser for the technology
15:51 – The wallet contains the value of movement
15:56 – Anthony developed a multi-chain, multi-platform digital wallet that enables managing and receipt of valuable digital assets
16:23 –When you start your Jaxx, you’re creating a key for your transactions
16:41 – You are in full control of your wallet
16:55 – Jaxx makes money through integration partners like ShapeShift
17:09 – Anthony made $60M from ShapeShift transactions
17:50 – Jax just signed 70 partnerships in the space
18:25 – The fund that Anthony used for Jaxx
18:45 – Jaxx is currently profitable and made $150K last month
19:03 – There are exchanges globally that enable you to buy and sell cryptocurrencies rather than wire transfers to your bank account
19:13 – There’s also a bitcoin ATM and Anthony has it
19:32 – Jaxx’s goal is to become the default interface that the masses can use to understand the power of blockchain
21:46 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
With cryptocurrencies, you can send value without the disruption of third parties.
Do your due diligence—while cryptocurrency is a hot space for investors, the chances of getting scammed is also very high.
The power of blockchain isn’t only beneficial for those who are already in the space, but for everyone.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Emily Paxhia. She’s the founder of Poseidon Asset Management and she shifted her focus entirely to the cannabis industry, in 2013. Since that time, she’s taken her experience of researching markets, companies and strategic opportunities and turned them entirely to the world of cannabis. Her focus on understanding where the market is headed rather than where it has been, has been critical to developing a diverse portfolio of companies that span the sector. With over 15 years working with Fortune 500 companies—developing products, resolving strategic errors and addressing new target audiences—her work has been fundamental to stewarding her companies’ portfolios along the paths to success.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg
Favorite online tool? — Asana
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 3-5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wished I had took it easier”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:04 – Nathan introduces Emily to the show
01:53 – Poseidon is a VC firm for cannabis
02:02 – Emily was from an industry where companies were looking to expand their market share
02:09 – Emily saw the cannabis industry as an opportunity—there was a demand for products
02:30 – Emily’s parents passed away from cancer and she was told by some that cannabis could have helped her parents
02:43 – A dying cancer patient is prescribed medication that has side effects, then is issued more meds to handle the side effects—which is a difficult cycle
02:58 – Using cannabis appropriately could actually help with the side effects
03:05 – More and more cancer patients are experiencing relief while using cannabis
03:38 – Emily and her brother were 16 and 21 when their parents passed
04:07 – Prior to Poseidon, Emily was with Miner % Co. Studio
04:44 – As a financial professional, Emily had to assess her risk tolerances
05:04 – It’s important to be mentally and financially invested
05:09 – Emily also had great support to bring Poseidon to life
05:53 – Current fund size is $20M going $25M
06:11 – Emily’s brother is her business partner
06:36 – Emily shares a story when her brother brought in a company that Emily disagreed with at first
06:38 – In 2015, they’ve invested in a company called Surna
06:43 – The company had gone public and was in a lot of trouble
07:00 – Morgan had the idea to buy out the founders of Surna
07:15 – Morgan joined the board and helped the company get on track again
07:40 – Emily shares a time when the reverse happened; she brought in a company that Morgan was hesitant with at first
07:48 – The company was Wurk
08:00 – Emily was interested with Keegan’s presentation
08:35 – Keegan was in Episode 735 of The Top
09:20 – There is an assumption that Emily and Morgan are always high—this is NOT true
09:44 – Emily takes cannabis for stomach pain, but it doesn’t get her high
10:26 – Emily sees the cannabis industry as a wellness industry
10:50 – Emily is interested with business technology solutions that help businesses run smoothly
11:00 – She’s also interested in agricultural technology solutions as well
12:06 – “Honestly, if I could, I would solve the banking issue in California”
12:21 – Banks are still dropping businesses and credit cards
12:35 – It gets challenging when someone loses their banking relationship
13:00 – Emily is currently in San Francisco
13:23 – Poseidon is modest in stating their expected returns
13:31 – Emily wanted to capture the growth of industry
13:59 – Poseidon has been running 40-44% IR
14:13 – Poseidon has 3 phases of diligence:
14:20 – They receive lots of emails and Emily tries to read and respond as much and as quickly as possible
14:56 – Emily meets the founders and the team as part of their due diligence
15:06 – The last phase is from getting into the details of actual financial projections to sourcing potential co-investments
15:25 – Poseidon currently has 30 active companies in their portfolio
15:28 – Over 40 in the lifetime of the portfolio
15:55 – Typical deal size is $500K to a million dollars
17:02 – Emily and her brother are talking about a company they want to launch
17:38 – Emily’s three babies from their portfolio are:
17:42 – Flow Kana: a processing center working with small farmers
18:17 – Headset is a machine-data analytics company
18:37 – Emily really likes Wurk
18:49 – Baker is also exciting because it creates market opportunity
21:40 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
To become successful, one must research the field in question.
There’s a great demand for new product and technology in the cannabis industry as the supply is low.
Carry your past experience and knowledge into your current and future endeavors—employ the skills that transfer across disciplines.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Julian Marchese. Julian was introduced to Nathan by a mutual friend and he’s the CEO and portfolio manager at Marchese Investments in New York City. Julian is only 21 and was already featured in Bloomberg, CNBC and Dragon's Den, which is Shark Tank of Canada, where he managed to get 4 out of 5 dragons in the den that showed interest.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Market Wizards
What CEO do you follow? – Peter Jones
Favorite online tool? — Quantocracy.com
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? – “Multi-strategy”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:51 – Nathan introduces Julian to the show
01:47 – Going into the hedge fund world has always been Julian’s passion
01:55 – Julian was introduced to the world of investing by his parents when he was 11 years old
02:50 – When Julian turned 18, he decided to start his own firm
02:58 – He waited until he reached the legal age
03:27 – Julian took a course in Toronto and people in press found it fascinating that he was studying trading at a very young age
03:48 – A lady took it upon herself to take Julian’s story and publish it
04:05 – Some of Julian’s first investors saw his story from the media
05:00 – Julian wanted to build a community for young learners like himself
05:10 – A lady emailed Julian because she wanted her daughter to join
05:36 – Julian met the lady and her daughter when they were in Toronto
05:51 – 2 years later, the lady invested $75K for 1% of Julian’s management company
06;11 – The management company has raised $675K with a $4M valuation
06:38 – Hedge funds usually have multiple entities who have different roles
07:28 – Julian also pays himself for personal expenses which is around $25K to $30K
07:53 – The other costs are on the management company side
08:44 – The investors make money from the GP interest accumulated
09:43 – Julian was able to raise the $6M capital through value generation
09:45 – “I’ve been managing money since October 2015”
10:07 – The best months for Julian are the months where the market is down
10:28 – Julian latest deal was an institutional money manager
11:03 – Julian isn’t doing traditional investments
11:42 – Julian explains how he does his investments
11:45 – First, they’re able to trade volatility and how much the market moves up or down
11:59 – Most people invest in the stock market, they want to benefit with the stocks are up, but they also want protection when things go down
12:21 – One of Julian’s strategies is to systematically sell insurance
13:04 – The investment return depends on the investors
13:40 – If you put in a million dollars in October 2015, today you will now have $1.2M
13:50 – You can take it all or leave any amount you want
14:09 – They now cater to different types of clients
14:36 – Julian doesn’t worry too much about what other hedge funds usually worry about
15:10 – Julian worries more about their process and how can they develop more
15:20 – The real risk for Julian is when there’s something wrong with his analysis process
15:45 – Strategies are reciprocal
17:04 – Julian has multiple strategies and none of those strategies are correlated
17:53 – Brexit can affect the volatility strategy but it’s a selective strategy and not always in the market
19:03 – “The main risk to us are not macro events like a stock market crashing”
19:40 – Julian makes money from 53-55% of their trades
19:49 – They try to limit their exposures
20:02 – “The risks are very circumstantial”
21:20 – Julian is unsure of his future positioning, but it’s completely content specific
23:23 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Having multiple strategies can help you stay on track.
Start as early as possible—you are building your skills and knowledge base for the future.
People desire taking risks in trading and stocks, but they also need the securities in place.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Tom Kineshanko. He’s been investing in cryptocurrencies, also called digital assets or tokens, since 2013. He founded and exited the first bitcoin and ethereum fund in Canada, invested in the ethereum cloud sale and has made 10x the returns in bitcoin after ethereum classic, golem and several other tokens. He’s also the founder and general partner at First Block Capital, a digital asset fund manager where Tom leads investments in new token issuance. He’s also the founder and CEO of Walter.ai—a company that is building a distributed Bloomberg terminal—which intends to make the best supplier of market data to the cryptocurrencies market.
Famous Five:
Favorite crypto-related book? – Introducing Ethereum and Solidity
What CEO do you follow? – Brian Armstrong and Olaf Carlson
Favorite online tool? — Cryptocurrencies exchanges
How many hours of sleep do you get? — 8 plus
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I understood which industries were sort of young-man game versus old-man game”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:05 – Nathan introduces Tom to the show
02:31 – There’s a market of new old coin tokens and there’s little information about it
03:12 – “This is liquid venture capital”
03:15 – The tokens represent an exposure to startup projects
03:25 – As people know, investing in startups is about qualitative information rather than quantitative
03:45 – Tom decided to apply the distributing models in building companies
04:50 – Tom shares the common way to build companies
05:10 – Blockchain ecosystem has a technology that is a combination of 4 different technologies
05:15 – The technology allows secure transfer of value on the internet even without a third-party approval
05:28 – Blockchain is a secure transfer layer that overlays on your internet
06:06 – You can track the activity on the blockchain because it’s an open source
06:16 – The tricky part is to identify who’s doing what
06:46 – Every time there’s a transaction on bitcoin blockchain, you’re leaving clues to who you are and what you’re up to
07:43 – The best use case of bitcoin blockchain is a stored value
08:22 – The issue with bitcoin blockchain is that it’s not yet as trusted as gold
08:27 – Tom believes though that bitcoin blockchain will be as trustworthy as gold
08:38 – As an investor, you want to be diversified across multiple blockchains
08:56 – Every one of these tokens is the unit of currency within a blockchain
09:32 – Bitcoin is a unit in a chain with 21M units
09:38 – Tom uses the analogy of a train with several carts to explain bitcoin and blockchain
10:08 – Ethereum is a place you can go to build blockchains and host them
10:45 – If bitcoin becomes as trusted as gold, it can be worth billions of dollar
10:55 – “You can never prove that any blockchain is secure because there’s always a bug they might find in the future”
11:03 – The longer you wait to find the bug, the more trusted it becomes
12:07 – Tom believes that the way blockchain is built is the way companies will be built in the future
12:15 – For investors interested in technology, go to Coinbase.com which is a mutual friend of Tom’s
13:01 – Coinbase has different types of cryptocurrencies or tokens
13:05 – Tom recommends buying bitcoins on Coinbase
13:09 – Then open up a Poloniex.com account where you can buy whatever you want using bitcoins
13:54 – The people who took advantage of the gold rush didn’t look for gold, but created something that can be of use for gold
14:50 – In the crypto world, you can design a microeconomy with incentives
14:55 – The people will join your microeconomy and work for you to get the incentives
15:08 – The incentives are the bitcoins
15:51 – Walter is creating an army of people who contribute data in exchange for a reward
15:55 – The people are getting paid with tokens
16:29 – Crypto businesses are difficult
16:52 – The easiest way to get good returns in the space is to buy tokens which are units of currency in micro-economies
17:14 – Tom uses the analogy of buying Facebook IPO
19:20 – There are games where you can earn cryptocurrencies and online casinos for cryptocurrencies
19:53 – When you buy cryptocurrencies, you are already in a crypto economy where you need to do your due diligence
20:33 – Ethereum is one of the currencies that you need to run apps
21:21 – A token is like a packet (in relation to IP protocols)
21:54 – Blockchain is the protocol layer upon which tokens are transferred around
23:33 – Tokens are also called cryptocurrencies
23:15 – A miner is someone who runs an algorithm on his own piece of hardware that checks for activity within a blockchain
24:48 – The ways that you can contribute data varies
25:51 – It’s the first time in history that you can have liquid venture capital in the industry
25:58 – There’s an extreme demand, but with a limited supply
26:44 – Tom believes that now is a good time to participate in cryptocurrencies
27:31 – Tom shares to Nathan the questions that Nathan can ask a guest who is into investing in cryptocurrencies:
27:40 – What are tokens? How do you make a venture capital investment?
28:06 – Do you have a personal relationship with MetaStable and Polychain?
29:35 – What is the history of cryptocurrencies?
30:12 – Another question can be their strategy of trading
31:00 – Why people should use Walter:
31:05 – All of us in the space need to support a good project and invest in the right projects so we can all have a good return
31:21 – Walter is building a global community of contributors who are researching the space and gathering information in exchange for incentives
31:42 – “Get involved and join the conversation”
33:18 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Bitcoin may not be as trusted as gold, but it will be in the future.
Building a crypto business isn’t easy, but the demand is here.
Study and research an industry before jumping in, and know the RIGHT questions to ask.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Louis Jonckheere. He’s one of the co-founders of Showpad which is the second company that he’s founded. He and his co-founders founded the mobile development agency, In The Pocket, in 2010 where he still is on the board. Prior to In The Pocket, he was a strategic project manager at NetLog where he first met one of his co-founders. He also holds a masters degree in law and business and he’s currently the Chief Product Officer at Showpad.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Google Apps
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5-6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That you should’ve sold your first company sooner”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:21 – Nathan introduces Louis to the show
02:05 – Louis is the one responsible for product design and engineering, and he’s also in charge of the product marketing team
02:36 – Louis collaborates with their sales team
02:50 – Louis asks their sales team about the improvements they could make to the product depending on customer feedback
03:13 – Showpad is a sales enablement platform
03:22 – Showpad creates a content management system for their clients
03:47 – The marketing team uses Showpad to reach salespeople
04:14 – The salespeople are in the same company
04:27 – 90% of what marketing creates never gets used
04:47 – Showpad is used internally in businesses
05:36 – Showpad is a SaaS business
05:51 – Average contract value is $50-60K per land deal
06:46 – A customer that signed-up can grow up to an average of 140% in 12 months
07:04 – The upsell happens gradually
07:43 – Showpad uses Stripe for credit card payments
07:58 – Showpad also uses Salesforce, NetSuite and HubSpot
08:12 – Showpad currently has 997 customers
08:30 – ARR is a bit over $20M
08:35 – Showpad has a big group of SMB customers
09:05 – Showpad only has annual contracts so they’re not focused on MRR
09:15 – ARR goal this year is around $25-28M
09:48 – Team size is 220 with 30 sales people
10:00 – Showpad was launched in 2012
10:11 – Showpad was bootstrapped for 2 years
10:35 – The “bootstrapping mentality doesn’t get you to scale”
10:45 – Paid advertising spend was around $60-70K in a month
10:58 – Consists mostly of AdWords and LinkedIn ads with some Facebook ads
11:25 – Total money raised is $61M and the last round was a series C
12:15 – Showpad has been very lucky with their investors
12:58 – Showpad will be Louis’ first financial win
13:07 – In The Pocket is a profitable mobile agency
13:51 – Gross annual churn in 2016 was 6%
14:15 – As a platform matures, churn risk increases
14:42 – Net churn is around 30-35% in revenue
15:03 – Showpad has lost around 1-2 customers since they started
15:33 – CAC for the key cohort
15:42 – The golden rule for SaaS is for every dollar spent, you should get a quarter in return within 12 months
16:00 – Showpad currently has a 12-month payback
17:02 – LTV is around 5 years
17:28 – LTV in dollars is around $250K over 5 years
17:52 – Showpad is always aggressive with their targets
18:50 – Showpad has been adding dynamic mind maps to their product
19:33 – Most enterprise customers have been spending money on agencies to build a custom navigation presentation
19:48 – This is already a part of what Showpad offers
20:14 – The best marketing strategy for Showpad is events sponsorships
20:40 – Showpad has rented party buses for their customers in Europe
21:12 – Gross margin is 85%
21:25 – Revenue target by the end of 2017 is $28M to 30M
22:30 – 2016 revenue was $16.5M
24:21 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Marketing teams should coordinate with sales teams to find how they can make that successful deal.
Don’t discount a marketing strategy that may seem unconventional; it could be the very strategy that works.
Reach for the best—set an aggressive target for your company.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Shlomi Gian. He has served as PacketZoom’s Chief Executive Officer since June of 2016. He joined the company after spending 4 years at Akamai, where he founded the emerging mobile business unit and service—the head of mobile market development. Before that, he was the general manager of mobile solutions at Cotendo that invented Mobile CDN back in 2011 before it was acquired by Akamai.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Built to Last
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Mix Rank
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? – Shlomi would tell himself how exciting it is to do your own thing
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:18 – Nathan introduces Shlomi to the show
02:13 – PacketZoom helps mobile applications work better, especially when networks fail to deliver their service
03:15 – PacketZoom can make an application work in places where they don’t usually work, like in trains and elevators
03:31 – PacketZoom eliminates roadblocks and gets you on the express lane
03:40 – PacketZoom is a SaaS business
03:43 – PacketZoom charges per daily active user
04:10 – A daily active user is anyone who uses the system up to certain usage point
04:18 – Now, a daily active user is measured by the number of calls and how many megabytes have been used
04:40 – Average customer pay is $400-4K per application
05:28 – PacketZoom has raised capital through an investor round
05:35 – Total raised is around $6M
05:54 – The founder of the company started the company in 2013
06:33 – After Akamai’s acquisition of Cotendo, Shlomi was looking for a cutting-edge technology to bring into Akamai
06:43 – PacketZoom seemed to be the one that fits but doesn’t have enough commercial traction
06:51 – At the time, the investors were looking for a CEO who had a business background and could grow PacketZoom in the market
07:03 – Shlomi met the investors through a headhunter
07:18 – Shlomi fell in love with the product and he decided to leave his comfort zone at Akamai
08:06 – PacketZoom started out selling to enterprise and now they’re focusing on developers
08:26 – The headhunter was tied to the investors
08:54 – MRR was closed to none before Shlomi joined
09:20 – PacketZoom has a difficult product to built
09:34 – PacketZoom currently has 68 customers
09:59 – PacketZoom is tracking a few KPIs and the number of SDK installed
10:30 – The goal is to hit 15-20M active users by the end of the year
10:40 – PacketZoom is on track and halfway to their goal
10:57 – “We’re doubling our activity since I joined”
11:11 – PacketZoom relies heavily on partnerships
11:27 – PacketZoom is partnered with ChinaCache, a large CDN public company selling exclusively in China
11:38 – PacketZoom also has resellers and they already have 3 European resellers
11:50 – PacketZoom is expanding to Asia and Latin America
12:12 – PacketZoom is the perfect partner for their resellers because the resellers are already selling performance
12:30 – The percentage PacketZoom gets depends on the partnership’s commitment
12:45 – The partners take away the cost of operation and sales in their territories
13:00 – PacketZoom aims to work with larger partners who are willing to make greater commitments
13:17 – 2017 revenue goal is millions of dollars; they want to prepare for a series B eventually
13:46 – PacketZoom is close to passing the $88K MRR which can equate to a little over $1M in ARR
14:55 – PacketZoom just opened their office in Asia and are opening one soon in Europe
15:17 – PacketZoom has 3 sales people
15:24 – Company size is 20
15:54 – Paid marketing spend is less than $10K
16:48 – Zero customer churn for PacketZoom
18:29 – PacketZoom is a very unique product
19:21 – Assumed LTV
20:21 – The team is spread out in different states and countries
20:40 – Gross margin
20:58 – PacketZoom relies on other cloud infrastructures
21:19 – Gross margin now is 60-80% but will definitely change soon
23:55 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
You may find the right company at the wrong time, but in order to make it work takes you making a decision.
A company can definitely raise money on pre-revenue if the investors see its uniqueness and potential to grow.
Start to build as early as possible.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Adrien Nussenbaum. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Mirakl which was founded back in 2012. He’s currently based at the company’s Boston office and is responsible for the business’ growth in both the business to consumer and business to business sectors.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Hemingway
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Instacart
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would have helped my wife use Instacart”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:50 – Nathan introduces Adrien to the show
01:20 – Mirakl is a technology company that allows retailers, distributors and manufacturers relaunch and operate an online marketplace of third–party vendors
01:45 – Mirakl is similar to Amazon
02:10 – Mirakl is a technology solution and most of their customers are large enterprise companies
02:39 – Mirakl doesn’t compete with Amazon but allows their customers to have their own marketplace
03:05 – Mirakl’s technology would allow Best Buy to have different merchants on their website
03:20 – From the consumer’s perspective, they can purchase different products from different merchants within one website
03:28 – Mirakl currently has 125 customers in 25 countries
03:41 – Mirakl is a SaaS business
03:58 – Mirakl takes a small percentage of their clients’ generated revenue
04:24 – Mirakl provides companies a technology that leverages 12 years of experience in operating
05:13 – Mirakl’s cut depends on the revenue bracket they’ve set
05:49 – Mirakl’s charges vary per industry
06:15 – Mirakl’s customers charge retailers a certain percentage and Mirakl charges depending on those percentages
06:52 – Generally speaking, the charge is more than 5%
07:20 – Mirakl allows companies to operate a new business
08:15 – The additional earnings a company can get will be from the partnerships they have with other retailers using the Mirakl’s platform
09:19 – Mirakl was launched in 2012
09:26 – Mirakl was initially bootstrapped using the money from the previous company acquisition
09:36 – Splitgames was acquired by FNAC in Europe
10:04 – Mirakl raised $2M in the first round and $20M in 2015
10:23 – Both were equity rounds
10:30 – Adrien was the founder of Splitgames and it was initially bootstrapped, but raised later on
11:30 – Adrien is French and he thinks that they are more conservative when it comes to risk than Americans
11:48 – Adrien’s risk level when he started Mirakl was fair
11:56 – Mirakl has 2 founders
12:06 – The split was 50/50 but there’s a bit more for the one who had the idea
13:02 – Adrien’s had a background in banking prior to Splitgames
13:28 – Team size is 160
13:36 – 40% engineering and 25-30% sales
14:05 – Mirakl spends money on programs and lead generation
14:44 – Mirakl makes industry reports with people like Gardner
15:05 – Last month’s total paid ads spend was around $30-40K
15:58 – Mirakl sells something that is strategic for their customers
16:42 – Payback period is less than a year
18:50 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Creating relationships will not only nurture your network, but increase your opportunities for revenue as well.
One can be considered radical or conservative when it comes to taking risks; choose to which degree of risk you’re most comfortable taking.
In pitching to clients, you have to give them the assurance that your product is valuable to them and that they will NOT be needing any other product.
Resources Mentioned:
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
Mark Chung. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Verdigris, a Silicon Valley-based internet of things startup focused on smart buildings. Previously, he was a principal engineer for Net Logic, AMD and PA Semi. He graduated with electrical engineering from Stanford University and lives in Sunnyvale, California. When he’s not building, he’s spending time with his family.
Famous Five:
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Resources Mentioned:
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Mikita Mikado. He’s the CEO of PandaDoc, a company founded to accelerate the way organizations transact. He’s an entrepreneur, engineer, and executive focused on creating self-sustaining companies.
Famous Five:
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Gavin Wheeldon. With over 15 years of experience working in technology led or enabled businesses, Gavin has a deep understanding of the impact of technology on the bottom line of an organization. He sold his last business, Applied Language Solutions, a global language technology and service business, and has used some of the earnings to set up a new company, Purple WiFi.
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Tomer Levy. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Logz.io. Before co-founding Logz, he co-founded and was the CTO of Intigua, a company that innovated locker-like containers designed for large enterprises. Prior to Intigua, Tomer spent 6 years at Check Point, where he led its intrusion prevention system product from concept to market. He has an MBA for Tel Avi University, a BA in Computer Science, and is an enthusiastic kite surfer.
Famous Five:
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Derric Haynie. He’s the CEO of Vulpine Interactive, a social media marketing agency that helps build contagious brand and passionate fans. Nathan met Derris at Los Angeles when they were at Sean Ellis’ Growth Hacking event. Derris has an interesting story that goes from poker to social media to speaking, blogging, growth and digital marketing.
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Hal Howard, 20-year Microsoft veteran who gave up a stable, secure position leading the Dynamics ERP development team to satiate a spark of creativity. Today, he’s the founder of Komiko, a sales intelligence tool that helps their businesses understand what engagement with customers is working.
Famous Five:
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Jose Cayasso. He’s a growth hacker, co-founder and CEO of Slidebean, 500 Startups alumni, and a frequent flyer miles hoarder.
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Jessica Lee. Nathan met Jessica a few months ago and Jessica toured Nathan in 500 Startups’ office in San Francisco. She’s the founder of Bitesize. She helps companies drive revenue with text message conversations.
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Bo Jiang. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Privacy.com, a new way to transact online without showing your credit card number or pin. He previously worked on mobile products with Hatch Labs, which is the venture studio that incubated Tinder and Pixie TV, which was acquired by Samsung. He holds a BS in Mathematics in MIT.
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Amanda Newman. When she was 26 and working as a relator in Liberty, Toronto, she created a website for local deals, events, and news. Soon, other realtors were approaching her about the website, and she realized it had the potential spread all across North America. Today, Park Bench, her company, has grown from a fun little marketing idea to help a struggling realtor, into a multi-million-dollar company with 27 employees and a rapid growth rate.
Famous Five:
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Todd Johnson, a serial healthcare information technology entrepreneur committed to building great products, teams and companies. Todd has a track record of cultivating great ideas and great business that offer incredible company cultures and attention-grabbing brands. Before his current company, HealthLoop, Todd was the founder and CEO of Salar, a Baltimore, MD-based provider of acute care physician charge capture and documentation solutions.
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Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Chau Nguyen. He’s the founder and CEO of Hirewire, an on-demand hiring app for hourly workers. In his previous venture, Chau hired over 20K people only to realize his hiring process was broken—and that’s when he got the idea for Hirewire. To date, Chau has raised $4.1M in funding.
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Mathilde Collin. She’s the CEO of Front, a SaaS company working on redesigning email for teams. She started with Y Combinator in the summer of 2014, and today has 20 employees and 1700 customers.
Famous Five:
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