Ryan Urban, the founder and CEO at Bounce Exchange, a fast-growing consultancy that increases online conversion rates. Listen as Nathan and Ryan talk about investing in your own start-up, why some analytics aren’t worth it, and the best eateries in Tribeca.
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – The Psychology of Persuasion
What CEO do you follow? — None
What is your favorite online tool? — Gmail
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Drop out of college! I should have dropped out instead of going to grad school.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:20 – Nathan’s introduction
02:20 – Welcoming Ryan to the show
02:30 – Best eateries in the Tribeca area?
02:54 – Bounce Exchange makes money for e-commerce companies
03:20 – Created a new category of marketing software to increase online conversion rates
04:00 – Why Ryan left Bonobos when he was offered $300k to stay
04:40 – It’s crucial to get the right co-founder for a start-up
06:10 – In 2013 Ryan made a little over $30k: he couldn’t get a loan for a wedding
06:50 – The co-founders of Bounce Exchange are both in business
07:30 – Their developer has equity but doesn’t work for BounceX full-time
08:30 – Ryan didn’t want to follow the model of big software companies
09:10 – Bounce Exchange currently has around 150 employees
09:40 – Bounce Exchange was initially self-funded
10:30 – In August 2015, raised $6.3 million in a VC round
11:30 – 2012 made around $105k in revenue; 2015 made $17 million.
12:00 – Aiming to make $3.3 million in December 2016
12:20 – Currently working with 250-300 clients
13:40 – It’s difficult to come up with average revenue per client
15:30 – MRR January 2016 was between $1.5 and 2 million
16:50 – Net revenue churn is roughly 0%
18:20 – What are Bounce Exchange spending to acquire new customers?
21:30 – CPA of around $2k
23:10 – Why Ryan thinks CAK/LTV isn’t a useful analytic
24:40 – What’s a better measure? Ryan likes to use CPA to acquire a qualified demo
25:10 – Acquiring a customer for 20% of what the contribution margin dollars will be
26:00 – 85% of the team is in New York
26:45 – Bounce Exchange is currently in the black
28:00 – Calculating a PNL
22:30 – Other major costs include security and server infrastructure
3 Key Points:
Put your energy into the right start-up. Lots of talented people waste their time making bad ideas work.
Everyone feels like they’re underachieving. Decide what goals matter to you.
Decide what analytics are relevant to your business. The numbers that everyone else is talking about might not be useful for you.
Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
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
The Top is FOR YOU if you are:
A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)
STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)
An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)
The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).
Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.
Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop