Carlo Cisco, the founder and CEO of Select, a private membership community that offers discount deals with thousands of premier brands. Carlo was an early builder of Groupon. He’s also a canny investor who made $75k in stocks by investing during college. Listen in to hear Nathan and Carlo break down the numbers behind Select, discuss Groupon’s meteoric growth, and explain Select’s unbelievable CAC:LTV ratio.
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – The Intelligent Investor
What CEO do you follow? — Mark Zuckerberg
What is your favorite online tool? — Intercom
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —To get ready for some crazy stuff
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:30 – Nathan’s introduction
01:43 – Welcoming Carlo to the show
02:00 – Carlo started an events planning business while he was in college
02:20 – Actively invested in tech companies while he was in college
03:16 – Carlo put about $9k into stocks and turned it into $85k
04:11 – Joined Groupon and helped build their operation in Japan
05:30 – Groupon hasn’t helped businesses enough...most businesses aren’t getting repeat customers from Groupon or LivingSocial deals
07:35 – Started Select in 2013
08:00 – The goal was to work with premier brands in an ongoing, sustainable way
08:50 – Select generates revenue through a $250 annual membership fee
09:55 – Currently have around 9000 members
10:20 – Annual revenue is $725k - average revenues are down because of a discount deal that generated members early on
11:20 – Currently at over $1 million run rate
11:45 – Annual retention rate is around 75% - which is unusually high for the sector
12:20 – Have raised just under $800k in funding
13:00 - Had equity funding from an accelerator programme - “The network is incredible”
14:00 - Currently happy to break even on customer acquisition
14:40 - Current lifetime value is around $900 per customer
15:22 - Currently have a CAC:LTV ratio of 1:7
15:40 - Ideal customer: High-income professionals, 25-45 years of age
17:02 – Connect with Carlo on Twitter and Linkedin
18:30 – Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Accelerators have value beyond just funding - their networks and support can seriously pay off
Invest wisely and early
If you want excitement: prepare for it. Life can be crazy if you’re only ready.
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