Gavin Zuchlinski, the founder of Acuity Scheduling—the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He’s a self-professed tech geek and an espresso-maniac who wholeheartedly believes that business should be totally fun.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Anything You Want
- What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove
- Favorite online tool? — Canary
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “8 and a half hour is my ideal number”
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing.”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:37 – Nathan introduces Gavin to the show
- 02:09 – Gavin is on his 4th espresso for the day
- 02:25 – How Acuity Scheduling generate sales
-
- 02:30 – SaaS to manage scheduling appointments online
- 02:48 – Developed for Gavin’s mother
- 03:00 – 2006 started
- 03:21 – Start of Gavin’s business
-
- 03:48 – 2007 first year in business
- 04:05 – Only a side project
- 04:54 – First year revenue
- 05:21 – Transition from working as a government employee
-
- 05:50 – Organic search results and SEO
- 06:24 – Had friends’ sign up on private link
- 06:45 – 2013 decided to shift
- 07:15 – Hired the first employee
- 07:50 – “Keep things small”
- 08:20 – Number of users on free trial
-
- 08:50 – Number of users at the moment
- 09:25 – 10% month over month increase
- 09:50 – Number of users in the past week
- 10:54 – 85% active users on paid accounts
- 11:46 – Most SaaS count their total base
- 12:57 – Growth from organic results and referrals
- 13:54 – “When the rate of growth gets too high, that’s when I need to hire”
- 14:07 – Total team size
-
- 14:18 – Everyone is remote
- 14:40 – Support works for only 6 hours a day
- 15:18 – Team size question is Gavin’s pet peeve
- 16:06 – Growth customer churn is about 8% per month
-
- 16:40 – Current customer acquisition cost on average
-
- 16:55 – 10 dollars to acquire for paid acquisition
- 17:12 – Total marketing spender
- 18:07 – Total expected earnings from a new unique customer
-
- 19:37 – Gavin’s bootstrap
- 19:50 – Goal for the company
-
- 20:08 – “Create a company where I enjoy working”
- 20:47 – Connect with Gavin thru his website and LinkedIn
- 22:40 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Sometimes, you just have to choose – and choose what makes you happy.
- Small team has advantages too – it’s easier to manage.
- Just be patient and let things grow slowly.
Resources Mentioned:
- Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
- Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
- Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
- 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.
- AcuityScheduling.com – Gavin’s website
- LinkedIn – Gavin’s linkedin account
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives