Chris Bruznicki, CEO of Vaystays, which is a vacation rental marketplace tool used by propriety manager like Wyndam. He has been featured in Entrepreneur and was awarded the bronze star. Listen as Chris tells us how Vaystays is earning and what made him decide to raise capital.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Good to Great
- What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
- Favorite online tool? — DocuSign
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
- If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Networking is super important and consider raising capital”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:40 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
- 02:20 – Vaystays is used by professionals managing a vacation companies
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- 02:27 – People who have houses in Tahoe and the like will have the vacation companies manage their properties
- 03:44 – Vaystays gives them a marketplace for distribution
- 03:55 – Vaystays provides open cable like service
- 04:17 – Team size and location
- 04:26 – Vaystays is making 5 million transactions and Chris is earning 13% of every transaction
- 04:51 – Vaystays was founded in 2010
- 06:10 – Average order value is $ 2000
- 07:10 – Vaystays’ software automates all the check in procedure
- 08:15 – Vaystays takes percentage both from the traveler and seller
- 09:15 – Vaystays is transparent in their website about the pricing
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- 09:30 – Pricing varies depending on the season
- 10:30 – Vaystays is connecting specific needs to specific supplies
- 10:40 – Total transaction volume
- 11:55 – Vaystays business model
- 12:20 – Vaystays is in the process of creating subscription fees
- 13:50 – The marketplace still has lifetime value
- 15:09 – Vaystays currently has 2000 propriety management companies
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- 15:15 – Average is 10 units per company
- 16:10 - 25,000 stayed in their properties in September
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- 16:30 – Now is a slow period for Vaystays
- 18:03 – 312 bookings in September
- 18:48 – Vaystays has been self-funded for a long time
- 19:05 – Did a price round for fundraising
- 19:33 – $ 650,000 revenue in the last 12 months
- 19:47 – Valuation
- 20:56 – Chris has 2 co-founders
- 22:30 – Chris and his co-founders thought about a high valuation
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- 22:53 – They came up with something between $ 3-6 million
- 24:24 – Connect with Chris through his LinkedIn and his email
- 16:10 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Look for quality partners who can support you.
- Networking is important – it can lead to tons of opportunities.
- Consider raising capital if you see a reason to do so.
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 the 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.
- Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
- Vaystays.com – Chris’ website
- Chris@Vaystays.com – Chris’ email address
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives