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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

What if you knew data behind the fastest growing SaaS companies today? Each morning join Nathan Latka as he spends 15 minutes interviewing SaaS founders. You'll learn how SaaS CEO's launched their startup and grew it into a business. SaaS Founders range from bootstrapped to funded, MVP to 10,000 customers, pre revenue to pre IPO.
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Now displaying: Page 1
Feb 9, 2017

Mikus Opelts. He’s the CEO at Giraffe360. He started this company 7 years ago, in February of 2010, when he got involved with Giraffe Visual which provides interactive visualization services. It has now developed into something so much more.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – How Google Works
  • What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
  • Favorite online tool? — Trello
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Everything I’m thinking about and planning for will take three times of the time than what I was hoping for

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:07 – Nathan introduces Mikus to the show
  • 01:40 – Giraffe360 has the best visual tool technology
    • 02:00 - Giraffe360 has a virtual tool that works with virtual reality headsets
  • 02:15 – 6 years ago, Mikus started the company
  • 02:37 – It took 14 months to develop
  • 03:16 – Mikus spent $200K on software development
  • 03:34 – Mikus just raised $500K for their product development
    • 03:39 – It is a convertible note
    • 03:49 – Mikus describes how it’s like to raise capital in London
    • 04:15 – Mikus went through a hundred meetings before getting that $500K
    • 04:25 – 90% of the investment is from one company
  • 05:15 – Giraffe360’s camera is free for companies who have a large volume of properties
    • 05:31 – Giraffe360 charges per property
    • 05:47 – Giraffe360 has developed their technology and it is on par with professional companies
    • 06:13 – 1 apartment tour costs €67 or $70
    • 06:28 – Minimum is 20 apartments per company
    • 06:45 – Payment is done monthly depending on the properties
    • 07:12 – Giraffe360 has sold their first 10 cameras in the market
    • 07:19 – There are 50 new cameras coming in at the end of February 2017
    • 07:39 – Giraffe360 already had 50 pre-sells who wanted to try the cameras
    • 08:00 – The incoming 50 cameras are almost sold out
  • 08:30 – Average MRR
  • 09:00 – Cost per hardware
  • 09:10 – The hardware is made solely by Giraffe360’s engineering team
  • 09:55 – People find out about Giraffe360 through word-of-mouth
  • 11:20 - Giraffe360’s only team is the engineering team with 8 people
    • 11:28 – 3 people in the back office
  • 11:50 – No customer churn yet
  • 12:20 – Giraffe360 is similar to a SaaS model
  • 13:13 – 2017 goal is to have 100 subscriptions and cameras in the market
  • 14:00 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  • Create something of the BEST quality that will stand out from the rest.
  • Raising capital takes perseverance; it may take 100 meetings before landing what you need.
  • Great things take time—relax, be patient, and get things done.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • 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
  • 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 the quality of Toptal
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
  • Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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