In Episode #621, Nathan interviews Nevin Shetty. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Registry, an innovative wedding registry platform where you can shop for products from a variety of retailers based on the layout of your home. The company has generated over $10M in their first 2 years of operation.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Smarter Faster Better
• What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? — SimilarWeb
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I should’ve learned computer programming”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Nevin to the show
• 02:00 – Blueprint Registry is a wedding registry platform for newly-engaged couples
• 02:23 – Blueprint Registry gets commission from the retailers on their platform
• 02:38 – An example of Blueprint Registry’s partners is Target
• 02:43 – Nevin explains how their platform works and how it is different from the traditional wedding registry
• • 03:08 – Instead of couples going to different retailers physically, they can just go to Blueprint Registry
  • 03:23 – Blueprint Registry has a unique visual representation of your home
• 03:45 – Blueprint Registry was conceptualized in January 2015
• • 03:49 – Nevin shares how he came up with the idea
• 04:04 – Blueprint Registry’s co-founder is a designer
• • 04:13 – Nevin found his co-founder through networking
  • 04:55 – The equity conversation with the co-founder
• 05:21 – Blueprint Registry was launched in 2014
• • 05:29 – Blueprint Registry did $225K of gross sales
  • 05:44 – Average cart value
• 05:53 – Blueprint Registry raised $700K with friends and families
• 05:58 – Blueprint Registry did $4M in sales in 2015
• 06:04 – Blueprint Registry did $6M in sales in 2016
• 06:12 – Blueprint Registry has had 2000 users
• 06:19 – Blueprint Registry is originally focused on weddings but now they have people who use them for baby registries, house warming parties, and fundraising
• 06:40 – Blueprint Registry spends the most on development and marketing
• 07:25 – Team size
• 07:46 – Blueprint Registry just closed a million dollar seed round
• • 08:00 – It was an equity round
  • 08:09 – The friend and family round was a convertible note
  • 08:12 – Nevin shares why he decided to have an equity round
  • 08:45 – Blueprint Registry’s value depends on gross and growth
• 08:55 – 2017 target revenue
• 09:09 – Blueprint Registry deals with seasonality
• 09:30 – There’s no monthly subscription
• 10:20 – Nevin wants to keep Blueprint Registry as accessible as possible
• 10:35 – Blueprint Registry was founded in New York and they stayed for a year and a half
• • 10:38 – Blueprint Registry is currently based in Seattle
• 11:15 – Blueprint Registry’s biggest competitors
• • 11:26 – The wedding registry market is a huge market
  • 11:38 – Zola, Myregistry, Honeyfund are some of the newest in the market
• 11:53 – Blueprint Registry has the lowest fees
• • 12:00 – 2.5% of credit card processing fee
• 12:25 – Nevin will accept Zola’s $20M imaginary acquisition depending on their vision
• 13:43 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Finding co-founders is easy, choosing the right one is hard.
• In a saturated space, having the best features that set you apart can make all the difference.
• An acquisition will not always depend on the price.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• 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

Peep Laja. He’s the founder of CXL. He was voted as the most influential, conversion rate optimization expert in the world. He helps fast-growing companies grow faster through his services, coaching and CXL Institute’s certification programs along with his world-favorite optimization blog.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Used to be Ready, Fire, Aim
• What CEO do you follow? –  No
• Favorite online tool? — Google Analytics and 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? – Peep wished that he had thought bigger when he was younger

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:33 – Nathan introduces Peep to the show
• 02:18 – CXL is an optimization company
• • 02:30 – CXL does conversion optimization
  • 02:40 – CXL also teaches about conversion optimization and everything a company needs to grow fast
• 03:13 – CXL has been an agency model for the longest time
• 03:31 – Conversion XL Institute was launched in 2016
• • 03:41 – It also has a monthly subscription
• 03:52 – MRR as an agency
• 04:11 – In running an agency, it doesn’t make sense to work with small businesses
• 04:59 – CXL has a minimum engagement of 3 months
• • 05:06 – The size of the client determines their length of stay with CXL
• 05:17 – CXL agency currently has an average of 15 clients
• 05:26 – Team size is 10
• • 05:32 – Agency people are mostly based in Estonia
• 05:38 – Peep is based in Austin and is mostly working on the institute side
• 05:54 – Peep only steps into the agency, if needed
• 06:08 – CXL has a blog where most lead generation happens
• • 06:19 – CXL has 2 full-time writers for the blog
• 06:35 – Average MRR
• 07:10 – Peep is working on the scaling aspect of the institute
• 07:32 – “Self-paced is not a good model for learning”
• 07:40 – Coursera, Udacity and other e-learning platforms struggle with churn
• 08:16 – CXL Institute added live courses which are happening in real time
• • 08:30 – The participation rate is way higher than the self-pace courses
  • 08:38 – The reasons why the participation rate is higher
• 09:01 – Self-pace is priced at $99 a month
• • 09:04 – Live courses have a one-time fee per course and there are 2 courses per month which are priced from $299 to $499
• 10:08 – Average number of students per course
• 10:41 – CXL Institute has their predominant list
• • 10:47 – CXL Institute also uses retargeting
  • 10:56 – CXL Institute is now starting to explore affiliate marketing
  • 11:09 – List size
• 11:24 – The blog was launched at the end of 2011
• • 11:43 – The pop-up is the most effective CTA that drives more opt-ins
  • 12:18 – Peep shares how to make a pop-up for a blog
  • 12:33 – CXL Institute is using Bounce Exchange
  • 12:50 – “We try not to annoy the users”
  • 13:04 – Bounce Exchange CEO was in Episode 253 of the Top
• 13:27 – CXL Institute does a revenue-share model with the instructors
• • 13:34 – The instructors are marketing their classes on their own, as well
• 14:18 – The live course inclusions
• • 15:02 – It is like a one day workshop
• 15:30 – The big companies are the ones who buy the self-paced courses
• 15:52 – CXL Institute currently has 1 certification program
• • 16:04 – CXL Institute is adding 2-3 certifications quarterly
• 16:30 – Peep initially thought the self-paced would be for small businesses
• 17:30 – Annual signup is 20-25%
• 18:10 – CXL Institute is having a conference called CXL Live
• • 18:16 – A whole resort is booked for the conference
  • 18:30 – The conference will be at Hyatt Regency Hill Country ,in San Antonio
  • 18:38 – A ticket includes a 2-night stay and meals
  • 18:50 – The conference will be on April 5-7
  • 18:55 – Visit live.conversionxl.com for more details
• 21:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• As an agency, the amount of time spent working with small and big companies is the same, so it’s better to stick with the big ones.
• Self-paced learning faces more churn than live courses.
• Think big and don’t just settle on what you think you can do—aim higher.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• 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

Paul Trappitt. He’s currently the CEO and co-founder of Smartbeat. Before Smartbeat, he was the senior business analyst at National Australia Bank and a senior project lead at SignIQ.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Start with Why and The Startup Owner’s Manual
• What CEO do you follow? –  Gary Vaynerchuk
• Favorite online tool? — HubSpot
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew smartphones were coming”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:22 – Nathan introduces Paul to the show
• 01:45 – Smartbeat helps small businesses to navigate the complex omni channel
• 02:30 – Paul shares how one of their paying customers uses Smartbeat
• 03:02 – Smartbeat is about the people that are already using your business
• • 03:10 – Smartbeat turns customers into raging fans
• 03:20 – Smartbeat is currently focusing on brick-and-mortar businesses
• 03:51 – Paul explains how they can help Jim, the café owner
• 05:14 – Smartbeat provides Wi-Fi to business owners and other technologies
• • 05:50 – Smartbeat targets your audience in social media
• 06:32 – Smartbeat is a SaaS business
• • 06:39 – Pricing starts at $250 a month
• 07:06 – Smartbeat currently has 5 customers
• 07:12 – Paul had a Wi-Fi company for 3 years
• 07:38 – Paul’s Wi-Fi business did $20K in 2016
• 07:44 – Paul pivoted because there was too much competition in the Wi-Fi space
• 08:23 – Smartbeat raised $150K in Australia
• • 08:39 – It was an equity round
• 08:55 – Paul shares how he came up with the valuation
• 10:10 – Smartbeat started in 2015
• 10:18 – Team size is 6 and they are all based in Australia
• 10:30 – Paul shares how they find their customers
• 10:55 – Smartbeat built their list organically through networking
• 12:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Don’t be afraid to pivot—you’ll know when it’s time.
• One way to build your network is by spreading news about your product in social gatherings.
• Technology is unpredictable so you have no choice but to adapt.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• 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

Ry Walker. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Astronomer.io, a big data infrastructure company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Astronomer is an AngelPad batch #9 company and has raised $2M from the likes of 500 Startups, CincyTech, Router Ventures and SocialStarts. Astronomer measures, connects and centralizes data—making it super simple for anyone from business users to data scientists to quickly create and monitor their data and pipelines.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• What CEO do you follow? –  Dennis Mortensen
• Favorite online tool? — Fabricator
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ry would tell himself to be bold and to be confident

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:35 – Nathan introduces Ry to the show
• 03:17 – Astronomer helps companies figure out how to use their data to benefit their business
• • 03:22 – Astronomer works with early stage startups and big companies
• 03:41 – Some companies in the web analytics space are Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics
• 03:57 – Astronomer helps companies get the right data from their inside companies
• 04:32 – Astronomer is called data engineering, as a service
• • 04:39 – Astronomer does the work for their customer while building the platform
  • 04:51 – Astronomer has a flat price of 6K and 10K monthly
• 05:14 – Astronomer has their private cloud edition for their customers
• 05:33 – Astronomer was launched in May 2015
• • 05:36 – Astronomer was at Collision Conference when they pivoted after the first day
  • 06:13 – They realized that their biggest problem was to get companies to send them the data to run the analysis
• 06:35 – The number one issue in the space is the onboarding
• 07:03 – Ry explains the type of company they are
• 08:02 – The Angelpad is one of the most important pivots Astronomer did
• 08:13 – Angelpad’s model
• 08:46 – What Ry was thinking when they got into Angelpad
• 09:30 – First year revenue
• 09:38 – 2016 revenue
• 09:57 – Team size and location
• 10:08 – Astronomer has raised $2M in 2 years
• • 10:31 – Last round was at $1.1M and a convertible note
• 10:40 – Average MRR
• 12:04 – Astronomer currently has 20 customers
• 12:14 – Customer churn
• 12:17 – Astronomer currently has a net negative churn of 48%
• • 12:46 – Ry explains the net negative churn of 48%
• 13:33 – CAC
• • 13:38 – Astronomer just started with paid CAC this year
  • 14:00 – Astronomer started with $600
• 14:21 – LTV
• 15:40 – Last round of funding was in August
• 16:21 – Ry explains the amount they are burning
• 16:42 – Ry is thinking now of the post-seed round
• • 16:52 – It’s a $3-5 M upround
  • 17:14 – The valuation Ry is aiming for
  • 17:40 – “We don’t really want to bump our valuation too much”
• 20:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The number one issue in data analytics is the onboarding.
• Know your valuation and understand the data that had led you to that valuation.
• Believe in yourself—be bold and confident.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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.
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Monish Anand. He’s a banker, a technologist, and a Fintech evangelist. Above everything else, he’s a father. He spent 20+ plus years in corporate working for large banks and technology companies only to realize that they were not solving big problems and quite frankly, were often part of the problem. His company, Datasigns Technologies, aims to provide underserved and unserved access to optimal credit.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Calvin and Hobbes
• What CEO do you follow? –  Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar and Google Task
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew what Internet was”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:35 – Nathan introduces Monish to the show
• 02:20 – Datasigns Technologies started last year
• 02:32 – Datasigns Technologies gives credit ratings
• 02:38 – 400M people in India apply for loans yearly
• 02:42 – Less than 107 get loans from banks and other financial institutions
• 03:00 – Datasigns Technologies tries to bridge the gap between the credit givers and credit takers
• 03:15 – Datasigns Technologies has grade scoring algorithms
• 03:35 – Monish believes that the calculus used to determine credit worthiness is not good enough
• 04:03 – Datasigns Technologies calculates data from sources and turns them into algorithms
• 04:10 – Monish shares his driver’s experience applying for a loan
• 05:18 – Datasigns Technologies relies on mobile data
• • 05:48 – Datasigns Technologies has a mobile app
• 06:06 – Datasigns Technologies’ marketing explained
• 06:35 – Datasigns Technologies has a tie-up with micro-small to medium enterprises
• 07:00 – Datasigns Technologies does financial literacy for the enterprises
• 07:21 – There are 75K people who now understands Datasigns Technologies
• 07:54 – Datasigns Technologies has around 10K app downloads
• 08:07 – Datasigns Technologies has closed 600 loans
• • 08:20 – Loan terms
• 09:24 – Datasigns Technologies was Angel funded, last year
• • 09:31 – They have raised around $400K on an equity round
  • 09:39 – Datasigns Technologies is raising another round of $5M
• 09:50 – Nathan breaks down the math
• 10:27 – Datasigns Technologies’ interest rate varies from 22-26%
• • 10:46 – Interest rates, in India, are much higher than in the USA
• 11:27 – Datasigns Technologies is the only company in India that is mandated by financial institutions to acquire customers
• 12:00 – Loan sharks charge 3% a month
• 12:40 – Datasigns Technologies has a processing fee and a basic interest rate
• 13:03 – How Datasigns Technologies makes money
• 13:43 – Datasigns Technologies helps banks build their books
• 14:00 – Why Datasigns Technologies is raising $5M
• 14:22 – Team size is 17
• • 14:36 – All based in Bangalore, India
• 14:45 – Monish shares why he started Datasigns Technologies
• • 15:05 – “There are people who deserve loans, but are not getting loans from the banks”
• 16:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Be the solution—not just part of the problem.
• There are people who deserve a loan, but are not given a chance—Monish wants to change that.
• The fintech space is one of the hottest spaces, at the moment.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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.
• 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

McCabe Callahan who has been an entrepreneur his entire life. He began with a coffee shop named Mugs Coffee Lounge, which has been operating successfully in Fort Collins, Colorado, since 2002. He began a company called Community Funded, in 2011, out of his passion for providing technology that connects, supports and empowers people.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – E-Myth and Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Pay attention to numbers”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:32 – Nathan introduces McCabe to the show
• 02:33 – Mugs Coffee Lounge is McCabe’s first real business
• 02:43 – McCabe went to Colorado State University
• 02:50 – McCabe was coming back from Europe when he had the idea of the Mugs Coffee Lounge
• • 02:56 – Mugs Coffee Lounge was the first wireless internet café in Fort Collins
• 03:11 – Building relationships is the key to a successful coffee lounge
• 03:36 – First year revenue
• 04:04 – McCabe is 36; but when he was 24, he was already opening 5 coffee shops
• 04:22 – Total topline of all the coffee shops and restaurants
• 04:58 – McCabe didn’t raise any capital
• 05:31 – McCabe’s credit card debt when he started Mugs Coffee Lounge
• 05:48 – McCabe also had debt from other sources
• 06:43 – “Coffee is a good business to be in—there’s no recession”
• 06:58 – McCabe shares where he sells his business to
• 07:07 – McCabe’s income is now generating well
• 07:16 – McCabe did $1.6M in sales in 2016
• 07:30 – McCabe shares how he started with Community Funded
• • 08:17 – McCabe had to find a way to secure a loan to open up a location
  • 08:31 – The amount McCabe wanted to loan
  • 08:45 – 2009-2010 was the hardest time for McCabe
  • 09:41 – McCabe was about to give up when one of his regulars offered help
  • 10:05 – 5 months after the McCabe’s next shop opened, he heard about NPR’s Kickstarter
  • 10:20 – McCabe thought, “What if he could something like Kickstarter, but for communities?”
• 10:44 – Community Funded started out bootstrapped and just recently raised a round
• 11:03 – Community Funded first round raised $40K-75K
• • 11:29 – Total funding was $2.3M
  • 11:38 – Rounds are equity round
• 11:50 – McCabe shares Community Funded’s valuation
• • 12:18 – People believed in Community Funded’s vision
• 12:38 – Community Funded’s is a SaaS model
• 13:46 – Sample of fundraising raised in Community Funded
• 14:26 – Community Funded’s focus
• 14:53 – Current Community Funded’s revenue and revenue goal for 2017
• 15:54 – Total transaction volume in 2016
• 16:03 – 2016 total revenue
• 17:21 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Lack of funds is not a hindrance in building a company.
• There’s nothing wrong sharing your problems with your regulars – you don’t know who can offer you help.
• Stick and pay close attention to your numbers.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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.
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Shin Sakane. He’s the founder and CEO of Seven Dreamers. Seven Dreamers is daring to create technology that has never been seen in the world. Shin has a PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Delaware.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Path
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Facebook
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Get global experiences, visit so many different countries, cultures...”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:44 – Nathan introduces Shin to the show
• 02:20 – Seven Dreamers creates technology that the world has not seen yet
• • 02:30 – First product is the fully automated carbon golf shaft
  • 02:35 – Second product is the nascent nasal airway stent
• 02:58 – There’s no connection between the products
• 03:16 – Seven Dreamers wanted to develop something that is not yet available anywhere
• 04:00 – Seven Dreamers was launched in 2011
• 04:20 – Seven Dreamers has raised over $75M
• • 04:29 – The money was mainly spent on product development
• 05:05 – The nasal stent currently has more sales than the golf shaft
• 05:27 – The golf shaft price is $1200 - $120K
• • 05:53 – The most popular model sells for $1800
  • 06:10 – The golf shaft was launched in 2014
  • 06:30 – 400 shafts/month are being sold
  • 07:35 – The way to make a golf shaft
• 09:06 – Team size
• 09:45 – 2016 total revenue
• 10:30 – It took Seven Dreamers 11 years to develop laundroid
• • 11:15 – Seven Dreamers has spent $15M for product development
• 11:33 – Shin shares how they came up with the idea of laundroid
• • 12:13 – Laundroid was initially limited
  • 12:50 – Laundroid’s price is $15K
• 13:38 – The 3 products are completely different—from the suppliers to the technologies
• 14:08 – Most of the product ideas come from Shin
• 14:43 – The last round they raised
• 15:03 – Shin shares the valuation of each of their products
• • 15:30 – “Everything counts”
• 16:12 – The nasal airway stent is currently their biggest money maker
• • 16:25 – Average MRR $1M
• 16:53 – 2017 goal is $80M
• 17:07 – Seven Dreamers are working on their sales and marketing
• • 17:14 – “We do our own marketing”
  • 17:34 – Advertising cost
  • 18:40 – Seven Dreamers spent money on sponsoring athletes
• 19:09 – The number of golf shaft complete sets that have sold
• 21:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Think outside the box—have a solution to a problem, then create a product.
• Study and know your market well so that your product speaks directly to a need.
• Be creative and innovative.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Todd Olson. He’s the CEO and founder of Pendo, a product experience platform that helps product managers deliver successful products. Before Pendo, Todd served as VP of products at Rally Software Development which he led through its public offering. Todd joins Rally in its acquisition of 6^th Sense, the company he founded and served as president and CTO.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? –  Aaron Levie
• Favorite online tool? — 15Five
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew more at 21, than I thought I knew”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Todd to the show
• 02:17 – Pendo provides a solution that helps companies build an application to improve its experience
• 03:00 – Optimizely uses Pendo to understand the people who are in their trial and onboarding flow
• 03:32 – Pendo is different to Intercom’s space
• 04:01 – Pendo is a SaaS company
• 04:21 – Pendo was launched in 2013
• 05:11 – Todd experimented with different technologies
• 05:26 – “Every product has key set features”
• 05:45 – Todd founded 6^th Sense and sold it to Rally
• 06:24 – First year revenue is zero
• 06:55 – Todd invested $1.2M to start Pendo
• 07:11 – Pendo has raised a seed round
• • 07:44 – It was a million dollar convertible note
• 08:15 – Pendo has raised a total of $31M
• 08:26 – Team size
• 08:55 – “All of our customers are top-tier”
• 09:43 – Average customer pay per month
• 09:52 – Pendo serves mid-market to enterprise companies
• 10:20 – Todd shares what drives their expansion revenue
• 10:50 – Pendo increases prices by adding products to existing plans
• 10:55 – Pendo has tier-prices based on features
• 11:17 – Todd shares why adding products is their main expansion driver
• 12:30 – Average number of customers
• 12:45 – Future target market
• 13:00 – Average customer churn
• 13:35 – Pendo has a net negative churn
• 13:49 – Todd explains net negative churn
• 14:54 – CAC and LTV ratio is healthy
• 15:26 – Pendo’s expansion plan
• 15:44 – Average MRR
• 17:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Treat all your customers as if they are top-tier customers.
• Expansion drivers will depend on what suits the company.
• Be more confident.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Sahil Arora. He’s an entrepreneur, author, and a guitarist and defies what you think someone his age could do. Tune in to learn his entrepreneurial story, from creating the Vuzelaa Group to jumpstarting Tabverts—a company that broadcasts ads in taxis all over India.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — No
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You could get a Lamborghini at the age of 10”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:15 – Nathan introduces Sahil to the show
• 01:35 – Vuzelaa Group is the parent company which Sahil started when he was 16
• • 01:51 – Under Vuzelaa Group, they created Tabverts; a company that broadcasts ads in taxis all over India
• 02:11 – Tabverts’ pricing
• 02:45 – Tabverts was launched in 2016
• 03:06 – Sahil is the sole founder of Vuzelaa Group
• 03:20 – Sahil shares how he found people on Twitter and got them on board
• • 03:59 – Sahil shares how he convinced them to join
• 04:55 – Sahil shows Nathan his sample pitch
• 06:28 – Sahil is 18 now
• 06:45 – There are around 10K cabs in India with Tabverts’ hardware
• 06:50 – Sahil shares how he funded Tabverts
• • 07:05 – Sahil spent $100K in the early stage of the business
  • 07:12 – Sahil raised $500K in an equity round
  • 07:32 – The $500K was from a VC based in India
• 07:50 – The brands that pay Sahil
• 08:18 – Sahil shares how the brand, Snapdeal, pays him
• • 08:40 – Average pay per second
• 09:45 – Tabverts’ customers can track their ads’ performance through an app
• • 10:14 – The clicks on the tablet can also be tracked
• 10:37 – Sahil shares how the ads’ loophole functions
• 11:00 – Team size
• 11:08 – MRR is $70K
• 11:35 – Sahil shares how his team operates
• 11:56 – Sahil dropped out of high school and won’t go to college
• 12:26 – Tabverts has a predictive revenue stream
• 12:35 – Sahil’s future plans for Tabverts
• 13:18 – How Tabverts deals with the cabs
• 14:05 – The key metrics Tabverts tracks
• 14:38 – 2017 goal
• 14:50 – Sahil shares what he does with the revenue he gets
• 15:23 – Cost per hardware
• 15:48 – Sahil shares how their tabs work
• • 16:16 – Tabverts only shows the ads that may be interesting for the people riding in cabs
• 16:47 – Tabverts is tied up with Uber
• • 16:57 – The amount Tabverts pays Uber
• 17:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Entrepreneurship knows no age.
• Continue to grow your company by investing consistently.
• You can find your clientele through social media – you just have to have the right pitch.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Charles Ramsey. He’s the CEO of Sauce Labs and has been in that position since April 2015, and has served as Chief Revenue Officer from February to April 2015. Prior to that, he’s had 25 years of industry experience—he was a venture partner at JMI Equity and held a number of roles at Quest Software, including VP of marketing and sales.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Finding Your North Star
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — No
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I’d become a CEO sooner in my career”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:27 – Nathan introduces Charles to the show
• 03:03 – Sauce Labs has just raised a significant amount, $70M
• 03:45 – Sauce Labs has raised a total of $130M
• 04:04 – Charles shares how they decide to raise capital
• • 04:14 – Sauce Labs checked their ability for an acquisition
  • 04:42 – Sauce Labs had great timing
• 04:54 – Sauce Labs does automated testing in the cloud for web app and mobile devices
• 06:38 – Sauce Labs’ market is about continuous integration and delivery
• 07:17 – Sauce Labs is SaaS based with an annual subscription and self-service
• 07:58 – Sauce Labs has invested in pre-sell and technical support
• 08:30 – Average transaction fee is $50K annually
• 08:56 – The fee varies from the number of parallel testings the customer wants
• • 09:20 – The concurrency of 50
• 09:45 – Sauce Labs is growing organically
• 10:11 – Sauce Labs is an 8 year old company
• • 10:33 – “The founders started the company with the notion of automated testing from day 1”
  • 10:54 – 3 years ago, a number of ISVs realized that they wanted to leverage selenium
  • 12:03 – One of the founders is still in Sauce Labs and all of them are still on the cap table
• 12:41 – Team size
• 13:20 – Sauce Labs currently has 3500 customers
• 13:58 – Sauce Labs’ 90-day post-transaction clause window
• • 14:17 – Depending on the complexity of the environment, it can require professional services
  • 14:26 – Charles shares what their technical team does
• 14:58 – Average ARR
• 16:00 – Average pay of self-serve customers
• 16:59 – Valuation
• 17:46 – Sauce Labs wants to focus on the enterprise companies
• 19:15 – Gross annual customer churn
• 19:46 – Sauce Labs is currently at net negative revenue churn
• 19:54 – CAC
• • 20:00 – Sauce Labs is doing paid marketing
• 21:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Do your research—know what your customer wants and needs.
• Focus your energy on the strengths of your company.
• Take courage, take the leap.

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

Dr. Milton Chen. He’s the co-founder and CEO of VSee, and has a PhD from Stanford on the design of video collaboration. Additionally, he was the co-founder of XMPP Video Standard which is now used by Google Talk and Facebook Chat. He has deployed VSee for Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Linkin Park and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Zero to One
• What CEO do you follow? –  Marc Benioff
• Favorite online tool? — Rapportive
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Milton would tell himself not to be as naïve and clueless

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Milton to the show
• 02:20 – Vsee is a SaaS company
• • 02:31 – Vsee offers mobile app and call center workflow
• 03:04 – Price range is $49-499 per medical provider per month
• 03:30 – Milton explains how VSee provides a service to client, Trinity Health
• 04:30 – Milton assures their client security and confidentiality
• 05:05 – Vsee was launched in 2008
• 05:33 – Milton went to graduate school because he wanted to become a professor
• 05:46 – Milton now loves everything about startups
• 06:03 – Vsee’s initial investment
• • 06:24 – It was an equity investment
• 06:42 – Milton was clueless about valuations and didn’t know what he was doing
• • 06:59 – Milton started VSee after graduate school with zero knowledge about business
• 07:15 – Milton was just grateful that people wanted to invest in VSee
• 07:35 – Vsee currently had a thousand paying customers
• 09:00 – Average number of nurses in VSee
• 09:23 – First year revenue
• 10:11 – Average amount raised
• 10:40 – Team size is 52 and they are based in Sunnyvale, CA
• 12:12 – VSee is currently cash flow mutual
• 12:51 – Vsee invests in making sure their customers feel secure
• 13:18 – Milton shares how their technology is built into Facebook Messenger
• 14:00 – Milton doesn’t get royalties
• 14:40 – Vsee started as a general video conference market
• 14:50 – Milton shares how they pivoted to the health industry
• 15:34 – Vsee has an inside sales team
• • 15:41 – Vsee has 3 sources for sales
• 16:22 – Vsee is currently not into paid marketing
• 17:40 – Vsee has close to 100% customer retention
• 18:17 – Vsee is on a net negative churn
• 19:20 – 2017 revenue target
• 20:56 – Vsee’s last closed round was in 2011
• 21:10 – Milton is just focused on acquiring more customers and is not interested in any acquisition talks
• 22:47 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Everyone has to start somewhere – even if it means being naïve and clueless.
• Getting into a market with less competition could mean more customers and sales.
• Paid marketing won’t always work so test everything, first, before investing in a certain marketing strategy.

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

Ryan Buckley. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a founder and CEO of Scripted and Toofr. He focuses on solving the problems that marketers and business owners deal with on a daily basis such as connecting businesses with writers. 

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Rework
• What CEO do you follow? –  Josh Pigford
• Favorite online tool? — HubSpot CRM
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ryan would tell himself not to be so stressed and just say “yes” as much as possible

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:15 – Nathan introduces Ryan to the show
• 01:40 – Scripted is marketplace that matches businesses with writers
• • 01:45 – Scripted has a subscription fee
• 02:19 – Scripted has raised a total of $15M
• 02:23 – Scripted was launched in 2011
• 02:26 – Ryan started in screenwriting
• 02:40 – Ryan shares how he started Scripted
• • 03:04 – “We just followed the market”
• 03:12 – Toofr came before Scripted
• 03:50 – Ryan shares how Toofr came to life
• 04:17 – Ryan was using Genius software and had a drip campaign
• 04:35 – Ryan learned about Phyton
• 05:14 – Toofr is different from the original script
• 05:29 – Toofr is a SaaS model
• 05:32 – RPU
• • 05:45 – Ryan put up the paywall in 2013
• 06:32 – Ryan used Toofr to learn web development
• 06:37 – Toofr is completely bootstrapped
• 06:45 – Team size
• 07:40 – Toofr has a hundred customers
• 08:00 – Gross customer churn
• 08:40 – Toofr relies solely on organic traffic
• 08:55 – Ryan shares why he thinks people leave Toofr
• 09:20 – Ryan shares the improvements that he can make to reduce churn numbers
• 10:10 – Toofr has 16K registered users
• 10:27 – Toofr’s competition
• • 10:59 – “Hunter kicks my ass in SEO”
  • 11:30 – Toofr has better data
• 11:59 – Toofr has multiple sources
• 13:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Learn as you go — as you build your business, be mindful of all the opportunities to learn.
• There are great advantages in working with a small team.
• Use your competition as motivation to make yourself better.

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

Craig Fitzpatrick. He’s a serial entrepreneur, self-professed child nerd, and CEO of PageCloud.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Biography of Steve Jobs
• What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
• Favorite online tool? — N/A
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Jump in while there’s still nothing to lose”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:22 – Nathan introduces Craig to the show
• 01:48 – PageCloud is a SaaS business
• 02:10 – PageCloud is different from Weebly and Wix, but they are in the same space
• 03:28 – PageCloud has reinvented the experience for desktop publishing and puts it into your browser
• 03:56 – Average customer pay per month
• 04:08 – RPU
• 04:22 – PageCloud was launched in September 2014
• 04:48 – Craig started PageCloud as a hobby
• 04:48 – Craig has been frustrated with desktop publishing in the past
• 05:20 – Craig shares how he started the planning and creating of PageCloud
• 06:15 – Craig’s previous company
• 06:45 – Team size
• • 06:52 – The team is based in Canada
• 07:05 – PageCloud is well-funded
• • 07:17 – PageCloud has raised a few rounds
  • 07:40 – First three rounds are convertible note and the fourth one is a priced round
• 07:55 – Average number of customers
• 08:15 – MRR
• 08:24 – PageCloud was in Kickstarter
• 09:00 – Below $200K MRR
• 09:23 – Craig shares how they pre-sell:
• • 10:00 – They built a landing page from TechCrunch’s promo video
  • 10:30 – Craig did a lot of marketing before the launch
  • 11:19 – Starting price point
  • 11:30 – Average number of units sold
  • 12:21 – Craig learned how to do effective marketing in 6 months
  • 12:40 – Craig put in $1M in paid advertising
  • 12:56 – The payback was just after a month
• 13:10 – Gross customer churn
• 14:30 – CAC
• 14:50 – LTV
• 15:32 – 2017 goal
• 17:01 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Don’t be afraid to invest in marketing – it shows that you believe in your product.
• Be innovative—make a change in an industry that is quite stationary.
• There is no time better than the present to get started.

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

Mats Horn. He’s the CEO and founder of the Swedish tech company, Tinitell. Together with a team of Scandinavian industrial designers, telecom experts and engineers, he developed one of the first wearable devices with cellular connectivity for voice and data. Tinitell wrist phone is an ingeniously simple wearable phone for kids with call and smart location features as well as an intuitive, one button, voice guidance interaction.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Sapiens
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Mats would tell himself to not be in a rush and take life as “unseriously” as possible

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:31 – Nathan introduces Mats to the show
• 02:12 – Tinitell is a simple mobile phone that kids wear
• • 02:20 – It’s a smart locator for parents
  • 02:35 – Kids can make and receive calls
• 02:57 – Tinitell is independent from its smartphone administrators
• • 03:03 – It is like a robot in a simple product
  • 03:13 – The smartphone app is how the parents control what’s in it
• 03:36 – Tinitell needs to have a SIM card and it is already provided
• 03:50 – Tinitell is partnered with a telco
• 04:48 – Tinitell was launched in Kickstarter in 2014
• • 04:54 – Shipping started after a year and a half
• 05:16 – Tinitell has shipped 15K units
• 05:30 – Tinitell sold 1,102 units in Kickstarter
• 05:41 – Tinitell has raised $150K in Kickstarter
• 05:51 – “It’s tough making the world’s smallest mobile phone”
• 06:03 – Tinitell has put it in additional $4M for funds
• • 06:18 – “Most money came from VC companies”
• 06:25 – Tinitell has raised thrice
• • 06:36 – All are equity rounds
• 06:53 – Mats shares why he raised in smaller rounds
• • 07:35 – In doing smaller rounds, Mats and his team wouldn’t dilute themselves
• 08:03 – Mats was working as a consultant before Tinitell
• 08:25 – Mats realized that he wanted his own company
• 08:29 – Mat’s idea of Tinitell
• 09:15 – Team size is 30
• 09:25 – Average number of customers
• 09:43 – The critical numbers of Mats
• 10:12 – Mats looks at the conversion rate and general market activity
• 10:50 – Tinitell’s competition
• 11:20 – What people should look at in conversion rate
• 11:40 – Tinitell has 4 colors
• • 12:03 – The bestsellers are the darker colors
• 12:36 – Markup vs. cost
• 13:49 – Mats shares about making a physical product 
• 15:15 – Mats shares how he finds his suppliers
• • 15:32 – “I knew I had to go to China”
  • 15:48 – Mats has to have a network of suppliers
  • 16:29 – Mats reached out to everyone he knows who could possibly help him
• 18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Know your numbers and track them consistently.
• Your network can be your advantage in sourcing and creating your product.
• Enjoy life—take things slow and don’t be in a rush.

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

Peter Schlecht. He’s the founder and CEO of The SaaS Co whose aim is to change sales through artificial intelligence as they have launched  their new product, Lisa. He’s a 30-year old from Germany—a poker and e-sports playing, politician who became an entrepreneur.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Der Weg zum erfolgreichen Unternehmer
• What CEO do you follow? –  Felix Staeritz
• Favorite online tool? — OneTap
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Stop earlier with politicians, don’t do your masters and study entrepreneurship earlier”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:15 – Nathan introduces Peter to the show
• 01:37 – Peter makes more money in entrepreneurship than being a politician
• 01:58 – The SaaS Co is an agency for B2B lead generation
• 01:55 – The SaaS Co is subscription based
• 02:06 – The SaaS Co’s focus is Lisa
• • 02:14 – Lisa is a bot for salespeople
  • 02:18 – Lisa reads and replies to your email
  • 02:52 – Lisa doesn’t delete emails and won’t reply if she can’t find an answer to an email
• 03:08 – The SaaS Co was founded in July, 2014
• 03:17 – First year revenue
• 03:22 – The SaaS Co was selling the service of full-sales for tech companies
• • 03:34 – The SaaS Co specializes in appointment setting for B2B tech companies
  • 03:51 – The SaaS Co was providing 4 services
  • 04:23 – The payment depends on a company size
  • 04:44 – The fee for every qualified lead
• 05:05 – Current number of customers
• 05:19 – MRR
• 06:12 – No charge for Lisa, at the moment
• • 06:20 – Anyone can sign up for Lisa
• 06:41 – The SaaS Co was bootstrapped until last year
• 06:53 – The SaaS Co raised €500K from angels and €300K from The European Union funding
• 07:55 – Peter shares how they get new customers
• 09:03 – The SaaS Co doesn’t buy leads from other sources for verification
• • 09:08 – The SaaS Co uses datavalidations.com to validate their leads
  • 09:38 – Peter uses Full Contact
  • 09:50 – The SaaS Co finding leads process
• 11:15 – The SaaS Co scrapes data from open sources
• 11:40 – The SaaS Co tried other sources, but the price point has to be considered
• 12:10 – Team size
• • 12:16 – There are 17 developers and the rest are on sales
• 12:30 – No paid marketing, at the moment
• 12:44 – Customer churn
• • 13:06 – The SaaS Co needs to keep on adding new customers to sustain growth
• 13:55 – The SaaS Co’s big focus is on Lisa and Peter believes she will add more value to the company
• 14:55 – The SaaS Co is based in Berlin
• 15:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• There are many things to consider when it comes to subscribing to other sources for leads; price is a major factor.
• One way to get people to sign up for a new product is to offer it for free.
• Get into business early as early as possible.

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

Christof Wittig. He’s a serial, software entrepreneur and investor. Currently, he’s the founder and CEO of Hornet Networks, the world’s second largest gay social network and is a managing partner of Strive, based in San Francisco. He’s an investor and board member of various companies including Enish, Metago, KeepSafe, VirtaHealth, Black Medicine, Movie Pilot, Box Fish and App Annie. He has been active in the US, Germany, and throughout Asia.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Zero to One
• What CEO do you follow? –  Sami Inkinen
• Favorite online tool? — Capshare.com
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Christof wished he told himself to be bold, that he didn’t need a degree, and to follow his dreams

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:19 – Nathan introduces Christof to the show
• 03:09 – Strive and Hornet came at the same time to Christof
• • 03:32 – Hornet started as a side project
• 03:50 – Christof exited Servo Software before Hornet
• 04:00 – Hornet is Christof’s first consumer business
• 04:10 – Servo Software was launched in 2004
• 05:02 – Christof sold Servo software in 2010
• 05:20 – Hornet’s capital came from that exit
• 05:48 – Christof is now 48
• 05:58 – Nathan had Sean Howell, Hornet’s co-founder in Episode 440
• 06:20 – Sean focused on marketing
• 06:50 – Sean and Christof are running it together
• 07:10 – Hornet had a subscription model and premium option
• 07:50 – Hornet’s revenue is 2/3 from subscription and 1/3 from ads
• 08:00 – Hornet’s future revenue model
• 08:28 – GHI
• 09:02 – Hornet raised their $8M in their Series A
• 10:05 – Hornet’s focus is the advertising revenue
• 10:46 – “Our focus is to get more engagement”
• • 10:57 – Engagement is measured through sessions
  • 11:12 – Peak days
• 11:30 – User base
• • 11:41 – 3M monthly active and 1.5M daily active
• 12:09 – The key metrics to track the number of sessions
• 12:30 – Christof shares about Tinder
• 13:16 – Hornet sells CPM and provides premium exposure
• 14:00 – Hornet has a feed model to drive more organic traffic
• 14:34 – Hornet has the following features
• 15:20 – Hornet’s published price for CPM
• 15:56 – The number of advertisers currently working with Hornet
• 16:28 – Hornet uses TFP for their ads
• 17:10 – Hornet has the largest gay media newsroom in the USA
• • 17:30 – The story feed makes the interaction in the gay community easier
• 18:05 – Christof shares where they spend the $8M
• 18:25 – Hornet also spends in marketing
• 18:39 – Christof wants users to understand that Hornet isn’t just about dating
• 19:00 – User growth
• 19:30 – Hornet takes the new concept of the gay app to the next level
• 20:14 – Hornet is about creating a new digital space for the gay community
• 21:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• They gay community needs a place where it’s not just about dating, but having interactions with the whole community.
• The focus isn’t always on the number of users, specially if you’re driving traffic well.
• A degree isn’t as important as just following your dreams.

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

Chris Golec. He’s the CEO and founder of Demandbase. Chris is an entrepreneur and prior to starting Demandbase, founded one of the most successful B2B software and data solutions in the late 90s called Supplybase. With previous positions at GE and DuPont, Chris uses his wealth of experience to position Demandbase as one of the most rapidly expanding B2B marketing companies in the space.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – N/A
• What CEO do you follow? –  Keith Krach
• Favorite online tool? — Amazon and Skype
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Go for it sooner”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:22 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
• 02:10 – Demandbase is a marketing technology company focused on B2B marketers
• 02:46 – Demandbase sells subscriptions to large enterprises
• 03:10 – Chris used his experience in GE to find what salespeople need
• 03:40 – Average customer pay per month
• 04:09 – Demandbase has raised $90M
• 04:51 – Demandbase was launched in 2007
• 05:20 – Demandbase started pushing the account-based marketing technology
• • 05:32 – Chris explains what an account-based marketing technology is
• 06:03 – Supplybase was in a supply-chain space
• 06:37 – Chris started as a consultant
• • 07:04 – Chris saw the huge opportunity from his clients’ experiences
  • 07:33 – Chris shares how he determines the red flags in revenue plans
• 09:05 – First year revenue
• 10:17 – Demandbase had their first round in 2007 for $2.5M
• • 10:33 – It was an equity round
• 11:00 – Chris shares what he deems important to know before raising a round
• • 11:07 – Have a goal
  • 11:22 – Know that “it’s not easy raising money”
• 12:00 – Demandbase currently has 400 customers
• 12:23 – Average MRR
• 12:40 – Team size is under 250
• 13:44 – Gross customer churn
• 13:59 – “Even if we don’t add any customers this year, we’ll still grow by 10% next year”
• 14:14 – Chris shares how the teams are designated by customers
• 15:00 – CAC
• 15:13 – Average contract value
• 15:40 – Demandbase is in San Francisco
• 16:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• When you see an opportunity, go for it!
• Raising money is not a walk in the park – know your goal beforehand.
• Don’t wait around, go for your dreams as soon as you can.

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

Andy Lürling and his business partner, Menno Bischops. Andy has over 15 years of experience in the startup world and is truly a serial entrepreneur. He has tons of experience in corporate and the corporate environment including strategy, business development and product development in entertaining and series gaming, VR, AR and online applications. He and Menno are working on a company called VRee.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Exponential Organization - Andy
• What CEO do you follow? –  Andy Lürling
• Favorite online tool? — Google Maps and Google Docs
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Go for it—just do it”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:21 – Nathan introduces Andy and Menno to the show
• 02:05 – LUMO Labs is a 2-year accelerator
• 03:30 – LUMO labs is all capital at this point
• 04:27 – The size of the funds that LUMO Labs has contributed
• 05:08 – The number of investment rounds LUMO Labs has made
• 05:20 – Official launch of LUMO Labs
• 06:30 – Menno shares what VRee does
• • 07:00 – The full-body VR experience
  • 07:26 – The VR suits, headset and goggles are wireless
  • 08:05 – It is like augmented laser tag
  • 08:42 – VRee also offers e-sports
• 09:18 – The capital VRee has raised
• • 09:50 – The grant is non-dilutive
• 10:05 – Menno shares how they earn from VRee
• 10:29 – VRee is currently showcasing what their platform can offer
• 10:43 – VRee has revenue, but it’s not substantial yet
• • 11:11 – VRee is usually used in pop-up events
  • 11:30 – VRee is in current talks with VR arcades for permanent installation
• 12:42 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Accelerators is a great avenue for startups to get going.
• You may have to start small and that may mean intermittent revenue.
• Just go for it, take courage and just do it!

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

Enrico Casati. He is the co-founder and CEO Velasca, a company that specializes in handcrafted shoes. Enrico is based in Milan, Italy.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The 4-Hour Workweek
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Adabra
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Know your audience before doing anything business related”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:43 – Nathan introduces Enrico to the show
• 02:03 – Velasca is an online brand focused on hand-crafted shoes
• 02:26 – Velasca was self-funded and had a VC round
• • 02:39 – Velasca had raised €750K
  • 03:01 – It was an equity round
• 03:18 – Enrico’s dad was an entrepreneur but not a shoe maker
• 03:31 – Enrico shares how the idea of Velasca started
• 03:51 – It was 4 years ago when Enrico started Velasca
• 04:34 – Enrico shares about one of their products
• • 04:52 – The source of the raw materials
• 05:30 – The cost to make the Artista shoes
• • 05:52 – 2.4 markup
• 06:47 – Net margin
• • 06:52 – Depends on the marketing budget you want to spend
  • 06:59 – High growth pace
  • 07:32 – “We invest so much on marketing”
• 08:10 – Velasca has spent €20K on marketing in January 2017
• 08:38 – Enrico had the first idea of Velasca in the summer of 2012
• • 08:52 – The first collection on their website was launched in May 2013
  • 09:25 – The first year was about the testing
  • 09:34 – Since September 2014, Velasca has grown in people
• 09:43 – Current team size is 10
• 09:54 – Around 15K customers have bought from Velasca
• 10:17 – Average check out value
• 10:50 – Customer repurchase rate
• 11:52 – CAC
• 12:00 – LTV
• • 12:10 – “The lifetime is really worth the cost we’re spending”
• 12:45 – Velasca has sold around 20K pairs of shoes
• 12:56 – Velasca’s best-seller is the Black Oxford
• 13:16 – “Versatility is what makes the shoes’
• 14:00 – First year revenue is €60K
• • 14:04 - €200K the second year
  • 14:08 - €1.6M the third year
  • 14:43 – Topline revenue
• 15:25 – Enrico’s goal is to reach €4M
• 16:06 – Enrico spends more on paid advertising
• 18:08 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Study your product, first, before putting it in public.
• Invest paid marketing that performs well.
• Your relationship with your customers will reflect on your customer retention.

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

Gary Fowler. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Findo, a smart search across multiple platforms for email, files, and folders. Gary has over 23 years of startup experience and is an award-winning CEO, a senior executive, a speaker with over 7 technologies startup and a successful IPO for the company CKSW. Gary is known as the go-to startup CEO that gets stuff done.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Intercom
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Never
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Gary wished he could look back and spend more time getting deeply involved with his first startup

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:34 – Nathan introduces Gary to the show
• 02:08 – Gary shares what Findo is
• • 02:15 – The challenge that we have nowadays is the large, vast amount of information that we have
  • 02:25 – An average person has around 3000 items
  • 02:58 – “We’re an AI tool, so it’s learning all the time”
• 03:15 – Findo has a monthly subscription model
• • 03:23 – Advance is $499/month and ultimate is $999/month
• 03:48 – Average customer pay per month
• 04:01 – Findo was founded by David Yang who built 9 startups including ABBYY
• • 04:21 – Gary was the co-founder and CEO for the US corporation
• 04:36 – Gary shares why they had to spin out ABBYY
• 05:05 – Gary bought the IP from ABBYY
• 05:33 – Gary shares how they found the person who did their independent evaluation
• 06:08 – Average cost of buying the IP
• 06:19 – Gary shares where they got their capital
• 06:36 – Gary has raised $7M
• 06:45 – Gary is currently on seed 2
• • 06:51 – Gary’s major seed contributors
• 07:40 – Gary shares why they call their current round, seed 2
• 08:38 – Gary had an equity priced round
• 08:56 – Findo was launched in April 2016
• 09:06 – Gary started the most successful accelerator, GVA LaunchGurus, in Russia, prior to Findo
• • 09:31 – 60% of the companies have raised money
• 10:04 – Gary raised capital to fund the accelerator
• 10:58 – None of the companies have exited yet
• 11:25 – Gary shares why he left GVA LaunchGurus for Findo
• 12:00 – Team size is 26
• • 12:22 – Why Gary chose the people from Europe
• 13:10 – Findo just came out of beta
• 13:15 – Findo has over 80K customers
• • 13:19 – Percentage of paying customers
• 14:15 – Average MRR
• 14:25 – Findo is currently moving into the model of reason strategy 
• 14:50 – Gross customer churn
• • 15:10 – Between 5-10%, but most come back
• 16:15 – The problem that 12% of the population have
• 17:13 – CAC
• 18:58 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Find a solution to the most common problem.
• Follow your intuition when it it’s time to make a move.
• Your contributors play a big role to your company’s growth—make sure they are suited to you and your company.

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

Shashank Murali. He’s a BITS Pilani alumni. He’s a co-founder and CEO at TapChief – a platform to seek advice from industry professionals. Previously, he built and sold Edvice, an on-demand tutoring app, to HashLearn. He had a product for Hashlearn before he decided to set on a path to democratize knowledge sharing with TapChief. Apart from startups and tech, Shashank enjoys cricket, psychedelic music, and swears by Pink Floyd.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Everything Store
• What CEO do you follow? –  Vijay Shekhar Sharma
• Favorite online tool? –  Trello
• 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 persist more”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Shashank to the show
• 02:11 – Shashank shares what TapChief is
• • 02:25 – TapChief charges from the expert’s pay
• 02:36 – TapChief is similar to Clarity.fm
• • 02:44 – Shashank shares how TapChief is different from Clarity
  • 03:14 – TapChief has a various of offerings
• 03:25 – TapChief is a marketplace
• 03:39 – The 2 sides of TapChief:
• • 03:45 – Experts ask for a consultation charge and TapChief gets a fee from that
  • 04:30 – Experts monetize their knowledge using TapChief
• 05:33 – Average order size
• 06:14 – Shashank believes that their market would still grow
• 06:40 – TapChief was launched in a B2C play
• 07:07 – TapChief takes 20% from the experts’ charges
• 07:21 – Average number of experts in the platform
• 07:31 – TapChief was launched in February 2016
• 07:48 – Average number of students who have purchased from TapChief
• 08:28 – TapChief is giving the experts options to present themselves better
• 09:05 – 1000 out of 5000 experts in TapChief had conversations already
• 09:31 – Shashank shares how they measure their growth
• • 09:58 – What Shashank primarily measures
• 10:16 – TapChief has raised $150K with a team of 10
• 10:40 – The number of hours TapChief has crossed
• • 10:50 – Average monthly minutes of interactions
• 11:25 – Shashank shares how they leverage the number of students
• 12:25 – Revenue goal for 2017
• • 12:42 – Shashank’s focus is on the number of minutes of interactions
• 13:02 – Shashank’s plan is to grow the number of minutes
• 14:10 – Shashank is open to B2B collaborations
• • 14:45 – Shashank explains why a business would pay for collaboration
• 15:18 – Where the majority of the revenue is coming from
• 15:46 – 2016 total revenue
• 16:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• We are experts in our own field and there are platforms where you can monetize your knowledge.
• You don’t always have to focus on the revenue—there are metrics that should be considered.
• Be more persistent—especially in the things that are most important to you.

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

Sushma Sharma, the CEO of Konversai. She’s a lawyer turned entrepreneur. She has law degrees from The University of Oxford and Columbia University and has worked in two prominent Wall Street law firms and set up a department of practical law at City University of Hong Kong. Sushma has taught thousands of students and seen some the most privileged humans as well as some of the least privileged in her life journey spanning 3 continents to where she has lived and worked over the last 15 years. Konversai was born as her solution to the problems facing mankind today.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – N/A
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t doubt yourself and just keep doing what you’re doing. There’s a time and place for everything”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:30 – Nathan introduces Sushma to the show
• 03:19 – Konversai is a social conversation platform
• • 03:28 – Sushma shares the types of conversations in Konversai
  • 04:43 – Konversai’s focus is the knowledge from personal experience
• 04:21 – Sushma’s philosophy is “nothing valuable is free”
• 04:25 – Konversai has a credit system
• • 04:33 – The charge is .50 cents for one month for creating a box in Konversai
• 04:54 – “I want to make people feel accountable for what they’re putting up”
• 05:25 – Sushma shares how they make revenue from a paid conversation
• • 06:09 – Konversai gets 10% from the amount paid
• 06:36 – The seeker is the one who pays the service
• 07:02 – There are 2 sides of the business: the seeker and the provider
• 07:22 – Konversai has under a thousand current providers
• 08:00 – The number of buyers
• 08:19 – Sushma’s target was to get the providers as well as the buyers, too
• 08:40 – The traction has been quite slow
• 09:21 – Sushma explains why they have to use Stripe
• • 09:25 – Konversai is a global company and the currency has to be considered
• 10:02 – Some users are quite hesitant to fill out the Stripe sign-up form
• 11:10 – Konversai is only 3 months old
• 11:40 – Konversai has raised $1.3M in a seed round, in November
• • 12:20 – It is a convertible note/safe
• 12:42 – Average order value
• 13:30 – Current revenue
• 13:46 – “It is growing every month”
• 15:21 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Nothing valuable is free.
• The way you win is by doing things consistently.
• Don’t doubt yourself and keep doing what you’re doing—there’s a time and place for everything.

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

Michael Kaplan. He’s the CEO and founder of Taivaco which is a media technology company. He’s also the former director of marketing at Sanyo and was appointed at San Francisco Water Bay Front Committee. Michael speaks Chinese, French and Japanese. He attended The University of Redlands, Waseda University in Tokyo, George Mason University and Chinese Culture University.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – It’s Not My Department
• What CEO do you follow? –  John Cleese and Ken Okuyama
• Favorite online tool? — Any.do
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “The more you listen to other people, the more success finds you” and  “Be a nice person”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:28 – Nathan introduces Michael to the show
• 02:07 – Michael shares why January 20^th is a special day
• 03:15 – Taivaco was set out to solve an invisible problem and ended up solving more problems
• • 03:47 – An archive isn’t an accurate description
  • 03:50 – Organizations are struggling to manage their media
  • 04:17 – One of Taivaco’s original ideas was to digitize media
  • 05:08 – Taivaco helps companies find their content within their media or discover what DAM (Digital Asset Management) software does
• 05:50 – Taivaco incorporates both software and manual work
• 06:01 – “This is not a software that we sell, this is a service that we do”
• 06:15 – Taivaco is a service-only company
• 06:26 – Taivaco was launched in 2016
• 06:33 – Taivaco is currently on pre-revenue
• • 06:49 – Taivaco has done under 10K in pre-revenue
• 07:00 – Taivaco version 1.0 will be available in April
• 07:12 – Taivaco was originally self-funded
• • 07:20 – Michael put in 20K in Taivaco
• 07:27 – Taivaco just closed their “seedling” round for less than 50K
• 07:43 – Long term plan is to have another round
• 07:56 – Michael shares how they actually make a sale
• 08:32 – Sabra Design is one of Taivaco’s paying customers
• • 08:39 – Sabra Design came to Taivaco to ask for their service
  • 09:04 – Taivaco got less than a thousand for the job
• 09:10 – Taivaco has already reached out to potential clients to scale up
• 10:17 – Michael explains why it is taking them more time to close a deal
• 10:50 – Taivaco doesn’t specialize in digitizing and they do it for a minimal cost
• 11:23 – Taivaco annotates content which nobody has done before
• • 12:12 – Michael shares their annotation process
  • 12:46 – The charge for annotation will depend on the volume
  • 13:20 – Taivaco will have a subscription model for the annotation
• 14:10 – Taivaco’s goal is to make their service as easy and possible for their clients
• 15:34 – Taivaco is making money through annotation
• 16:27 – The metrics that Taivaco is measuring in pricing
• 17:09 – “We have to provide the whole thing”
• 18:21 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Try to solve one problem and you might end up solving more problems.
• Do something that is new in the market to stand apart.
• Take things at your own pace and don’t rush.

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

Olivier Magnan-Saurin. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Fidzup which provides innovation retargeting solutions for brick-and-mortar businesses such as retail chains and shopping centers. Olivier founded Fidzup right after school, in between school, and a little bit of freelancing works.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – On M'Avait Dit Que C'Etait Impossible: Le Manifeste Du Fondateur de Criteo
• What CEO do you follow? –  Jean-Baptiste Rudelle
• Favorite online tool? — Pipedrive
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Create your own company”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:10 – Nathan introduces Olivier to the show
• 01:42 – Fidzup provides marketing platforms for physical retailers
• • 02:04 – For physical retailers, clicks don’t have any value 
• 02:25 – Fidzup sells advertising campaigns to retailers
• 02:38 – Fidzup is a CPC model and gets paid for every in-store visit
• 03:20 – Fidzup is currently working with 2500 retailers in Europe
• 03:43 – Fidzup was created in 2011
• 03:58 – In 2014, Olivier decided to start an advertising platform
• 04:11 – Fidzup tracks the retailer using Wi-Fi or sensor
• 04:57 – Fidzup is able to track 80% of the customers entering the store
• 05:16 – Olivier shares how they get the customer’s phone information
• • 05:56 – When a customer opens an online ad, they can track that customer
• 06:43 – Average online campaign cost per brand
• 07:20 – Fidzup buys CPM and sells CPE
• 08:00 – Fidzup has recently raised $3.7M
• 08:39 – Team size
• 08:50 – Olivier hopes to double their team size
• 09:00 – First year revenue
• 09:50 – 2016 total revenue
• • 10:04 – Average annual pay per customer
• 11:00 – Ad volume per year
• 11:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Online advertisement is not always valuable to brick-and-mortar businesses, these businesses still rely on physical advertisement.
• Be patient with yourself and your company—growth takes time.
• If you’re in stuck between joining a company or creating your own, choose the latter.

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

Will Dinkel. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Nova. Prior to founding Nova, Will developed his passion for enterprise sales while working in various technology and sales roles at CloudFlare and HP. Will studied engineering in Harvard Business School.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Presenting to Win
• What CEO do you follow? –  Travis Kimmel
• Favorite online tool? –  Apple Notes
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “I try”
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish my 20-year old self was more ambitious”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Will to the show
• 02:08 – Nova AI is a sales product that uses AI to help set appointments more effectively
• 02:25 – Nova helps sales reps, they don’t necessarily get leads
• 02:52 – Nova creates personalized emails and merged templates
• 03:08 – Nova charges per seat
• 03:30 – “What we do is very unique”
• 03:39 – Nova is a smart, workflow product
• 04:08 – Average pay per seat is $150
• 04:28 – Nova started in 2015
• 05:01 – Nova’s co-founder is from MIT
• 05:15 – Team size
• 05:40 – Will shares how it’s like in San Francisco
• 06:00 – Nova has raised $2.2M
• 06:20 – Salesforce Ventures is one of Nova’s investors
• 06:54 – The space is getting bigger and bigger
• 07:15 – Will shares why he raised and went to YC
• 07:50 – Nova just crossed 100 customers
• 08:10 – Average seat number per customer
• 08:40 – Nova is now looking into a bigger number of seats per customer
• 08:55 – Nova has around a thousand sales reps using them
• 09:15 – Will’s focus is to make sure the team is functioning well
• 10:20 – Average MRR
• 10:45 – Growth rate target in 2017
• 10:51 – Will is looking into adding additional people to the team, 3 per class
• 11:51 – Nova uses their own wrinkle for SDR
• 12:10 – Gross customer churn
• • 12:35 – People are mostly happy with Nova
• 12:55 – Nova’s paid marketing
• 13:47 – How do you beat a company like Yesware? 
• • 14:05 – Focus on what you do best and don’t get dragged into trying to do everything that everyone else does
• 16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Focus on what YOU do best—you will lose when you focus on what others are doing.
• Offer something unique and it will make you stand out amongst the crowd.
• Be ambitious, act sooner than later.

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