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**Top 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 real SaaS business. SaaS Founders range from bootstrapped to funded, MVP to 10,000 customers, pre revenue to pre IPO.

Latest Episodes:

1426 Adtech DSP Passes $30m in Revenue With Addition of New Data Product Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

Michael Beebe is CEO of Dstillery (https://dstillery.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:20 – Why they help unlock brand's growth potential through data science and insights

01:20 – How they are fueling their offering with top advertising performers

02:10 – Why they are creating unique audiences based on limited information

03:20 – How they have created a competitive advantage with behavioral data

04:30 – Why they are still selling a data product on a CPM basis

05:20 – How they spend on revenue share or CPM model

06:00 – Why they are charging 20% regardless of the advertising platform

08:45 – How they have raised $60M with the most round coming in 2018

10:00 – Why they are building a pure-play SaaS product right now

10:45 – How starting out on a consulting basis can have a massive impact on launching a SaaS business

11:50 – Why they are taking up to 50% for every dollar spent on their platform

12:30 – How they have process $50M+ in transaction volume this year

12:50 – The Famous Five

1425 He Pivoted From IBM Reseller to SaaS in 1998, Now $5m in ARR Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

Mickey Patton is President and CEO of Clear C2 (https://www.clearc2.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:30 – How they launched the company as an electronic rolodex

0:55 – Why they are built as a CRM for manufacturers

1:35 – How they average customer pays them $60 per seat monthly

2:20 – Why Mickey joined the company to launch the software division

3:00 – How they've scaled to 50 full-time employees

3:40 – Why they are working with 450 total customers today

4:30 – How they are serving around 100,00 total seats

5:20 – Why they put their sales teams on annual quotas

6:15 – How they exhibiting less than 10% gross logo churn annually

7:25 – Why they are transitioning to a more user-friendly model

8:55 – How they are paying around $10k to land a new customer right now

11:25 – How they are doing more than $3M in ARR

12:30 – Why they are growing 60% year over year

13:00 – Why they are past $5M in ARR

13:20 – The Famous Five

1424 He Launched CRM in 2003, Bootstrapped, now $3.5m in ARR Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

Craig is the founder and CEO of SalesNexus (https://salesnexus.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:40 – Why he transitioned to SaaS

1:00 – How SalesNexus has grown to scale by bootstrapping

1:15 – Why the average customer pays them $150-$200 each month

1:30 – How he launched the company back in 2003 as a side-hustle

2:30 – Why they have grown to serve 5,000 total customers today

3:00 – How they manage implementation in-house to drive customer success

3:50 – Why SalesNexus is doing $3.5M in ARR

5:20 – How they added marketing automation features to increase pricing

5:55 – Why they have scaled from $3.25M in ARR 12 months ago

6:20 – How the average customer stays with them for 5 years

7:35 – Why driving customization leads to stickiness for SalesNexus

8:20 – How they are landing new customers via online advertising

9:15 – Why they are spending $300 in CAC right now

10:20 – How their team has grown to 20 full-time employees in Houston

11:10 – Why they are cash flow positive today

11:30 – How Craig still seems room for growth today

13:50 – The Famous Five

1423 How He Moved from Design Agency to SaaS Launch First $14k in MRR Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

Alexander Hoogewijs is the CEO of SiteManager (https://www.sitemanager.io/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:40 – Why SiteManager has found a niche serving freelance web designers and small agencies

1:40 – How the typical customer pays them $105 each month

2:35 – How they serve 138 customers with 350 total users

3:10 – Why SiteManager is doing $14k in MRR right now

3:30 – How they are landing customers via outbound sales

4:20 – Why most of their team is based in Belgium and remote

4:45 – How their gross monthly revenue churn is around 1% today

5:30 – Why they raised more than $850k in outside funding

7:20 – How they are shooting for $60k in MRR within the next year

8:00 – Why they are paying $1,400 in CAC today

8:55 – Why they are spending most of their cash on their sales teams and onboarding

9:30 – The Famous Five

1422 How He Drove $300k Expansion on $1m ARR Cohort in 12 Months Jun 16, 2019

Show notes

1422 Nicolas Vandenberghe How He Drove $300k Expansion on $1m ARR Cohort in 12 Months

Nicolas Vandenberghe is the CEO of Chili Piper (https://www.chilipiper.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:35 – Why they help businesses close more sales

2:10 – How the average customer pays them around $10k annually

3:55 – Why customers are pairing this technology with SDR's

5:05 – How they launched the company in January of 2016

5:20 – Why more than 200 customers are using their software today

6:10 – How they are at $2M in ARR right now

6:30 – Why they have hit net negative revenue churn annually

8:10 – How a majority of their growth has come from driving expansion revenue

8:35 – Why they have decided to bootstrap up to this point

9:35 – How they recieve payback

10:20 – Why the Chili Piper team has grown to 14 full-time employees

11:00 – How they are receiving payback within one month

14:40 – Why he would look to raise $5M at a pre-money valuation of $40M

15:35 – The Famous Five

1421 How He IPO'd $2m ARR Company on Polish Exchange Jun 15, 2019

Show notes

1421 Michal Sadowski How He IPO'd $2m ARR Company on Polish Exchange

Michal Sadowski is the Founder & CEO of Brand24 (https://brand24.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:24 – Why Brand24 now serve 2k customers each month

03:35 – How their average customer pays them $100 monthly

04:35 – Why they are doing $2.4M in ARR

05:05 – How they launched the company back in 2011

05:15 – Why their team of 65 full-time employees is based in Poland

05:45 – How they've grown to scale with just $300k in venture capital

08:40 – Why they are up from $1.8M in ARR twelve months ago

12:20 – How Brand24 is exhibiting 5% to 7% gross logo churn per month

13:21 – Why they are landing new customers for $280 in CAC

13:45 – How they assume an LTV of $1,500 over 15 months

14:00 – The Famous Five

1420 He Went Zero to $1m in ARR in 6 Months, Bootstrapped Jun 14, 2019

Show notes

1420 Joshua Keller He Went Zero to $1m in ARR in 6 Months, Bootstrapped

Joshua Keller is the Founder and CEO of Maximus (https://maximus.live/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

01:30 – Why their customers pay them $1k per month

02:55 – How they launched the company in 2017

04:00 – Why they have grown to scale by bootstrapping thus far

04:20 – How they have landed 25 total customers

04:50 – Why Maximus is doing $75k in MRR right now

07:00 – How their gross churn is between 2-3% monthly

08:05 – Why their team of 20 full-time employees is based in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Austin, Ukraine, and India

09:20 – The Famous Five

1419 "I Don't Know What Logo Churn Means", I Predict They'll Be Dead in Under 12 Months Jun 13, 2019

Show notes

1419 Bill Kahlert "I Don't Know What Logo Churn Means", I Predict They'll Be Dead in

Bill Kahlert is the Co-founder of INBOX25 (https://www.inbox25.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:15 – Why INBOX25 provides marketing automation and customization

00:35 – How they charge their average customer $300-$400 per month

00:55 – Why he launched the business in 2007

01:40 – How they have grown to serve 4k user and 2k paid customers

03:30 – Why their pricing scales based on the size of your database

04:45 – How they are retaining more than 95% of their customers annually

06:10 – Why their customers typically stay with them for years on end

06:45 – How INBOX25 thinks about lifetime value and CAC

07:40 – Why they are aiming for payback within 6 months

08:10 – How their team has less than 50 employees

1418 $2.4M ARR Marketing Automation Company CEO Would Sell for $10M Today Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

1418 $1m on $10m pre would raise. Would sell for $10m today. Sean Leonard $2.4M ARR Marketing Automation Company CEO Would Sell for $10M Today

Sean Leonard is the CEO and co-founder of ActiveDEMAND (https://www.activedemand.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:35 – How ActiveDEMAND functions as a marketing automation platform

1:15 – Why they've decided to feature professional services

1:50 – How the average customer pays them $400 monthly

3:20 – Why he launched the company in 2014 out of an agency

4:40 – How they've scaled to serve 500 agencies

5:00 – Why they are doing between $200k and $300k in MRR

6:00 – How ActiveDEMAND is growing 30% year over year

6:50 – Why they are growing through a land and expand model

7:30 – How they are landing agencies through partner webinars and content marketing

9:40 – Why they spend $800 to land a new customer

11:10 – How they've grown to less than 50 full-time employees in Alberta

11:40 – Why they are planning on raising capital

13:00 – How he would be happy with a $10M pre-money valuation

14:00 – "Would you sell for $10M today?"

15:00 – The Famous Five

1417 CloudHealth CEO On $500M VMWare Exit, 70% yoy Growth, $50m+ in ARR Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

1417 Tom Axbey CloudHealth CEO On $500M VMWare Exit, 70% yoy Growth, $50m+ in ARR

Tom Axbey is the President and CEO of CloudHealth Technologies (https://www.cloudhealthtech.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:25 – How CloudHealth helps businesses manage visibility, cost management, security, and governance of their cloud infrastructure

1:40 – Why the average customer pays them between $50k and $1M annually

2:10 – How they launched the company in 2012

3:20 – Why they've raised $86M in total capital thus far

4:15 – How CloudHealth has grown to serve 3,500 total customers

4:50 – Why they are doing between $50M and $100M in ARR today

6:30 – How they are growing 70% year over year

6:50 – Why they are at 104% net revenue retention at this point in time

7:45 – How they are targetting a payback period of 6 months

9:40 – The Famous Five

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