Top Founders

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1396 Percolate Flirts with $40m in ARR, 600 Brands Using as Their Ultimate Content Machine May 21, 2019

Show notes

Randy Wootton is the CEO of Percolate. Randy has been a leader and strategic innovator in the marketing technology industry for over 20 years. Prior to Percolate, he served as CEO of leading predictive marketing platform Rocket Fuel, where he re-positioned the company and led its sale to Sizmek. During his career, Randy has held senior positions at Microsoft and Salesforce. He serves on the Board of Directors at Guidant Financial and Rally Point Networks and is a graduate of Harvard Business School, St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy.

1395 Kahuna Helps Marketplaces Keep Buyers and Sellers Engaged, Way more than $3m in ARR May 20, 2019

Show notes

00:30 – How Kahuna focuses on customer engagement

03:05 – Why they price based on volume and usage

03:50 – How he made the decision to join Kahuna after they approached him

04:50 – Why both of Kahuna's founders are still involved in the company

05:10 – Their team of 40 full-time employees is based in Redwood City

05:40 – Why they've scaled to serve 100 total customers internationally

06:40 – How they have more than doubled revenue year over year

07:00 – Why they've raised close to $50M in outside capital

07:40 – How they are managing churn across

08:30 – Why Kahuna's net revenue retention is well north of 100%

10:30 – How they aim for payback on customer acquisition within 12 months

12:00 – Why computing power is their main expense

13:00 – How their margins are still well within the average SaaS range

13:30 – Why they did an inside round in Q4 2017 and not looking to raise at present

14:00 – How they are still burning cash today

14:15 – Why they are north of $3M in ARR and targeting 100% growth YoY again this year

15:15 – The Famous Five

1394 How he used affiliates to go from Zero to $50k in MRR in 16 Months May 19, 2019

Show notes

0:55 – How SaaS PayKickstart launched inside agency

1:25 – Why their average customer pays $99 per month

2:10 – How they've hit $50k in MRR today

2:40 – How $0 to $10k/mo in under 12 months

3:40 – Why they've bootstrapped to this point

4:15 – Tactic used to hit 20% gross revenue churn

9:40 – How they are landing customers through affiliates and cold outreach

10:50 – Why 10-15% of their revenue is coming from affiliate deals

1393 Agency Spin Out Launches, Gets First $9k/mo in Revenue May 18, 2019

Show notes

Time Stamped Show Notes:

0:55 – Why he spun the company out of his agency one year ago 3:45 – Average customer pays them $3,500 annually 4:15 – How they've scaled to 250 paying customers 4:35 – Did $9k in MRR last month 5:20 – Less than 1% gross revenue churn monthly 6:05 – They are raising $1m right now on $2.5m pre money value 7:10 – How they've scaled with just two full-time employees 8:00 – Why they are paying under $100 to acquire a new customer

1392 $104m in ARR and Bootstrapped?!?! How?! May 17, 2019

Show notes

Time Stamped Show Notes:

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

00:25 – Why Kellogg was named top CEO by Glassdoor

00:45 – How Madwire has grown to 600 employees

01:25 – Why they operate on a hybrid SaaS and professional service model

02:30 – How they view revenue per employee and prioritize it

03:15 – Why they are doing $175k in revenue per employee today

03:30 – How Madwire is doing $105M in ARR right now

04:00 – Why they help small businesses with marketing at scale

04:50 – How they are serving 10k active customers at this point in time

05:05 – Why their average new account is paying around $1,500 each month

05:45 – How Madwire has scaled with $7.5M in outside funding

06:15 – Why they are cash flow positive

06:35 – How they are still growing 40% year over year

07:45 – Why they track churn in two unique ways

10:00 – How they receive payback within 3 months on a $3k CAC

11:10 – Why they are landing customers entirely through digital channels

12:10 – How he started the company with his father in 2009

13:45 – Why they've set aside stock and equity for top performing employees

14:40 – How they are targeting an IPO in the next few years

15:30 – Why they would look to IPO in two years

16:30 – The Famous Five

JB Kellogg is the co-founder of SMB marketing platform, Madwire and Marketing 360. JB was named the Top CEO in the country by Glassdoor in 2016.

Company website: https://www.madwire.com/

SaaS Metrics:

Founded: 2009

Customers: 10,000

ARPU: $875 (monthly)

Annual recurring revenue: $104 million

Founded: 2009

Funding: $7.5m

Team: 600

1391 Can they Become B2B Version of LastPass? May 16, 2019

Show notes

French, 24yo. I have lived in the US, Cambodia, South Korea, and Switzerland. I launched my first company 4 years ago doing smartphone repairs for students in campuses. And 18 months ago, I started Ease.space with 3 other people.

1390 With $3m+ in ARR and 300+ Customers, He's Making Digital Advertising Easier for Publishers May 15, 2019

Show notes

Christopher Reid is the founder and CEO of Sortable, a Waterloo Region startup on a mission to Empower Publishers. With an engineering background from the University of Waterloo, he is a serial entrepreneur on his fifth venture and has led tech ventures in industries ranging from educational technology to the consumer web and B2B SaaS. He is the driving force behind Sortable (formerly Snapsort Media), which uses machine learning to help online publishers automate ad operations. Previously a web publishing company, Snapsort Media was acquired in 2011 and bought back in 2014 to relaunch to Sortable's current day business.

1389 With $10m in ARR, He's Helping Publishers Better Monetize Social Traffic May 14, 2019

Show notes

Distinguished track record in technology, with a 20-plus year career spanning the development, marketing, and sale of technology. Spent the past 10 years on the cutting edge of social media, helping media companies and marketers more effectively use technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to power their social media efforts.

1388 Does he really have $95k in MRR? You decide. May 13, 2019

Show notes

Valentin Radu is a serial entrepreneur from Bucharest, Romania. He has founded four companies and had one important exit and one useful failure. Currently, he is the Founder & CEO of Omniconvert, a growth marketing platform for websites looking to become customer-centric.

1387 He's Paid $15m+ to Freelance Writers in Past 12 Months May 12, 2019

Show notes

Byron White is one of the original content marketing revolutionaries, and founder of WriterAccess. He's started several other businesses including Freelance Access, LifeTips, ideaLaunch and more. Byron is the Chair and Founder of Content Marketing Conference, an event featuring 65 speakers and 20 keynotes in 2018. He has authored four books on content marketing topics, is a popular speaker at dozens of conferences, and hosts a Webinar and Podcast series.

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