Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

830: SaaS: With $20m Raised, $10m+ ARR, He's For Enterprise Customer Management on Social Media Nov 01, 2017

Show notes

Josh March. He's the founder and CEO of Conversocial, a customer engagement solution that helps businesses increase their customer loyalty by enabling effortless, in-the-moment, customer service to social and mobile channels. The largest global firms including Google, Sprint, Hertz and Hyatt Hotels turn to his platform to deliver an amazing, social, first, customer service experience at a large scale. He previously founded the leading social application platform, iPlatform, one of the world's first Facebook preferred developer which was acquired in 2012.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Four Steps to the Epiphany
What CEO do you follow? – Ben Horowitz
Favorite online tool? — Twitter
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Be more self-aware and your own thinking can become your bias

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show
02:51 – iPlatform was sold to Betapond in 2012
- 03:28 – The acquisition was a mix of cash and equity
03:53 – Conversocial is an enterprise SaaS product
04:20 – Conversocial follows up on customers through social media sites
04:38 – Conversocial collects messages from different social media channels and analyzes them
05:04 – Conversocial has raised $20M of venture capital
05:33 – Conversocial started from iPlatform
06:00 – Josh saw that they needed to move quickly with Conversocial, so they raised funds
06:29 – The first round was $2.5M and was a priced equity round
07:24 – Some of Conversocial's customers were an upsell from iPlatform
07:34 – Team size is around 100
08:00 – Josh was initially involved with the product development of Conversocial and as they grew and hired great people, he began shifting more of his time to customer acquisition
09:33 – Their biggest customer pays around a million dollars annually
09:50 – Conversocial also has customers who pay from $25K to $200K
11:00 – Conversocial focuses on customer care
12:00 – The need for a customer contact center is greatly increasing
12:28 – Conversocial currently has 200 clients
13:30 – Conversocial has passed their $10M ARR mark
14:12 – Conversocial has a higher logo churn with small companies
14:47 – Conversocial's net churn is around 120%
16:21 – Josh flies a lot just to meet customers
17:48 – Fully weighted CAC varies dramatically depending on the deals
18:24 – Payback period is around 18 months
18:43 – Josh won't sell to Sprinklr
- 19:10 – Josh thinks Sprinklr's vision is far off of Conversocial's vision
20:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Focus on the needs of the customers and figure out how you can solve their problems.
Social media is being used not only for marketing, but for customer service as well.
An entrepreneur should go the "extra mile" just to get a client.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

829: SaaS: Will He Get $25m Valuation on $1m ARR in Predictive Analytics Space? Oct 31, 2017

Show notes

Christopher Day. He's been a successful entrepreneur, having sold two companies to a Fortune 100 company before turning 40. He's had businesses from residential painting to investment banking doing cross-border M&A transactions. Along the way, he has found time to mentor other entrepreneurs and participates in helping solve legislative issues to foster entrepreneurial growth in the State of Indiana. He's now building a platform with DemandJump that is looking to solve prescriptive analytics and qualified traffic. The DemandJump team has discovered marketers only have 20% visibility of their actual ecosystem.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – Jack Welch
Favorite online tool? — One Pager
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 4
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "The power of relationships"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:48 – Nathan introduces Christopher to the show
02:36 – DemandJump sells their platform on a subscription basis
- 02:41 – They have annual subscriptions and professional services
03:10 – 82% of the revenue is from SaaS, 1% is from a one-time payment and the rest is for the other model
03:48 – DemandJump allows marketers to have 100% visibility of their competitive ecosystem, which is the first time this has been made possible in history
- 04:57 – They show marketers where to focus to capture traffic from their competitors
05:15 – Average annual contract value is $45K with beta customers
- 05:30 – Average annual contract value now is $100K -$250K
- 05:43 – DemandJump has started to work with mid-market companies
- 06:00 – Self-service for mid-market will be from $200 to hundred million
06:27 – DemandJump currently has 22 customers
06:50 – DemandJump is getting close to their million dollar revenue mark
07:11 – DemandJump was launched in 2015
- 07:36 – The traffic cloud was built in October 2016
08:05 – 2016 revenue was $165K
08:20 – MRR by December 2016 was $10K
08:30 – 2017 goal is to hit $1.5 in ARR
08:54 – DemandJump raised $4M with 18 Angel investors on their board
10:08 – DemandJump is looking to raise another $5M with a 15% pre-money valuation
11;12 – Christopher sold software companies before
12:00 – Annual logo churn is 8-9%
12:24 – Annual revenue churn is almost the same with logo churn
13:00 – CAC is around $10K
13:31 – Most of DemandJump's customers pay annually upfront
13:55 – Paid marketing spend was around $5K
- 14:19 – 40% of DemandJump's budget goes to sales and marketing
- 15:49 – They will double or triple their paid marketing spend because of their target
17:20 – Assumed LTV is 36 months
18:54 – Team headcount is 17
- 19:29 – They're all based in Indiana
- 19:40 – 7 are in engineering, 3 focus on customer success, 3 on sales, 2 on marketing and a newly hired CFO
21:17 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Marketers will have a HUGE advantage if they have 100% visibility of their ecosystem.
Paid marketing should be aligned to your target market, otherwise you're just wasting your money.
Relationships and networking is of the UTMOST importance.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

828: AdTech: MobFox Acquired for $14m by Matomy, Now $36m+ in Ad Spend Annually Oct 30, 2017

Show notes

Gil Klein from MobFox where he's the managing director and a C-level executive at Matomy Media Group. Having joined the company in 2006, he's been the member of the executive management team since 2014. He previously served as senior VP of media and senior VP of clients for this particular group. He holds an MBA in International Management from the College of Management in Israel.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – Brian O'Kelley
Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Travel even more than you already have, experiment, take a lot of risks and spend as much time as you can with your family

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:57 – Nathan introduces Gil to the show
02:30 – Matomy is a global performance company that holds a few entities
02:44 – Gil personally runs and oversees MobFox, which is an mobile in-app audience SSP acquired by Matomy in 2014
- 03:15 – The acquisition was for $12M in cash
03:30 – Gil was with Matomy since 2006 and he helped the company grow
04:00 – MobFox makes money when their clients make money
04:17 – The tools of MobFox are usually for the developers and publishers focused on the in-app space
04:48 – MobFox tries to contact the best demand partners in the space like YuMe, AppNexus and PocketMath
05:50 – In 2015, MobFox generated $18M of the transaction volume
- 06:10 – MobFox's charges depend on the deals they have
06:32 – MobFox usually keeps 17-20% of the transaction
06:56 – MobFox has grown to 36%
07:09 – Gil believes that MobFox is currently in a great space
07:51 – In 2017, Gil's goal is to stretch as much as he can
08:21 – MobFox is currently working with 20-30K publishers, 4K are SDK-based
09:13 – MobFox currently has 180 DSP (Demand Side Platforms)
- 09:35 – A single DSP can have a thousand advertisers
- 09:42 – "We connect to a programmatic player"
10:00 – Current headcount of MobFox is 73-74
- 10:11 – 50 are engineers and the rest in sales, retention, HR and finance
- 10:26 – MobFox team is global
11:29 – Gil can and will do anything to get new customers, like suddenly showing up with presents and asking for a meeting
- 12:23 – "I try to listen to the customer"
13:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Set numbers for your goals, but aim to SURPASS those numbers.
Find the best partnerships that you can where you can mutually benefit each other.
Don't hesitate to TAKE risks!

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

827: VC: $140m FinTech, InsurTech Fund on How They Invest Oct 29, 2017

Show notes

Andrew Pitz. He's an investment manager at Transamerica Ventures, the global venture capital fund of Transamerica that specializes in investing in insurtech, fintech and enterprise software companies. There, he has led the firm's investments in PolicyGenius, Digital Currency Group, Everplans, SmartAsset and Hixme.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Venture Deals
What CEO do you follow? – Jonah Goodhart and Vinny Lingham
Favorite online tool? — Fortunes Term Sheet, Mattermark Daily, Crunchbase Daily
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Andrew wished he had understood domain names and technology

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Andrew to the show
02:16 – Transamerica and AEGON are global investment and insurance firms
02:56 – $140K is the fund size they're currently working with
- 03:04 – The fund was already set-up from the beginning
03:25 – Their first fund was in 2014, in the European market
03:47 – They had 17 unique companies with 23 investments
04:25 – They don't share company information with their parent company
- 04:39 – They don't want the corporate parent to be involved in the business
05:25 – They haven't had any exits yet
05:39 – Andrews shares fund-to-fund deals with FinTech Collective
- 06:38 – They put in a $2M check and the total funds raised were $75K to $100K
06:55 – They put in $1M to another fund to fund the deal they had
07:00 – Their first fund was around $10M
07:28 – FinTech Collective is based in New York
07:38 – Some of the fintech companies they've invested in are Art Invest, MoneyLion, 401k and Elephant Tech
08:24 – Andrew gets his salary and bonuses from the deals
08:50 – Andrew shares how their boss missed deals that are worth billions now
09:30 – There are instances where they need to let some deals pass
10:00 – In a week, they're receiving hundreds of newsletters from different companies (around 5000 in a year)
10:13 – Andrew studies 500 deals and meets with around 250
11:10 – Initial check size was $1-5M as a follow on investor
11:34 – Andrew chooses PolicyGenius and Hixme
- 12:40 – Andrew thinks PolicyGenius will have a good exit
13:07 – H2O as an open source
- 13:33 – Red Hat pioneered the open source
14:36 – The goal is to invest in direct technology and create partnerships
14:54 – Andrew shares the kind of partnerships they're looking for
15:14 – Andrew wanted to do work in Asia because of the many opportunities
17:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There are thousands of companies created daily—you have to research and choose which one to invest into wisely.
Forming partnerships is MORE important than monetary gain.
Technology can take you anywhere.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

826: AdTech: Bootstrapped to $1m-$10m With 20% EBIDTA Margin Oct 28, 2017

Show notes

Christian Geissendoerfer. He's the CEO of Yoose, the leading expert in location-based advertising in Asia and Europe. He's an entrepreneur passionate about building businesses and leading teams. He recently started something parallel to Yoose which is a German Accelerator in Southeast Asia that helps German startups expand into that region. He loves living in Singapore and Vietnam, traveling the world and learning languages. He's fluent in German, English, French and Spanish.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – A Monk and the Riddle
What CEO do you follow? – CEO Collaborative Group
Favorite online tool? — Xero and Zapier
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Do it over again"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:50 – Nathan introduces Christian to the show
02:28 – Yoose is a location-based mobile advertising company
- 02:36 – Yoose helps brands to target people in specific geographic locations
03:28 – Yoose is aggregating inventory from different mobile networks
04:05 – Yoose is buying the inventory for the company and running campaigns on specific locations
04:25 – Yoose is selling a premium product
04:42 – Yoose charges per CPM
- 04:59 – There's current request for CPC charges
05:23 – Yoose was launched in 2008, in Berlin, and moved to Singapore in 2010
06:00 – 2016 revenue is in the million dollar figure range
06:08 – Team size is 15 and the majority are based in Vietnam
06:16 – Yoose is a bootstrapped business
07:12 – Yoose is working on a different platform based on audience profiles and attribution
08:10 – Customers use Yoose over their competitors because of the full service they offer
- 08:49 – Yoose is also geographically focused
09:12 – Yoose is currently working with the major media agencies and secondary agencies
- 09:35 – There are 25-30 agencies in total
09:47 – Yoose has partnerships in different countries that they serve too
- 10:32 – Yoose and the partners both take a cut from the charges
- 10:45 – "We are transparent on costs on both sides"
11:00 – The EBIT (Earnings Before Interests and Taxes) margin in the space vary
- 11:14 – Yoose is in the middle of the margin, depending on the country
11:43 – At this stage, Christian is putting the capital back into the company
12:46 – Christian has put all his personal money into starting Yoose
13:08 – Christian has worked in France prior to Yoose
13:43 – Christian initially wanted to build something similar to Tinder
15:33 – German Accelerator works with the German government and has been in the US market for 5 years, they're now expanding to Southeast Asia
- 16:05 – Christian gets his salary from the government
17:32 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Be transparent with your partners, so you'll gain their trust. This will also lead to more partnerships.
The corporate world can help shape and grow your skills but don't regret taking another route to succeed.
Create something that you want, yourself.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

825: SaaS: 4 Founders, 150 Customers Paying $30k for Pipeline and Revenue Management Oct 27, 2017

Show notes

Bonnie Crater. She's the CEO of Full Circle Insights. She's a 5-time VP of marketing and executive at many software companies in Silicon Valley. She's been named one of the 100 Most Influential Women by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and one of the Top 20 Women to Watch by Sales Lead Management Association.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A
What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff
Favorite online tool? — Docusign
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "My path has been just fine"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:53 – Nathan introduces Bonnie to the show
02:24 – Full Circle Insights helps marketing people accurately measure and track the impact of their marketing campaigns on pipeline and revenue
02:50 – Full Circle Insights has an annual contract and usual contract which pays $30K a year
03:00 – Full Circle Insights launched their product in 2012, but it was started in 2010
03:10 – "Never start a company on December 31st"
- 03:18 – The IRS would want a tax return for 1 day of business
03:51 – Bonnie quit her VP of marketing job prior to Full Circle Insights
03:58 – Bonnie was invited by her friends to start Full Circle Insights and there are 4 founders
04:20 – Two of the founders were from Salesforce, including Bonnie
04:49 – Full Circle Insights is built on Salesforce
05:01 – Full Circle Insights was on Salesforce's AppExchange
05:54 – Bonnie was a CEO in 2001, but it was a failure and she had to hire and fire a hundreds of people
07:35 – Bonnie was a VP of marketing a couple of times with different companies after the failure
08:04 – Full Circle Insights was initially bootstrapped, they raised $11M
- 08:14 – They raised money because they were going broke
- 08:21 – They were paying themselves
08:50 – First capital was raised in 2012
09:12 – Her first product was built from the money the founders had put in
09:32 – Dan, the CTO, is the developer
09:53 – Full Circle Insights has around 150 customers
10:12 – Team size is 35
- 10:38 – 8 in engineering and product, 12 in sales, 4-5 in marketing, 7-8 in customer success and some in accounting
11:17 – Full Circle Insights have broken around $4M in ARR
11:33 – Full Circle Insights' model is to double, then triple
12:33 – Full Circle Insights has 90% renewal rate
12:40 – Churn is usually from acquisition and CMO changes
13:26 – Bonnie was hoping to have a 100% renewal rate in the coming years
14:37 – Full Circle Insights has a sales rep who has a puppy that he brought to the tradeshow
- 14:53 – The puppy became a booth magnet and they were able to acquire new customers
15:25 – Fully weighted CAC is $18-20K
15:30 – Payback period is less than 6 months
16:30 – Lowest marketing expenses is digital marketing and the biggest is from tradeshows and events
17:31 – LTV
18:30 – Full Circle Insights' new VP of sales
19:01 – ARR target is $7M
20:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Never start your business on the last day of the year.
We all make mistakes and we just have to learn from it—just don't make the same mistake twice.
Be creative and do what you need to do to draw new customers in.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

824: Brilliant Ad Tech Hedge: $8m Managed Services Firm RockerBox Adds $1k/mo SaaS Product Oct 26, 2017

Show notes

Ron Jacobson. He's the co-founder and CEO of Rockerbox and Hindsight. Ron was a project manager at AppNexus and a proud McGill alumni. Follow him on Twitter.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Made in America
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk and Mark Cuban
Favorite online tool? — Spectacle
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "There are going to be a lot of highs and there are going to be a lot of lows, but you just got too keep moving"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:36 – Nathan introduces Ron to the show
02:01 – Rockerbox is an online marketing technology company
02:09 – Hindsight is a secondary offering which is an off-site analytics platform, complementary to Rockerbox
02:28 – Rockerbox is a management service and Hindsight is the SaaS part
03:00 – Rockerbox was launched in early 2014
03:03 – Team size is 18
03:13 – Target customers are marketers
03:25 – Rockerbox has partnerships with publishers and data providers
- 04:40 – Through different partnerships, they're able to know the source of potential customers
05:25 – First year revenue was $640K gross
- 05:30 – 2015: under $2M , 2016 was around $4M and it will probably be $8M this year
05:48 – 10% of the customers are on Hindsight
06:50 – In 2016, Rockerbox has served 50 customers
07:19 – Hindsight currently has around 13 customers with a MRR of $16K
07:43 – Some of Rockerbox's customers are Vimeo and Vanguard
- 08:16 – CAC and LTV
- 08:26 – No logo and revenue churn yet
- 08:50 – Some small companies can't scale and their pricing is "take it or leave it"
09:32 – 5 team members are focused on Hindsight
09:59 – Hindsight is self-funded and is based on Rockerbox
10:14 – Ron shares why they raised funding despite doubling Rockerbox's ARR
11:05 – Ron has reached out to people whom he hasn't talked to for decades just to acquire new customers
- 11:16 – Ron shares the content of his email
13:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Having fewer customers with a larger paywall works well, it allows you to focus more on your customers' needs.
Stick to your pricing and your target market.
Through the highs and lows, just KEEP MOVING.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

823: SaaS: Pre Rev SF Based with $3.3m Raised Aiming to Help SMB's Build Mobile Apps, Will People Pay? Oct 25, 2017

Show notes

Arun Saigal. He's the co-founder and CEO of Thunkable, a Ycombinator-backed startup in San Francisco. Thunkable is a platform that allows anyone to build their own mobile app without needing to know how to code. Prior to Thunkable, Arun was the lead android developer at Quizlet. He also worked at Khan Academy, Aspiring Minds and Google. He holds a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – High Output Management
What CEO do you follow? – Shantanu Narayen
Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7-7.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Investing in others is one of the best ways to invest in yourself"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:26 – Nathan introduces Arun to the show
02:13 – Thunkable is a drag-and-drop tool to make a mobile app
02:23 – The space is quite crowded
03:08 – Thunkable is simple but powerful enough for non-coders to have a powerful app
03:20 – Thunkable is currently free
03:34 – Thunkable has raised $3.3M to date
03:59 – Arun shares why they've raised first before implementing a paywall
- 04:07 – They wanted to hire the team and have the platform that they needed with the money raised
- 04:30 – They'll start charging in a few months
04:48 – Thunkable was launched in 2016
04:53 – Team size is 10
05:16 – Thunkable has turned on their revenue for a small stream
- 05:35 – The charge is a high 5-figures and is an annual contract
06:16 – Long-term model: charge for a premium product
06:36 – When they turn-on their features, that's when Thunkable will charge
07:25 – Arun saw problems they didn't know existed from those who were building an app for Thunkable
08:30 – Arun wants to help people who really need an app for free to solve their problems
09:00 – The conversations they'll have with people who will use Thunkable for profit
09:24 – Target price is $20 a month
09:40 – Arun believes they can maintain profitability
- 10:14 – Arun believes that SMBs need Thunkable more than the enterprise businesses
11:03 – Thunkable's goal is to capture most of the apps from the app store
12:38 – December 2017 MRR goal is $10K
14:16 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Assist those who need help in any way that you can.
Choose your timing wisely when it comes to putting up your paywall.
You learn and grow by investing in other people.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers Oct 24, 2017

Show notes

Ian Blair. He founded BuildFire while he was in college and has grown up to become one of the most successful app builders with 30 employees and close to 10K apps in the app store. His expertise is online marketing and growth hacking.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – David Skok and Jason Lemkin
Favorite online tool? — Ahrefs
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7.5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ian wished he would have taken a crash course on how the world actually works

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:55 – Nathan introduces Ian to the show
02:37 – BuildFire is a mobile app building platform that allows non-technical people to build their own app with no coding required
02:50 – BuildFire is like the WordPress for mobile app
- 03:18 – BuildFire allows customization
03:36 – Ian started BuildFire in college
- 03:40 – BuildFire has a reseller program
- 04:18 – In 2013, they were making $300K a year
- 04:32 – It was just for white labelling
- 04:42 – BuildFire was officially built with the technology in 2014
05:02 – BuildFire has raised $2.5M so far in a convertible note
05:46 – It was in 2015 when BuildFire broke their $1M a year mark
06:20 – In January of 2016, BuildFire 2.0 was launched where they added customization
06:48 – Since then, things took off
07:05 – In December 2016, BuildFire was doing a little less than $300K a month
07:33 – This year, BuildFire is developing
07:59 – BuildFire has an ongoing subscription fee and upfront payment
- 08:20 – BuildFire is getting close to $200K a month for their SaaS side
08:33 – BuildFire is now leaning more into their professional services
09:15 – Total number of customers
09:25 – Customers pay starts at $59, $149 or $499 a month
- 09:50 – Average a month is around $400 per customer
10:40 – Team size is 40
10:57 – Ian self-funded BuildFire initially
- 11:11 – Their current CTO started the initial development for BuildFire
12:00 – BuildFire gets customers mainly through online marketing
- 12:20 – Paid ads spend is around $10K a month
12:30 – BuildFire also has a lot of organic traffic and they're going to tradeshows as well
13:48 – Monthly logo churn
14:25 – Revenue churn
14:50 – BuildFire is on its way to a more predictable revenue model by the end of 2017
15:31 – CAC
17:00 – SaaS businesses are capital intensive
20:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Listen to your customers and make adjustments to your products depending on their needs.
Online marketing is a necessity for every businesses.
College won't teach you how the real world works.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

821: Crypto: $17m Raised to Speed Up Mining Blocks Using New "Validators" Oct 23, 2017

Show notes

Jae Kwon. After graduating from Cornell in 2005 with a BS degree in Computer Science, he worked as a developer at Alexa and Yelp and has co-founded iDonethis, a productivity service. He since worked on open-source projects including a CoffeeScript compiler and interpreter written in Javascript, an end-to-end encrypted email system called Scramble.io, and a cryptocurrency exchange. He invented and refined The Tendermint Consensus Algorithm with the aim of liberating the blockchain from the costs and drawbacks of proof-of-work mining. His mission is to make the technology more accessible in order to accelerate the adoption of decentralized ledger technology.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Snow Crash
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — GitHub and Chat
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Find the problem and solve it"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Jae to the show
02:46 – Bitcoin is something that you want to be small and accessible
- 03:10 – Blockchain is not owned by any entity but is still secure
03:24 – Tendermint is one of the engines that enable the creation of blockchain
04:05 – Tendermint's partner in Europe is Ponton
04:46 – Tendermint was initially self-funded by Jae
05:03 – Jae saw the need to build Tendermint
- 05:08 – People were struggling with bitcoin fork
05:51 – Proof of work is how bitcoin secures itself, which is like a lottery system
06:40 – The transaction fee for block reward in bitcoin is much smaller
07:55 – Proof of work in the blockchain has its drawbacks
08:30 – The validators are the users of Tendermint—they validate the block and sign off and vote on what the next block should be
09:20 – Jae's opinion on Dash's masternode
09:50 – Cosmos is the internet of blockchain
10:18 – Jae has all in his money in Tendermint
10:31 – Team size is 20
10:40 – Tendermint was funded through a fundraiser
- 11:00 – "We avoid the term ICO because we don't want to be associated with a security offering"
11:13 – Tendermint released their own token and they'll create the cosmos hub
- 11:30 – The tokens will allow you to vote on the blockchain
12:10 – Tendermint had a cap of $17M
- 12:32 – They were accepting bitcoin and ether in exchange of an atom
13:00 – Part of the liquidation went to the Cosmos software and development
14:00 – Out of the $17M, less than $3M has been liquidated so far
15:47 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The block reward in the blockchain allows people to not just earn tokens, but contribute as well.
Keep your liquidation conservative and focus on the development of your product.
If you see a problem and you think you can create the solution, DO IT.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
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
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected