Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

660: Will Farmers Decide First Drone Company Trillionaire? May 15, 2017

Show notes

Martin Garcia. He's the CEO and founder of FLYX.Systems. He's also a mechatronics engineer and co-founder of Ilumexico, a solar power lighting company for rural communities in Mexico. He's got an MSc in drone design at University of Southampton and is an alumni of Singularity University at NASA Ames California, USA and later, a teaching fellow for space and robotics. FLYX.Systems is a company that develops technology for industrial UAVs that aim to improve the productivity of many industries.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Noun Project
How many hours of sleep do you get? — About 8
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Martin would tell himself to finish every project he started, then move on to the next one

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:22 – Nathan introduces Martin to the show
02:17 – FLYX.Systems develops technology that encompasses both hardware and software algorithms
02:33 – There are 3 UAVs in history: the military UAVs, the drones that are popular nowadays, and the industrial UAVs
- 03:22 – Industrial UAVs are going to be the biggest game changer in business
- 03:31 – Industrial UAVs will be completely autonomous
- 03:48 – 70% of UAV crashes are caused by human errors
03:55 – Martin wants to develop a company that aims to build industrial UAVs for different applications in different industries
04:25 – Martin wants to build a combination of both the UAV hardware and the UAV software or the brain of the drone
- 04:33 – VJA is a company that uses UAVs mainly for photography, but the drones can't be modified easily
04:59 – When Martin develops software in a computer that can be used in autopilot, it results to an amazing UAV with a high level of intelligence and algorithms that differentiate themselves from other UAVs
05:24 – FLYX.Systems currently has 2 main projects
- 06:09 - FLYX.Systems provides services to solar companies
06:26 – FLYX.Systems is still in the preoperative phase
- 06:34 – They've raised $100K
- 06:39 – They've used the funds for the UAV's prototype and the landing platform
- 06:48 – The landing platform is one of their biggest projects up their sleeves
- 07:17 – The landing platform will be applied to the solar companies
07:32 – Team size
- 07:46 – Based in Mexico, but thinking of expanding to Columbia
08:03 – FLYX.Systems was launched early 2016
08:21 – Prior to FLYX.Systems, Martin was working as a CTO, developing technologies for solar applications
- 08:28 – Martin went to Singularity University's summer camp where he met people in the same field
- 09:06 – Martin got his masters in UK and it was about the foundation and core of FLYX.Systems, which is the automation of the UAV system
- 09:27 – Martin was 28 when he entered Singularity
09:51 – One of the advantages in having an UAV business in Mexico is that the regulation for flying UAVs is not that harsh or strict compared to USA
- 10:18 – There's less competition in Mexico, too
- 10:20 – The people in Mexico are talented and the salary range is lower than in the USA
- 10:42 – UAVs are not expensive when you know how to build them
11:27 – There's a possibility for DJI to move to industrial in the future
11:40 – Martin wants to work on localized applications as quickly as possible
11:55 – Martin knows his market and wants to build something that is suited for their specific needs
12:13 – Martin also wants to combine technologies that DJI isn't developing
- 12:30 – AI is one of the tools that Martin wants to harness
13:00 – Martin doesn't want to depend on companies that sell UAVs
13:23 – People usually buy drones, then think of the vale
14:00 – Martin's prototype will be launched next month and will be sent to different states in Mexico
- 14:14 – You pay for the service of the drone, the drone is not yet for sale
- 14:30 – The pay will depend on the size of the land but it will be around $15-20 per hectare
16:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The UAV market is currently a very hot market – if you can combine both hardware and software, the better.
Starting a business in other countries has its advantages – in this case, less competition, less cost, and fewer regulations.
Don't start multiple projects at one time; finish one before starting another.

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

659: He's Winning In Home Fitness Wars: $3+ Million Monthly Revenue, $45 Million Raised May 14, 2017

Show notes

Eric Min. He's the CEO and founder of a company called Zwift.com. Eric is a tech entrepreneur, a lifelong cyclist and is now spreading fitness through virtualization and gamification.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm
What CEO do you follow? – Max Levchin
Favorite online tool? — Slack
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Taking risks earlier"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:47 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
02:11 – Zwift is creating a virtual space where cyclists can interact with each other in real time
- 02:31 – Eric is trying to solve one of the most common problems of cyclists
03:26 – Zwift is a pure SaaS company
- 03:29 – Zwift charges $10 a month
- 03:36 – "We're an asset-like company"
- 03:38 – Zwift works with partners who have all the different equipment available in the market
04:08 – The most basic setup to use Zwift is an iPad; a trainer that can be attached to your traditional bike to make it stationary
- 04:32 – Based on your weight and how you're pedaling, Zwift can put you in the game
05:08 – Zwift was launched in January 2014
05:18 – Eric and his co-founder committed a couple of million dollars to build Zwift
- 05:36 – Their friends and families had raised around $7M
05:47 – Zwift just closed their series A and they have a total of $45M raised
06:07 – Prior to Zwift, Eric and his co-founder built a trading platform
- 06:28 – Eric and co-founders wanted to build something out of their comfort zones
- 06:41 – Eric was 30 when he launched the trading company
- 07:08 – "Enterprise business is tough"
- 07:45 – Eric and his co-founder had a $100M contract and spent 5 years extracting the contract
- 08:18 – Initial capital was $3M
09:17 – Eric and his co-founder are set out to be category leaders, so they made a new category
09:51 – Zwift currently has over 300K accounts created
10:07 – Zwift has 5M rides and 5M hours of pedaling
- 10:16 – The average ride is 1 hour
10:28 – Zwift also has 88M miles recorded
- 10:36 – The engagement is fairly high
10:38 – People log in to Zwift to watch other people
- 10:44 – 202 hours of people logging in just to watch
11:07 – People are also broadcasting their experience with Zwift
11:42 – Zwift doesn't have free users and what they have is a trial period
12:00 – Zwift doesn't have year-long contracts at the moment
12:02 – Eric wants to understand the behavior of the customers
- 12:10 – Most of the customers are outdoor cyclists
- 12:33 – Eric believes that over time, Zwift will be a year-round overtime preposition for not just cyclist but fitness enthusiast too
13:11 – Almost all consumer businesses are seasonal, like gaming
- 13:20 – People spend less time playing games in the summer
13:34 – Zwift makes it easy for people to consume fitness
13:42 – "Our belief is that everyone is chasing fitness and everyone would like to consume fitness in the most efficient way"
- 13:53 – The solution enables you to be at home and it's cost-effective
14:55 – Zwift has 70% of the people stay with them every year
- 15:10 – Eric calls them "pause" and not churn
15:27 – As the social network expands, it's gaining more interest
15:40 – Zwift also crowdsources content
15:54 – Zwift has a community of users who want to volunteer their services
16:17 – 97% of Zwift's user acquisition is organic
16:54 – Zwift targets cyclists and most cyclists belong to a tribe or a team
17:29 – Zwift does a little on the digital advertising side
18:00 – Eric has invested in Zwift Academy which is modeled after GTA Academy
- 18:11 – GTA Academy is a marketing advertising program between Gran Turismo and Nissan
- 18:50 – Zwift took GT Academy's model and made Zwift Academy
- 18:55 – Zwift Academy called out ladies around the world to join and 1200 ladies joined the program
- 19:03 – Zwift had a public PR in different media channels to announce Zwift Academy
- 19:15 – There were 3 finalists and they had to go through numbers of different tests
- 19:29 – The 3 finalists were taken to Majorca, Spain where they trained for 10 days with a professional team
- 19:37 – The professional team tested the finalists and offered a professional contract to one of them
- 19:45 – One of them is now a professional rider who was a former series marathoner
21:12 – Eric doesn't worry about the valuation
23:07 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Get out of your comfort zone – you'll never know what's in store for you until you get there.
A large, initial fund that was raised should NOT affect your valuation if your company is doing well.
Take risks...the earlier the better.

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

658: Startups, $120 Million Up For Grabs! As Close to "Free Money" as You Can Get. May 13, 2017

Show notes

BJ Lackland. He has spent over 15 years as an investor in startups. As an investor, he's been in VC and Angel and is now the CEO of Lighter Capital, where he oversees over 200 alternative investments in early stage tech companies. As an executive, he's been on the executive team of 3 companies including CFO of a public tech company called Power Efficiency Corp. He's raised and uploaded over $150M worth of capital.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Cirrus
How many hours of sleep do you get? — 4-5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Just keep seeking"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:20 – Nathan introduces BJ to the show
02:05 – BJ was at VC in the early 2000s for 5 years and focused on energy technology
02:58 – Lighter Capital is a fintech company that revolutionized as a startup finance
- 03:06 – They are using technology to improve entrepreneurs' access to capital
03:14 – Lighter Capital's model
- 03:23 – An entrepreneur spends 8-10 hours with them before they write a check
- 03:30 – The revenue-based financing tends to be the best aspect of equity
03:58 – On average, Lighter Capital provides companies $250K and can go up to $2M
- 04:28 – Pay multiple is 1.5 to 2 times and paid typically over a 3 to 5-year period
- 04:53 – If the company grows quickly, they can pay in a shorter time period
- 05:00 – "We have every incentive of trying to help them grow"
- 05:07 – Lighter Capital is really betting on the entrepreneurs
05:20 – Lighter Capital has raised a total of $120M
- 05:23 – The initial fund was $20M
05:45 – Lighter Capital is raising from traditional LPs
06:44 – Lighter Capital makes money like a bank does
07:35 – Most lenders are worried about payment defaults
07:44 – Lighter Capital focuses on helping companies grow long-term
08:40 – Lighter Capital has a minimum threshold of $15K a month
08:55 – Lighter Capital looks into 2 different audiences
- 08:58 – One is their customers
- 09:01 – The other one is their capital partner
09:14 – Lighter Capital is funding 10-12 companies a month
09:40 – Lighter Capital has a group of 9 developers and data scientists
09:49 – Lighter Capital has 90% accuracy for predicting revenue
10:45 – Lighter Capital still goes through several different factors for approving a company
11:56 – In Episode 421, Nathan had Ceterus who worked with Lighter Capital
- 12:17 – The payment can or cannot accelerate depending on the company
12:44 – Companies can pay lighter capital earlier with a lesser amount
13:56 – Lighter Capital funded companies that are just by themselves
15:00 – Lighter Capital is also funding similar companies
15:36 – In Episode 542, Nathan had HipLead and on Episode 560, Badger Maps, and they both worked with Lighter Capital
17:34 – Lighter Capital worked with 101 companies last year
17:54 – Lighter Capital closed a lot of deals last Christmas
19:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Thousands of new businesses are coming out every month; having easy access to capital is a huge advantage for them.
Predicting one company's future revenue is beneficial, both for the investor and the company.
Keep seeking, stay curious, and always find new things to learn about.

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

657: Is OnFleet New King of Delivery Economy with 300 Customers Paying $500/mo? May 12, 2017

Show notes

Khaled Naim. He's the CEO and co-founder of the company called Onfleet, a software company that makes it easy for businesses to manage local delivery operations. He holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and studied computer engineering at The University of Michigan. He grew up between London and Dubai. He's currently residing in San Francisco.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Venture Deals
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Gusto
How many hours of sleep do you get? — 7-8
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Khaled would tell himself to do something that he's really passionate about

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:14 – Nathan introduces Khaled to the show
01:47 – Onfleet is a B2B software product that helps delivery companies manage and analyze their local delivery operations
02:18 – Onfleet provides apps for drivers, dispatching dashboards for the dispatchers, analytics and write-up optimizations and algorithms
02:29 – Onfleet charges monthly depending on the delivery volume
- 02:35 – The larger the business, the more deliveries they do
02:42 – Onfleet is a SaaS business
03:30 – Blue Apron is different because they don't deliver locally, but ship using FedEx
03:42 – Onfleet's focus is on companies who deliver their goods locally
04:16 – Onfleet was launched in April 2015
04:46 – Team size is 15 and all are in San Francisco
04:40 – Onfleet has raised $4.5M in total funding, so far
04:55 – If you can bootstrap, it is a good option
- 05:13 – There are factors that lead to the decision to raise funds
- 05:18 – If you're not generating enough money to support the team, then raising capital is a good option
05:45 – It was 30 years ago when Khaled launched Onfleet
- 05:51 – Khaled, together with his co-founder, started Onfleet while he was still at Stanford—this is also where they met their CTO
- 06:28 – Khaled, with his co-founders, attended Stanford's Accelerator Program in 2012
07:17 – Onfleet raised a convertible note round and an equity round
07:38 – Onfleet offers a 30-day free trial for new customers
- 07:48 – After 30 days, they need to enter their credit card information
- 07:55 – Onfleet's pricing is very transparent and can be easily calculated on their website
- 08:30 – The telephone services are the call and text messages that run through Onfleet
- 08:38 – The customer receives notifications automatically regarding the driver's status
- 09:16 – The cost varies primarily on the market
09:53 – Onfleet is currently serving 300 customers
10:10 – Onfleet's pricing page is really nice and easy to navigate
10:34 – Onfleet's average customer is between the standard and premium tier
- 11:06 – Some of the customers are paying the north of 10K a month
- 11:13 – Average customer pay per month is $400-500 a month
11:56 – Onfleet doesn't track the number of tasks during the free trial
12:38 – Onfleet helps businesses to scale their business
13:10 – Onfleet's net MRR churn is more negative than negative 5%
14:10 – Everything in Onfleet is pay-per-use or pay-as-you-go
14:40 – There are customers who start using Onfleet, then leave
- 15:27 – Onfleet doesn't have much customer churn
16:05 – CAC is around $1500 per customer
17:08 – LTV is around 18 months
17:37 – Onfleet's customers are categorized
17:47 – Onfleet is slowly moving to more larger accounts
19:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can start a business without a capital – just find a way to it.
If you're not generating enough money to support the team, then raising capital is a good option.
No matter what, follow your passion and you'll be alright.

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

656: How to Win VR Gaming Space, $500k Raised, Team of 12, First Release This Year with CEO Peter Kortenhoeven May 11, 2017

Show notes

Peter Kortenhoeven. He's a creative person with a great deal of experience in the gaming industry. He started after graduation at the Academy of Arts as an animator at Coded Illusions. He became a lead animator at Triumph Studios shortly afterwards. One of his key successes has been the successful Overlord series. As lead artist, he worked on many different, yet, unreleased games. From a need to gain more business experience, he decided to focus on applied games. He became an art director at Bright Alley and later on at Ranj. During his period within the serious gaming industry, Peter kept working on small game projects during his spare time. One of those projects, Pillow Willow, helped him start his first company, Pillow Willow VR Studios.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Story of Whole Disney
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Trello
How many hours of sleep do you get? — 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Take it easy and make sure you focus on the right thing"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:22 – Nathan introduces Peter to the show
03:43 – Pillow Willow works on two flavors of games
- 03:47 – First is non-violent dreamscapes which are completely filled with liveliness
- 04:11 – They also work on active, full-body, VR games which stimulate players to move actively within the games
04:38 – Pillow Willow hasn't released a game yet and is still working on 4 titles, at the same time
- 04:47 – The first game, Drako, will be released within June and is a dreamscape game
- 05:13 – Drako's demo will be released for HTC Gear and Oculus
- 05:39 – The goal is to have a multi-player option in the future
06:05 – Pillow Willow won Best Dutch VR Game at the Bright VR Awards, in 2016
- 06:17 – It was for a demo game
07:00 – Pillow Willow has a seat funder which is Lumo Labs
08:00 – Pillow Willow has currently raised $500M
08:07 – Pillow Willow was launched in March 2016
08:23 – Team size is 12
08:46 – Pillow Willow will charge for their games and will create high end content
09:20 – Mobile VR is the Samsung S series combined with the Gear VR
- 09:38 – You have to have the proper phone and headset to play the games
09:52 – Average number of people who have VR gear
10:13 – Pillow Willow's first game will be an hour long and priced at $499
11:10 – Pillow Willow will try to create those dreamscapes games in a virtual universe
11:40 – Nathan thinks of the dreamscapes games like Neopets
14:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The VR space is a hot space at the moment and the games are getting more and more interesting.
If you have a seat funder, your company can continue developing a product even without recurring revenue.
Take it easy and make sure you focus on the RIGHT goal.

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

655: Expensify 450k Customers Paying $9/mo for Expense Reports that Don't Suck with CEO David Barrett May 10, 2017

Show notes

David Barrett. He started programming at the early age of 6 and has been inspired to become an expense reporter ever since. He attended the University of Michigan where he worked in a virtual reality lab before moving to Texas to write a 3D graphic engine for the industry. Then, he moved to California to join a name that is probably familiar to many of you, Travis Kalanick, in building a peer-to-peer file transport technology called, Red Swoosh, which was acquired by Akamai in 2007. In 2008, David left that company to start Expensify—where he is today—and he's trying to figure out the world's frustrations, one expense report at a time.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Innovator's Dilemma
What CEO do you follow? – Travis Kalanick
Favorite online tool? — G Suite
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-8
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I had dropped out of college"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:13 – Nathan introduces David to the show
02:36 – David was working on a debit/credit card idea and the banks weren't happy with it
02:50 – Expensify is the corporate card for the masses
03:08 – David got into the space when there was so much room for disruption and pain points
03:40 – Travis' first company is called Scour, which is an early file sharing network that got sued
- 04:06 – When David got into Red Swoosh, Travis was the only guy there
- 04:48 – David thinks that Travis is very articulate in communicating his vision
- 05:12 – David had equity from Red Swoosh
- 05:31 – Red Swoosh didn't have a big exit
06:14 – Expensify charges $9 per active user per month
- 06:20 – Expensify is a mobile app—you take a picture of your receipts and the app will read all the details on the receipt, automatically
- 06:29 – The information will then be categorized, sent to your account, and you'll get reimbursed the next day
07:10 – The company is only paying the active users
07:29 – Expensify's price points are $5 and $9
07:40 – David started Expensify's idea after Red Swoosh's acquisition
07:56 – David left Akamai in 2008, then he worked on Expensify
08:00 – Expensify's official launch is 2008
08:05 – Expensify's team size is around 110
08:18 – Expensify has raised capital
- 08:27 – Expensify has raised a total of $25M
- 08:36 – Expensify has been a break even business for a long time
- 08:39 – "We grow primarily through revenue"
- 08:52 – The vast majority of Expensify's growth is through self-finance
09:54 – The business itself is breaking even, but they're always raising and experimenting on big experiments
10:31 – There are about 25K companies who use Expensify
11:03 – There are millions of individuals who use Expensify, too
11:32 – 10% of Expensify's user base are paying customers
- 10:43 – 10% of 4.5M are paying customers
12:12 – "Churn is complicated"
- 12:33 – Expensify has a net negative revenue churn
13:05 – Expensify doesn't advertise and they have 100% organic traffic
13:37 – Expensify had a few fundraising rounds
- 13:41 – In 2008, they had their first $1M round
- 13:43 – They did a few more in a couple of years
14:25 – David doesn't talk with investors and hasn't talked with them in years
15:27 – Expensify is something totally different from Salesforce
15:53 – Expensify doesn't have salespeople
16:16 – Expensify's primary revenue generator is their support team who follow up on deployments
16:43 – Pricing has been difficult and Expensify is still working on it
- 16:53 – Expensify was originally free and customers didn't understand why
- 17:18 – David thought they needed a reasonable price point
- 17:31 – After choosing a price point, people became more comfortable and trusting
- 17:51 – Expensify's competitors followed their pricing
- 18:37 – Expensify's focus is on mastering the dynamics
- 19:06 – David thinks that, realistically, their pricing should be much higher
- 19:34 – David is planning on increasing their pricing
- 19:52 – "Because we don't need the money, we're focused on something else"
- 19:58 – "Maintaining an incredibly low price right now for the industry actually helps keep the competition out"
20:29 – People find Expensify through word-of-mouth
- 20:51 – "All of our emphasis is on building a product in a brand that generates an incredibly strong word-of-mouth"
- 21:34 – 99% of Expensify's traffic is people searching for us
21:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Adding a paid option to your product can actually make your customers more confident in your product.
Word-of-mouth is one of the best and cheapest ways to grow your traffic and client base, but your business has to be valuable for people.
A college degree is NOT the only road to success.

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

654: $100k at Age 19, Now $1.2 Million From 16 Best Selling Books and New Smart Business App, Brin with CEO Dale Beaumont May 09, 2017

Show notes

Dale Beaumont. He's an award winning technology entrepreneur, international speaker and author of 16 best-selling books. He started his first business at age 19 and has been building companies ever since. One of those companies is now a multi-million dollar enterprise which enabled Dale to become an investor, philanthropist, and has given him the opportunity to set foot in over 70 countries.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Seven-Day Weekend
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg
Favorite online tool? — Voxer
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? – Dale would tell himself to really have fun and just enjoy the journey

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Dale to the show
02:00 – Dale's first book was published in 2001
- 02:23 – Dale published a total of 16 books and sold 250K copies
- 02:26 – All of the books that Dale published were on best-seller list in Australia
- 02:42 – A best-seller book in Australia sells 5K copies on physical bookshelves
02:57 – Dale was 19 when he started his first company
- 03:05 – One of Dale's challenges was being so young in business
- 03:27 – Dale thought that needed to create credibility and the one way to do that was to publish a book
- 03:45 – Dale's first book was The World at Your Feet which is a personal development book for teenagers
- 03:50 – When Dale wrote a press release, it got him on national TV, newspapers and magazines
04:23 – Dale's first company's revenue went up after they released his book
- 04:59 – The book became their launch pad
05:16 – Dale's first company's revenue increased to $500K
05:28 – Dale published a series called Secrets Exposed, which has 15 books—he wrote the series in two and half years
- 05:43 – The books are interviews conducted by Dale
- 06:16 – All of the books are self-published
- 06:39 – Dale worked on the series from 2007 to 2009
- 06:49 – Publishing this series is one of Dale's most successful ventures
07:10 – In self-publishing, the cost per book goes down when you have 5K copies
- 07:31 – Dale had a pre-sell for his books
- 07:48 – Dale also had partnerships with companies, associations and organizations and they pre-purchased his books
08:28 – There was no requirement for the interviewee to purchase a copy of the book
- 08:38 – When Dale was about to print the copies, he sent messages to people offering a discounted price for bulk orders
- 08:58 – After 4 books of his series came out, more people approached Dale to be interviewed, so Dale had to set requirements
- 09:08 – Dale was able to fill out the next 11 books by making people commit to buying 1K copies
- 09:40 – Brad Sugars is an example of someone who approached Dale
10:21 – Dale started a company called Business Blueprint
- 11:04 – The company teaches small business owners across Australia and New Zealand how to use technology to improve their business
- 11:11 – The company started from the ground up and has continued to grow for 7 years now
- 11:16 – It is doing more than $5M in revenue
- 11:26 – The company does live events, webinars and membership sites
12:05 – Dale's goal is to provide business education and support
- 12:30 – Less than 1% of businesses have a business coach or advisor
- 12:33 – Dale thought that it would be cool to create a product that would give everyone a chance to have a business advisor
- 12:46 – Dale started to build the world's first AI business advisor and his name is BRiN
- 12:54 – "BRiN is like the Siri for business"
- 12:56 – BriN is a smartphone app and is currently on free download in iOs and Android
13:50 – Dale shares the benefit of using BRiN rather than searching your business questions through Google
14:21 – BRiN has had 21K downloads in the past 6 months with 4K weekly users
15:00 – BRiN, overall, has had 164K user sessions
16:10 – Dale self-funded BRiN from the funds he got from his previous company
- 16:20 – Dale has also been approached by different companies who are trying to talk to small business owners
- 16:39 – BRiN now offers partnership packages
18:52 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

One way to "manufacture" credibility is by publishing your own book.
It is good to know that you're on the right path in business – and business advisors can help guide you on that path.
Work hard, live your life, but make sure you are ENJOYING the journey.

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

653: She Invests $120 Million Into Financial Tech Companies, 39 Graduates, 6-8 New Per Year with New York Partnership Fund CEO Maria Gotsch May 08, 2017

Show notes

Maria Gotsch. She's the president and CEO at the Partnership Fund for New York City, which is the investment arm of the Partnership for New York City. In addition to leading the funds operations, Maria has spearheaded the creation and operation of a number of fund strategic initiatives including The Fintech Innovation Lab. Prior to joining the fund in 1999, Maria was a managing director at a company that is now part of Deutsche Bank, providing strategic and financial advice related to mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and the development of business strategies. Maria worked for LaSalle Partners in the New York area and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, in both New York and London. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Wellesley College.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – "A book on the Iranian negotiations with the US around the treaty"
What CEO do you follow? – Henry Kravis
Favorite online tool? — MyCity Bike app
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7 and a half
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Be bold, be bold, be bold!"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:11 – Nathan introduces Maria to the show
02:15 – Partnership Fund is the corporate sector at the table that is trying to grow the NYC economy
- 02:21 – Henry Kravis of KKR has raised funds in the late 90s and raised from major corporations and individuals, in NYC
- 02:32 – The investor list is the "who's who" of the private equity
- 02:36 – Partnership Fund was structured as an evergreen fund
- 02:48 – "We can do things that are a little bit riskier and take a little bit longer than a traditional private sector investor"
- 03:02 – "We often work with government, but we're privately funded"
03:13 – Partnership Fund is like an interest-free loan for 45 years
03:33 – All of Partnership Fund's gains just go back to their funds and they reinvest it
- 03:41 – "We have the investors' money for 45 years and if we make returns, it comes back to us to fund new projects"
03:58 – The Fintech Lab is currently in their 7th year and has 75 graduates
- 04:08 – It is an elite program and takes 68 companies a year
- 04:18 – It is structured as a civic program
- 04:32 – The goal of the program is to help reduce the pain and agony of a small emerging company trying to get into and get attention from large financial institutions
- 05:06 – "Because it is competitive to get in, it's a shark tank to get in, but once you're in, it's a dolphin tank"
- 05:18 – They get 150-160 applications a year
- 05:28 – Companies are selected by their financial institution partners
- 05:34 – A company's technology has to rise to the level of addressing a major pain point for major financial institutions
- 06:10 – In some cases, it's not about an acquisition, it's about using
- 06:15 – The fact that they are a non-profit civic organization is important
- 06:29 – CTOs and CIOs will come to the table as a civic program, partly to help grow the fintech community in NYC, to create jobs
- 07:23 – They invest in some of the graduates' post programs
- 07:30 – The lab is laser-focused in solving problems
- 07:41 – They are not doing any direct-to-consumer programs
08:20 – The big 3: data, security and risk management have been on the top of the CIOs list from the beginning
- 08:43 – However, new things are coming
- 08:47 – Disruptive talent management has been added as a new category
- 08:58 – Blockchain has gone through an interesting cycle
- 09:14 – This year, there's much less interest in blockchain and distributed ledger
09:52 – Maria predicts that in 2 years, there will be an increase of interest in enabling technologies that fit around the distributed ledger
10:31 – In data, Digital Reasoning came into the program with an interesting technology that is able to read unstructured data, and they're working for the government
- 11:03 – They were advised to focus on compliance
12:04 – In security, Centripetal Networks has a perimeter defense technology and they're gaining traction from people who have a lot of retail locations
12:34 – In risk management, Quarule automates some of the processing of regulatory tracking and flagging operations against the regulations
13:23 – In blockchain, Digital Asset Holdings has raised a significant amount of money and has been involved in some major projects
13:50 – Maria shares how they are telling companies to create more jobs in NYC
- 14:02 – The companies will also realize that they need to have people on the ground in NYC
- 14:20 – Some have moved to their headquarters in NYC
14:46 – "We've not raised money since the late 90s"
- 14:50 – The initial fund size was $120M
15:46 – New York is starting to be seen as a center for fintech
16:34 – There are some smaller companies that are trying to go after pieces and as they scale, the acquisition cost is increasingly expensive
- 17:05 – LearnVest is a good example
17:40 – The small business lenders come to a market that the banks aren't servicing
- 18:00 – There are companies who are an exception to the rule
18:17 – Most of the companies end up partnering with large institutions
18:54 – What the large financial institutions have is expertise and compliance
20:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The trend in the fintech space is constantly changing.
Creating more jobs in New York City means more opportunities for companies and for the people of New York.
Be BOLD—don't shrink, don't hesitate—just go for it.

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

652: SnapLogic Raises $136M, $70M+ ARR Helping 750 Customers ($138k ACV) Connect Data Streams with CEO Gaurav Dhillon May 07, 2017

Show notes

Gaurav Dhillon. He's an early investor in a company called SnapLogic. He joined in 2009, when he saw the potential of how companies integrate applications data and devices for digital business. He spearheaded SnapLogic's rapid growth and overseas strategies, products, and operations. He's previously the co-founder and CEO of Informatica.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Power of Habit
What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove
Favorite online tool? — Gmail
How many hours of sleep do you get? — Close to 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish he knew more that opportunity knocks often"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:22 – Nathan introduces Gaurav to the show
02:04 – Gaurav and his co-founder had a $75K SBA grant when they built Informatica
- 02:25 – They have raised a total of $13.5M
- 02:57 – "11-12 years is a long time and it's time to go"
03:32 – Gaurav is a company builder
03:47 – When Gaurav did an IPO, he sold some of his shares in a secondary public offering
- 03:53 – There was no lock-out
- 04:24 – They made $400M in secondary public offering
- 04:32 – Their initial raise was less than $100M
- 04:49 – In IPO, you are also trying to build a brand for yourself
05:23 – Gaurav left Informatica in July 2004
05:28 – Gaurav spent a year doing things on his bucket list
06:10 – When Gaurav went back to the valley, he joined a couple of boards
06:25 – Gaurav was in a board meeting when they talked about business internet, which is now cloud computing
- 06:37 – "People aren't just going to buy books from the web, they're going to balance books on the web"
06:58 – Gaurav invested in SnapLogic
- 07:05 – Gaurav wrote a couple of men a check saying that if there's a business, prove it to him, and he will provide capital
- 07:16 – The initial check was $1M
- 07:26 – Gaurav structured it as convertible debt
08:06 – SnapLogic has raised a total of $136M
- 08:10 – Initially, it was from Venture
- 08:23 – Most recent round was led by Vitruvian Partners
09:04 – Gaurav built Informatica to hook up those products with each other
09:21 – SnapLogic is connecting the new cloud application to what is now Legacy, which was a new application 20 years ago
- 09:46 – They're expanding out the product set in SnapLogic and providing all kinds of connections
10:12 – Is SnapLogic the unsexier version of Zapier, but more important?
- 10:26 – Zapier is a consumer place and Gaurav doesn't dislike it
- 10:32 – There have been companies, like Bump, who try to do certain kinds of things
- 10:56 – The problem of overt strata in business
- 11:05 – What they're solving on Zapier is on a personal level
- 11:20 – If you're trying to connect your human capital system with your SAP financial system and you are a big company, you will need something like SnapLogic
- 11:44 – SnapLogic is the industrial version
11:58 – SnapLogic is a PaaS (platform as a service) model
- 12:04 – SnapLogic is a cloud product and is like Google Chrome
12:33 – SnapLogic's average customer pay is $136K a year
12:57 – SnapLogic currently has 250 employees and is still growing
13:20 – SnapLogic's LTV
- 13:32 – "We've got many customers in 7-figures, already"
- 13:50 – "You can always buy that you can sell"
14:07 – SnapLogic has inside qualification people or SDRs for customer acquisition
- 14:24 – SDRs ratio
- 14:43 – SnapLogic has less than 20 SDRs
- 14:56 – CAC
15:49 – "We're a buzz company, customers love us"
17:15 – Gaurav looks at incremental growth
18:44 – Nathan thinks that it is so wrong for founders who focus on the LTV-CAC ratio
19:09 – "You don't want to be too conservative, right, because the early market share you get is the best market share"
19:26 – Gaurav shares the business metrics
- 19:46 – Try to do a 6-figure deal and try to have more customers than employees
20:06 – Average ARR
- 20:47 – SnapLogic hasn't broke the 9-figure ARR rate yet
- 21:05 – A company that can double its revenue has nothing to fear
21:34 – "What we're doing is building a robust business which, no doubt, is growing aggressively, but also has its feet on the ground"
22:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

If your company can double its revenue, it's a strong indicator that you are in good shape.
The early market share you get is the best market share.
Don't fret—opportunity knocks often.

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

651: Pipl Indexes 3.5B People, How Contact Data Really Works with Advisor Garth Moulton May 06, 2017

Show notes

Garth Moulton. He's invested and has advised a number of technology startups and was responsible for revenue growth for the channel for Pipl Inc. After 11 years of sales experience in the Bay area, Mr. Moulton had the perfect startup journey with Jigsaw, which was drawn up from 2 guys with a whiteboard to a $175M exit, in 2010, to Salesforce.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Speed of Trust
What CEO do you follow? – Tim Ferris
Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That time is not boundless"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Garth to the show
01:58 – Garth didn't get depressed after Jigsaw's exit
02:23 – Garth and Jim stayed at Salesforce for a year and a half, after the acquisition
02:43 – Pipl was running together with Jigsaw
- 02:48 – Garth met Pipl's CEO during the early days of Jigsaw and they partnered together
- 03:03 – Pipl would drive traffic to Jigsaw
03:51 – Pipl was a typical search engine, driving traffic to partners
- 04:31 – In the last 3 years, Pipl was more of a data company that sold API access and basic search tools to access data and profiles to 3 channels
- 04:46 – First channel is a search app like Spokeo and Instant Checkmate where Pipl supplies them the data
- 05:19 – Second channel is fraud alert and ID validation
- 05:44 – Pipl checks if the email is real
- 05:56 – Garth overlooked the companies that were going to use the data for sales and marketing
- 06:18 – Pipl is partners with Full Contact
06:39 – Nathan has been trying to find the mother of data sources
- 06:52 – "Jigsaw was the source of the data"
- 07:12 – LinkedIn is still the biggest source of data for B2B
- 07:50 – There's a LinkedIn private channel
- 08:26 – LinkedIn has gotten more and more aggressive in making the data available
08:58 – There have been CEOs who received a cease and desist order from LinkedIn
- 09:24 – Some of the companies are wholly dependent on LinkedIn
09:56 – Garth shares the same sentiment as Nathan that there's no mother data source
- 10:31 – The Data Dinosaurs' data accuracy is horrendous
12:30 – An average of a hundred corporations have bought the API access of Pipl
13:14 – Pipl's business solution average price point
- 13:21 – $1200 a year for unlimited searches, per person
13:37 – Team size is 40
- 13:47 – Team location
14:15 – Pipl is bootstrapped
- 14:27 – Garth became interested in Pipl, because it was completely bootstrapped
15:15 – Garth had an agreement that he would come on for a couple of years and expand the channel for Pipl
- 15:37 – Garth is on the cap table
17:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Data sources are sharing each other's data to grow and verify their own data—there is no mother of data sources.
A company that is bootstrapped definitely has more freedom and control of their company.
If you can start your business as early as you can, do it.

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

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