Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

630: Mention Helping 4000 Customers With Google Alerts on Steroids, All Paying Minimum $60/mo for $240k in MRR with CEO Matthieu Vaxelaire Apr 15, 2017

Show notes

Matthieu Vaxelaire. He's the CEO of Mention where he moves all Trello cards to the right and closes deals. He splits his time between Paris and New York City.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Rand Fishkin
Favorite online tool? — Hull
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6-7
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Do more things and read less as you learn much more by doing than reading"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:17 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show
01:37 – Mention is Google Alert on steroids
01:51 – Mention is a SaaS business
02:05 – Mention has different segments of customers
- 02:08 – The SME customers pay an average of $65 monthly
- 02:13 – The mid-market customers pay an average of $400 monthly
02:25 – Average customer pay per month
03:20 – Most of Mention's customers don't like sharing their information
03:40 – Ogilvy uses Mention to track the campaigns they're building for their clients
04:17 – Mention is also an inferential tool
04:49 – Mention raised capital at an early stage
- 05:03 – Mention raised a total of $500K
05:11 – There are 45 people on the team and 10 are in NY, the rest are in Paris
05:50 – Prior to Mention, Matt worked at eFounders which is a startup studio
- 05:57 – Mention was one of the startups built by eFounders
06:20 – Mention has over 600K users and over 4K paying customers per month
06:42 – Mention's free version
07:20 – Mention uses a number of features
07:53 – There's no touch sales in the SME market
- 08:01 – The mid-market is inside-sales driven
- 08:15 – There are 2 groups of inside-sales teams: the inbound and outbound with 6 people in each group
08:50 – Average MRR
09:28 – Mention is more focused on gross MRR churn
- 09:35 – SME gross churn is 2%
- 10:43 – Mention is almost in a negative net churn
11:20 – Mention has an average of 10K signups per month
11:47 – Mention is currently spending $5-10K on paid advertising
- 12:04 – Mention is exploring other advertising options like G2 Crowd
- 12:20 – Mention's first trial result with G2 Crowd isn't that encouraging
12:44 – Mention uses a strong open-content strategy to drive people to their website
13:17 – CAC
- 14:00 – Matt is willing to spend up to $1K to generate new mid-market customers
14:17 – 2017 goal
- 14:58 – Mention is currently in the process of raising
- 15:07 – An $800K MRR by the end of December 2017 is a good number
17:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Sometimes, you got to spend to acquire those new customers.
Paid advertising isn't the only solution to drive traffic to your site.
Get out there and start moving—you learn more by doing than by reading.

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

EP 629: Mexico's Gaszen Raises $700k, Uses Roof Meter to Tell Mexican Households When Gas Is Almost Empty with CEO Jennifer Reyna Apr 14, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #629, Nathan interviews Jennifer Reyna. She's got a lot of energy and more importantly, she studied business creation and development in Mexico. She's created 3 startups so far, Agri DeliCo which is a socio-company, Brain Fusion which is embedded in software development, and Gaszen or gas management. They've raised over $650K in Mexico and have developed their own working product. She's a mother, lover, sister, and daughter that enjoys her life and lives with zero regrets. She said, after all, there's only one life and she's in a constant pursuit of the best version of herself.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That hard work can make everything happen for sure"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:34 – Nathan introduces Jennifer Reyna to the show
02:22 – Jenny realized that people complain about their gas
- 02:38 – Jenny created a device that works with stationary tanks
- 02:48 – Gaszen has an application where the consumer can see his gas consumption, statistics, and choose the best gas supplier
- 02:59 – Gaszen monetizes through selling information to gas suppliers
- 03:08 – Gaszen also monetizes from a consumer who wants automation
03:34 – Gaszen isn't in the market yet and is still finishing its development
- 03:41 – Gaszen will start selling in April
- 03:43 – Gaszen already approached gas suppliers and has pre-ordered from them
03:57 – There are already 2 gas suppliers who have bought from Gaszen
04:05 – Gaszen also has real estate clients
- 04:31 – Gaszen has partnered with 3 real estate firms
- 04:35 – Gaszen is currently in discussion with 15 more real estate firms in Mexico
04:48 – The firm buys the device for $77
- 04:59 –The device will go directly to the buyer of the house
05:21 – Gas suppliers get a discounted price for buying the device in bulk
05:48 – Mexico has problems with gas suppliers giving updates
06:08 – Each gas supplier bought 5k units of the device
- 06:19 – The amount per piece will be $50
06:38 – Having clients before the actual launch of the product is good for Gaszen
06:49 – Gaszen's first Kickstarter
- 07:07 – Gaszen raised 80K Mexican peso
- 07:19 – Gaszen had 111 backers
07:41 – Gaszen is B2B focused
07:48 – Gaszen has raised their first seed round with a total of $350K
- 08:05 – It was an equity round
08:14 – Gaszen started 2 years ago
08:26 – Gaszen had Angel investors and won the biggest Hackathon in the world
- 08:47 – Gaszen raised $300k with Angel investors
09:13 – From the gas suppliers, Gaszen charges after the 6-month trial, a monthly fee is charged per device or per device and user
09:32 – Gaszen charges 9 Mexican pesos per automated service
09:59 – Gaszen has no MRR currently
10:23 – The team has 5 people in management and 3 junior engineers
- 10:43 – The team is based in León Guanajuato, México
11:03 – It costs Gaszen $36 to make the device
- 11:30 – The whole device is made in Mexico
11:43 – The volume needed per year is 50K units in order to get a better price
12:13 – Gaszen wants to keep manufacturing in Mexico, if possible
13:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Look at the most common problem and create a solution.
If you can keep sourcing and manufacturing locally and with a good price, the better.
Keep at it—hard work definitely pays off.

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

EP 628: RapidAPI w/ 19 YO Founder Raises $3.5M, Helping You Connect to API's Faster with CEO Iddo Gino Apr 13, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #628, Nathan interviews Iddo Gino. He's the CEO and co-founder of RapidAPI which he founded when he was 16 years old. He's listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and previously, he was the co-organizer at Hacking Gen Y. Originally from Israel, Iddo, currently resides in San Francisco, California where he runs RapidAPI and runs JavaScript projects on the side.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Stewart Butterfield
Favorite online tool? — GitHub
Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — 6-7 hours
If you could let your 10-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew what I didn't know back then"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:22 – Nathan introduces Iddo to the show
01:57 – RapidAPI let developers find APIs online
02:09 – RapidAPI has a marketplace model where developers can pay for the APIs
02:16 – RapidAPI's processing fee is from 10% - 25%
- 02:30 – The fee depends on the API vendor
02:46 – RapidAPI is like a point connection for developers to find APIs
02:55 – Iddo was part of Hacking Gen Y
- 03:09 – Iddo realized how powerful APIs were while he was at Hacking Gen Y
03:18 – Iddo created the first version of RapidAPI
03:41 – Together with Iddo is his co-founder, Mickey Haslavsky
03:49 – Team size is 20
03:58 – The engineering team is in Israel and marketing and sales teams are in San Francisco
04:10 – Developers' salaries in Israel
04:34 – RapidAPI just announced their seed round in November
- 04:44 – Total amount raised was $3.5M and an equity round
05:00 – RapidAPI started as an open-source project
05:40 – There are 148K apps or projects that have used Slack in RapidAPI
05:54 – Slack is a free API and the service is free, but there are paid APIs
06:43 – Average MRR
07:06 – The fee is charged from the API and not the consumer
07:16 – Any consumer transaction in RapidAPI is free
07:31 – One of the most popular paid APIs is Twilio
08:01 – If someone connects to Twilio API through RapidAPI, that's when RapidAPI takes the processing fee
08:31 – "RapidAPI is all about neighboring developers to connect with APIs"
08:40 – RapidAPI will soon open a facility for developers
09:12 – Iddo volunteered for Hacking Gen Y and helped Hackathons
09:21 – Iddo was working on creating apps and websites prior to RapidAPI
09:36 – Iddo is currently 19 and his parents are just excited for him and what he does
09:54 – Iddo still thinks of going back to college, but is currently enjoying RapidAPI's success at the moment
11:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

APIs are powerful and having a one point connection is beneficial for the developers.
In the process of helping people, you also learn from them.
Being an entrepreneur at an early age opens you up to the opportunity to learn more.

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

EP 627: SmartSheet $70M Raised, $80M ARR, Helping 65,000 Customers with Project Management with CEO Mark Mader Apr 12, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #627, Nathan interviews Mark Mader. He's the CEO of Smartsheet. He's passionate about delivering superior, customer experiences. Mark strives to find innovative ways for customers to collaborate more intelligently using the Smartsheet platform and its partner ecosystem. Prior to Smartsheet, Mark served as SVP of Global Services for Onyx Software, leading the consulting and consumer operation team in America, Europe and Asia. In 2015, he was recognized as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of Technology for the Pacific NorthWest.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Play Bigger
What CEO do you follow? – Stat Mandella
Favorite online tool? — Tripit
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "You tell me what the major trends are in the next 3 decades, in tech, and I would make you a lot of money"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show
02:21 – Smartsheet is a software SaaS company
02:27 – The people who subscribe to Smartsheet are teams and enterprise teams
02:47 – Smartsheet is similar to Trello's space but in the enterprise class
- 02:57 – Smartsheet has everything from time tracking to other things that are more diverse in nature
03:23 – Smartsheet serves 65K distinct brands on a paid basis
03:30 – Each brand pays an average of $1K annually
- 03:36 – The range is $200 to $1.6M annually
04:08 – Average MRR is $5.4M
04:20 – Smartsheet has been growing really well for the past 4 years
- 04:43 – "As you grow bigger, the gross rate is more challenging"
04:47 – Smartsheet isn't only focused on getting new customers, but on helping their customers grow as well
05:23 – 2016 revenue
05:37 – 2017 target ARR
06:10 – First year revenue was zero
06:37 – Smartsheet's promise didn't change, but how they brought the product to the market changed dramatically
- 06:55 – 60% of Smartsheet's revenue came from customers who learned about Smartsheet organically
07:18 – Smartsheet's first million ARR was in 2010
08:02 – Smartsheet has raised a total of $70M
08:16 – Mark feels that they have a really good platform
08:21 – Team size
08:55 – Have the balance sheet in your model if you want to invest more this year
09:06 – Smartsheet is still trying to focus on efficiency in their growth model
09:34 – Smartsheet's current status is that they have the decision to slow their growth or drive profit overnight
09:57 – "Control your own destiny"
10:06 – Smartsheet is currently not cash flow positive, but still a healthy business
10:20 – Smartsheet is based in Seattle, Washington and will have an office in Boston
10:48 – Smartsheet has a diverse funnel
- 11:02 – Smartsheet spends millions of dollars in paid advertising a year
11:34 – One of Smartsheet's keys to growth is to go where the action is
- 11:39 – "Dominate in the world of collaborative, work management and partner effectively with the tools people use and love"
- 11:50 – "Partner with the places where heat exists"
- 12:08 – It's about having an ecosystem mindset
12:30 – Gross customer churn
13:17 – Smartsheet has a broad population service
13:31 – "The key to sustain long-term growth is not just keeping up, but expanding"
13:59 – Smartsheet can still grow by 30% in 2017, without new customers
14:17 – Smartsheet charges the people who create new work in their application
15:00 – Smartsheet's safe LTV
- 15:25 – Smartsheet looks at their specific sources and campaigns
16:06 – Smartsheet's cohort analysis
17:22 – Smartsheet's last round of raising was in 2014
19:16 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Focus not only on acquiring new customers, but helping your current customers to grow their company.
The key to sustaining long-term growth is not just keeping up, but expanding.
Dominate in the world of collaborative, work management and partner effectively with the tools people use and love.

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

EP 626: Senior Editor at The Atlantic Releases Book To Predict Popularity In New Distraction Age with writer Derek Thompson Apr 11, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #626, Nathan interviews Derek Thompson. He's a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, one of the biggest media companies out there. His first book, Hit Makers, is about the science of hits, pop culture, and technology and why people like what they like. He currently resides in New York.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Homo Deus
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg
Favorite online tool? — Evernote
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Take more risks because people are fundamentally resilient and can handle the downside of those risks"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Derek to the show
02:15 – The reason people go into journalism is because they seek answers to questions
02:21 – For Derek, the best reason to write a book was to answer questions
- 02:29 – Derek loved writing about what people like
02:33 – People say a book has to have an "elevator pitch"
- 02:39 – Books are more of a broken elevator
03:36 – "Creativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems"
04:36 – Derek wrote his book to allow himself the opportunity to be curious about anything he found interesting
05:00 – Derek worked with Penguin Publishing
- 05:10 – Derek had an agent, Dell Ross, who was Derek's proposal doctor
- 05:35 – Derek and his agent sent the proposal to every publisher they could reach
- 05:43 – Derek also talked directly to publishers
- 06:06 – There are a lot of different audiences for a single book
- 06:10 – Derek's agent was his first audience member
06:18 – Derek picked his agent because she's unsentimentally intelligent and has a motherly approach
07:27 – Hit Makers came out in February 2017
08:08 – The rating in Amazon was quite high for a first-time book writer
08:40 – "Self-publishing is riskier"
09:15 – The average amount an author gets for the book sales
10:30 – Derek hasn't talked about his advance with his agent
- 10:58 – The delta was probably about 2X
11:11 – There are publishers who believed that Derek's book wouldn't work at all
11:20 – Almost all book proposals from first-time authors are rejected and the best example of this is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter
12:46 – "The future of popularity is a very tricky business"
13:13 – The easiest metaphor for the science of popularity is the weather
14:09 – One of the theses in the book was to ask the question: is virality a myth?
16:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Creativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems.
Most book proposals from first-time authors are rejected, but there will be that ONE who will believe in you.
People are fundamentally resilient, so TAKE that risk – the regrets of not taking that risk will be more difficult to handle.

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

EP 625: Booker $80M Raised, $3.5B in 2016 Volume, $1.5M+ MRR Helping 10,000 Spas and Salons Manage Business and Transactions with CEO Josh McCarter Apr 10, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #625, Nathan interviews Josh McCarter. He's the co-founder and CEO of Booker Software, a leading business management and marketing solution serving over 10,000 health and beauty businesses. Josh has served in a variety of senior executive board roles at various technology companies including Arbitech, Spafinder and Autobytel.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Make Big Happen
What CEO do you follow? – Steve Case, author of The Third Wave
Favorite online tool? — OpenTable
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Startups are a blast, but they are not easy"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:23 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show
01:59 – Booker is a business management and marketing solution for health and wellness businesses
- 02:08 – Booker is like OpenTable
- 02:16 – Booker does everything for a business to run
02:31 – Booker gains revenue from their subscriptions averaging $150-250 monthly
- 02:48 – Booker also has merchant processing
- 02:53 – Booker also sells its add-on product, Frederick
03:50 – Josh started to focus on the spa industry because of the technology from his previous company
04:25 – "It's important to understand what type of customers you serve best"
05:31 – Josh shares how he spun out of business in his previous company
- 06:00 – Make sure you have the right type of structure when you spin out a business
- 06:10 – Give preferences to the shareholders
- 06:18 – It took Josh 6-9 months to get all the right structures and licensing in place
06:30 – Josh had a series A for $150K in 2011
06:42 – Spafinder had put in the initial capital for Booker
07:17 – Booker's current team size is around 200
07:26 – Booker has raised a total of a million
07:47 – You have to do a proper valuation for a spin out
08:30 – First year revenue
09:00 – Booker is currently at 10K locations
- 09:20 – There is a fee per location
- 09:34 – A company who has more locations pays more
10:05 – Average MRR
10:25 – Booker does a lot of upselling and retention
- 10:41 – Booker makes sure that they keep their existing customers happy
- 10:50 – "You've got to focus on upsell opportunities"
- 11:20 – Booker's merchant processing
- 11:37 – Online booking for spas is more common
11:58 – First Data is Booker's newest investor
12:54 – Average total transactions
13:15 – Josh is currently not in any acquisition talks and isn't raising a round
- 13:23 –"We've got some good runway"
14:05 – Gross customer churn
- 14:30 – "50% of our churn is the people who ran out of business"
- 14:39 – Failure rate of the SMB market is quite high
15:00 – CAC
- 15:05 – Most SMBs in SaaS and marketing business spend $1500-3500 to acquire new customers
15:40 – Frederick came to Booker for partnership
- 16:10 – Frederick was able to look at how SMBs are retaining their customers
- 17:22 – Frederick was able to get high conversion and retention metrics
- 18:14 – Frederick is integrated heavily into Booker
18:38 – Team location
20:16 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

It's important to understand what type of customers you serve best.
Make sure you have the right type of structure in place when you spin out a business.
Startups are a blast, but they're definitely not easy—be willing to put in the work.

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

EP 624: Winmo Passes $1.1M in MRR, Helping 2000 Customers Close More Sales with CEO Dave Currie Apr 09, 2017

Show notes

Dave Currie. He's an entrepreneur-leader in the sales intelligence space, specifically for advertising, media, and the tech industry. Since 2014, he's directed the company on a rapid innovation and growth trajectory. They are recognized by their customers and the industry as one of the largest, agile, fast-growing, private companies and the best place to work in America—the company, TheListInc.com.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Kyle Porter
Favorite online tool? — N/A
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Balance is as important right now as you thought about it then. Being healthy is #1. Work and everything fall into place when you got your priorities stacked up the right way"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:40 – Nathan introduces Dave to the show
03:20 – The List is also known from their other products
- 03:34 – Winmo was launched last year
- 03:41 – Winmo is the lead brand
03:52 – Winmo is a subscription-based, sales intelligence platform
04:01 – Winmo provides sales intelligence to national advertisers
04:28 – Winmo has an annual subscription
04:45 – Annual subscription increases the valuation
04:55 – Winmo has been completely bootstrapped since day 1
05:09 – The List started in 1995 and went online in the early 2000s
05:25 – Dave came into The List in 2005
05:45 – The List is a joint venture with a company in the UK
06:08 – The team currently has 85 members
06:27 – Average annual customer pay
- 06:38 – Winmo initially charges $400-500 per user annually
07:07 – CAC
- 07:14 – "We're very deliberate with our marketing efforts"
- 07:24 – 2014 paid marketing expenditure was around $100K, but was toned down currently to $50K
- 08:03 – The $50K would go to Google AdWords and some retargeting
- 08:17 – Dave's target CAC
- 08:50 – Dave's looking into 25% conversion rate
09:17 – Winmo has 4 targets in the UK and USA
- 09:44 – Winmo also sells to marketing services agencies
10:19 – Winmo has a good customer retention
- 10:46 – Winmo is just a bit stronger in the media space over the agency
11:30 – Winmo's customer retention is a bit lower than revenue retention
12:05 – Lifetime Value
- 12:24 – Dave calculates retention on a 90-day cycle
13:06 – The question of when you consider a customer a "new customer"
14:10 – Average number of customers
15:35 – Average MRR
15:52 – Dave shares what is considered healthy in his business' space
16:28 – Dave is part of the succession team of The List
16:46 – Dave and the team is not looking into going out and will just stick to being bootstrapped
17:05 – Dave won't sell the company for $90M or higher
19:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Be deliberate with your marketing – it pays off in the end.
A healthy business can stay bootstrapped for a very long time, and still be OK.
Regardless of whether you're young or old, new to business or not, balance is KEY.

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

EP 623: rfactr Raises $9m, $900k MRR Helping 220 Customers With Social Selling With CEO Richard Brasser Apr 08, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #623, Nathan interviews Richard Brasser. He's the foremost expert in helping companies increase the effectiveness and influence of their Salesforce's strategic use of social communication. He does this through his company, rFactr. Richard pursues his focus in enabling salespeople to leverage social communication and build more meaningful relationship.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm
What CEO do you follow? – Tony Robbins
Favorite online tool? — Outlook
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Very rarely
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Richard wished he knew the concept of compounding interest and the concept of deferred asset allocation

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:34 – Nathan introduces Richard to the show
02:15 – Companies need to engage their buyers in a more meaningful way
02:32 – rFactr is focused on enhancing sales people's ability to connect with people
02:51 – rFactr's platform is called a social port
- 03:15 – rFactr has a per month/per user model
03:26 – rFactr is not a marketplace
03:33 – rFactr is directly plugged into companies' CRMs
03:55 – Average customer pay per month
- 04:15 – rFactr has channel activations
04:40 – rFactr's starting price is $5K a month
04:49 – rFactr was launched in 2009
04:57 – rFactr was bootstrapped for the first 8 years
05:04 – rFactr had a seed round and will probably have a series A
05:17 – rFactr has raised a total of $9M
05:32 – Richard played golf on tour for 7 years
- 05:45 – Richard made a good amount from playing golf
06:01 – Richard was already 7 years in business when he needed someone for the operations and finance side of the company
06:08 – Richard's partner was just exiting his software company when he joined rFactr
06:25 – Nathan tells Richard about Episode 615 where he had Shin as a guest whose company makes carbon fiber golf shafts
- 06:47 – Richard hasn't seen Shin's product
07:05 – The seed round is an equity round
- 07:17 – The last round was in 2010
07:40 – The company has been around for 16 years, but the main product was developed 9 years ago
07:51 – Richard's company started as a strategy and consulting firm
08:33 – Richard shares how the first company was valuated
09:31 – Team size is 18
09:39 – rFactr has 220 paying customers
09:44 – Average MRR
10:29 – Richard shares why they're having the small companies together with the biggest ones
11:25 – Gross customer churn
11:37 – CAC
- 12:08 – rFactr has no paid marketing
12:23 – Team's location
13:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Small companies may not be able to pay as much as the big companies, but the level of help they need is similar.
Use your money from your exit for your new company.
Paid marketing isn't always necessary—know your options to better decide if it's right for you.

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

EP 622: This FinTech Accelerator Has Helped 60 Companies, Linking Industry with Startups with $17k Investment with Nektarios Liolios Apr 07, 2017

Show notes

In Episode #622, Nathan interviews Nektarios Liolios. He's the CEO and co-founder of Startup Bootcamp, Financial Technology, and Insurance Technology—the leading innovation program in the financial and insurance industry. They provide funding, mentorship, office space in the heart of London, Singapore, New York and Mumbai and access into their global network including investors and VCs, up to 10 folks, each time they do it.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Nektarios wished that at 20, he would have known that he didn't know everything and to be less scared

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:28 – Nathan introduces Nektarios to the show
02:08 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech is a network of accelerators
- 02:17 – It is cohort-based
- 02:24 – The programs are industry focused programs
02:58 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech has 400 companies that have graduated
03:12 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech was launched in January 2014
03:29 – Nektarios shares how Startup Bootcamp FinTech started
- 03:56 – "To add real value, you need to be super sharp in your focus"
04:20 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech doesn't take investments, but they take equity
- 04:30 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech takes 6% equity
05:52 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech has a variety of programs
06:35 – One of their teams is in Singapore
07:30 – Walnut Algorithms of France is part of their program
- 07:47 – It was built thinking it would revolutionize the algorithm industry
07:57 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech usually works with pre-seed startups
- 08:05 – Their products are not ready to launch yet
08:38 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech had 60 companies that are FinTech focused
08:52 – Buzzmove is one of the companies that have raised the most
- 09:05 – It provides accurate data for home insurance
- 09:25 – It is a data provider solution
- 09:35 – It sells to insurance providers
09:54 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech programs are funded by the industry players
10:26 – Nektarios shares what drives their company
11:07 – Who will win, Betterment or Wealthfront?
11:49 – It is difficult for Nektarios to discern which company will succeed
12:25 – Nathan shares his interview with Andy of Wealthfront
12:58 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech is the only program with the global reach
13:08 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech offers every entrepreneur in the globe access to their network
13:24 – The Global Insurance Accelerator is their only competition
13:34 – Nektarios shares what he thinks of the insurance space
- 13:58 – Insurance people are relevant to the industry
14:24 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech creates fund structure for every program
14:42 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech needs a minimum amount to run a program
15:05 – Every location of Startup Bootcamp FinTech has 5 people
15:53 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech isn't driven by a commercial perspective
17:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

To add real value, you need to be razor sharp in your focus.
Insurance space has so much potential to be a lucrative space—it's less crowded and there are so many problems to solve.
Just go for it—take the consequences as it's going to be a ride.

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

EP 621:BluePrintRegistry Raises $1.7M, Passes 2500 Postings and $10M in Transaction Volume with CEO Nevin Shetty Apr 06, 2017

Show notes

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

Famous Five:

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

Time Stamped Show Notes:

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

3 Key Points:

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

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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