Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 610: Toofr Hits 100 Active Customers Paying $180 Monthly to Get Better, More Accurate Emails With CEO Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017

Show notes

Ryan Buckley. He's a serial entrepreneur, a founder and CEO of Scripted and Toofr. He focuses on solving the problems that marketers and business owners deal with on a daily basis such as connecting businesses with writers.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Rework
What CEO do you follow? – Josh Pigford
Favorite online tool? — HubSpot CRM
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ryan would tell himself not to be so stressed and just say "yes" as much as possible

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:15 – Nathan introduces Ryan to the show
01:40 – Scripted is marketplace that matches businesses with writers
- 01:45 – Scripted has a subscription fee
02:19 – Scripted has raised a total of $15M
02:23 – Scripted was launched in 2011
02:26 – Ryan started in screenwriting
02:40 – Ryan shares how he started Scripted
- 03:04 – "We just followed the market"
03:12 – Toofr came before Scripted
03:50 – Ryan shares how Toofr came to life
04:17 – Ryan was using Genius software and had a drip campaign
04:35 – Ryan learned about Phyton
05:14 – Toofr is different from the original script
05:29 – Toofr is a SaaS model
05:32 – RPU
- 05:45 – Ryan put up the paywall in 2013
06:32 – Ryan used Toofr to learn web development
06:37 – Toofr is completely bootstrapped
06:45 – Team size
07:40 – Toofr has a hundred customers
08:00 – Gross customer churn
08:40 – Toofr relies solely on organic traffic
08:55 – Ryan shares why he thinks people leave Toofr
09:20 – Ryan shares the improvements that he can make to reduce churn numbers
10:10 – Toofr has 16K registered users
10:27 – Toofr's competition
- 10:59 – "Hunter kicks my ass in SEO"
- 11:30 – Toofr has better data
11:59 – Toofr has multiple sources
13:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Learn as you go — as you build your business, be mindful of all the opportunities to learn.
There are great advantages in working with a small team.
Use your competition as motivation to make yourself better.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 609: Pagecloud Raises $8.5M Helping 8500 SMB's Drag and Drop Websites Together with CEO Craig Fitzpatrick Mar 25, 2017

Show notes

Craig Fitzpatrick. He's a serial entrepreneur, self-professed child nerd, and CEO of PageCloud.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Biography of Steve Jobs
What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
Favorite online tool? — N/A
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Jump in while there's still nothing to lose"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:22 – Nathan introduces Craig to the show
01:48 – PageCloud is a SaaS business
02:10 – PageCloud is different from Weebly and Wix, but they are in the same space
03:28 – PageCloud has reinvented the experience for desktop publishing and puts it into your browser
03:56 – Average customer pay per month
04:08 – RPU
04:22 – PageCloud was launched in September 2014
04:48 – Craig started PageCloud as a hobby
04:48 – Craig has been frustrated with desktop publishing in the past
05:20 – Craig shares how he started the planning and creating of PageCloud
06:15 – Craig's previous company
06:45 – Team size
- 06:52 – The team is based in Canada
07:05 – PageCloud is well-funded
- 07:17 – PageCloud has raised a few rounds
- 07:40 – First three rounds are convertible note and the fourth one is a priced round
07:55 – Average number of customers
08:15 – MRR
08:24 – PageCloud was in Kickstarter
09:00 – Below $200K MRR
09:23 – Craig shares how they pre-sell:
- 10:00 – They built a landing page from TechCrunch's promo video
- 10:30 – Craig did a lot of marketing before the launch
- 11:19 – Starting price point
- 11:30 – Average number of units sold
- 12:21 – Craig learned how to do effective marketing in 6 months
- 12:40 – Craig put in $1M in paid advertising
- 12:56 – The payback was just after a month
13:10 – Gross customer churn
14:30 – CAC
14:50 – LTV
15:32 – 2017 goal
17:01 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don't be afraid to invest in marketing – it shows that you believe in your product.
Be innovative—make a change in an industry that is quite stationary.
There is no time better than the present to get started.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 608: Tinitell Raises $4M, Ships 15,000 Units of Watch That Calls (No Phone Needed) With CEO Mats Horn Mar 24, 2017

Show notes

Mats Horn. He's the CEO and founder of the Swedish tech company, Tinitell. Together with a team of Scandinavian industrial designers, telecom experts and engineers, he developed one of the first wearable devices with cellular connectivity for voice and data. Tinitell wrist phone is an ingeniously simple wearable phone for kids with call and smart location features as well as an intuitive, one button, voice guidance interaction.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Sapiens
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Mats would tell himself to not be in a rush and take life as "unseriously" as possible

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:31 – Nathan introduces Mats to the show
02:12 – Tinitell is a simple mobile phone that kids wear
- 02:20 – It's a smart locator for parents
- 02:35 – Kids can make and receive calls
02:57 – Tinitell is independent from its smartphone administrators
- 03:03 – It is like a robot in a simple product
- 03:13 – The smartphone app is how the parents control what's in it
03:36 – Tinitell needs to have a SIM card and it is already provided
03:50 – Tinitell is partnered with a telco
04:48 – Tinitell was launched in Kickstarter in 2014
- 04:54 – Shipping started after a year and a half
05:16 – Tinitell has shipped 15K units
05:30 – Tinitell sold 1,102 units in Kickstarter
05:41 – Tinitell has raised $150K in Kickstarter
05:51 – "It's tough making the world's smallest mobile phone"
06:03 – Tinitell has put it in additional $4M for funds
- 06:18 – "Most money came from VC companies"
06:25 – Tinitell has raised thrice
- 06:36 – All are equity rounds
06:53 – Mats shares why he raised in smaller rounds
- 07:35 – In doing smaller rounds, Mats and his team wouldn't dilute themselves
08:03 – Mats was working as a consultant before Tinitell
08:25 – Mats realized that he wanted his own company
08:29 – Mat's idea of Tinitell
09:15 – Team size is 30
09:25 – Average number of customers
09:43 – The critical numbers of Mats
10:12 – Mats looks at the conversion rate and general market activity
10:50 – Tinitell's competition
11:20 – What people should look at in conversion rate
11:40 – Tinitell has 4 colors
- 12:03 – The bestsellers are the darker colors
12:36 – Markup vs. cost
13:49 – Mats shares about making a physical product
15:15 – Mats shares how he finds his suppliers
- 15:32 – "I knew I had to go to China"
- 15:48 – Mats has to have a network of suppliers
- 16:29 – Mats reached out to everyone he knows who could possibly help him
18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Know your numbers and track them consistently.
Your network can be your advantage in sourcing and creating your product.
Enjoy life—take things slow and don't be in a rush.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 607: The SaaS Co Passes $90k MRR Helping 20 Companies Get Leads And Qualified Meetings with CEO Peter Schlecht Mar 23, 2017

Show notes

Peter Schlecht. He's the founder and CEO of The SaaS Co whose aim is to change sales through artificial intelligence as they have launched their new product, Lisa. He's a 30-year old from Germany—a poker and e-sports playing, politician who became an entrepreneur.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Der Weg zum erfolgreichen Unternehmer
What CEO do you follow? – Felix Staeritz
Favorite online tool? — OneTap
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Stop earlier with politicians, don't do your masters and study entrepreneurship earlier"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:15 – Nathan introduces Peter to the show
01:37 – Peter makes more money in entrepreneurship than being a politician
01:58 – The SaaS Co is an agency for B2B lead generation
01:55 – The SaaS Co is subscription based
02:06 – The SaaS Co's focus is Lisa
- 02:14 – Lisa is a bot for salespeople
- 02:18 – Lisa reads and replies to your email
- 02:52 – Lisa doesn't delete emails and won't reply if she can't find an answer to an email
03:08 – The SaaS Co was founded in July, 2014
03:17 – First year revenue
03:22 – The SaaS Co was selling the service of full-sales for tech companies
- 03:34 – The SaaS Co specializes in appointment setting for B2B tech companies
- 03:51 – The SaaS Co was providing 4 services
- 04:23 – The payment depends on a company size
- 04:44 – The fee for every qualified lead
05:05 – Current number of customers
05:19 – MRR
06:12 – No charge for Lisa, at the moment
- 06:20 – Anyone can sign up for Lisa
06:41 – The SaaS Co was bootstrapped until last year
06:53 – The SaaS Co raised €500K from angels and €300K from The European Union funding
07:55 – Peter shares how they get new customers
09:03 – The SaaS Co doesn't buy leads from other sources for verification
- 09:08 – The SaaS Co uses datavalidations.com to validate their leads
- 09:38 – Peter uses Full Contact
- 09:50 – The SaaS Co finding leads process
11:15 – The SaaS Co scrapes data from open sources
11:40 – The SaaS Co tried other sources, but the price point has to be considered
12:10 – Team size
- 12:16 – There are 17 developers and the rest are on sales
12:30 – No paid marketing, at the moment
12:44 – Customer churn
- 13:06 – The SaaS Co needs to keep on adding new customers to sustain growth
13:55 – The SaaS Co's big focus is on Lisa and Peter believes she will add more value to the company
14:55 – The SaaS Co is based in Berlin
15:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There are many things to consider when it comes to subscribing to other sources for leads; price is a major factor.
One way to get people to sign up for a new product is to offer it for free.
Get into business early as early as possible.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 606: Hornet Raises $8M to Become Gay Content Hub, 17M Users, 3M MAU with CEO Christof Wittig Mar 22, 2017

Show notes

Christof Wittig. He's a serial, software entrepreneur and investor. Currently, he's the founder and CEO of Hornet Networks, the world's second largest gay social network and is a managing partner of Strive, based in San Francisco. He's an investor and board member of various companies including Enish, Metago, KeepSafe, VirtaHealth, Black Medicine, Movie Pilot, Box Fish and App Annie. He has been active in the US, Germany, and throughout Asia.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Zero to One
What CEO do you follow? – Sami Inkinen
Favorite online tool? — Capshare.com
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Christof wished he told himself to be bold, that he didn't need a degree, and to follow his dreams

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:19 – Nathan introduces Christof to the show
03:09 – Strive and Hornet came at the same time to Christof
- 03:32 – Hornet started as a side project
03:50 – Christof exited Servo Software before Hornet
04:00 – Hornet is Christof's first consumer business
04:10 – Servo Software was launched in 2004
05:02 – Christof sold Servo software in 2010
05:20 – Hornet's capital came from that exit
05:48 – Christof is now 48
05:58 – Nathan had Sean Howell, Hornet's co-founder in Episode 440
06:20 – Sean focused on marketing
06:50 – Sean and Christof are running it together
07:10 – Hornet had a subscription model and premium option
07:50 – Hornet's revenue is 2/3 from subscription and 1/3 from ads
08:00 – Hornet's future revenue model
08:28 – GHI
09:02 – Hornet raised their $8M in their Series A
10:05 – Hornet's focus is the advertising revenue
10:46 – "Our focus is to get more engagement"
- 10:57 – Engagement is measured through sessions
- 11:12 – Peak days
11:30 – User base
- 11:41 – 3M monthly active and 1.5M daily active
12:09 – The key metrics to track the number of sessions
12:30 – Christof shares about Tinder
13:16 – Hornet sells CPM and provides premium exposure
14:00 – Hornet has a feed model to drive more organic traffic
14:34 – Hornet has the following features
15:20 – Hornet's published price for CPM
15:56 – The number of advertisers currently working with Hornet
16:28 – Hornet uses TFP for their ads
17:10 – Hornet has the largest gay media newsroom in the USA
- 17:30 – The story feed makes the interaction in the gay community easier
18:05 – Christof shares where they spend the $8M
18:25 – Hornet also spends in marketing
18:39 – Christof wants users to understand that Hornet isn't just about dating
19:00 – User growth
19:30 – Hornet takes the new concept of the gay app to the next level
20:14 – Hornet is about creating a new digital space for the gay community
21:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

They gay community needs a place where it's not just about dating, but having interactions with the whole community.
The focus isn't always on the number of users, specially if you're driving traffic well.
A degree isn't as important as just following your dreams.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 605: Demandbase Will Break $100M ARR 2017 Helping 400 Customers With Account Based Marketing with CEO Chris Golec Mar 21, 2017

Show notes

Chris Golec. He's the CEO and founder of Demandbase. Chris is an entrepreneur and prior to starting Demandbase, founded one of the most successful B2B software and data solutions in the late 90s called Supplybase. With previous positions at GE and DuPont, Chris uses his wealth of experience to position Demandbase as one of the most rapidly expanding B2B marketing companies in the space.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A
What CEO do you follow? – Keith Krach
Favorite online tool? — Amazon and Skype
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Go for it sooner"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:22 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
02:10 – Demandbase is a marketing technology company focused on B2B marketers
02:46 – Demandbase sells subscriptions to large enterprises
03:10 – Chris used his experience in GE to find what salespeople need
03:40 – Average customer pay per month
04:09 – Demandbase has raised $90M
04:51 – Demandbase was launched in 2007
05:20 – Demandbase started pushing the account-based marketing technology
- 05:32 – Chris explains what an account-based marketing technology is
06:03 – Supplybase was in a supply-chain space
06:37 – Chris started as a consultant
- 07:04 – Chris saw the huge opportunity from his clients' experiences
- 07:33 – Chris shares how he determines the red flags in revenue plans
09:05 – First year revenue
10:17 – Demandbase had their first round in 2007 for $2.5M
- 10:33 – It was an equity round
11:00 – Chris shares what he deems important to know before raising a round
- 11:07 – Have a goal
- 11:22 – Know that "it's not easy raising money"
12:00 – Demandbase currently has 400 customers
12:23 – Average MRR
12:40 – Team size is under 250
13:44 – Gross customer churn
13:59 – "Even if we don't add any customers this year, we'll still grow by 10% next year"
14:14 – Chris shares how the teams are designated by customers
15:00 – CAC
15:13 – Average contract value
15:40 – Demandbase is in San Francisco
16:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

When you see an opportunity, go for it!
Raising money is not a walk in the park – know your goal beforehand.
Don't wait around, go for your dreams as soon as you can.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 604: Lumo Accelerator Invests $150k in VRee To Give You Full Body Virtual Reality Experiences with CEO Andy Lurling Mar 20, 2017

Show notes

Andy Lürling and his business partner, Menno Bischops. Andy has over 15 years of experience in the startup world and is truly a serial entrepreneur. He has tons of experience in corporate and the corporate environment including strategy, business development and product development in entertaining and series gaming, VR, AR and online applications. He and Menno are working on a company called VRee.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Exponential Organization - Andy
What CEO do you follow? – Andy Lürling
Favorite online tool? — Google Maps and Google Docs
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Go for it—just do it"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:21 – Nathan introduces Andy and Menno to the show
02:05 – LUMO Labs is a 2-year accelerator
03:30 – LUMO labs is all capital at this point
04:27 – The size of the funds that LUMO Labs has contributed
05:08 – The number of investment rounds LUMO Labs has made
05:20 – Official launch of LUMO Labs
06:30 – Menno shares what VRee does
- 07:00 – The full-body VR experience
- 07:26 – The VR suits, headset and goggles are wireless
- 08:05 – It is like augmented laser tag
- 08:42 – VRee also offers e-sports
09:18 – The capital VRee has raised
- 09:50 – The grant is non-dilutive
10:05 – Menno shares how they earn from VRee
10:29 – VRee is currently showcasing what their platform can offer
10:43 – VRee has revenue, but it's not substantial yet
- 11:11 – VRee is usually used in pop-up events
- 11:30 – VRee is in current talks with VR arcades for permanent installation
12:42 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Accelerators is a great avenue for startups to get going.
You may have to start small and that may mean intermittent revenue.
Just go for it, take courage and just do it!

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 603: Velasca Has Sold 20,000 Italian Shoes to 15,000 Men, $1.6m 2016 Revenue, $750k Raised with CEO Enrico Casati Mar 19, 2017

Show notes

Enrico Casati. He is the co-founder and CEO Velasca, a company that specializes in handcrafted shoes. Enrico is based in Milan, Italy.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The 4-Hour Workweek
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Adabra
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Know your audience before doing anything business related"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:43 – Nathan introduces Enrico to the show
02:03 – Velasca is an online brand focused on hand-crafted shoes
02:26 – Velasca was self-funded and had a VC round
- 02:39 – Velasca had raised €750K
- 03:01 – It was an equity round
03:18 – Enrico's dad was an entrepreneur but not a shoe maker
03:31 – Enrico shares how the idea of Velasca started
03:51 – It was 4 years ago when Enrico started Velasca
04:34 – Enrico shares about one of their products
- 04:52 – The source of the raw materials
05:30 – The cost to make the Artista shoes
- 05:52 – 2.4 markup
06:47 – Net margin
- 06:52 – Depends on the marketing budget you want to spend
- 06:59 – High growth pace
- 07:32 – "We invest so much on marketing"
08:10 – Velasca has spent €20K on marketing in January 2017
08:38 – Enrico had the first idea of Velasca in the summer of 2012
- 08:52 – The first collection on their website was launched in May 2013
- 09:25 – The first year was about the testing
- 09:34 – Since September 2014, Velasca has grown in people
09:43 – Current team size is 10
09:54 – Around 15K customers have bought from Velasca
10:17 – Average check out value
10:50 – Customer repurchase rate
11:52 – CAC
12:00 – LTV
- 12:10 – "The lifetime is really worth the cost we're spending"
12:45 – Velasca has sold around 20K pairs of shoes
12:56 – Velasca's best-seller is the Black Oxford
13:16 – "Versatility is what makes the shoes'
14:00 – First year revenue is €60K
- 14:04 - €200K the second year
- 14:08 - €1.6M the third year
- 14:43 – Topline revenue
15:25 – Enrico's goal is to reach €4M
16:06 – Enrico spends more on paid advertising
18:08 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Study your product, first, before putting it in public.
Invest paid marketing that performs well.
Your relationship with your customers will reflect on your customer retention.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 602: Findo Raises $7M, Passes 80k Users, 700 Pay $10 to Use AI to Find Their Files Quickly with CEO Gary Fowler Mar 18, 2017

Show notes

Gary Fowler. He's the co-founder and CEO of Findo, a smart search across multiple platforms for email, files, and folders. Gary has over 23 years of startup experience and is an award-winning CEO, a senior executive, a speaker with over 7 technologies startup and a successful IPO for the company CKSW. Gary is known as the go-to startup CEO that gets stuff done.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Intercom
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Never
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Gary wished he could look back and spend more time getting deeply involved with his first startup

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:34 – Nathan introduces Gary to the show
02:08 – Gary shares what Findo is
- 02:15 – The challenge that we have nowadays is the large, vast amount of information that we have
- 02:25 – An average person has around 3000 items
- 02:58 – "We're an AI tool, so it's learning all the time"
03:15 – Findo has a monthly subscription model
- 03:23 – Advance is $499/month and ultimate is $999/month
03:48 – Average customer pay per month
04:01 – Findo was founded by David Yang who built 9 startups including ABBYY
- 04:21 – Gary was the co-founder and CEO for the US corporation
04:36 – Gary shares why they had to spin out ABBYY
05:05 – Gary bought the IP from ABBYY
05:33 – Gary shares how they found the person who did their independent evaluation
06:08 – Average cost of buying the IP
06:19 – Gary shares where they got their capital
06:36 – Gary has raised $7M
06:45 – Gary is currently on seed 2
- 06:51 – Gary's major seed contributors
07:40 – Gary shares why they call their current round, seed 2
08:38 – Gary had an equity priced round
08:56 – Findo was launched in April 2016
09:06 – Gary started the most successful accelerator, GVA LaunchGurus, in Russia, prior to Findo
- 09:31 – 60% of the companies have raised money
10:04 – Gary raised capital to fund the accelerator
10:58 – None of the companies have exited yet
11:25 – Gary shares why he left GVA LaunchGurus for Findo
12:00 – Team size is 26
- 12:22 – Why Gary chose the people from Europe
13:10 – Findo just came out of beta
13:15 – Findo has over 80K customers
- 13:19 – Percentage of paying customers
14:15 – Average MRR
14:25 – Findo is currently moving into the model of reason strategy
14:50 – Gross customer churn
- 15:10 – Between 5-10%, but most come back
16:15 – The problem that 12% of the population have
17:13 – CAC
18:58 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Find a solution to the most common problem.
Follow your intuition when it it's time to make a move.
Your contributors play a big role to your company's growth—make sure they are suited to you and your company.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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 601: TapChief Passes 75,000 Minutes Of Experts Teaching Students, $150k Raised, Team of 10 with 23 yo CEO Shashank Murali Mar 17, 2017

Show notes

Shashank Murali. He's a BITS Pilani alumni. He's a co-founder and CEO at TapChief – a platform to seek advice from industry professionals. Previously, he built and sold Edvice, an on-demand tutoring app, to HashLearn. He had a product for Hashlearn before he decided to set on a path to democratize knowledge sharing with TapChief. Apart from startups and tech, Shashank enjoys cricket, psychedelic music, and swears by Pink Floyd.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Everything Store
What CEO do you follow? – Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Favorite online tool? – Trello
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "To persist more"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:25 – Nathan introduces Shashank to the show
02:11 – Shashank shares what TapChief is
- 02:25 – TapChief charges from the expert's pay
02:36 – TapChief is similar to Clarity.fm
- 02:44 – Shashank shares how TapChief is different from Clarity
- 03:14 – TapChief has a various of offerings
03:25 – TapChief is a marketplace
03:39 – The 2 sides of TapChief:
- 03:45 – Experts ask for a consultation charge and TapChief gets a fee from that
- 04:30 – Experts monetize their knowledge using TapChief
05:33 – Average order size
06:14 – Shashank believes that their market would still grow
06:40 – TapChief was launched in a B2C play
07:07 – TapChief takes 20% from the experts' charges
07:21 – Average number of experts in the platform
07:31 – TapChief was launched in February 2016
07:48 – Average number of students who have purchased from TapChief
08:28 – TapChief is giving the experts options to present themselves better
09:05 – 1000 out of 5000 experts in TapChief had conversations already
09:31 – Shashank shares how they measure their growth
- 09:58 – What Shashank primarily measures
10:16 – TapChief has raised $150K with a team of 10
10:40 – The number of hours TapChief has crossed
- 10:50 – Average monthly minutes of interactions
11:25 – Shashank shares how they leverage the number of students
12:25 – Revenue goal for 2017
- 12:42 – Shashank's focus is on the number of minutes of interactions
13:02 – Shashank's plan is to grow the number of minutes
14:10 – Shashank is open to B2B collaborations
- 14:45 – Shashank explains why a business would pay for collaboration
15:18 – Where the majority of the revenue is coming from
15:46 – 2016 total revenue
16:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

We are experts in our own field and there are platforms where you can monetize your knowledge.
You don't always have to focus on the revenue—there are metrics that should be considered.
Be more persistent—especially in the things that are most important to you.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
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.
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
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
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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