Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 600: Konversai Raises $1.3M Helping 800 Teachers Make Money With Marketplace CEO Sushma Sharma Mar 16, 2017

Show notes

Sushma Sharma, the CEO of Konversai. She's a lawyer turned entrepreneur. She has law degrees from The University of Oxford and Columbia University and has worked in two prominent Wall Street law firms and set up a department of practical law at City University of Hong Kong. Sushma has taught thousands of students and seen some the most privileged humans as well as some of the least privileged in her life journey spanning 3 continents to where she has lived and worked over the last 15 years. Konversai was born as her solution to the problems facing mankind today.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A
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? – "Don't doubt yourself and just keep doing what you're doing. There's a time and place for everything"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:30 – Nathan introduces Sushma to the show
03:19 – Konversai is a social conversation platform
- 03:28 – Sushma shares the types of conversations in Konversai
- 04:43 – Konversai's focus is the knowledge from personal experience
04:21 – Sushma's philosophy is "nothing valuable is free"
04:25 – Konversai has a credit system
- 04:33 – The charge is .50 cents for one month for creating a box in Konversai
04:54 – "I want to make people feel accountable for what they're putting up"
05:25 – Sushma shares how they make revenue from a paid conversation
- 06:09 – Konversai gets 10% from the amount paid
06:36 – The seeker is the one who pays the service
07:02 – There are 2 sides of the business: the seeker and the provider
07:22 – Konversai has under a thousand current providers
08:00 – The number of buyers
08:19 – Sushma's target was to get the providers as well as the buyers, too
08:40 – The traction has been quite slow
09:21 – Sushma explains why they have to use Stripe
- 09:25 – Konversai is a global company and the currency has to be considered
10:02 – Some users are quite hesitant to fill out the Stripe sign-up form
11:10 – Konversai is only 3 months old
11:40 – Konversai has raised $1.3M in a seed round, in November
- 12:20 – It is a convertible note/safe
12:42 – Average order value
13:30 – Current revenue
13:46 – "It is growing every month"
15:21 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Nothing valuable is free.
The way you win is by doing things consistently.
Don't doubt yourself and keep doing what you're doing—there's a time and place for everything.

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 599: Taivaco Helps Brands FInd Old Offline Content to Digitize and Annotate With $50K Raised, CEO Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017

Show notes

Michael Kaplan. He's the CEO and founder of Taivaco which is a media technology company. He's also the former director of marketing at Sanyo and was appointed at San Francisco Water Bay Front Committee. Michael speaks Chinese, French and Japanese. He attended The University of Redlands, Waseda University in Tokyo, George Mason University and Chinese Culture University.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – It's Not My Department
What CEO do you follow? – John Cleese and Ken Okuyama
Favorite online tool? — Any.do
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "The more you listen to other people, the more success finds you" and "Be a nice person"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:28 – Nathan introduces Michael to the show
02:07 – Michael shares why January 20th is a special day
03:15 – Taivaco was set out to solve an invisible problem and ended up solving more problems
- 03:47 – An archive isn't an accurate description
- 03:50 – Organizations are struggling to manage their media
- 04:17 – One of Taivaco's original ideas was to digitize media
- 05:08 – Taivaco helps companies find their content within their media or discover what DAM (Digital Asset Management) software does
05:50 – Taivaco incorporates both software and manual work
06:01 – "This is not a software that we sell, this is a service that we do"
06:15 – Taivaco is a service-only company
06:26 – Taivaco was launched in 2016
06:33 – Taivaco is currently on pre-revenue
- 06:49 – Taivaco has done under 10K in pre-revenue
07:00 – Taivaco version 1.0 will be available in April
07:12 – Taivaco was originally self-funded
- 07:20 – Michael put in 20K in Taivaco
07:27 – Taivaco just closed their "seedling" round for less than 50K
07:43 – Long term plan is to have another round
07:56 – Michael shares how they actually make a sale
08:32 – Sabra Design is one of Taivaco's paying customers
- 08:39 – Sabra Design came to Taivaco to ask for their service
- 09:04 – Taivaco got less than a thousand for the job
09:10 – Taivaco has already reached out to potential clients to scale up
10:17 – Michael explains why it is taking them more time to close a deal
10:50 – Taivaco doesn't specialize in digitizing and they do it for a minimal cost
11:23 – Taivaco annotates content which nobody has done before
- 12:12 – Michael shares their annotation process
- 12:46 – The charge for annotation will depend on the volume
- 13:20 – Taivaco will have a subscription model for the annotation
14:10 – Taivaco's goal is to make their service as easy and possible for their clients
15:34 – Taivaco is making money through annotation
16:27 – The metrics that Taivaco is measuring in pricing
17:09 – "We have to provide the whole thing"
18:21 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Try to solve one problem and you might end up solving more problems.
Do something that is new in the market to stand apart.
Take things at your own pace and don't 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 598: Fidzup Riases $3.7M, Helping 2500 Retail Locations Track In Store Visits From Advertising, 25 Team with CEO Olivier Magnan-Saurin Mar 14, 2017

Show notes

Olivier Magnan-Saurin. He's the CEO and co-founder of Fidzup which provides innovation retargeting solutions for brick-and-mortar businesses such as retail chains and shopping centers. Olivier founded Fidzup right after school, in between school, and a little bit of freelancing works.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – On M'Avait Dit Que C'Etait Impossible: Le Manifeste Du Fondateur de Criteo
What CEO do you follow? – Jean-Baptiste Rudelle
Favorite online tool? — Pipedrive
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Create your own company"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:10 – Nathan introduces Olivier to the show
01:42 – Fidzup provides marketing platforms for physical retailers
- 02:04 – For physical retailers, clicks don't have any value
02:25 – Fidzup sells advertising campaigns to retailers
02:38 – Fidzup is a CPC model and gets paid for every in-store visit
03:20 – Fidzup is currently working with 2500 retailers in Europe
03:43 – Fidzup was created in 2011
03:58 – In 2014, Olivier decided to start an advertising platform
04:11 – Fidzup tracks the retailer using Wi-Fi or sensor
04:57 – Fidzup is able to track 80% of the customers entering the store
05:16 – Olivier shares how they get the customer's phone information
- 05:56 – When a customer opens an online ad, they can track that customer
06:43 – Average online campaign cost per brand
07:20 – Fidzup buys CPM and sells CPE
08:00 – Fidzup has recently raised $3.7M
08:39 – Team size
08:50 – Olivier hopes to double their team size
09:00 – First year revenue
09:50 – 2016 total revenue
- 10:04 – Average annual pay per customer
11:00 – Ad volume per year
11:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Online advertisement is not always valuable to brick-and-mortar businesses, these businesses still rely on physical advertisement.
Be patient with yourself and your company—growth takes time.
If you're in stuck between joining a company or creating your own, choose the latter.

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 597: Nova.ai Passes 100 Customers, $2.2M Raised To Help SDR's Sell More Using AI with CEO Will Dinkel Mar 13, 2017

Show notes

Will Dinkel. He's the CEO and co-founder of Nova. Prior to founding Nova, Will developed his passion for enterprise sales while working in various technology and sales roles at CloudFlare and HP. Will studied engineering in Harvard Business School.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Presenting to Win
What CEO do you follow? – Travis Kimmel
Favorite online tool? – Apple Notes
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "I try"
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish my 20-year old self was more ambitious"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Will to the show
02:08 – Nova AI is a sales product that uses AI to help set appointments more effectively
02:25 – Nova helps sales reps, they don't necessarily get leads
02:52 – Nova creates personalized emails and merged templates
03:08 – Nova charges per seat
03:30 – "What we do is very unique"
03:39 – Nova is a smart, workflow product
04:08 – Average pay per seat is $150
04:28 – Nova started in 2015
05:01 – Nova's co-founder is from MIT
05:15 – Team size
05:40 – Will shares how it's like in San Francisco
06:00 – Nova has raised $2.2M
06:20 – Salesforce Ventures is one of Nova's investors
06:54 – The space is getting bigger and bigger
07:15 – Will shares why he raised and went to YC
07:50 – Nova just crossed 100 customers
08:10 – Average seat number per customer
08:40 – Nova is now looking into a bigger number of seats per customer
08:55 – Nova has around a thousand sales reps using them
09:15 – Will's focus is to make sure the team is functioning well
10:20 – Average MRR
10:45 – Growth rate target in 2017
10:51 – Will is looking into adding additional people to the team, 3 per class
11:51 – Nova uses their own wrinkle for SDR
12:10 – Gross customer churn
- 12:35 – People are mostly happy with Nova
12:55 – Nova's paid marketing
13:47 – How do you beat a company like Yesware?
- 14:05 – Focus on what you do best and don't get dragged into trying to do everything that everyone else does
16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Focus on what YOU do best—you will lose when you focus on what others are doing.
Offer something unique and it will make you stand out amongst the crowd.
Be ambitious, act sooner than later.

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 596: ClaimCompass Has Helped 1000 Airline Passengers Get $420 Each Back From Airlines for Cancelled Tickets and Lost Items with CEO Tatyana Mitkova Mar 12, 2017

Show notes

Tatyana Mitkova. She's the CEO and founder of ClaimCompass, a company that helps airline passengers submit a claim online for cancelled, delayed or overbooked flights.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People
What CEO do you follow? – Kathryn Minshew
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? – "Her life is to become more and more interesting with every decision she makes that takes her out of her comfort zone"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:26 – Nathan introduces Tatyana to the show
01:42 – ClaimCompass get airlines to pay up to $680 for cancelled flights
01:51 – Flights could be delayed, cancelled or overbooked
02:05 – ClaimCompass can help you get paid for your lost baggage
02:13 – ClaimCompass is based on the regulations in Europe
02:29 – More than 90% of airline passengers are unaware of their rights
02:46 – ClaimCompass tries to speed up the claiming process for passengers
02:49 – ClaimCompass has a web app and passengers can submit a claim online
03:03 – ClaimCompass makes money by keeping a 25% success-based commission
03:25 – ClaimCompass is growing 75% month over month, in the last 3 months
- 03:39 – In January, ClaimCompass will reach a thousand claims
03:43 – Average claim refund is $420
03:58 – Average MRR
04:11 – ClaimCompass has their own internal software for their claims management system
04:36 – ClaimCompass has established relationships with more than 50 airlines
04:55 – Team size
05:24 – ClaimCompass was launched, in 2016, as a side project
05:48 – Tatyana and the co-founders have their own stories about getting frustrated with an airline
06:04 – Tatyana has a legal background
06:24 – ClaimCompass was bootstrapped and got into the 500 Startups program, in Europe, 2 months ago
06:40 – ClaimCompass has raised $150K
07:02 – Plans for 2017
07:10 – "Our goal is to reach as many passengers as possible"
07:50 – CAC
08:20 – ClaimCompass' paid ads expenses are increasing
08:53 – ClaimCompass had their demo day on the 15th of February at the 500 Startups program
09:00 – Tatyana believes they will have their seed round in 6 months
09:51 – Tatyana is looking to raise a million in their next round
10:12 – One of ClaimCompass' biggest competitors is AirHelp
11:00 – Tatyana believes that if they partnered with online travel agencies, they can reach more people
11:18 – Flight Right and Refund.me are some of ClaimCompass' competitors, too
- 11:31 – Some of ClaimCompass competitors' business models can make you lose money
13:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

More than 90% of airline passengers are unaware of their rights – we should know our rights to make an appropriate claim.
Not all business models are the same – study the company first, to be aware of the charges.
Every step out of your comfort zone, leads to something far more interesting for 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

EP 595: nDreams is #1 VR Application Creator, 250,000 Sold, $6M in Funding with CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017

Show notes

Nathan interviews Patrick O'Luanaigh. He started as a programmer and designer at Codemasters 20 years ago, working on micro machines V3. Prior to founding nDreams, in 2006, he was a creative director at Eidos where he was responsible for the design and gameplay of all the titles there including the well-known Tomb Raider Legend and Hitman Blood Money. nDreams is now 50 people strong and pivoted to solely focusing on virtual reality 3 years ago. nDreams has launched 6 VR titles to date.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Chimp Paradox
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk and Brendan Iribe
Favorite online tool? — Box
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Life is too short to play it safe, you gotta take your risk. It's so much more exciting even though it is scary, you just gotta do it. Be brave!"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Patrick to the show
02:07 – The greatest challenge of VR (virtual reality) at the moment is the limited number of hardware available
02:16 – "We are still figuring out how to make the very best games in the experience of VR"
02:36 – nDreams' game that has generated the most income is Perfect Beach
03:02 – nDreams' key metric is the number of units sold
03:18 – nDreams has sold 250K units
03:49 – nDreams has 50 people in the team
- 03:56 – Ideas come from anyone in the studio
- 04:05 – They work with the best idea and do an estimate
- 04:25 – There's a lot of things to learn in VR
- 04:30 – nDreams focuses on gameplay
04:49 – Perfect can be purchased on Google Play Store or your VR digital store
- 05:16 – Mobile version currently costs $2.99
- 05:20 – The high-end version costs around $7.99
05:40 – nDreams has earned 75K from Perfect
05:50 – The challenge of PlayStation VR is the price
06:06 – Patrick has not heard of other competitors who have sold as much VR as they have
06:44 – It's hard to tell the total potential basis for the VR space
07:00 – Patrick started the company 10 years ago
07:36 – nDreams was bootstrapped but they raised capital for VR
08:06 – nDreams has raised around $6M
08:14 – Patrick started the business even before the start of the VR market
08:41 – 2016 top line revenue
09:30 – Patrick can predict which games will do well even when they're still early in the market
09:43 – nDreams is trying out different games and genres
09:53 – "We're in the stage of learning what works well"
10:08 – In nDreams' released games, SkyDIEving is the only one that's for free
10:48 – Perfect Beach was from an experiment
11:08 – Gunner's expenses
11:45 – nDreams is launching more games this year
12:30 – Patrick shares where most people are buying their games
13:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Being in a space that is new can be challenging because of the limited data and resources.
You learn in every process you take .
Life is too short to play it safe—be brave and take those risks!

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 594: Klipfolio Raises $12M on $45M+ PreMoney Valuation with 7000 Customers, $500k+ in MRR Helping With Business Dashboards with CEO ALlan Wille Mar 10, 2017

Show notes

Allan Wille. He was on The Top on December 12, 2016, Episode 506. His company, Klipfolio, raised $7.9M in the past and has grown to 7000 paying customers. They create dashboard software for companies who want to monitor their business processes. Klipfolio is into something incredible, tune in as Allan shares about it on today's episode.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –
What CEO do you follow? –
Favorite online tool? —
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? –

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:22 – Nathan introduces Allan to the show
02:52 – Klipfolio is an online and cloud based, and they create real-time dashboard software for SMBs
03:03 – There are over 7000 companies globally who uses Klipfolio
03:15 – Klipfolio just had a $12M Series B raise
03:33 – Klipfolio has a total of $19.9M total raised
03:41 – Klipfolio already has good investors in their cap table
03:56 – Allan shares how he came up with the Series B
- 04:19 – The initial intent was to bring in new investors
- 04:30 – Things turned out differently from the initial intent
04:47 – RPU
04:55 – MRR
05:02 – 2017 MRR goal
05:52 – Klipfolio licenses per number of dashboards
06:25 – Allan wants customers to see Klipfolio's value first
06:35 – CAC
07:20 – LTV
07:33 – Team size
08:00 – Klipfolio believes in product first policy
08:21 – Most of the investment will go into Klipfolio's product
08:35 – Allan shares where they spend most of their CAC
- 09:00 – Klipfolio will add more people in sales and support
- 09:13 – "We're actually gonna put a lot of effort in content strategy"
09:37 – Allan is friends with Craig Fitzpatrick from Pagecloud, who talks about content marketing, too
10:26 – Allan wants the system to be more efficient to maximize user experience
10:44 – Allan was able to get a great valuation
11:06 – Allan shares how things happened during the valuation
- 12:23 – Allan shares the offer he received
- 12:55 – The questions Allan had before accepting the offer
- 13:30 – The first offer was a low-ball
- 15:03 – "In many cases, terms are probably more important than valuation—multiple or the actual preimposed"
15:54 – "We got to basically where we wanted to be"
16:35 – Allan was happy with the terms
- 16:45 – One of the terms is 1x multiple
- 17:14 – The other term includes an anti-dilution clause
18:20 – Nathan closing the episode

3 Key Points:

There are cases where terms are more important than valuation.
Content strategy plays a big role in marketing – invest in it.
Go in the direction you want to be.

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 593: XOR Data Announcing $2m Funding Round Live, Invested $800k Before Any Revenue with CEO Mike Cook Mar 09, 2017

Show notes

Mike Cook. He founded XOR Data Exchange to bring privacy and accountability back to data management. Today, his organization works with the nation's largest financial institutions to fight fraud and manage risk. You might have never seen Mike presenting the newest consumer tech, but rest assured every digital entity in America is safer under his watchful eye.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People
What CEO do you follow? – Sam Yagan
Favorite online tool? — Periscope
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That you should go to anger management"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Mike to the show
02:10 – Mike mentions how XOR Data Exchange works
02:54 – Mike wanted to create a company where financial institutions can share their data with one another
03:16 – XOR Data Exchange is a B2B model
03:21 – XOR Data Exchange will eventually help consumers
04:04 – Mike shares how XOR Data Exchange will work in between companies
04:31 – Companies like AIG and JP Chase Morgan store data
05:32 – XOR Data Exchange changes the mentality of the pipe
06:25 – XOR Data Exchange generates revenue by building pre-exchanges
- 07:17 – XOR Data Exchange charges transaction fees based on return data
- 07:38 – XOR Data Exchange is a pay-as-you-go model
07:43 – XOR Data Exchange is building a new exchange focusing on financial services companies where companies can exchange fraud information
08:10 – XOR Data Exchange was launched in January 2014
08:20 – First year revenue is nothing
08:27 – Mike put in his own money in XOR Data Exchange
08:34 – Mike sold his company ID Analytics to fund XOR Data Exchange
- 08:40 – Mike sold ID Analytics in 2012, which he started in 2000
- 08:56 – Mike was 17 when he started ID Analytics
- 09:15 – Mike had 2 other co-founders
09:26 – Mike tried to work in a big company after his exit
09:56 – Mike has raised $6M and will close $2M, today
10:53 – The last round was in August 2015
11:22 – Most of the money from the current round is from the previous investors
11:36 – Mike shares about his Angel investors
12:40 – "Raising a Series B in this environment is not the easiest thing to do"
- 12:51 – Mike explains what he means by this
13:20 – XOR Data Exchange is working with big customers
13:45 – "If you work with the top 6, 7, 8 financial services companies, you're really covering 90% of America"
14:05 – XOR Data Exchange has dozens of companies
14:23 – Team size
14:26 – XOR Data Exchange is not yet cashflow positive
15:05 – 2017 goal
15:25 – Most of the XOR Data Exchange employees are tech and based in Austin
17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Reinvest your money in something that you believe in.
The financial service space isn't the easiest environment to raise a Series B.
If you work with the top 6, 7, or 8 financial services companies, you're really covering 90% of America.

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 592: Bugsee Raises $1.2M Launches Pricing to Help You Know Why Your Mobile App Crashes with CEO Alex Fishman Mar 08, 2017

Show notes

Alex Fishman, the founder and CEO of Bugsee, a bug reporting tool for iOs and Android.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Henry Worth
Favorite online tool? – Gmail
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—I wish
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "You want start playing in the startup ecosystem as early as possible when you have less commitments and less things to worry about"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show
01:31 – Bugsee is bug reporting tool for iOs and Android
- 01:51 – Bugsee provides video network and blog, leading out to the event
- 02:15 – You will not only know that the app crashed, but what led it to crash
02:50 – Bugsee is a SaaS model and they price based on the app size
03:19 – For an app that has 500K users, it will cost $500
03:40 – Bugsee provides different levels of value
04:33 – Average customer pay per month
04:45 – Bugsee started in January 2016
- 05:01 – Bugsee started charging in December 2016
05:20 – Bugsee has 1100 sign ups and 30% have used Bugsee
06:22 – Alex mentions why he calls users as customers, too
06:40 – Most customers are given free tier to continue using Bugsee
- 07:11 – New customers use the plan available
- 07:30 – The limitations of Bugsy's free plan
08:52 – Number of paying customers
09:20 – Bugsee is funded by K9 Ventures
- 09:33 – Bugsee has raised $1.2M
09:40 – Bugsee had a previous failed attempt
- 09:53 – The cap table had been reset by Bugsee
- 10:43 – The previous attempt was in July 2015
10:57 – Team size
- 11:05 – The team is remote
11:24 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Users are also customers, regardless of whether you sell them on something or not.
Having a failed attempt does NOT mean you should give up.
Start playing in startup field as early as possible and while you're still free of obligations.

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 591: Now Interact Closes $5M Round On $18M Pre Money Helping Enterprises With OmniChannel Data with CEO Magnus Astrom Mar 07, 2017

Show notes

Magnus Åström. He's the CEO and founder of Now Interact, a machine-learning, SaaS platform for omni channel optimization. He's also the founder of InLead, a business consultant and operations company which was sold in 2010 and prior to that, he was founder of Primelog, a transportation management SaaS platform which was sold in 2006.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Blue Ocean Strategy
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "It's all about focus"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces to the show
02:17 – Primelog started in 2000
- 02:29 - Primelog connects transportation providers with transportation buyers
- 02:57 - Annual revenue
- 03:10 – Primelog was sold to Swedish group
04:44 – They raised 4.5M
04:57 – Inlead's idea is to help customers sell in C-level
- 05:39 – Inlead turned out to be too heavy on the consultancy side, so Magnus sold it
- 05:48 – It didn't turn out as a software play
- 06:10 – Inlead's annual revenue was $1.5 M
06:27 – Now Interact offers machine-based algorithm software to large businesses
06:40 – The software personalizes how each customer is offered a customer service channel
07:00 – Businesses get less calls from customer service
07:30 – Now Interact tracks the data of how customers behave on a website and how they interact with a customer service
08:06 – Magnus goal is to get telco giants like AT&T and Verizon as customers
09:04 – Now Interact has a group that chooses their customization
09:22 – Now Interact is a SaaS model
09:31 – Average customer pay per month is $10K
09:39 – Now Interact was founded in 2010
09:45 – Now Interact raised $100K in 2012
- 10:46 – Now Interact has raised a total of $7M
11:20 – Customer churn
11:31 – Team size
11:47 – Headquartered in Stockholm
12:04 – CAC is $30K
12:22 – Now Interact has salespeople and are doing paid content marketing
- 12:58 – "Sales play a lot"
13:30 – Magnus discusses what they'll do with the capital they've raised
- 13:45 – Some would go to the expansion in the USA
14:05 – 2015 total revenue
14:30 – 2016 total revenue
15:00 – Magnus shared how he negotiated for the valuation
15:45 – The top 3 most important terms when negotiating
- 15:48 – The preference structure, the lock-in and the investors you want to have
18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can choose to close your company if it is not going in the direction you intended it to go.
Valuation is not always everything—there are more things to consider when negotiating.
Stay focused, don't take on more than you can handle.

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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