Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 590 :Particle.io Raises $14M, Passes $5M In Revenue, Helping Usher in IoT Connecting Keurigs to Internet with CEO Zach Supalla Mar 06, 2017

Show notes

Zach Supalla. He's the CEO and co-founder of Particle, a venture backed startup that's making it easier to build internet connected hardware and other things. Particle is the most, widely used IoT platform with a developed community of a hundred thousand users and is listed as one of Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in 2015, of the Internet of Things. Zach has been featured on CNN, The Wall street Journal, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Mashable and more.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Lawson
Favorite online tool? — Slack and Asana
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 don't have to be an engineer to be an engineer"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Zach to the show
02:16 – Zach used to be a management consultant
02:45 – While Zach was doing his MBA, he interned in Groupon's sales operation
03:07 – Zach did engineering
03:21 – Particle is an IoT platform
03:44 – Particle helps manufacturers connect their physical product to the internet
- 04:11 – Particle does the whole communication stack between the physical device and web
04:40 – Particle has raised $10M
04:50 – Particle generates revenue in 4 ways
- 04:55 – Particle works with large companies and sells them subscriptions, data plans, hardware, and professional services
- 05:24 – Main revenue stream is from the hardware
- 05:54 – Hardware pricing ranges from $5-50
06:09 – For Keurig, they added hardware to plug into the back of the coffee maker
06:45 – The hardware volume for Keurig is in the thousands
07:00 – Particle has customers who will be deploying millions of hardware products by 2018
07:28 – Security is part of Particle's story
07:37 – Zach shares about the webcam botnet incident
- 08:09 – The Mirai botnet in Liberia explained
08:32 – Zach shares how Particle works to secure everything from the device to the in between communication
08:50 – Typical, cheap webcams that are in the market and manufactured in China are not secure
09:23 – There are products that people aren't unplugging and are considered unsecure
09:45 – Particle started in 2012
09:59 – Zach first launched a product in Kickstarter named Spark Socket
- 10:07 – The product was unsuccessful
- 10:21 – It was frustrating, but it turned to be a huge benefit
10:51 – Zach relaunched a new product in Kickstarter, in 2013, called Spark Core
11:20 – Zach was inspired by his dad who is deaf to create the first product
12:20 – Zach shares what is important in launching a Kickstarter campaign
- 12:28 – Zach looks at any Kickstarter campaign as an experiment
- 12:33 – Zach made sure that they nailed the marketing on their first launch
- 13:43 – "We're definitely advocates of the lean startup mentality"
14:13 – 2013 revenue
14:41 – 2014 revenue
15:43 – Zach shares where the scale is coming from
- 15:58 – When Zach launched the product, they weren't targeting enterprise stores
- 16:28 – Zach was originally creating development tools then shifted to management tools
- 16:43 – The growth started in selling deaf kits
- 17:00 – They started making modules, then the software platform
- 17:26 – One of the challenges a hardware startup faces is going from being a product to a company
17:56 – 2017 revenue goal
18:08 – Team size is 35
18:21 – Half of the team is from San Francisco and the other half are all over
18:50 – Particle is not facing a problem yet with their people who work in China
19:03 – Zach created a program while he was in China, where he lived for 4 months
19:22 – Zach has a deep trusting relationship with their people in China
21:14 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Solve your own problems and make the people around you, your inspiration.
See the beauty in a failure – it can be a way for you to create something better.
One of the most difficult challenges a hardware startup faces is going from being a product to a 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 589: HeptIo Growing Kubernetes Adoption With $8.5M Raised From Accel with Founder Craig McLuckie Mar 05, 2017

Show notes

Craig McLuckie. He's the founder and CEO of Heptio, a startup focused on making Kubernetes accessible enterprises. Prior to starting Heptio, Craig was a product manager at Google where he founded the Kubernetes project, launched Google compute engine and created The Cloud Native Computing Foundation that he also shared.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Influence
What CEO do you follow? – Andrew Grove
Favorite online tool? — Lever
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 wished my 20-year old self understood the importance of kindness"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:25 – Nathan introduces Craig to the show
01:55 – Kubernetes is a technology that is used to run applications in a production setting
- 02:16 – The idea is to take the collective learning that Google instilled over the last decade of building and running applications
02:35 – Kubernetes is an open-source technology
02:53 – Kubernetes is being widely adopted by enterprises but there are still some gaps
03:16 – Heptio's job is to make Kubernetes more accessible to a broad array of developers
03:47 – Heptio generates revenue through support, training and professional service and consultancy
04:25 – Heptio is currently on pre-product revenue
04:50 – By providing Heptio's professional service, they connect with customers and understand where the key gaps are
05:12 – Heptio has raised $8.5M
05:20 – The people backing Heptio
06:17 – Nathan simplifies Kubernetes' description
07:50 – Craig explains how Kubernetes actually works in applications
09:07 – Heptio wants to present the perfect idea of how machines should be operating
09:23 – Kubernetes provided the steps from thinking about virtual infrastructure to logical infrastructure
09:49 – At Heptio, they bring the idea of logical infrastructure to companies everywhere so they can experience a better way to decode without worrying about the difficult task of configuring
10:22 – Heptio also helps companies organize themselves around the technology
- 10:53 – It is like helping people stack the bricks of technology
11:58 – John and Craig started Kubernetes in Google and they had successes in the past
12:20 – Craig demonstrated clearly the product market fit for Kubernetes so they were able to raise $8.5M
12:40 – Craig has spent time with the community
13:10 – Craig quantifies the adoption of Kubernetes
13:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Kubernetes is an open source technology that is used to run applications in a production setting.
Demonstrating your product's market CLEARLY can lead to investors believing and trusting your product.
Remember the importance of being kind.

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 588: Zirra Raises $3M, Hits $50k MRR Helping You Get Company Data with CEO Aner Ravon Mar 04, 2017

Show notes

Aner Ravon. He's the co-founder and chief product officer of his new company called Zirra. Zirra's mission is to solve the education and entry pain of the retail investors when it comes to equity investments. Before this company, Aner spent his time at Celltick as a VP of media and head of business unit.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Tipping Point
What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
Favorite online tool? — Ask Wonder
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Not to worry so much"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:42 – Nathan introduces Aner to the show
02:58 – Zirra steps into the void between data and excel analysis of the companies
03:10 – There's a big void in the data collection and actual decision making of a company for the people who want to invest
03:48 – Zirra is a service
- 03:52 – Zirra has an a la carte system which is pay-as-you-go
- 03:55 – Zirra has 2 main products
- - 03:58 – Spotlight reports which costs $49
  - 04:11 – Value packages for corporate investors which is a monthly subscription
04:29 – Average customer pay is $99 monthly
05:05 – Zirra started in August 2014
05:30 – Zirra first offered their services for free
05:45 – Aner shares how they decided to stop the free service
- 06:01 – Zirra had 150 free users
- 06:13 – Some of the free users are large equity firms
06:23 – Zirra started in Israel
06:35 – Microsoft was using ZIrra heavily, for free
07:00 – 80% of the free users converted to paid users
07:20 – Zirra managed the free service with free coupons
07:41 – Zirra didn't take away the credits, but started renewing them
- 07:48 – When users use up their credits, they'll be greeted with a pay wall
08:05 – Zirra's paywall: pay $49 to get the report or buy 10 reports for $299
08:40 – Zirra's revenue comes from pay-as-you-go and monthly subscriptions
09:10 – 15 customers are on monthly subscriptions
09:20 – 40-50 of the customers are habitual users
10:35 – Another product Zirra offers is deep report which sells from $1K-3K
11:45 – Team size is 15
12:39 – Zirra is based in Telavi, Israel
12:49 – Zirra has raised capital and closed almost $3M
13:19 – Zirra is founding new investors without going through another round because of their current Angel investors
13:51 – 2016 revenue
13:55 – 2017 goal revenue
14:28 – There are currently a hundred thousand companies in Zirra
14:55 – Zirra can deliver the report in just a few hours
15:30 – Zirra has 85 different data sources
- 16:09 – The resources are running through ZIrra's search engine
17:12 – Zirra's vision
18:19 – Aner thinks PitchBook and CB Insights are great services
18:28 – Zirra's ability to storify the data makes them different from their competitors
20:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Having access to and understand the data of the company will help inform that decision to invest.
Shifting from a free service to paid is risky move, but needs to be done.
Don't worry too much—it won't do very much for you in the end.

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 587: Revue Raises $350k, Helping 1000 Customers Send Personal Newsletters with CEO Martijn De Kuijper Mar 03, 2017

Show notes

Martijn de Kuijper, founder of Revue. He's a product guy and his company's focus is to get your thoughts to people's inboxes via newsletters. He previously founded Fosbury and Yunoo. Martijn is also a Techstars alum.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Zero to One
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Intercom
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Just keep doing what you're doing and don't get distracted by what other people are saying"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:30 – Nathan introduces Martijn to the show
02:10 – Revue focuses on personal newsletters like editorial newsletters
- 02:45 – Revue helps people share their content through newsletters
02:50 – Revue currently has a free and premium model
03:20 – Average customer pay per month is $7
03:45 – Martijn is a listener of The Top
04:10 – Revue was launched in January 2015
04:27 – Martijn started Revue on his own as a side project
- 04:30 – Martijn was working on the acquisition of Fosbury
- 04:59 – Martijn shares what Fosbury is about
- 05:24 – Martijn was in Techstars Texas
05:44 – Team size is 5
06:18 – Fosbury wasn't earning
07:08 – The money that Martijn received from the assets
07:42 – Martijn used the money from selling Fosbury to start Revue
08:12 – Martijn also sold Yunoo when he was 26
- 08:30 – The buyer is the software company AFAS from the Netherlands
09:20 – Martijn has raised $350K for Revue in convertible note
09:50 – Terms on the convertible note
10:05 – Revue currently has a thousand paying customers
10:23 – Martijn is currently focusing on growth rather than revenue
10:48 – Revue has 20K registered users at the moment with 10% active users
- 10:57 – Active users are the ones who send at least 1 email a month
11:27 – Monthly churn
11:35 – No paid CAC
11:49 – Revue has a content marketer
12:24 – Revue is currently sending 2M emails, monthly
12:40 – First year revenue
13:00 – Total 2016 revenue
13:26 – Martijn's current side project
14:30 – Where Martijn got his marketing ploy idea
16:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don't be afraid to sell your company if it comes down to it.
Study and strategize a marketing plan that works and at no cost.
Just keep doing what you're doing and don't let what others say distract 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 586: Zapnito ACV is $210K, Helping 12 Customers With Knowledge Networks and $650k Raised with CEO Charles Thiede Mar 02, 2017

Show notes

Charles Thiede. He's the co-founder and CEO of the knowledge network platform called Zapnito. Zapnito helps organizations create privately, branded, expert communications and networks. He calls this "experts as a service".

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Product Hunt
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try to
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Do everything with courage"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:11 – Nathan introduces Charles to the show
01:41 – Zapnito is a SaaS platform
- 02:16 – The idea of Zapnito is to helps brands bring their audience back to the trusted sources of knowledge
02:40 – Zapnito's Slack channel
- 02:51 – The platform behind the scene that pulls the audience and brands together
03:40 – Each brand has their own slack domain
04:40 – Average customer pay per year is £60K
05:38 – Zapnito started in trading in March 2013
- 05:48 – Started as a marketplace for experts in 2014
06:38 – First year revenue
07:12 – Zapnito currently has 12 customers
07:57 – Average MRR
08:50 – Team size is 12
09:36 – Charles doesn't batch their sales calls
- 10:00 – Charles usually takes the calls
10:32 – Zapnito is based in London
10:50 – No customer churn and negative net churn
11:12 – The leverage Zapnito pulls to drive the RPU up
- 11:30 – "We focus on niche networks'
- 11:50 – Zapnito has scaled their number of networks
12:10 – CAC
13:21 – Zapnito was bootstrapped and raised angel money
- 13:40 – Zapnito has raised £650K in priced equity round
- 14:02 – Zapnito had 3 rounds
14:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Continually pivoting is not a disadvantage to your company, as long as you just keep learning from the experience.
Do not hesitate to hire the people that you need.
Do everything with courage.

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 585: CaliberMinds Raises $1.1M Helping 12 Customers Close B2B Leads Using More Intelligence with CEO Raviv Turner Mar 01, 2017

Show notes

Raviv Turner. He's the co-founder and CEO of CaliberMind – the first marketing, technology platform to apply machine learning in human language analysis to build detailed psychographic profiles. He has more than 10 years of experience leading products and development for high growth B2B SaaS companies. His previous roles include Director of UX at FullContact and VP of product at TapInfluence. Raviv is a mentor at Techstars Accelerator and holds a Masters in Interactive Media at NYU.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Hacking Marketing
What CEO do you follow? – Bart Lorang
Favorite online tool? — Asana, 7Geese and Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Doing my best
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Your network is your net worth"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Raviv to the show
02:25 – CaliberMind analyzes and boosts structured and unstructured data
03:18 – CaliberMind is a SaaS model
- 03:36 – Monthly billing starts at $2K
03:46 – Average customer pay per month
04:15 – CaliberMind was launched in 2015
04:48 – Raviv adapted the idea from the military
05:05 – Raviv was in product design for the past 15 years
- 05:23 – The analytics structure data
06:30 – CaliberMind currently has their first 12 customers
06:54 – CaliberMind has bundled packages of services
07:40 – CaliberMind was bootstrapped on their first year
07:55 – CaliberMind had raised their $1.1M seed round after seeing traction from the customers
08:20 – No customer churn yet
08:42 – CAC and LTV
- 08:56 – The account-based marketing
09:20 – Team size of 8 and based in Colorado
- 09:39 – Most of the team are developers and data scientists
- 09:46 – They have Nic Zangre who was a Director of Marketing at AdRoll
- 10:00 – Raviv shares how he convinced Nic to work with CaliberMind
- 10:26 – Nic has equity in CaliberMind
10:45 – Some companies that are in the space are Usermind and Pegasystems
12:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Work with people who share the same passion and vision as you do.
Taking that leap out of your comfort zone is often risky and also, often, worth it.
Find ways to help the people in your network without expecting something in return.

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 584: FlightFox YC Founder: We Talk About When To Quit All The Time, $700k Revenue, Making Travel Way Easier with CEO Lauren Sullivan Feb 28, 2017

Show notes

Lauren Sullivan. She's the co-founder of Flightfox, a site which Nathan recently used to book multi-country travel. Flightfox helped him understand the best way to leverage his points from his Chase Credit Card for travel purposes. Flightfox helps you search flights, manage your trip, and leverage your loyalty points, to help ease your trip planning experience and it is growing fast.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – John Mackey
Favorite online tool? — PocketSmith
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes, currently
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Lauren wished she had stopped working for someone else and started building her own company earlier

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:25 – Nathan introduces Lauren to the show
02:02 – Flightfox is an online and real-time platform that manages travel for individuals, companies and organizations
02:15 – Flightfox's revenue model is to charge per trip and they make money from commission
02:32 – Flightfox's expert will help match and plan a trip and they will authorize the credit card you use
03:33 – Flightfox books for companies, too
03:50 – The more complex the trip, the more expensive it is
05:10 – If Flightfox can't find you a trip, they won't charge you
05:34 – Flightfox was launched in 2012
- 05:45 – Flightfox was originally launched as a contest based, cloud source system
- 06:10 – There were a small number of the majority winning the contest
- 06:21 – The model was switched to a one-on-one
07:04 – The experts are contactors
- 07:15 – The experts get a fee per trip
- 07:40 – Most of them are full-time
07:50 – Flights metrics
- 08:03 – Flightfox is focused on companies and organizations
08:14 – CAC is a bit high
09:20 – There are at least 50 companies who have booked with Flightfox
- 09:35 – 5-10 companies are booking at least 30 trips per month
- 09:50 – Companies usually have 80 people
10:20 – In 2012, Flightfox has raised $850K
10:50 – Four Team members
11:50 – Flightfox has pivoted a couple of times already
13:19 – Lauren has been through alot with her company thus far, and has chosen to carry on
14:14 – 2016 total revenue
14:40 – Flightfox is close to breaking even
14:53 – Average MRR
15:11 – Raising another round will depend on the things that will happen in the future
17:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Changing your business model isn't easy – but, it's very normal to have to do so.
Going through the most difficult times will test not just your patience, but your ability to make the best decisions.
If it's what you really want, just keep going.

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 583: Socedo Does $1.5M+ In 2016, $200K MRR Now Helping 200 Customers Close More Leads with CEO Aseem Badshah Feb 27, 2017

Show notes

Aseem Badshah. He's the founder and CEO of the company called Socedo. Before that, he built his own full-service marketing agency called Uptown Treehouse that leveraged social media and digital channels to reach current and potential customers. He's upgraded and improved that initial business model with his current company, Socedo.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Crushing the Cashman
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? – Aseem wished that he would have prioritized building relationships

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:15 – Nathan introduces Aseem to the show
01:50 – Aseem noticed that there was so much data on prospects for B2B marketers in an agency
- 02:07 – Socedo's goal
- 02:13 – Lead generation is what Socedo uses to get more customers
- 02:45 – Socedo provides behavioral data
- 02:56 – Socedo makes money from their software license
- 03:03 – Clients sign-up from 6 months to 1 year of license usage
03:11 – Average pay the company gives to Socedo monthly
03:25 – Socedo started in 2013
03:37 – In social media marketing, everything was setup for B2C marketers
04:25 – Social media is like a big CRM so Aseem leveraged it in a way to help B2B marketers
04:45 – There are 200 paying customers
04:50 – Socedo has raised $1.5M
05:00 – Socedo's revenue has tripled in 2016
05:10 – Average contract price
05:25 – Socedo started with SMB
05:50 – 2016 total revenue
06:05 – Socedo has 25 people
06:20 – 2017 goal
06:30 – Aseem is targeting 2x for 2017
06:41 – Aseem wants to focus on their current customers
07:17 – "It's not necessarily about growth at all costs; we want to focus on the fundamentals, focus on the relationship with customers"
07:35 – All 25 members are in Seattle
07:53 – The round was an equity round
08:32 – Socedo is currently cash flow positive
08:50 – Socedo is willing to take in new capital if they are ready
09:11 – Socedo has almost broken even
09:23 – How Socedo drives new customers
- 09:37 – Socedo doesn't spend much money on marketing
10:30 – The data source which Aseem thinks is the most accurate
- 10:39 – "Everyone is accurate in their own way"
- 10:52 – How Socedo matches data
- 11:10 – Socedo's goal is to get metrics as high as possible
11:31 – "We don't guarantee an accuracy rate, but our accuracy rate is pretty high"
12:00 – The data sources that are connected to Socedo's API are Full Contact, ClearBit and SellHack
12:34 – Socedo's unique data advantage
- 13:30 – As a B2B marketer, there's a bigger chance of a higher conversion rate
13:50 – Data sources that have the most accurate revenue numbers are Marketo and Salesforce
14:22 – Socedo doesn't have the marketing budget for each lead
- 14:45 – Socedo has the company size which can be used as a revenue basis for each lead
15:15 – Gross customer churn
15:36 – CAC
15:45 – LTV
16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Social media is a big CRM that can be leveraged to build a better marketing space for B2B businesses.
Focusing on fundamentals and customer relationships can be more advantageous than focusing on just growth.
Each data source out there is accurate in their own way.

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 582: Simplero SaaS Team of 2 Makes $1M Per Year, Bootstrapped, Totally Happy Helping Users Sell Courses with CEO Calvin Correli Feb 26, 2017

Show notes

Calvin Correli. He's the CEO of a holistically focused, multi-million dollar, online, all-in-one solution driven software company called Simplero. This company exists to reduce the stress associated with figuring out software systems and how to join them together. He's passionate about helping online business owners do exactly what brings them the most life.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – There Is Nothing Wrong With You
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — FastMail
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not every night
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Invest in getting to know yourself, and who you are, and how you're different"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:20 – Nathan introduces Calvin to the show
02:49 – Simplero is a tool that helps people sell online
03:20 – Simplero is a SaaS business model
03:30 – Simplero was launched in 2009
- 03:39 – Calvin started to charge people in 2010
03:50 – Number of current paying customers is 700
04:02 – One of Simplero's customers is Robin Green, who is an acupuncturist in California
- 04:25 – Robin decided to teach acupuncture online
- 04:42 – Robin made around $60K on her first program
05:10 – Simplero automates everything that can be automated
05:27 – Average customer pay per month
- 05:31 – Simplero charges monthly and takes a percentage of the revenue
05:51 – Simplero's main revenue stream
- 06:25 – 10% is from the revenue fee and 90% from the SaaS model
07:15 – Average MRR
- 07:21 – Average ARR per customer
07:50 – Average customer retention
08:25 – Calvin shares how he got their customer LTV
08:58 – Calvin is based in New York, but he has team members in Denmark and on the West Coast
- 09:56 – Most of the people in the business started 6 months ago
10:20 – Simplero is self-funded
11:25 – Calvin is happy with how his company is doing at the moment
11:40 – Calvin wants to show the world a different way to live
12:01 – Calvin's big dream is to be a presidential adviser for USA
13:00 – How do we measure happiness?
- 13:07 – Calvin is not a metrics guy
- 13:19 – There's a sweet spot for every person where they are happy and work doesn't feel like work
14:00 – How do we know if people are really happy?
15:10 – Productivity gains do not directly correlate to happiness gains
15:55 - The source of happiness vs. the thing you do for others or with others
17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There's a feeling of contentment you can find in helping others.
Invest in yourself, first.
There's a sweet spot for every person where they are happy and work doesn't feel like work.

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 581: DocSend $11M Raised, 2800+ Company Customers, 10,000+ Seats Because Links > Attachments For Docs with CEO Russ Heddleston Feb 25, 2017

Show notes

Russ Heddleston. He's the CEO and co-founder of DocSend. Previously, he was a product manager for Facebook. He arrived at the B2B acquisition of the product Pursuit.com. Russ also had roles in Dropbox, Greystripe and Trulia. He received a BS in Computer Engineering and MS Computer Science at Stanford along with an MBA from Harvard.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – Keith Krach
Favorite online tool? — Gmail and 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? – "Do things well and be patient with them—and then, they will turn out well later"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:33 – Nathan introduces Russ to the show
02:03 – Pursuit was a human resources to management referral program for employees
02:22 – Russ shopped their company to Facebook
- 02:38 – Russ explains why they made this decision
03:38 – Russ was the product manager for Facebook's pages team
03:55 – Russ worked both for the brands and personalities
04:15 – DocSend was launched in 2013
- 04:24 – DocSend's first version was made in 2010
05:18 – First year revenue was zero
- 05:27 – "We were focused on growth"
05:50 – DocSend was doing something of very high value; not necessarily for a broad user base
06:40 – DocSend has been approached by a hedge fund
06:59 – Most salespeople are using DocSend long term
07:37 – Average customer pay per month
08:42 – Most deals of DocSend are outbound deals
09:00 – Average enterprise prices:
- 09:24 – The price varies from $50-90 per month
- 09:40 – Outbound target for a team of 30 and above
- 10:10 – Average contract value depends on the size of the company
10:30 – Team size is 25 with 6 sales people
10:42 – Team location is San Francisco with 1 in New York
11:08 – Pricing plan was introduced a year after DocSend launched
11:35 – The current number of DocSend's paying companies
- 11:48 – There's a mix of logo and seat count
- 12:04 – Average seats per company
12:45 – Total number of users under paid plan
13:03 – DocSend has raised capital for $10M in VC and $1M in venture debt
14:03 – Venture debt was done post-series seed
15:00 – Average MRR
- 16:16 – Possible minimum average MRR
17:00 – Russ shares the difference of inbound self-serve and outbound
- 17:25 – Russ gets excited with outbound
18:25 – Gross monthly customer churn
- 19:01 – The churn for self-serve is quite high, but not for outbound
- 19:45 – Net negative churn
20:12 – The expansion would benefit the team
20:38 – As the company gets bigger, the more they need DocSend
20:48 – DocSend closed their last financing last year
21:00 – DocSend doesn't need to raise capital at the moment
- 21:25 – "We don't need to get acquired"
23:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Focusing on growth rather than revenue is never bad thing.
Improve your product until you are no longer expendable to your customers.
Do things well and be patient with them—in time, they will turn out for the 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

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