Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 570: GrowSumo Helping 70 B2B SaaS Companies Grow Affiliate Programs, $100k New MRR So Far with CEO Bryn Jones Feb 14, 2017

Show notes

Slater Victoroff. He's the CEO and founder of Indico Data Solutions. He's a poet, a coder, MMA fighter, vegan Buddhist, and Red Letter Christian.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – n/a
What CEO do you follow? – n/a
Favorite online tool? — Stack Overflow
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Slater hoped he had realized how much he loved programming

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:26 – Nathan introduces Slater to the show
02:45 – Indico is a text and image analytics provider
03:25 – Indico's business model
- 03:52 – The enterprise client is their main revenue channel
05:09 – Indico was founded in 2013
05:25 – Indico has raised $4.5M
- 05:30 – Indico started with a seed round
06:10 – How Slater managed having a bridge round
07:05 – First year revenue
07:31 – 2016 revenue
- 07:38 – Slater is hoping to hit a million dollar revenue for 2017
08:03 – Average MRR
08:22 – Indico is a SaaS company
08:42 – Indico currently has 20 customers
09:11 – Manulife is working with Indico
11:30 – Each client of Indico wants to have their own set of algorithms
12:00 – Nathan summarizes how Indico works
12:30 – Indico gives their customers an engine
13:20 – Slater worries about Facebook's echo chamber
- 13:33 – "Facebook's algorithm is not designed to create echo chambers"
15:17 – Customer churn
15:53 – Zero spent on marketing
16:00 – Most funding goes to the engineering team
16:12 – Team size is 10
17:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Having a bridge round does not mean you're losing money—prove that you are growing and need more funding.
Learn how to work around echo chambers.
Find out what you love to do and go for 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 569: GrowSumo Helping 70 B2B SaaS Companies Grow Affiliate Programs, $100k New MRR So Far with CEO Bryn Jones Feb 13, 2017

Show notes

Bryn Jones. He's the co-founder and CEO of GrowSumo. GrowSumo graduated from Y Combinator in the summer of 2015, and they're building a marketplace for influencer programs. Prior to building companies, Bryn was also a member of a swim team.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? –
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? – "To just go for it"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:15 – Nathan introduces Bryn to the show
01:41 – Nathan found Bryn through Product Hunt
02:42 – There are large enterprise clients who came from GrowSumo
02:53 – GrowSumo builds a marketplace for influencer programs
03:10 – GrowSumo charges a one-time annual fee
- 03:14 – GrowSumo takes a percentage of every dollar the influencer earns from the brand
03:22 – GrowSumo is an affiliate program on top of an affiliate program
03:33 – An influencer can be anyone
04:19 – GrowSumo has a month over month fee which is $300 a month
- 04:48 – It is for a new startup with no affiliate program
- 04:56 – It lets you go in and manage the program yourself
05:16 – For an enterprise account, GrowSumo automates the entire program
- 05:23 – GrowSumo helps you identify the influencers
- 05:32 – The enterprise account: $10K annually
- 05:36 – GrowSumo takes 10% from all payouts to influencers
06:20 – "You have a lot of customers today that are influencers and you just don't know where to find them"
07:03 – Bryn shares how they identify the influencers
07:43 – GrowSumo doesn't have the ability to qualify an influencer based on the list size they have
08:33 – GrowSumo was launched in August 2015
09:06 – GrowSumo has a lot of traction
- 09:20 – Percentage of customers that GrowSumo is currently working with
10:30 – GrowSumo's biggest competition are Commission Junction and Influitive
11:07 – GrowSumo hasn't raised capital yet, but they're going to soon
11:35 – Current Y Combinator terms
12:45 – Team size is 8
13:03 – Bryn is Canadian
13:50 – Number of unique new customers driven by GrowSumo
- 14:00 – GrowSumo has driven over $100K recurring monthly revenue
14:20 – GrowSumo still qualifies and chooses the customers
15:20 – GrowSumo is software and there is no need for an internal tool
16:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Find new ways to grow your following by leveraging websites that are popular in your niche.
Having a feature that your biggest competitors do not offer will give you an edge.
There is no clear path to success—the only way to succeed is to START trying.

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 568: 3,000 Brands Have Discounts on BonusWay, $63M in 2016 Volume, $5m Revenues, 40 employees, $9m raised with CEO Tatu Koistinen Feb 12, 2017

Show notes

Tatu Koistinen, the CEO of Bonusway. His background is in loyalty and digital marketing and he has many growth stories to share. He's now building the most social e-commerce loyalty platform on earth. He's currently focused on building the leadership and culture of the business and he's also an Ironman triathlete.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Halo Effect
What CEO do you follow? – n/a
Favorite online tool? — Asana
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Trust yourself, act quicker, and be brave

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:16 – Nathan introduces Tatu to the show
02:00 – Bonusway creates more sales for ecommerce businesses
02:09 – Bonusway gets compensated when they create sales for a particular business
02:21 – Bonusway inspires consumers by informing them of the newest sales and shopping opportunities
02:48 – Bonusway is similar to a marketplace
03:15 – The companies that are partnered with Bonusway
- 03:40 – The biggest partner has the most amount of sales generated by Bonusway
03:53 – The sales that Bonusway has generated for Hotels.com
04:20 – The ways Bonusway connects with Hotels.com's customers
05:15 – Total volume of sales from all the partners combined is €60M
05:39 – Bonusway gets commission
06:20 – Sample computation of Bonusway's commission
07:17 – Bonusway's commission percentage varies per company
08:00 – Average 2016 revenue
09:10 – Tatu's idea for Bonusway's business model
10:05 – Bonusway was founded in 2011
10:24 – The number of people who bought in Bonusway's platform
10:50 – Bonusway is currently partnered with 3000 companies
11:10 – 2017 goal
12:00 – Total funding of Bonusway is €6.9M
12:20 – Bonusway had a previous capital raise
12:39 – Team size is 40
- 12:50 – Based all in Europe
13:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Be in the space where you feel most confident and know how things work.
Having a unique business model equates to less competition in the space.
Trust yourself, act quicker, and be brave.

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 567: EnvoyAmerica Does $160k in 2016 Helping Senior Citizens Get Around with CEO KC Kanaan Feb 11, 2017

Show notes

K.C. Kanaan. He's the CEO and co-founder of Envoy America – a Scottsdale, Arizona based national company that operates a wide-sharing platform and mobile application that matches seniors and patients that can't drive or don't want to drive themselves with driver companions. K.C. is a senior executive with more than 30 years of general management, operational sales and marketing experience. He's known both for his command of the big picture and ability to execute on short-term strategies. He has inspired teams to strive for and achieve the impossible.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
What CEO do you follow? – Rafe Furst
Favorite online tool? — Trello and 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? – K.C wished that he had known how to work more effectively with people

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces K.C to the show
02:33 – Envoy America provides service to seniors and patients that cannot, should not, and would choose not to drive
02:45 – Envoy America makes money on the time spent delivering the service based on hourly rate
03:05 – Envoy America is currently in Phoenix and will expand in Tucson, Arizona
- 03:19 – The plan is to expand to 3-5 other states
03:30 – Envoy America currently has 30 drivers in Phoenix
03:35 – On an average week, Envoy America delivers 75-85 trips, usually 2 hours per trip
04:01 – Envoy America's based rate is $39 per hour
04:20 – Average weekly revenue
04:25 – In 2016, Envoy America made $180K in revenue
04:55 – Envoy America was launched in 2015
05:15 – K.C. tried to help his parents find a reliable driving service—it was a challenge
06:00 – There are approximately 10M seniors in the US who need a reliable driving service
06:18 – K.C. and his partner invested about $100K in Envoy America and have raised $110K which is convertible note
06:36 – K.C has started a crowd funding campaign with crowdfunder.com and they're trying to raise an additional $500K
06:53 – What K.C will spend the funding on
07:35 – The drivers are all independent contractors
08:10 – Clients can reserve
08:26 – Most seniors rely on phone to make reservations
08:55 – The drivers can stay with the seniors wherever they want to go
09:35 – The drivers are paid $18/hour
- 09:48 – The drivers are responsible for their cars
10:00 – Envoy America has B2B sales and B2C sales
- 10:16 – In B2B, they have clinics as key clients
- 10:44 – Envoy America now leverages social media
11:03 – The keywords people use to find Envoy America
11:21 – Most of Envoy America's clients come from the businesses that they serve
13:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Transportation services for seniors are not very good, causing them to be isolated at home.
The most taken for granted problem could be the problem that only YOU can solve.
Take the time to grow in working with people more effectively.

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 566: Scollar Founder Sold Company to AutoDesk in 08 Now Making $99 Smart Pet Collar with CEO Lisa Tamayo Feb 10, 2017

Show notes

Lisa Tamayo. She's the CEO of Scollar, an open platform, multi-functional, smart collar for pets. She has over 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship and financial and strategic planning. She's the co-founder of Green Building Studio which was acquired by Autodesk in 2008. She's also the chairman of SoCo Nexus, an incubator accelerator in Northern California.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Pitch Anything
What CEO do you follow? – Ben Horowitz
Favorite online tool? — Evernote
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Trust Yourself"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:30 – Nathan introduces Lisa to the show
02:13 – Scollar is a smart collar
- 03:10 – The first product, Scollar Mini, was designed exclusively for the under-searched cats and small dogs market
- 03:29 – Scollar is currently on pre-order and has launched a Kickstarter campaign
03:52 – Scollar is like Fitbit for animals
- 04:10 – The Fitbit engineering team has partnered with Scollar Mini
04:26 – Scollar Mini is currently at $99 for pre-order and will retail at $149
- 04:35 – The pre-order started in mid-October
04:50 – Scollar is starting to build their following
05:15 – Scollar has negotiated with a bank to get credit
05:23 – Lisa and her partner have self-funded a part of it
06:00 – Lisa and her husband are the first founders of Green Building Studio
- 06:18 – Autodesk has bought all the assets of Green Building Studio
- 06:35 – Green Building Studio was Autodesk's market partner for a long time
07:28 – Lisa has almost $600k in Scollar
07:44 – Lisa discusses the spending
08:07 – Finding someone in hardware to help build the product are typically employed elsewhere
- 08:30 – It took Lisa a while to find the right team to work together
09:08 – Most funding went to the trial and error of the product
09:25 – Team size is almost 40
10:00 – Lisa shares the factors involved in asking for a loan
11:10 – It took the bank months to agree with Lisa and grant her the loan
11:40 – Working Solutions gave them the loan
12:10 – Working Solutions is a great option for quick capital
13:00 – The cost of making Scollar
- 13:19 – Cost per unit
13:43 – Possible wholesale price
- 14:50 – They might use the wholesale price in 2018
16:02 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Hardware is a far different process to create than software—it may take time to find and build the right team.
There are many options for gaining capital – choose the one that suits your company best.
Trust yourself and everything will fall into place.

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 565: Giraffe360 Hits $84k MRR Helping Real Estate Industry Record 360 Virtual Tours Quickly with CEO Mikus Opelts Feb 09, 2017

Show notes

Mikus Opelts. He's the CEO at Giraffe360. He started this company 7 years ago, in February of 2010, when he got involved with Giraffe Visual which provides interactive visualization services. It has now developed into something so much more.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – How Google Works
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Trello
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Everything I'm thinking about and planning for will take three times of the time than what I was hoping for"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:07 – Nathan introduces Mikus to the show
01:40 – Giraffe360 has the best visual tool technology
- 02:00 - Giraffe360 has a virtual tool that works with virtual reality headsets
02:15 – 6 years ago, Mikus started the company
02:37 – It took 14 months to develop
03:16 – Mikus spent $200K on software development
03:34 – Mikus just raised $500K for their product development
- 03:39 – It is a convertible note
- 03:49 – Mikus describes how it's like to raise capital in London
- 04:15 – Mikus went through a hundred meetings before getting that $500K
- 04:25 – 90% of the investment is from one company
05:15 – Giraffe360's camera is free for companies who have a large volume of properties
- 05:31 – Giraffe360 charges per property
- 05:47 – Giraffe360 has developed their technology and it is on par with professional companies
- 06:13 – 1 apartment tour costs €67 or $70
- 06:28 – Minimum is 20 apartments per company
- 06:45 – Payment is done monthly depending on the properties
- 07:12 – Giraffe360 has sold their first 10 cameras in the market
- 07:19 – There are 50 new cameras coming in at the end of February 2017
- 07:39 – Giraffe360 already had 50 pre-sells who wanted to try the cameras
- 08:00 – The incoming 50 cameras are almost sold out
08:30 – Average MRR
09:00 – Cost per hardware
09:10 – The hardware is made solely by Giraffe360's engineering team
09:55 – People find out about Giraffe360 through word-of-mouth
11:20 - Giraffe360's only team is the engineering team with 8 people
- 11:28 – 3 people in the back office
11:50 – No customer churn yet
12:20 – Giraffe360 is similar to a SaaS model
13:13 – 2017 goal is to have 100 subscriptions and cameras in the market
14:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Create something of the BEST quality that will stand out from the rest.
Raising capital takes perseverance; it may take 100 meetings before landing what you need.
Great things take time—relax, be patient, and get things done.

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 564: Proleads Passes 100 Customers, $75 ARPU Helping You Find Better Leads with CEO Anders Fredriksson Feb 08, 2017

Show notes

Anders Fredriksson. He's a Swedish, serial entrepreneur who recently moved to San Francisco to build his sales technology startup, ProLeads. He's an engineer with a business mind and currently holds both CEO and CTO titles. Previously, he built and scaled ArrivalGuides.com as the founding CTO. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Tablefinder.com, which he sold. He studied computer engineering and management at Chalmers University of Technology, but dropped out before getting his degree when he got funding for his first startup, Table Finder. Additionally, in 2007, Internet World named him the most prominent entrepreneur in Sweden.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff
Favorite online tool? — Google Inbox
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I really wished I knew how easy it is to start a business, but also I wish I didn't know how hard it was"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:20 – Nathan introduces Anders to the show
03:25 – Anders got $75K when he started Table Finder
03:50 – ProLeads is a platform that aggregates service data to optimize workflow
04:07 – ProLeads is a SaaS model with annual subscriptions
04:40 – Average customer pay per month is around $75
05:20 – ProLeads was launched in the USA, in 2014
05:40 – Anders was in 500 Startups, Batch 12
- 05:43 – Anders was turned down 4 times
- 05:58 – What Anders said to convince 500 startups to accept them
06:10 – ProLeads was doing $5K per month when they were just starting
06:53 – There were 2 co-founders and now they have 3
07:20 – Average MRR
07:50 – The amount ProLeads receives from 500 startups
08:08 – ProLeads also raised funds during the program
- 08:20 – ProLeads totaled $500K from their fundraising
09:15 – Zesty is a longtime customer of ProLeads
- 09:38 – Zesty has 50-70 seats in ProLeads
10:45 – ProLeads' lowest pricing is $300 per month
- 10:55 – ProLeads' focus is mid-sized companies
11:14 – 2017 MRR goal
12:10 – Gross customer churn per month
- 12:49 – ProLeads was growing their MRR
- 12:56 – ProLeads had a problem during close demo day churn
- 13:35 – ProLeads had monthly contracts
13:51 – Average monthly churn is quite low
14:22 – Team size
14:36 – CAC
- 14:48 – No paid marketing
15:20 – The tools ProLeads uses:
- 15:30 – Clearbit, Full Contact, and DiscoverOrg
- 15:41 – DiscoverOrg was on The Top: Episode 512
17:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

BELIEVE in your own product—this will make it easier to convince other people to believe in it as well.
Problems arise at the start of any business, learn from it and move on.
Starting a business has both its hard and easy moments; either way, it's worth the jump.

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 563: InsightPool Near $300k MRR Helping 100 Big Brands Find Influencers with CEO Devon Wijesinghe Feb 07, 2017

Show notes

Devon Wijesinghe. He's the founder and CEO of InsightPool. He co-founded the business in 2012; and, within a short time led the company from 2 to 60 employees. He is currently revolutionizing marketeering and sales across many social platforms.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Travis Kalanick
Favorite online tool? — Pardot
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Try and learn to concentrate on financial metrics and understand finance deeply

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:27 – Nathan introduces Devin to the show
01:53 - InsightPool focuses on the sector of influencer marketing
- 02:03 – "A brand needs to have an army of people syndicating their content with their own voices"
- 02:15 - Insight Cool finds influencers for brands that they can work with
02:35 – InsightPool's pricing model
03:10 – Average customer pay per month is $3K
- 03:33 – What is included in $3K
03:53 – Devin was the solo founder
- 04:00 – Devin sold a previous company for 9-figures in early 2012
04:50 – "Social became prevalent as the newest data set"
05:11 – Devin seeded a business idea for $250K
- 05:33 – Devin has a formalized angel group
- 05:41 – Devin is an advisor and investor
05:58 – David Cummings is Devin's friend
- 06:17 – David and Devin's companies are the first ones in ATV lean and tech village
06:48 – He currently has 60 people on the team
07:21 – InsightPool is currently serving over a hundred enterprises
07:50 – MRR
08:23 – InsightPool has a sales team
08:49 – CAC LTV
10:00 – Average spending on CAC
10:25 – Gross churn
11:00 – Net revenue churn
11:53 – InsightPool did a series A round and got an investment of $8M
12:35 – InsightPool did a debt round last year
12:50 – The amount InsightPool is burning per month
14:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

A brand needs to have an army of people syndicating their content with their own voices.
Go with what you think you are made to do.
Learn how to make the metrics and finance dance – understand it deeply before taking that leap.

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 562: Illumineto Raised $700k raised, Passes 100 Customers with DC Team with CEO Nick Caruso Feb 06, 2017

Show notes

Nick Caruso. He's the CEO and founder of Illumineto. He's the VP of Sales in Eastern US & Canada with Notable Solutions and he was there for 6 years. Before that, he was at Kofax as a federal sales manager and he also served the country in the Marine Corps as a Captain.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Built to Last
What CEO do you follow? – Drew Houston
Favorite online tool? — API.ai
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Nick wished he knew that starting a company was not as hard as he thought it would be and wished he'd started earlier

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:06 – Nathan introduces Nick to the show
01:45 – Illumineto is a SaaS company and they charge monthly
02:00 – Nick has been in the technology field for 20 years and in sales for 15 years
02:15 – Nick wasn't able to find a tool to help him close more deals
02:34 – Illumineto focuses on the individual sales rep and not the whole company
02:58 – Illumineto has a lot of sales reps from Fortune 500 companies
03:14 – Illumineto has been running for 6 months now
03:48 – Illumineto currently has a thousand of sign ups or users that represent several hundreds of logos
04:25 – Illumineto was founded in mid 2015
- 04:30 – Beta in 2016
04:50 – Nick has sunk in $700K before starting
05:00 – Illumineto had an Angel round
05:23 – Illumineto has 3 co-founders
- 05:32 – All of them had successful exits in different companies
- 05:55 – There are 5 Angel investors
06:15 – Current team size is 4
06:50 – Average pay per user per month is $30
07:00 – Average MRR
- 08:00 – Nick won't disclose the amount, but Illumineto is profitable
09:00 – Nathan explains why he asks for numbers
10:15 – Illumineto has more than 100 paying customers
10:30 – Gross customer churn
- 10:52 – 0% churn rate on paying customers
11:31 – Illumineto had paid advertising
- 12:07 – They had thousands of people coming in for the premium model
12:50 – Illumineto leverages their connections in LinkedIn to get their customers from IBM
13:11 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

It is possible for a startup to be profitable in as early as 6 months.
Leveraging your connections can help you engage with customers and increase sales.
Start your business as soon as you can, you'll learn as you go.

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 561: He Did $1b in 2016 Transactions (Takes on avg 3%) at his M&A Firm Marlin and Associates with CEO Ken Marlin Feb 05, 2017

Show notes

Ken Marlin. He's the founder and managing partner of Marlin and Associates – an award winning mergers and acquisition business focused on investment banking. They are headquartered in New York city with offices in San Francisco, Washington DC and Toronto. Ken is also the author of The Marine Corps Way to Win on Wall Street: 11 Key Plans From Battlefield to Boardroom which was published in September. From 1971-1981, Ken rose in rank becoming a Marine Captain and Infantry Commander. He's applied his Marine Corps principles to leading successful businesses.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-run Companies
What CEO do you follow? – Fred Wilson
Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn, Salesforce and Morning Star
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Pursue your passion and you'll do well—play to your strengths and not your weaknesses

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Ken Marlin to the show
03:00 – Ken is not doing it for the money
03:13 – Marlin and Associates tries hard to be the trusted advisor to people who want to buy or sell middle-market, technology companies
03:26 – Buyers and sellers pay Marlin and Associates retainers
- 03:55 – "The bigger the deal, the smaller the percentage"
04:20 – Ken shares their success in 2016
04:42 – Marlin and Associates gets 8-10 clients a year
- 04:58 – Marlin and Associates is service-oriented
- 05:45 – Marlin and Associates negotiate with all phases of the transaction
- 05:54 – Marlin and Associates help buyers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the companies they're planning to buy
06:21 – "We always try to play the role of the honest broker"
07:09 – There are no risk-free transactions, so the question that should be asked is how much risk is there?
07:38 – The average amount of transactions
08:27 – The types of seller and buyers
09:05 – The #1 reason a deal blows up
- 09:31 – From a seller's perspective, transactions are made from trust
- 10:00 – It's important that they have a set of financial projections they're going to meet
11:25 – "Perfection is to give people a set of forecasts that you're going to meet and to meet it"
11:52 – Key principle from Ken's book is "take the long view"
13:12 – There are people who buy companies without a clear understanding of how that acquisition helps advance them towards a strategic goal
14:30 – Ken talks about the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft
16:41 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There are no such things as risk-free transactions—the question that should be asked is how much risk is there?
Give your client a set of financial projections that you're going to meet—and, meet it!
Work around your strengths, not your weaknesses.

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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