Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 560: Badger Maps Does $1.2M in 2016, $120k MRR, Looking to 3x with CEO Steven Benson Feb 04, 2017

Show notes

Steven Benson. The founder and CEO of Badger Maps – the number one sales app in the Apple app store which helps salespeople become more successful. Badger shows salespeople their customers and leads on the map and connects them with their calendar to build a daily route.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Tools of Titans
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Baremetrics
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Steven wished he had known that he'd learn more working for small companies than big companies

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:27 – Nathan introduces Steven to the show
02:00 – Badger Maps helps salespeople with their jobs
02:37 - Badger Maps is a SaaS model
02:50 – Average customer pay per month is $35
02:58 – Badger Maps was founded in 2012
03:24 – Badger Maps has 3 co-founders
03:50 – Steven and the other co-founders didn't really split the equity
04:00 – When splitting the equity, everyone gets a fair deal
- 04:44 – Steven shares what to consider in splitting equity
- 05:58 – Badger Maps has an accelerator clause
06:44 – First year revenue is $70K
07:10 – Number of current customers is 4K
07:40 – Apple ranked Badger Maps as #1
08:50 – There are Fortune 500 companies who use Badger Maps
09:01 – The number of customers is both team and individual sales reps
09:16 – Gross monthly customer churn is 3.3%
09:37 – The customers are finding Badger Maps through word of mouth, SEO, and SMM
10:08 – The amount Badger Maps is willing to spend to acquire new customers
10:46 – Badger Maps spent $12K on paid marketing
11:00 – Average CAC
- 11:24 – Google is around $300
- 12:06 – In San Francisco, people are spending 100% of LTV on acquisition
12:53 – Badger Maps is bootstrapped
- 13:03 – Badger Maps had a loan from Lighter Capital
- 13:45 – Steven shares how Lighter Capital makes loans for SaaS companies
- 14:10 – Steven is paying 22-28% for the amount they have loaned and there's no personal guarantee
15:06 – Total revenue in 2016 is around $1.2M
15:20 – Revenue goal in 2017 is $4.5M
17:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Be fair and make sure it is a great deal for everyone when splitting equity.
Getting a loan can also be a good option for SaaS companies.
In San Francisco, people are spending 100% of LTV on acquisition.

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 559: JSX Exchange Launches To Sell Computational Power to Financial Firms with CEO Andrew Gryaznov Feb 03, 2017

Show notes

Andrew Gryaznov. He's an artificial intelligence and a cloud computing evangelist based in Dublin, Moscow. He's the founder of JSX Exchange – the cloud computing commodity exchange and has built several other services and tools ranging from SshTo.net, Plottico, and many others. Andrew is also a telecom and Linux expert and finalist at the GSOC 2005 Summit.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Startup Owner's Manual
What CEO do you follow? – Brad Katsuyama
Favorite online tool? — Trello
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— That depends
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Andrew wished he was more mindful of the global market

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:09 – Nathan introduces Andrew to the show
01:48 – Andrew shares his vision for why he built JSX Exchange
- 01:51 – Computation will be the most influential resource
03:05 – JSX Exchange has invented a way to commoditize cloud computation
03:53 – Andrew shares what people without JSX Exchange are doing
05:02 – Andrew mentions how the financial exchange space can use JSX Exchange
- 05:48 – Banks may own supercomputers
07:03 – JSX Exchange works with financial institutions who want accurate trade
07:46 – JSX Exchange wants to expand out of the financial space
08:18 – JSX Exchange is currently in pre-seed stage
- 09:15 – Irish investors have put out less than $1M
- 09:24 – It is an equity round
09:34 – Andrew was a solo founder for a period of time, but expanded
10:15 – Andrew has a team of 5 people who are all co-founders
10:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There is a possibility that computation will be the most influential resource.
Credibility is needed if you want to be successful in your space.
Believe in your product.

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 558: 2 yr Old HotJar Passes $500k MRR Helping 10,000 Customers See What Website Visitors Are Doing with CEO David Darmanin Feb 02, 2017

Show notes

David Darmanin. He's the CEO and founder of HotJar. Over the 12 years before founding HotJar, he generated hundreds of millions of dollars in growth consulting small to Fortune 500 businesses. He's got multiple teams, developed brands, and ran hundreds of tests for his clients spanning across 19 languages, 12 currencies, and 13 different industries. HotJar is now used in over 150 sites around the world and the company is growing to €3 million euros in just under one year.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
What CEO do you follow? – Jay Simons
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? – I wished I truly understood what marketing was

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:18 – Nathan introduces David to the show
03:03 – HotJar is a tool that allows site owners to see how their users are using their websites
- 03:30 – Once you know the customer experience, it is easier to see what to improve next
- 03:45 – Nathan experienced HotJar himself, in his website
- 04:10 – HotJar is careful about what data to show in regards to privacy
05:05 – HotJar's technology was expensive
05:30 – HotJar has a premium model
05:51 – Average customer pay per month is €50
- 06:10 – It was only €30 when HotJar started
06:33 – HotJar is currently serving 10K customers
06:50 – The number of sites each customer has
07:30 – ARR
07:40 – MRR
07:55 – Revenue goal for 2017
08:15 – HotJar currently has a team of 22 people and 8 on the leadership team
- 08:35 – There are 5 people in the founding team
- 09:14 – There are 4 big pillars: marketing, customer success, product, and operation
09:57 – Gross customer churn is higher than net negative churn
- 11:05 – "We are the dropping the smaller customers, but we are retaining and expanding the bigger customers"
- 11:20 – Both have less than 10% monthly churn
11:41 – HotJar was founded in 2014
12:20 – "If you truly want to create a premium company and not just like a trial model which is disguised as a premium, you really need to think about how does that free package stand on its own 2 feet"
12:43 – HotJar minimized the number of interface and allowed users to delete them and create new ones
13:21 – David does not track the time the customer has converted from free to premium, but they track the cohorts
14:00 – CAC is extremely conservative
15:04 – The premium aspect Hotjar offers is brand building
- 15:50 – There is brand value in doing different types of campaigns
16:17 – HotJar is bootstrapped
16:25 – HotJar sees other players who have raised capital
- 17:14 – HotJar does not see raising capital as an advantage
17:34 – HotJar gets a lot of referrals
18:10 – HotJar just recently started with paid advertising
- 18:40 – HotJar has an investment target model
- 19:10 – HotJar has used this model to offer flexibility and freedom
20:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Churn is one of the biggest challenges of a SaaS business.
If you truly want to create a premium company and product—think about how that free package stands on its own two feet.
Check your options because NOT raising capital can be very possible and advantageous 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 557: Appointlet Hits $35k MRR, Co-Founders Because of Reddit Helping 1100 Customers Schedule with Rami El Chamaa Feb 01, 2017

Show notes

Rami El Chamaa. He's the CEO and founder of Appointlet. He started earlier as a digital marketing manager at Eastline Marketing where he led lead generation, SEO, email marketing, and content marketing. Before that, he was with Ernst & Young.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
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? – N/A

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:30 – Nathan introduces Rami to the show
02:03 – Appointlet is an appointment scheduling software
02:34 – Appointlet is a SaaS based business and makes money through subscriptions
02:40 – Appointlet has monthly and annually pricing depending on the team price
02:51 – Average monthly revenue per customer is $50
03:17 – Appointlet's pricing has been set since 2012
04:18 – Rami's co-founder was working for his previous company and saw the tedious process of appointment scheduling through different websites
05:17 – Rami saw his co-founder's thread in Reddit regarding his webapp and Rami replied to him
05:31 – Rami is from Lebanon and met his co-founder through Reddit
05:45 – Rami is in charge of marketing growth and his co-founder is in charge of the coding
06:20 – The Reddit thread
07:05 – Rami and Jared don't talk much about equity
07:30 – Rami didn't have any idea about equity and just focused on marketing
08:05 – Rami now has 25% of the company
08:27 – Appointlet has 1100 paying customers
08:55 – Rami had been working with Appointlet for a year when he realized he needed to be compensated
09:16 – First year revenue
10:19 – Average RPU
10:35 – Rami focuses on listening to customers and creating a flow that lets the customer feel that they are being taken cared of
11:08 – Startups grow through support
12:08 – Rami has integrated branding techniques
13:00 – "The lifetime value of a customer usually drives the lifetime value of a new customer as well"
14:00 – Gross customer churn
14:10 – Appointlet is doing paid, targeted, marketing campaigns
14:40 – Appointlet spent $2-3K on a marketing campaign
15:07 – LTV
15:30 – Appointlet just hired their first customer support manager
15:58 – Appointlet is currently looking for software developers located in USA
- 16:05 – Salary range
16:49 – Appointlet is bootstrapped
16:59 – Appointlet is not interested in raising funds until they need it
17:36 – Appointlet is currently cash flow positive
18:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Opportunities can now be found on the internet – just look for someone with whom you share the same passion.
Working for free isn't that bad as long as you make yourself indispensable.
The lifetime value of a customer usually drives the lifetime value of a new customer as well.

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 556: They 3D Printed Baby Sophia's New Foot Faster and Cheaper than Alternatives with Mecuris CEO Manuel Opitz Jan 31, 2017

Show notes

Manuel Opitz: He is currently the founder of Mecuris. Before founding the company as the CEO, he worked as a medical IP broker in innovation management and as a technology scout in China. He graduated in Industrial Engineering and he has taken a keen interest in optimizing healthcare process chains by digitalization and 3D printing.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Thinking Fast and Slow
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Podio and Acuity Scheduling
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Don't try to do everything yourself"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Manuel to the show
02:14 – Mecuris is in B2B and medical technology
02:30 – Mecuris provides patient specific prosthetics using 3D printing
02:58 – Manuel discusses the picture on their website
03:19 – Mecuris can be reimbursed by the insurance companies
03:38 – Mecuris gets paid as the service provider for medical supply stores
03:51 – Mecuris uses SLS—which is more costly but lasts
- 04:25 – The smaller the prosthetics, the cheaper it is
- 04:50 – Manuel shares the pricing
05:25 – The price for Sophie's prosthetics
06:15 – Insurance companies have their own prices
06:55 – Average number of prosthetics that have been 3D printed in 2016
- 07:28 – Mecuris only had prototypes in 2016
07:45 – Mecuris had 2 seed investors in November
08:39 – Mecuris raised under a million
08:55 – Mecuris had a pre-seed round
- 09:37 – The 6 founders put in 5-digit numbers per person and received a pre-seed government round
10:12 – Manuel shares how the 6 founders talked about the equity
11:26 – The founders who are operational are the software lead and product designer
- 11:52 – There are a total of 11 people in the office
12:07 – Mecuris was launched in May, 2016
12:52 – Manuel wants to enter the international market after Series A
- 13:09 – Talks with big companies are in the works
13:40 – Mecuris can do prosthetics in just 10 minutes
14:04 – Manuel discusses Sophie's prosthetics and what would be her option would be if there was no Mecuris
15:15 – Mecuris can do simulation work with their prosthetics
17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Aim high—if you believe that you can enter the international market then do it.
Sharing equity requires a good system, defining how you can benefit from one another.
Collaborate with the experts in your field.

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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 555: Sudo.ai Raises $2.3M at $10.3M Post Money Valuation to Fix CRM Space with CEo Francisco Larrain Jan 30, 2017

Show notes

Francisco Larrain who has been an entrepreneur for most of his life. He was born and raised in Chile and is the co-founder and CEO of Sudo. He founded a company called Zappedy – a payment technology company that was backed by Eric Schmidt and acquired by Groupon. More recently, he led a project engineering team of a hundred plus people for Groupon's local business. Now, he's working on enabling high quality work for corporations and their teams. The co-founder and head of product, Amit, is also joining Francisco in this podcast.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – High Output Management (Francisco)
What CEO do you follow? – N/A (Amit)
Favorite online tool? — Splunk and Github (Francisco)
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No (Francisco)
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Francisco would tell himself that all these people that you look up to are much more human than you think and he'd would love to have more confidence.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:29 – Nathan introduces Francisco to the show
02:11 – Amit codes late at night
02:27 – Team of 9 people and they all code
03:00 – Francisco explains the hedge fund with trigger power
04:00 – Francisco likes the entrepreneurial side of the Valley
04:37 – Francisco has raised $3M
04:45 – Sudo wants to fix the broken CRM of enterprise
05:15 – There are system problems and software problems
05:25 – A time consuming software will lead to people not using it
06:17 – Francisco has experienced problems with CRM in Groupon
07:20 – Francisco shares their plan with Sudo, starting with expense management
- 07:45 – There's a free-form format in the CRM where people can update
- 08:10 – Francisco wants to flip everything around
09:17 – Sudo is on pre-revenue and private beta
09:56 – There are 5 pilot companies
10:10 – Sudo will possibly start with monthly subscription system and will move to an account based system
11:00 – The key features of Sudo allows people to add contacts and notes from their meetings
12:30 – Sudo is very sticky with the representatives
13:43 – The $3M seed round was an equity round
13:59 – Francisco shares who their investors are
15:00 – Why the valuation was easy for Francisco
16:00 – Francisco shared the acquisition of Groupon on Zappidy
17:37 – The valuation that was negotiated for Sudo in the seed round
19:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

A time consuming software will lead to people not using it.
The valuation is much easier if you've had a good exit before.
We are all humans – even the ones in the highest positions that we look up to and respect.

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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 554: Brandetize is Jack Canfields Internet Engine, Hits $4M 2015 Revenue with CEO Eric Berman Jan 29, 2017

Show notes

Eric Berman: Since graduating from UCST, he's been a serial entrepreneur and business operator. He grew his first company to 400K and just missed out on going public. He has been a consultant for many other businesses and is now the CEO and founder of Brandetize, a full service, performance-based, marketing agency that partners with thought leaders such as Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield and many others.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence Others
What CEO do you follow? – Gary Vaynerchuk
Favorite online tool? — Spark Hire
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7 and a half
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Continue to have an open mind, network as many people as you can and…follow your passions and be humble"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:00 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
02:33 – TheCollegeClub.com was Eric's first company
- 02:51 – It grew significantly
- 03:40 – The stock market crashed just before they become public in 2000
- 04:25 – They were burning $2M monthly with over 400 employees
05:46 – After the crash, Eric did some consulting
07:00 – They don't teach life skills in the educational system
07:18 – Eric approached Brian Tracy when Brian was struggling
08:00 – It was 2001, when Eric started working with Brian at no cost
08:16 – Eric shares the difference of Gary Vaynerchuk and Brian Tracy
09:08 – After working with Brian for more than 10 years, gurus are asking Eric if he can work for them
09:20 – Eric had a talk with Brian about him working with other gurus
10:00 – The brands that are going after Brandetize
10:40 – 2015 total revenue is close to $4M and 2016 is close to $5M
10:55 – 28 employees
11:16 – Brandetize doesn't have a MRR
12:30 – Eric predicts that Brendon Burchard will be the next Tony Robbins
12:56 – Brian Tracy brings the most revenue to Brandetize
13:50 – Eric shares their offer to the brands
16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Have an open mind, be humble, and follow your passions.
Even if you have a significant fall—this does not stop you from coming back.
Offering your services for free can help you gain more 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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 553: Prospectify Raises $1M at $4M Post Money Valuation, $25k MRR, for Better Prospecting with CEO Matt Ekstrom Jan 28, 2017

Show notes

Matt Ekstrom. He's one of the founders of Prospectify and formerly co-founded HiringSolved. He's in-charge of all things revenue for Prospectify, which is a promising sales and intelligence platform.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Sales Acceleration
What CEO do you follow? – Gary Vaynerchuk
Favorite online tool? — Google Search and HubSpot
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 would have studied more about startups and being an entrepreneur"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:30 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show
01:55 – Prospectify is a SaaS model
02:14 – Prospectify's long term goal is to be able to scale personalization from the sales standpoint
02:25 – Prospectify has monthly subscriptions
02:45 – Prospectify's pricing:
- 03:25 – The prices from the website are $40, $190, $490, and $975
03:33 – Average customer pay per month is $352
03:50 – Prospectify was launched in February 2016, and was in beta in January 2016
04:16 – Current number of customers is around 100
04:46 – MRR is over $20K
05:09 – Prospectify is based in Phoenix
05:20 – Prospectify just closed their first month
- 05:25 – It was in Angels and a million dollar round
05:45 – Matt shares why he decided on an equity round and not a convertible note
06:31 – Matt uses the trajectory to argue for higher valuation
07:29 – Prospectify is about to launch their company search which includes 12 million companies starting in the USA
08:10 – The people Prospectify has targeted
08:18 – Prospectify's customer base is diverse
08:45 – Annual customer churn
09:45 – Matt shares what he will do to keep customers paying and NOT cancel after receiving all the data
11:10 – Prospectify's top data sources
- 11:22 – Matt shares what they used to validate the concept of Prospectify
12:18 – Fixed cost per month for crawling
13:11 – Matt shares where to get credits
14:00 – Customer LTV
14:34 – Current team size
- 14:45 – Headcount expenses
16:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Keep people up to date—that way, they will keep on paying.
Decide whether an equity round or convertible note will be most advantageous for you.
Discern what is the right track and try to stay on 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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 552: $300k last 12 months To Help Sales People Find Perfect Gifts with CEO Greg Segall Jan 27, 2017

Show notes

Wayne Silbermann. He has founded a number of startups from South Africa including one of the first world's music discovery services which was originally founded by Mark Shuttleworth. His most recent venture, Sortd, is a new email platform that's on a path to fundamentally changing the way people communicate and manage work. Sortd has ranked as the number 1 app for Gmail on Product Hunt.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Tipping Point
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — WorkFlowy
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Wayne would tell himself that there's plenty of opportunities out there and you can pick and choose what you're passionate about

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Wayne to the show
02:20 – Sortd transforms the Gmail interface into a more organized system to manage lists—similar to Trello for Gmail
- 02:50 – Wayne discovered that many people use the Gmail Inbox as a to-do list
- 03:29 – Sortd allows you to drag-and-drop your emails to your to-do lists
03:50 – Sortd is currently free
- 04:00 – Wayne shares how they are going to monetize Sortd according to agencies that use it
05:00 – Wayne has a number of ventures which are his sources of income
05:30 – The number of free users
- 05:45 – The behavior of active users
06:40 – Total capital which is self-funded
- 06:50 – The money goes to development
07:29 – Sortd works under Gmail and there's no need to add another app
08:05 – Why would people use Sortd?
- 09:00 – Sortd allows you to "communicate using email as a medium in the context of your priorities"
- 09:33 – It is like you're running two applications under 1 tab
10:11 – Sortd was in the chrome store since 2014
10:45 – Sortd has 3 full-time developers
11:16 – The revenue of the other business
11:40 – The funding environment in South Africa
12:48 – Wayne is looking to raise around a million dollars for Sortd
14:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Having a number of ventures can help you create a product that is dedicated to helping people.
Email is one of the most used applications—that's why startups are finding ways to make life easier for email users.
There are tons of opportunities out there—pick and choose what you're passionate about.

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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 551: Sortd, 200,000 users, $500k invested so far, launched2014, othe rbusness funding this that does $1m/yr. Raising $1m sortd Jan 26, 2017

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