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EP 550: Attentive Raises $150K in Portugal to Solve Sales Problem with CEO Daniel Araujo Jan 25, 2017

Show notes

Daniel Araujo. He's the CEO at Attentive.US – a competitive intelligence platform that gives real-time information to teams that use SalesForce, Hubspot, Pipedrive or Full Contact. He's the next Googler, loves data visualization and all things technology.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Peak
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
Favorite online tool? — HubSpot
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Roughly
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Daniel would tell himself to learn as fast as he can

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Daniel to the show
02:10 – Attentive is a SaaS platform that integrates with CRMs
- 02:20 – Attentive alway looks for information and updates in real-time
02:42 – Attentive offers monthly subscriptions and an additional setup fee for clients who want to use other CRMs
03:03 – Average customer pay per month
03:16 – The integration is a one-time fee and will depend on the client's preferences
03:55 – Attentive does track every person that is in your pipeline
- 04:40 – Every behavior of a lead notifies the user
05:00 – Daniel shares what their setup looks like
- 05:09 – The information that needs to be filled out for the setup are on the website
05:44 – There are clients who will give a list of companies they want to track
06:21 – Number of paying customers monthly
- 06:37 – Attentive just launched a new interface
07:00 – MRR
07:08 – Team size is 5 which includes a newly hired Head of Growth
08:00 – Attentive has raised $150K
- 08:12 – The first $100K was from a big VC in Portugal and the rest is from an advisor round
- 08:50 – There are key people who are helping build Attentive
- 09:00 – Initially, it was convertible note but everything is converted to equity now
- 09:19 – The valuation conversation with an Angel investor
10:05 – Daniel shares how he started raising Attentive's capital
- 10:28 – There are still people who are using Attentive's Slack bot for free
- 10:38 – The investors believe that Attentive could grow
- 10:58 – 10% of the company is for the investors, the rest belongs to the 3 founders of Attentive
- 11:17 – Daniel shares how the 3 founders split the rest of the company
11:40 – Daniel wants to move Attentive to the US because they want to compete in that market
12:10 – Daniel will focus on having an MRR of $5-10K before raising another round
12:40 – Valuation for Series A will depend on the metrics
13:50 – Attentive is trying to get on the Boulder acceleration program
15:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Believe in your product so that other people, too, will believe in it.
Deciding the valuation for another raising depends on the MRR or the metrics.
Learn as FAST as you can.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 549: Propeller CEO on Why He'll Win CRM Space After Exit to Samsung with Eric Bouck Jan 24, 2017

Show notes

Eric Bouck. He's the CEO and founder of Propeller, a CRM that lets you sell from gmail. Prior to Propeller, Eric was the co-founder and CEO of Zigzag Software which was eventually sold to Samsung. He also spent some time working as a director for Samsung. He also worked as a Group Product Manager at Dell EMC and spent 4 years with this company.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Inspired
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Webflow
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Marry the right person"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:26 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
02:05 – Propeller is the CRM that creates daily tools that salespeople can use to set their meetings, do their email and phone calls, share presentations and documents, and research etc.
02:31 – Propeller is a SaaS business and they have monthly and annual subscriptions
02:50 – Average revenue per customer monthly
- 02:54 –$50 per month
03:15 – How does Propeller win on a very crowded market?
- 03:24 – There's a lot of companies who try to make their own niche
- 03:42 – Propeller has a unique mix of deep integration with Gmail combined with the ability to do multiple step campaign
04:45 – Propeller is an all-in-one CRM – you won't be needing another product
05:10 – Propeller was launched September 1st
- 05:15 – Growth is 21% month over month
- 05:22 – A little over 50 customers at the moment
05:26 – Propeller is bootstrapped
05:39 – Eric got decent money from the exit
06:23 – No revenue churn at the moment
07:00 – Team size, they are also remote
07:36 – Eric is not open to acquisition talks at the moment
08:00 – The leading companies in the CRM space are Salesforce and Dynamics
- 08:35 – Pipeline and Hubspot are getting positive feedback as well
09:00 – Eric shares his opinion of Outreach
09:25 – Eric mentions Propeller having an AI
09:55 – The core differentiator of the products
- 10:04 – An example of how Propeller makes getting your emails done easier
11:00 – Nathan's acuity to batch schedule
11:20 – CRM pricing
- 11:42 – Deliver the VALUE
- 12:00 – Eric shares their vision as a company to make salespeople more effective
12:12 – Eric shares how he got their first 5 customers
12:46 – Eric has also spent for paid marketing
12:58 – LTV is $1500
13:30 – CAC LTV ratio
15:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

If your market is crowded, you have to work HARDER to differentiate yourself.
The value is not in losing sales or making more sales—the value is found in whether or not you provide an effective product.
Don't live with regrets—it's gotten you to where you are now.

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 548: $200M FinTech Fund Bullish on Kabbage with Santander Innoventures Partner Manuel Silva Jan 23, 2017

Show notes

Manuel Silva. He's a partner at Santander InnoVenture. Prior to that, he was the founding member of BBVA Ventures which focused on lending, new platforms, financial inclusion, and private banking. He's worked across Latin America and Europe and holds a BA in Business Administration from CUNEF, a MSc in Political Science, and a MPhil in Development Economics.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A
What CEO do you follow? – Rob Frohwein
Favorite online tool? — Crunchbase
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "There's so much to do in this world"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Manuel to the show
02:25 – Manuel is involved in all investments at Santander
03:10 – Manuel is separate from the Santander group
- 03:31 – Manuel facilitates the relationship across the banks
- - 03:48 – The banks refer to the Santander's franchises all over the world
04:24 – Manuel shares how they worked with Kabbage
- 05:01 – "It's a successful investment, it's a successful partnership"
- 05:20 – Kabbage is the perfect example of how Santander wants to work
05:30 – The fund size for innoventure at Santander
06:45 – Manuel shares how Santander plays in the venture capital world
- 06:48 – Santander does equity investment only
08:05 – Santander works out the opportunities for the CEO and the company
08:55 – The companies in Santander's portfolio is not complete because there are still companies unannounced
10:00 – Manuel shares how they work in the round and in the FinTech space
- 10:03 – FinTech space has a level of maturity and density in entrepreneurship
11:00 – Companies that Santander have invested in are data driven
12:13 – Santander wants banks to partner with startups so that these companies can access the reach these banks have
14:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

FinTech has the maturity to deal with the problems that come up in the industry—this sets them apart.
Santander exists to bring together a partnership between banks and startups.
Be focused in your task and goals as there's so much to do.

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 and giving FREE money now from Nathan.
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 547: Handshake.com Raises $24M, Helping 1000+ Customers Manage Store Product Purchasing with CEO Glen Coates Jan 22, 2017

Show notes

Glen Coates. He's the co-founder and CEO of Handshake. It focuses on putting the right product on every shelf in every store. He goes between Sydney, San Diego and New York City.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
What CEO do you follow? – Dave Yarnold
Favorite online tool? — Boomerang for Gmail
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Glen wished he knew how intense running this company was going to be and to spend a lot more time making music and going surfing.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Glen to the show
02:15 – Handshake is about getting the right product on every shelf, in the world
- 03:30 – Handshake brings the Amazon-like buying and selling platform to businesses
- 03:55 – Handshake Rep is the mobile app used by sales reps who work for the brand
- 04:21 – Handshake Direct is the mobile and web-based ecommerce for B2B
05:00 – Handshake is a SaaS business and they sell to manufacturers and distributors
05:10 – Handshake's customers are the manufacturers, distributors, and their customers who log into Handshake
05:22 – Handshake has a similar model to Salesforce
05:40 – Glen started working with Handshake in 2010 and got their first customer in 2011
05:51 – First year revenue
06:16 – Average number of customers at the moment
06:51 – The pricing model is per seat per year for Handshake Rep, Handshake Direct is made-to-order
07:37 – Average customer pay per month
08:24 – December 2016: total average revenue range
09:35 – Handshake used to have monthly contracts
- 09:59 – Most of the contracts now are annual contracts
10:07 – Total capital raised is around $24M inclusive of Series B
- 10:29 – Series B closed in February 2016
10:40 – Handshake isn't in any acquisition talk
12:03 – What Glen and his team is building is grand in scale and requires a lot of hard work
12:44 – Team size and location
- 13:05 – Glen shares the number of people per team
14:10 – LTV
- 14:15 – "I don't think much about lifetime value"
- 16:51 – "I care about delivering 100% growth with a better payback period than I care about delivering 200% growth with like a terrible payback period"
- 17:05 – Handshake growth is 100% annual
17:30 – Glen shares the flagged payback period in VC communities
18:48 – Glen is currently burning close to $500K a month
18:56 – Glen thinks that it should take at least 6 months before having to raise again
19:50 – Glen usually raises for a couple of years and each time he raises gives them 2 years of runway
20:15 – Gross annual customer churn
- 20:30 – Churn has come down when they shifted their market
- 21:25 – Glen shares what they did to combat high monthly churn
- 22:38 – Handshake always has a negative revenue churn
23:30 – Glen wouldn't sell Handshake for Nathan's sample offer
25:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

It's difficult to create a SaaS that is web-based and mobile-based – it takes hard work.
Delivering 100% growth with a better payback period is better than delivering 200% growth with a terrible payback period.
Raising usually takes 6 months and it is the CEO's responsibility to decide how he can leverage each raise.

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 546: The Pitch Made $80k in Year 1 Sponsor Revenue, 700,000 Downloads with Producer Josh Muccio Jan 21, 2017

Show notes

Josh Muccio: He's the host of The Pitch Podcast and he recently launched Season 2 on January 11th. Before The Pitch Podcast, he was the founder of iHeart Repair, which he sold in 2014. He is a father of 2, soon to be 3. Josh is 29 and he loves the tech world. He's in Florida and loves skiing and takes 2 ski trips every winter.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Slight Edge
What CEO do you follow? – Nicholas Quah
Favorite online tool? — Slack and Google Drive
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "To create more stuff and just put it out there"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:38 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show
02:35 – The Pitch Podcast is similar to the TV show SharkTank
- 02:53 – Season 2 is where investments happen on air
03:05 – Josh shares why Season 1 of The Pitch Podcast was challenging
03:40 – Sheel is Josh's co-host
04:09 – Josh discusses iHeart Repair
05:20 – iHeart Repair was sold in 2014
05:25 – Revenue was around $750K annually
05:59 – Josh just didn't see his future with iHeart Repair
06:25 – Josh had a broker who helped him with the exit
- 06:43 – MTechRepair bought iHeart Repair
- 07:12 – Josh did the Wordpress site for iHeart Repair
- 07:35 – Josh installed Woocommerce in iHeart Repair's site
08:30 – Josh shares what happened after the exit
08:50 – Josh shares how he met Sheel
- 09:10 – Josh had a dream that he was going to have a podcast
09:30 – Josh shares how he met Spencer Handly of Blab
09:52 – The start of the daily hunt
10:45 – Josh shares how Sheel approached him
11:25 – The advertisers in the podcast are the main revenue stream
12:00 – Nathan asks Josh for his feedback regarding promoting his product
12:49 – Josh plans to stay in their business model
12:54 – Average revenue for Season 1 of The Pitch Podcast
13:11 – Season 2 pre-sold revenue
- 13:30 – There are 2 advertisers per show
14:15 – 250K total downloads for Season 1
14:42 – The idea of Season 2
15:13 – The amount Josh spent on his Facebook ad trial
15:31 – Press is the most successful growth channel for The Pitch Podcast
16:07 – If Season 2 flops, Josh would stop the podcast
16:25 – Nathan makes an offer to Josh
18:51 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The services market is tedious and requires a thorough study.
If you don't see your future in it – put an END to it.
Do NOT hesitate to create more and put it out there.

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
The Pitch Podcast – Josh's Podcast
iHeart Repair – Josh's previous company
MTechRepair – The company that purchased iHeartRepair
Woocommerce – Josh installed this program into iHeartRepair
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 545: Unomy Raises $3.4M, $160k MRR Helping Businesses Get Leads with CEO Gal Harzvi Jan 20, 2017

Show notes

Gal Har-Zvi: He's a passionate entrepreneur who lives and breathes B2B sales, marketing, and everything in between. He's one of the founders of Valueshine Ventures, the technology holdings company and a successful online marketer for various software categories and verticals. He's currently the CEO and founder of the company called Unomy.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Pitch Anything
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Calendly, ZoomUS, Yesware, SalesLoft, Boomerang
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 do whatever you love and are passionate about and everything will be good"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Gal to the show
02:14 – Unomy provides sales intelligence solutions
- 02:27 – Unomy makes money by selling annual subscriptions
02:40 – Unomy was launched in 2014
- 02:53 – Raised capital after 6 months
- 03:00 – Launched the current version focused on enterprise sales a year ago
03:25 – First year revenue
04:05 – Unomy currently changed their business model because the first one was not successful
04:21 – 2015 revenue
04:36 – 2016 revenue goal
05:03 – Unomy currently has mid-market businesses, but gradually switching to larger accounts
05:36 – Average customer pay annually
05:49 – Average number of current customers
05:58 – Unomy has currently raised capital
- 06:08 – Unomy did a seed round and a few convertible notes
- 06:18 – Unomy is going to raise a Series A
06:39 – Gal shares why they are raising capital
06:56 – Unomy's competitors are raising capital as well
07:21 – Unomy will probably raise $5-6M
07:40 – Unomy's valuation
08:33 – In any round, a founder should expect to lose anywhere between 25-35% of their company
09:17 – Gal and Nathan discuss what an average deal is
09:45 – There are a lot of VCs in Israel
10:20 – Unomy has 3 branches
10:48 – Team size is 24
10:56 – Gross annual churn
11:35 – Customer's LTV
12:02 – CAC
13:20 – Number of companies in Unomy's database
13:58 – Gal shares what makes them better than their competitors
15:00 – Unomy has a variety of categories
- 15:30 – Unomy was founded to help sales companies, not investors
16:06 – Unomy uses more sources than others
17:19 – Unomy has a guarantee and if you get a bounce email, you can get your money back
- 17:38 – Unomy does real-time verification
19:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

In any round, a founder should expect to lose anywhere between 25-35% of their company.
A company should focus on why it was founded in the first place.
Do what you love and are passionate about and the rest will take care of itself.

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 544: RevBoss $700k 2015 Revenue, Now $90k MRR to Help Customers Drive Revenue with CEO Eric Boggs Jan 19, 2017

Show notes

Eric Boggs: He's the CEO at RevBoss – a sales prospecting SaaS company. RevBoss helps B2B sales teams grow pipelines and win more customers. Prior to RevBoss, he was the founder and CEO at Argyle Social and was a one-man sales team at Bronto Software. Eric is in North Carolina with his wife and 3 small children.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Things About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Matt Williamson
Favorite online tool? – Stripe
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 not worry so much about the long term—that things just have a way of working themselves out"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
02:10 – Eric shares what happened to Argyle
- 02:42 – Argyle raised $1.5M
- 03:52 – Argyle's buyers
05:32 – Eric was only 22 when joined he Bronto
- 05:39 – Eric was a one-man sales team for 2 and half years
- 06:32 – Eric went to business school after Bronto
- 07:05 – Bronto is now an Oracle company
07:12 – RevBoss is a SaaS company that helps B2B seller relations find more prospects and win more customers
07:45 – In between the Argyle wind down and RevBoss, Eric was a consultant for a year
08:20 – RevBoss' competitors
09:20 – RevBoss started as a services company and launched in September 2016
- 09:47 – Building a services business is easy, growing it is hard and turning it into a SaaS business is much harder
10:26 – Eric shares the weird things he encounters in the business
11:07 – "We're cannibalizing ourselves a little bit" in the short term, in regards to services revenue vs. recurring Saas revenue
12:12 – Average customer pay per month
12:28 – Weighted MRR
12:39 – RevBoss raised a seed round for $1.1M
13:45 – Eric sold 20% of the business for $1.1M
14:50 – Total 2015 revenue
15:01 – Team size and location
15:41 – Projected LTV
16:27 – CAC
- 16:34 – All inbound sales
17:20 – Gross churn
17:59 – Eric plans for the worst after his experience with Argyle
19:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Recurring SaaS revenue will beat out services revenue in the long run.
Your worst experiences are your greatest teachers.
Don't worry too much about the long term—things just have a way of working themselves out.

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 543: Bant CEO Hits $32K MRR, Helping Companies Get Higher Quality Leads with CEO Andrei Breaz Jan 18, 2017

Show notes

Episode 543

Summary:

In Episode #543, Nathan interviews Andrei Breaz. He's the founder and CEO of Bant.io which is a B2B leads company. Before that, he was the founder of Keptify, which was acquired by Well Investments. He also worked as the CTO of Harty Hanks and is highly experienced in the B2B sales space.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
What CEO do you follow? – Anthony Robbins and Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Trello
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Andrei wished he would have caught the entrepreneurial bug sooner

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:50 – Nathan introduces Andrei to the show
02:25 – Bant initiates conversations for companies with their ideal prospects
03:10 – Bant is a service model and not a SaaS model
03:47 – Bant is on the prospecting and lead generation stage
04:05 – Bant doesn't sell data
- 04:10 – Bant uses the data they generate using their own software
- 04:35 – The distinct data points that Bant uses
05:10 – Average customer pay per month is $1200
- 05:39 – The price reflects a medium plan which is a customized plan
- 05:44 – There's 100% money-back guarantee
06:00 – Andrei shares their definition of a hot lead
07:13 – Bant was launched in early 2015
07:30 – Bant is self-funded
08:00 – Number of current customers
09:08 – MRR
09:30 – Andrei is aiming for $1.5M next year
09:34 – 2015 total revenue
10:10 – Bant's actual clients
- 10:25 – Most are SMBs
10:50 – Team size and location
11:10 – Bant gets their customers from referrals and word of mouth
11:30 – Bant ran a $ 200 adword campaign when they started
11:41 – Andrei shares Bant's process
12:28 – LTV
12:55 – Bant's CAC is marginal
- 13:10 – No sales team, but there are account managers
14:18 – Monthly gross customer churn
15:10 – Bant has their own database and has researchers who validate their leads
- 15:55 – 8 contractors on research
16:03 – 3rd party data apps that Bant is using including Builtwith
16:50 – Andrei shares LinkedIn as one of their main data sources
17:15 – Andrei shares his thoughts regarding LinkedIn being acquired by Microsoft
18:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Do NOT rely on just one large source of data, have a variety of sources.
Businesses can spend less time hiring the right people if they go through right channels providing the right prospects.
Once the entrepreneurial bug bites you—just 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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 542: HipLead Hits $120k MRR Helping 30 Customers Get More Leads with CEO COnor Lee Jan 17, 2017

Show notes

Conor Lee, founder and CEO of HipLead. The company helps leading B2B companies scale their outbound sales with high quality lead generation outbound campaigns. Before founding HipLead, Conor founded several other companies including TellFi which was in the Y Combinator, Winter 2011 batch. Prior to that, he worked as a lobbyist in statewide political campaigns.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? – Zapier
Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Conor wished he had spent more time in tech than in politics

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:30 – Nathan introduces Conor to the show
02:07 – Conor shares what happened to TellFi
- 02:58 – Conor had a co-founder who wanted to keep it going
- 03:19 – Conor shares how the exit happened
04:10 – HipLead helps companies scale their outbound sales
04:35 – HipLead's pricing
04:55 – Current number of customers is 30
05:18 – HipLead was launched in 2013
05:30 – Conor is the solo founder, but he had a co-founder for awhile
06:25 – Conor has the majority of the shares of the company
07:35 – Conor and Nathan discuss cap tables
08:00 – Conor hired a lawyer for his legal documents
- 08:17 – Use the startup attorneys
08:31 – HipLead is bootstrapped
08:50 – HipLead's loan
09:20 – Conor shares why he got the loan
10:00 – Conor shares how the loan works
- 11:30 – The type of loan is only for specific companies
- 12:00 – The company name that provides the loan is Lighter Capital and it is based in Seattle
12:21 – Annual customer churn: less than 15%
12:58 – CAC
13:09 – Customer's LTV
14:15 – First year revenue
15:40 – 2015 revenue: $900,000
15:50 – Current ARR
15:59 – Conor is also looking into raising capital
16:10 – Team size of 16
16:29 – Team location is in San Francisco and other remote locations
18:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

We need to be more open about exits—there are times where you just have to pull the plug.
If you need funds and do not want to share equity, try a bank loan.
Make sure your legal documents are in order, especially in the case of a split from your co-founder.

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 541: VerticalIQ Hits $175k MRR, Helping 140 Banks Prep for Company Meetings with President Bobby Martin Jan 16, 2017

Show notes

Bobby Martin, the author of The Hockey Stick Principles: The Four Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success. He believes too many startup founders pivot way too early, quit too early, and expect rapid take off. Through his experience of starting and selling First Research, he's learned firsthand the challenges and solutions at each stage of entrepreneurial growth. Bobby's currently the chairman and co-founder of Vertical IQ—a leading provider of sales research insight for banks. He's an angel investor and an active board member with several innovative startups including Local Eyesight, Boardroom Insiders, My Life Site, SageWorks and etailinsights. While he's a national speaker, he's still a hometown guy who focuses most of his investments in North Carolina where he's lived and worked.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Rework
What CEO do you follow? – Brian Hamilton
Favorite online tool? — Salesforce
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Be patient for a long journey

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Bobby to the show
02:53 – First Research was launched in 1999
03:19 – Bobby had the exit before the bubble
03:31 – First Research provided profiles to sales and marketing professionals
03:51 – First Research is a SaaS business
04:11 – It took 7-8 years for Bobby to build First Research
04:42 – Bobby made the book because he loved the process
- 05:09 – Bobby loved the journey
- 05:26 – Bobby had a publisher and agent for the book
- 06:00 – Bobby's agent negotiated the deal with the publisher
- 06:28 – Bobby's book was just recently published
- 06:41 – The average number of copies sold
- 07:30 – Bobby shares what he thinks made the book sell
08:57 – Bobby is an angel investor
09:40 – Vertical IQ provides profile revenue to bankers
10:19 – The revenue model of Vertical IQ is similar to SaaS
10:30 – Vertical IQ gets paid upfront annually
10:43 – Average number of customers
10:55 – "We don't charge per seat, we charge according to the number of bankers"
11:20 – Vertical IQ pre-sells to banks
12:05 – ACV is between $15-20K annually
12:28 – Average ARR
12:40 – Gross customer churn
13:25 – Average CAC
- 13:34 – Vertical IQ is a sales driven company
- 14:04 – Vertical IQ has a solid profit margin
14:55 – LTV
15:53 – Team size
16:40 – First year revenue
16:58 – 2015 total revenue
17:15 – Vertical IQ is self-funded
19:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Write a book—not because it's convenient—write because you have something to share to the world.
Requesting an upfront annual payment can have clear advantages over monthly payments.
Be patient and do not get discouraged—the entrepreneurial journey takes time.

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

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