Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 531: $5m Note Cap Pre-Revenue? How? With ZeroApp CEO Alex Babin Jan 06, 2017

Show notes

Alex Babin. He's a serial entrepreneur who has more than 10 years of expertise in innovation, product development and artificial intelligence. He started his first hybrid vehicle company at the age of 24 funded by DFJ. He also founded an interactive video software company. Now, he's running an artificial intelligence, communication startup which is building a device-centric, secured, corporate email client called Zero.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Daniels

Favorite online tool? — 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? – "Trust your intuition"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:45 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show
02:23 – Alex loves listening to podcasts
02:53 – Zero is currently on pre-revenue, but they have a list of pre-sales
03:12 – Zero is focused on the corporate market
- 03:28 – Zero helps people be more productive with the help of AI
03:38 – Zero charges per user per month on the corporate market
03:48 – Zero was launched 2 years ago, was in self-mode for 1 year, and launched the first version a year ago
04:00 – Zero had a seed round, in May, from angel investors
04:41 – Zero has 3 founders and a total of 6 on the team
05:19 – The one who will win the space in the market is the one who will penetrate the market with the most convenient product for the customer
05:33 – Customers don't want to change anything – they have strict security policies
07:15 – Zero has 30,000 downloads
- 07:30 – 2,000 active daily customers
- 07:37 – Alex shares the difference between daily and monthly active customers
08:55 – Zero has recently introduced exchange support
09:28 – Zero currently targets CIOs
09:48 – Zero's pricing
10:10 – Alex shares that they are open to another seed round
- 10:19 – Target to raise is $1M
- 10:22 – Convertible note CAP of $5M
- 11:00 – Some of the customers are converting into investors
11:38 – Find Alex on Twitter
13:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The one who wins the market is the one who penetrates the market with the best and most convenient product for the consumer.
Be patient and respectful with your customers when explaining your product.
TRUST your intuition—it's often the right direction to follow.

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 kept his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it at the airplane's back seat pocket
@AlexBabin – Alex's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 530: Shut Down $2m Business, Why with CEO Shawn Livermore Jan 05, 2017

Show notes

Shawn Livermore. He's an author and technology consultant and more recently, the founder and CEO of tech startup Ziptask which has generated nearly $2M in revenue. He has raised 4 rounds of funding and closed it down to take on new opportunities.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Tipping Point
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Fields

Favorite online tool? — Acuity Scheduling
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Calculate risk carefully"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:00 – Nathan introduces Shawn to the show
02:30 – Ziptask is a fully-managed outsourcing with a progressive effort to fix the problem of outsourcing technology projects
03:23 – "We succeeded in the goal, but we failed as a company"
03:31 – Shawn raised 4 seed rounds
04:18 – Shawn also had his day-time clients as a technology consultant
04:50 – Ziptask dissolved in September 2016, and was launched in 2010
05:05 – Ziptask's MRR was $107K
05:30 – Shawn shares why they shut down Ziptask
- 06:59 – Shawn launched Ziptask prematurely
- 08:35 – Shawn also did NOT try to sell the business
09:30 – Shawn is now working with Carvana
10:00 – Connect with Shawn through Twitter. Medium and email
10:15 – Shawn is currently working on a book called Obscurity
12:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The time will come when you have to pull the plug – and when it happens, just do it.
Reaching your goal is NOT the peak of success.
Calculate risk carefully.

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 kept his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it at the airplane's back seat pocket
Carvana – Shawn's current employer
@shawnypants – Shawn's Medium handle
@shawnypants – Shawn's Twitter handle
ShawnLivermore@gmail.com – Shawn's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 529: $10m Raised, Pre-Revenue, Notion.ai Adds AI to Email Messaging with Co-Founder Guy Suter Jan 04, 2017

Show notes

Guy Suter and he runs Notion.ai. His mission is to improve communication using artificial intelligence. Previously, he co-founded BitLeap and led the product to the world's top selling appliance after 2008 acquisition by Barracuda. He started venture data backup, cloud storage, group chat, file sharing with Copy.com and CRM with Nutshell.com

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Brand New World
What CEO do you follow? – Jay Simons

Favorite online tool? — Picasso
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "How early stage capital works...and influence management has been the biggest learning experience"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Guy to the show
02:10 – Guy and his co-founder started with a data backup company
02:46 – Notion.ai is currently on prerevenue
03:00 – Notion.ai started 3 years ago
03:47 – Notion.ai was launched in November 2016
04:18 – Digital communication was problematic
04:55 – Notion.ai has raised a total of around $10M
05:13 – Guy started with a lot of SaaS businesses
06:13 – Guy shares the revenue opportunities for Notion.ai
08:00 – There's a huge barrier in entry to Notion.ai's space
09:00 – Guy discusses the companies that are trying to make another category
09:40 – Notion.ai is beneficial to everyone who uses email to interact
10:40 – "Our goal is not to make the best email app In the world"
- 11:00 – Notion.ai has features that differentiate them from others and offer value
- 11:10 – Notion.ai is more "people-centric"; the focus is on relationships and what's important based on the message
11:43 – Average number of downloads
- 12:09 – Notion.ai helps clean-up inboxes quickly
- 13:00 – Less than a million but more than tens of thousands of downloads
- 13:39 – The number of downloads consistently grows daily
13:55 – Team size and location
- 14:20 – Guy shares why they chose Michigan
- 15:50 – Notion.ai has someone that was from LinkedIn
16:00 – Connect with Guy through Twitter
17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The digital communication space has been problematic and we need a solution.
Raising big capital on pre-revenue IS possible, if you have a great product that helps people become more efficient in communicating.
Have patience, take time, focus on building the right culture, and get your team on board.

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
@GuySuter – Guy's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 528: ConvertKit Hits $480k MRR, Helping 10,000 Professional Bloggers Grow Email Lists with CEO Nathan Barry Jan 03, 2017

Show notes

Nathan Barry, CEO of ConvertKit – an email marketing company for professional bloggers. Listen as Nathan shares how he manages to stay self-funded while, at the same time, increasing the growth and bloggers' interest in using ConvertKit.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Predictable Success
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Workable
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Pick just one thing you love to do and do it really well

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:50 – Nathan introduces Barry to the show
02:15 – ConvertKit is a SaaS company and has around 10,000 bloggers
02:47 – ConvertKit's pricing depends on the blogger's subscribers count
03:04 – Average revenue per user per month
- 03:24 – 65% of the users are on $48/month plan
03:48 – ConvertKit's cash flow is doing well
04:15 – Annual plan has a big impact on churn
04:50 – Barry pushes the annual plan on Cyber Monday
- 05:00 – Average annual plan total
05:30 – ConvertKit had a free 1 month promotion for new users
05:56 – ConvertKit has a 40K email list – half of it is from content marketing, the other half is from webinars
- 06:30 – ConvertKit has added 25K new people in their list this year from joint webinars alone
- 06:55 – Barry is using Google Hangout and Chatroll for the webinars
- 07:20 – ConvertKit is doing 10-20 webinars a month
07:53 – There are 2 people in Barry's team who are involved in the webinar process
- 08:28 – The team is trying to get people who use MailChimp or Aweber to switch to ConvertKit
- 08:38 – It is a 2-step direct sales process
09:54 – Barry shares how he mitigates the show up rate in their webinars
10:54 – Some of the bloggers reach out to ConvertKit and some find them through other bloggers
11:16 – Average expenses a month in affiliate payouts
- 11:33 – A quarter of ConvertKit's revenue comes from affiliate programs
12:10 – 2015 total revenue is around $300K
12:20 – 2016 average revenue
12:34 – ConvertKit is self-funded
- 12:44 – It was an intentional choice
- 13:03 – Barry shares what he did when they were almost running out of funds
14:15 – ConvertKit's gross profit and total money in the bank
14:38 – ConvertKit just had a big expense from the annual plan switch
15:15 – Gross monthly customer churn
16:15 – Expansion is ConvertKit's next focus
17:08 – Current CAC
18:28 – Team size and location
18:50 – Average headcount expenses
19:14 – ConvertKit was launched in 2013
20:18 – There are two advisers who have a share in the company
20:45 – Connect with Nathan through ConvertKit and his website
23:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can stay self-funded with a fast growing business and by managing your funds properly.
Joint webinars and 2-point direct sales are excellent options to increase mailing list.
Pick one thing you love to do, focus in, and do it really 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
ConvertKit.com – Barry's business website
NathanBarry.com – Barry's personal website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 527: Proposify Hits 3200 Customers and $150k in MRR with CEO Kyle Racki Jan 02, 2017

Show notes

Kyle Racki, co-founder and CEO of Proposify. He's passionate about design, SaaS, and marketing. He loves jamming out to 90s covers/tunes at open mic nights, and also has the unique ability to work in perfectly, cromulent Simpsons' references to any conversation.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Lean Analytics
What CEO do you follow? – Alex Turnbull

Favorite online tool? — Heap Analytics
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Sometimes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That it's all going to be okay and…I'm going to give myself a hug"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Kyle to the show
02:24 – Proposify is a SaaS business and it helps people streamline their sales and close more deals
02:40 – Average customer pay per month is $40-$50
02:53 – Current number of customers
03:10 – Average MRR
03:25 – Proposify was launched in 2013
- 03:35 – Proposify had less than $1000 MRR for 17 months
- 04:03 – Kyle and his co-founder had an agency
- 04:22 – Kyle raised $250K in seed capital from a local investor
- 04:39 – Kyle and his team's pay is around $60K a month during that time
05:40 – Team size is 15 and are located in Halifax, Canada
- 06:20 – Kyle shares how the startup market is in Halifax
- 06:50 – Known startup companies from Halifax
07:24 – Kyle does weekly phone calls with customers to check in on them
07:50 – Kyle shares how one of their customers beat VaynerMedia in a proposal
09:15 – How Proposify creates proposals in a flash
09:40 – Proposify's competition
10:04 – Proposify is more focused on the digital agency space
11:25 – Average number of new customers per month
11:50 – Proposify has a free and no-credit card sign-up
12:00 – Proposify does inbound sales, but organic search is the biggest source of traffic
12:43 – Best podcast that drives Proposify's traffic
13:05 – Proposify has a general marketing budget
- 13:28 - $10K for paid marketing
13:45 – CAC is quite low
14:18 – LTV
14:40 – Gross monthly customer churn
15:00 – Proposify currently has 2 sales people
15:35 – Other system Kyle uses for business intelligence is Heap Analytics
16:16 – Total 2015 revenue is $551K
17:11 – Proposify is profitable and continually growing
18:30 – "We'll always entertain acquisition offers if it makes sense"
19:00 – The process Kyle will go through if there's a possible acquisition
19:47 – Number of Proposify's developers
20:00 – Connect with Kyle through their website and help Kyle look for Proposify.com's owner and he'll pay you
22:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There's a temptation to spend VC money; be decisive when you want to raise capital and stick to your goals.
Organic traffic is good, but getting paid marketing can still drive more traffic and customers.
There are a lot of things to consider in an acquisition – it should match your personal goals, be a cultural fit, and the numbers need to make sense.

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
Proposify.biz – Kyle's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 526: Yanado Hits $25k MRR, Helping 17000 Users Better Manage Tasks with CEO Ivan Mojsilovic Jan 01, 2017

Show notes

Ivan Mojsilovic, CEO and founder of Yanado.com – a teamwork collaboration tool that will truly change the way you work. He's also the CEO of E-75 IT Services, a project manager, and a media man who did a small stint at STARTeurope. He's very active in the startup space.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – n/a
What CEO do you follow? – Jason Lemkin

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? – "Move out my current city and go travel, travel the world"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Ivan to the show
02:17 – Yanado is a project management tool integrated into Gmail
02:40 – Yanado is SaaS business
02:54 – Average customer pay per year is around $3000
03:30 – Ivan has been in SaaS industry
04:09 – Ivan shares how they started Yanado
04:28 – Yanado started in 2014
04:40 – Total capital raised is $200K and currently fundraising
- 05:09 – Goal for the current fundraising is $500K in equity round
- 05:20 – Willing to give up 15% to 20% equity
05:30 – Yanado is based in Eastern Europe
05:40 – Ivan shares about the market in Eastern Europe
06:10 – Ivan shares what happened to their first business
- 06:30 – The business was doing €200K a year
07:05 – Yanado's average number of paying customers is a little under 100
07:15 – Average MRR
07:45 – Team size
08:10 – Number of total users
08:23 – Ivan shares how their customers find them
09:00 – Gross monthly churn is 7%
09:21 – Average customer stay is 14 months
10:05 – Ivan does the inside sales for Yanado and they just hired a person are planning to do outbound sales
10:40 – Ivan's plans for the company
10:59 – Ivan hopes Google will acquire them
11:45 – As of the moment, Ivan will only sell Yanado for $10M and no less than that
- 12:00 – Ivan shares how he will sell Yanado to Google
13:00 – Ivan shares how Google can't create something similar to Yanado
13:54 – Follow Ivan on their blog, sales and discussion groups
16:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Find a way to help people focus their tasks and make life easier.
Create a software that is unique and cannot easily be imitated.
When you're young and if you can, leave your city and travel the world.

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
Blog – Ivan's blog
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 525: Orangedox Doubles Down on Enterprise with $7.5k in MRR with CEO Chad Brown Dec 31, 2016

Show notes

Chad Brown, CEO and head of product along with his co-founder at Orangedox.com. He has a strong background in business intelligence and technology startups and has a passion for business documents and the color orange.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – Drew Houston

Favorite online tool? – Stack Exchange
Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Be more confident"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:32 – Nathan introduces Chad to the show
02:07 – Orangedox started as document tracking and was originally on Dropbox
02:17 – Orangedox has premium services on top premium products
02:48 – Why would people choose Orangedox over PandaDoc
- 02:55 – Orangedox is integrated into your account
03:22 – Orangedox is a SaaS business
03:55 – Orangedox has over 20K product signups
04:05 – Orangedox was in beta in 2014 and pre-launch in early 2015
04:25 – Average weekly active customers: 2000
05:05 – Average number of paying customers: about 300
05:30 – Average pay per customer is $25-30 a month
06:00 – MRR
06:17 – Chad was looking at raising capital but still undecided about their focus
06:55 – Chad is looking at their current customer base
07:30 – Chad shares how the customers are using Orangedox and the commonality in paying customers
09:15 – Team size: 2 full-time and few part-time workers
09:30 – Gross customer churn around 5%
09:57 – Chad shares how they acquire their new customers
11:52 – Orangedox is based in Vancouver
12:25 – Chad and his co-founders' plan on the company
12:45 – Chad hasn't focused on a lot revenue at the moment, but is working on closing key enterprise clients
13:21 – Connect with Chad through his email and Twitter
14:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

At first, focus on the betterment of your product as opposed to revenue.
Analyze your product's effectivity through your customers' activities.
Have the confidence and motivation to do what you want.

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
@Orange_dox – Chad's business' Twitter handle
Chad@Orangedox.com – Chad's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 524: Podium Hits $1m MRR in 12 Months, $4m Raised with 6500 SMB Customers sub 1% Churn with CEO Eric Rea Dec 30, 2016

Show notes

Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium.com which is based in Utah. He's a software engineer at the International Atomic Agency and before that, the founder of FineGrain. He worked at Walmart as a software engineer and he has also interned at Orange Soda.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Multipliers
What CEO do you follow? – Phil Knight

Favorite online tool? – Domo and Apple Notes
Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – "I get 7"
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "You can always tell them to go to hell tomorrow" – Warren Buffet

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:46 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
02:20 – Podium helps businesses generate reviews which drives purchase decisions
02:30 – Podium charges $299 a month per location
02:48 – Podium is a SaaS business
02:58 – Average customer pays $499
03:20 – Podium was launched in 2013
- 03:25 – Eric started Podium because of his dad's business
04:01 – Team size
- 04:44 – All employees are working full-time
- 04:50 – Team is based in Utah
05:35 – Podium raised $4M in total
- 05:50 – First seed round was in 2014 and $500K was raised
- 05:57 – Raised $3.5M in December of 2015
06:36 – Eric has given up 20% of the business for the seed round
07:38 – Podium has 25000 customers per location
08:13 – Podium has $1M in MRR
08:45 – Podium's gross monthly customer churn is around 1%
- 09:10 – Net churn is negative 2% monthly
09:50 – Average CAC
10:12 – Average LTV is $12K
11:00 – 2015 ARR is $1.8M
11:30 – 2016 ARR is around $11M
11:41 – Goal for 2017 ARR is $25M
12:55 – Connect with Eric through his website and Twitter
15:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

It's important to have some capital in case you make mistakes – with no capital, just 1 mistake will sink you.
Find a solution to the simplest problems to streamline your business processes.
The SMB market will continually grow, creating more opportunities for startups.

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
@EricWilliamRea – Eric's Twitter handle
Podium.com – Eric's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 523: xIQ Using AI to Power Sales Teams with $1.1m Raised with CEO Usman Sheikh Dec 29, 2016

Show notes

Usman Sheikh, CEO and founder of xIQ – an award-winning platform for personalized sales, marketing intelligence, and content marketing. He's the former vice president of SAP AG and he's pushing digital frontiers by delivering consumer grade experiences in B2B sales and the marketing space. xIQ is the winner of the prestigious 2016 Content Marketing Institute Award for best integration of mobile and content marketing.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Zero to One
What CEO do you follow? – Bill McDermott

Favorite online tool? — Twitter and LinkedIn
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Take risks as early as you can.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:49 – Nathan introduces Usman to the show
02:30 – xIQ is a next generation sales intelligence tool designed for B2B sales and marketing professionals
03:04 – Usman worked with the top leaders of the world in SAP
03:30 – xIQ extracts the most relevant content from the most reliable sources
04:00 – xIQ is a SaaS product
04:16 – xIQ was founded in 2014, and released in early 2016
04:44 – xIQ raised 2 rounds of seed round
05:08 – Total amount raised
05:37 – Team size is under 15 and is based in Silicon Valley
06:05 – xIQ has 10 corporate customers and thousands of individual customers
06:35 – Average pay of corporate customers
06:57 – Average MRR
07:24 – Usman discusses one of their clients, GenPact, and how they use xIQ
- 07:42 – First, xIQ is used as a marketing intelligence tool to track competitors
- 08:47 – All data is real-time
09:20 – xIQ uses Apache Solr technology to index and for natural language processing
09:50 – xIQ gets their corporate customers from organic traffic
10:32 – xIQ's process is the reason why corporate customers end up buying from them
11:12 – List size
11:24 – xIQ has 1 inside sales person
12:29 – No cancellations/churn yet for xIQ
12:53 – CAC
14:10 – LTV to CAC ratio
15:10 – Connect with Usman through LinkedIn, email and website
16:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Experience is a great teacher—continue to learn and hone your skill set.
Building a business takes time and there is always room for improvement.
Take risks as early on in life 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
LinkedIn – Usman's LinkedIn account
Usman@xIQ.io – Usman's email address
xIQ.ai – Usman's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 522: Delivra $15M 2017 Goal, $700k MRR Now, Helping 450+ Customers Sell Things with CEO Neil Berman Dec 28, 2016

Show notes

Nathan interviews Neil Berman. This guy knows SaaS and launched his company called Delivra, in 1999, in the email marketing space. Listen as Neil shares how Delivra has grown exponentially in 17 years, without the need to raise funds and get into debt.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Great CEOs are Lazy
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg

Favorite online tool? — Twitter and LinkedIn
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "At least"
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Patience and determination will win the game"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Neil to the show
01:59 – Delivra is an email marketing software tool that helps clients "sell more stuff"
02:10 – They are a high break-even business with a low variable cost, so the more customers the better
02:15 – Delivra is a SaaS business
02:25 – Delivra currently has 500 direct paying clients, and a couple thousand resellers
02:33 – Average customer pays $800-900 per month
03:21 – Total revenue in 2016 about $4.8M
03:33 – Total revenue in 2015 is $4.2M
03:45 – Delivra has 3 marketing buckets
04:00 – Total team size is over 40+
- 04:12 – Main team location in Indianapolis
04:23 – Gross customer churn per month is 1.5%
04:45 – A customer stays with Delivra for 42 months
05:00 – LTV
05:10 – CAC is $1.08
06:33 – Delivra hasn't raised yet and they have no debt, but are looking at options
- 06:45 – Neil's target for their first round
07:43 – Delivra has grown organically over the years
08:17 – Neil is meeting with a capital markets team to learn about how to take Delivra to the next level
08:50 – Neil would think seriously about an offer
09:40 – Neil shares how their customers are using Delivra
10:25 – Connect with Neil through his website Delivra
12:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Before you do your first round of raising, get advice from an expert.
It's incredible growing through organic traffic, but always aim to know what is the next level for your company.
Patience and determination will win the game.

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
Delivra.com – Neil's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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