Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 521: $5.5M Burger Business, Gets Into Monthly Subscriptions with BurgaBox CEO Chuck Sillari Dec 27, 2016

Show notes

Chuck Sillari: He was born and raised in Boston and is a graduate of Boston College and Law school. He's a lawyer and a real estate developer who is currently focusing full-time on the expansion of his nationally known Boston Burger Company – a new e-commerce business called BurgaBox.com. Burgabox is in the process of disrupting both the meal kit industry and full service casual dining experience.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Quench Your Own Thirst
What CEO do you follow? – Samuel Adams

Favorite online tool? — Hotjar
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 wish I knew that I should have travelled more and...spend a lot time meeting interesting people because that's where you get inspiration from"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Chuck to the show
02:21 – Boston Burger Company's 2015 revenue is around $5.5M for three locations
02:50 – Chuck has always loved the restaurant industry
03:39 – Chuck jumped into the burger business after 13 years in a law firm
03:45 – BurgaBox opened up in 2009, and Chuck went full-time in 2013
04:07 – "People really loved what we're doing"
04:17 – BurgaBox was in different TV shows
04:30 – BurgaBox became a must-try destination in Boston
04:50 – Chuck brought on 1 investor
- 05:13 – The investor approached Chuck for the second location
- 05:31 – The investor knew about the Boston Burger Company because of its popularity in Boston
05:56 – Chuck shares how much they've spent to open up a new location
- 06:20 – There was no full burger joint in Boston before
06:43 – Chuck shares why the second location costs 10x more than the first location
07:55 – The first location's growth was $700K in their first year
- 08:24 – It was 450 sq. ft.
- 08:30 – It is now doing a $1.85M
09:15 – The amount the investor gets in return
10:00 – Chuck has a good partnership with the investor
10:20 – A restaurant's gross margin
- 11:49 – For every dollar you bring in, 20% should go to your pocket
12:09 – The second location will do around $2.5M in 2016
12:27 – Average profit of each restaurant
12:45 – Chuck's plan for the business
13:03 – Chuck saw how the meal kit delivery industry was booming and wanted a piece of that market
13:20 – The biggest percentage of the diners are tourists and students
13:53 – Chuck started to get into the meal kit delivery in February
14:00 – The meal kit delivery sold around 100 kits in the first month, 2nd month: 150 kits, 3rd month: 400 kits
14:35 – Burger kit's pricing
15:36 – There's a subscription: a monthly box or as a gift
16:05 – Shipping process of the burger kits
16:33 – Follow Chuck by checking out Boston Burger and BurgaBox
18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Do what you love and people will, in turn, love what you have to offer.
Trust and believe in your business partners.
Get your inspiration from people – learn and improve from their feedback.

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
Boston Burger & BurgaBox – Chuck's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 520: Agency Hits $6M 2016 Revenue Helping 60 Clients with SEO with PowerDigitalMarketing CEO Nick Bjorn Dec 26, 2016

Show notes

Nathan interviews Nick Bjorn. He is an entrepreneur by trade and digital marketer by evolution with over 8 years of professional agency experience. He has gained a national and global perspective on the evolving and digital world with an emphasis in search engine optimization or SEO. Nick is the co-founder of Power Digital Marketing which is based in San Diego, CA.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – Eric Schmidt

Favorite online tool? — Mixmax
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Commit to a skillset early on in life"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:45 – Nathan introduces Nick to the show
02:12 – Power Digital Marketing is a full-service digital agency
02:15 – Power Digital Marketing was created 4 years ago
02:18 – Nick has 2 other business partners who handle finances and team management
02:35 – Power Digital Marketing has 3 employees
02:40 – Power Digital Marketing's types of services described
03:15 – First year revenue was around $500K
03:33 – Power Digital Marketing has humble beginnings
03:50 – 2015 total revenue is $3.2M
03:57 – Estimate 2016 revenue is around $6M
04:10 – Power Digital Marketing typically has 6-month contracts
- 04:35 – Minimum amount per contract is $5K
- 04:43 – Retainers are at $50K a month
05:14 – Power Digital Marketing currently has 60 clients
05:25 – Average MRR
06:10 – 2017 revenue goal
06:35 – Power Digital Marketing and what they do for their clients
- 06:56 – Soccer Loco is one of Power Digital Marketing's clients
- 07:35 – SEO, organic rankings, paid ad initiatives are important for Soccer Loco
- 08:17 – Power Digital Marketing uses the keywords "cheap soccer cleats" for Soccer Loco intentionally
08:50 – Power Digital Marketing benefits well from link building
10:30 – Power Digital Marketing has PR professionals that build relationships with the clients
10:50 – Google now tracks backlinking and is reaching out to editors
11:43 – Power Digital Marketing relationship with SoccerNation.com
12:42 – "How do you find terms to target?"
- 12:47 – Do your due diligence
13:37 – Power Digital Marketing is currently in the process of developing their own page analytics software
14:20 – Connect with Nick on Twitter and email
16:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Creating content for SEO requires an understanding of the technicalities associated with backlinking.
Track every campaign's effectivity as you step forward.
Do your due diligence when it comes to finding the right terms and keywords that sell.

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
Nick@PowerDigitalMarketing.com – Nick's email address
@Nick_Bjorn – Nick's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 519: GetAccept Hits $44k MRR, Helping 1100 Companies Get Deals Signed with CEO Samir Samjic Dec 25, 2016

Show notes

Samir Smajic, one of the founders of GetAccept. GetAccept recently moved to San Francisco from Sweden because they are part of YC—a solution where you design, send, track, and market your proposals to get more deals digitally signed. Samir has a bunch of experience in project management, consulting, CRM, IT, computer software, business and more.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Never Split the Difference
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

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? – "Doing whatever I felt good to do"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:55 – Nathan introduces Samir to the show
02:25 – Samir chooses skiing over snowboarding
02:35 – GetAccept helps sales reps close more deals by focusing on their sales document workflow
02:58 – GetAccept is a subscription-based SaaS business
03:07 – Average pay per user is $40/month or $200 per business/month
03:42 – GetAccept currently has 1,100 paying customers and 4,400 free customers
04:15 – Average MRR is $44K
04:20 – GetAccept was launched in December of 2015
- 04:47 – GetAccept already had revenue their first month
05:31 – Samir shares why GetAccept has a high conversation rate from free to paying customers
06:00 – GetAccept calls their customers to give them product information and ask them questions
06:50 – GetAccept helps their customers send their first contract
07:17 – Fully weighted CAC
07:35 – Total headcount expenses
08:28 – GetAccept has 200 new customers monthly
08:47 – GetAccept has paid marketing
- 09:09 – Spending is around $4000 for paid ads
09:20 – GetAccept's biggest competitors explained
11:00 - Gross customer churn
12:00 – LTV
12:25 – GetAccept is currently based in San Francisco
12:49 – GetAccept had raised capital and is still open
14:20 – Samir's focus is the growth of the company
14:34 – GetAccept has 4 co-founders
14:42 – If DocuSign offered to buy your business, would you accept?
15:30 – Connect with Samir on LinkedIn
17:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Focus on what YOU can do for your customers – assist them in ANY way possible.
Doing the work you love and enjoy is more important than the bottom dollar.
Let your competitors motivate you to improve what YOU are doing.

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 – Samir's LinkedIn account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 518: See 20 deals, invest in 2 between $75k-150k pre seed, likes b2b saas for investments Dec 24, 2016

Show notes

Dinesh Kandanchatha. He's a founder, mentor, speaker, and above all, an entrepreneur. He encourages founders to ask all questions, navigate challenging decisions, and find the right answer that is sometimes difficult to face. He has bought, built, sold, lent, and/or invested in over 13 companies.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Essentialism
What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs

Favorite online tool? — Asana
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Don't be the smartest guy"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:48 – Nathan introduces Dinesh to the show
02:32 – Dinesh makes money by investing and capital gains against those investments
02:52 – Dinesh does consulting work too
03:45 – A board member's average retainers
04:33 – Dinesh total revenue as a credit investor in 2015
- 04:48 – A credit investor is someone who has net assets greater than $5M and earnings in the last 2 years that are greater than $200K
05:35 – Dinesh has built startups; some failed and some are successful
06:04 – Dinesh invests $75K to $150K in a company
- 06:14 – Dinesh often invests during Pre-Series A or Pre-seed
- 06:20 – Dinesh takes his capital and amplify it with his network and experience
07:08 – Dinesh's biggest failure happened right after he sold Precise Software Technologies in the late 90s
- 07:46 – The person that acquired Precise sued Dinesh
- 08:09 – Dinesh spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal battles
09:04 – Dinesh's most spectacular success is yet to come
09:20 – The business Dinesh is currently proud of
- 10:50 – Dinesh's equity rate in Protus IP Solution
11:10 – Dinesh has helped Macadamian technology scale up
12:03 – Dinesh has invested in real estate
12:30 – "If you get a few over the fence, you can make up all the difference"
12:45 – Dinesh usually sticks to B2B and SaaS
13:22 – Dinesh is currently working on Patriot One Technologies
14:49 – Dinesh is very passionate about the potential of technology
15:04 – Connect with Dinesh through Twitter and at Clarity.fm
17:27 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

"If you get a few over the fence, you can make up all the difference"—so, don't get discouraged if you lose some.
Do what you know and stick to your strengths.
When you get an idea that could meaningfully impact the society as a whole—it will not just be an investment, but your baby.

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
@DineshAtWork – Dinesh's Twitter handle
Clarity.fm/DineshkAtWork – Dinesh's Clarity account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 517: $3.5M Raised, 6m Users Helping 47k Customers Sign Documents with HelloSign CEO Joseph Walla Dec 23, 2016

Show notes

Joseph Walla, CEO and co-founder of a San Francisco based startup, HelloSign. The company launched in 2012 and it provides the easiest way for businesses to sign and collect legally binding documents online. The idea behind HelloSign was sparked by Joseph's first successful product alongside his co-founder, Neil O'Mara, of HelloFax. HelloFax launched in 2010 after attending the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – High Output Management
What CEO do you follow? – Bill Walsh

Favorite online tool? — Google Apps
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Joseph wished he had moved to the valley earlier

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Joseph to the show
02:30 – Joseph first worked in HelloFax which is an on-the-go fax machine
02:43 – HelloSign has premium products and free products
03:00 – Pricing plans starts at $15
- 03:12 – API pricing plans differs by bucket
03:40 – HelloSign is cash flow positive in 2014 and 2015
03:50 – Total of $3.5M raised
04:24 – Joseph has been very disciplined with how they spend their money
05:15 – 2016 MRR
05:36 – HelloSign has 47,000 paying customers
05:46 – HelloSign has a 5-6M user base
06:05 – People convert from free to paid because of the volume of their transactions
06:54 – HelloSign team's operation
07:30 – Average salaries in the valley
08:45 – Total headcount expenses with 16 employees
09:35 – Average MRR from Nathan
10:00 – Average customer churn
10:55 – HelloSign is mainly in the SMB space but they also have some big clients
12:20 – Standard gross churn
12:40 – The amount HelloSign is willing to spend for a new user
12:49 – HelloSign doesn't spend much for a new user, but spends for a new paid user
12:55 – Joseph read an article on ForEntrepreneurs.com about SaaS metrics and acquiring customers that was beneficial for him
13:35 – HelloSign's CAC ratio
14:53 – Connect with Joseph through LinkedIn and Twitter
16:23 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don't wait for a job or overcomplicate the process of getting started—get out there and figure it out as you go.
Make that investment to turn a new user into a paid new user.
Don't just sit and wait for something to happen, take action!

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
@JosephWalla – Joseph's Twitter handle
LinkedIn – Joseph's LinkedIn account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 516: SalesHacker $2.5m 2015 Revenue Helping Sales Reps Get Smarter with CEO Max Altshculer Dec 22, 2016

Show notes

Max Altschuler, CEO of Sales Hacker – a rapidly growing media company focused on the future of B2B sales. Max wrote the book Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High Velocity Sales Machine which was recently published by Wiley. Aside from sales hack and angel investors, Max advises startups all around the globe.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The 48 Laws of Power
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — 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? – Max wished he could have studied Psychology a bit more

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Max to the show
02:07 – Sales Hacker is a media company ushering the future of sales
- 02:35 – Sales Hacker does crowdsourcing of content on their blog and holds conferences throughout the year
- 03:12 – The conferences are Sales Hacker's main revenue stream
03:20 – Sales Hacker's last conference was in June 2016
- 04:09 – The sponsored revenue for the last conference was $1.2 M
- 04:14 – Ticket sales was $300-400K
- 04:22 – Average ticket price was $400-500
- 04:28 – Total attendees
04:41 – The cost per conference is less than $1M
04:53 – Max shares how they manage the cost of the conference
05:51 – You need to find venue sponsorship
05:57 – Max helps clients with bigger conferences like Pulse
07:00 – Sales Hacker finds out which businesses are interested in the conference
07:33 – Have prospective sponsors sign up and pay early
09:15 – Sales Hacker's average revenue per event depends on the event
10:54 – Sales Hacker takes a percentage from the total profit of SaaSters
11:30 – 2015 total revenue is $2.5M
11:45 – Team size
12:04 – Max shares why he didn't build a SaaS business
12:59 – Sales Hacker's list size
13:55 – Max's goal for a VC round
14:07 – Max is from Udemy
14:35 – Max had 2 companies before Udemy
15:20 – Max's second business was Last Call
15:45 – Max's 3 favorite investments at the moment
16:50 – The average amount Max is investing in a business
18:00 – Max sets expectations of what he will and will not do for a company
18:36 – Max is trying to invest in B2B companies
19:21 – Connect with Max through LinkedIn, Twitter and his website
21:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Closing a business does NOT mean it was a failure – you gain experience and learn valuable lessons from that process.
Take the time to research and know where to invest.
Even if you're working with SaaS businesses, that doesn't mean you should or can build one 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
@MaxAlts – Max's Twitter handle
LinkedIn – Max's LinkedIn account
Sales Hacker – Max's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 515: 0 to $300k MRR in 16 Months Helping 300 ECommerce Brands Streamline with Skubana CEO Chad Rubin Dec 21, 2016

Show notes

Chad Rubin. He builds e-commerce businesses. He owns a direct consumer e-commerce business called Crucial Vacuum and grew it from zero to a $20 million valuation in 7 years. He happens to be a Top 250 Amazon Seller. He co-founded Skubana with DJ Kunovac and built one of e-commerce's hottest operational software. Skubana is the only software that you'll ever need to manage and accelerate the growth of your ecommerce business. It's beautiful, intelligent, and highly intuitive and it also incorporates every feature imaginable to drive your future success, especially in ecommerce.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Virtual Freedom
What CEO do you follow? – Gary Vaynerchuk

Favorite online tool? — Trello or Asana
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Go after passion and change a major in college

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:28 – Nathan introduces Chad to the show
02:17 – Chad shares how he made the zero to $20M valuation for Crucial Vacuum
03:48 – Chad shares what he thinks is Walmart's biggest mistake
04:27 – Skubana is making 50,000 orders a month
04:47 – Chad shares a mistake he made and how he lost money
- 05:08 – Chad had to minimize his headcount from 20 employees to 2
05:40 – Skubana is a SaaS business
06:00 – Number of customers that Skubana is currently serving
06:46 – Skubana's pricing:
- 07:07 – Minimum of $999 a month
- 07:10 – Pricing is customized and is based on users
07:34 – Average RPU
08:00 – MRR
08:05 – Skubana did a seed round
- 08:41 – Raised 880,000 on the first seed round
- 08:45 – Chad put in $1M
08:59 – James Thompson is one of Skubana's investors
09:43 – Chad messaged 10 people that he looked up himself to try and get them involved
10:10 – Chad starting building Skubana for 3 years and it just went live last year
10:29 – Chad raised the $880K when they had the prototype
11:15 – First year revenue
12:30 – Chad wanted Skubana to be available for everybody
12:40 – When Chad raised their pricing, a lot of their customers churned off
12:53 – Skubana is not an entry level software
13:27 – Chad individually called customers to inform them about the increase in pricing and they got emails too
14:12 – Most of Skubana's RPU growth is coming from new customers
14:27 – Chad shares how people find Skubana
- 14:48 – Chad wrote a book and hit #7 bestseller
- 15:22 – Chad has a subscription list from their blog because they're adding value
- 15:45 – Number of people on their list

16:22 – Skubana is pairing with other companies for a win-win sale
17:30 – Chad cares more about the quality of the customers as opposed to the quantity
18:05 – Chad shares about the successful webinars he held for certain companies
19:00 – Chad spends a lot of time guest blogging
19:25 – CAC is currently zero
21:20 – Team size
- 21:40 – Total overhead cost
22:00 – Team location is in NYC and New Jersey
22:10 – Chad is still thinking of raising another round
- 22:29 – Chad wants to raise $1M
23:30 – Connect with Chad through Youtube, Twitter and his email

25:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Mistakes happen for us to LEARN from it.
Make your product KNOWN to the public at low costs by INCREASING your online presence.
Need direction? Go hard after your passion!

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
Youtube – Chad's business Youtube channel
Chad@Skubana.com – Chad's email address
@Ecommrenegade – Chad's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 513: $50M Raised, Helping 50k Customers Get Accurate Contact Data with FullContact CEO Bart Lorang Dec 20, 2016

Show notes

Bart Lorang, a proven entrepreneur executive and manager in the global technology industry. He's very active in the startup community as an angel investor, strategic advisor, and speaker at many industry events. In fact, he supports entrepreneurs in his co-founder position and is managing director at V1.vc, a $5 million dollar, seed-stage fund dedicated to help crazy entrepreneurs change the world. More importantly, he's an entrepreneur himself. He's currently running FullContact which is responsible for communicating its vision and strategy. He's a visionary technologist with extensive experience conceiving, designing, building, marketing, and selling enterprise software solutions on a global scale.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Warren Buffett

Favorite online tool? – DocuSign
Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – It's about how you make people feel.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Bart to the show
02:35 – FullContact is a universal contact management platform
02:50 – FullContact is a SaaS business and payment is based on the number of contacts
- 03:08 – Developers can pay for a developer platform
03:17 – The developer access is Bart's largest revenue stream
04:00 – FullContact is continually building new features
04:14 – FullContact also offers KPI services
04:37 – HubSpot uses FullContact
05:10 – FullContact was founded in 2010
05:30 – There is no application yet that is focused on contacts
06:01 – First year revenue
06:28 – Bart had a couple of businesses before FullContact
06:56 – FullContact was funded through raised capital
07:17 – How can someone look at that market and tell that it is too big to bootstrap?
- 07:53 – "It's all about the size of your vision and how fast you want to execute"
08:30 – FullContact has millions of customers
- 08:55 – FullContact has above 50,000 paying customers
09:03 – Bart shares what's included in the free plan and paid plan
09:40 – Average monthly RPU
10:05 – Bart discusses the type of individuals using FullContact
11:05 – Average MRR
11:40 – FullContact in ARR
12:54 – Gross customer churn
13:18 – FullContact has an inside sales team helping their customers
13:37 – CAC
14:20 – Team location: they have a global presence
14:30 – Team size: 210-220
14:40 – FullContact had their Series C last August 2016
15:08 – How are investors in this space thinking about the SaaS valuation?
- 15:47 – They are looking at the SaaS business' multipliers
16:00 – FullContact's main competitors
16:35 – The MDM space
16:49 – Connect with Bart through FullContact and his email
18:18 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Analyze your business well and have a goal so you know where you're going to start.
Funding is a very important part of business.
It's NOT about how smart you are but how you make people feel.

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
Bart@FullContact.com – Bart's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 514: $120M Raised, Helping 1m Consumers Get $100m+ In Credit Who Have No Other Choice with KreditTech CEO Alexander Graubner-Muller Dec 20, 2016

Show notes

Alexander Graubner-Müller. He's the current CEO of Kreditech and started off as their CTO. He was a senior business development manager at Groupon and he was very active in the financial space such as an internship at Equity Derivatives in UBS. Alex is now in the Fintech space and running Kreditech.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — n/a
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? Spend more time learning how to manage and build companies

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Alexander to the show
02:20 – Kreditech is an end-to-end consumer lending company
02:45 – Kreditech has a powerful rating data
03:05 – Alex shares what kind of credit score they'd assign to a customer as opposed to what a bank would
04:15 – Kreditech is focused on consumers
05:28 – Kreditech is a lending company
05:55 – Current total loans outstanding
- 06:23 – Most of the loans are short in maturity
07:08 – The kind of person Kreditech loans to
08:25 – Kreditech is growing fast—around 100% every year
08:50 – Kreditech made $40M in revenue in 2015
09:30 – Kreditech explains their interest rates
10:15 – Kreditech offers higher loans with lower rates for specific consumers
12:07 – Some people who apply for a loan won't usually be able to pay
12:33 – The fraction Kreditech will assume
15:17 – Total amount raised in funding rounds
16:40 – Loan origination
17:12 – Alex had to make sure to run the company on a fully-funded business plan
18:21 – Connect with Alex through LinkedIn, Twitter and his email
20:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can always work your way up – just give your ALL and embrace your company.
Lending companies are different from the banks, but both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Learn how to manage your company; NOT just how to manage people, but how to have your people work to make it more profitable.

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
Alexander@Kreditech.com – Alex' email address
@AGraubnerMuller – Alex' Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 512: $70M ARR B2B SaaS with DiscoverOrg CEO Henry Schuck Dec 18, 2016

Show notes

Henry Schuck, CEO of DiscoverOrg. He's a leading entrepreneur in sales intelligence and lead generation. Under his leadership, DiscoverOrg built the industry's most accurate, highest quality, contact database through a mix of technology and a team of live researchers who continually call into thousands of IT, marketing, HR, and finance departments.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good Boss, Bad Boss
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Gmail
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I do
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Work harder than you could ever imagine working"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Henry to the show
02:13 – DiscoverOrg provides deep intelligence on the company and the contact information of buyers of 60,000 companies worldwide
02:38 – DiscoverOrg is selling the data on a subscription basis
03:09 – Henry worked for a company similar to DiscoverOrg when he was an undergrad
03:28 – Henry's colleague asked him to build a similar company which is now DiscoverOrg
04:04 – Henry's acquired iProfile
04:40 – DiscoverOrg is owned by TA Associates
04:58 – DiscoverOrg was self-funded in annual contract value in 2014
05:56 – Henry was approached by different private equity firms in 2012-2014
06:26 – Henry shares the reason why they chose TA Associates
07:45 – Customers pay annual access to the platform which is a SaaS platform and they pay for specific data
08:22 – Average annual RPU
08:46 – Average ARR
09:20 – How Henry manages churn
10:46 – CAC
11:16 – Henry and his team are based in Vancouver, Washington
11:27 – Team size is 315
11:40 – Lifetime value
- 11:55 – Customers stay with DiscoverOrg for 3-4 years
12:23 – What keeps you motivated in doing this?
- 12:30 – Henry has a 6 month old daughter and he wants her to see that he works hard, he also wants to make it a success for TA
13:29 – Connect with Henry through LinkedIn and Twitter
15:27 – Annual renewal rate is over 90%
15:46 – DiscoverOrg is continually building new data
16:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Teach users not only how to use a platform, but how to utilize it to INCREASE their revenue.
Have a business that is profitable.
Work harder than you could ever imagine working, that's where you add value.

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
@HenryLSchuck – Henry's Twitter handle
LinkedIn – Henry's LinkedIn account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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