Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 472: $65k Crowdfunded on Angel List and 75,000 Pre-Launch Email With Youngry CEO Ash Kumra Nov 08, 2016

Show notes

Ash Kumra, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and talk show host recognized twice by the White House as an entrepreneur making an impact. Listen as Ash shares how he runs Youngry, a media company he co-founded that informs, inspires, and elevates young and hungry minded entrepreneurs to thrive.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Inside Steve's Brain
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Benioff

Favorite online tool? — Lead.com
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 not be worried about other people's things"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:44 – Nathan introduces Ash to the show
02:10 – Youngry is an entrepreneur media company
- 02:27 – Youngry provides helpful information from successful entrepreneurs
- 02:38 – Youngry's business model provides e-commerce product
- 03:40 – Youngry provides a community for early stage entrepreneurs to get the best content to help them thrive
05:04 – Ash and his team decided to launch Youngry with an equity crowd funding
- 05:12 – The new law stating that both credited and uncredited can invest in a deal
- - 05:27 – Difference of credited and uncredited
- 05:48 – Worked with AngelList
- - 05:53 – AngelList launched an equity crowd funding called Republic
06:15 – Republic.co
- 06:40 – Minimum amount to invest is $ 10
- 06:50 – Minimum goal to hit is $ 50,000
- 06:55 – Youngry hits $ 65,920
07:00 – Crowd safe is a form of a safe note
08:25 – What if people want to donate but think that valuation is crap?
- 08:30 – "It is not a donation but an actual investment"
- 08:45 – Questions about crowd funding should go to the crowd forum
- 09:08 – Youngry made a $ 2 million value
10:00 – Ash and his partner had $ 50,000 as a side money
10:30 – Youngry already made $ 65,000 revenue
11:00 – Youngry is various focus
- 11:23 – Influence remarking as an e-commerce marking
- 11:28 – Bigger brands see the value of audience that Youngry is generating
- 11:32 – In 60 days, Youngry generated 50,000-75,000 audience
- 12:05 – The crowd funding campaign helped Youngry get fraction from the larger brands
12:28 – Youngry's event sponsorship
13:15 – Launch date of Youngry is December 1 2016
13:30 – Connect with Ash through Ash@Youngry.com
15:38 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Equity crowdfunding can be beneficial to both startups and investors.
Study and learn the process before investing – even the legal matters.
Mind your own business. Don't worry too much about other people's problems.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
Ash@Youngry.com – Ash's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 471: He Just Exited, Now Landds $500k Customer for New Content AI Business ComnPlus with CEO Karan Chaudhry Nov 07, 2016

Show notes

Karan Chaudhry, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder and CPO of Comnplus, a company building advanced machine learning based personalization and recommendation engine focused on online digital content industry. He received his MS from Stanford University and is an active mentor and advisor at StartX, advising entrepreneurs on topics like fundraising, team building, data product management and product marketing. Prior to Comnplus, Karan was the co-founder and CEO of DropThought, a machine learning based instant feedback and text platform for voice over applications. Listen as Karan explains how DropThought was acquired last year and how he started Comnplus.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs

What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
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? – "Take risk. Failures are highly over-rated. It just makes us stronger"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:44 – Nathan introduces Karan to the show
02:35 – DropThought was acquired last year
02:43 – DropThought is doing feedback-based analytics
02:58 – Karan raised a couple of rounds for DropThought
03:10 – DropThought was acquired by Bahwan CyberTek
03:22 – Karan was in the process of fundraising for DropThought when Bahwan CyberTek approached him
03:50 – There were other companies who want to acquire DropThought
04:33 – Valuation of DropThought
05:24 – Team size for DropThought is 15-20
05:35 – Comnplus is taking the machine analytic context to the content industry
05:50 – Companies find it difficult to recommend similar content to their customers
06:30 – Comnplus is only 3-4 months old
06:42 – TVF funded Karan $ 500,000 to start Comnplus
- 07:09 – Comnplus is creating clusters of users with similar habits for TVF
- 07:28 – Comnplus handles marketing and contact targeted users
- 07:48 – Comnplus reaches out to users with customize recommendations
08:35 – Comnplus market is the large content providers
08:58 – Comnplus price point
09:15 – Comnplus is currently bootstrapped
09:50 – Comnplus has a small but qualified team
10:35 – Karan is willing to spend 50-70% of revenue for customer acquisition
11:35 – Target RPU is $ 500,000
12:15 – Comnplus is currently not fundraising and TVF as their only client
12:43 – Biggest competitors are Rich Relevance and Gravity R&D
13:48 – Get in touch with Karan through his email
15:28 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Find the right people and they will acquire your business.
It's about quality and not quantity.
You can never "lose".

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
Karan@Comnplus.com – Karan's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 470: How He Got 10,000 Interested In Product Before Launch with Scorely CEO Shawn Porat Nov 06, 2016

Show notes

Shawn Porat, founder of Scorely, Judgment Marketplace and Fortune Cookie Advertising. He's a VP at Mark Echo Enterprise and a contributor to Forbes, Time, and Money Magazine among others.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A

What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — N/A
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Never
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Work with others and meet as many entrepreneurs as you can"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:53 – Nathan introduces Shawn to the show
02:17 – Scorely is a business credit bureau
- 02:23 – Started 6 months ago
02:35 – Shawn is trying to get more small businesses in the platform for free
- 02:53 – Subscription plans
03:15 – Scorely is currently on pre-revenue and will launch in 3 weeks
- 03:25 – 10,300 people in their launch list
03:48 – The idea of Scorely started 3 months ago
- 03:54 – They've partnered with different government agencies and businesses
04:25 – The chamber of commerce
- 04:30 – The members have been informed they can get access to business reports through email blast
05:11 – Scorely is the first in the industry
05:25 – Scorely charges between $ 120 to $ 200 per report
06:04 – Scorely focuses on small businesses
- 06:10 – Recovery of Judgement's credit report
07:25 – Some companies charges small businesses too much for credit reports
07:45 – They are now free as they want more small businesses to learn about Scorely
08:06 – Small businesses want credit reports because of a lot of reasons
- 08:08 – Small businesses need loans
- 09:00 – Scorely can recommend small businesses to banks
- - 09:15 – Goal is to get a loan with the smallest interest
09:30 – Shawn telling Nathan how Scorely works in Nathan's business scenario
10:28 – Shawn gets 1% - 5% from the loans
10:52 – Number of business loans made yearly in the USA
11:45 – Shawn is still learning a lot
12:20 – Judgment Marketplace
13:48 – Scorely raised $ 250,000
14:05 – Team size
14:30 – Toptal as a freelancing site for developers
15:48 – Connect with Shawn through his website
18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can't do everything alone.
Bring your ideas to life.
Make a good action plan in starting a business.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
ShawnPorat.com – Shawn's website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 469: SharkTank Sunk Him, Then He Won Big With $1.4M with Revestor CEO Bill Lyons Nov 05, 2016

Show notes

Bill Lyons, a successful real estate entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Revestor.com. Revestor is in the business of helping real estate investors find profitable properties to rent out as short and long term rentals. He also helps identify properties for quick profits.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Slash

What CEO do you follow? – Tony Robbins
Favorite online tool? — Rapportive
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "That when you get to your 30's, a week is like a day, a month is like a week and year is like a month and slow down. Do what you can today"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:48 – Nathan introduces Bill to the show
02:27 – Revestor started in 2012
02:37 – Revestor is now focused short-term Airbnb properties
03:08 – Bill is asking $ 250,000 for 10% in short-term properties
04:10 – Bill was in Shark Tank in November 2012
- 04:25 – Bill got 15,000 users but never got over 1,000 paid users
- 04:38 – Bill can't raise money after the show
05:02 – In 2013, Bill started a mortgage company
- 05:06 – In 2014, Bill did $ 500,000 in revenue
- 05:10 – In 2015, Bill did $ 1.7 million in revenue
- 05:14 – 2016, Bill is about to hit $ 5.5 million in revenue
05:34 – Bill has been investing for the past few months in Revestor
05:58 – Revestor did 0 revenue in 2016
06:10 – The subscription plans were not working so they refunded them
06:24 – Bill built a better platform to invest in Airbnb
06:33 – Revestor re-launches on November 1st of 2016
07:10 – Customers can see daily rent data in the website of Revestor
- 07:20 – Revestor's main data source
- 07:34 – Revestor is paying $ 6,000 a month for the API
08:25 – The properties in Revestor are for sale
- 08:35 – The website will show you how you will earn when you purchase a property
09:22 – Users can enter their own interest rate in the website
10:00 – Revestor is pulling data from resources to come up with average daily rent
10:40 – "You're not going to get a good cash flow in San Diego on a long term basis"
11:18 – They are working with a PR company
11:38 – Mortgage is Bill's passion
12:13 – Email list is 30,000
13:40 – Connect with Bill through his Instagram and website
15:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Learn from your experiences. Don't let other people predict your business.
Start from where you're good at. Things are far easier when you already know what to do.
Do what you can today.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
@bill_lyons – Bill's Instagram account
Revestor.com– Bill's website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 468: $6M in 2015 Revenue With Health and Wellness Infoproduct with CEO Craig Ballantyne Nov 04, 2016

Show notes

Craig Ballantyne, a productivity and a success transformation coach and the author of The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life. He's been a contributor to men's health magazines since 2000 and in 2001, he created a home popular work out program, Turbulence Training. Listen as Craig tells us how he overcome his anxieties using the 5 pillars of transformation and how he managed to make his users stay.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Rockefellar Habits

What CEO do you follow? – Matt Smith
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? – "I should stop drinking before I'm 30 years old"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:54 – Nathan introduces Craig to the show
02:43 – Craig uses the 5 pillars of success
03:06 – Craig started in the fitness industry in 1999 and he started selling Turbulence Training online
03:19 – In 2011, Craig bought the business, Early to Rise, a success wealth building newsletter
03:31 – They have 100,000 email list for Early to Rise and 120,000 for fitness
03:38 – Early to Rise did $ 6 million in 2015
04:27 – The Perfect Day Formula is their best-seller
04:45 – They have Early to rise University where online courses are
05:00 – PerfectDayFormula.com
- 05:05 – It was launched in January 2016
- 05:18 – 35,000 purchases at the moment
- 05:21 – They have their email list, affiliate email and Facebook ads for marketing
- 05:30 – Price point is $ 200
- 05:46 – Only a small portion of customers came from the affiliate email
06:00 – Customers receive a box full of materials when they purchase
06:31 – The cost of produce is $ 21
07:02 – They are not making a lot from paid advertising
07:43 – Craig is finding a way to send traffic on Facebook to an offer that works to prevent crashed after the launch
08:30 – $ 100,000 MRR mostly from the fitness stuff
08:35 - $ 7 price point on monthly fee
09:12 – People stick with them for at least 3 months
10:44 – People want results
11:26 – The usage pay wall
12:20 – What the user will get from the course
- 12:23 – There's a template to change your bad habits
- 12:40 – They will help the user create a vision
12:50 – One of the pillars is plan and prepare
13:25 – Craig has a video of walkthrough on what they can get in the kit
13:56 – Goal in 2016
14:11 – Tools that Craig uses for his website
14:30 – Tools that Craig uses to run his business
14:43 – Team size
14:59 – Follow Craig on Twitter and LinkedIn
17:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Show people results. Show them how to consume a product to get the results.
Having an email list of the target market can boost your revenue tremendously.
Be healthy. Cliché as it sounds, health is wealth.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
@Craigballantyne – Craig's Twitter handle
LinkedIn – Craig's LinkedIn account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 467: $60M Raised To Help CIO's Manage Their Cloud with CEO Ben Nye Nov 03, 2016

Show notes

Ben Nye. Ben joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2004 and leads their infrastructure software team. Listen as Ben talks about how he became Turbonomic's CEO and how they got to Series D.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs Book
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos

Favorite online tool? — 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? – "I wish I knew about the power of equity"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:34 – Nathan introduces Ben to the show
02:00 – Ben joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2004
02:15 – Capitalized Turbonomic as an investor in 2009 and first delivery of product in GA in 2010
02:30 – Joined the company full-time in 2013
02:40 – Bain Capital Ventures is a sector focus
- 02:55 – They want something with a prepared mind
- 03:17 – They cover multiple sectors
03:38 – Total capital raised
03:59 – Ben is the lead investor at Bain Capital Ventures for Turbonomic
04:17 – There was 3 CEO in Turbonomic
- 04:46 – There was an issue between the founder and the CEO that was hired
- 04:58 – The board made a decision, making Ben the CEO
06:15 – Passive equity in the company
- 06:22 – They kept the best people
- 06:42 – The company has to retire passive shares and it is covered by investors right agreement
- 07:00 – They have bought people's equity, who left the company
07:15 – Turbonomic is a soft managing self-organizing control system
- 07:40 – They have the capability to provide enhance performance for high workloads
08:15 – They have on-premises and off- premises sectors
- 08:30 – In on-premises, there is per socket and per core based pricing
- 08:35 – In off-premises, there are no sockets so you work virtually in public cloud
08:55 – They are not SaaS, but users can purchase on term basis
- 09:20 – Some users request how to acquire the software
- 09:35 - They measure the environment based on sockets and core count
- 09:52 – 91% of the customers have a 3-month full payback
10:19 – Ben offers a scenario how the model works
11:34 – At Bain Capital Ventures, they research the companies and pick which they think will win
12:53 – The startups competing in the market
13:15 – In Turbonomic, there are 16,000 CIO who invested in them
13:28 – They have 400 employees
14:00 – Revenue growth in 2016
14:36 – In November of 2014, they did a $ 50 million series-d
15:35 – Going to series-d will depend on the nature of the company
- 15:41 – Ben's company is an intellectual property strategy company
16:30 – Connect with Ben through his website and join Green Circle Community
18:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

People can voluntarily sell their equity when the leave a company.
Getting to series-d will depend on the nature of the company.
Know your market.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
Turbonomic.com – Ben's website
Green Circle Community – Ben's online community
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 466: Agency Loses Money in 2015, $500k In Black in 2016 Helping Copmanies Market Online with CEO Greg Shanken Nov 02, 2016

Show notes

EP: 465: 120,000 Customers, About $200k MRR, $10M 2017 ARR Goal with RocketReach.co CEO Amit Shanbhag Nov 01, 2016

Show notes

Amit Shanbhag, co-founder of RocketReach.co, a company that allows users to lookup email addresses, phones, social links, etc. for over 250 million professionals worldwide. Amit bootstrapped to RocketReach from zero to over a hundred thousand customers including Apple, Google, and Morgan Stanley to name a few. He has more than a dozen patents and started his professional life writing code for geo-stationary satellites. He loves open water swimming, watching cricket, and spending time with his 4-year old son.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A
What CEO do you follow? – Marissa Mayer

Favorite online tool? — Google Drive
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Live the moment and enjoy what you have"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:53 – Nathan introduces Amit to the show
02:33 – RocketReach is a sales management tool
02:54 – RocketReach was founded in 2015
03:03 – Amit and his co-founder used to work for a SaaS business
03:15 – They tried to get information from www.data.com for user acquisition
- 03:25 – They realized that the data is 85% inaccurate
03:31 – They tried different tools
04:25 – Team size
04:40 – Completely bootstrapped
04:51 – They tried to raise a small round
- 05:18 – Went to institution investors
- 05:27 – The terms were not profitable
- 05:40 – Amit stopped fund-raising after 6 months
05:58 – They had 10,000 customers in March
06:40 – Companies that are the competition
07:35 – RocketReach is SaaS and has monthly subscription
- 07:40 – Plans are $ 49, $ 99 and $ 299
- 07:46 – Salespeople and recruiters are the biggest user base
- 08:30 – Most of the users are from the $ 99 plan
09:10 – MRR
09:40 – They were doing a lot of outbound in January
10:04 – Most of their users now are from SEO
11:18 – Customers who buy access to RocketReach API
- 11:38 – They are considered as competition
12:29 – First year revenue
- 12:45 – Total of $ 15 from October 2015 to December 2015
13:02 – March 2016 is when the growth started
13:40 – Did a deal with 500 startups companies
14:40 – Gross monthly churn
16:40 – Lifetime value
17:17 – Company expenses
18:09 – The quality of data that RocketReach has sets them apart from their competitors
18:30 – Comparison of RocketReach and Email Hunter
19:50 – Goal for 2016
20:53 – Decent offer in the SaaS space
21:15 – 2-digit percentage average monthly customer growth
22:15 – Connect with Amit through his website and Twitter
24:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

First year revenue is not always what you're expecting.
Improve your product to the point it makes your competitors, your customers.
Live for the moment and enjoy what you have.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
RocketReach.co – Amit's website
@RocketReachco – Amit's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 464: $1.7M In Book Sales After Being Dead for 6 Minutes Oct 31, 2016

Show notes

Hal Elrod, a husband, father ,and the best-selling author of 8 books including one of the best self-published book of all time, The Miracle Morning, which sold over 200,000 copies and has been translated into 21 languages. He is an entrepreneur and international keynote speaker, podcaster, and co-creator of best blueprint ever life experience. Listen as Hal talks about his life after a car crash and how it paved his future.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Love is the Killer App
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Hoffman

Favorite online tool? — Five Minute Journal iOS App
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Have patience"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:53 – Nathan introduces Hal to the show
02:30 – The Miracle Morning now has 240,00 copies sold
- 02:40 – It was published in 2012
03:00 – When Hal was 20, he was the top sales agent for a kitchen knife company
- 03:25 – Hal was in car accident on his way home and broke 11 bones
- 03:36 – Hal was pronounced dead for 6 minutes and in a coma for 6 days
- 04:00 – Three months after the crash, Hal was told by the doctor the unexplainable – that he can walk again
04:45 – Some people go through traumatic experiences to learn a lesson and share it to other people
05:11 – "Don't make the same mistakes. Learn from other people's action and learn from it"
05:28 – "Accept all things that you can't change while you focus on what you can"
06:26 – Hal's sister died when he was 8 years old
- 06:46 – After a few months, Hal's mother created a support group to help parents cope with a child loss
- 06:55 – You can use adversity. Turn it into an advantage by finding a way to make it benefit other people
07:30 – Hal conditions himself for the 5-minute rule
07:58 – Why is The Miracle Morning, the best self-published book
- 08:02 – It changes behavior
- 08:40 – It adds value to your life and changes your daily life
09:43 – Ask yourself "how can I take this and turn into a daily ritual"
10:47 – Give the readers a quick win
11:30 – The 30-day challenge in the book
12:15 – Hal is coaching people to get an accountability partner
13:30 – Hal thought he could go to a traditional publisher
13:43 – The Miracle Morning is not a title. It is the practice that Hal made in his life since 2008
14:32 – Hal learned that self-publishing for authors is (99% of the time) the way to go
15:09 – Hal had an email list for publishing
- 15:54 – Hal sold 7000 copies in the first month
16:53 – Hal is averaging 10,000 copies every month
17:12 – Hal is charging $ 25,000 (+ travel) for speaking events
17:36 – Hal did an audiobook and it was worth-it
17:45 – Hal had no ghost writers and co-author
17:51 – Hal didn't spend on advertising for the first 3 months
17:59 – Hal got his first 100 sales through pre-selling to his personal network with additional offers
19:45 – The sales of the other books of Hal is only a fraction of his original
20:15 – Get in touch with Hal through his website and Twitter
22:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don't make the same mistakes. Learn from other people's actions.
Self-publishing is the way to go.
You can turn adversity into advantage.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
@halelrod – Hal's Twitter handle
MiracleMorning.com – Hal's website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 463: Close.io More Than $200k MRR, 500 Customers, $400 ARPU with CEO Steli Efti Who Wont Sell for $40M Oct 30, 2016

Show notes

Steli Efti, CEO and founder of Close.io. Listen as Steli talks about how he uses sales and communication to his company's advantage and why he won't disclose their churn rate—his answer WILL surprise you.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Paypal Wars
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Evernote
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew how to manage my own emotions and focus on consistency"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:23 – Nathan introduces Steli to the show
01:52 – Steli's entrepreneurial power is in sales and communication
02:02 – Close.io is Steli's biggest success
02:15 – There are less than 20 people in the team
02:21 – Steli is competing with massive organizations
02:40 – They launched their first product in 2013
02:56 – First year revenue is $ 200,000
- 03:10 – They started as a services business
04:08 – There's a common pattern with SaaS companies building product
04:45 – Close.io is a CRM
- 04:55 – Focused on inside sales team
- 05:12 – Paid monthly
- 05:26 – RPU
- - 05:58 – The average per month is $ 400 to $ 500
07:01 – Total number of customers is between 500 and 5000
07:54 – They are self-funded but they did raised for the business
08:45 – CAP table
09:29 – Raised a little after graduating
- 10.08 – They raised $ 1 million
10:32 – They are not currently in any acquisition talks and not raising capital
- 11:09 – They have all the funds they need
11:35 – There are 2 co-founders
12:00 – Monthly gross churn is horrible
- 12:26 – "Every customer we are losing is a tragedy"
- 12:50 – They don't share churn numbers
13:11 – Their sales tactics
13:41 – When they launched Close.io, it doesn't have any record in it
14:15 – People will buy the product even if it's not sufficient
14:54 – They are now doing a ton of blog posts, public speaking, etc
16:20 – Consistently improve your product
17:22 – Fully-weighted CAC
17:55 – "The most important thing in trying new channels is to determine what a success and failure look like"
19:30 – Steli won't accept sample acquisition offer
21:00 – Connect with Steli through his blog and Twitter
22:30 – Steli's podcast has thousands of followers
23:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

If you have the solution to your customer's problem, they will stay longer.
Plan your failure scenarios. Know what to do when you succeed AND fail.
Every business is different. The value of your business is determined by what the market is willing to pay for it, and what you're able to create in terms of market demand.

Resources Mentioned:

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Blog.close.io – Steli's blog site
@Steli – Steli's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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