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EP 443: SaaS $20M 2015 ARR, 150K Customers Giving People Quality Video, Photos, Audio with Joel Holland, CEO of VideoBlocks Oct 10, 2016

Show notes

Nathan interviews Joel Holland, founder of VideoBlocks - a company that distributes over a million clips of royalty-free stock video and audio each month to over 150K customers in the television and video production industry, ranging from professional outlets like NBC to video hobbyists and enthusiasts. They're a 5x INC 500 out of 5000 fastest growing company, and Joel has been named one of the Top 25 under 25 by Business Week, and INC magazine's prestigious 30 under 30 list.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Influence
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Mailchimp

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "I do now"
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I have lived my college life"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:50 – Nathan introduces Joel to the show
02:57 – What is VideoBlocks and how does it generate sales
- 03:00 – Stock media company
- 03:22 – Elements that creative professionals can incorporate to their projects
03:45 – VideoBlocks was founded 2010
- 04:00 – Idea of VideoBlocks
04:40 – VideoBlocks' model
- 04:50 – Started selling by the collection
- 05:10 – Launched subscription plan as a test in 2010
- 05:20 – 150,000 paying members
- - 05:38 – Monthly and annual plan
05:43 – Total revenue in 2015
06:15 – Royalty-free
- 06:30 – 6,000 videographers now shooting for VideoBlocks
07:10 – RPU
- 07:37 – Created more premium plans
08:00 – The 80/20 rule
08:30 – How much would a videographer get if National Geographic buys his clip?
- 08:40 – Standard pricing
- 08:50 – "If National Geographic bought it for 49 bucks, the videographer will get a check"
- 09:00 – 2 types of libraries
09:38 – VideoBlocks buy clips to put in the library
10:10 – Customers only need to download 2 clips in a year to avail unlimited clips
11:00 – "We want shooters to make as much money as possible"
11:24 – A few million dollars to acquire creative lights
11:40 – "Content is king"
12:00 – MRR
12:09 – Annual churn
- 12:16 – Subscription business is like a puzzle
- 13:05 – Churn on monthly plan
- 13:26 – Returning cost acquisition
- 14:10 – Customer insights operation
14:25 – Direct response marketing
- 14:33 – Million dollars spent monthly
- 14:40 – Example of direct response marketing
14:58 – Joel has a huge number of list
15:15 – Launching other products
15:42 – Weighted average cap
15:55 – Lifetime value on average
16:16 – Blended channels
17:17 – 80 team members
- 17:25 – Based in Virginia
17:36 – Funding history: Raised under 20 million to date
- 18:02 – North Atlantic Ventures
- 18:11 – SBA gives you leverage
- - 18:40 – Interest rate
19:35 – "Currently, we are not raising nor in any acquisition talks"
20:15 – "Going public is a tough process"
21:07 – Connect with Joel through his LinkedIn and website
22:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Work hard but don't forget to live your life.
Give life to your ideas if you want your business to grow.
Know your customers and the people who supports your products.

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 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.
LinkedIn – Joel's LinkedIn account
VideoBlocks.com – Joel's business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 442: $803k In 2015 Revenue from The Hardcore Closer, Ryan Stewman Oct 09, 2016

Show notes

Ryan Stewman, CEO and CTO of Clyxo.com – the world's only opt-in social media search engine. Ryan has one of the top online training resources for sales people worldwide, and is a best-selling author/contributor to Forbes Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, and The Good Men Project. Listen as Ryan talks about his new book, Elevator to the Top and how he is addicted to success.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Influence
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? —Leadpages

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 was at the right place at the right time 20 years ago. Just following the path that led me to where I'm at today."

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:38 – Ryan's focus
- 02:40 – Focus on Hardcore Closer
- 03:10 – Modern ways to close sales
03:30 – Founded Hardcore Closer in January 2012
03:45 – 35,000 people on his list
03:57 – Content strategy
04:35 – Reasons why Ryan writes for publications
05:15 – Use ads for Facebook
- 05:25 – Spent $250,000 to grow his page
06:08 – 4,000 unique buyers for Hardcore Closer
- 06:25 – Elevator to the Top
- 06:40 – People love Ryan's products and they keep coming back to buy more
07:18 – First year revenue
07:40 – Ryan had an app
08:10 – Total revenue in 2015
- 08:30 – "I want to be transparent with the numbers"
- 08:55 – Free cash flow in 2015
09:25 – Other expenses
- 09:34 – Facebook ads costs has toned down
- 09:48 – Most significant cost
- 10:11 – Affiliate marketers
10:23 – 57 people in 30K per year program
10:36 – Estimate revenue in 2016
10:50 – Ryan's salary
- 11:00 – Ryan talks about his cars
11:30 – Team size
11:40 – Revenue stuff: one-time or monthly?
- 11:45 – 99.99% one-time
12:32 – Hardcore Closer app to 42222
- 12:39 – Backend of the app
- 12:50 – It is a website that is mobile optimized
13:40 – The Hardcore Closer podcast
- 13:47 – Downloads per month
- 14:16 – No guests
15:05 – Ryan's book is self-published
15:20 – Connect with Ryan through his Facebook, podcast and website
17:45 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Keep your customers happy and you'll gain more.
It's good to let people know about your numbers – it gives them an opportunity to learn from them.
Do what you love to do.

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 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.
Facebook – Ryan's Facebook account
Clyxo.com – Ryan's website
HardcoreCloser.com/podcast – Ryan's podcast

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 441: $605k Revenue Agency Spins off $35k MRR SaaS Products with Sujan Patel Oct 08, 2016

Show notes

Sujan Patel, an entrepreneur and a marketer who's made a career out of learning how to keep an eye on ALL the moving pieces of his business. He's the co-founder of two successful digital marketing companies, ContentMarketer and Web Profits.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Never Eat Alone
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Buzzsumo

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 could work harder"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:43 – Nathan introduces Sujan to the show
02:03 – What is Web Profits and how does it make money?
- 02:09 – Marketing agency
02:20 – Average retainer is $ 10,000 a month
- 02:40 – Reject 90% of the people
03:00 – 20 clients at the moment
03:05 – Web Profits is founded earlier this year
03:12 – Consulting firm
03:40 – Joint venture with a big company in Australia
03:55 – 90 team members
- 04:09 – 8 people are in Austin
04:21 – Total revenue at the moment
04:28 – Goal in 2016 is to hit a million
04:50 – Sujan's thoughts on distractions
- 05:05 – Sujan likes to do a lot of things
- 05:12 – Additional 4 SaaS businesses
- - 05:28 – ContentMarketer, Narrow.io, Quu.co, LinkTexting.com
06:40 – Sujan helps in strategy
07:37 – ContentMarketer has a few products
- 07:44 – Email and twitter outreach
- 08:09 – Great for bloggers and podcasters
- 08:30 – Just hit a million email sent
- 09:00 – Finding an email is an art
09:26 – Total number of customers on all the business
09:27 – Average pay per month
09:55 – MRR
10:15 – "It is definitely worth it"
11:20 – RPU
12:00 – Number of paying customers on Quu.co
- 12:10 – Quu.co as SaaS and an advertising content
- 12:53 – Number of customers per promotion
13:09 – ContentMarketer is a bootstrap
- 13:15 – Founding date
- 13:25 – First year revenue
- 14:00 – UX designs
14:25 – Launching a new product
- 14:55 – Gross customer churn for ContentMarketer
- 15:10 – No upselling
- 15:30 – "We know what product to sell"
15:48 – 4 team members for connector
15:56 – Goal for the business
- 16:10 – Grow as big as possible
16:31 – Sujan owns half of LinkTexting.com
- 16:38 – Acquired the whole company with a partner
17:16 – Connect with Sujan through his blog and Twitter
18:50 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

It is easier to promote your products if you know them well.
Have a bigger goal for your business.
Creating a great email is like creating great art – you need the right tools and the right artist.

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 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.
SujanPatel.com – Sujan's blog
@SujanPatel – Sujan's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 440: $700k MRR, 100,000 Pay $7/mo For Gay Dating App Hornet, Will Beat Grindr? Oct 07, 2016

Show notes

Sean Howell, the founder of Hornet - the second largest gay social network with 15 million members worldwide, known for its ongoing "Know your Status" HIV campaign. He's a speaker on mobile technology and his opinions have been featured all over the place, even the New York Times. Outside of work, Sean likes to serve on various non-profit boards and committees like the World Affairs Council, PFLAG, and UNAIDS,

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Alibaba
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Insightly

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 started earlier"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:38 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show
02:13 – How Hornet generates revenue
- 02:23 – Premium subscription model
- 02:53 – Direct deals
03:08 – Premium subscription service
- 03:29 – No restrictions
- 03:43 – 5% of their user base
- 03:37 – 15 million user base
03:53 – Hornet was founded in October 2011
04:13 – MAU
- 04:22 – Metric
04:42 – Total revenue in 2015
- 04:50 – Fundraising
- 05:17 – Multi-million revenue last year
05:32 – Traditional advertising and mobile setting
- 05:55 – Gaming companies are buying display ads
- 06:20 – Direct deal with Uber
- 06:34 - CPM
07:10 – Demographic data for users
07:40 – Churn number that is being tracked
- 07:51 – Focus on user growth
- 08:20 - Monetization
08:32 – Total churn number
- 08:37 – Different subscription packages
- 09:00 – Monthly renewal
- 09:33 – Users buy in at a lower amount
- 09:49 – Average monthly churn is 20%
10:00 – Raised $ 1.5 million in the first year
10:26 – Costs in acquiring new paying customers
10:32 – 40 employees
10:44 – Getting customers through organic discovery and viral co-efficients
- 11:00 – Viral co-efficient technique
11:27 – Attribution links for social sharing
11:53 – Sean is based in San Francisco and his team members are in other parts of the world
12:27 – No revenue for the first year
- 12:33 – Started making revenue in 2013
12:48 – 2 biggest competitors
13:00 – Looking to raise several millions
- 13:08 – Valuation
13:47 – Connect with Sean thru AngelList, LinkedIn and his email.
16:05 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Be motivated – use your competitors as inspiration.
There are tons of ways to make your brand known without spending much.
Start early – if you want to do something now, do it now.

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 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.
AngelList – Sean's AngelList account
LinkedIn – Sean's LinkedIn account
sean@hornetapp.com – Sean's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 439: $9m Raised, GoShippo Helps Little Guy Drop Ship 1,000,000+ Packages Per Month Already with CEO Laura Behrens Wu Oct 06, 2016

Show notes

Laura Behrens Wu, the co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Listen as Laura talks about how a laundry list of shipping obstacles with her previous e-commerce store birthed the idea for Shippo.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Things About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? – Patrick Collison
Favorite online tool? — Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "I wish"
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Trust that things will turn out right"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:45 – Nathan introduces Laura to the show
02:13 – E-commerce business Laura had
- 02:27 – Started at Shopify
- 02:40 – Sourcing unique items from NGO
- 03:07 – Shipping problem
03:32 – Revenue with the e-commerce business
03:50 – Laura was 21 when she started her business
04:13 – Financing with Shippo
- 04:17 – Drop shipping
05:08 – Typical shipping pricing
05:30 – Shippo shipping rates
- 05:58 – Volume metric
- 06:07 – Doing millions of packages a month
06:30 – Negotiation with shipping providers
- 06:44 – Based on projected volumes
07:00 – Shippo is a pay-as-you-go; not SaaS
07:20 – Sample price per package shipped
- 07:30 – What if I'm shipping a 10 lbs. dumbbell?
- 07:44 – "We only provide the software"
08:06 – How Shippo works in an e-commerce website
- 08:10 – Will compare different shipping providers
- 08:30 – Not a standard shipping rate
- 08:47 – How the shipping providers get the package from the seller
09:07 – Why clients use Shippo's service
09:37 – Shipping providers are not tech company
09:55 – Number of unique customers
10:12 – Average shipping volume per month
10:29 – Memebox
- 11:10 – Nathan's proposed deal for Shippo and Memebox
11:54 – They raised $9M in 2014
12:20 – Team size
12:50 – Use of the extra money
13:23 – Minimum monthly revenue
13:33 – Upselling
- 13:50 – Shipping insurance
- 14:11 – Tracking as a product
15:28 – Bigger revenue stream
15:37 – $ 7 million in series A round, March 2016
16:00 – How to keep the balance when you have a big account
16:38 – Travel expenses last month
17:25 – Will you sell the business for $ 47 million?
- 17:45 – Ideal exit assuming there's a good fit
18:03 – Built an app on top of Shopify
18:11 – Connect with Laura through her Twitter, LinkedIn and email
20:00 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Keep your customers updated and excited.
Spend money on the right things and appreciate what you have.
Don't get upset on your first try – everything falls into place given patience and time.

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 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.
@LauraBehrensWu – Laura's Twitter handle
LinkedIn – Laura's LinkedIn account
laura@goshippo.com – Laura's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 438: Dancing His Way to $100k+ Business with Instagram Genius, Dancing Wizard Zach Benson Oct 05, 2016

Show notes

Zach Benson, an award-winning dancer who travels around the world running instructional clinics. He's been featured as a Round 4 finalists on FOX TV's "So You Think You Can Dance," and he's also the founder and CEO of Assistagram.co.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Slide Edge
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Olson
Favorite online tool? — Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "Usually 7 and a half"
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew everything then that I know now"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Zach to the show
02:13 – How the dance clinic works
- 02:20 – Place, schedule, and class pricing
03:06 – Total revenue of the dance clinic in 2015
03:35 – Zach talks about how he partners with dance studios
- 04:25 – CTA
05:14 – Number of students per class
05:53 – Assistagram.co
- 06:07 – Team in the Philippines
- 06:27 – Hashtag optimization
- 06:58 – How to find hashtags to use
- - 07:14 – There's no database
  - 07:40 – Follow/unfollow process
08:38 – ROI
- 09:04 – Sample of Zach connecting and making a deal
10:17 – Cold marketing and prospecting
- 10:40 – Finding people on your niche
11:03 – Working with Four Seasons
- 11:14 – Regular hotel room rate
- 11:40 – How Zach got a free stay at the hotel
- - 12:35 – Writing a free blog post
13:00 – Benefits of a good Instagram profile
13:26 – Current number of Assistagram clients
- 13:40 – Average pay a month
- 13:53 – Assistagram's services
14:28 – How to get people go to your Instagram account
15:38 – Reach Zack thru his email, website and Instagram.
17:58 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

It's all about timing.
Find the mentor who can help you grow.
Be consistent and persistent.

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 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.
Assistagram.co - Zach's business website
@thetravellerslist – Zach's Instagram handle
Benson.zach@gmail.com - Zach's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 437: SaaS $10m Raised, $8m+ 2015 Revenue, The Algorithmic Mckinsey with CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal Oct 04, 2016

Show notes

Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, a company that provides predictive intelligence for emerging technology trends, startups, and corporate. Their customers include Cisco, Marketo, and Red Hat, just to name a few. Prior to CB Insights, Anand managed the $50 million Chairman's Innovation Fund at American Express.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
Favorite online tool? — Gmail

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "I wish"
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Be patient"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Anand to the show
02:45 – "If you buy something for 2 and sell it for 1, you will not make it up in volume"
03:12 – He was in-charge of spending money
- 03:25 – Sent to London for Cosmo Europe
- 03:40 – Overspent
04:00 – Rationalizing the expenses
04:45 – Worked in American Express after Cosmo
06:25 – Salary in American Express
- 06:55 – "Decided to take the plunge"
07:30 – CB Insights
- 07:46 – Every industry is under attack by technology
- 08:09 – Monthly customer pay
- 08:34 – "Use our data to create a sense of urgency"
- 09:20 – Tracking the competitors
- 10:00 – Using algorithm on the data
10:30 – Number of paying customers
- 10:45 – Average of pricing
11:25 – Total MRR last August
11:40 – Hoping for 8-figure revenue this year
12:12 – Team size
- 12:25 – Some are based in New York
13:05 – Exact MRR last month
13:30 – "Everybody pays upfront"
14:14 – Individual customer acquisition
- 14:40 – Gross revenue churn
15:20 – Lifetime value
- 15:29 – 20% churn just to be conservative
- 15:49 - $200,000 lifetime value
16:16 – Funds raised
16:46 – Most customers are VCs
18:18 – Jon Sherry is the other founder
19:18 – No current acquisition talks
19:32 – Connect with Anand through his website and Twitter
21:05 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Do not be afraid to take the plunge—there are risks but just do it.
Things happen for a reason and believe in your life plan.
There's no absolute certainties in life—only right places and right times.

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 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.
CBInsights.com – Anand's website
@cbinsights – Anand's business' Twitter handle
@asanwal – Anand's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 436: $4.5m on Ebay, Now SaaS Hits $25kMRR to Help Sellers Sell on Ebay with Crazylister CEO Victor Levitin Oct 02, 2016

Show notes

Victor Levitin, co-founder and CEO of CrazyLister. Prior to CrazyLister, Victor ran a retail business that he drove from $0 to $4.5M in revenue in just three years. In fact, it did so well it won an eBay award for highest conversion rate. Victor channels his eBay retail experiences through a blog called "eBay Sellers Journey to $100K a month" where he helps eBay sellers avoid mistakes and grow their business the right way.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Elon Musk Biography
What CEO do you follow? – Alex Turnbull
Favorite online tool? — Intercom

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "About 7"
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Teach myself how to code and learn the balance"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Victor to the show
02:08 – What is CrazyLister and how does it make money?
- 02:16 – Created for sellers
- 02:50 – Similar with creating websites
- 03:28 – Built-in to eBay's API
- 03:40 – You have to know how to code to use CrazyLister
03:49 – Pricing scheme
- 03:54 – Plans based on the number of listings
- 04:05 – Monthly RPU
04:20 – CrazyLister is founded in late 2013
- 04:33 – Victor was 29 then
04:40 – Victor has always been an entrepreneur
- 05:05 – He was a seller before
05:14 – Shifted to software because of the entrepreneurial bug
06:20 – Shared equity
06:40 – Number of paying customers
07:02 – Total revenue in 2015
07:15 – January 2016 – from premium to paid
- 07:40 – 14-day free trial
07:55 – MRR
08:50 – Pricing on the website
09:15 – Actively doing customer development
09:41 – Metrics customers have to hit
09:58 – Growth churn per month
- 10:08 – Typical monthly churn of SaaS companies
- 10:35 – First month with monthly churn
11:40 – Lifetime value
12:00 – What are you going to pay for a new customer?
12:28 – Team size and located in Tel Aviv, Israel
12:45 – Self-funded or crowd raising
- 13:01 – Equity round
- - 13:22 - Valuation
13:33 – Victor feels they've exceeded the valuation
- 14:20 – Will never sell
14:45 – Content marketing drives traffic to Victor's company
15:47 – August expenses
16:20 – Connect with Victor thru his LinkedIn or Facebook
18:40 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Know your priorities and maintain a balanced life.
Keep moving—don't stay in your comfort zone, stagnation is death.
Take care of your customers—know their needs and find out how you can help them.

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 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.
LinkedIn – Victor's LinkedIn account
Facebook – Victor's personal Facebook account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 434: Top SaaS Planning Tool Hits $600k in MRR, 1800 Customers, $13M Raised, Growing Fast With CEO Liz Pearce Oct 01, 2016

Show notes

Liz Pearce, CEO of LiquidPlanner–a fast-growing, Seattle based, maker of dynamic project management technology—and an active member of the Seattle startup and technology community. Listen as Liz talks about her passion in mentoring and advocating for technology and leadership.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Search Inside Yourself
What CEO do you follow? – "My Top 5 Customers"
Favorite online tool? — Mint

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 let go of your interest and you will always get something back when you give"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:38 – Nathan introduces Liz to the show
02:02 – What LiquidPlanner is and how it generates revenue
- 02:08 – Project management software
02:28 – How does the customer use Liquid planner
03:13 – LiquidPlanner is a SaaS business model charge per user
- 03:30 - Pricing
03:52 – First year revenue in 2007
04:01 – Worked as a marketing contractor of the business
- 04:32 – What happened to founders
05:13 – Raised total of $13 million
- 05:39 – Liz raised the $10 million
06:05 – Former CEO still active in the company
06:30 – 2015 revenue
07:16 – Negative revenue churn
- 07:35 – Inbound driven model
- 08:05 – Transactional business
08:37 – Document storage
- 08:50 – Team function
09:16 – Average revenue
09:29 – Gross monthly churn
- 10:01 – Negative revenue churn
- 10:09 – SMB market
10:30 – CLTV
10:48 - Lifetime value
11:30 – Some are remote
- 11:37 – Total team size
11:43 – Number of customers
- 12:01 – How many are enterprise?
12:18 – Talking about acquisition or raising the next round?
12:45 – Interested in raising more capital in the future
14:07 – Microsoft project
- 14:45 – Invest in scheduling engine
15:03 – Revenue goal in 2016
15:20 – Acquisition money expenditure
- 16:05 – Total monthly expenditure
17:15 – @lizprc
19:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Believe in your product and what it can do to change the industry.
Remember that karma bus drives in circles.
Keep priority focus tight.

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 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.
@lizprc – Liz' twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 435: Consultant does BIG league $600k Last Year, Now Has Unique Model and Coffee with Brad Costanzo Oct 01, 2016

Show notes

Brad Costanzo, an entrepreneur, investor, and business consultant who built (and sold) two digital businesses. Today, Brad helps companies use proven marketing methods, innovative branding campaigns, and form strategic alliances to grow their revenue. He also hosts the "Bacon Wrapped Business" podcast on iTunes.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – One Simple Idea
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — MindMeister and XMind

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "Typically 7"
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Don't seek comfort, seek challenge."

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:44 – Nathan introduces Brad to the show
02:06 – Brad sold two digital businesses
- 02:30 – Dating and relationship product, real estate product etc.
- - 03:10 – Fun bar tricks
  - 03:38 – Sold it for six figures
- 04:05 – Pigtones.com
- - 04:23 – Sold it for less than $100,000
04:36 – Brad now focuses on consulting, crowdfunding, and coffee
- 04:50 – Equity crowdfunding
- 05:08 – What he did after selling his businesses
05:34 – Launched consulting firm in 2013
- 05:40 – How the firm grew over time
- 03:30 – Pricing
- 06:05 – Average retainer
- 06:22 – Total revenue in 2013
- 07:15 – Total revenue in 2015
07:34 – Revenue goal in 2016
08:11 – Total price per deal
- 08:38 – Equity product campaign
- 09:00 – Where Brad base his consulting fee
09:29 – Team size
- 09:35 – Full-time
09:51 – Number of unique customers in 2016
10:10 – First equity crowdfunding campaign
10:39 – Brad talks about his client who is from the real estate field
- 11:23 – Reww.com
- 11:45 – Different funnels
12:54 – Brad likes 2-3 steps funnel
13:08 – Magnified message
- 13:30 – MVF funnel
14:10 – Selling DVDs for real-estate market
15:14 – Cost of driving a sale and the return
15:26 – Brad's coffee business with wife
- 15:41 – StilettoCoffee.com
- 16:14 – Coffee is a commodity
- 16:32 – His wife's idea of selling coffee to women
- 17:35 – Build a brand using story-telling
- 18:18 – Total sales as of the moment
- 19:14 – Hillary Clinton coffee
20:26 – Potential for an exit
20:46 – Check StilettoCoffee.com and use the code BRADVIP on checkout to get a discount. Follow Brad on his website and podcast
22:35 – Launch of Brad's podcast
- 22:55 – Total downloads
23:50 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Listen and learn from the people that belong to your market.
You only get one shot in life—make sure your aim is true.
Keep things simple.

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 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.
StilettoCoffee.com – Brad and his wife's coffee business
Costanzomarketing.com – Brad's website
BaconWrappedBusiness.com – Brad's podcast channel
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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