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
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- 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
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- 06:55 – “Decided to take the plunge”
- 07:30 – CB Insights
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- 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
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- 10:45 – Average of pricing
- 11:25 – Total MRR last August
- 11:40 – Hoping for 8-figure revenue this year
- 12:12 – Team size
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- 12:25 – Some are based in New York
- 13:05 – Exact MRR last month
- 13:30 – “Everybody pays upfront”
- 14:14 – Individual customer acquisition
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- 14:40 – Gross revenue churn
- 15:20 – Lifetime value
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- 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
