SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders EP 495: WebEx Killer +$5M In Revenue, 1.7M Users For Better Online Meetings with BusinessHangouts CEO Gary Guseinov
Dec 1, 2016
23:28
Gary Guseinov, an investor, operator, and advisor in various technology companies including Business Hangouts, InCast, Playsino and Revenue.com. During his career, he has over $100 million in growth capital and structured complex financial transactions. He's also acquired over 300 million users for global technology product and services.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Power the Mind
- What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg
- Favorite online tool? — Calendly
- 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 knew how to start a business with very little capital"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:26 – Nathan introduces Gary to the show
- 02:08 – Business Hangouts is a web-conferencing and webinar platform
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- 02:17 – It is specifically designed for Google apps
- 02:47 – Gary has raised capital for USTechSupport in 2003
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- 03:07 – Private from 2003 to 2007
- 03:15 – From September 2007 to 2012, it became public in Nasdaq
- 03:22 – It was bought out by a big marketing company in LA
- 03:29 – Gary was the co-founder and left the company because he needed a break
- 04:24 – "It takes a lot of processes when it comes to legal and accounting when you shift from private to public"
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- 05:05 – SDC reviews the applications and processes
- 05:20 – Gary was in his mid-thirties when he started USTechSupport and didn't have any experience running a company
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- 05:29 – Gary is now 46
- 05:40 – Gary acquired Business Hangouts from the previous owner
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- 05:51 – Business Hangouts had 1.7 million enterprise users when it was acquired
- 06:02 – Over 700,000 registered users and 70,000 enterprise users
- 06:40 – Number of paying users
- 07:10 – Business Hangouts' competitors usually separate web conferencing and webinar leading to 2 different subscriptions
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- 07:48 – Consumers wouldn't know what their monthly expenses were going to be
- 07:54 – Business Hangouts is not as complicated as their competitors
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- 08:10 – "Our pricing model is very simple"
- 09:07 – Average monthly RPU is $70
- 10:40 – Business Hangouts is currently getting offers from investors
- 11:45 – "We try to build a business based on purely economics"
- 12:06 – "We think that we are a strong contender to multi-million dollar entities"
- 12:54 – Gary does not wish to disclose their MRR because they are not looking for capital at the moment as they are still a small company
- 13:57 – Gary's goal is to stay "at the radar"
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- 14:18 – "You want to be good at what you're doing and you want the market to recognize that"
- 14:55 – Churn is less than 10% yearly
- 15:32 – Gary acquired the company for less than $10 million
- 17:00 – Gary can afford to put inside sales representatives in the demo
- 17:36 – Business Hangouts is completely bootstrapped
- 18:15 – Current CAC is zero
- 18:55 – Team size is less than 10
- 19:16 – Connect with Gray through LinkedIn
- 20:42 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Choose a business that is viable in the marketplace.
- Staying "at the radar" while doing an excellent job at what you do will help you become recognized by the marketplace.
- You CAN start a business without raising capital.
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 the 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.
- LinkedIn – Gary's LinkedIn account
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives