EP 611: VSee Helping 1000 Customers Use Video To Transact Information with CEO Milton Chen

Dr. Milton Chen. He's the co-founder and CEO of VSee, and has a PhD from Stanford on the design of video collaboration. Additionally, he was the co-founder of XMPP Video Standard which is now used by Google Talk and Facebook Chat. He has deployed VSee for Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Linkin Park and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Zero to One
• What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff
• Favorite online tool? — Rapportive
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Milton would tell himself not to be as naïve and clueless

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Milton to the show
• 02:20 – Vsee is a SaaS company
• • 02:31 – Vsee offers mobile app and call center workflow
• 03:04 – Price range is $49-499 per medical provider per month
• 03:30 – Milton explains how VSee provides a service to client, Trinity Health
• 04:30 – Milton assures their client security and confidentiality
• 05:05 – Vsee was launched in 2008
• 05:33 – Milton went to graduate school because he wanted to become a professor
• 05:46 – Milton now loves everything about startups
• 06:03 – Vsee's initial investment
• • 06:24 – It was an equity investment
• 06:42 – Milton was clueless about valuations and didn't know what he was doing
• • 06:59 – Milton started VSee after graduate school with zero knowledge about business
• 07:15 – Milton was just grateful that people wanted to invest in VSee
• 07:35 – Vsee currently had a thousand paying customers
• 09:00 – Average number of nurses in VSee
• 09:23 – First year revenue
• 10:11 – Average amount raised
• 10:40 – Team size is 52 and they are based in Sunnyvale, CA
• 12:12 – VSee is currently cash flow mutual
• 12:51 – Vsee invests in making sure their customers feel secure
• 13:18 – Milton shares how their technology is built into Facebook Messenger
• 14:00 – Milton doesn't get royalties
• 14:40 – Vsee started as a general video conference market
• 14:50 – Milton shares how they pivoted to the health industry
• 15:34 – Vsee has an inside sales team
• • 15:41 – Vsee has 3 sources for sales
• 16:22 – Vsee is currently not into paid marketing
• 17:40 – Vsee has close to 100% customer retention
• 18:17 – Vsee is on a net negative churn
• 19:20 – 2017 revenue target
• 20:56 – Vsee's last closed round was in 2011
• 21:10 – Milton is just focused on acquiring more customers and is not interested in any acquisition talks
• 22:47 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Everyone has to start somewhere – even if it means being naïve and clueless.
• Getting into a market with less competition could mean more customers and sales.
• Paid marketing won't always work so test everything, first, before investing in a certain marketing strategy.

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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives