EP 543: Bant CEO Hits $32K MRR, Helping Companies Get Higher Quality Leads with CEO Andrei Breaz

Episode 543

Summary:

In Episode #543, Nathan interviews Andrei Breaz. He's the founder and CEO of Bant.io which is a B2B leads company. Before that, he was the founder of Keptify, which was acquired by Well Investments. He also worked as the CTO of Harty Hanks and is highly experienced in the B2B sales space.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
• What CEO do you follow? – Anthony Robbins and Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Trello
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Andrei wished he would have caught the entrepreneurial bug sooner

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 – Nathan introduces Andrei to the show
• 02:25 – Bant initiates conversations for companies with their ideal prospects
• 03:10 – Bant is a service model and not a SaaS model
• 03:47 – Bant is on the prospecting and lead generation stage
• 04:05 – Bant doesn't sell data
• • 04:10 – Bant uses the data they generate using their own software
  • 04:35 – The distinct data points that Bant uses
• 05:10 – Average customer pay per month is $1200
• • 05:39 – The price reflects a medium plan which is a customized plan
  • 05:44 – There's 100% money-back guarantee
• 06:00 – Andrei shares their definition of a hot lead
• 07:13 – Bant was launched in early 2015
• 07:30 – Bant is self-funded
• 08:00 – Number of current customers
• 09:08 – MRR
• 09:30 – Andrei is aiming for $1.5M next year
• 09:34 – 2015 total revenue
• 10:10 – Bant's actual clients
• • 10:25 – Most are SMBs
• 10:50 – Team size and location
• 11:10 – Bant gets their customers from referrals and word of mouth
• 11:30 – Bant ran a $ 200 adword campaign when they started
• 11:41 – Andrei shares Bant's process
• 12:28 – LTV
• 12:55 – Bant's CAC is marginal
• • 13:10 – No sales team, but there are account managers
• 14:18 – Monthly gross customer churn
• 15:10 – Bant has their own database and has researchers who validate their leads
• • 15:55 – 8 contractors on research
• 16:03 – 3rd party data apps that Bant is using including Builtwith
• 16:50 – Andrei shares LinkedIn as one of their main data sources
• 17:15 – Andrei shares his thoughts regarding LinkedIn being acquired by Microsoft
• 18:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Do NOT rely on just one large source of data, have a variety of sources.
• Businesses can spend less time hiring the right people if they go through right channels providing the right prospects.
• Once the entrepreneurial bug bites you—just go for it.

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
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives