SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 803: SaaS: Email He Used To Get From $0 to $10k MRR
Oct 5, 2017
23:27
Spencer Coon. He's the co-founder of HiBox.co and Joincube. He has over 5 years of experience in enterprise collaboration software and 7 years working internationally. He has managed teams across 3 continents and 5 countries. Previously, he was in investment banking at JP Morgan in New York City.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Black Swan
- What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
- Favorite online tool? — Intercom
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Spencer wished he knew that technology was going to be more of his passion
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:50 – Nathan introduces Spencer to the show
- 02:20 – HiBox is a collaboration app for teams
- 02:31 – It has an artificial intelligence to bring everything together and enhance productivity
- 03:19 – HiBox is a SaaS model with a 14-day free trial
- 03:30 – It has 3 different versions, including a pro version and an enterprise version
- 03:57 – ARPU is $32 a month
- 04:03 – An average account has 7-8 people
- 04:55 – Spencer wanted to have his own product, so he left JP Morgan
- 05:13 – He wanted to create something tangible and has been passionate about Latin America
- 05:39 – Spencer started HiBox in Buenos Aires
- 05:46 – It's less competitive to start a business in Latin America with talented people and their rates are more competitive
- 06:16 – There are 5 people on the tech team and 15 people in total
- 06:28 – Most of the team is in Barcelona
- 06:36 – Spencer left JP Morgan in 2012 and went to another company where he met his now business partner
- 07:28 – First year revenue was less than $10K
- 07:43 – HiBox is Spencer's first baby as an entrepreneur
- 08:00 – Spencer used up his savings to start HiBox
- 08:41 – HiBox has raised some seed rounds
- 08:54 – It was more difficult to access VC funds in the USA because HiBox is based in Latin America
- 09:16 – They had 2 priced rounds with a total of $500K funds raised
- 10:00 – Spencer is still in the middle of negotiations for their next round
- 10:20 – Over 10K companies have signed up to HiBox and there are 35K active users
- 10:38 – HiBox is their main focus at the moment
- 10:42 – Joincube is an enterprise social network focused on multi-national companies in Latin America
- 11:13 – There are 300 companies paying for HiBox
- 11:30 – MRR is around $10K for the pro version
- 11:54 – Last month's revenue
- 13:05 – Joincube will become HiBox corporate
- 13:34 – Gross monthly churn is 6.2%
- 15:10 – Spencer shares why their product would still be beneficial for their clients after the upgrade
- 15:46 – It's almost similar to Intercom, but better
- 16:00 – CAC is $233
- 16:10 – Most are used for online ads
- 16:26 – It is a fully weighted CAC
- 16:38 – $3K was spent on paid advertising last month
- 16:57 – Spencer is hoping that the business will be profitable at the outset
- 17:32 – They're doing as many tests as they can
- 18:05 – ARR target by the end of 2017
- 19:00 – Weirdest thing we ever did to acquire clients was tell them I lost a bet and would give them a 50% discount forever
- 20:00 – Gross margin
- 20:48 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- It's never too late to start your entrepreneurial journey.
- Starting your business in a country with less competition is a cost-efficient and wise decision.
- An upgrade should NOT affect customer loyalty and their experience with your product.
Resources Mentioned:
- Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
- 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
- GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- 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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives