EP 618: Astronomer.io 2 Yrs Old, Hits $60K MRR, $2m Raised Helping Companies Makes Sense of Data with CEO Ry Walker

Ry Walker. He's the co-founder and CEO of Astronomer.io, a big data infrastructure company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Astronomer is an AngelPad batch #9 company and has raised $2M from the likes of 500 Startups, CincyTech, Router Ventures and SocialStarts. Astronomer measures, connects and centralizes data—making it super simple for anyone from business users to data scientists to quickly create and monitor their data and pipelines.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• What CEO do you follow? – Dennis Mortensen
• Favorite online tool? — Fabricator
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ry would tell himself to be bold and to be confident

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:35 – Nathan introduces Ry to the show
• 03:17 – Astronomer helps companies figure out how to use their data to benefit their business
• • 03:22 – Astronomer works with early stage startups and big companies
• 03:41 – Some companies in the web analytics space are Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics
• 03:57 – Astronomer helps companies get the right data from their inside companies
• 04:32 – Astronomer is called data engineering, as a service
• • 04:39 – Astronomer does the work for their customer while building the platform
  • 04:51 – Astronomer has a flat price of 6K and 10K monthly
• 05:14 – Astronomer has their private cloud edition for their customers
• 05:33 – Astronomer was launched in May 2015
• • 05:36 – Astronomer was at Collision Conference when they pivoted after the first day
  • 06:13 – They realized that their biggest problem was to get companies to send them the data to run the analysis
• 06:35 – The number one issue in the space is the onboarding
• 07:03 – Ry explains the type of company they are
• 08:02 – The Angelpad is one of the most important pivots Astronomer did
• 08:13 – Angelpad's model
• 08:46 – What Ry was thinking when they got into Angelpad
• 09:30 – First year revenue
• 09:38 – 2016 revenue
• 09:57 – Team size and location
• 10:08 – Astronomer has raised $2M in 2 years
• • 10:31 – Last round was at $1.1M and a convertible note
• 10:40 – Average MRR
• 12:04 – Astronomer currently has 20 customers
• 12:14 – Customer churn
• 12:17 – Astronomer currently has a net negative churn of 48%
• • 12:46 – Ry explains the net negative churn of 48%
• 13:33 – CAC
• • 13:38 – Astronomer just started with paid CAC this year
  • 14:00 – Astronomer started with $600
• 14:21 – LTV
• 15:40 – Last round of funding was in August
• 16:21 – Ry explains the amount they are burning
• 16:42 – Ry is thinking now of the post-seed round
• • 16:52 – It's a $3-5 M upround
  • 17:14 – The valuation Ry is aiming for
  • 17:40 – "We don't really want to bump our valuation too much"
• 20:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The number one issue in data analytics is the onboarding.
• Know your valuation and understand the data that had led you to that valuation.
• Believe in yourself—be bold and confident.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• 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