SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 661: How Unbounce Hit $12M/Year In Revenue, 14k Customers, Very Little $$ Raised with Co-Founder Oli Gardner
May 16, 2017
22:29
Oli Gardner. He's the co-founder of Unbounce. He's seen more landing pages than anyone in the planet. He's a prolific international speaker and he's on the mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – How to Deliver a TED Talk
- What CEO do you follow? – N/A
- Favorite online tool? — UsabilityHub
- How many hours of sleep do you get? — Maybe 3 hours
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Learn how to make decisions"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:10 – Nathan introduces Oli to the show
- 01:49 – Unbounce is a SaaS business and a conversion platform for marketers which started as a landing page platform
- 02:00 – They just expanded to convertibles that have overlays that captures more leads and signups on the website
- 02:17 – Unbounce was launched in August 2009
- 02:33 – Unbounce has 6 co-founders
- 03:11 – Oli was broke and filed for bankruptcy
- 03:26 – Unbounce was initially funded by friends and family with $15K CAD
- 03:38 – Unbounce had a seed round and Angel round and has raised a total of less than 1 million CAD
- 04:12 – The 6 co-founders are all equal
- 04:22 – All are working full-time
- 04:50 – They've figured out a rough valuation
- 05:25 – 5 of the 6 co-founders are still active
- 05:41 – Team size is 184
- 05:49 – Members are based all around Canada and some in South America
- 06:14 – RPU is $93 CAD a month
- 07:05 – Unbounce lets anyone in for at least 2 years
- 07:11 – Their plans have been restructured in a way that is most beneficial
- 07:38 – Their $10-plan has been removed
- 07:57 – Unbounce now has professional marketers
- 08:10 – As Unbounce continues to grow, they're trying to scale with their customers
- 08:33 – Unbounce currently has 14K active users
- 08:42 – You can create a demo account but you can't get your own domain with demo
- 09:13 – Average MRR is just under $1.4M
- 09:47 – Unbounce had a problem with churn, like what most SaaS businesses have encountered
- 10:03 – "We know that you need landing pages for everything you do"
- 10:55 – 5% is the problem churn with Unbounce
- 11:30 – If Salesforce or Marketo have been integrated, the company is a larger company
- 11:47 – Overlays have been successful and there's so much traffic and data
- 12:09 – Overlays are called overlays because they are similar to popups
- 12:20 – "We're trying to be responsible with the technology because technology is not the problem, we are"
- 12:52 – Oli respects Bounce Exchange when it comes to the overlays world and they're doing a lot with machine learning
- 13:06 – The biggest difference in using Unbounce is you will feel that you're not using templated overlays
- 13:40 – Unbounce's value is different from SumoMe and their targeting is getting smarter
- 13:55 – Most services like Unbounce charge $250-5K a month and Unbounce starts at $99
- 14:06 – There are cheaper ones in WordPress, but they're not really good
- 14:21 – Oli is primarily a public speaker now and spends most of his time on the road
- 14:25 – Oli was actually scared to start public speaking years ago
- 14:33 – Nathan recommends watching Oli speak in public
- 15:15 – The rest of Oli's time is spent with Unbounce's marketing team and data scientists' team
- 15:48 – Unbounce just got engaged with a new marketing agency
- 16:03 – LTV
- 16:14 – Unbounce had one marketing guy and he left, so they switch to a 5 digital local agency
- 16:33 – CAC
- 16:43 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Being broke should NOT hinder you from starting a business.
- A great product with a reasonable price will always attract more customers.
- Learn how to make decisions and don't hold back.
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
- Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
- 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
- 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