EP 497: Woopra $1M Raised, $1.6M 2015 Revenue, $300k MRR To Help Businesses Get Smarter with CEO Elie Khoury

Elie Khoury, co-founder and CEO of Woopra – a customer intelligence platform that helps businesses essentialize customer engagement across all channels. He studied Computer Science in Lebanese American University where he booked the first generation of Woopra in 2007. In addition to Woopra, he co-founded YallaStartup, a non-government organization establish to proper entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs

• Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I won't change a thing"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:32 – Nathan introduces to Elie the show
• 02:09 – Woopra is designed for businesses to help them consolidate their customer activities across channels
• 02:22 – Woopra is a SaaS model and has monthly subscription
• 02:34 – Woopra is self-funded but they raised an Angel round few years ago
• • 02:43 – Raised about a million dollars in the Angel round
  • 02:48 – It was an equity round
• 02:58 – There are 12 people in the team
• • 03:08 – All are based in SF
• 03:18 – Woopra mainly focused on SaaS businesses but they cater to wide-range of businesses
• 03:39 – Woopra has around 1000 customers at the moment
• 03:50 – Woopra has 100,000 active projects and 1000 of that are paying customers
• 04:10 – Average RPU is around $30,000 a year for enterprise and $ 3000 a year for SMB
• 04:30 – Woopra introduced their enterprise edition a couple of years ago
• 05:05 – Average MRR
• 05:27 – Gross customers monthly churn is lower on enterprise than SMB
• 06:15 – CAC is $ 1-2,000 on enterprise
• 06:35 – Lifetime value
• • 07:39 – Average monthly lifetime value
• 07:53 – Woopra has a sales team that engages with enterprise customers
• 08:08 – Woopra was launched in 2008
• • 08:25 – Woopra has 15,000 active projects that are running for free
• 09:25 – 2015 total revenue around $ 1.5 million
• 09:50 – Woopra is in a good place at the moment
• 10:02 – "Raising funding is always an option. We are just waiting for the right fit and the right time"
• 10:13 – Woopra has to scale in a faster pace and identify the perfect marketing tool
• 10:44 – Connect with Elie through their blog and his email
• 12:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Raising fund is always an option. Just wait for the right fit and the right time.
• There is time to polish things out. Take things slowly.
• Embrace your ignorance.

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.
• Elie@Woopra.com – Elie's email address
• Woopra.com/Blog – Elie's business blog
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives