EP 580: Self Funded Vainu SaaS Hits $400K MRR, 1000 Customers To Serve Up Business Data with CEO Pietari Suvanto

Pietari Suvanto, cofounder of the company, Vainu. Vainu was founded recently and is a tool that defines piles of data from the web and turns into fact check and actionable company information. His vision is to understand more organizations around the world more than anybody else and his company currently has about a thousand customers in Europe, including FedEx and Santander Innoventures.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People
• What CEO do you follow? – Mike Bloomberg
• Favorite online tool? — Zoom
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Be a bit more braver"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:12 – Nathan introduces Pietari to the show
• 01:50 – Vainu is a SaaS business model
• 02:40 – Pietari shares a company that is searchable in Vainu
• • 03:06 – Salesforce has a lot of organizations around the globe
• 03:50 – The uses of companies' data in Vainu
• • 04:12 – Vainu gives the company's in-depth data
  • 04:30 – Salespeople are the ones who uses Vainu
• 04:49 – Vainu's revenue stream is from the subscription per seat
• 05:05 – Average customer pay per month is €400
• 05:21 – Vainu was launched in 2014
• 05:33 – Vainu hasn't raised capital
• 05:37 – Vainu is based in Hilsinki, Finland, Amsterdam, and New York
• 06:00 – Number of paying customers is 1000
• 06:30 – ARR in 2016 €4.5M
• 06:55 – MRR goal in 2017
• 07:20 – Vainu is finding their customers through their software
• 08:07 – Pietari shares how they find the companies
• 08:50 – Vainu can check the company's' data in preview
• 09:30 – The number of salespeople in Vainu's team
• 09:55 – Gross customer churn is 1%
• 10:05 – CAC
• 10:24 – Assumed LTV per customer
• • 10:40 – €20K-30K
• 11:04 – Pietari is hoping to raise capital
• • 11:36 – Pietari would likely to raise €5-10M
• 12:30 – Pietari shares how they are different from their competitors
• 13:20 – Vainu hasn't bought any API access to any data providers
• • 13:30 – Everything in their system is owned by them
  • 13:50 – The best asset of Vainu
• 14:50 – Pietari shares how they access the revenue data
• 15:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Be the BEST in your market, having an asset that will set you apart from your competitors.
• Raising capital is always an option, but not always a necessity.
• Be brave—step out and believe you can do 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
• 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