SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 826: AdTech: Bootstrapped to $1m-$10m With 20% EBIDTA Margin
Oct 28, 2017
19:53
Christian Geissendoerfer. He's the CEO of Yoose, the leading expert in location-based advertising in Asia and Europe. He's an entrepreneur passionate about building businesses and leading teams. He recently started something parallel to Yoose which is a German Accelerator in Southeast Asia that helps German startups expand into that region. He loves living in Singapore and Vietnam, traveling the world and learning languages. He's fluent in German, English, French and Spanish.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – A Monk and the Riddle
- What CEO do you follow? – CEO Collaborative Group
- Favorite online tool? — Xero and Zapier
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Do it over again"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:50 – Nathan introduces Christian to the show
- 02:28 – Yoose is a location-based mobile advertising company
- 02:36 – Yoose helps brands to target people in specific geographic locations
- 03:28 – Yoose is aggregating inventory from different mobile networks
- 04:05 – Yoose is buying the inventory for the company and running campaigns on specific locations
- 04:25 – Yoose is selling a premium product
- 04:42 – Yoose charges per CPM
- 04:59 – There's current request for CPC charges
- 05:23 – Yoose was launched in 2008, in Berlin, and moved to Singapore in 2010
- 06:00 – 2016 revenue is in the million dollar figure range
- 06:08 – Team size is 15 and the majority are based in Vietnam
- 06:16 – Yoose is a bootstrapped business
- 07:12 – Yoose is working on a different platform based on audience profiles and attribution
- 08:10 – Customers use Yoose over their competitors because of the full service they offer
- 08:49 – Yoose is also geographically focused
- 09:12 – Yoose is currently working with the major media agencies and secondary agencies
- 09:35 – There are 25-30 agencies in total
- 09:47 – Yoose has partnerships in different countries that they serve too
- 10:32 – Yoose and the partners both take a cut from the charges
- 10:45 – "We are transparent on costs on both sides"
- 11:00 – The EBIT (Earnings Before Interests and Taxes) margin in the space vary
- 11:14 – Yoose is in the middle of the margin, depending on the country
- 11:43 – At this stage, Christian is putting the capital back into the company
- 12:46 – Christian has put all his personal money into starting Yoose
- 13:08 – Christian has worked in France prior to Yoose
- 13:43 – Christian initially wanted to build something similar to Tinder
- 15:33 – German Accelerator works with the German government and has been in the US market for 5 years, they're now expanding to Southeast Asia
- 16:05 – Christian gets his salary from the government
- 17:32 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Be transparent with your partners, so you'll gain their trust. This will also lead to more partnerships.
- The corporate world can help shape and grow your skills but don't regret taking another route to succeed.
- Create something that you want, yourself.
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