EP 588: Zirra Raises $3M, Hits $50k MRR Helping You Get Company Data with CEO Aner Ravon

Aner Ravon. He's the co-founder and chief product officer of his new company called Zirra. Zirra's mission is to solve the education and entry pain of the retail investors when it comes to equity investments. Before this company, Aner spent his time at Celltick as a VP of media and head of business unit.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Tipping Point
• What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
• Favorite online tool? — Ask Wonder
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Not to worry so much"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:42 – Nathan introduces Aner to the show
• 02:58 – Zirra steps into the void between data and excel analysis of the companies
• 03:10 – There's a big void in the data collection and actual decision making of a company for the people who want to invest
• 03:48 – Zirra is a service
• • 03:52 – Zirra has an a la carte system which is pay-as-you-go
  • 03:55 – Zirra has 2 main products
  • • 03:58 – Spotlight reports which costs $49
    • 04:11 – Value packages for corporate investors which is a monthly subscription
• 04:29 – Average customer pay is $99 monthly
• 05:05 – Zirra started in August 2014
• 05:30 – Zirra first offered their services for free
• 05:45 – Aner shares how they decided to stop the free service
• • 06:01 – Zirra had 150 free users
  • 06:13 – Some of the free users are large equity firms
• 06:23 – Zirra started in Israel
• 06:35 – Microsoft was using ZIrra heavily, for free
• 07:00 – 80% of the free users converted to paid users
• 07:20 – Zirra managed the free service with free coupons
• 07:41 – Zirra didn't take away the credits, but started renewing them
• • 07:48 – When users use up their credits, they'll be greeted with a pay wall
• 08:05 – Zirra's paywall: pay $49 to get the report or buy 10 reports for $299
• 08:40 – Zirra's revenue comes from pay-as-you-go and monthly subscriptions
• 09:10 – 15 customers are on monthly subscriptions
• 09:20 – 40-50 of the customers are habitual users
• 10:35 – Another product Zirra offers is deep report which sells from $1K-3K
• 11:45 – Team size is 15
• 12:39 – Zirra is based in Telavi, Israel
• 12:49 – Zirra has raised capital and closed almost $3M
• 13:19 – Zirra is founding new investors without going through another round because of their current Angel investors
• 13:51 – 2016 revenue
• 13:55 – 2017 goal revenue
• 14:28 – There are currently a hundred thousand companies in Zirra
• 14:55 – Zirra can deliver the report in just a few hours
• 15:30 – Zirra has 85 different data sources
• • 16:09 – The resources are running through ZIrra's search engine
• 17:12 – Zirra's vision
• 18:19 – Aner thinks PitchBook and CB Insights are great services
• 18:28 – Zirra's ability to storify the data makes them different from their competitors
• 20:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Having access to and understand the data of the company will help inform that decision to invest.
• Shifting from a free service to paid is risky move, but needs to be done.
• Don't worry too much—it won't do very much for you in the end.

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