SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders EP 536: HGData $24M Raised, $10M 2016 Revenue Helping B2B Companies Get Accurate Data with Mark Godley
Jan 11, 2017
22:31
Mark Godley. He has held leadership positions at technology companies of all different sizes from pre-revenue to publicly traded. He's best known for driving revenue and outpacing industry growth while rejecting herd mentality. Outside of work, Mark finds time daily to read, work-out, and cook—all the while, being an engaged father, spouse, and citizen.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – The Devil in the White City
- What CEO do you follow? – Henry Schuck and Yonatan Stern
- Favorite online tool? — Flipboard, Stitcher, GaggleAMP and Lead Forensics
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Living below your means gives you tons of options. Think about the life you want at age 50 and work backwards. We're running a marathon not a sprint, and it takes planning, sacrifice and resilience and then, don't define success and happiness by your paycheck"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:42 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show
- 02:25 – HG Data is in a competitive and intelligent space
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- 02:35 – HG Data build data sets, used by sales and marketing teams, to do precision targeting at scale
- 03:05 – The founder founded HG Data in 2012 after an exit
- 03:43 – Mark is the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at HG Data
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- 04:02 – Mark handles all the market phasing for the company
- 04:31 – When HG Data was founded it served the enterprise space
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- 04:49 – Last year is when they started to go down market
- 04:58 – Number of enterprise clients is 15-20 with 6-figure ARR
- 05:15 – HG Data had traditional customers, as well, that totaled 50
- 05:58 – HG Data transitioned from a data company to a product company
- 06:12 – Total ASP
- 06:50 – HG Data wants to increase the customer base, but lower the RPU
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- 07:56 – HG Data created a use-space specific databases
- 08:19 – HG Data tries to keep the balance of enterprise and down market pricing
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- 08:34 – 50% of the revenue is from direct clients and 50% is from the partners
- 09:22 – Mark shares what he is worried about in regards to their target
- 10:09 – Mark shares how their partners use their data
- 10:55 – Average pay per user annually
- 12:05 – There are 10-50 OEMs in the customer base
- 12:37 – Average number of customers
- 13:00 – Mark only follows ARR and not MRR
- 13:27 – Mark shares that they are focused on building the new space—they are currently spending and losing money by design, but hoping for a positive cash flow
- 14:00 – Gross annual customer churn is less than 10%
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- 14:30 – "We've had one 6-figure churn in the last 4 years"
- 14:40 – CAC
- 15:23 – "We're looking for a more high-velocity sales model"
- 16:13 – The company is based in Santa Barbara, where they have 80 employees
- 16:42 – Connect with Mark through Twitter and LinkedIn
- 18:40 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- "We're running a marathon, not a sprint, and it takes planning, sacrifice, and resilience."
- Be mindful of your partners BEFORE making decisions.
- Live without regrets.
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
- @Mgodley21 – Mark's Twitter handle
- LinkedIn – Mark's LinkedIn account
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives