EP 564: Proleads Passes 100 Customers, $75 ARPU Helping You Find Better Leads with CEO Anders Fredriksson

Anders Fredriksson. He's a Swedish, serial entrepreneur who recently moved to San Francisco to build his sales technology startup, ProLeads. He's an engineer with a business mind and currently holds both CEO and CTO titles. Previously, he built and scaled ArrivalGuides.com as the founding CTO. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Tablefinder.com, which he sold. He studied computer engineering and management at Chalmers University of Technology, but dropped out before getting his degree when he got funding for his first startup, Table Finder. Additionally, in 2007, Internet World named him the most prominent entrepreneur in Sweden.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
• What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff
• Favorite online tool? — Google Inbox
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I really wished I knew how easy it is to start a business, but also I wish I didn't know how hard it was"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:20 – Nathan introduces Anders to the show
• 03:25 – Anders got $75K when he started Table Finder
• 03:50 – ProLeads is a platform that aggregates service data to optimize workflow
• 04:07 – ProLeads is a SaaS model with annual subscriptions
• 04:40 – Average customer pay per month is around $75
• 05:20 – ProLeads was launched in the USA, in 2014
• 05:40 – Anders was in 500 Startups, Batch 12
• • 05:43 – Anders was turned down 4 times
  • 05:58 – What Anders said to convince 500 startups to accept them
• 06:10 – ProLeads was doing $5K per month when they were just starting
• 06:53 – There were 2 co-founders and now they have 3
• 07:20 – Average MRR
• 07:50 – The amount ProLeads receives from 500 startups
• 08:08 – ProLeads also raised funds during the program
• • 08:20 – ProLeads totaled $500K from their fundraising
• 09:15 – Zesty is a longtime customer of ProLeads
• • 09:38 – Zesty has 50-70 seats in ProLeads
• 10:45 – ProLeads' lowest pricing is $300 per month
• • 10:55 – ProLeads' focus is mid-sized companies
• 11:14 – 2017 MRR goal
• 12:10 – Gross customer churn per month
• • 12:49 – ProLeads was growing their MRR
  • 12:56 – ProLeads had a problem during close demo day churn
  • 13:35 – ProLeads had monthly contracts
• 13:51 – Average monthly churn is quite low
• 14:22 – Team size
• 14:36 – CAC
• • 14:48 – No paid marketing
• 15:20 – The tools ProLeads uses:
• • 15:30 – Clearbit, Full Contact, and DiscoverOrg
  • 15:41 – DiscoverOrg was on The Top: Episode 512
• 17:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• BELIEVE in your own product—this will make it easier to convince other people to believe in it as well.
• Problems arise at the start of any business, learn from it and move on.
• Starting a business has both its hard and easy moments; either way, it's worth the jump.

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