EP 549: Propeller CEO on Why He'll Win CRM Space After Exit to Samsung with Eric Bouck

Eric Bouck. He's the CEO and founder of Propeller, a CRM that lets you sell from gmail. Prior to Propeller, Eric was the co-founder and CEO of Zigzag Software which was eventually sold to Samsung. He also spent some time working as a director for Samsung. He also worked as a Group Product Manager at Dell EMC and spent 4 years with this company.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Inspired
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Webflow
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Marry the right person"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:26 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show
• 02:05 – Propeller is the CRM that creates daily tools that salespeople can use to set their meetings, do their email and phone calls, share presentations and documents, and research etc.
• 02:31 – Propeller is a SaaS business and they have monthly and annual subscriptions
• 02:50 – Average revenue per customer monthly
• • 02:54 –$50 per month
• 03:15 – How does Propeller win on a very crowded market?
• • 03:24 – There's a lot of companies who try to make their own niche
  • 03:42 – Propeller has a unique mix of deep integration with Gmail combined with the ability to do multiple step campaign
• 04:45 – Propeller is an all-in-one CRM – you won't be needing another product
• 05:10 – Propeller was launched September 1st
• • 05:15 – Growth is 21% month over month
  • 05:22 – A little over 50 customers at the moment
• 05:26 – Propeller is bootstrapped
• 05:39 – Eric got decent money from the exit
• 06:23 – No revenue churn at the moment
• 07:00 – Team size, they are also remote
• 07:36 – Eric is not open to acquisition talks at the moment
• 08:00 – The leading companies in the CRM space are Salesforce and Dynamics
• • 08:35 – Pipeline and Hubspot are getting positive feedback as well
• 09:00 – Eric shares his opinion of Outreach
• 09:25 – Eric mentions Propeller having an AI
• 09:55 – The core differentiator of the products
• • 10:04 – An example of how Propeller makes getting your emails done easier
• 11:00 – Nathan's acuity to batch schedule
• 11:20 – CRM pricing
• • 11:42 – Deliver the VALUE
  • 12:00 – Eric shares their vision as a company to make salespeople more effective
• 12:12 – Eric shares how he got their first 5 customers
• 12:46 – Eric has also spent for paid marketing
• 12:58 – LTV is $1500
• 13:30 – CAC LTV ratio
• 15:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• If your market is crowded, you have to work HARDER to differentiate yourself.
• The value is not in losing sales or making more sales—the value is found in whether or not you provide an effective product.
• Don't live with regrets—it's gotten you to where you are now.

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
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives