SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

0:55 – How SaaS PayKickstart launched inside agency 1:25 – Why their average customer pays $99 per month 2:10 – How they've hit $50k in MRR today 2:40 – How $0 to $10k/mo in under 12 months 3:40 – Why they've bootstrapped to this point 4:15 – Tactic used to hit 20% gross revenue churn 9:40 – How they are landing customers through affiliates and cold outreach 10:50 – Why 10-15% of their revenue is coming from affiliate deals

Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:55 – Why he spun the company out of his agency one year ago 3:45 – Average customer pays them $3,500 annually 4:15 – How they've scaled to 250 paying customers 4:35 – Did $9k in MRR last month 5:20 – Less than 1% gross revenue churn monthly 6:05 – They are raising $1m right now on $2.5m pre money value 7:10 – How they've scaled with just two full-time employees 8:00 – Why they are paying under $100 to acquire a new customer

Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show 00:25 – Why Kellogg was named top CEO by Glassdoor 00:45 – How Madwire has grown to 600 employees 01:25 – Why they operate on a hybrid SaaS and professional service model 02:30 – How they view revenue per employee and prioritize it 03:15 – Why they are doing $175k in revenue per employee today 03:30 – How Madwire is doing $105M in ARR right now 04:00 – Why they help small businesses with marketing at scale 04:50 – How they are serving 10k active customers at this point in time 05:05 – Why their average new account is paying around $1,500 each month 05:45 – How Madwire has scaled with $7.5M in outside funding 06:15 – Why they are cash flow positive 06:35 – How they are still growing 40% year over year 07:45 – Why they track churn in two unique ways 10:00 – How they receive payback within 3 months on a $3k CAC 11:10 – Why they are landing customers entirely through digital channels 12:10 – How he started the company with his father in 2009 13:45 – Why they've set aside stock and equity for top performing employees 14:40 – How they are targeting an IPO in the next few years 15:30 – Why they would look to IPO in two years 16:30 – The Famous Five JB Kellogg is the co-founder of SMB marketing platform, Madwire and Marketing 360. JB was named the Top CEO in the country by Glassdoor in 2016. Company website: https://www.madwire.com/ SaaS Metrics: Founded: 2009 Customers: 10,000 ARPU: $875 (monthly) Annual recurring revenue: $104 million Founded: 2009 Funding: $7.5m Team: 600

French, 24yo. I have lived in the US, Cambodia, South Korea, and Switzerland. I launched my first company 4 years ago doing smartphone repairs for students in campuses. And 18 months ago, I started Ease.space with 3 other people.

Christopher Reid is the founder and CEO of Sortable, a Waterloo Region startup on a mission to Empower Publishers. With an engineering background from the University of Waterloo, he is a serial entrepreneur on his fifth venture and has led tech ventures in industries ranging from educational technology to the consumer web and B2B SaaS. He is the driving force behind Sortable (formerly Snapsort Media), which uses machine learning to help online publishers automate ad operations. Previously a web publishing company, Snapsort Media was acquired in 2011 and bought back in 2014 to relaunch to Sortable's current day business.

Distinguished track record in technology, with a 20-plus year career spanning the development, marketing, and sale of technology. Spent the past 10 years on the cutting edge of social media, helping media companies and marketers more effectively use technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to power their social media efforts.

Valentin Radu is a serial entrepreneur from Bucharest, Romania. He has founded four companies and had one important exit and one useful failure. Currently, he is the Founder & CEO of Omniconvert, a growth marketing platform for websites looking to become customer-centric.

Byron White is one of the original content marketing revolutionaries, and founder of WriterAccess. He's started several other businesses including Freelance Access, LifeTips, ideaLaunch and more. Byron is the Chair and Founder of Content Marketing Conference, an event featuring 65 speakers and 20 keynotes in 2018. He has authored four books on content marketing topics, is a popular speaker at dozens of conferences, and hosts a Webinar and Podcast series.

Frost Prioleau is the Co-Founder and CEO of Simpli.fi. An experienced online advertising executive specializing in targeting, optimization, and technology, Prioleau focuses on corporate strategy, driving Simpli.fi's growth, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Prior to Simpli.fi, Prioleau was the CEO and Founder of Personifi, a contextual and behavioral targeting company. The firm was acquired by Collective Media in 2008. While at Collective, Prioleau served as General Manager of the Technology Solutions Group. A thought leader in online advertising, Prioleau often speaks on the topic at industry trade shows and in the press. Prioleau is a graduate of Princeton University, where he earned a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering Management Systems.

Jay is responsible for all revenue-generating activities of Atlassian, including customer success and retention, operations and marketing. Jay joined Atlassian in 2008 as vice president of sales and marketing to lead Atlassian's pioneering efforts to develop a high-velocity, low-touch sales model. He's overseen the company's global expansion, introduction of its Starter License program (a disruptive approach to "freemium" where the company donates all proceeds to a charitable cause), and its growing worldwide customer community and programs. In 2011 Atlassian introduced its cloud-based offering Atlassian On-Demand, an evolution of its fast-growing SaaS platform. Jay has more than 18 years of experience in the software industry. He began his career at Plumtree Software where he held a variety of senior marketing and sales roles. Significantly, Jay oversaw the company's expansion throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. When Plumtree was acquired by BEA Systems in 2005, Jay became vice president of marketing for BEA Systems, which was later acquired by Oracle in 2008. Jay holds a bachelor's degree in political and environmental science from the University of Washington.