SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Assaf Resnick. He's the founder and CEO of BigPanda, an algorithm-make IT operations platform that turns IT alert noise into insight, unifies fragmented operations and enables digital enterprises to attain dramatic or pretty high service levels. Prior to founding the company, he was an investor for Sequoia Capital where he focused on early stage companies across enterprise software, SaaS and the internet sector. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Goal What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — Salesforce How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Start a company early" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:17 – Nathan introduces Assaf to the show 01:52 – Sometimes, Assaf would still ask himself why he left Sequoia 02:00 – Assaf spent 6 years in Sequoia and it was an opportunity of a lifetime 02:19 – Assaf started in Sequoia when he was 29 02:36 – Assaf was bitten by the entrepreneur bug, so he left Sequoia 03:30 – Assaf's stayed in Sequoia for personal career growth 03:43 – Sequoia is different from other VC firms 04:31 – For Assaf, Sequoia expresses the combination of opportunities in the market 05:33 – Assaf is proud of the deals that he had made with Sequoia 06:00 – Assaf found Snaptu to be an interesting deal they invested in 07:00 – BigPanda automates the ability of human-beings and IT operations to keep up with data centers that are radically evolved 07:50 – The big part of IT spending usually goes to the engineers 08:00 – In the data centers, they have to keep the software and infrastructure that is radically transforming running 08:40 – A data company needs to have a handful of tools, data centers and servers 09:15 – One of BigPanda's clients is a Fortune 50 and a large networking company 09:30 – The company now has SaaS offerings and gives the SLA (Service Level Agreement) that they promise to companies 10:15 – The company has teams of engineers in Ukraine, California and India that use 15 monitoring tools to see what is happening 10:37 – The company has 70K data points they need to keep track 11:05 – The amount of data engineers they need has become an issue 11:27 – The problems in the war room can be both preventative and reactionary 11:45 – BigPanda uses a lot machine learning and dynamic classroom instruction to get through the noise 12:10 – An alert can be a problem with the server and something that you can just leave out 13:31 – One should examine if the "if/then statements" are dynamic 13:45 – The "if/then statements" vary day by day, then variables change quickly 14:13 – BigPanda was launched in 2012 14:20 – BigPanda is a SaaS company which charges annually 14:45 – Pricing average 14:51 – BigPanda caters to very large companies 15:20 – Team size is 60 15:28 – BigPanda has raised almost $35M 15:46 – BigPanda has done a regional series B 16:08 – BigPanda partners with Sequoia, Mayfield and In Battery 16:28 – At the end of 2015, people started devaluing some unicorns 16:59 – When Assaf saw rain clouds forming, he thought it made sense to get a winter coat from a capital perspective 17:40 – BigPanda had plenty of pipelines 18:02 – Half of the company is based in Palo Alto and half is in Tel Aviv, Israel 19:03 – Half of the people are in engineering and product, the other half is marketing 19:49 – BigPanda is very disciplined with their model 20:39 – BigPanda has around 25 companies from Fortune 500 22:20 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: If you've committed to always being there for your client, you better follow through on that. No matter how many engineers you have, there's always a chance of them missing a lapse in the data. Start your business as early as possible. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Manny Fernandez. He's a Stanford University educated Angel investor, serial entrepreneur and best-selling author featured on CNBC's Make Me a Millionaire Inventor premier episode. He's been successfully investing his own ideas as well as taking companies from startup to exit. Recently, he was named by INC magazine as one of the 33 entrepreneurs to watch in 2016. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? –"Wisdom and experience beats, no matter how [many] great talents you have" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:11 – Nathan introduces Manny to the show 01:51 – Manny's first company was an investment property 02:10 – It was a 6-figure transaction 02:21 – Manny decided that he wanted to go from 1 investment to 10 02:39 – One of Manny's most notable investments is TaskRabbit 02:58 – Manny is the founder of SF Angels which has 32 members 03:08 – The deal flow comes from others 03:30 – The funds for an Angel round is $250K per year 03:46 – As an Angel, you're looking for the deal flow 04:46 – One of the members of SF Angels is an early investor of TaskRabbit and SF Angels was invited 05:00 – Angels can invest as an individual or as a group 05:32 – Everyone has different preferences 06:31 – Some of the investors in SF Angels are successful enough 07:01 – The potential of investing in SF Angels is different from real estate 07:11 – If you're investing in something that is really working well, results are astronomical 07:47 – Manny suggests to invest only what you can afford to lose 07:56 – Everyone has different financial workflow and abilities 08:31 – Manny has put in greater than normal in angel investing 08:49 – Normal is around 2-5% 09:19 – DreamFunded allows everyday Americans to invest as small as $1 into a company 09:35 – DreamFunded is the first platform in Silicon Valley to receive the approval to allow non-accredited investors to invest, so they're accepting accredited investors and ordinary people 10:03 – Manny has been on the screening community of TiE Angels 10:11 – Manny is good at doing his due-diligence 10:29 – DreamFunded applied as a registered funding portal 11:15 – Manny has personally vetted on the deals on DreamFunded 12:06 – DreamFunded has a legal disclosure where investors can see the minimum amount they have to close to in order to close the transaction 12:33 – The information is not readily available on the website 13:02 – Investors will get an email telling them the closing dates 13:23 – DreamFunded gets 5% upon closing and the 2%the company is offering 13:50 – There are over 30 companies that have closed deals in DreamFunded 13:56 – Over $35M total funds raised 14:07 – The non-accredited investor is still new 14:16 – DreamFunded has not released their total funds raised from non-accredited 14:36 – The first approval for non-accredited was received by DreamFunded in July 2016 14:54 – DreamFunded was launched fall 2014 15:01 – Average team size is 10 15:16 – DreamFunded's model changes overtime 16:02 – A company can raise its target and at the same time, receive an investment from a big company 17:15 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Invest only on what you afford to lose. Investing in a company that is already working is smart, but venturing into other investment streams requires your due diligence. Listen to your mentors, they are mentors for a reason. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Vinay Patankar. He's the CEO of Process Street, the simplest way to manage your teams' recurring processes and workflows. Vinay sets up new clients, onboard employees and manages content publishing with his tool. He also co-host the podcast Business Systems Explored where he deep dives into business systems with industry experts. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk, Zach Nelson and Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — io How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That you can make money on the internet" Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:50 – Nathan introduces Vinay to the show 01:28 – Process Street is a tool that helps companies build and manage their workflows and processes 01:34 – Process Street is a SaaS product, charging on a monthly or yearly subscription based on the number of users one has 01:44 – The vision is to make workflows easy 02:28 – Process Street is from an intuitive perspective 02:53 – Average customer pay 03:42 – Process Street has options for pricing and incentives for annual contracts 04:04 – Process Street was launched in 2013 as a side project 04:10 – Seed round was raised a year and a half ago 04:20 – Team size is 21 04:30 – Total raised was $1.3M 04:47 – Process Street went through Angel Cloud 05:10 – Nathan thinks that the one who will win the space is the one who is better at distribution 05:42 – Distribution is the key in finding a scalable sales process and getting the pricing right 05:57 – The space is very fragmented 06:34 – Vinay thinks they don't need to beat the competition, they just need to grab enough volume of shares 06:52 – Process Street focuses on SEO 07:04 – They measure their rank from targeted keywords 07:28 – Process Street has a marketing team that helps with distribution 08:13 – SEO is cost-effective 08:35 – CAC from the SEO efforts 09:06 – MRPU 09:17 – Process Street doesn't spend in other marketing channels 09:26 – Process Street invests in sales deeper into their funnels 10:00 – Expansion rate varies depending on the size of the customer 10:28 – Process Street has a healthy expansion revenue 11:26 – 15 of the team are focused on marketing 11:35 – Process Street is still working on their headcount expenses 11:56 – Process Street will adjust and optimize pricing 12:29 – Average number of customers 12:41 – MRR 13:03 – Process Street's goal is to raise an A round at the first or second quarter of 2018 13:20 – Target MRR by the end of 2017 13:35 – Process Street has no paid acquisition 14:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: The one that will scale in the project management space is the one that is better at distribution. You don't always need to beat your competitors, just gain your shares and increase your volume. There is real money that can be made on the internet. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Scott Clark. He's the co-founder and CEO of SigOpt, a Y-Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz backed, optimization as a service startup. Scott has been applying after-learning technologies in industry and academia for years. He holds a PhD for applied mathematics and an MS in computer science from Cornell University and a BS degree in mathematics, physics and computational physics from Oregon State University. He was chosen as one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in 2016. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and Phil Knight Favorite online tool? — Gmail and Slack How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8 If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – Scott would tell himself that it doesn't get easier, so set up habits and processes to make things sustainable when you have the time and ability to do it because that will definitely help once things ramp up Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:44 – Nathan introduces Scott to the show 01:25 – SigOpt is optimization as a service 01:27 – SigOpt helps companies build different, complex AI and machine learning pipelines 01:41 – SigOpt is a SaaS model and the subscription is based on the number of models per month 01:53 – Pricing starts at $2500 a month and enterprise starts at $10K a month 02:13 – Average monthly RPU 02:33 – SigOpt usually engages at the executive level 02:38 – People wanted to use AI for their businesses but couldn't find the right person to do the work so they go with SigOpt 03:23 – One of SigOpt's client is Prudential 03:31 – Insurance companies are augmenting their traditional methods to the new data that is being collected 03:48 – As their data increases, the need for the best possible performance increases 04:26 – What SigOpt does is different from the traditional machine learning as a service companies 04:41 – Scott shares a specific example of how SigOpt works with credit card companies 04:44 – Fraud detection has been around for decades 05:28 – SigOpt fine tunes different knobs and levers in the configuration parameters that makes the machine model work 06:15 – SigOpt focuses on black box optimization 07:45 – SigOpt relies on the domain expertise of the person at the specific firm to build a deep learning model 08:31 – SigOpt applies an ensemble of global optimization techniques to the problem so they can efficiently configure the system 09:20 – SigOpt suggests different curvatures 09:58 – SigOpt has raised $8.8M to date 10:30 – SigOpt never sees the underlying data 11:11 – The entire system is designed to be hands-off 11:43 – SigOpt was launched end of 2013 11:51 – Number of paying customers is around a dozen 12:18 – Average MRR 12:25 – SigOpt prefer annual deals 12:54 – No churn yet 13:14 – Team size is 13 13:35 – The capital raised was spent on the team and the enterprise sales efforts 13:54 – 3-4 of the team are in sales 14:05 – CAC 14:22 – They sometimes visit their customers 14:55 – Investors like to make big bets on the new technologies 15:33 – The goal for the series A money 16:33 – Average expenses 17:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: The need for AI and machine-learning is growing fast and there's not enough people who are qualified to develop these products. The headcount can eat up most of a company's expenses—especially in the technology industry. Optimization services make a business more efficient leading to a less to none churn rate. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Eric Dolan. He's the co-founder and CEO of Neutun. He has 5 years of startup experience and business management experience. He also has data science experience with a focus on product development and management. In 2014, his team received an award for Best Smartwatch App in the Hack the North Competition in Canada. Recently, Eric was named INC's 30 under 30, a list that recognizes the best young CEOs in America. He received his bachelor in business administration from University of Western Ontario and his post graduate specialization certificate from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, New York University School of Business and John Hopkins University. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Mixmax How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Go more towards your business and tech side, that's where you're going to make more money" Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:50 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show 01:42 – Eric is a Canadian and has been in US for 1.5 years 02:11 – Eric is currently in Canada during the interview 02:35 – Neutun is a software that makes it easier for patients to keep track of chronic diseases 02:44 – Eric's mom has epilepsy and it was difficult for them to manage the seizures and medications 03:06 – Neutun keeps track of the seizures and manages the medications on time 03:28 – Neutun is device-agnostic 03:37 – It allows users to use their existing smartphone to track 03:45 – Neutun makes money through lead generation 04:17 – Eric is looking at a million dollar runway for 2017 05:09 – Neutun's revenue is predictable for a SaaS business 05:56 – Neutun's initial model was a lead generator for pharmaceutical companies 06:02 – In the long term, Eric wanted Neutun to transition to a market-intelligence company 06:14 – Neutun wanted to address all chronic diseases 06:30 – Neutun has 10K organic users 07:15 – Neutun was launched late 2016 07:47 – People find Neutun mainly from word-of-mouth 08:18 – There are also doctors who are recommending Neutun 08:38 – Neutun makes money through scripts or prescriptions 09:08 – Average amount per script 10:23 – Neutun tries to benefit the user as much as possible 10:46 – Neutun also suggests sponsored medication 11:06 – Average medication expenses of a patient 11:42 – Neutun is almost similar with tracking steps 11:53 – Through Neutun's algorithms and AI, it can detect a seizure 12:11 – Then the recording will start 12:44 – Tracking the seizure is important for doctors 12:58 – With Neutun's data, doctors can prescribe more accurate medications 14:10 – The only way to prevent seizures is to do what doctors tell you to do and take the medications 14:37 – Neutun was initially bootstrapped 14:56 – Neutun has raised a million on a kiss convertible note 15:33 – Team size is 7 16:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: If patients can track their seizures accurately, doctors can prescribe a more appropriate prescription. The advancement in technology is benefitting the health industry in many ways. Go where you can earn well. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Paul Tyma. He's the founder and creator of a tool called Mailinator which is an email system. He's also a startup veteran and has focused on 4 Silicon Valley startups including Preemptive Solutions, Manybrain Inc which owns Mailinator, Home-Account.com which was acquired by Bills.com, and Refresh Inc which was acquired by LinkedIn. He's a frequent speaker, writer and author of one of the original books on Java called Java Primer Plus. Dr. Tyma has received his PhD from Syracuse University focused on Java/.Net performance. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Influence What CEO do you follow? – Amy Errett and Bradley Kam Favorite online tool? — Linode How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8.5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "How to talk to girls" Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:53 – Nathan introduces Paul to the show 01:48 – Paul started his first company during his PhD 01:56 – After getting his PhD, Paul worked for Google 02:12 – Paul is still part of the board for Preemptive Solutions 02:18 – Refresh had a very visible exit and is currently at LinkedIn icebreakers 02:37 – The acquisition was in 2015 02:45 – Acquisition price 02:54 – Refresh was a consumer application 03:10 – Refresh has raised $10M in total 03:20 – The first round was a priced round 03:53 – Refresh had 100K users 04:30 – Refresh built its own identity from scratch 04:40 – The technology of Refresh 05:40 – Home-Account.com was built prior to Refresh 05:59 – Paul was a minor founder 06:15 – Option pool 07:23 – Selling a company and staying with the company who acquired it is a cliché in Silicon Valley 08:19 – Mailinator was a side project Paul built 13 years ago 08:30 – It was a receive only mail service 08:50 – Mailinator lets you create a disposable email 10:17 – Mailinator had some ads which paid for the server 11:30 – Mailinator now makes money from affiliates 11:47 – Mailinator's brand became strong 11:56 – There was a high usage from QA departments who tested their signups process and welcome email 12:11 – They asked Mailinator for additional features 12:40 – Hundreds of QA teams now are using and paying Mailinator 13:16 – Mailinator also has a private paid domain 13:40 – Pricing is $29 for single user and $129 for a team 13:56 – Average RPU is $35 14:31 – Average MRR 14:57 – Paul is now turning Mailinator into a business 15:21 – Churn is pretty high 15:48 – Less paid advertising 16:16 – Mailinator has 45K unique users a day 16:44 – 25K new inboxes are set up everyday 16:58 – "This is not a DAU product" 17:21 – Mailinator has not raised money 18:09 – Team size is 3 18:30 – Gross margin 18:59 – Server cost 19:53 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: A side project can definitely turn into something more—don't underestimate its potential. An email does NOT reflect one's identity. There are thousands of emails being made and sent every day—having a disposable one is almost a necessity. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Kathryn Minshew. She's the CEO of founder of TheMuse.com, a career platform that is used by over 50M folks to find jobs, learn professional skills or advance in their careers. This platform is also used by hundreds of companies looking to grow their employer brand and to hire. Kathryn is a Harvard and Wall Street Journal contributor and she's spoken at MIT in Harvard along with the Today's Show. She's been named The Smart CEO's Future 50, INC's 35 under 35 and a Duke alum. Kathryn worked at Rwanda and Health Access Initiative and before founding The Muse, she was previously at McKinsey. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things and Traction What CEO do you follow? – Jennifer Hyman, Elon Musk and Jeremy Johnson Favorite online tool? — Boomerang and Pocket How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Kathryn wished she knew it was okay to be different and everything that is worth doing is hard Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:42 – Nathan introduces Kathryn to the show 01:35 – The Muse was founded to be the most trusted and beloved place for people to navigate their career 01:42 – The Muse is a marketplace with over 50M people who uses the site annually 02:00 – The Muse has over 600 companies which they help in hiring and employment 02:25 – "If you want really great people, you have to compete for them" 03:00 – The companies can reach more candidates through The Muse 03:19 – The Muse is a SaaS-enabled marketplace 03:31 – The Muse somehow competes with LinkedIn Recruit and Glassdoor 04:05 – Most companies in The Muse sign up for an annual subscription 04:24 – Average pricing is $20-30K but enterprise is higher than the mid-market businesses 04:54 – The Muse works with every business size in every industry 05:04 – The businesses are categorized by team size 05:25 – Companies that are subscribed have access to different tools on the website 06:11 – The marketplace on TheMuse.com is where companies can post their profiles and job listings 06:21 – The Muse has also developed more products 06:41 – One of The Muse's client has 50K to 150K employees 07:29 – The Muse also assists their Fortune 100 companies on their existing channels 08:12 – The Muse started targeting individual users 08:24 – The Muse was launched in 2011 having career related tools and content for individuals 08:31 – The Muse rolled out their first company profile after hitting 100K website visits per month 08:41 – The Muse have never had advertising on the website 08:58 – The Muse had their first 100K users in 6 months 09:05 – The initial cash for The Muse came from Kathryn's savings 09:39 – When Kathryn left McKinsey, she had $25K in savings 09:50 – Then Kathryn got an offer to work at Rwanda 10:28 – Kathryn was 25 at the time 10:56 – Kathryn has always thought that savings equate to freedom 11:34 – When Kathryn came back from Rwanda, she started a business similar to The Muse 13:02 – Kathryn spent $20K on her first company 13:23 – With only $5K left in savings, Kathryn together with her co-founder started The Muse 13:45 – Kathryn tried to keep her expenses low 14:24 – Kathryn started The Muse because she had all the questions and wanted answers 14:29 – The community then gave Kathryn the answers 15:02 – The Muse initially had 50 articles giving career advice and providing resources 15:10 – The first job listing was posted after a month as a test 15:29 – The Muse used to get paid for the job listing but it doesn't work that way now 16:17 – Kathryn shares how the conversation happened between her and the co-founders 17:11 – They wanted to work and make it happen 17:25 – The equity between them is almost even 17:54 – The Muse raised a round for $100K in 2012 and got into Y-combinator 18:41 – The Muse raised $10M in a series A in 2015, and $16M in a Series B: Q1 of 2017 19:12 – The Muse is closed to breaking even 19:31 – There are different ways in building a business and there's no one perfect path 19:53 – The Muse has 600 active businesses 20:10 – Some companies just closed or got acquired 21:35 – Average revenue 23:05 – The Famous Five 23:32 – Kathryn's book The New Rules of Work 3 Key Points: You can start a business with minimal means and still grow it into a profitable one. There is no one perfect path to building a business. If a task or venture is hard, that's a good sign it's worth it. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Duy Huynh. He's the founder of Autonomous.ai which builds smart office products to help people work smarter. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – Stewart Butterfield Favorite online tool? — Google Analytics How many hours of sleep do you get?— 4 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Focus on and build something really helpful to people" Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:50 – Nathan introduces Duy to the show 01:20 – Subscribe to Youtube to see Duy using a smart desk 01:32 – Smart desk helps work smart the whole day 01:48 – "We don't care much about the money" 02:02 – Autonomous' mission is how they can help companies' work smarter 02:51 – Autonomous wants to reinvent every single item in an office 03:15 – One of Autonomous' products is the Cardboard 03:30 – It is created for people who want an affordable standing desk 04:05 – It sells for $19 04:17 – Cardboard is a fairly new product 04:42 – Autonomous was founded in 2014 05:10 – Autonomous has shipped around 100K units 05:16 – The best-seller is the SmartDesk 05:38 – It can keep you healthy and stay active in office 05:50 – Some of Nathan's friends have bought the Smartdesk 06:07 – Autonomous has raised $200K 06:18 – Prior to Autonomous, Duy really liked smart products 06:46 – Duy started Autonomous with his co-founders in a small apartment 08:25 – The seed money has helped Duy make the prototypes 09:00 – Duy has spent $100-200K on the products before raising the seed round 09:09 – Duy traveled to find the best suppliers 09:30 – Team size 09:43 – 4 are working in the NY office 09:46 – 10 in California and some in Vietnam and China 10:10 – Total of 40 people 10:22 – Autonomous is currently cash flow positive 10:35 – Duy isn't looking at raising another round at the moment 11:00 – Monthly expenses 11:40 – Autonomous is doing over $10M annually 12:18 – Most of the customers are founders 12:37 – Autonomous currently relies on word-of mouth 12:49 – Autonomous had a Kickstarter campaign 13:05 – Autonomous made $250K from their Kickstarter campaign 13:20 – It was for a thousand units 13:58 – Duy wanted to maintain a fair margin in the supply chain 14:36 – "They pay for what they get" 15:00 – Competitors' margin 15:19 – Gross profit 16:04 – The second and third best-selling products are the chair and stool, respectively 16:38 – Duy wouldn't take a deal from Herman Miller at the moment 16:41 – Autonomous isn't a furniture company 17:19 – On paper, Duy is the single founder but the co-founders have equity as well 18:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Smart products shouldn't just offer convenience, but make your life healthy and active too. Price your product fairly—the value of the product should match the price. Create something that will be really helpful for people. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Connor Gillivan. He's a 27-year old serial entrepreneur and published author. He started his first company out of his college dorm room and built it to sell over $20M in products on Amazon.com. After he became an expert on hiring online, he co-founded FreeeUp, an online hiring marketplace focused on connecting the top 1% freelancers with business owners. He's the author of Free Up Your Business: 50 Secrets to Bootstrap Million Dollar Companies. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Shoe Dog What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Jira How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5-6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wished I knew to stay focused on what I do best" Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:47 – Nathan introduces Connor to the show 01:32 – Connor makes 20% to 30% of the gross margin of a product on Amazon 01:38 – Net profits end up being from 5%-15% 02:04 – It was 6 years ago when Connor started his business 02:15 – Connor earned on the first year of the business 02:51 – Connor has scaled up his first company 03:00 – The company still operates with $1-2M in revenue per year 03:08 – The team is composed of freelancers who are based around the world 03:27 – The 3 founders, including Connor, are getting their pay quarterly 03:40 – Connor now spends his time on his second business FreeeUp 03:52 – Connor's first company is Portlight 04:05 – Average price point was $75-100 04:25 – FreeeUp was launched in 2015 04:29 – Connor and his co-founder learned about hiring freelancers through Odesk and Elance, which merged and is now called Upwork 04:36 – They didn't like the process of posting job ads and going through every applicant 04:46 – FreeeUp has a better solution where the business owner doesn't have to do the upfront work 04:58 – FreeeUp finds the top 1% candidates for the business owners 05:18 – Toptal is more focused on top developers and designers 05:23 – FreeeUp's freelancers are specialized on e-commerce business operations 05:35 – There's no upfront free 05:43 – FreeeUp has a standard markup that they charge on their clients for hourly rates 06:06 – The minimum charge is $2 and 20% for the higher price 06:55 – There are over 500 freelancers on FreeeUp 07:28 – FreeeUp's system can measure the amount they're paying their freelancers 07:37 – The biggest metric is the hours billed to the client 08:01 – Average billing per hour is $10 08:18 – FreeeUp is keeping $60K-80K in revenue per month 09:11 – FreeeUp has around 1500 signups on the platform 09:16 – FreeeUp bills between 300-500 people who are utilizing their workers 09:45 – 2000-2500 people have been billed since FreeeUp started 09:58 – FreeeUp has a referral program where clients can refer other people who would want to use FreeeUp and they receive $0.50 for every hour that has been billed 10:28 – FreeeUp is more hands on with their client 10:56 – Most clients start slow and when they see FreeeUp's benefits, they'll use it more 11:10 – Team size is 20-25 part-time people 11:51 – Connor is currently in Orlando, FL 12:11 – Both of Connor's businesses are bootstrapped 12:21 – Total transaction volume for 2016 is a bit over a million 12:33 – 2016 average revenue 12:44 – 2017 projected transaction volume is $3-4M 13:20 – Connor puts his money back into his businesses to scale them 13:47 – Connor splits the 20% from FreeeUp 14:32 – Since April, FreeeUp has grown 1000% 15:20 – FreeeUp started winning in the ecommerce industry 15:58 – FreeeUp now offers digital marketing as well and try to find different areas that will interest more clients 17:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: There are more business owners relying on outsourcing for their needs and share with others just how beneficial outsourcing is. Ensure you have backup funds for your company. Focus on what you do best. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dan Gamito. He now leads partnerships and B&D for a company called ManyChat. Formerly, he led the customer success team for ConvertKit. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – N/A What CEO do you follow? – Des Traynor Favorite online tool? — Calendly How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Just chill out" Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:47 – Nathan introduces Dan to the show 01:16 – ManyChat is marketing automation platform for Facebook Messenger 01:28 – ManyChat is a SaaS business 01:38 – Nathan uses ManyChat and struggles with the emotional factor 02:11 – Users struggle with emotion because of the automation side of ManyChat 02:14 – Think about how people use messenger 02:29 – Dan suggests in keeping your messages informal, straight to the point and write what people would find valuable in EVERY sentence 02:49 – People are now shifting to Messenger from email marketing 02:57 – Messenger is different from email 03:05 – Nathan shares how he struggles figuring out what messages to set 03:54 – How can people use ManyChat in a simple way? 04:04 – Dan challenges us to look at our phones and see who we want to talk to at that moment 04:17 – Build the interactions up from the bottom 04:19 – The goal is to make people want to have a live chat conversation with you 04:51 – ManyChat can be part of your funnel 05:49 – ManyChat has a partnership with Sean of Soul Space Media 06:04 – Sean's wife had a case study of ManyChat on their podcast 06:10 – DigitalMarketer did a case study, as well 07:05 – For 0-500 subscribers, pricing is $10 07:18 – Average customer pay 07:51 – ManyChat has been around for about a year and a half 08:38 – ManyChat has raised a seed round from 500 Startups 09:02 – ManyChat has raised around a million 09:19 – ManyChat has over 40K bots 10:26 – Dan on leaving ConvertKit 10:33 – Dan was Nathan's first hire at ConvertKit 10:45 – Dan did everything to add value to the company, more specifically in customer success 10:56 – Dan has launched his own software product prior to ConvertKit 11:27 – Dan saw Nathan trying to compete with Infusionsoft 11:41 – Dan was like a silent co-founder 12:12 – Dan ended up not being a good fit for ConvertKit 12:54 – Both Dan and Nathan are both headstrong and their communication broke down 13:16 – Nathan terminated Dan on short notice 13:50 – Dan was naïve and inexperienced during that time 14:19 – "I walked in completely unprepared" 15:01 – Nathan gave an offer to Dan 15:30 – Nathan explains how equity works in startups 16:16 – Dan thought he didn't value himself very much 19:10 – Dan is now almost 30 19:31 – Dan was pursued by ManyChat's CEO Mike 19:55 – "He believed in me" 20:13 – Dan approached ManyChat with what he could add to it and the structure that he could build 20:21 – Dan knew he could do it by heart 20:36 – Team size is over 15 20:49 – Dan still has no equity 21:03 – Dan joined ManyChat in November of 2016 22:38 – "Time-boxing things and putting expectations around things is never going to work" 24:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: In new work opportunities, know your contract by heart. Know your worth—don't undervalue yourself. Automation can sacrifice the emotional and interpersonal interaction with your customers. Resources Mentioned: 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 Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives