SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

In Episode #629, Nathan interviews Jennifer Reyna. She's got a lot of energy and more importantly, she studied business creation and development in Mexico. She's created 3 startups so far, Agri DeliCo which is a socio-company, Brain Fusion which is embedded in software development, and Gaszen or gas management. They've raised over $650K in Mexico and have developed their own working product. She's a mother, lover, sister, and daughter that enjoys her life and lives with zero regrets. She said, after all, there's only one life and she's in a constant pursuit of the best version of herself. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That hard work can make everything happen for sure" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:34 – Nathan introduces Jennifer Reyna to the show 02:22 – Jenny realized that people complain about their gas 02:38 – Jenny created a device that works with stationary tanks 02:48 – Gaszen has an application where the consumer can see his gas consumption, statistics, and choose the best gas supplier 02:59 – Gaszen monetizes through selling information to gas suppliers 03:08 – Gaszen also monetizes from a consumer who wants automation 03:34 – Gaszen isn't in the market yet and is still finishing its development 03:41 – Gaszen will start selling in April 03:43 – Gaszen already approached gas suppliers and has pre-ordered from them 03:57 – There are already 2 gas suppliers who have bought from Gaszen 04:05 – Gaszen also has real estate clients 04:31 – Gaszen has partnered with 3 real estate firms 04:35 – Gaszen is currently in discussion with 15 more real estate firms in Mexico 04:48 – The firm buys the device for $77 04:59 –The device will go directly to the buyer of the house 05:21 – Gas suppliers get a discounted price for buying the device in bulk 05:48 – Mexico has problems with gas suppliers giving updates 06:08 – Each gas supplier bought 5k units of the device 06:19 – The amount per piece will be $50 06:38 – Having clients before the actual launch of the product is good for Gaszen 06:49 – Gaszen's first Kickstarter 07:07 – Gaszen raised 80K Mexican peso 07:19 – Gaszen had 111 backers 07:41 – Gaszen is B2B focused 07:48 – Gaszen has raised their first seed round with a total of $350K 08:05 – It was an equity round 08:14 – Gaszen started 2 years ago 08:26 – Gaszen had Angel investors and won the biggest Hackathon in the world 08:47 – Gaszen raised $300k with Angel investors 09:13 – From the gas suppliers, Gaszen charges after the 6-month trial, a monthly fee is charged per device or per device and user 09:32 – Gaszen charges 9 Mexican pesos per automated service 09:59 – Gaszen has no MRR currently 10:23 – The team has 5 people in management and 3 junior engineers 10:43 – The team is based in León Guanajuato, México 11:03 – It costs Gaszen $36 to make the device 11:30 – The whole device is made in Mexico 11:43 – The volume needed per year is 50K units in order to get a better price 12:13 – Gaszen wants to keep manufacturing in Mexico, if possible 13:45 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Look at the most common problem and create a solution. If you can keep sourcing and manufacturing locally and with a good price, the better. Keep at it—hard work definitely pays off. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #628, Nathan interviews Iddo Gino. He's the CEO and co-founder of RapidAPI which he founded when he was 16 years old. He's listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and previously, he was the co-organizer at Hacking Gen Y. Originally from Israel, Iddo, currently resides in San Francisco, California where he runs RapidAPI and runs JavaScript projects on the side. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Stewart Butterfield Favorite online tool? — GitHub Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — 6-7 hours If you could let your 10-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew what I didn't know back then" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces Iddo to the show 01:57 – RapidAPI let developers find APIs online 02:09 – RapidAPI has a marketplace model where developers can pay for the APIs 02:16 – RapidAPI's processing fee is from 10% - 25% 02:30 – The fee depends on the API vendor 02:46 – RapidAPI is like a point connection for developers to find APIs 02:55 – Iddo was part of Hacking Gen Y 03:09 – Iddo realized how powerful APIs were while he was at Hacking Gen Y 03:18 – Iddo created the first version of RapidAPI 03:41 – Together with Iddo is his co-founder, Mickey Haslavsky 03:49 – Team size is 20 03:58 – The engineering team is in Israel and marketing and sales teams are in San Francisco 04:10 – Developers' salaries in Israel 04:34 – RapidAPI just announced their seed round in November 04:44 – Total amount raised was $3.5M and an equity round 05:00 – RapidAPI started as an open-source project 05:40 – There are 148K apps or projects that have used Slack in RapidAPI 05:54 – Slack is a free API and the service is free, but there are paid APIs 06:43 – Average MRR 07:06 – The fee is charged from the API and not the consumer 07:16 – Any consumer transaction in RapidAPI is free 07:31 – One of the most popular paid APIs is Twilio 08:01 – If someone connects to Twilio API through RapidAPI, that's when RapidAPI takes the processing fee 08:31 – "RapidAPI is all about neighboring developers to connect with APIs" 08:40 – RapidAPI will soon open a facility for developers 09:12 – Iddo volunteered for Hacking Gen Y and helped Hackathons 09:21 – Iddo was working on creating apps and websites prior to RapidAPI 09:36 – Iddo is currently 19 and his parents are just excited for him and what he does 09:54 – Iddo still thinks of going back to college, but is currently enjoying RapidAPI's success at the moment 11:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: APIs are powerful and having a one point connection is beneficial for the developers. In the process of helping people, you also learn from them. Being an entrepreneur at an early age opens you up to the opportunity to learn more. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #627, Nathan interviews Mark Mader. He's the CEO of Smartsheet. He's passionate about delivering superior, customer experiences. Mark strives to find innovative ways for customers to collaborate more intelligently using the Smartsheet platform and its partner ecosystem. Prior to Smartsheet, Mark served as SVP of Global Services for Onyx Software, leading the consulting and consumer operation team in America, Europe and Asia. In 2015, he was recognized as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of Technology for the Pacific NorthWest. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Play Bigger What CEO do you follow? – Stat Mandella Favorite online tool? — Tripit Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "You tell me what the major trends are in the next 3 decades, in tech, and I would make you a lot of money" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show 02:21 – Smartsheet is a software SaaS company 02:27 – The people who subscribe to Smartsheet are teams and enterprise teams 02:47 – Smartsheet is similar to Trello's space but in the enterprise class 02:57 – Smartsheet has everything from time tracking to other things that are more diverse in nature 03:23 – Smartsheet serves 65K distinct brands on a paid basis 03:30 – Each brand pays an average of $1K annually 03:36 – The range is $200 to $1.6M annually 04:08 – Average MRR is $5.4M 04:20 – Smartsheet has been growing really well for the past 4 years 04:43 – "As you grow bigger, the gross rate is more challenging" 04:47 – Smartsheet isn't only focused on getting new customers, but on helping their customers grow as well 05:23 – 2016 revenue 05:37 – 2017 target ARR 06:10 – First year revenue was zero 06:37 – Smartsheet's promise didn't change, but how they brought the product to the market changed dramatically 06:55 – 60% of Smartsheet's revenue came from customers who learned about Smartsheet organically 07:18 – Smartsheet's first million ARR was in 2010 08:02 – Smartsheet has raised a total of $70M 08:16 – Mark feels that they have a really good platform 08:21 – Team size 08:55 – Have the balance sheet in your model if you want to invest more this year 09:06 – Smartsheet is still trying to focus on efficiency in their growth model 09:34 – Smartsheet's current status is that they have the decision to slow their growth or drive profit overnight 09:57 – "Control your own destiny" 10:06 – Smartsheet is currently not cash flow positive, but still a healthy business 10:20 – Smartsheet is based in Seattle, Washington and will have an office in Boston 10:48 – Smartsheet has a diverse funnel 11:02 – Smartsheet spends millions of dollars in paid advertising a year 11:34 – One of Smartsheet's keys to growth is to go where the action is 11:39 – "Dominate in the world of collaborative, work management and partner effectively with the tools people use and love" 11:50 – "Partner with the places where heat exists" 12:08 – It's about having an ecosystem mindset 12:30 – Gross customer churn 13:17 – Smartsheet has a broad population service 13:31 – "The key to sustain long-term growth is not just keeping up, but expanding" 13:59 – Smartsheet can still grow by 30% in 2017, without new customers 14:17 – Smartsheet charges the people who create new work in their application 15:00 – Smartsheet's safe LTV 15:25 – Smartsheet looks at their specific sources and campaigns 16:06 – Smartsheet's cohort analysis 17:22 – Smartsheet's last round of raising was in 2014 19:16 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Focus not only on acquiring new customers, but helping your current customers to grow their company. The key to sustaining long-term growth is not just keeping up, but expanding. Dominate in the world of collaborative, work management and partner effectively with the tools people use and love. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #626, Nathan interviews Derek Thompson. He's a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, one of the biggest media companies out there. His first book, Hit Makers, is about the science of hits, pop culture, and technology and why people like what they like. He currently resides in New York. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Homo Deus What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg Favorite online tool? — Evernote Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Take more risks because people are fundamentally resilient and can handle the downside of those risks" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Derek to the show 02:15 – The reason people go into journalism is because they seek answers to questions 02:21 – For Derek, the best reason to write a book was to answer questions 02:29 – Derek loved writing about what people like 02:33 – People say a book has to have an "elevator pitch" 02:39 – Books are more of a broken elevator 03:36 – "Creativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems" 04:36 – Derek wrote his book to allow himself the opportunity to be curious about anything he found interesting 05:00 – Derek worked with Penguin Publishing 05:10 – Derek had an agent, Dell Ross, who was Derek's proposal doctor 05:35 – Derek and his agent sent the proposal to every publisher they could reach 05:43 – Derek also talked directly to publishers 06:06 – There are a lot of different audiences for a single book 06:10 – Derek's agent was his first audience member 06:18 – Derek picked his agent because she's unsentimentally intelligent and has a motherly approach 07:27 – Hit Makers came out in February 2017 08:08 – The rating in Amazon was quite high for a first-time book writer 08:40 – "Self-publishing is riskier" 09:15 – The average amount an author gets for the book sales 10:30 – Derek hasn't talked about his advance with his agent 10:58 – The delta was probably about 2X 11:11 – There are publishers who believed that Derek's book wouldn't work at all 11:20 – Almost all book proposals from first-time authors are rejected and the best example of this is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter 12:46 – "The future of popularity is a very tricky business" 13:13 – The easiest metaphor for the science of popularity is the weather 14:09 – One of the theses in the book was to ask the question: is virality a myth? 16:45 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Creativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems. Most book proposals from first-time authors are rejected, but there will be that ONE who will believe in you. People are fundamentally resilient, so TAKE that risk – the regrets of not taking that risk will be more difficult to handle. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #625, Nathan interviews Josh McCarter. He's the co-founder and CEO of Booker Software, a leading business management and marketing solution serving over 10,000 health and beauty businesses. Josh has served in a variety of senior executive board roles at various technology companies including Arbitech, Spafinder and Autobytel. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Make Big Happen What CEO do you follow? – Steve Case, author of The Third Wave Favorite online tool? — OpenTable Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Startups are a blast, but they are not easy" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:23 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show 01:59 – Booker is a business management and marketing solution for health and wellness businesses 02:08 – Booker is like OpenTable 02:16 – Booker does everything for a business to run 02:31 – Booker gains revenue from their subscriptions averaging $150-250 monthly 02:48 – Booker also has merchant processing 02:53 – Booker also sells its add-on product, Frederick 03:50 – Josh started to focus on the spa industry because of the technology from his previous company 04:25 – "It's important to understand what type of customers you serve best" 05:31 – Josh shares how he spun out of business in his previous company 06:00 – Make sure you have the right type of structure when you spin out a business 06:10 – Give preferences to the shareholders 06:18 – It took Josh 6-9 months to get all the right structures and licensing in place 06:30 – Josh had a series A for $150K in 2011 06:42 – Spafinder had put in the initial capital for Booker 07:17 – Booker's current team size is around 200 07:26 – Booker has raised a total of a million 07:47 – You have to do a proper valuation for a spin out 08:30 – First year revenue 09:00 – Booker is currently at 10K locations 09:20 – There is a fee per location 09:34 – A company who has more locations pays more 10:05 – Average MRR 10:25 – Booker does a lot of upselling and retention 10:41 – Booker makes sure that they keep their existing customers happy 10:50 – "You've got to focus on upsell opportunities" 11:20 – Booker's merchant processing 11:37 – Online booking for spas is more common 11:58 – First Data is Booker's newest investor 12:54 – Average total transactions 13:15 – Josh is currently not in any acquisition talks and isn't raising a round 13:23 –"We've got some good runway" 14:05 – Gross customer churn 14:30 – "50% of our churn is the people who ran out of business" 14:39 – Failure rate of the SMB market is quite high 15:00 – CAC 15:05 – Most SMBs in SaaS and marketing business spend $1500-3500 to acquire new customers 15:40 – Frederick came to Booker for partnership 16:10 – Frederick was able to look at how SMBs are retaining their customers 17:22 – Frederick was able to get high conversion and retention metrics 18:14 – Frederick is integrated heavily into Booker 18:38 – Team location 20:16 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: It's important to understand what type of customers you serve best. Make sure you have the right type of structure in place when you spin out a business. Startups are a blast, but they're definitely not easy—be willing to put in the work. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

Dave Currie. He's an entrepreneur-leader in the sales intelligence space, specifically for advertising, media, and the tech industry. Since 2014, he's directed the company on a rapid innovation and growth trajectory. They are recognized by their customers and the industry as one of the largest, agile, fast-growing, private companies and the best place to work in America—the company, TheListInc.com. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Kyle Porter Favorite online tool? — N/A Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Balance is as important right now as you thought about it then. Being healthy is #1. Work and everything fall into place when you got your priorities stacked up the right way" Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:40 – Nathan introduces Dave to the show 03:20 – The List is also known from their other products 03:34 – Winmo was launched last year 03:41 – Winmo is the lead brand 03:52 – Winmo is a subscription-based, sales intelligence platform 04:01 – Winmo provides sales intelligence to national advertisers 04:28 – Winmo has an annual subscription 04:45 – Annual subscription increases the valuation 04:55 – Winmo has been completely bootstrapped since day 1 05:09 – The List started in 1995 and went online in the early 2000s 05:25 – Dave came into The List in 2005 05:45 – The List is a joint venture with a company in the UK 06:08 – The team currently has 85 members 06:27 – Average annual customer pay 06:38 – Winmo initially charges $400-500 per user annually 07:07 – CAC 07:14 – "We're very deliberate with our marketing efforts" 07:24 – 2014 paid marketing expenditure was around $100K, but was toned down currently to $50K 08:03 – The $50K would go to Google AdWords and some retargeting 08:17 – Dave's target CAC 08:50 – Dave's looking into 25% conversion rate 09:17 – Winmo has 4 targets in the UK and USA 09:44 – Winmo also sells to marketing services agencies 10:19 – Winmo has a good customer retention 10:46 – Winmo is just a bit stronger in the media space over the agency 11:30 – Winmo's customer retention is a bit lower than revenue retention 12:05 – Lifetime Value 12:24 – Dave calculates retention on a 90-day cycle 13:06 – The question of when you consider a customer a "new customer" 14:10 – Average number of customers 15:35 – Average MRR 15:52 – Dave shares what is considered healthy in his business' space 16:28 – Dave is part of the succession team of The List 16:46 – Dave and the team is not looking into going out and will just stick to being bootstrapped 17:05 – Dave won't sell the company for $90M or higher 19:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Be deliberate with your marketing – it pays off in the end. A healthy business can stay bootstrapped for a very long time, and still be OK. Regardless of whether you're young or old, new to business or not, balance is KEY. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #623, Nathan interviews Richard Brasser. He's the foremost expert in helping companies increase the effectiveness and influence of their Salesforce's strategic use of social communication. He does this through his company, rFactr. Richard pursues his focus in enabling salespeople to leverage social communication and build more meaningful relationship. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm What CEO do you follow? – Tony Robbins Favorite online tool? — Outlook Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Very rarely If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Richard wished he knew the concept of compounding interest and the concept of deferred asset allocation Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:34 – Nathan introduces Richard to the show 02:15 – Companies need to engage their buyers in a more meaningful way 02:32 – rFactr is focused on enhancing sales people's ability to connect with people 02:51 – rFactr's platform is called a social port 03:15 – rFactr has a per month/per user model 03:26 – rFactr is not a marketplace 03:33 – rFactr is directly plugged into companies' CRMs 03:55 – Average customer pay per month 04:15 – rFactr has channel activations 04:40 – rFactr's starting price is $5K a month 04:49 – rFactr was launched in 2009 04:57 – rFactr was bootstrapped for the first 8 years 05:04 – rFactr had a seed round and will probably have a series A 05:17 – rFactr has raised a total of $9M 05:32 – Richard played golf on tour for 7 years 05:45 – Richard made a good amount from playing golf 06:01 – Richard was already 7 years in business when he needed someone for the operations and finance side of the company 06:08 – Richard's partner was just exiting his software company when he joined rFactr 06:25 – Nathan tells Richard about Episode 615 where he had Shin as a guest whose company makes carbon fiber golf shafts 06:47 – Richard hasn't seen Shin's product 07:05 – The seed round is an equity round 07:17 – The last round was in 2010 07:40 – The company has been around for 16 years, but the main product was developed 9 years ago 07:51 – Richard's company started as a strategy and consulting firm 08:33 – Richard shares how the first company was valuated 09:31 – Team size is 18 09:39 – rFactr has 220 paying customers 09:44 – Average MRR 10:29 – Richard shares why they're having the small companies together with the biggest ones 11:25 – Gross customer churn 11:37 – CAC 12:08 – rFactr has no paid marketing 12:23 – Team's location 13:45 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Small companies may not be able to pay as much as the big companies, but the level of help they need is similar. Use your money from your exit for your new company. Paid marketing isn't always necessary—know your options to better decide if it's right for you. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #622, Nathan interviews Nektarios Liolios. He's the CEO and co-founder of Startup Bootcamp, Financial Technology, and Insurance Technology—the leading innovation program in the financial and insurance industry. They provide funding, mentorship, office space in the heart of London, Singapore, New York and Mumbai and access into their global network including investors and VCs, up to 10 folks, each time they do it. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Nektarios wished that at 20, he would have known that he didn't know everything and to be less scared Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:28 – Nathan introduces Nektarios to the show 02:08 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech is a network of accelerators 02:17 – It is cohort-based 02:24 – The programs are industry focused programs 02:58 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech has 400 companies that have graduated 03:12 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech was launched in January 2014 03:29 – Nektarios shares how Startup Bootcamp FinTech started 03:56 – "To add real value, you need to be super sharp in your focus" 04:20 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech doesn't take investments, but they take equity 04:30 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech takes 6% equity 05:52 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech has a variety of programs 06:35 – One of their teams is in Singapore 07:30 – Walnut Algorithms of France is part of their program 07:47 – It was built thinking it would revolutionize the algorithm industry 07:57 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech usually works with pre-seed startups 08:05 – Their products are not ready to launch yet 08:38 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech had 60 companies that are FinTech focused 08:52 – Buzzmove is one of the companies that have raised the most 09:05 – It provides accurate data for home insurance 09:25 – It is a data provider solution 09:35 – It sells to insurance providers 09:54 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech programs are funded by the industry players 10:26 – Nektarios shares what drives their company 11:07 – Who will win, Betterment or Wealthfront? 11:49 – It is difficult for Nektarios to discern which company will succeed 12:25 – Nathan shares his interview with Andy of Wealthfront 12:58 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech is the only program with the global reach 13:08 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech offers every entrepreneur in the globe access to their network 13:24 – The Global Insurance Accelerator is their only competition 13:34 – Nektarios shares what he thinks of the insurance space 13:58 – Insurance people are relevant to the industry 14:24 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech creates fund structure for every program 14:42 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech needs a minimum amount to run a program 15:05 – Every location of Startup Bootcamp FinTech has 5 people 15:53 – Startup Bootcamp FinTech isn't driven by a commercial perspective 17:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: To add real value, you need to be razor sharp in your focus. Insurance space has so much potential to be a lucrative space—it's less crowded and there are so many problems to solve. Just go for it—take the consequences as it's going to be a ride. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

In Episode #621, Nathan interviews Nevin Shetty. He's the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Registry, an innovative wedding registry platform where you can shop for products from a variety of retailers based on the layout of your home. The company has generated over $10M in their first 2 years of operation. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Smarter Faster Better What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — SimilarWeb Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I should've learned computer programming" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:25 – Nathan introduces Nevin to the show 02:00 – Blueprint Registry is a wedding registry platform for newly-engaged couples 02:23 – Blueprint Registry gets commission from the retailers on their platform 02:38 – An example of Blueprint Registry's partners is Target 02:43 – Nevin explains how their platform works and how it is different from the traditional wedding registry 03:08 – Instead of couples going to different retailers physically, they can just go to Blueprint Registry 03:23 – Blueprint Registry has a unique visual representation of your home 03:45 – Blueprint Registry was conceptualized in January 2015 03:49 – Nevin shares how he came up with the idea 04:04 – Blueprint Registry's co-founder is a designer 04:13 – Nevin found his co-founder through networking 04:55 – The equity conversation with the co-founder 05:21 – Blueprint Registry was launched in 2014 05:29 – Blueprint Registry did $225K of gross sales 05:44 – Average cart value 05:53 – Blueprint Registry raised $700K with friends and families 05:58 – Blueprint Registry did $4M in sales in 2015 06:04 – Blueprint Registry did $6M in sales in 2016 06:12 – Blueprint Registry has had 2000 users 06:19 – Blueprint Registry is originally focused on weddings but now they have people who use them for baby registries, house warming parties, and fundraising 06:40 – Blueprint Registry spends the most on development and marketing 07:25 – Team size 07:46 – Blueprint Registry just closed a million dollar seed round 08:00 – It was an equity round 08:09 – The friend and family round was a convertible note 08:12 – Nevin shares why he decided to have an equity round 08:45 – Blueprint Registry's value depends on gross and growth 08:55 – 2017 target revenue 09:09 – Blueprint Registry deals with seasonality 09:30 – There's no monthly subscription 10:20 – Nevin wants to keep Blueprint Registry as accessible as possible 10:35 – Blueprint Registry was founded in New York and they stayed for a year and a half 10:38 – Blueprint Registry is currently based in Seattle 11:15 – Blueprint Registry's biggest competitors 11:26 – The wedding registry market is a huge market 11:38 – Zola, Myregistry, Honeyfund are some of the newest in the market 11:53 – Blueprint Registry has the lowest fees 12:00 – 2.5% of credit card processing fee 12:25 – Nevin will accept Zola's $20M imaginary acquisition depending on their vision 13:43 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Finding co-founders is easy, choosing the right one is hard. In a saturated space, having the best features that set you apart can make all the difference. An acquisition will not always depend on the price. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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

Peep Laja. He's the founder of CXL. He was voted as the most influential, conversion rate optimization expert in the world. He helps fast-growing companies grow faster through his services, coaching and CXL Institute's certification programs along with his world-favorite optimization blog. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Used to be Ready, Fire, Aim What CEO do you follow? – No Favorite online tool? — Google Analytics and Intercom Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Peep wished that he had thought bigger when he was younger Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:33 – Nathan introduces Peep to the show 02:18 – CXL is an optimization company 02:30 – CXL does conversion optimization 02:40 – CXL also teaches about conversion optimization and everything a company needs to grow fast 03:13 – CXL has been an agency model for the longest time 03:31 – Conversion XL Institute was launched in 2016 03:41 – It also has a monthly subscription 03:52 – MRR as an agency 04:11 – In running an agency, it doesn't make sense to work with small businesses 04:59 – CXL has a minimum engagement of 3 months 05:06 – The size of the client determines their length of stay with CXL 05:17 – CXL agency currently has an average of 15 clients 05:26 – Team size is 10 05:32 – Agency people are mostly based in Estonia 05:38 – Peep is based in Austin and is mostly working on the institute side 05:54 – Peep only steps into the agency, if needed 06:08 – CXL has a blog where most lead generation happens 06:19 – CXL has 2 full-time writers for the blog 06:35 – Average MRR 07:10 – Peep is working on the scaling aspect of the institute 07:32 – "Self-paced is not a good model for learning" 07:40 – Coursera, Udacity and other e-learning platforms struggle with churn 08:16 – CXL Institute added live courses which are happening in real time 08:30 – The participation rate is way higher than the self-pace courses 08:38 – The reasons why the participation rate is higher 09:01 – Self-pace is priced at $99 a month 09:04 – Live courses have a one-time fee per course and there are 2 courses per month which are priced from $299 to $499 10:08 – Average number of students per course 10:41 – CXL Institute has their predominant list 10:47 – CXL Institute also uses retargeting 10:56 – CXL Institute is now starting to explore affiliate marketing 11:09 – List size 11:24 – The blog was launched at the end of 2011 11:43 – The pop-up is the most effective CTA that drives more opt-ins 12:18 – Peep shares how to make a pop-up for a blog 12:33 – CXL Institute is using Bounce Exchange 12:50 – "We try not to annoy the users" 13:04 – Bounce Exchange CEO was in Episode 253 of the Top 13:27 – CXL Institute does a revenue-share model with the instructors 13:34 – The instructors are marketing their classes on their own, as well 14:18 – The live course inclusions 15:02 – It is like a one day workshop 15:30 – The big companies are the ones who buy the self-paced courses 15:52 – CXL Institute currently has 1 certification program 16:04 – CXL Institute is adding 2-3 certifications quarterly 16:30 – Peep initially thought the self-paced would be for small businesses 17:30 – Annual signup is 20-25% 18:10 – CXL Institute is having a conference called CXL Live 18:16 – A whole resort is booked for the conference 18:30 – The conference will be at Hyatt Regency Hill Country ,in San Antonio 18:38 – A ticket includes a 2-night stay and meals 18:50 – The conference will be on April 5-7 18:55 – Visit live.conversionxl.com for more details 21:15 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: As an agency, the amount of time spent working with small and big companies is the same, so it's better to stick with the big ones. Self-paced learning faces more churn than live courses. Think big and don't just settle on what you think you can do—aim higher. 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 Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE 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 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