SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Paul Trappitt. He's currently the CEO and co-founder of Smartbeat. Before Smartbeat, he was the senior business analyst at National Australia Bank and a senior project lead at SignIQ. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Start with Why and The Startup Owner's Manual What CEO do you follow? – Gary Vaynerchuk Favorite online tool? — HubSpot 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 wish I knew smartphones were coming" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces Paul to the show 01:45 – Smartbeat helps small businesses to navigate the complex omni channel 02:30 – Paul shares how one of their paying customers uses Smartbeat 03:02 – Smartbeat is about the people that are already using your business 03:10 – Smartbeat turns customers into raging fans 03:20 – Smartbeat is currently focusing on brick-and-mortar businesses 03:51 – Paul explains how they can help Jim, the café owner 05:14 – Smartbeat provides Wi-Fi to business owners and other technologies 05:50 – Smartbeat targets your audience in social media 06:32 – Smartbeat is a SaaS business 06:39 – Pricing starts at $250 a month 07:06 – Smartbeat currently has 5 customers 07:12 – Paul had a Wi-Fi company for 3 years 07:38 – Paul's Wi-Fi business did $20K in 2016 07:44 – Paul pivoted because there was too much competition in the Wi-Fi space 08:23 – Smartbeat raised $150K in Australia 08:39 – It was an equity round 08:55 – Paul shares how he came up with the valuation 10:10 – Smartbeat started in 2015 10:18 – Team size is 6 and they are all based in Australia 10:30 – Paul shares how they find their customers 10:55 – Smartbeat built their list organically through networking 12:35 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Don't be afraid to pivot—you'll know when it's time. One way to build your network is by spreading news about your product in social gatherings. Technology is unpredictable so you have no choice but to adapt. 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

Ry Walker. He's the co-founder and CEO of Astronomer.io, a big data infrastructure company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Astronomer is an AngelPad batch #9 company and has raised $2M from the likes of 500 Startups, CincyTech, Router Ventures and SocialStarts. Astronomer measures, connects and centralizes data—making it super simple for anyone from business users to data scientists to quickly create and monitor their data and pipelines. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People What CEO do you follow? – Dennis Mortensen Favorite online tool? — Fabricator Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ry would tell himself to be bold and to be confident Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:35 – Nathan introduces Ry to the show 03:17 – Astronomer helps companies figure out how to use their data to benefit their business 03:22 – Astronomer works with early stage startups and big companies 03:41 – Some companies in the web analytics space are Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics 03:57 – Astronomer helps companies get the right data from their inside companies 04:32 – Astronomer is called data engineering, as a service 04:39 – Astronomer does the work for their customer while building the platform 04:51 – Astronomer has a flat price of 6K and 10K monthly 05:14 – Astronomer has their private cloud edition for their customers 05:33 – Astronomer was launched in May 2015 05:36 – Astronomer was at Collision Conference when they pivoted after the first day 06:13 – They realized that their biggest problem was to get companies to send them the data to run the analysis 06:35 – The number one issue in the space is the onboarding 07:03 – Ry explains the type of company they are 08:02 – The Angelpad is one of the most important pivots Astronomer did 08:13 – Angelpad's model 08:46 – What Ry was thinking when they got into Angelpad 09:30 – First year revenue 09:38 – 2016 revenue 09:57 – Team size and location 10:08 – Astronomer has raised $2M in 2 years 10:31 – Last round was at $1.1M and a convertible note 10:40 – Average MRR 12:04 – Astronomer currently has 20 customers 12:14 – Customer churn 12:17 – Astronomer currently has a net negative churn of 48% 12:46 – Ry explains the net negative churn of 48% 13:33 – CAC 13:38 – Astronomer just started with paid CAC this year 14:00 – Astronomer started with $600 14:21 – LTV 15:40 – Last round of funding was in August 16:21 – Ry explains the amount they are burning 16:42 – Ry is thinking now of the post-seed round 16:52 – It's a $3-5 M upround 17:14 – The valuation Ry is aiming for 17:40 – "We don't really want to bump our valuation too much" 20:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: The number one issue in data analytics is the onboarding. Know your valuation and understand the data that had led you to that valuation. Believe in yourself—be bold and confident. 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 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

Monish Anand. He's a banker, a technologist, and a Fintech evangelist. Above everything else, he's a father. He spent 20+ plus years in corporate working for large banks and technology companies only to realize that they were not solving big problems and quite frankly, were often part of the problem. His company, Datasigns Technologies, aims to provide underserved and unserved access to optimal credit. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Calvin and Hobbes What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar and Google Task Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew what Internet was" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces Monish to the show 02:20 – Datasigns Technologies started last year 02:32 – Datasigns Technologies gives credit ratings 02:38 – 400M people in India apply for loans yearly 02:42 – Less than 107 get loans from banks and other financial institutions 03:00 – Datasigns Technologies tries to bridge the gap between the credit givers and credit takers 03:15 – Datasigns Technologies has grade scoring algorithms 03:35 – Monish believes that the calculus used to determine credit worthiness is not good enough 04:03 – Datasigns Technologies calculates data from sources and turns them into algorithms 04:10 – Monish shares his driver's experience applying for a loan 05:18 – Datasigns Technologies relies on mobile data 05:48 – Datasigns Technologies has a mobile app 06:06 – Datasigns Technologies' marketing explained 06:35 – Datasigns Technologies has a tie-up with micro-small to medium enterprises 07:00 – Datasigns Technologies does financial literacy for the enterprises 07:21 – There are 75K people who now understands Datasigns Technologies 07:54 – Datasigns Technologies has around 10K app downloads 08:07 – Datasigns Technologies has closed 600 loans 08:20 – Loan terms 09:24 – Datasigns Technologies was Angel funded, last year 09:31 – They have raised around $400K on an equity round 09:39 – Datasigns Technologies is raising another round of $5M 09:50 – Nathan breaks down the math 10:27 – Datasigns Technologies' interest rate varies from 22-26% 10:46 – Interest rates, in India, are much higher than in the USA 11:27 – Datasigns Technologies is the only company in India that is mandated by financial institutions to acquire customers 12:00 – Loan sharks charge 3% a month 12:40 – Datasigns Technologies has a processing fee and a basic interest rate 13:03 – How Datasigns Technologies makes money 13:43 – Datasigns Technologies helps banks build their books 14:00 – Why Datasigns Technologies is raising $5M 14:22 – Team size is 17 14:36 – All based in Bangalore, India 14:45 – Monish shares why he started Datasigns Technologies 15:05 – "There are people who deserve loans, but are not getting loans from the banks" 16:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Be the solution—not just part of the problem. There are people who deserve a loan, but are not given a chance—Monish wants to change that. The fintech space is one of the hottest spaces, at the moment. 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

McCabe Callahan who has been an entrepreneur his entire life. He began with a coffee shop named Mugs Coffee Lounge, which has been operating successfully in Fort Collins, Colorado, since 2002. He began a company called Community Funded, in 2011, out of his passion for providing technology that connects, supports and empowers people. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – E-Myth and Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk 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? – "Pay attention to numbers" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:32 – Nathan introduces McCabe to the show 02:33 – Mugs Coffee Lounge is McCabe's first real business 02:43 – McCabe went to Colorado State University 02:50 – McCabe was coming back from Europe when he had the idea of the Mugs Coffee Lounge 02:56 – Mugs Coffee Lounge was the first wireless internet café in Fort Collins 03:11 – Building relationships is the key to a successful coffee lounge 03:36 – First year revenue 04:04 – McCabe is 36; but when he was 24, he was already opening 5 coffee shops 04:22 – Total topline of all the coffee shops and restaurants 04:58 – McCabe didn't raise any capital 05:31 – McCabe's credit card debt when he started Mugs Coffee Lounge 05:48 – McCabe also had debt from other sources 06:43 – "Coffee is a good business to be in—there's no recession" 06:58 – McCabe shares where he sells his business to 07:07 – McCabe's income is now generating well 07:16 – McCabe did $1.6M in sales in 2016 07:30 – McCabe shares how he started with Community Funded 08:17 – McCabe had to find a way to secure a loan to open up a location 08:31 – The amount McCabe wanted to loan 08:45 – 2009-2010 was the hardest time for McCabe 09:41 – McCabe was about to give up when one of his regulars offered help 10:05 – 5 months after the McCabe's next shop opened, he heard about NPR's Kickstarter 10:20 – McCabe thought, "What if he could something like Kickstarter, but for communities?" 10:44 – Community Funded started out bootstrapped and just recently raised a round 11:03 – Community Funded first round raised $40K-75K 11:29 – Total funding was $2.3M 11:38 – Rounds are equity round 11:50 – McCabe shares Community Funded's valuation 12:18 – People believed in Community Funded's vision 12:38 – Community Funded's is a SaaS model 13:46 – Sample of fundraising raised in Community Funded 14:26 – Community Funded's focus 14:53 – Current Community Funded's revenue and revenue goal for 2017 15:54 – Total transaction volume in 2016 16:03 – 2016 total revenue 17:21 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Lack of funds is not a hindrance in building a company. There's nothing wrong sharing your problems with your regulars – you don't know who can offer you help. Stick and pay close attention to your numbers. 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 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

Shin Sakane. He's the founder and CEO of Seven Dreamers. Seven Dreamers is daring to create technology that has never been seen in the world. Shin has a PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Delaware. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Path What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Facebook Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Get global experiences, visit so many different countries, cultures..." Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:44 – Nathan introduces Shin to the show 02:20 – Seven Dreamers creates technology that the world has not seen yet 02:30 – First product is the fully automated carbon golf shaft 02:35 – Second product is the nascent nasal airway stent 02:58 – There's no connection between the products 03:16 – Seven Dreamers wanted to develop something that is not yet available anywhere 04:00 – Seven Dreamers was launched in 2011 04:20 – Seven Dreamers has raised over $75M 04:29 – The money was mainly spent on product development 05:05 – The nasal stent currently has more sales than the golf shaft 05:27 – The golf shaft price is $1200 - $120K 05:53 – The most popular model sells for $1800 06:10 – The golf shaft was launched in 2014 06:30 – 400 shafts/month are being sold 07:35 – The way to make a golf shaft 09:06 – Team size 09:45 – 2016 total revenue 10:30 – It took Seven Dreamers 11 years to develop laundroid 11:15 – Seven Dreamers has spent $15M for product development 11:33 – Shin shares how they came up with the idea of laundroid 12:13 – Laundroid was initially limited 12:50 – Laundroid's price is $15K 13:38 – The 3 products are completely different—from the suppliers to the technologies 14:08 – Most of the product ideas come from Shin 14:43 – The last round they raised 15:03 – Shin shares the valuation of each of their products 15:30 – "Everything counts" 16:12 – The nasal airway stent is currently their biggest money maker 16:25 – Average MRR $1M 16:53 – 2017 goal is $80M 17:07 – Seven Dreamers are working on their sales and marketing 17:14 – "We do our own marketing" 17:34 – Advertising cost 18:40 – Seven Dreamers spent money on sponsoring athletes 19:09 – The number of golf shaft complete sets that have sold 21:15 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Think outside the box—have a solution to a problem, then create a product. Study and know your market well so that your product speaks directly to a need. Be creative and innovative. Resources Mentioned: 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. 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Todd Olson. He's the CEO and founder of Pendo, a product experience platform that helps product managers deliver successful products. Before Pendo, Todd served as VP of products at Rally Software Development which he led through its public offering. Todd joins Rally in its acquisition of 6th Sense, the company he founded and served as president and CTO. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Aaron Levie Favorite online tool? — 15Five 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 wish I knew more at 21, than I thought I knew" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:42 – Nathan introduces Todd to the show 02:17 – Pendo provides a solution that helps companies build an application to improve its experience 03:00 – Optimizely uses Pendo to understand the people who are in their trial and onboarding flow 03:32 – Pendo is different to Intercom's space 04:01 – Pendo is a SaaS company 04:21 – Pendo was launched in 2013 05:11 – Todd experimented with different technologies 05:26 – "Every product has key set features" 05:45 – Todd founded 6th Sense and sold it to Rally 06:24 – First year revenue is zero 06:55 – Todd invested $1.2M to start Pendo 07:11 – Pendo has raised a seed round 07:44 – It was a million dollar convertible note 08:15 – Pendo has raised a total of $31M 08:26 – Team size 08:55 – "All of our customers are top-tier" 09:43 – Average customer pay per month 09:52 – Pendo serves mid-market to enterprise companies 10:20 – Todd shares what drives their expansion revenue 10:50 – Pendo increases prices by adding products to existing plans 10:55 – Pendo has tier-prices based on features 11:17 – Todd shares why adding products is their main expansion driver 12:30 – Average number of customers 12:45 – Future target market 13:00 – Average customer churn 13:35 – Pendo has a net negative churn 13:49 – Todd explains net negative churn 14:54 – CAC and LTV ratio is healthy 15:26 – Pendo's expansion plan 15:44 – Average MRR 17:25 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Treat all your customers as if they are top-tier customers. Expansion drivers will depend on what suits the company. Be more confident. Resources Mentioned: 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. 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Sahil Arora. He's an entrepreneur, author, and a guitarist and defies what you think someone his age could do. Tune in to learn his entrepreneurial story, from creating the Vuzelaa Group to jumpstarting Tabverts—a company that broadcasts ads in taxis all over India. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — No 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 could get a Lamborghini at the age of 10" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan introduces Sahil to the show 01:35 – Vuzelaa Group is the parent company which Sahil started when he was 16 01:51 – Under Vuzelaa Group, they created Tabverts; a company that broadcasts ads in taxis all over India 02:11 – Tabverts' pricing 02:45 – Tabverts was launched in 2016 03:06 – Sahil is the sole founder of Vuzelaa Group 03:20 – Sahil shares how he found people on Twitter and got them on board 03:59 – Sahil shares how he convinced them to join 04:55 – Sahil shows Nathan his sample pitch 06:28 – Sahil is 18 now 06:45 – There are around 10K cabs in India with Tabverts' hardware 06:50 – Sahil shares how he funded Tabverts 07:05 – Sahil spent $100K in the early stage of the business 07:12 – Sahil raised $500K in an equity round 07:32 – The $500K was from a VC based in India 07:50 – The brands that pay Sahil 08:18 – Sahil shares how the brand, Snapdeal, pays him 08:40 – Average pay per second 09:45 – Tabverts' customers can track their ads' performance through an app 10:14 – The clicks on the tablet can also be tracked 10:37 – Sahil shares how the ads' loophole functions 11:00 – Team size 11:08 – MRR is $70K 11:35 – Sahil shares how his team operates 11:56 – Sahil dropped out of high school and won't go to college 12:26 – Tabverts has a predictive revenue stream 12:35 – Sahil's future plans for Tabverts 13:18 – How Tabverts deals with the cabs 14:05 – The key metrics Tabverts tracks 14:38 – 2017 goal 14:50 – Sahil shares what he does with the revenue he gets 15:23 – Cost per hardware 15:48 – Sahil shares how their tabs work 16:16 – Tabverts only shows the ads that may be interesting for the people riding in cabs 16:47 – Tabverts is tied up with Uber 16:57 – The amount Tabverts pays Uber 17:55 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Entrepreneurship knows no age. Continue to grow your company by investing consistently. You can find your clientele through social media – you just have to have the right pitch. Resources Mentioned: 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. 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Charles Ramsey. He's the CEO of Sauce Labs and has been in that position since April 2015, and has served as Chief Revenue Officer from February to April 2015. Prior to that, he's had 25 years of industry experience—he was a venture partner at JMI Equity and held a number of roles at Quest Software, including VP of marketing and sales. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Finding Your North Star What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — No 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 wish I'd become a CEO sooner in my career" Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:27 – Nathan introduces Charles to the show 03:03 – Sauce Labs has just raised a significant amount, $70M 03:45 – Sauce Labs has raised a total of $130M 04:04 – Charles shares how they decide to raise capital 04:14 – Sauce Labs checked their ability for an acquisition 04:42 – Sauce Labs had great timing 04:54 – Sauce Labs does automated testing in the cloud for web app and mobile devices 06:38 – Sauce Labs' market is about continuous integration and delivery 07:17 – Sauce Labs is SaaS based with an annual subscription and self-service 07:58 – Sauce Labs has invested in pre-sell and technical support 08:30 – Average transaction fee is $50K annually 08:56 – The fee varies from the number of parallel testings the customer wants 09:20 – The concurrency of 50 09:45 – Sauce Labs is growing organically 10:11 – Sauce Labs is an 8 year old company 10:33 – "The founders started the company with the notion of automated testing from day 1" 10:54 – 3 years ago, a number of ISVs realized that they wanted to leverage selenium 12:03 – One of the founders is still in Sauce Labs and all of them are still on the cap table 12:41 – Team size 13:20 – Sauce Labs currently has 3500 customers 13:58 – Sauce Labs' 90-day post-transaction clause window 14:17 – Depending on the complexity of the environment, it can require professional services 14:26 – Charles shares what their technical team does 14:58 – Average ARR 16:00 – Average pay of self-serve customers 16:59 – Valuation 17:46 – Sauce Labs wants to focus on the enterprise companies 19:15 – Gross annual customer churn 19:46 – Sauce Labs is currently at net negative revenue churn 19:54 – CAC 20:00 – Sauce Labs is doing paid marketing 21:20 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Do your research—know what your customer wants and needs. Focus your energy on the strengths of your company. Take courage, take the leap. Resources Mentioned: Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dr. Milton Chen. He's the co-founder and CEO of VSee, and has a PhD from Stanford on the design of video collaboration. Additionally, he was the co-founder of XMPP Video Standard which is now used by Google Talk and Facebook Chat. He has deployed VSee for Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Linkin Park and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Rapportive Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Milton would tell himself not to be as naïve and clueless Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Milton to the show 02:20 – Vsee is a SaaS company 02:31 – Vsee offers mobile app and call center workflow 03:04 – Price range is $49-499 per medical provider per month 03:30 – Milton explains how VSee provides a service to client, Trinity Health 04:30 – Milton assures their client security and confidentiality 05:05 – Vsee was launched in 2008 05:33 – Milton went to graduate school because he wanted to become a professor 05:46 – Milton now loves everything about startups 06:03 – Vsee's initial investment 06:24 – It was an equity investment 06:42 – Milton was clueless about valuations and didn't know what he was doing 06:59 – Milton started VSee after graduate school with zero knowledge about business 07:15 – Milton was just grateful that people wanted to invest in VSee 07:35 – Vsee currently had a thousand paying customers 09:00 – Average number of nurses in VSee 09:23 – First year revenue 10:11 – Average amount raised 10:40 – Team size is 52 and they are based in Sunnyvale, CA 12:12 – VSee is currently cash flow mutual 12:51 – Vsee invests in making sure their customers feel secure 13:18 – Milton shares how their technology is built into Facebook Messenger 14:00 – Milton doesn't get royalties 14:40 – Vsee started as a general video conference market 14:50 – Milton shares how they pivoted to the health industry 15:34 – Vsee has an inside sales team 15:41 – Vsee has 3 sources for sales 16:22 – Vsee is currently not into paid marketing 17:40 – Vsee has close to 100% customer retention 18:17 – Vsee is on a net negative churn 19:20 – 2017 revenue target 20:56 – Vsee's last closed round was in 2011 21:10 – Milton is just focused on acquiring more customers and is not interested in any acquisition talks 22:47 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Everyone has to start somewhere – even if it means being naïve and clueless. Getting into a market with less competition could mean more customers and sales. Paid marketing won't always work so test everything, first, before investing in a certain marketing strategy. Resources Mentioned: Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ryan Buckley. He's a serial entrepreneur, a founder and CEO of Scripted and Toofr. He focuses on solving the problems that marketers and business owners deal with on a daily basis such as connecting businesses with writers. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Rework What CEO do you follow? – Josh Pigford Favorite online tool? — HubSpot CRM Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ryan would tell himself not to be so stressed and just say "yes" as much as possible Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan introduces Ryan to the show 01:40 – Scripted is marketplace that matches businesses with writers 01:45 – Scripted has a subscription fee 02:19 – Scripted has raised a total of $15M 02:23 – Scripted was launched in 2011 02:26 – Ryan started in screenwriting 02:40 – Ryan shares how he started Scripted 03:04 – "We just followed the market" 03:12 – Toofr came before Scripted 03:50 – Ryan shares how Toofr came to life 04:17 – Ryan was using Genius software and had a drip campaign 04:35 – Ryan learned about Phyton 05:14 – Toofr is different from the original script 05:29 – Toofr is a SaaS model 05:32 – RPU 05:45 – Ryan put up the paywall in 2013 06:32 – Ryan used Toofr to learn web development 06:37 – Toofr is completely bootstrapped 06:45 – Team size 07:40 – Toofr has a hundred customers 08:00 – Gross customer churn 08:40 – Toofr relies solely on organic traffic 08:55 – Ryan shares why he thinks people leave Toofr 09:20 – Ryan shares the improvements that he can make to reduce churn numbers 10:10 – Toofr has 16K registered users 10:27 – Toofr's competition 10:59 – "Hunter kicks my ass in SEO" 11:30 – Toofr has better data 11:59 – Toofr has multiple sources 13:20 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Learn as you go — as you build your business, be mindful of all the opportunities to learn. There are great advantages in working with a small team. Use your competition as motivation to make yourself better. Resources Mentioned: Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives