SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Michael Kaplan. He's the CEO and founder of Taivaco which is a media technology company. He's also the former director of marketing at Sanyo and was appointed at San Francisco Water Bay Front Committee. Michael speaks Chinese, French and Japanese. He attended The University of Redlands, Waseda University in Tokyo, George Mason University and Chinese Culture University. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – It's Not My Department What CEO do you follow? – John Cleese and Ken Okuyama Favorite online tool? — Any.do Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "The more you listen to other people, the more success finds you" and "Be a nice person" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:28 – Nathan introduces Michael to the show 02:07 – Michael shares why January 20th is a special day 03:15 – Taivaco was set out to solve an invisible problem and ended up solving more problems 03:47 – An archive isn't an accurate description 03:50 – Organizations are struggling to manage their media 04:17 – One of Taivaco's original ideas was to digitize media 05:08 – Taivaco helps companies find their content within their media or discover what DAM (Digital Asset Management) software does 05:50 – Taivaco incorporates both software and manual work 06:01 – "This is not a software that we sell, this is a service that we do" 06:15 – Taivaco is a service-only company 06:26 – Taivaco was launched in 2016 06:33 – Taivaco is currently on pre-revenue 06:49 – Taivaco has done under 10K in pre-revenue 07:00 – Taivaco version 1.0 will be available in April 07:12 – Taivaco was originally self-funded 07:20 – Michael put in 20K in Taivaco 07:27 – Taivaco just closed their "seedling" round for less than 50K 07:43 – Long term plan is to have another round 07:56 – Michael shares how they actually make a sale 08:32 – Sabra Design is one of Taivaco's paying customers 08:39 – Sabra Design came to Taivaco to ask for their service 09:04 – Taivaco got less than a thousand for the job 09:10 – Taivaco has already reached out to potential clients to scale up 10:17 – Michael explains why it is taking them more time to close a deal 10:50 – Taivaco doesn't specialize in digitizing and they do it for a minimal cost 11:23 – Taivaco annotates content which nobody has done before 12:12 – Michael shares their annotation process 12:46 – The charge for annotation will depend on the volume 13:20 – Taivaco will have a subscription model for the annotation 14:10 – Taivaco's goal is to make their service as easy and possible for their clients 15:34 – Taivaco is making money through annotation 16:27 – The metrics that Taivaco is measuring in pricing 17:09 – "We have to provide the whole thing" 18:21 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Try to solve one problem and you might end up solving more problems. Do something that is new in the market to stand apart. Take things at your own pace and don't rush. 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

Olivier Magnan-Saurin. He's the CEO and co-founder of Fidzup which provides innovation retargeting solutions for brick-and-mortar businesses such as retail chains and shopping centers. Olivier founded Fidzup right after school, in between school, and a little bit of freelancing works. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – On M'Avait Dit Que C'Etait Impossible: Le Manifeste Du Fondateur de Criteo What CEO do you follow? – Jean-Baptiste Rudelle Favorite online tool? — Pipedrive Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Create your own company" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan introduces Olivier to the show 01:42 – Fidzup provides marketing platforms for physical retailers 02:04 – For physical retailers, clicks don't have any value 02:25 – Fidzup sells advertising campaigns to retailers 02:38 – Fidzup is a CPC model and gets paid for every in-store visit 03:20 – Fidzup is currently working with 2500 retailers in Europe 03:43 – Fidzup was created in 2011 03:58 – In 2014, Olivier decided to start an advertising platform 04:11 – Fidzup tracks the retailer using Wi-Fi or sensor 04:57 – Fidzup is able to track 80% of the customers entering the store 05:16 – Olivier shares how they get the customer's phone information 05:56 – When a customer opens an online ad, they can track that customer 06:43 – Average online campaign cost per brand 07:20 – Fidzup buys CPM and sells CPE 08:00 – Fidzup has recently raised $3.7M 08:39 – Team size 08:50 – Olivier hopes to double their team size 09:00 – First year revenue 09:50 – 2016 total revenue 10:04 – Average annual pay per customer 11:00 – Ad volume per year 11:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Online advertisement is not always valuable to brick-and-mortar businesses, these businesses still rely on physical advertisement. Be patient with yourself and your company—growth takes time. If you're in stuck between joining a company or creating your own, choose the latter. 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

Will Dinkel. He's the CEO and co-founder of Nova. Prior to founding Nova, Will developed his passion for enterprise sales while working in various technology and sales roles at CloudFlare and HP. Will studied engineering in Harvard Business School. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Presenting to Win What CEO do you follow? – Travis Kimmel Favorite online tool? – Apple Notes Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "I try" If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish my 20-year old self was more ambitious" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:42 – Nathan introduces Will to the show 02:08 – Nova AI is a sales product that uses AI to help set appointments more effectively 02:25 – Nova helps sales reps, they don't necessarily get leads 02:52 – Nova creates personalized emails and merged templates 03:08 – Nova charges per seat 03:30 – "What we do is very unique" 03:39 – Nova is a smart, workflow product 04:08 – Average pay per seat is $150 04:28 – Nova started in 2015 05:01 – Nova's co-founder is from MIT 05:15 – Team size 05:40 – Will shares how it's like in San Francisco 06:00 – Nova has raised $2.2M 06:20 – Salesforce Ventures is one of Nova's investors 06:54 – The space is getting bigger and bigger 07:15 – Will shares why he raised and went to YC 07:50 – Nova just crossed 100 customers 08:10 – Average seat number per customer 08:40 – Nova is now looking into a bigger number of seats per customer 08:55 – Nova has around a thousand sales reps using them 09:15 – Will's focus is to make sure the team is functioning well 10:20 – Average MRR 10:45 – Growth rate target in 2017 10:51 – Will is looking into adding additional people to the team, 3 per class 11:51 – Nova uses their own wrinkle for SDR 12:10 – Gross customer churn 12:35 – People are mostly happy with Nova 12:55 – Nova's paid marketing 13:47 – How do you beat a company like Yesware? 14:05 – Focus on what you do best and don't get dragged into trying to do everything that everyone else does 16:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Focus on what YOU do best—you will lose when you focus on what others are doing. Offer something unique and it will make you stand out amongst the crowd. Be ambitious, act sooner than later. 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

Tatyana Mitkova. She's the CEO and founder of ClaimCompass, a company that helps airline passengers submit a claim online for cancelled, delayed or overbooked flights. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People What CEO do you follow? – Kathryn Minshew 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? – "Her life is to become more and more interesting with every decision she makes that takes her out of her comfort zone" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:26 – Nathan introduces Tatyana to the show 01:42 – ClaimCompass get airlines to pay up to $680 for cancelled flights 01:51 – Flights could be delayed, cancelled or overbooked 02:05 – ClaimCompass can help you get paid for your lost baggage 02:13 – ClaimCompass is based on the regulations in Europe 02:29 – More than 90% of airline passengers are unaware of their rights 02:46 – ClaimCompass tries to speed up the claiming process for passengers 02:49 – ClaimCompass has a web app and passengers can submit a claim online 03:03 – ClaimCompass makes money by keeping a 25% success-based commission 03:25 – ClaimCompass is growing 75% month over month, in the last 3 months 03:39 – In January, ClaimCompass will reach a thousand claims 03:43 – Average claim refund is $420 03:58 – Average MRR 04:11 – ClaimCompass has their own internal software for their claims management system 04:36 – ClaimCompass has established relationships with more than 50 airlines 04:55 – Team size 05:24 – ClaimCompass was launched, in 2016, as a side project 05:48 – Tatyana and the co-founders have their own stories about getting frustrated with an airline 06:04 – Tatyana has a legal background 06:24 – ClaimCompass was bootstrapped and got into the 500 Startups program, in Europe, 2 months ago 06:40 – ClaimCompass has raised $150K 07:02 – Plans for 2017 07:10 – "Our goal is to reach as many passengers as possible" 07:50 – CAC 08:20 – ClaimCompass' paid ads expenses are increasing 08:53 – ClaimCompass had their demo day on the 15th of February at the 500 Startups program 09:00 – Tatyana believes they will have their seed round in 6 months 09:51 – Tatyana is looking to raise a million in their next round 10:12 – One of ClaimCompass' biggest competitors is AirHelp 11:00 – Tatyana believes that if they partnered with online travel agencies, they can reach more people 11:18 – Flight Right and Refund.me are some of ClaimCompass' competitors, too 11:31 – Some of ClaimCompass competitors' business models can make you lose money 13:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: More than 90% of airline passengers are unaware of their rights – we should know our rights to make an appropriate claim. Not all business models are the same – study the company first, to be aware of the charges. Every step out of your comfort zone, leads to something far more interesting for you. 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

Nathan interviews Patrick O'Luanaigh. He started as a programmer and designer at Codemasters 20 years ago, working on micro machines V3. Prior to founding nDreams, in 2006, he was a creative director at Eidos where he was responsible for the design and gameplay of all the titles there including the well-known Tomb Raider Legend and Hitman Blood Money. nDreams is now 50 people strong and pivoted to solely focusing on virtual reality 3 years ago. nDreams has launched 6 VR titles to date. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Chimp Paradox What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk and Brendan Iribe Favorite online tool? — Box Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Life is too short to play it safe, you gotta take your risk. It's so much more exciting even though it is scary, you just gotta do it. Be brave!" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:18 – Nathan introduces Patrick to the show 02:07 – The greatest challenge of VR (virtual reality) at the moment is the limited number of hardware available 02:16 – "We are still figuring out how to make the very best games in the experience of VR" 02:36 – nDreams' game that has generated the most income is Perfect Beach 03:02 – nDreams' key metric is the number of units sold 03:18 – nDreams has sold 250K units 03:49 – nDreams has 50 people in the team 03:56 – Ideas come from anyone in the studio 04:05 – They work with the best idea and do an estimate 04:25 – There's a lot of things to learn in VR 04:30 – nDreams focuses on gameplay 04:49 – Perfect can be purchased on Google Play Store or your VR digital store 05:16 – Mobile version currently costs $2.99 05:20 – The high-end version costs around $7.99 05:40 – nDreams has earned 75K from Perfect 05:50 – The challenge of PlayStation VR is the price 06:06 – Patrick has not heard of other competitors who have sold as much VR as they have 06:44 – It's hard to tell the total potential basis for the VR space 07:00 – Patrick started the company 10 years ago 07:36 – nDreams was bootstrapped but they raised capital for VR 08:06 – nDreams has raised around $6M 08:14 – Patrick started the business even before the start of the VR market 08:41 – 2016 top line revenue 09:30 – Patrick can predict which games will do well even when they're still early in the market 09:43 – nDreams is trying out different games and genres 09:53 – "We're in the stage of learning what works well" 10:08 – In nDreams' released games, SkyDIEving is the only one that's for free 10:48 – Perfect Beach was from an experiment 11:08 – Gunner's expenses 11:45 – nDreams is launching more games this year 12:30 – Patrick shares where most people are buying their games 13:15 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Being in a space that is new can be challenging because of the limited data and resources. You learn in every process you take . Life is too short to play it safe—be brave and take those risks! 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

Allan Wille. He was on The Top on December 12, 2016, Episode 506. His company, Klipfolio, raised $7.9M in the past and has grown to 7000 paying customers. They create dashboard software for companies who want to monitor their business processes. Klipfolio is into something incredible, tune in as Allan shares about it on today's episode. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – What CEO do you follow? – Favorite online tool? — Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:22 – Nathan introduces Allan to the show 02:52 – Klipfolio is an online and cloud based, and they create real-time dashboard software for SMBs 03:03 – There are over 7000 companies globally who uses Klipfolio 03:15 – Klipfolio just had a $12M Series B raise 03:33 – Klipfolio has a total of $19.9M total raised 03:41 – Klipfolio already has good investors in their cap table 03:56 – Allan shares how he came up with the Series B 04:19 – The initial intent was to bring in new investors 04:30 – Things turned out differently from the initial intent 04:47 – RPU 04:55 – MRR 05:02 – 2017 MRR goal 05:52 – Klipfolio licenses per number of dashboards 06:25 – Allan wants customers to see Klipfolio's value first 06:35 – CAC 07:20 – LTV 07:33 – Team size 08:00 – Klipfolio believes in product first policy 08:21 – Most of the investment will go into Klipfolio's product 08:35 – Allan shares where they spend most of their CAC 09:00 – Klipfolio will add more people in sales and support 09:13 – "We're actually gonna put a lot of effort in content strategy" 09:37 – Allan is friends with Craig Fitzpatrick from Pagecloud, who talks about content marketing, too 10:26 – Allan wants the system to be more efficient to maximize user experience 10:44 – Allan was able to get a great valuation 11:06 – Allan shares how things happened during the valuation 12:23 – Allan shares the offer he received 12:55 – The questions Allan had before accepting the offer 13:30 – The first offer was a low-ball 15:03 – "In many cases, terms are probably more important than valuation—multiple or the actual preimposed" 15:54 – "We got to basically where we wanted to be" 16:35 – Allan was happy with the terms 16:45 – One of the terms is 1x multiple 17:14 – The other term includes an anti-dilution clause 18:20 – Nathan closing the episode 3 Key Points: There are cases where terms are more important than valuation. Content strategy plays a big role in marketing – invest in it. Go in the direction you want to be. 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

Mike Cook. He founded XOR Data Exchange to bring privacy and accountability back to data management. Today, his organization works with the nation's largest financial institutions to fight fraud and manage risk. You might have never seen Mike presenting the newest consumer tech, but rest assured every digital entity in America is safer under his watchful eye. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People What CEO do you follow? – Sam Yagan Favorite online tool? — Periscope Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That you should go to anger management" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Mike to the show 02:10 – Mike mentions how XOR Data Exchange works 02:54 – Mike wanted to create a company where financial institutions can share their data with one another 03:16 – XOR Data Exchange is a B2B model 03:21 – XOR Data Exchange will eventually help consumers 04:04 – Mike shares how XOR Data Exchange will work in between companies 04:31 – Companies like AIG and JP Chase Morgan store data 05:32 – XOR Data Exchange changes the mentality of the pipe 06:25 – XOR Data Exchange generates revenue by building pre-exchanges 07:17 – XOR Data Exchange charges transaction fees based on return data 07:38 – XOR Data Exchange is a pay-as-you-go model 07:43 – XOR Data Exchange is building a new exchange focusing on financial services companies where companies can exchange fraud information 08:10 – XOR Data Exchange was launched in January 2014 08:20 – First year revenue is nothing 08:27 – Mike put in his own money in XOR Data Exchange 08:34 – Mike sold his company ID Analytics to fund XOR Data Exchange 08:40 – Mike sold ID Analytics in 2012, which he started in 2000 08:56 – Mike was 17 when he started ID Analytics 09:15 – Mike had 2 other co-founders 09:26 – Mike tried to work in a big company after his exit 09:56 – Mike has raised $6M and will close $2M, today 10:53 – The last round was in August 2015 11:22 – Most of the money from the current round is from the previous investors 11:36 – Mike shares about his Angel investors 12:40 – "Raising a Series B in this environment is not the easiest thing to do" 12:51 – Mike explains what he means by this 13:20 – XOR Data Exchange is working with big customers 13:45 – "If you work with the top 6, 7, 8 financial services companies, you're really covering 90% of America" 14:05 – XOR Data Exchange has dozens of companies 14:23 – Team size 14:26 – XOR Data Exchange is not yet cashflow positive 15:05 – 2017 goal 15:25 – Most of the XOR Data Exchange employees are tech and based in Austin 17:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Reinvest your money in something that you believe in. The financial service space isn't the easiest environment to raise a Series B. If you work with the top 6, 7, or 8 financial services companies, you're really covering 90% of America. 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

Alex Fishman, the founder and CEO of Bugsee, a bug reporting tool for iOs and Android. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Henry Worth Favorite online tool? – Gmail Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—I wish If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "You want start playing in the startup ecosystem as early as possible when you have less commitments and less things to worry about" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:18 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show 01:31 – Bugsee is bug reporting tool for iOs and Android 01:51 – Bugsee provides video network and blog, leading out to the event 02:15 – You will not only know that the app crashed, but what led it to crash 02:50 – Bugsee is a SaaS model and they price based on the app size 03:19 – For an app that has 500K users, it will cost $500 03:40 – Bugsee provides different levels of value 04:33 – Average customer pay per month 04:45 – Bugsee started in January 2016 05:01 – Bugsee started charging in December 2016 05:20 – Bugsee has 1100 sign ups and 30% have used Bugsee 06:22 – Alex mentions why he calls users as customers, too 06:40 – Most customers are given free tier to continue using Bugsee 07:11 – New customers use the plan available 07:30 – The limitations of Bugsy's free plan 08:52 – Number of paying customers 09:20 – Bugsee is funded by K9 Ventures 09:33 – Bugsee has raised $1.2M 09:40 – Bugsee had a previous failed attempt 09:53 – The cap table had been reset by Bugsee 10:43 – The previous attempt was in July 2015 10:57 – Team size 11:05 – The team is remote 11:24 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Users are also customers, regardless of whether you sell them on something or not. Having a failed attempt does NOT mean you should give up. Start playing in startup field as early as possible and while you're still free of obligations. 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

Magnus Åström. He's the CEO and founder of Now Interact, a machine-learning, SaaS platform for omni channel optimization. He's also the founder of InLead, a business consultant and operations company which was sold in 2010 and prior to that, he was founder of Primelog, a transportation management SaaS platform which was sold in 2006. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Blue Ocean Strategy What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "It's all about focus" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces to the show 02:17 – Primelog started in 2000 02:29 - Primelog connects transportation providers with transportation buyers 02:57 - Annual revenue 03:10 – Primelog was sold to Swedish group 04:44 – They raised 4.5M 04:57 – Inlead's idea is to help customers sell in C-level 05:39 – Inlead turned out to be too heavy on the consultancy side, so Magnus sold it 05:48 – It didn't turn out as a software play 06:10 – Inlead's annual revenue was $1.5 M 06:27 – Now Interact offers machine-based algorithm software to large businesses 06:40 – The software personalizes how each customer is offered a customer service channel 07:00 – Businesses get less calls from customer service 07:30 – Now Interact tracks the data of how customers behave on a website and how they interact with a customer service 08:06 – Magnus goal is to get telco giants like AT&T and Verizon as customers 09:04 – Now Interact has a group that chooses their customization 09:22 – Now Interact is a SaaS model 09:31 – Average customer pay per month is $10K 09:39 – Now Interact was founded in 2010 09:45 – Now Interact raised $100K in 2012 10:46 – Now Interact has raised a total of $7M 11:20 – Customer churn 11:31 – Team size 11:47 – Headquartered in Stockholm 12:04 – CAC is $30K 12:22 – Now Interact has salespeople and are doing paid content marketing 12:58 – "Sales play a lot" 13:30 – Magnus discusses what they'll do with the capital they've raised 13:45 – Some would go to the expansion in the USA 14:05 – 2015 total revenue 14:30 – 2016 total revenue 15:00 – Magnus shared how he negotiated for the valuation 15:45 – The top 3 most important terms when negotiating 15:48 – The preference structure, the lock-in and the investors you want to have 18:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: You can choose to close your company if it is not going in the direction you intended it to go. Valuation is not always everything—there are more things to consider when negotiating. Stay focused, don't take on more than you can handle. 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

Zach Supalla. He's the CEO and co-founder of Particle, a venture backed startup that's making it easier to build internet connected hardware and other things. Particle is the most, widely used IoT platform with a developed community of a hundred thousand users and is listed as one of Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in 2015, of the Internet of Things. Zach has been featured on CNN, The Wall street Journal, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Mashable and more. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Lawson Favorite online tool? — Slack and Asana 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 don't have to be an engineer to be an engineer" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces Zach to the show 02:16 – Zach used to be a management consultant 02:45 – While Zach was doing his MBA, he interned in Groupon's sales operation 03:07 – Zach did engineering 03:21 – Particle is an IoT platform 03:44 – Particle helps manufacturers connect their physical product to the internet 04:11 – Particle does the whole communication stack between the physical device and web 04:40 – Particle has raised $10M 04:50 – Particle generates revenue in 4 ways 04:55 – Particle works with large companies and sells them subscriptions, data plans, hardware, and professional services 05:24 – Main revenue stream is from the hardware 05:54 – Hardware pricing ranges from $5-50 06:09 – For Keurig, they added hardware to plug into the back of the coffee maker 06:45 – The hardware volume for Keurig is in the thousands 07:00 – Particle has customers who will be deploying millions of hardware products by 2018 07:28 – Security is part of Particle's story 07:37 – Zach shares about the webcam botnet incident 08:09 – The Mirai botnet in Liberia explained 08:32 – Zach shares how Particle works to secure everything from the device to the in between communication 08:50 – Typical, cheap webcams that are in the market and manufactured in China are not secure 09:23 – There are products that people aren't unplugging and are considered unsecure 09:45 – Particle started in 2012 09:59 – Zach first launched a product in Kickstarter named Spark Socket 10:07 – The product was unsuccessful 10:21 – It was frustrating, but it turned to be a huge benefit 10:51 – Zach relaunched a new product in Kickstarter, in 2013, called Spark Core 11:20 – Zach was inspired by his dad who is deaf to create the first product 12:20 – Zach shares what is important in launching a Kickstarter campaign 12:28 – Zach looks at any Kickstarter campaign as an experiment 12:33 – Zach made sure that they nailed the marketing on their first launch 13:43 – "We're definitely advocates of the lean startup mentality" 14:13 – 2013 revenue 14:41 – 2014 revenue 15:43 – Zach shares where the scale is coming from 15:58 – When Zach launched the product, they weren't targeting enterprise stores 16:28 – Zach was originally creating development tools then shifted to management tools 16:43 – The growth started in selling deaf kits 17:00 – They started making modules, then the software platform 17:26 – One of the challenges a hardware startup faces is going from being a product to a company 17:56 – 2017 revenue goal 18:08 – Team size is 35 18:21 – Half of the team is from San Francisco and the other half are all over 18:50 – Particle is not facing a problem yet with their people who work in China 19:03 – Zach created a program while he was in China, where he lived for 4 months 19:22 – Zach has a deep trusting relationship with their people in China 21:14 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Solve your own problems and make the people around you, your inspiration. See the beauty in a failure – it can be a way for you to create something better. One of the most difficult challenges a hardware startup faces is going from being a product to a company. 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