SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Craig McLuckie. He's the founder and CEO of Heptio, a startup focused on making Kubernetes accessible enterprises. Prior to starting Heptio, Craig was a product manager at Google where he founded the Kubernetes project, launched Google compute engine and created The Cloud Native Computing Foundation that he also shared. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Influence What CEO do you follow? – Andrew Grove Favorite online tool? — Lever 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 wished my 20-year old self understood the importance of kindness" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:25 – Nathan introduces Craig to the show 01:55 – Kubernetes is a technology that is used to run applications in a production setting 02:16 – The idea is to take the collective learning that Google instilled over the last decade of building and running applications 02:35 – Kubernetes is an open-source technology 02:53 – Kubernetes is being widely adopted by enterprises but there are still some gaps 03:16 – Heptio's job is to make Kubernetes more accessible to a broad array of developers 03:47 – Heptio generates revenue through support, training and professional service and consultancy 04:25 – Heptio is currently on pre-product revenue 04:50 – By providing Heptio's professional service, they connect with customers and understand where the key gaps are 05:12 – Heptio has raised $8.5M 05:20 – The people backing Heptio 06:17 – Nathan simplifies Kubernetes' description 07:50 – Craig explains how Kubernetes actually works in applications 09:07 – Heptio wants to present the perfect idea of how machines should be operating 09:23 – Kubernetes provided the steps from thinking about virtual infrastructure to logical infrastructure 09:49 – At Heptio, they bring the idea of logical infrastructure to companies everywhere so they can experience a better way to decode without worrying about the difficult task of configuring 10:22 – Heptio also helps companies organize themselves around the technology 10:53 – It is like helping people stack the bricks of technology 11:58 – John and Craig started Kubernetes in Google and they had successes in the past 12:20 – Craig demonstrated clearly the product market fit for Kubernetes so they were able to raise $8.5M 12:40 – Craig has spent time with the community 13:10 – Craig quantifies the adoption of Kubernetes 13:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Kubernetes is an open source technology that is used to run applications in a production setting. Demonstrating your product's market CLEARLY can lead to investors believing and trusting your product. Remember the importance of being kind. 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

Aner Ravon. He's the co-founder and chief product officer of his new company called Zirra. Zirra's mission is to solve the education and entry pain of the retail investors when it comes to equity investments. Before this company, Aner spent his time at Celltick as a VP of media and head of business unit. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Tipping Point What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs Favorite online tool? — Ask Wonder Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Not to worry so much" Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:42 – Nathan introduces Aner to the show 02:58 – Zirra steps into the void between data and excel analysis of the companies 03:10 – There's a big void in the data collection and actual decision making of a company for the people who want to invest 03:48 – Zirra is a service 03:52 – Zirra has an a la carte system which is pay-as-you-go 03:55 – Zirra has 2 main products 03:58 – Spotlight reports which costs $49 04:11 – Value packages for corporate investors which is a monthly subscription 04:29 – Average customer pay is $99 monthly 05:05 – Zirra started in August 2014 05:30 – Zirra first offered their services for free 05:45 – Aner shares how they decided to stop the free service 06:01 – Zirra had 150 free users 06:13 – Some of the free users are large equity firms 06:23 – Zirra started in Israel 06:35 – Microsoft was using ZIrra heavily, for free 07:00 – 80% of the free users converted to paid users 07:20 – Zirra managed the free service with free coupons 07:41 – Zirra didn't take away the credits, but started renewing them 07:48 – When users use up their credits, they'll be greeted with a pay wall 08:05 – Zirra's paywall: pay $49 to get the report or buy 10 reports for $299 08:40 – Zirra's revenue comes from pay-as-you-go and monthly subscriptions 09:10 – 15 customers are on monthly subscriptions 09:20 – 40-50 of the customers are habitual users 10:35 – Another product Zirra offers is deep report which sells from $1K-3K 11:45 – Team size is 15 12:39 – Zirra is based in Telavi, Israel 12:49 – Zirra has raised capital and closed almost $3M 13:19 – Zirra is founding new investors without going through another round because of their current Angel investors 13:51 – 2016 revenue 13:55 – 2017 goal revenue 14:28 – There are currently a hundred thousand companies in Zirra 14:55 – Zirra can deliver the report in just a few hours 15:30 – Zirra has 85 different data sources 16:09 – The resources are running through ZIrra's search engine 17:12 – Zirra's vision 18:19 – Aner thinks PitchBook and CB Insights are great services 18:28 – Zirra's ability to storify the data makes them different from their competitors 20:15 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Having access to and understand the data of the company will help inform that decision to invest. Shifting from a free service to paid is risky move, but needs to be done. Don't worry too much—it won't do very much for you in the end. 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

Martijn de Kuijper, founder of Revue. He's a product guy and his company's focus is to get your thoughts to people's inboxes via newsletters. He previously founded Fosbury and Yunoo. Martijn is also a Techstars alum. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — 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? – "Just keep doing what you're doing and don't get distracted by what other people are saying" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan introduces Martijn to the show 02:10 – Revue focuses on personal newsletters like editorial newsletters 02:45 – Revue helps people share their content through newsletters 02:50 – Revue currently has a free and premium model 03:20 – Average customer pay per month is $7 03:45 – Martijn is a listener of The Top 04:10 – Revue was launched in January 2015 04:27 – Martijn started Revue on his own as a side project 04:30 – Martijn was working on the acquisition of Fosbury 04:59 – Martijn shares what Fosbury is about 05:24 – Martijn was in Techstars Texas 05:44 – Team size is 5 06:18 – Fosbury wasn't earning 07:08 – The money that Martijn received from the assets 07:42 – Martijn used the money from selling Fosbury to start Revue 08:12 – Martijn also sold Yunoo when he was 26 08:30 – The buyer is the software company AFAS from the Netherlands 09:20 – Martijn has raised $350K for Revue in convertible note 09:50 – Terms on the convertible note 10:05 – Revue currently has a thousand paying customers 10:23 – Martijn is currently focusing on growth rather than revenue 10:48 – Revue has 20K registered users at the moment with 10% active users 10:57 – Active users are the ones who send at least 1 email a month 11:27 – Monthly churn 11:35 – No paid CAC 11:49 – Revue has a content marketer 12:24 – Revue is currently sending 2M emails, monthly 12:40 – First year revenue 13:00 – Total 2016 revenue 13:26 – Martijn's current side project 14:30 – Where Martijn got his marketing ploy idea 16:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Don't be afraid to sell your company if it comes down to it. Study and strategize a marketing plan that works and at no cost. Just keep doing what you're doing and don't let what others say distract 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

Charles Thiede. He's the co-founder and CEO of the knowledge network platform called Zapnito. Zapnito helps organizations create privately, branded, expert communications and networks. He calls this "experts as a service". Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Product Hunt Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try to If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Do everything with courage" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:11 – Nathan introduces Charles to the show 01:41 – Zapnito is a SaaS platform 02:16 – The idea of Zapnito is to helps brands bring their audience back to the trusted sources of knowledge 02:40 – Zapnito's Slack channel 02:51 – The platform behind the scene that pulls the audience and brands together 03:40 – Each brand has their own slack domain 04:40 – Average customer pay per year is £60K 05:38 – Zapnito started in trading in March 2013 05:48 – Started as a marketplace for experts in 2014 06:38 – First year revenue 07:12 – Zapnito currently has 12 customers 07:57 – Average MRR 08:50 – Team size is 12 09:36 – Charles doesn't batch their sales calls 10:00 – Charles usually takes the calls 10:32 – Zapnito is based in London 10:50 – No customer churn and negative net churn 11:12 – The leverage Zapnito pulls to drive the RPU up 11:30 – "We focus on niche networks' 11:50 – Zapnito has scaled their number of networks 12:10 – CAC 13:21 – Zapnito was bootstrapped and raised angel money 13:40 – Zapnito has raised £650K in priced equity round 14:02 – Zapnito had 3 rounds 14:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Continually pivoting is not a disadvantage to your company, as long as you just keep learning from the experience. Do not hesitate to hire the people that you need. Do everything with courage. 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

Raviv Turner. He's the co-founder and CEO of CaliberMind – the first marketing, technology platform to apply machine learning in human language analysis to build detailed psychographic profiles. He has more than 10 years of experience leading products and development for high growth B2B SaaS companies. His previous roles include Director of UX at FullContact and VP of product at TapInfluence. Raviv is a mentor at Techstars Accelerator and holds a Masters in Interactive Media at NYU. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Hacking Marketing What CEO do you follow? – Bart Lorang Favorite online tool? — Asana, 7Geese and Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Doing my best If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Your network is your net worth" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Raviv to the show 02:25 – CaliberMind analyzes and boosts structured and unstructured data 03:18 – CaliberMind is a SaaS model 03:36 – Monthly billing starts at $2K 03:46 – Average customer pay per month 04:15 – CaliberMind was launched in 2015 04:48 – Raviv adapted the idea from the military 05:05 – Raviv was in product design for the past 15 years 05:23 – The analytics structure data 06:30 – CaliberMind currently has their first 12 customers 06:54 – CaliberMind has bundled packages of services 07:40 – CaliberMind was bootstrapped on their first year 07:55 – CaliberMind had raised their $1.1M seed round after seeing traction from the customers 08:20 – No customer churn yet 08:42 – CAC and LTV 08:56 – The account-based marketing 09:20 – Team size of 8 and based in Colorado 09:39 – Most of the team are developers and data scientists 09:46 – They have Nic Zangre who was a Director of Marketing at AdRoll 10:00 – Raviv shares how he convinced Nic to work with CaliberMind 10:26 – Nic has equity in CaliberMind 10:45 – Some companies that are in the space are Usermind and Pegasystems 12:25 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Work with people who share the same passion and vision as you do. Taking that leap out of your comfort zone is often risky and also, often, worth it. Find ways to help the people in your network without expecting something in return. 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

Lauren Sullivan. She's the co-founder of Flightfox, a site which Nathan recently used to book multi-country travel. Flightfox helped him understand the best way to leverage his points from his Chase Credit Card for travel purposes. Flightfox helps you search flights, manage your trip, and leverage your loyalty points, to help ease your trip planning experience and it is growing fast. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – John Mackey Favorite online tool? — PocketSmith Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes, currently If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Lauren wished she had stopped working for someone else and started building her own company earlier Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:25 – Nathan introduces Lauren to the show 02:02 – Flightfox is an online and real-time platform that manages travel for individuals, companies and organizations 02:15 – Flightfox's revenue model is to charge per trip and they make money from commission 02:32 – Flightfox's expert will help match and plan a trip and they will authorize the credit card you use 03:33 – Flightfox books for companies, too 03:50 – The more complex the trip, the more expensive it is 05:10 – If Flightfox can't find you a trip, they won't charge you 05:34 – Flightfox was launched in 2012 05:45 – Flightfox was originally launched as a contest based, cloud source system 06:10 – There were a small number of the majority winning the contest 06:21 – The model was switched to a one-on-one 07:04 – The experts are contactors 07:15 – The experts get a fee per trip 07:40 – Most of them are full-time 07:50 – Flights metrics 08:03 – Flightfox is focused on companies and organizations 08:14 – CAC is a bit high 09:20 – There are at least 50 companies who have booked with Flightfox 09:35 – 5-10 companies are booking at least 30 trips per month 09:50 – Companies usually have 80 people 10:20 – In 2012, Flightfox has raised $850K 10:50 – Four Team members 11:50 – Flightfox has pivoted a couple of times already 13:19 – Lauren has been through alot with her company thus far, and has chosen to carry on 14:14 – 2016 total revenue 14:40 – Flightfox is close to breaking even 14:53 – Average MRR 15:11 – Raising another round will depend on the things that will happen in the future 17:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Changing your business model isn't easy – but, it's very normal to have to do so. Going through the most difficult times will test not just your patience, but your ability to make the best decisions. If it's what you really want, just keep going. 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

Aseem Badshah. He's the founder and CEO of the company called Socedo. Before that, he built his own full-service marketing agency called Uptown Treehouse that leveraged social media and digital channels to reach current and potential customers. He's upgraded and improved that initial business model with his current company, Socedo. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Crushing the Cashman 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? – Aseem wished that he would have prioritized building relationships Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan introduces Aseem to the show 01:50 – Aseem noticed that there was so much data on prospects for B2B marketers in an agency 02:07 – Socedo's goal 02:13 – Lead generation is what Socedo uses to get more customers 02:45 – Socedo provides behavioral data 02:56 – Socedo makes money from their software license 03:03 – Clients sign-up from 6 months to 1 year of license usage 03:11 – Average pay the company gives to Socedo monthly 03:25 – Socedo started in 2013 03:37 – In social media marketing, everything was setup for B2C marketers 04:25 – Social media is like a big CRM so Aseem leveraged it in a way to help B2B marketers 04:45 – There are 200 paying customers 04:50 – Socedo has raised $1.5M 05:00 – Socedo's revenue has tripled in 2016 05:10 – Average contract price 05:25 – Socedo started with SMB 05:50 – 2016 total revenue 06:05 – Socedo has 25 people 06:20 – 2017 goal 06:30 – Aseem is targeting 2x for 2017 06:41 – Aseem wants to focus on their current customers 07:17 – "It's not necessarily about growth at all costs; we want to focus on the fundamentals, focus on the relationship with customers" 07:35 – All 25 members are in Seattle 07:53 – The round was an equity round 08:32 – Socedo is currently cash flow positive 08:50 – Socedo is willing to take in new capital if they are ready 09:11 – Socedo has almost broken even 09:23 – How Socedo drives new customers 09:37 – Socedo doesn't spend much money on marketing 10:30 – The data source which Aseem thinks is the most accurate 10:39 – "Everyone is accurate in their own way" 10:52 – How Socedo matches data 11:10 – Socedo's goal is to get metrics as high as possible 11:31 – "We don't guarantee an accuracy rate, but our accuracy rate is pretty high" 12:00 – The data sources that are connected to Socedo's API are Full Contact, ClearBit and SellHack 12:34 – Socedo's unique data advantage 13:30 – As a B2B marketer, there's a bigger chance of a higher conversion rate 13:50 – Data sources that have the most accurate revenue numbers are Marketo and Salesforce 14:22 – Socedo doesn't have the marketing budget for each lead 14:45 – Socedo has the company size which can be used as a revenue basis for each lead 15:15 – Gross customer churn 15:36 – CAC 15:45 – LTV 16:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Social media is a big CRM that can be leveraged to build a better marketing space for B2B businesses. Focusing on fundamentals and customer relationships can be more advantageous than focusing on just growth. Each data source out there is accurate in their own way. 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

Calvin Correli. He's the CEO of a holistically focused, multi-million dollar, online, all-in-one solution driven software company called Simplero. This company exists to reduce the stress associated with figuring out software systems and how to join them together. He's passionate about helping online business owners do exactly what brings them the most life. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – There Is Nothing Wrong With You What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — FastMail Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not every night If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Invest in getting to know yourself, and who you are, and how you're different" Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:20 – Nathan introduces Calvin to the show 02:49 – Simplero is a tool that helps people sell online 03:20 – Simplero is a SaaS business model 03:30 – Simplero was launched in 2009 03:39 – Calvin started to charge people in 2010 03:50 – Number of current paying customers is 700 04:02 – One of Simplero's customers is Robin Green, who is an acupuncturist in California 04:25 – Robin decided to teach acupuncture online 04:42 – Robin made around $60K on her first program 05:10 – Simplero automates everything that can be automated 05:27 – Average customer pay per month 05:31 – Simplero charges monthly and takes a percentage of the revenue 05:51 – Simplero's main revenue stream 06:25 – 10% is from the revenue fee and 90% from the SaaS model 07:15 – Average MRR 07:21 – Average ARR per customer 07:50 – Average customer retention 08:25 – Calvin shares how he got their customer LTV 08:58 – Calvin is based in New York, but he has team members in Denmark and on the West Coast 09:56 – Most of the people in the business started 6 months ago 10:20 – Simplero is self-funded 11:25 – Calvin is happy with how his company is doing at the moment 11:40 – Calvin wants to show the world a different way to live 12:01 – Calvin's big dream is to be a presidential adviser for USA 13:00 – How do we measure happiness? 13:07 – Calvin is not a metrics guy 13:19 – There's a sweet spot for every person where they are happy and work doesn't feel like work 14:00 – How do we know if people are really happy? 15:10 – Productivity gains do not directly correlate to happiness gains 15:55 - The source of happiness vs. the thing you do for others or with others 17:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: There's a feeling of contentment you can find in helping others. Invest in yourself, first. There's a sweet spot for every person where they are happy and work doesn't feel like work. 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

Russ Heddleston. He's the CEO and co-founder of DocSend. Previously, he was a product manager for Facebook. He arrived at the B2B acquisition of the product Pursuit.com. Russ also had roles in Dropbox, Greystripe and Trulia. He received a BS in Computer Engineering and MS Computer Science at Stanford along with an MBA from Harvard. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Keith Krach Favorite online tool? — Gmail and Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Do things well and be patient with them—and then, they will turn out well later" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:33 – Nathan introduces Russ to the show 02:03 – Pursuit was a human resources to management referral program for employees 02:22 – Russ shopped their company to Facebook 02:38 – Russ explains why they made this decision 03:38 – Russ was the product manager for Facebook's pages team 03:55 – Russ worked both for the brands and personalities 04:15 – DocSend was launched in 2013 04:24 – DocSend's first version was made in 2010 05:18 – First year revenue was zero 05:27 – "We were focused on growth" 05:50 – DocSend was doing something of very high value; not necessarily for a broad user base 06:40 – DocSend has been approached by a hedge fund 06:59 – Most salespeople are using DocSend long term 07:37 – Average customer pay per month 08:42 – Most deals of DocSend are outbound deals 09:00 – Average enterprise prices: 09:24 – The price varies from $50-90 per month 09:40 – Outbound target for a team of 30 and above 10:10 – Average contract value depends on the size of the company 10:30 – Team size is 25 with 6 sales people 10:42 – Team location is San Francisco with 1 in New York 11:08 – Pricing plan was introduced a year after DocSend launched 11:35 – The current number of DocSend's paying companies 11:48 – There's a mix of logo and seat count 12:04 – Average seats per company 12:45 – Total number of users under paid plan 13:03 – DocSend has raised capital for $10M in VC and $1M in venture debt 14:03 – Venture debt was done post-series seed 15:00 – Average MRR 16:16 – Possible minimum average MRR 17:00 – Russ shares the difference of inbound self-serve and outbound 17:25 – Russ gets excited with outbound 18:25 – Gross monthly customer churn 19:01 – The churn for self-serve is quite high, but not for outbound 19:45 – Net negative churn 20:12 – The expansion would benefit the team 20:38 – As the company gets bigger, the more they need DocSend 20:48 – DocSend closed their last financing last year 21:00 – DocSend doesn't need to raise capital at the moment 21:25 – "We don't need to get acquired" 23:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Focusing on growth rather than revenue is never bad thing. Improve your product until you are no longer expendable to your customers. Do things well and be patient with them—in time, they will turn out for the 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

Pietari Suvanto, cofounder of the company, Vainu. Vainu was founded recently and is a tool that defines piles of data from the web and turns into fact check and actionable company information. His vision is to understand more organizations around the world more than anybody else and his company currently has about a thousand customers in Europe, including FedEx and Santander Innoventures. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People What CEO do you follow? – Mike Bloomberg Favorite online tool? — Zoom Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Be a bit more braver" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:12 – Nathan introduces Pietari to the show 01:50 – Vainu is a SaaS business model 02:40 – Pietari shares a company that is searchable in Vainu 03:06 – Salesforce has a lot of organizations around the globe 03:50 – The uses of companies' data in Vainu 04:12 – Vainu gives the company's in-depth data 04:30 – Salespeople are the ones who uses Vainu 04:49 – Vainu's revenue stream is from the subscription per seat 05:05 – Average customer pay per month is €400 05:21 – Vainu was launched in 2014 05:33 – Vainu hasn't raised capital 05:37 – Vainu is based in Hilsinki, Finland, Amsterdam, and New York 06:00 – Number of paying customers is 1000 06:30 – ARR in 2016 €4.5M 06:55 – MRR goal in 2017 07:20 – Vainu is finding their customers through their software 08:07 – Pietari shares how they find the companies 08:50 – Vainu can check the company's' data in preview 09:30 – The number of salespeople in Vainu's team 09:55 – Gross customer churn is 1% 10:05 – CAC 10:24 – Assumed LTV per customer 10:40 – €20K-30K 11:04 – Pietari is hoping to raise capital 11:36 – Pietari would likely to raise €5-10M 12:30 – Pietari shares how they are different from their competitors 13:20 – Vainu hasn't bought any API access to any data providers 13:30 – Everything in their system is owned by them 13:50 – The best asset of Vainu 14:50 – Pietari shares how they access the revenue data 15:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Be the BEST in your market, having an asset that will set you apart from your competitors. Raising capital is always an option, but not always a necessity. Be brave—step out and believe you can do it. 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