SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Nathan Latka
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Feb 23, 2017 • 26min

EP 579: Organifi Hits $25M 2016 Sales, 150k Customers, Indian Sourced Ashwagandha is Million Dollar Ingredient with CEO Drew Canole

Drew Canole. He's a nutrition specialist, transformation specialist, and national spokesperson for the benefits of juicing vegetables for health and vitality. He is the founder of Fitlife.TV where he shares educational, inspirational, and entertaining videos and articles about health, fitness, healing, and longevity. More recently, his company, Organifi, is getting directly into the green juicing space with a physical product. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Google Calendar Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "To stay fricking focused on one thing" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan introduces Drew to the show 02:25 – Organifi is sourced from the best farms for their organic ingredients 02:34 – The ingredients are high quality, organic, non-GMO, soy free, and vegan 02:43 – Drew did clinical studies on their product and has sold over a quarter million bottles 03:20 – Drew started getting his audience from Youtube and Facebook, 6 years ago 03:33 – "Influence marketing has been our focus for the past 3 years" 03:48 – Drew has one of the largest, green juice followings online 03:56 – Drew started working on a their own concoction by looking at the gap in the green juice market 04:35 – The green juice that is available in the market is not good for the brain and body 04:56 – Drew recreated the world's most great tasting juice that helps mental cognition, weight loss, and boosts moods 05:14 – Organifi was launched in early 2015 05:44 – Organifi sold around 350K bottles 05:55 – Around 150K people bought the product 06:00 – Average reorder rate is 2.8 06:17 – Organifi's main product is a 30-day canister 06:55 – Organifi costs $79.95 on Amazon 07:08 – 20% of the sales is from Amazon and 80% is from other traffic 07:15 – 65% is from Organifi's website 08:00 – The cost of making Organifi 09:07 – "We're all about congruency" 09:25 – The most important ingredient of Organifi is the Ashwagandha 09:40 – Drew is importing Ashwagandha from an organic farm in India 10:18 – KSM Ashwagandha is the farm Drew chose 10:35 – Organifi's formulator is the one who visits India to check the farm and the farmers 11:25 – Gross margin is around 75% 11:45 – Marketing cost 12:25 – Software that Organifi is using 12:37 – Unbounce, Infusionsoft, Exit Intel, and Shopify 13:02 – Organifi has a subscription model 13:20 – The subscription has a 15-75% discount 13:40 – The subscription cost 14:43 – Organifi's 2015 revenue 15:15 – Net margin is around 15-20% 15:40 – Drew's influence benefits their net margin 17:04 – What Drew is doing with his wealth 17:07 – Organifi has no investors 17:34 – Total list size is around 1.4M 17:45 – Actively opening is 500K 18:15 – Team size is 70 18:45 – 2017 revenue goal 20:04 – Cost of affiliates 22:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Influence marketing is one way not just to increase your online presence, but also sales. A thorough study and being well researched is crucial in order to fill a gap in a field that is quite saturated. Stay congruent with your plans and actions. 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
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Feb 22, 2017 • 26min

EP 578: Ripple Recruiting Passes 8,000 Ivy League Resumes With 15 Employers Paying $300/mo For Access with Ripple CEO Andrew Myers

Andrew Myers. He grew up in Denver, Colorado and recently left Yale before the start of his senior year to pursue Ripple Recruiting, full-time. He now serves as a CEO in a fast growing, 12-person startup. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Anna Karenina What CEO do you follow? – Kevin Ryan and Reid Hoffman Favorite online tool? —PersistIQ and 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? – "Go for it" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:34 – Nathan introduces Andrew to the show 01:56 – Ripple Recruiting allows employers to create their dream applicant 02:32 – The whole revenue model is based on the employers and Ripple Recruiting is subscription based 02:43 – Ripple Recruiting is both a marketplace and a SaaS business model 03:04 – Ripple Recruiting has three subscription packages 03:15 – Average contract size is about $300 a month 03:25 – Andrew shares the differences between the packages 04:25 – Andrew won't sell Ripple Recruiting at this time 04:50 – Andrew and his partner are first time founders 05:05 – Andrew and his partner both have strong opinions regarding their business 05:40 – Ripple Recruiting was launched in 2015 05:54 – First year revenue 06:03 – Andrew's focus is on user engagement, rather than revenue 06:36 – Total debt Andrew has for Ripple Recruiting 07:00 – Ripple Recruiting has raised in a seed round 07:12 – Ripple Recruiting will be in a series A, soon 07:24 – Ripple Recruiting has a syndicate 08:11 – No revenue in 2015 08:20 – Ripple Recruiting has 15 paying clients at the moment 08:30 – Average MRR 09:00 – Andrew shares the pitch to investors 09:10 – Ripple Recruiting currently has over 10K Ivy League students signed up, on the platform 10:36 – Ripple Recruiting's valuation 11:18 – Andrew wants to raise $2-3M is series A 11:30 – Andrew wants the highest valuation possible 12:11 – Andrew already has the strategies to build the syndicate 13:05 – Andrew wouldn't take a $13M deal 13:58 – Andrew has just started focusing on revenue in terms of sales stream 14:42 – The customers are paying for their access in Ripple Recruiting's database 15:52 – Andrew believes that they're doing it better than other competitors in the space 17:07 – Ripple Recruiting doesn't have an official hire number yet 17:23 – Andrew is seeing 20K students being hired on Ripple Recruiting 17:30 – No churn yet 18:58 – The whole Ripple Recruiting team ages between 22-25 20:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Being new to business allows you to be more optimistic, but listening to those who have done it can definitely help. A good pitch can drive good investors. Start early – if you truly feel that you should do it, then NOW is the right time. 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
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Feb 21, 2017 • 20min

EP 577: Vinod Khosla, Others Invest $600k+ In Ex-Intuit Founder Providing Financing Against Invoices with Numberz CEO Aditya Tulsian

Aditya Tulsian. He launched and led multiple small business focused software service and mobile offerings at Intuit India. He's also a management consultant at Diamond Consultant which is now PWC. He's a product manager. He's got an MBA and he's doing very big things especially in the SMB SaaS space. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Brad Smith Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Adi just wished that he could have taken the chance earlier Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:07 – Nathan introduces Adi to the show 01:45 – Adi's company is Numberz 02:14 – Half of Numberz' revenue comes from their SaaS model and half is from commission 02:35 – One of Numberz' customers is NH1 Design 03:05 – How NH1 Design uses Numberz 03:50 – Numberz has receivable financing 04:15 – Numberz has 2 pricing plans 05:00 – Average customer pay annually is $185-195 05:26 – Transaction fee is 2% of every transaction that is done in Numberz' platform 07:00 – Adi was a business head in Intuit India 07:18 – Adi shares why he made the jump 07:35 – Adi has a design agency and they're stable financially 08:13 – First year revenue 09:20 – 2016 total revenue 09:33 – Numberz has more than 5,500 customers 10:02 – Average MRR 10:45 – Numberz' paying customers is 1,200 12:15 – Adi shares Numberz' growth 12:50 – MRR starting 2017 13:27 – Numberz has 3 channels of acquisition to get customers 14:20 – Numberz is spending $150 CAC 16:32 – Team size 16:38 – Numberz' location is in India 16:51 – Numberz has raised capital 17:23 – Total is $750K 17:35 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Taking the leap from corporate is more possible with financial stability. Having 2 streams of revenue for your business can increase your growth faster. Take the chance earlier – opportunities pass you by way too easily. 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
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Feb 20, 2017 • 19min

EP 576: Will This Mobile Payments Startup Survive with CEO Rode Luhaaar?

Rode Luhaäär. He's an enthusiast and entrepreneur who has years of experience as an e-marketer and digital strategist. During his career in the digital field, he's been overseeing execution and delivery of activities such as digital concept, e-business concepts, creative solutions design, software development, SEO, social media marketing, and global solutions. Over the last few years, he's been an active member of a startup community and currently manages a large software company called, Paytailor. Famous Five: Favorite Book? — Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? — n/a Favorite online tool? — n/a Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Think faster" Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:30 – Nathan introduces Rode to the show 03:10 – Paytailor is a smart payment solution allowing merchants to get paid the way they want 03:26 – Paytailor gives merchants an app and the users a card wallet 03:45 – Paytailor is a SaaS company 03:50 – Paytailor charges €10 monthly 04:05 – Paytailor's revenue comes from the monthly fee 04:10 – Average number of customers is 40 04:20 – MRR 04:28 – Paytailor has raised €70K in a convertible note 04:45 – Paytailor was launched in 2015 04:55 – Paytailor started as a side project 05:15 – Team size 05:24 – Paytailor's development is based in Estonia 05:38 – Why did you give up good pay in the digital field to start Paytailor? 05:52 – "We see a problem" 06:31 – Paytailor also has a 1.8% per transaction fee 06:58 – Paytailor's payment gateway 07:14 – Rode is 32 07:32 – What Rode is being paid as a founder 08:09 – Rode's plan for 2017 is to expand in Europe 08:30 – "We don't want to be a financial institution" 08:50 – Rode sees that they have to expand as they make adjustments 09:31 – Last month sales is €450 10:50 – Paytailor has 20 taxis as merchants 11:22 – Some of the merchants' usage is once a month 13:14 – Paytailor's focus is to test out different kinds of users 13:24 – Paytailor currently has 4 bars as merchants 14:44 – Paytailor's merchants are not using their service exclusively 16:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: If you can see a problem then try to create a solution. Expanding helps your company to improve and grow. You have to start somewhere – regardless of how small it is. 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
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Feb 19, 2017 • 16min

EP 575: Fruitstreet Raises $6m From 180 Customers for HealthTech, New Kind of VC with CEO Laurence Girard

Laurence Girard. He's the CEO and founder of Fruit Street. He was a pre-med student at Harvard University Extension School for three years before he decided to pursue Fruit Street full-time and move to San Francisco. In high school, he played soccer for the New York Red Bulls Academy as a goalkeeper, which sparked his initial interest in health. Later, he decided to pursue a career focused on social impact and spent a year volunteering in an emergency room unit in Huntington Hospital, Long Island. He's now exclusively focused in Fruit Street. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Science of Growth What CEO do you follow? – Milton Chen Favorite online tool? — eShares Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 5 out of 7 days If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Laurence would tell himself to put significant emphasis on the team when you are starting a company Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:25 – Nathan introduces Laurence to the show 02:10 – Fruit Street is a telemedicine software product that is licensed to healthcare professionals 02:19 – Fruit Street allows professionals to do HIPAA compliant video consultations with their client 02:32 – Each patient has their personal info integrated with gadgets like Fitbit 02:48 – Fruit Street uses a SaaS model and the professionals will pay a monthly licensing fee 03:09 – MRR is $15K 03:15 – Fruit Street was launched in May 2014 03:33 – Average customer pay per month is $200 for the software 03:43 – Fruit Street is starting to expand to get enterprise customers 03:57 – Current customer number is around a hundred 04:10 – 2016 total revenue 04:37 – Gross customer churn 05:30 – Current LTV 06:00 – Team size is 9 full time and Fruit Street has a joint venture agreement with Vsee 06:33 – Fruit Street is located in New York, and San Francisco 06:51 – Laurence wanted Fruit Street to be funded by physicians and not VC firms 07:00 – Getting the feedback from the physicians would help Fruit Street to improve 07:17 – Physicians can get Fruit Street more customers 07:29 – "Fruit Street is actually a public-benefit corporation" 08:08 – There is no tax benefit in being a public-benefit corporation 08:26 – Laurence wanted to attract investors that are primarily motivated by social impact and not by the financial outcome 08:54 – Fruit Street reached out to physicians through LinkedIn advertising 09:00 – Fruit Street gave the physicians a one-on-one call using Fruit Street's telemedicine software 09:18 – Fruit Street's lawyer is using eShares to manage their cap table 09:47 – Fruit Street has a structure that allows them to make quick decisions 10:00 – Fruit Street has 180 shareholders that are not in a syndicate 11:45 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: With new technology comes the advancement in telehealth, making it easier for patients to reach out to their physicians. Choose an investor that shares the same vision as you. Put a significant emphasis on the team you build when you are starting your business. 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
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Feb 18, 2017 • 23min

EP 574: Buying $2m 600 Acre Pecan Farm, $450/acre/mo, Literally Shaking Money From Trees with Investor Luke Stronach

Luke Stronach. He's spent the last few years raising money for his farmland fund. He's got one single family office as an investor. He's currently 44, he's taught finance, and most of his background is in low-income housing. He's really looking forward to coming to the show and he's a listener. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Fish That Ate the Whale What CEO do you follow? – Stewart and Lynda Resnick Favorite online tool? — Duolingo Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – If you want to have a meaningful life, you should be doing meaningful things Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:20 – Nathan introduces Luke to the show 01:46 – Luke shares what he likes about The Top 02:04 – Luke has raised less than $10M for his farmland fund 02:15 – Luke is currently in the process of moving to Atlanta 02:20 – Luke is about to close his first farm 02:28 – Luke's second orchard is under contract 02:34 – Luke wants to develop a 100 acre orchard in Georgia 03:06 – Luke mentions what farmland investors are looking for in a farmland 03:24 – Luke's first orchard had good irrigation 03:43 – It has 600 acres and was almost $2M 04:41 – 40% of North America's farmland is leased to farmers 04:50 – Investors buy the farmland, lease to farmers who rent per acre or have a revenue share agreement 05:35 – Many farmers are cash flow farmers 06:00 – There are differences across different crops 06:45 – Luke shares the farmer's perspective on crops 07:01 – Average rent per acre 07:40 – The farmers growing rice and corn are renting at $250 per acre 08:00 – Luke's return on his $2M investment 08:50 – The return will always depend on the yield which varies 09:06 – People look at farmland investing as a way to lock value into the land 09:12 – There are people who are after the yield and there are those who are not 10:05 – Luke shares what happened in 2007-2009 10:10 – S&P 500 lost 50% of its value 10:46 – Historically, farmland has done well with inflation 11:00 – Luke's opinion regarding inflation 11:14 – The returns in farmland can be attractive 11:57 – Farmland is not as big as commercial property 12:03 – Farmland investment is a hard space 13:10 – It is a persistence game 13:40 – Luke is currently in Alabama 14:00 – Nathan wants to study Luke's field and work with Luke 17:17 – There are so many things to do in Georgia and Luke will keep Nathan busy 18:08 – Luke makes software for farmers 18:59 – In Episode 450 of The Top, Nathan had Robert Leclerc, the founder of AgFunder 19:23 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: The farmland investment industry is a hard space and requires persistency. People look at farmland investing as a way to lock value into the land. If you want to have a meaningful life, you should be doing meaningful things. 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
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Feb 17, 2017 • 20min

EP 573: I Sell My Financial Data On This Podcast with BitMark CEO Sean Moss-Pultz

Sean Moss-Pultz. He's the CEO and founder of BitMark, the property system for the digital environment. It enables an individual to claim ownership of personal data and digital assets akin to how land registrars track land titles or patent offices track patents. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – High Output Management What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove and Yvon Chouinard 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? – "Luck plays a big role and you just can't quit" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:28 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show 01:53 – Anybody that has data coming out of Fitbit can establish ownership over that data and can list it for sale or protect it 02:11 – BitMark's business model is that they earn a small commission 02:31 – Fitbit's data is in your phone 03:08 – We don't have property rights on our data 03:40 – Download BitMark's software to sell your data or protect it 03:58 – BitMark is currently on beta mode and only desktop software 04:09 – BitMark works with IFTTT 04:56 – BitMark's software can generate a link for your data that you can share 05:40 – You can make around $50 a year for selling your data 05:59 – This is for location data alone 06:15 – "Data is the next big asset class" 06:30 – Can I use BitMark's data to sue someone for using my data? 06:50 – Sean has talked to lawyers and his father is a lawyer 07:42 – Sean thinks the court system will understand digital property titles 08:51 – BitMark was launched in 2014 09:00 – Sean's co-founders are from his previous company 09:42 – BitMark just closed a seed round for $1.7M 10:18 – BitMark is based in Taiwan, with 12 people 10:41 – BitMark has raised from WI Harper Group, which is Taiwan-based 11:08 – BitMark is currently on pre-revenue 11:17 – Sean is hoping for revenue this year 11:53 – Sean mentions how part of their expenses go towards his travelling expenses—going to and from New York and Taiwan 12:33 – BitMark will launch both in Asia and USA 13:10 – BitMark is actively recruiting buyers who are interested in health data 14:30 – Sean looks into location data, health data, fitness data, and financial data 14:50 – Nathan proposes a deal with Sean 16:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Our data is as unique as our thumbmark—protecting it isn't a bad idea. Data is the NEXT, big asset class. Luck plays a big role in your success and you just can't quit. 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
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Feb 16, 2017 • 29min

EP 572: 400,000 Books Sold Teach How to Take $1000 to $1.5m with Author Phil Town

Phil Town. He's a two-time New York Times' best-selling author, hedge fund manager, and founder of Rule One Investing. He's teaching individuals how to take control of their financial futures so they don't have to find a fund manager or financial advisors. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Intelligent Investor What CEO do you follow? – Warren Buffett Favorite online tool? — Evernote Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – That USA will put us in a war and it will suck Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan introduces Phil to the show 02:00 – What makes you qualified to talk about this? 02:08 – "By New York Wall Street standards, I'm completely unqualified" 02:23 – Most people invest using the concept of modern portfolio theory 02:50 – There are people who Phil follows for 30 years now 02:58 – Ben Graham developed the ideas and values of investing in the 30s and 40s 03:12 – Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger 03:41 – Phil has a principle of picking good companies while they're on sale 03:55 – Phil learned to use other people's money to build up their funds 04:22 – How much outside capital have you raised in your hedge fund to date? 04:32 – Under a hundred million 04:40 – Phil started to manage money through separate, managed accounts 04:58 – Phil can manage other people's money that don't have the investing capital for hedge fund 05:53 – The people who needed their accounts to be managed the most are getting the least attention 06:10 – How do you beat a company like Wealth Front 06:24 – Wealth Front is run by modern portfolio theory math 06:58 – "It's such nonsense and yet, it's the only math there is" 06:57 – A robo-advisor pretends that they can use volatility as a reference point for risk 08:10 – People need to know how to invest on their own 08:23 – Phil mentions the three things that he believes someone should do if they don't want to be an active investor 09:19 – Find a financial advisor who knows what they're doing 09:30 – The gap Phil wants to fill 09:56 – "An active fund cannot be the index" 11:05 – If you're not going to learn how to invest, you'll have fewer choices 11:43 – It is simple to invest correctly 12:00 – It's not true that there are losers and winners in investing 12:46 – "Investing is simply buying something that you understand for less than its worth" 13:20 – Phil started with real estate 14:02 – Warren Buffet is one of the best real estate investors 15:02 – Phil shares the essence of a good investment 16:05 – The essence of speculation or trading 16:40 – Nathan asks Phil for his opinion regarding Bill Ackman's Chipotle Mexican Grill 17:21 – Chipotle Mexican Grill has no leverage 18:40 – The one rule Phil applies to all different investment strategies is don't lose money 18:55 – Rule 2 is to remember rule 1 19:15 – Phil's 4-rule process 19:18 – First, am I capable of understanding this business? 19:22 – Second, does this business have protective characteristics that keeps competition a leg? 19:33 – Third, is this owned by people with integrity? 19:36 – Fourth, am I buying this at a big discount to its value? 20:35 – How do you handle imperfect planning? 21:13 – You have to have a big discount on the value that you're purchasing 22:48 – Phil's first book came out in 2005, second in 2010, and another one in 2018 24:55 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: People need to know how to invest on their own—if you're not going to learn how to invest, you'll have fewer choices. There is a difference between a good investment and speculation. Investing is simply buying something that you understand for less than its worth. 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
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Feb 15, 2017 • 19min

EP 571: SenaHill Transacted $200M In FinTech 2016, 7 Predictions for 2017 with Founding Partner Neil DeSena

Neil DeSena. He's one of the founders of SenaHill Partners. He was previously at Goldman Sachs, where he really led the creation of a pioneering and institutional training technologies system which has been used worldwide for over 20 years. He was the Managing Director, Global Head of REDI Products at Goldman Sachs from 2000 - 2006. Neil's leadership helped build a leading, global, multi-asset training system that has expanded data centers and global networking through Europe and Asia. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – n/a What CEO do you follow? – Duncan Niederauer Favorite online tool? — Salesforce 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 a little more attention to the details" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:20 – Nathan introduces Neil to the show 02:20 – Neil shares how their company is finding businesses to invest in 02:40 – Neil and his partners are all entrepreneurs and have experience running businesses 02:54 – Neil shares why they focus on FinTech 04:25 – Average total transaction volume that they've had in 2016 04:54 – Fintech in 2017 05:40 – Distributive ledger of concept is ready for primetime 06:00 – Symbiont is well positioned in the distributive ledger of concept space 06:24 – Symbiont will be at the point of formation for all other companies 06:34 – Companies can now be registered digitally 06:46 – Symbiont's founder, Mark Smith, was Neil's first advisor 06:50 – Mark also founded Lava Effects 07:00 – Mark teamed up with the most successful open source company 07:45 – Neil's prediction of how people will respond to Wall Street and their new administration 08:08 – "I'm not quite sure how things are going to work out" 08:14 – Banks have to adjust to it 08:55 – Neil discusses the economy of the distributive ledger 09:45 – The company that Neil thinks is well positioned to take advantage of the no churn economy in the FinTech sector 10:10 – Neil is also interested in the retirement sector 10:30 – There is still no new technology to work around retirement money 10:50 – Neil has seen possible companies, but not one from their portfolio 11:00 – Fundamentals being displaced by quantimentals 12:10 – Neil's opinion regarding Wealth Front winning over on the money the people currently have on Vanguard 13:20 – There are companies who are trying to bridge the gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation Y 13:50 – SenaHill hasn't made an investment yet, on an insurance company 14:40 – SenaHill's focus in 2017 14:50 – "We try to find companies that we can invest in and help and be with them for the life" 15:05 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Pay attention to the details. Wall Street can be unpredictable because of the new administration – regardless, banks will have to adjust. There are companies who are trying to bridge the gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation Y. 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
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Feb 14, 2017 • 21min

EP 570: GrowSumo Helping 70 B2B SaaS Companies Grow Affiliate Programs, $100k New MRR So Far with CEO Bryn Jones

Slater Victoroff. He's the CEO and founder of Indico Data Solutions. He's a poet, a coder, MMA fighter, vegan Buddhist, and Red Letter Christian. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – n/a What CEO do you follow? – n/a Favorite online tool? — Stack Overflow Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Slater hoped he had realized how much he loved programming Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:26 – Nathan introduces Slater to the show 02:45 – Indico is a text and image analytics provider 03:25 – Indico's business model 03:52 – The enterprise client is their main revenue channel 05:09 – Indico was founded in 2013 05:25 – Indico has raised $4.5M 05:30 – Indico started with a seed round 06:10 – How Slater managed having a bridge round 07:05 – First year revenue 07:31 – 2016 revenue 07:38 – Slater is hoping to hit a million dollar revenue for 2017 08:03 – Average MRR 08:22 – Indico is a SaaS company 08:42 – Indico currently has 20 customers 09:11 – Manulife is working with Indico 11:30 – Each client of Indico wants to have their own set of algorithms 12:00 – Nathan summarizes how Indico works 12:30 – Indico gives their customers an engine 13:20 – Slater worries about Facebook's echo chamber 13:33 – "Facebook's algorithm is not designed to create echo chambers" 15:17 – Customer churn 15:53 – Zero spent on marketing 16:00 – Most funding goes to the engineering team 16:12 – Team size is 10 17:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Having a bridge round does not mean you're losing money—prove that you are growing and need more funding. Learn how to work around echo chambers. Find out what you love to do and go for 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

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