

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Nathan Latka
What if you knew data behind the fastest growing SaaS companies today? Each morning join Nathan Latka as he spends 15 minutes interviewing SaaS founders. You'll learn how SaaS CEO's launched their startup and grew it into a real SaaS business. SaaS Founders range from bootstrapped to funded, MVP to 10,000 customers, pre revenue to pre IPO.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 5, 2017 • 16min
EP 530: Shut Down $2m Business, Why with CEO Shawn Livermore
Shawn Livermore. He's an author and technology consultant and more recently, the founder and CEO of tech startup Ziptask which has generated nearly $2M in revenue. He has raised 4 rounds of funding and closed it down to take on new opportunities. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Tipping Point What CEO do you follow? – Mark Fields Favorite online tool? — Acuity Scheduling Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Calculate risk carefully" Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:00 – Nathan introduces Shawn to the show 02:30 – Ziptask is a fully-managed outsourcing with a progressive effort to fix the problem of outsourcing technology projects 03:23 – "We succeeded in the goal, but we failed as a company" 03:31 – Shawn raised 4 seed rounds 04:18 – Shawn also had his day-time clients as a technology consultant 04:50 – Ziptask dissolved in September 2016, and was launched in 2010 05:05 – Ziptask's MRR was $107K 05:30 – Shawn shares why they shut down Ziptask 06:59 – Shawn launched Ziptask prematurely 08:35 – Shawn also did NOT try to sell the business 09:30 – Shawn is now working with Carvana 10:00 – Connect with Shawn through Twitter. Medium and email 10:15 – Shawn is currently working on a book called Obscurity 12:45 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: The time will come when you have to pull the plug – and when it happens, just do it. Reaching your goal is NOT the peak of success. Calculate risk carefully. 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 kept his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it at the airplane's back seat pocket Carvana – Shawn's current employer @shawnypants – Shawn's Medium handle @shawnypants – Shawn's Twitter handle ShawnLivermore@gmail.com – Shawn's email address Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Jan 4, 2017 • 21min
EP 529: $10m Raised, Pre-Revenue, Notion.ai Adds AI to Email Messaging with Co-Founder Guy Suter
Guy Suter and he runs Notion.ai. His mission is to improve communication using artificial intelligence. Previously, he co-founded BitLeap and led the product to the world's top selling appliance after 2008 acquisition by Barracuda. He started venture data backup, cloud storage, group chat, file sharing with Copy.com and CRM with Nutshell.com Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Brand New World What CEO do you follow? – Jay Simons Favorite online tool? — Picasso Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "How early stage capital works...and influence management has been the biggest learning experience" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces Guy to the show 02:10 – Guy and his co-founder started with a data backup company 02:46 – Notion.ai is currently on prerevenue 03:00 – Notion.ai started 3 years ago 03:47 – Notion.ai was launched in November 2016 04:18 – Digital communication was problematic 04:55 – Notion.ai has raised a total of around $10M 05:13 – Guy started with a lot of SaaS businesses 06:13 – Guy shares the revenue opportunities for Notion.ai 08:00 – There's a huge barrier in entry to Notion.ai's space 09:00 – Guy discusses the companies that are trying to make another category 09:40 – Notion.ai is beneficial to everyone who uses email to interact 10:40 – "Our goal is not to make the best email app In the world" 11:00 – Notion.ai has features that differentiate them from others and offer value 11:10 – Notion.ai is more "people-centric"; the focus is on relationships and what's important based on the message 11:43 – Average number of downloads 12:09 – Notion.ai helps clean-up inboxes quickly 13:00 – Less than a million but more than tens of thousands of downloads 13:39 – The number of downloads consistently grows daily 13:55 – Team size and location 14:20 – Guy shares why they chose Michigan 15:50 – Notion.ai has someone that was from LinkedIn 16:00 – Connect with Guy through Twitter 17:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: The digital communication space has been problematic and we need a solution. Raising big capital on pre-revenue IS possible, if you have a great product that helps people become more efficient in communicating. Have patience, take time, focus on building the right culture, and get your team on board. 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 @GuySuter – Guy's Twitter handle Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Jan 3, 2017 • 26min
EP 528: ConvertKit Hits $480k MRR, Helping 10,000 Professional Bloggers Grow Email Lists with CEO Nathan Barry
Nathan Barry, CEO of ConvertKit – an email marketing company for professional bloggers. Listen as Nathan shares how he manages to stay self-funded while, at the same time, increasing the growth and bloggers' interest in using ConvertKit. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Predictable Success What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — Workable Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Pick just one thing you love to do and do it really well Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:50 – Nathan introduces Barry to the show 02:15 – ConvertKit is a SaaS company and has around 10,000 bloggers 02:47 – ConvertKit's pricing depends on the blogger's subscribers count 03:04 – Average revenue per user per month 03:24 – 65% of the users are on $48/month plan 03:48 – ConvertKit's cash flow is doing well 04:15 – Annual plan has a big impact on churn 04:50 – Barry pushes the annual plan on Cyber Monday 05:00 – Average annual plan total 05:30 – ConvertKit had a free 1 month promotion for new users 05:56 – ConvertKit has a 40K email list – half of it is from content marketing, the other half is from webinars 06:30 – ConvertKit has added 25K new people in their list this year from joint webinars alone 06:55 – Barry is using Google Hangout and Chatroll for the webinars 07:20 – ConvertKit is doing 10-20 webinars a month 07:53 – There are 2 people in Barry's team who are involved in the webinar process 08:28 – The team is trying to get people who use MailChimp or Aweber to switch to ConvertKit 08:38 – It is a 2-step direct sales process 09:54 – Barry shares how he mitigates the show up rate in their webinars 10:54 – Some of the bloggers reach out to ConvertKit and some find them through other bloggers 11:16 – Average expenses a month in affiliate payouts 11:33 – A quarter of ConvertKit's revenue comes from affiliate programs 12:10 – 2015 total revenue is around $300K 12:20 – 2016 average revenue 12:34 – ConvertKit is self-funded 12:44 – It was an intentional choice 13:03 – Barry shares what he did when they were almost running out of funds 14:15 – ConvertKit's gross profit and total money in the bank 14:38 – ConvertKit just had a big expense from the annual plan switch 15:15 – Gross monthly customer churn 16:15 – Expansion is ConvertKit's next focus 17:08 – Current CAC 18:28 – Team size and location 18:50 – Average headcount expenses 19:14 – ConvertKit was launched in 2013 20:18 – There are two advisers who have a share in the company 20:45 – Connect with Nathan through ConvertKit and his website 23:20 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: You can stay self-funded with a fast growing business and by managing your funds properly. Joint webinars and 2-point direct sales are excellent options to increase mailing list. Pick one thing you love to do, focus in, and do it really well. 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 ConvertKit.com – Barry's business website NathanBarry.com – Barry's personal website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Jan 2, 2017 • 25min
EP 527: Proposify Hits 3200 Customers and $150k in MRR with CEO Kyle Racki
Kyle Racki, co-founder and CEO of Proposify. He's passionate about design, SaaS, and marketing. He loves jamming out to 90s covers/tunes at open mic nights, and also has the unique ability to work in perfectly, cromulent Simpsons' references to any conversation. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Lean Analytics What CEO do you follow? – Alex Turnbull Favorite online tool? — Heap Analytics Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Sometimes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That it's all going to be okay and…I'm going to give myself a hug" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Kyle to the show 02:24 – Proposify is a SaaS business and it helps people streamline their sales and close more deals 02:40 – Average customer pay per month is $40-$50 02:53 – Current number of customers 03:10 – Average MRR 03:25 – Proposify was launched in 2013 03:35 – Proposify had less than $1000 MRR for 17 months 04:03 – Kyle and his co-founder had an agency 04:22 – Kyle raised $250K in seed capital from a local investor 04:39 – Kyle and his team's pay is around $60K a month during that time 05:40 – Team size is 15 and are located in Halifax, Canada 06:20 – Kyle shares how the startup market is in Halifax 06:50 – Known startup companies from Halifax 07:24 – Kyle does weekly phone calls with customers to check in on them 07:50 – Kyle shares how one of their customers beat VaynerMedia in a proposal 09:15 – How Proposify creates proposals in a flash 09:40 – Proposify's competition 10:04 – Proposify is more focused on the digital agency space 11:25 – Average number of new customers per month 11:50 – Proposify has a free and no-credit card sign-up 12:00 – Proposify does inbound sales, but organic search is the biggest source of traffic 12:43 – Best podcast that drives Proposify's traffic 13:05 – Proposify has a general marketing budget 13:28 - $10K for paid marketing 13:45 – CAC is quite low 14:18 – LTV 14:40 – Gross monthly customer churn 15:00 – Proposify currently has 2 sales people 15:35 – Other system Kyle uses for business intelligence is Heap Analytics 16:16 – Total 2015 revenue is $551K 17:11 – Proposify is profitable and continually growing 18:30 – "We'll always entertain acquisition offers if it makes sense" 19:00 – The process Kyle will go through if there's a possible acquisition 19:47 – Number of Proposify's developers 20:00 – Connect with Kyle through their website and help Kyle look for Proposify.com's owner and he'll pay you 22:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: There's a temptation to spend VC money; be decisive when you want to raise capital and stick to your goals. Organic traffic is good, but getting paid marketing can still drive more traffic and customers. There are a lot of things to consider in an acquisition – it should match your personal goals, be a cultural fit, and the numbers need to make sense. 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 Proposify.biz – Kyle's business website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Jan 1, 2017 • 19min
EP 526: Yanado Hits $25k MRR, Helping 17000 Users Better Manage Tasks with CEO Ivan Mojsilovic
Ivan Mojsilovic, CEO and founder of Yanado.com – a teamwork collaboration tool that will truly change the way you work. He's also the CEO of E-75 IT Services, a project manager, and a media man who did a small stint at STARTeurope. He's very active in the startup space. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – n/a What CEO do you follow? – Jason Lemkin 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? – "Move out my current city and go travel, travel the world" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Ivan to the show 02:17 – Yanado is a project management tool integrated into Gmail 02:40 – Yanado is SaaS business 02:54 – Average customer pay per year is around $3000 03:30 – Ivan has been in SaaS industry 04:09 – Ivan shares how they started Yanado 04:28 – Yanado started in 2014 04:40 – Total capital raised is $200K and currently fundraising 05:09 – Goal for the current fundraising is $500K in equity round 05:20 – Willing to give up 15% to 20% equity 05:30 – Yanado is based in Eastern Europe 05:40 – Ivan shares about the market in Eastern Europe 06:10 – Ivan shares what happened to their first business 06:30 – The business was doing €200K a year 07:05 – Yanado's average number of paying customers is a little under 100 07:15 – Average MRR 07:45 – Team size 08:10 – Number of total users 08:23 – Ivan shares how their customers find them 09:00 – Gross monthly churn is 7% 09:21 – Average customer stay is 14 months 10:05 – Ivan does the inside sales for Yanado and they just hired a person are planning to do outbound sales 10:40 – Ivan's plans for the company 10:59 – Ivan hopes Google will acquire them 11:45 – As of the moment, Ivan will only sell Yanado for $10M and no less than that 12:00 – Ivan shares how he will sell Yanado to Google 13:00 – Ivan shares how Google can't create something similar to Yanado 13:54 – Follow Ivan on their blog, sales and discussion groups 16:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Find a way to help people focus their tasks and make life easier. Create a software that is unique and cannot easily be imitated. When you're young and if you can, leave your city and travel the world. 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 Blog – Ivan's blog Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dec 31, 2016 • 17min
EP 525: Orangedox Doubles Down on Enterprise with $7.5k in MRR with CEO Chad Brown
Chad Brown, CEO and head of product along with his co-founder at Orangedox.com. He has a strong background in business intelligence and technology startups and has a passion for business documents and the color orange. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Drew Houston Favorite online tool? – Stack Exchange Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Be more confident" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:32 – Nathan introduces Chad to the show 02:07 – Orangedox started as document tracking and was originally on Dropbox 02:17 – Orangedox has premium services on top premium products 02:48 – Why would people choose Orangedox over PandaDoc 02:55 – Orangedox is integrated into your account 03:22 – Orangedox is a SaaS business 03:55 – Orangedox has over 20K product signups 04:05 – Orangedox was in beta in 2014 and pre-launch in early 2015 04:25 – Average weekly active customers: 2000 05:05 – Average number of paying customers: about 300 05:30 – Average pay per customer is $25-30 a month 06:00 – MRR 06:17 – Chad was looking at raising capital but still undecided about their focus 06:55 – Chad is looking at their current customer base 07:30 – Chad shares how the customers are using Orangedox and the commonality in paying customers 09:15 – Team size: 2 full-time and few part-time workers 09:30 – Gross customer churn around 5% 09:57 – Chad shares how they acquire their new customers 11:52 – Orangedox is based in Vancouver 12:25 – Chad and his co-founders' plan on the company 12:45 – Chad hasn't focused on a lot revenue at the moment, but is working on closing key enterprise clients 13:21 – Connect with Chad through his email and Twitter 14:55 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: At first, focus on the betterment of your product as opposed to revenue. Analyze your product's effectivity through your customers' activities. Have the confidence and motivation to do what you want. 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 @Orange_dox – Chad's business' Twitter handle Chad@Orangedox.com – Chad's email address Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dec 30, 2016 • 19min
EP 524: Podium Hits $1m MRR in 12 Months, $4m Raised with 6500 SMB Customers sub 1% Churn with CEO Eric Rea
Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium.com which is based in Utah. He's a software engineer at the International Atomic Agency and before that, the founder of FineGrain. He worked at Walmart as a software engineer and he has also interned at Orange Soda. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Multipliers What CEO do you follow? – Phil Knight Favorite online tool? – Domo and Apple Notes Do you get 8 hours of sleep? – "I get 7" If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "You can always tell them to go to hell tomorrow" – Warren Buffet Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:46 – Nathan introduces Eric to the show 02:20 – Podium helps businesses generate reviews which drives purchase decisions 02:30 – Podium charges $299 a month per location 02:48 – Podium is a SaaS business 02:58 – Average customer pays $499 03:20 – Podium was launched in 2013 03:25 – Eric started Podium because of his dad's business 04:01 – Team size 04:44 – All employees are working full-time 04:50 – Team is based in Utah 05:35 – Podium raised $4M in total 05:50 – First seed round was in 2014 and $500K was raised 05:57 – Raised $3.5M in December of 2015 06:36 – Eric has given up 20% of the business for the seed round 07:38 – Podium has 25000 customers per location 08:13 – Podium has $1M in MRR 08:45 – Podium's gross monthly customer churn is around 1% 09:10 – Net churn is negative 2% monthly 09:50 – Average CAC 10:12 – Average LTV is $12K 11:00 – 2015 ARR is $1.8M 11:30 – 2016 ARR is around $11M 11:41 – Goal for 2017 ARR is $25M 12:55 – Connect with Eric through his website and Twitter 15:05 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: It's important to have some capital in case you make mistakes – with no capital, just 1 mistake will sink you. Find a solution to the simplest problems to streamline your business processes. The SMB market will continually grow, creating more opportunities for startups. 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 @EricWilliamRea – Eric's Twitter handle Podium.com – Eric's business website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dec 29, 2016 • 20min
EP 523: xIQ Using AI to Power Sales Teams with $1.1m Raised with CEO Usman Sheikh
Usman Sheikh, CEO and founder of xIQ – an award-winning platform for personalized sales, marketing intelligence, and content marketing. He's the former vice president of SAP AG and he's pushing digital frontiers by delivering consumer grade experiences in B2B sales and the marketing space. xIQ is the winner of the prestigious 2016 Content Marketing Institute Award for best integration of mobile and content marketing. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – Bill McDermott Favorite online tool? — Twitter and LinkedIn Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Take risks as early as you can. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:49 – Nathan introduces Usman to the show 02:30 – xIQ is a next generation sales intelligence tool designed for B2B sales and marketing professionals 03:04 – Usman worked with the top leaders of the world in SAP 03:30 – xIQ extracts the most relevant content from the most reliable sources 04:00 – xIQ is a SaaS product 04:16 – xIQ was founded in 2014, and released in early 2016 04:44 – xIQ raised 2 rounds of seed round 05:08 – Total amount raised 05:37 – Team size is under 15 and is based in Silicon Valley 06:05 – xIQ has 10 corporate customers and thousands of individual customers 06:35 – Average pay of corporate customers 06:57 – Average MRR 07:24 – Usman discusses one of their clients, GenPact, and how they use xIQ 07:42 – First, xIQ is used as a marketing intelligence tool to track competitors 08:47 – All data is real-time 09:20 – xIQ uses Apache Solr technology to index and for natural language processing 09:50 – xIQ gets their corporate customers from organic traffic 10:32 – xIQ's process is the reason why corporate customers end up buying from them 11:12 – List size 11:24 – xIQ has 1 inside sales person 12:29 – No cancellations/churn yet for xIQ 12:53 – CAC 14:10 – LTV to CAC ratio 15:10 – Connect with Usman through LinkedIn, email and website 16:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Experience is a great teacher—continue to learn and hone your skill set. Building a business takes time and there is always room for improvement. Take risks as early on in life as you can. 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 LinkedIn – Usman's LinkedIn account Usman@xIQ.io – Usman's email address xIQ.ai – Usman's business website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dec 28, 2016 • 16min
EP 522: Delivra $15M 2017 Goal, $700k MRR Now, Helping 450+ Customers Sell Things with CEO Neil Berman
Nathan interviews Neil Berman. This guy knows SaaS and launched his company called Delivra, in 1999, in the email marketing space. Listen as Neil shares how Delivra has grown exponentially in 17 years, without the need to raise funds and get into debt. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Great CEOs are Lazy What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg Favorite online tool? — Twitter and LinkedIn Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "At least" If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Patience and determination will win the game" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:37 – Nathan introduces Neil to the show 01:59 – Delivra is an email marketing software tool that helps clients "sell more stuff" 02:10 – They are a high break-even business with a low variable cost, so the more customers the better 02:15 – Delivra is a SaaS business 02:25 – Delivra currently has 500 direct paying clients, and a couple thousand resellers 02:33 – Average customer pays $800-900 per month 03:21 – Total revenue in 2016 about $4.8M 03:33 – Total revenue in 2015 is $4.2M 03:45 – Delivra has 3 marketing buckets 04:00 – Total team size is over 40+ 04:12 – Main team location in Indianapolis 04:23 – Gross customer churn per month is 1.5% 04:45 – A customer stays with Delivra for 42 months 05:00 – LTV 05:10 – CAC is $1.08 06:33 – Delivra hasn't raised yet and they have no debt, but are looking at options 06:45 – Neil's target for their first round 07:43 – Delivra has grown organically over the years 08:17 – Neil is meeting with a capital markets team to learn about how to take Delivra to the next level 08:50 – Neil would think seriously about an offer 09:40 – Neil shares how their customers are using Delivra 10:25 – Connect with Neil through his website Delivra 12:20 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Before you do your first round of raising, get advice from an expert. It's incredible growing through organic traffic, but always aim to know what is the next level for your company. Patience and determination will win the game. 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 Delivra.com – Neil's business website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dec 27, 2016 • 20min
EP 521: $5.5M Burger Business, Gets Into Monthly Subscriptions with BurgaBox CEO Chuck Sillari
Chuck Sillari: He was born and raised in Boston and is a graduate of Boston College and Law school. He's a lawyer and a real estate developer who is currently focusing full-time on the expansion of his nationally known Boston Burger Company – a new e-commerce business called BurgaBox.com. Burgabox is in the process of disrupting both the meal kit industry and full service casual dining experience. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Quench Your Own Thirst What CEO do you follow? – Samuel Adams Favorite online tool? — Hotjar Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew that I should have travelled more and...spend a lot time meeting interesting people because that's where you get inspiration from" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Chuck to the show 02:21 – Boston Burger Company's 2015 revenue is around $5.5M for three locations 02:50 – Chuck has always loved the restaurant industry 03:39 – Chuck jumped into the burger business after 13 years in a law firm 03:45 – BurgaBox opened up in 2009, and Chuck went full-time in 2013 04:07 – "People really loved what we're doing" 04:17 – BurgaBox was in different TV shows 04:30 – BurgaBox became a must-try destination in Boston 04:50 – Chuck brought on 1 investor 05:13 – The investor approached Chuck for the second location 05:31 – The investor knew about the Boston Burger Company because of its popularity in Boston 05:56 – Chuck shares how much they've spent to open up a new location 06:20 – There was no full burger joint in Boston before 06:43 – Chuck shares why the second location costs 10x more than the first location 07:55 – The first location's growth was $700K in their first year 08:24 – It was 450 sq. ft. 08:30 – It is now doing a $1.85M 09:15 – The amount the investor gets in return 10:00 – Chuck has a good partnership with the investor 10:20 – A restaurant's gross margin 11:49 – For every dollar you bring in, 20% should go to your pocket 12:09 – The second location will do around $2.5M in 2016 12:27 – Average profit of each restaurant 12:45 – Chuck's plan for the business 13:03 – Chuck saw how the meal kit delivery industry was booming and wanted a piece of that market 13:20 – The biggest percentage of the diners are tourists and students 13:53 – Chuck started to get into the meal kit delivery in February 14:00 – The meal kit delivery sold around 100 kits in the first month, 2nd month: 150 kits, 3rd month: 400 kits 14:35 – Burger kit's pricing 15:36 – There's a subscription: a monthly box or as a gift 16:05 – Shipping process of the burger kits 16:33 – Follow Chuck by checking out Boston Burger and BurgaBox 18:00 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Do what you love and people will, in turn, love what you have to offer. Trust and believe in your business partners. Get your inspiration from people – learn and improve from their feedback. 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 Boston Burger & BurgaBox – Chuck's business website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives


