Adam Hildreth is one of the foremost global experts on how to keep people safe from the dangers resulting from user generated content posted online.

He has worked with global brands, governments and law enforcement for the past 12 years on issues including child grooming, security threats and reputational issues.

Jenny Greer and Erin Bickley of Hold Your Haunches, a women’s wear company that makes products designed to show a more shapely you. Listen as Nathan, Erin, and Jenny banter back and forth about the challenges of growing a business from scratch and what going on the hit TV show Shark Tank was really like.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? – Shark Tales
What CEO do you follow?— Mark Zuckerberg
What is your favorite online tool?— WunderList
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—You’re not always going to have this body

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:06 – Nathan’s introduction
01:49 – Welcoming Erin and Jenny to the show
01:53 – The idea for Hold Your Haunches
02:32 – Started in 2010
03:15 – Why go on Shark Tank?
03:37 – Free Publicity
04:38 – Re-negotiation
05:24 – What going on Shark Tank was like
08:12 – More than $1.5M in 2014
08:25 -- $500K in product sold within 72 hours of airing on Shark Tank
09:40 – Average cart checkout is worth $200 ($100 an item)
10:12 – The number of customers varies per month
10:30 – Went from 800 email subscribers to 16K subscribers thanks to Shark Tank
12:00 – Most valuable piece of off-air advice?—you don’t have to get it right, just get it going
14:20 – www.ShopHYH.com
15:50 – Famous 5

3 Key Points:
You can always convert negatives into positives if you’re willing to be creative.
Get into the public eye and watch your business BOOM.
Find friends in high places.
Resources Mentioned:
Host Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable.
Hold Your Haunches – Women’s shapewear company
Shark Tank – TV show Erin and Jenny went on

Credits
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Pieter Boekhoff, the 2016 Startup Canada Entrepreneur of the Year and one of Calgary's top 40 under 40. He’s also Mount Royal University’s Horizon Winner and one of Canada's 10 Mentor Rock Stars. Listen as Pieter talks about the company he founded, Nobal Technologies, and the success of their flagship product – iMirror.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Lean Startup
• What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

• Favorite online tool? — Wave Accounting
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I do
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish that entrepreneurship and startups was more of a thing and I’d known where to get into it”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:44 – Nathan introduces Pieter to the show
• 02:25 – What is Nobal Technologies and how it generates revenue
• • 02:28 – Software company based in Calgary, Canada
  • 02:40 – Selling iMirror for retail and hospitality
• 03:03 – 70% revenue from the one-time cost of the iMirror
• 03:27 – Launched in 2014
• 03:44 – The idea was inspired by the video made by Corning in 2011
• • 04:02 – Started to build prototypes
• 04:23 – First year revenue is around $75,000
• 04:37 – Total of 10 units sold
• • 05:15 – Each unit cost about $15,000
• 05:38 – They’re looking into a sustainable monthly recurring business model
• 06:05 – 40% gross margin
• 06:23 – Net margin
• • 06:28 – Low overhead on the backend
• 06:28 – They raised a $1M 2 years ago and $800K in grants
• 06:50 – Process of government funding
• • 07:03 – Partner with NRCIRAP
  • 07:12 – They need to know you’re legit
• 07:44 – 9 people on the team, based in Alberta
• 08:00 – Pieter made $1.2 million in 2 years
• 08:20 – Pieter’s focus now is only iMirror
• 08:36 – 2016 revenue goal
• 09:34 – Some clients have more than 1 mirror
• 09:44 – Pieter wants to expand on the retail side
• • 10:10 – Long sales cycle
• 10:40 – This is Pieter’s second business
• • 10:53 – Pieter saw the need for the iMirror from his previous business
• 11:14 – Connect with Pieter through his Twitter and Instagram. Visit his website at Nobal.ca
• 13:23 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Be willing to jump outside the box—ideas are everywhere.
• Expanding doesn’t always mean adding more people.
• Learn from your experiences and find ways to share them.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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 quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• @pieterboekhoff – Pieter’s Twitter handle
• @pieterboekhoff- Pieter’s Instagram account
• Nobal.ca – Pieter’s business website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ep 172 Matthew Bellows, the founder and CEO of Yesware which serves more than 750,000 salespeople. Listen as Nathan and Matthew talk about the field of software sales effectiveness and when to hire a salesperson.

YOUR $100: Remember to subscribe to the show on itunes then text the word "nathan" to 33444 to confirm that you've done it to enter to win $100 every Monday on the show. Do this now. Stop reading this and do it!

Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: bit.ly/1SynoAg

Top Entrepreneurs join Nathan Latka daily inspired by, Art of Charm, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, Lewis Howes, School of Greatness, HBR Podcast, the StartUp podcast, Mixergy, Andrew Warner, AskGaryVee, and the great hosts of BiggerPockets!

3 Key Points:

1. To be able to hire engineers to work on the projects they wanted, Yesware had to raise millions in capital instead of being bootstrapped.
2. Sales effectiveness is a field in which companies offer the service of using software to market more effectively.
3. Business is sometimes stereotyped as dry and boring. Matthew found that it could be creative and fun in contrary to his belief at 20.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
• 02:03 – Matthew joins the show.
• 03:18 – Matthew just raised a total of 33 million in capital for his company.
• 03:40 – They needed to go the venture capital route for Yesware in order to hire the engineers they wanted.
• 03:57 – The company has 80 employees. Of which 30 are developers. About 25 people in the sales department.
• 06:04 – Yesware has about 750K registered users. They are well above 10 million in annual topline revenue.
• 07:02 – Yesware’s target customer is a company with 1K-2K employees and 200-300 salespeople.
• 08:51 – The business’s average deal size is 500$ per month.
• 10:08 – Hiring a salesperson depends widely on the product being sold.
• 13:05 – Matthew generally wants customers to install Yesware because they try to provide value as fast and much as possible.
• 15:27 – Matthew gives some advice on usage data .
• 16:15 – Yesware is in the field of sales effectiveness or sales consideration. Their competitors are InsideSales or ClearSlide.
• 17:24 – Matthew would like to end the year with a 30 million dollar run rate.
• 18:37 – Famous Five

Resources Mentioned:

• Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for. Here isNathan’s Edgar Content Calendar:
• Yesware – Matthew’s business.
• LinkedIn – Matthew’s LinkedIn
• Reed Hastings – CEO Matthew follows
• The Alliance – Matthew’s favorite business book
• Hearthstone – Game Matthew plays
• NY Times – Article featuring Matthew Bellows

Bio

Matthew Bellows is Founder and CEO of Yesware. Yesware serves more than 750,000 salespeople at companies like Acquia, Adroll, Groupon, Salesforce, Twilio, Yelp and Zendesk. 

Prior to Yesware, Matthew was the Vice President of Sales at Vivox. Before that, he served as General Manager at Floodgate (acquired by Zynga), as Founder/CEO of WGR Media (acquired by CNET Networks), and as VP Sales and Marketing of Interstep (acquired by Flycast/CMGI).

Matthew earned his B.A from Naropa University and his M.B.A. magna cum laude from The Olin School for Business at Babson College.

Famous 5

• Favorite Book?— The Alliance by Reed Hoffman
• What CEO do you follow?— Reed Hastings
• What is your favorite online tool?— Not a tool, but Hearthstone
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Business is a lot more fun and creative than you think it is.

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Joost de Valk is a web developer, SEO and open source fanatic from The Netherlands. He is the founder and CEO of Yoast, which provides software and training for website optimization i.e. SEO. Yoast SEO, Yoast’s main software product, currently runs on over 10 million WordPress websites.

Chief Executive Officer of ClickDimensions, the leading marketing automation solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365. Mike joined ClickDimensions from PGi, a global provider of web conferencing software and collaboration technology, where he served as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. In that role, he developed partnerships with some of the biggest players in the technology industry, including Microsoft. Prior to that, he started PGi’s Global Collaboration Services division, growing it from $86 million to $240 million in revenue and serving as a trusted advisor to some of the most recognized brands around the globe.

Yoa Pridor is the CEO of Buzzilla (https://www.buzzilla.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:40 – How Buzzilla has been built as a social listening tool

1:20 – Why they offer both SaaS and professional services

1:40 – How 60% of their revenue comes from SaaS today

2:45 – Why people are paying $500 per seat, each month on average

3:15 – How they''ve grown to serve small enterprises

4:15 – Why the average customer is between three and ten seats

4:25 – How they launched the business in 2010 with $1.6M in total funding

4:55 – Why they've grown 40% in the last 12 months

5:30 – How Buzzilla landed almost 300 total companies

6:00 – Why they are doing around $400k in MRR right now

6:25 – How growth has come mostly from new customers thus far

8:45 – Why they've expanded to help governments monitor senitment

9:20 – How they are at 110% net revenue retention annually

10:15 – Why they are landing new customers through word of mouth and online marketing

10:45 – How their team has grown to 25 full-time employees in Israel

11:10 – Why they assume a lifetime value of around $65k over 42 months

12:00 – How their SaaS margins are around 80% with 40% margins on their professional services

12:25 – Why they aren't interested in raising additional capital at this point in time

13:10 – "Would you sell for $20M right now?"

13:35 – The Famous Five

Josh March. He’s the founder and CEO of Conversocial, a customer engagement solution that helps businesses increase their customer loyalty by enabling effortless, in-the-moment, customer service to social and mobile channels. The largest global firms including Google, Sprint, Hertz and Hyatt Hotels turn to his platform to deliver an amazing, social, first, customer service experience at a large scale. He previously founded the leading social application platform, iPlatform, one of the world’s first Facebook preferred developer which was acquired in 2012.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Four Steps to the Epiphany
• What CEO do you follow? – Ben Horowitz
• Favorite online tool? — Twitter
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6.5
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Be more self-aware and your own thinking can become your bias

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show
• 02:51 – iPlatform was sold to Betapond in 2012
  • 03:28 – The acquisition was a mix of cash and equity
• 03:53 – Conversocial is an enterprise SaaS product
• 04:20 – Conversocial follows up on customers through social media sites
• 04:38 – Conversocial collects messages from different social media channels and analyzes them
• 05:04 – Conversocial has raised $20M of venture capital
• 05:33 – Conversocial started from iPlatform
• 06:00 – Josh saw that they needed to move quickly with Conversocial, so they raised funds
• 06:29 – The first round was $2.5M and was a priced equity round
• 07:24 – Some of Conversocial’s customers were an upsell from iPlatform
• 07:34 – Team size is around 100
• 08:00 – Josh was initially involved with the product development of Conversocial and as they grew and hired great people, he began shifting more of his time to customer acquisition
• 09:33 – Their biggest customer pays around a million dollars annually
• 09:50 – Conversocial also has customers who pay from $25K to $200K
• 11:00 – Conversocial focuses on customer care
• 12:00 – The need for a customer contact center is greatly increasing
• 12:28 – Conversocial currently has 200 clients
• 13:30 – Conversocial has passed their $10M ARR mark
• 14:12 – Conversocial has a higher logo churn with small companies
• 14:47 – Conversocial’s net churn is around 120%
• 16:21 – Josh flies a lot just to meet customers
• 17:48 – Fully weighted CAC varies dramatically depending on the deals
• 18:24 – Payback period is around 18 months
• 18:43 – Josh won’t sell to Sprinklr
  • 19:10 – Josh thinks Sprinklr’s vision is far off of Conversocial’s vision
• 20:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Focus on the needs of the customers and figure out how you can solve their problems.
2. Social media is being used not only for marketing, but for customer service as well.
3. An entrepreneur should go the “extra mile” just to get a client.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• 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
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

George Arison is the co-founder of Shift, an online marketplace disrupting the used car industry. An immigrant from Georgia and lifelong entrepreneur, he also co-founded the first on-demand mobile transportation booking technology Taxi Magic (now known as Curb), as well as working for Google and BCG.

Mikus Opelts. He’s the CEO at Giraffe360. He started this company 7 years ago, in February of 2010, when he got involved with Giraffe Visual which provides interactive visualization services. It has now developed into something so much more.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How Google Works
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Trello
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Everything I’m thinking about and planning for will take three times of the time than what I was hoping for”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:07 – Nathan introduces Mikus to the show
• 01:40 – Giraffe360 has the best visual tool technology
• • 02:00 - Giraffe360 has a virtual tool that works with virtual reality headsets
• 02:15 – 6 years ago, Mikus started the company
• 02:37 – It took 14 months to develop
• 03:16 – Mikus spent $200K on software development
• 03:34 – Mikus just raised $500K for their product development
• • 03:39 – It is a convertible note
  • 03:49 – Mikus describes how it’s like to raise capital in London
  • 04:15 – Mikus went through a hundred meetings before getting that $500K
  • 04:25 – 90% of the investment is from one company
• 05:15 – Giraffe360’s camera is free for companies who have a large volume of properties
• • 05:31 – Giraffe360 charges per property
  • 05:47 – Giraffe360 has developed their technology and it is on par with professional companies
  • 06:13 – 1 apartment tour costs €67 or $70
  • 06:28 – Minimum is 20 apartments per company
  • 06:45 – Payment is done monthly depending on the properties
  • 07:12 – Giraffe360 has sold their first 10 cameras in the market
  • 07:19 – There are 50 new cameras coming in at the end of February 2017
  • 07:39 – Giraffe360 already had 50 pre-sells who wanted to try the cameras
  • 08:00 – The incoming 50 cameras are almost sold out
• 08:30 – Average MRR
• 09:00 – Cost per hardware
• 09:10 – The hardware is made solely by Giraffe360’s engineering team
• 09:55 – People find out about Giraffe360 through word-of-mouth
• 11:20 - Giraffe360’s only team is the engineering team with 8 people
• • 11:28 – 3 people in the back office
• 11:50 – No customer churn yet
• 12:20 – Giraffe360 is similar to a SaaS model
• 13:13 – 2017 goal is to have 100 subscriptions and cameras in the market
• 14:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Create something of the BEST quality that will stand out from the rest.
• Raising capital takes perseverance; it may take 100 meetings before landing what you need.
• Great things take time—relax, be patient, and get things done.

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

Joe launched Issuu back in 2006 to help magazines move digital. He grew to $50m in revenue and raised about $50m. In March 2024 he decided to exit in a nine figure deal. How'd the deal go down? Why did he go with Bending Spoons?

Charlie Lee is the creator of Litecoin, the most popular alternative currency to Bitcoin. He was previously Director of Engineering at Coinbase, the most popular crypto-currency wallet and exchange. Prior to joining Coinbase, he spent 6 years at Google working on YouTube Mobile, Chrome OS, and the Google Play Games platform. Charlie earned a Bachelors and Masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from M.I.T.

CEO and founder of Unicorn Platform, the landing page builder for startups, creator of Broadwise.org, the startup community, DJ.

I am a Passionate Entrepreneur who is driven by empowering the Commercial cleaning industry. My purpose is to motivate and inspire my peers, family, colleagues with Positivity. Share my genius. I am the Ricky the cleaner that is innovating and building technology to help the pen and paper cleaning and field services industry. My motto is Stronger Together.

Khuram Hussain, founder of Inbox 2 and now Fileboard. The two companies reached multi-million-dollar worth, and Khuram provides insight into his two businesses and how they have succeeded. He gives us an idea of Fileboard’s revenue and what factors go into his company, which has grown to be worth millions in just a few short years.

Famous 5:

• Favorite Business Book? – Zero to One
• What CEO do you follow? —Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Trello

• 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 go and run for corporate

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:16 – Nathan introduces Khuram Hussain
• 01:44 – Khuram started Inbox 2 in his twenties.
• 02:31 – Khuram explains the history of how Inbox 2 started
• 03:15 – Inbox connects everyone from one single platform (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• 03:44 – Inbox grew to 60 million users
• 04:22 – Inbox was bought by MyLife
• 04:44 – Khuram valued the business by user base and engagement
• 05:05 – Inbox was a team of 12 people and self-funded when it sold.
• 05:46 – Inbox was a 6-figure sell
• 06:20 – Then Khuram moved to starting a new business, Fileboard
• 08:44 – Fileboard is a sales tool to improve the sales process of a company.
• 09:40 – It was launched in 2012.
• 10:03 – First year’s revenue was $0, and they grew over the years to about $10 million
• 11:06 – Khuram shares about a typical process with a company that purchases File Board
• 11:54 – Khuram explains their customer base.
• 12:35 – Average business pays $20k to $30k per year
• 13:14 – Khuram explains Fileboard’s investors
• 13:52 – Customer worth is two to three years
• 14:56 – Customer acquisition cost.
• 15:50 – Nathan talks with Khuram about MRR
• 17:30 – The company is based in Europe. Khuram discusses his team.
• 18:00 – You can connect with Khuram on LinkedIn
• 19:22 – Nathan goes over the Famous Five with Khuram

3 Key Points:

• Khuram had decided that the money from his first business would not mark the end of his business endeavors.
• Fileboard’s profits increased from nothing to millions within just a few years.
• The company’s customer acquisition cost is extremely low compared to what each business will pay to use Fileboard.

Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Designer and entrepreneur who loves solving problems using technology.

Ep 166 Frank Meehan, the co-founder of Spark Lab Global Ventures a global early stage ventures capital firm. Listen as Nathan and Frank talk about how to effectively run a board meeting and the numbers of Spark Lab Global Ventures.

YOUR $100: Remember to subscribe to the show on itunes then text the word "nathan" to 33444 to confirm that you've done it to enter to win $100 every Monday on the show. Do this now. Stop reading this and do it!

Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: bit.ly/1SynoAg

Top Entrepreneurs join Nathan Latka daily inspired by, Art of Charm, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, Lewis Howes, School of Greatness, HBR Podcast, the StartUp podcast, Mixergy, Andrew Warner, AskGaryVee, and the great hosts of BiggerPockets!

3 Key Points:

1. Don’t be afraid of managing your board strongly. Get every member up-to-date on what’ll be discussed clearly before a board meeting.
2. SAAS companies can thrive in Asia, getting up to 30-40X on annual recurring revenue compared to being based in America.
3. Core strengths of Spark Lab Global Ventures include being well connected and scouting to the U.S. from Asia and vice versa.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show.
• 01:42 – Frank joins the show.
• 01:52 – Frank left Horizons Ventures because he wanted to be more independent.
• 02:48 – Frank was involved in Spotify’s development team.
• 03:27 – Countries like Sweden, Israel, and Korea work hard but have to go global because the local market is limited.
• 04:35 – When it comes to boards, generally an entrepreneur doesn’t want to start with too many people on them.
• 05:17 – Frank gives general advice on managing a board.
• 06:50 – Talk to your board members individually before a board meeting and ensure it’s clear what’ll be discussed during the board meeting.
• 07:03 – Because of good planning by his partner, Frank’s never been surprised at a Spotify board meeting.
• 08:40 – Don’t be afraid to manage your board strongly. But do it before the board meeting.
• 09:03 – Spark Labs Global Ventures ran a fund of 30 million in 2014.
• 09:57 – A core strength of Spark Lab Global Ventures is scouting to the U.S. from Asia and vice versa.
• 10:56 – There’s a lot of investing going into Asia.
• 11:22 – SAAS companies transferred to Asia can get up to 30-40X on annual recurring revenue.
• 12:30 – Of the 30 million Sparks Labs Global Ventures raised, the company’s deployed about half of it.
• 13:43 – One of Frank’s businesses’ main pull is that it’s incredibly well connected – it can identify hot businesses quickly.
• 17:02 – Famous Five

Resources Mentioned:

• Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
• Edgar – A tool Nathan uses to add pieces of content to a library and automate content distribution on media platforms.
• Spark Labs Global – Frank’s business
• @frank_meehan – Frank’s Twitter
• LinkedIn – Frank’s LinkedIn
• Mark Zuckerberg – CEO Frank follows
• Slack – Frank’s favorite online tool.
• Only the Paranoid Survive – Frank’s favorite business book.
• frank@smartup.io – Frank’s email.
• frank@smartlabsglobal.com – Frank’s email

 Famous 5

• Favorite Book?— Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
• What CEO do you follow?— Mark Zuckerberg
• What is your 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?— Be more ruthless.

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Ep 174 Joseph Michael, a top-notch Scrivener coach who helps people become world class writers. Listen as Nathan and Joseph talk about how they keep up with lists and the market’s demand for learning how to use a particular piece of software.

YOUR $100: Remember to subscribe to the show on itunes then text the word "nathan" to 33444 to confirm that you've done it to enter to win $100 every Monday on the show. Do this now. Stop reading this and do it!

Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: bit.ly/1SynoAg

Top Entrepreneurs join Nathan Latka daily inspired by, Art of Charm, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, Lewis Howes, School of Greatness, HBR Podcast, the StartUp podcast, Mixergy, Andrew Warner, AskGaryVee, and the great hosts of BiggerPockets!

3 Key Points:

1. One can build a product and then use it to gain targeted subscribers which allows one to more effectively find joint ventures.
2. Often times the service that teaches how to use a particular software has the same or greater demand than the software itself.
3. One can grow their list by doing webinars in joint ventures and increasing demand for their services.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
• 01:57 – Joseph joins the show.
• 02:28 – Scrivener is a super powered version of Microsoft Word.
• 03:39 – Joseph teaches his clients through an Evernote course – the software itself is 45$. Joseph’s highest tier of teaching how to use software is about 290$.
• 04:12 – In 2015, Joseph’s services have raked in 500K in sales. (42K a month)
• 05:17 – Traffic is directed to Joseph’s service through JV partners.
• 05:53 – Joseph describes his first JV partner and webinar that helped him convert to customers.
• 06:55 – Joseph’s webinars are teaching based – he walks watchers through a process in using Scrivener. His conversion rates are very good in his field.
• 08:31 – For letting him use their list, JV partners split the profits with Joseph 50/50. JV partners are usually strapped for time and need expertise on software like Scrivener.
• 09:43 – Joseph hired a researcher to compile a list of 200 possible names of interested influencers who’d be interested in a Scrivener teaching service in the writer community.
• 11:50 – Learn Scrivener Fast is hoping to double revenue for 2016. The demand for the service remains high and Joseph’s current list has 60K emails.
• 12:15 – One can build a product and then use the product to gain targeted subscribers which lets one partner more efficiently with other JV’s.
• 12:42 – Nathan plans on asking for Scrivener’s revenue on a future episode to compare to Joseph’s. He’s willing to bet the teaching service makes more than the software itself.
• 14:12 – Customers who buy Joseph’s services don’t necessarily own Scrivener, but it’s usually a big selling point that the software can be confusing to use.
• 15:00 – Scrivener is behind Learn Scrivener Fast, but they haven’t done a JV together.
• 15:42 – The CEO of Scrivener is scheduled to be on The Top on February 18th – Nathan is thinking about trying to buy the company.
• 16:55 – Famous Five

Resources Mentioned:

• Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for. Here isNathan’s Edgar Content Calendar:
• @scrivenercoach – Joseph’s twitter
• Joseph Michael – Joseph Michael’s personal site.
• Nathan Latka – CEO Joseph follows
• ScreenFloat – Joseph’s favorite online tool
• The 80/20 Principle – Joseph’s favorite business book– Game Matthew plays

Bio

Joseph Michael is a top-notch Scrivener coach who helps people become world-class writers by mastering Scrivener. His online course, Learn Scrivener Fast, has helped even best-selling authors and full-time writers like Michael Hyatt and Joanna Penn create their best work. The course reveals Scrivener's untapped powers and hidden benefits, which is why writers like to say that he's their secret weapon. 

Famous 5

• Favorite Book?— The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
• What CEO do you follow?— Nathan Latka
• What is your favorite online tool?— ScreenFloat
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Spend 80% of your time on 20% of your gifts. Find the things in which you’re the most effective.

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

As co-founder and CEO of Nth Round, Graham runs all aspects of Nth Round operations: from product development, to sales and marketing, to customer support. Before starting the company, Graham started in product design and development at Relay Network, after which he joined the quantitative investment firm AJO Partners.

Rob is a former medical doctor turned Internet entrepreneur who is now running Timedoctor.com and Staff.com. He is from Sydney Australia and has grown to love all things SaaS.

Shan-Lyn Ma. She’s the CEO and co-founder of Zola. Launched in October 2013, Zola is an online wedding registry for millennials. In just three years, it has become the fastest growing wedding registry in the country, seeing 10x revenue growth year-over-year and 3x growth in 2017. Over seven million guests have attended a Zola wedding and 350 million in gifts have been added by Zola couples.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How to Create Products Customers Love
• What CEO do you follow? – Sheryl Sandberg
• Favorite online tool? — Headspace
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That stressing out about things do not make them better”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:47 – Nathan introduces Shan-Lyn to the show
• 02:32 – In Q4 of 2016, Zola reached $120M in GMV runway
  • 03:30 – GMV is reflective of the number of wedding gifts that are given to couples when using Zola as a wedding registry
• 03:56 – Zola is an ecommerce business, it’s a typical retailer
• 04:40 – Most of the items offered in Zola are what the couples want as wedding gifts
  • 04:50 – Zola has added Airbnb as this was requested by couples
  • 05:20 – Zola takes a percentage from an Airbnb gift card purchased on Zola
• 06:14 – Zola goes after the brands that are usually requested by couples and some brands have reached out to Zola for their products to be on Zola’s website
• 06:54 – Since 2013, 300K couples have registered with Zola
• 07:25 – The number of new couples signed-up in 2016
• 08:10 – Over time, more and more couples are using Zola as their ONLY wedding registry
• 09:40 – More guests will buy from Zola if the couples are using Zola exclusively as their wedding registry
• 10:02 – Zola incentivizes couples by adding the gifts that they want
  • 10:24 – There’s an additional feature where couples can bring any product to Zola
• 11:12 – First year revenue
• 11:38 – Zola had a seed round of funding of $500K in a convertible note
• 12:17 – Zola has raised additional capital with a total of $40M in VC funding
• 12:36 – Zola has passed through the typical startup life-cycle
• 14:14 – Paid ads spend is more than $100K
• 14:41 – The hot KPI that investors are looking for is the LTV:CAC ratio
• 15:51 – CAC depends on the channel and historical data of the channel’s performance
• 17:42 – “We are not trying to create more lifetime value”
• 18:30 – The challenge for Zola is getting newly engaged couples to find out about their services and sign-up for them
• 19:49 – Zola currently has over 50K products
• 20:22 – Zola just launched their new product, Zola Weddings, a free website for couples to manage their whole wedding
• 23:25 – The Famous Five

• Key Points:

1. Listen to your customers desires and needs and respond accordingly.
2. LTV:CAC ratio is what investors are usually looking for in a company.
3. Create more products that could be an extension of your existing products—this will encourage your clients to use your products more.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• 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
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Gavin Zuchlinski, the founder of Acuity Scheduling—the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He’s a self-professed tech geek and an espresso-maniac who wholeheartedly believes that business should be totally fun.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Anything You Want
• What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove
• Favorite online tool? — Canary

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “8 and a half hour is my ideal number”
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:37 – Nathan introduces Gavin to the show
• 02:09 – Gavin is on his 4^th espresso for the day
• 02:25 – How Acuity Scheduling generate sales
• • 02:30 – SaaS to manage scheduling appointments online
  • 02:48 – Developed for Gavin’s mother
  • 03:00 – 2006 started
• 03:21 – Start of Gavin’s business
• • 03:48 – 2007 first year in business
  • 04:05 – Only a side project
  • 04:54 – First year revenue
• 05:21 – Transition from working as a government employee
• • 05:50 – Organic search results and SEO
  • 06:24 – Had friends’ sign up on private link
  • 06:45 – 2013 decided to shift
  • 07:15 – Hired the first employee
  • 07:50 – “Keep things small”
• 08:20 – Number of users on free trial
• • 08:50 – Number of users at the moment
  • 09:25 – 10% month over month increase
  • 09:50 – Number of users in the past week
• 10:54 – 85% active users on paid accounts
• 11:46 – Most SaaS count their total base
• 12:57 – Growth from organic results and referrals
• 13:54 – “When the rate of growth gets too high, that’s when I need to hire”
• 14:07 – Total team size
• • 14:18 – Everyone is remote
  • 14:40 – Support works for only 6 hours a day
  • 15:18 – Team size question is Gavin’s pet peeve
• 16:06 – Growth customer churn is about 8% per month
• • 16:18 – Dashboard churn
• 16:40 – Current customer acquisition cost on average
• • 16:55 – 10 dollars to acquire for paid acquisition
• 17:12 – Total marketing spender
• 18:07 – Total expected earnings from a new unique customer
• • 18:58 – Monthly RPO
• 19:37 – Gavin’s bootstrap
• 19:50 – Goal for the company
• • 20:08 – “Create a company where I enjoy working”
• 20:47 – Connect with Gavin thru his website and LinkedIn
• 22:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Sometimes, you just have to choose – and choose what makes you happy.
• Small team has advantages too – it’s easier to manage.
• Just be patient and let things grow slowly.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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 quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• AcuityScheduling.com – Gavin’s website
• LinkedIn – Gavin’s linkedin account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

uval is the CEO of Socialbakers. He has more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive in both private and public companies. Before joining Socialbakers, Yuval served as CTO at Outbrain, the leading content discovery platform, managing a global team of 200 people. Prior to that Yuval spent 5 years as CTO at AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG), where he played a key role in taking the company public. Before joining AVG, Yuval was CTO of the cybersecurity company Finjan, where he led six international groups. He is also the co-founder of the web application security software company, KaVaDo. Yuval is a graduate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and a holder of 20 U.S. patents. He is a frequent commentator in the media and speaks regularly on technology topics.

Customizable Online Community Platform

Workforce collaboration & insights

digital marketing reporting software

Brandon Bruce. He’s the COO and co-founder of Cirrus Insights, the sales plugin for Gmail and Outlook. The company is number 41 on the Inc. 5000 and the fastest growing company in Tennessee. Brandon once raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 35 hours and 7 minutes.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Energy Bus
• What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? — Google Drive and Slack
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would’ve tried to start a full-fledged company earlier”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 – Nathan introduces Brandon to the show
• 02:25 – Brandon was in Episode 226 of The Top
  • 02:38 – They had $550K in funding
• 02:48 – The team back then was 55-60 and now it’s 70
• 02:59 – No additional funding has been raised
• 03:16 – Cirrus Insights is a fast-growing company that didn’t rely too much on VC
• 03:35 – 5 years ago, Cirrus Insights wanted to solve the problem of going back and forth between Gmail and Salesforce
• 03:53 – Cirrus Insights brings Salesforce into the inbox
  • 04:05 – They also help sales reps to seamlessly update Salesforce from the back end
  • 04:13 – Salesforce isn’t actually a CRM
• 04:38 – Cirrus Insights just launched Flight Plans, which is an extension of their philosophy
  • 04:42 – It is fully built-in to Outlook and Gmail
  • 04:44 – It allows people to setup a sequence of sales touches
  • 04:58 – It’s personalized and low scale
• 05:51 – Cirrus Insights’ growth is mostly from the Salesforce app exchange
  • 06:00 – Continued growth is still from word-of-mouth
• 06:31 – Cirrus Insights has passed 100K seats with an average seat price of $6
  • 06:53 – The average seat price has gone up now
• 07:19 – Flight Plans is a new tier
  • 07:24 – Cirrus Insights is the product name and Flight Plans is going to be an addition
  • 07:27 – There are now 3 additions to the product
• 08:18 – Cirrus Insights has just passed $1M in MRR
• 09:00 – Customers are choosing Cirrus Insights over others because some are overpaying and underutilizing marketing operations
• 09:29 – Marketing and sales are now working as a team with Cirrus Insights
• 09:58 – Cirrus Insights now charges $8 per seat
• 10:32 – Marketing operation has 4 big, unicorn companies
• 10:49 – There are now hundreds of tools in marketing operation and it will be interesting to see a consolidation
• 11:04 – Brandon is thinking customers will just utilize the best tools for the job
• 11:33 – Cirrus Insights is trying to position themselves to be the best at what they do
  • 11:43 – They’re also continuing to offer more in the future
• 13:00 – Gross customer churn: 15-20% annually, but they’re targeting to lower it down to 10%
  • 13:30 – There’s a lot less churn in the enterprise
• 14:17 – Net annual revenue churn is still negative and net seat churn is below 10%
• 15:16 – Most of the new leads are from word-of-mouth, with some small scale paid acquisition
  • 15:22 – They’re more focused on the content that can drive more people
  • 15:25 – Brandon has read The Slow Sale which is about how slowing down can win more deals
• 16:30 – Budget for paid marketing is $25-50K
  • 16:43 – They’ve done sponsorship for conferences, but the ROI is getting low
  • 17:25 – Check out their podcast: Our Love Hate Relationship with Sales, which drives sales as well
• 18:22 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. As saturated as the market is, there’s still a way for your business to stand out.
2. Marketing and sales teams are looking for tools that will not just help them with their workload, but encourage them to work together.
3. If your company constantly adds value, word-of-mouth will be your driver of sales.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• 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
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

CEO & Co-Founder of CoreMedia. Recipient of the German Fairness Prize 2009. Co-Editor of eEnterprise 2.0 - The Art of Letting Go. Married, father of 4

I lead Wishpond, a marketing automation platform built to help businesses grow online.

Patrick McGinnis. He’s the author of The 10% Entrepreneur which focuses on living your startup dream without leaving your day job, which was just published by Penguin Portfolio. He’s also credited for coining up with the term “fear of missing out”. He’s a graduate of Harvard business school and is living in New York City.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
• What CEO do you follow? –  Sheryl Sandberg
• Favorite online tool? — Quip
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6-12
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Patrick wished he had more confidence in his abilities and more open to trying new things

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:30 – Nathan introduces Patrick to the show
• 02:10 – Patrick is a Wall Street refugee
• 02:21 – Patrick has his own advisory firm
• • 02:29 – Patrick built up his portfolio of over 20 investments
• 03:04 – Patrick worked with his friend in Real Influence for free
• • 03:14 – They sold $300K-$400K
  • 03:19 – The business didn’t push through and Patrick sold his shares
  • 03:35 – Patrick was 33
• 03:46 – After a year, Patrick’s friend asked him if he was interested in investing in a startup
• • 03:51 – Ipsy has raised $100M
  • 04:08 – Patrick is one of the first investors of Ipsy
  • 04:32 – Ipsy’s co-founder is Michelle Phan
  • 04:49 – Patrick’s friend who is the CEO of Ipsy met Michelle through Funny or Die
  • 05:46 – Michelle’s huge fan base made Ipsy spend zero on CAC
• 06:00 – How Patrick decided to invest in Ipsy
• • 06:03 – Patrick’s friend was already raising a round
  • 06:33 – Patrick’s friend already had a lead
• 06:38 – Patrick started his venture capitalist path in 2000
• • 06:48 – Most of the deals Patrick looks at are simple deals
  • 06:53 – Patrick invested in Ipsy in 2012
• 07:50 – Ipsy is one of Patrick’s most successful investments
• • 08:00 – Another one of his investments was Bluesmart
  • 08:24 – He also invested in Affinity which is a big data company
• 09:04 – How many deals do you have to make to ensure there’s a big exit in the portfolio?
• • 09:12 – When Patrick started investing, he thought of the possible mistakes he could make as an investor
  • 10:03 – As an investor, you have to invest in your area of expertise
  • 10:08 – Second, think of the deal as a commercial deal, even with friends
  • 10:21 – Third, don’t follow other people
  • 10:39 – Stay away from “will-to-be” syndrome
• 11:09 – Patrick was working with AIG’s private equity fund
• 11:41 – Patrick shares why he wrote a book
• • 11:48 – Patrick always talks to people about what he does as an investor
  • 12:12 – As Patrick met with more and more people, he realized that he could actually help people believe in what he does
  • 12:25 – “It’s been a blast actually and I love writing, anyway”
• 12:56 – Patrick shares why he decided to have a publisher rather than self-publish his book
• • 13:02 – Patrick wasn’t a well-known media figure and a publisher would help his credibility
  • 13:12 – Patrick got a great editor
  • 13:24 – Patrick wanted to go global
• 13:34 – Patrick has sold an average of 50K copies
• • 13:40 – A book update is given every 6 months
  • 14:00 – Patrick gets around 10% royalties on sales
  • 14:26 – Patrick’s book is a bestseller in South Korea
• 14:48 – Patrick had an advance of around $100K prior to his book launch
• • 14:58 – Patrick has an agent who is with UTA
  • 15:38 – Patrick met his agent through his friend
• 16:02 – If you are generous to the world, it comes back to you in so many different ways
• 16:25 – “If you want to publish a book, you should know how hard it is”
• • 16:40 – Publishing a book is like running a startup
  • 16:54 – Patrick shared on a couple of podcasts which boosted his sales
  • 17:03 – Patrick’s book is in physical bookstores, too
  • 17:20 – Patrick was also live in CNN Espanol in South America
  • 17:37 – Amazon’s ranking is always updated
  • 17:44 – Patrick also has a group who does social media for him
  • 18:22 – Launching a book is a process
• 18:56 – Patrick has a day job that covers the bills
• 19:12 – “Freelancing is great in terms of flexibility, but you build zero wealth”
• 19:48 – Patrick also invests in commercial real estate
• • 20:04 – Patrick shares how he and his friend get dividends from real estate
• 23:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Investing in your friend’s business is a commercial deal, so invest wisely.
• Be prepared—publishing a book is not a walk in the park and involves several processes.
• Freelancing is great in terms of flexibility, but you build zero wealth.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ricky is CEO at Shorthand, maker of the visual storytelling platform trusted by the BBC, Business Insider, Refinery29, Honda UK, Save The Children, Cambridge University and hundreds of other publishers, brands, non-profits and universities. We make it simple for storytelling teams to create memorable stories that audiences want to share.

Lloyd is the Founder of Armbrust American, a U.S. manufacturer of surgical masks and PPE launched in May 2020 making over $10MM annually.

In 2008, he founded OwnLocal, a Y Combinator-backed startup responsible for generating $300+ million in revenue for more than 3,000 local publications over the last decade.

Lloyd currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and five children.

Andy has been an entrepreneur since the age of 19. He’s started and run multiple 7 figure businesses. SellerSEO, his current venture is a suite of SaaS tools dedicated to hel

Adam Tishman, cofounder of Helix Sleep. His company gives every customer a custom-made mattress that is even more affordable then retail brands. With several options, customers can come up with hundreds of different combinations to build their perfect, individualized mattress. Learn about Helix Sleep’s goals to continue expanding and to provide the best customer experience.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Made to Stick
• What CEO do you follow? — Jeff Gross
• Favorite online tool? — Moat.com

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—About 7.
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Learn about customer lifetime value and customer acquisition. Take risks earlier.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Adam
• 01:45 – Helix Sleep
• 01:55 – Custom-made mattresses
• 02:20 – The price is always the same for the consumer
• 02:50 – Costs to produce are up to $500 in the mattress industry
• 03:50 – Net margin
• 04:20 – Growth of the business
• 04:35 – Founded a year ago
• 04:45 – Thousands of mattresses already sold
• 05:10 – Acquisition
• 05:40 – Podcasts and radio
• • 06:30 – Really successful in the mattress industry
• 07:05 – A business model that they can scale
• 08:10 – A simple game, with one product
• 08:30 – They use their revenue to fuel growth
• 09:50 – Capital
• • 10:10 – Seed round just under $1M
• 10:45 – Team of 16
• 11:00 – First year revenue was lower than their monthly revenue now
• 11:55 – The technology
• • 12:10 – An algorithm to make the customized mattresses
  • 12:25 – Coding is outsourced
• 13:10 – The process for finding a developer on Toptal
• • 14:25 – Everyone is pre-screened
  • 14:50 – Legally, you still own the code
  • 15:20 – More affordable
• 16:10 – Why they chose Toptal
• 17:00 – Churn is not a focus for this type of business
• 17:40 – Focus on building the brand
• 17:55 – The customer experience
• 18:14 – Hundreds of skews
• 19:35 – Goals for 2016
• 20:35 – helixsleep.com, blog.helixsleep.com, and Adam Tishman on LinkedIn or adam@helixsleep.com
• 23:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Find a way to provide high-quality products at a more affordable price.
• Take risks earlier, and jump up the business ladder.
• Come up with a business model that can be scaled.

Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Moat.com – Adam’s favorite online tool to see how he compares to his competitors
• Toptal – A platform for finding freelancers
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Sri is a passionate entrepreneur and leader in building high performance organizations that care about their people.
He has spent over 20 years in leading organizations in software development and consulting in the U.S. With a unique background in technology, people management, health IT and film writing, directing and production, Sri brings a diverse set of experiences across industries and specialities to build high performing, highly engaged organizations.

Amit is the founder and CEO of Taykey, a real-time data company. He started programming at the age of 10. After high school, he went to work developing innovative technologies for the Israeli Defense Ministry. Amit is also the founder of bWitty and I WittySearch, an award winning search engine.

Jeff Epstein is the founder of Ambassador, a SaaS company that helps businesses track and optimise referrals to make their affiliates really work for them. Jeff manages a team of 43 people and made over $3.5 million in revenue in 2015. Listen in as he and Nathan break down Ambassador’s numbers and talk referrals, reaching negative churn, and not sweating the small stuff.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? — Gary Vaynerchuk
What is your favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Definitely no
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —That it would be okay. I was really worried about things that didn’t matter.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:20 – Nathan’s introduction
01:45 – Welcoming Jeff to the show
02:05 – Raised just under $2.5 million in 2015 to grow their team
02:36 – Ambassador helps companies track and manage referrals
03:10 – Currently serving over 300 customers
03:21 – Per-user revenue averages $1500 per month
03:50 – Company started in 2009 and launched in 2010
04:10 – Jeff started an affiliate marketing company in college. He built his own software to support an affiliate idea he had - then realised the software was a better idea
04:50 – Revenue in the first year was almost nothing
07:00 – Funded real estate investments with the revenue from selling his first business
07:28 – Revenue in 2015 was $3.5 million
08:11 – Ambassador is a SaaS business
08:40 – Churn decreased as Ambassador moved up-market
09:16 – “We now require onboarding for every customer”
09:55 – Around 10% annual customer churn
10:40 - Measure both gross churn and net churn
12:15 - Net dollar churn is currently negative
13:00 - “Customer acquisition cost isn’t our biggest concern at the moment”
13:55 - “On our own referral programme we pay $525 per customers”
14:30 - Advertising in paid channels was around $25-50k in February 2016
15:33 - On average customers are paying $15-30k per year, and acquisitions cost $2-7k
16:15 - Most of the team are based in Detroit; some are in Colorado and some are remote
17:05 – Connect with Jeff on Twitter
19:20 – Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Everything will be okay. Don’t get worked up over small things.
High-value customers are often more committed. They’ve invested more in you and so churn is likely to be lower.
Don’t worry if revenues are low when you start out. All businesses start somewhere.
Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Rob Frohwein. Back in 2008, he recognized that companies like eBay offered automated access to small business transactional data via APIs. He also realized that small businesses could simply share this data to allow underwriters to make better, faster credit decisions and provide a great user experience. Because of that, he co-founded Kabbage in Atlanta, Georgia, to leverage the power of real-time data automation through technology. The company has since expanded to serve all small businesses throughout the U.S., providing billions of dollars to more than 100,000 customers.

Alex Fishman, the founder and CEO of Bugsee, a bug reporting tool for iOs and Android.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? –  Henry Worth
• Favorite online tool? – Gmail
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—I wish
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "You want start playing in the startup ecosystem as early as possible when you have less commitments and less things to worry about"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:18 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show
• 01:31 – Bugsee is bug reporting tool for iOs and Android
• • 01:51 – Bugsee provides video network and blog, leading out to the event
  • 02:15 – You will not only know that the app crashed, but what led it to crash
• 02:50 – Bugsee is a SaaS model and they price based on the app size
• 03:19 – For an app that has 500K users, it will cost $500
• 03:40 – Bugsee provides different levels of value
• 04:33 – Average customer pay per month
• 04:45 – Bugsee started in January 2016
• • 05:01 – Bugsee started charging in December 2016
• 05:20 – Bugsee has 1100 sign ups and 30% have used Bugsee
• 06:22 – Alex mentions why he calls users as customers, too
• 06:40 – Most customers are given free tier to continue using Bugsee
• • 07:11 – New customers use the plan available
  • 07:30 – The limitations of Bugsy's free plan
• 08:52 – Number of paying customers
• 09:20 – Bugsee is funded by K9 Ventures
• • 09:33 – Bugsee has raised $1.2M
• 09:40 – Bugsee had a previous failed attempt
• • 09:53 – The cap table had been reset by Bugsee
  • 10:43 – The previous attempt was in July 2015
• 10:57 – Team size
• • 11:05 – The team is remote
• 11:24 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Users are also customers, regardless of whether you sell them on something or not.
• Having a failed attempt does NOT mean you should give up.
• Start playing in startup field as early as possible and while you're still free of obligations.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

SaaS Energy and Sustainability Data.

Chris Guillebeau, a world traveler and writer who helps people get the kick start they need in life. Listen as Nathan asks Chris about the publishing industry’s trade secrets, and how he built a booming career in writing.

Famous 5:
Favorite Book? – Mountains Beyond Mountains
What CEO do you follow?— N/A
What is your favorite online tool?— OmniFocus
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—You don’t need to have everything figured out, don’t be afraid.\

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:17 – Nathan’s introduction
01:35 – How Chris makes money
02:30 – Chris is 37
02:38 – An entrepreneur is someone who will work 24 hours a day to avoid working 1 hour a day for someone else
03:15 – So many people are out there making a great living for themselves OUTSIDE of silicon valley
04:15 – The #1 thing you can do is create something of value
05:55 – Relationships are the key to success
07:12 – Make sure your book kills in the first few week
07:51 – Chris is published through Random House
09:24 – If you don’t love books, if you don’t love to read and if you don’t love to WRITE—do not become a writer
10:18 – Books account for 50% of Chris’ revenue
10:58 – Multiple six figures in royalty income via Chris’ books
12:34 – Converting email and social followers into sales
16:35 – Optimizing book orders depends on the stage of the publication process
17:50 – Cracking the Amazon Top 25 means selling a copy in a day
19:03 – www.ChrisGuillebeau.com

3 Key Points:
Don’t be afraid of making a move, just go for it.
If you’re going to become a writer, you had better LOVE writing.
Relationships are the key to success.

Resources Mentioned:
Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for.
Host Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable.
Born for This – Chris’ latest book

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Owner.com is a $20m ARR SaaS for restaurants that had F90 day churn of 30% before Kyle Norton joined as CRO. He fired 4 AE’s, narrowed the ICP focus, and got burn multiple down from 1.2x to 0.8x as they hit $6m in ARR. Today they do $20m. Can they break $25m before Dec 2024?

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

Michael Beebe is CEO of Dstillery (https://dstillery.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

00:20 – Why they help unlock brand's growth potential through data science and insights

01:20 – How they are fueling their offering with top advertising performers

02:10 – Why they are creating unique audiences based on limited information

03:20 – How they have created a competitive advantage with behavioral data

04:30 – Why they are still selling a data product on a CPM basis

05:20 – How they spend on revenue share or CPM model

06:00 – Why they are charging 20% regardless of the advertising platform

08:45 – How they have raised $60M with the most round coming in 2018

10:00 – Why they are building a pure-play SaaS product right now

10:45 – How starting out on a consulting basis can have a massive impact on launching a SaaS business

11:50 – Why they are taking up to 50% for every dollar spent on their platform

12:30 – How they have process $50M+ in transaction volume this year

12:50 – The Famous Five

Software pricing.

Nazzareno Gorni is the CEO of MailUp Group (https://mailupgroup.com/en/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:45 – How MailUp has been built as a business messaging company

1:45 – Why they are doing more than €35M in ARR right now

2:05 – How they are growing 35% year over year

2:30 – Why their ideal customers are marketers and developers

3:40 – How MailUp has grown to serve 20k customers

4:20 – Why they have started to move upmarket

5:10 – How he launched the company in 2002

5:30 – Why they launched with just €15k in self-funding

5:48 – How they raised €3M when they IPO'd

6:40 – Why they went public to fund acquisitions

8:30 – How their team has grown to 170 employees in Italy, Spain, Denmark, and the U.S.

9:15 – How they optimize for payback within 6 to 7 months

9:50 – Why they created BEEfree.io out of an accident

10:40 – How 3k companies are using BEEfree for over $1M in ARR

12:00 – The Famous Five

Clipr is a solution to create and publish mobile webpages inspired by stories format (insta & snap).
Since companies struggle to convert on mobile, we make them achieve their objectives (sales lead loyalty) & monetize attention.

Awareness Technologies, Inc. (ATI) provides endpoint security solutions for both home and business. With over 50 employees and offices in Westport, CT and Bristol, UK, ATI both develops and acquires market leading solutions trusted by millions of parents and thousands of businesses.

Chris Koerner, founder and CEO of LCDcycle – a company that recycles broken iPhone screens and supplies wireless repair shop with wholesale electronic parts. Aside from being a motivational speaker and winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, Chris is a guy who appreciates the haters.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness
• What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

• Favorite online tool? — Flipboard
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try but I don’t
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Tell myself to appreciate the haters”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:46 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
• 02:31 – LCDcycle was founded in 2013
• 02:43 – Chris opened a smartphone repair shop in college in 2010
• • 02:51 – Sold it for $ 30,000
• 03:50 – They started in Alabama
• 04:10 – They got more customers in the Texas market
• 04:45 – The supply parts to repair shop
• 04:58 – First year revenue
• • 05:08 – Did $ 2.1 million for the first full year
• 05:13 – For 2014, they did $ 4.8 million and $ 8.8 million in 2015
• 05:36 – They are doing cold-calling to get customers
• 05:57 – Uses a lead generation tool to scrape the repair shops details
• 06:25 – Gross margin average is 31%
• 06:55 – Team size is 12
• 07:08 – They are self-funded
• • 07:31 – Started with $ 30,000
  • 07:41 – Chris asked his family and friends for a loan
• 08:16 – Total volume of parts shipped
• • 08:27 – About million parts
• 08:45 – Most of their shipments are iPhone screens
• 08:53 – Average price point for the shops
• 09:17 – Spending $ 23 for raw material
• 10:15 – 8% net margin
• 10:30 – Supplies are coming from China
• 10:49 – LCDcycle sells new screens and buying the broken screens from the repair shops
• • 11:05- Broken screens are being sent to China
• 11:27 – Their revenue is shrinking this year to $ 6.5 million
• 11:41 – There’s a shortage in supplies last year so there was a spike in sales
• 12:25 – They’re supplying to 700-800 unique shops
• 12:36 – Reorder rate
• 13:45 – Chris raised money last year
• 14:21 – Chris would sell to a bigger company
• 15:20 – Connect with Chris through his Facebook
• 17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• You have a good chance of developing a great company—you just need to be willing to navigate through the failures. Believe in yourself.
• Expansion—even in the face of risk—is worth it.
• Always appreciate the haters.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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 quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Facebook – Chris’ personal Facebook account.
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Emna is the CEO and co-founder of Veamly. Prior to Veamly, Emna helped launching several companies as a global director of the Founder Institute and built several products as part of her previous company. Emna has a dream to change the way people communicate and kill the world of assumptions.

Victor Levitin, co-founder and CEO of CrazyLister. Prior to CrazyLister, Victor ran a retail business that he drove from $0 to $4.5M in revenue in just three years. In fact, it did so well it won an eBay award for highest conversion rate. Victor channels his eBay retail experiences through a blog called “eBay Sellers Journey to $100K a month” where he helps eBay sellers avoid mistakes and grow their business the right way.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Elon Musk Biography
• What CEO do you follow? – Alex Turnbull
• Favorite online tool? — Intercom

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “About 7”
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Teach myself how to code and learn the balance”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:37 – Nathan introduces Victor to the show
• 02:08 – What is CrazyLister and how does it make money?
• • 02:16 – Created for sellers
  • 02:50 – Similar with creating websites
  • 03:28 – Built-in to eBay’s API
  • 03:40 – You have to know how to code to use CrazyLister
• 03:49 – Pricing scheme
• • 03:54 – Plans based on the number of listings
  • 04:05 – Monthly RPU
• 04:20 – CrazyLister is founded in late 2013
• • 04:33 – Victor was 29 then
• 04:40 – Victor has always been an entrepreneur
• • 05:05 – He was a seller before
• 05:14 – Shifted to software because of the entrepreneurial bug
• 06:20 – Shared equity
• 06:40 – Number of paying customers
• 07:02 – Total revenue in 2015
• 07:15 – January 2016 – from premium to paid
• • 07:40 – 14-day free trial
• 07:55 – MRR
• 08:50 – Pricing on the website
• 09:15 – Actively doing customer development
• 09:41 – Metrics customers have to hit
• 09:58 – Growth churn per month
• • 10:08 – Typical monthly churn of SaaS companies
  • 10:35 – First month with monthly churn
• 11:40 – Lifetime value
• 12:00 – What are you going to pay for a new customer?
• 12:28 – Team size and located in Tel Aviv, Israel
• 12:45 – Self-funded or crowd raising
• • 13:01 – Equity round
  • • 13:22 - Valuation
• 13:33 – Victor feels they’ve exceeded the valuation
• • 14:20 – Will never sell
• 14:45 – Content marketing drives traffic to Victor’s company
• 15:47 – August expenses
• 16:20 – Connect with Victor thru his LinkedIn or Facebook
• 18:40 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Know your priorities and maintain a balanced life.
• Keep moving—don’t stay in your comfort zone, stagnation is death.
• Take care of your customers—know their needs and find out how you can help them.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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 quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• LinkedIn – Victor’s LinkedIn account
• Facebook – Victor’s personal Facebook account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

CEO & Co-founder of Rocket. Previously, CEO & Co-founder of Renzu (acquired by SurveyMonkey), VP @Zynga, PM @Amazon and Consultant @McKinsey. HBS and Princeton.

Chris Savage. He’s the CEO and cofounder of Wistia, a leading video platform that enables business teams to harness the connective power of video. They help over 400K businesses connect better with their customers using video as the medium.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Masters of Doom
• What CEO do you follow? – Ben Chestnut
• Favorite online tool? — Quip
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Persistence is the difference between success and failure”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:51 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
• 02:17 – Wistia is a SaaS business
• 02:20 – Wistia is a platform where you can upload your videos and customize them for your site
• 02:49 – Wistia charges based on the number of videos
• 02:55 – ACV is $100 a month and it’s 25 cents per video
• 03:38 – Wistia is already 11 years old
• 04:09 – Wistia didn’t make money their first year
• 05:08 – Chris and his cofounder needed at least 15K a month to live
• 05:55 – Wistia made a mistake when they weren’t charging based on the storage
• 06:35 – Chris explains their decision to change their pricing
• 07:04 – Gross margin is in the 70s
• 07:43 – Total number of customers
• 08:00 – Wistia still has a free trial for 3 videos
  • 08:05 – There are a few hundred thousand free users
• 09:21 – One the best things Wistia offers is inspirational and useful content for free accounts
• 10:05 – Wistia gets 15% of direct, attributable conversion from free accounts
• 10:30 – Wistia has raised two rounds with a total of $1M
• 11:09 – “We are very focused on long-term”
• 11:29 – Chris wants Wistia to be less complex for users
• 12:27 – Customer churn is 1.6% a month
• 12:47 – On a unit economic basis, Wistia is consistently expanding
• 13:11 – LTV is approaching $5K
• 13:20 – CAC
• 16:00 – Stretch goal in December of 2017
  • 16:09 – Wistia is focused on profitability
• 17:06 – Wistia is doing a more than million dollars a month in revenue
• 17:22 – Wistia has raised less than what they’re making monthly
• 18:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Changing the price of your product won’t necessarily equate to profitability—balance is the key.
2. Converting customers from free to paid takes a lot of testing and patience.
3. Persistency is the difference between success and failure.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• 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
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Tatu Koistinen, the CEO of Bonusway. His background is in loyalty and digital marketing and he has many growth stories to share. He’s now building the most social e-commerce loyalty platform on earth. He’s currently focused on building the leadership and culture of the business and he’s also an Ironman triathlete.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Halo Effect
• What CEO do you follow? –  n/a
• Favorite online tool? —  Asana
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Trust yourself, act quicker, and be brave

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:16 – Nathan introduces Tatu to the show
• 02:00 – Bonusway creates more sales for ecommerce businesses
• 02:09 – Bonusway gets compensated when they create sales for a particular business
• 02:21 – Bonusway inspires consumers by informing them of the newest sales and shopping opportunities
• 02:48 – Bonusway is similar to a marketplace
• 03:15 – The companies that are partnered with Bonusway
• • 03:40 – The biggest partner has the most amount of sales generated by Bonusway
• 03:53 – The sales that Bonusway has generated for Hotels.com
• 04:20 – The ways Bonusway connects with Hotels.com’s customers
• 05:15 – Total volume of sales from all the partners combined is €60M
• 05:39 – Bonusway gets commission
• 06:20 – Sample computation of Bonusway’s commission
• 07:17 – Bonusway’s commission percentage varies per company
• 08:00 – Average 2016 revenue
• 09:10 – Tatu’s idea for Bonusway’s business model
• 10:05 – Bonusway was founded in 2011
• 10:24 – The number of people who bought in Bonusway’s platform
• 10:50 – Bonusway is currently partnered with 3000 companies
• 11:10 – 2017 goal
• 12:00 – Total funding of Bonusway is €6.9M
• 12:20 – Bonusway had a previous capital raise
• 12:39 – Team size is 40
• • 12:50 – Based all in Europe
• 13:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Be in the space where you feel most confident and know how things work.
• Having a unique business model equates to less competition in the space.
• Trust yourself, act quicker, and be brave.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Nathan 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

Optimize medication treatment at scale

Salary on demand 

Jim and I decided to start a technical support agency after we realized how difficult it was to find & hire competent agents for our own businesses. Once we’ve “cracked the code”, we realized many SaaS founders & owners haven’t and we wanted to solve that problem for them.

People Analytics - Retention & Optimization

Robert Moore, CEO of RJMetrics, a Business Intelligence organization that specializes in helping small businesses obtain the data they need to thrive. Listen as Nathan and Robert talk fundraising, life in venture capital, and what it takes to grow a business from $0 to $4M is less than 5 years.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? –Winners Dream
What CEO do you follow?—N/A
What is your 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?—Everything is going to be OK.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:20 – Nathan’s introduction
01:41 – Welcoming Robert to the show
01:50 – A history rooted in Online Poker
04:35 – Getting in on Google AdWords early
05:12 – 2004-2006 almost $100K in revenue
06:21 – RJMetrics coming to be
08:12 – Worked at a VC firm after college
09:41 – 100-200 touches to get 1 or 2 conversations
12:15 – Thus far, RJMetrics has raised $22M
13:10 – Being on the sales side of money sucks
14:20 – Average revenue per client per year
15:11 – User acquisition is done through both inbound and outbound efforts
16:14 – All-in customer acquisition cost is between $5K and $50K
17:00 – Churn rate is 3 to 4 years
18:15 – RJMetrics went from $0 to $4M in revenue over 4 years
20:30 – Famous 5

3 Key Points:
Economies and industries can collapse overnight, have an idea or exit strategy in your back pocket.
The money-selling business is a GRIND.
Keep grinding…it’s the only way to get from A to B.

Resources Mentioned:
Host Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable.

Credits
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

next-gen performance marketing

Ep 126 with Bryan Kramer, one of the world’s foremost leaders in the art and science of sharing, and has been credited with instigating the #H2H human business movement in marketing and social.  With over 300,000 social fans and followers, and an intimate understanding of the intricacies and interworking of both social technologies and social behaviors, Bryan is both a practitioner and authority on the subject.  In January 2014, Bryan’s first book There is no B2B and B2C. Human to Human: #H2H rose to the #1 top selling spot in Business Books on Amazon in its first week. In January 2015, #H2H was named as the number 1 buzzword for 2015 by The Writer.

Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: http://nathanlatka.com/startertribelive

3 Key Points:

1. Self-publishing is effective for new authors.
2. Strike while an idea is hot.
3. Retain ownership of content.

Episode Notes: 

• 00:57 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
• 01:28 – Bryan’s recent book Shareology has sold 30,000 copies
• 02:28 – Ensure you have the time and passion before attempting writing
• 03:33 – There is no B2B and B2C. Human to Human: #H2H and Shareology
• 04:42 – Getting published vs self-publishing
• 06:35 – #H2H e-book published 4 days after the hashtag went viral
• 08:15 – Sold 15,000 copies
• 9:24 – Shareology published by Morgan James, retained ownership of content
• 10:32 – Lower advance with higher royalty structure
• 11:44 – BryanKramer.com
• 12:52 – The Famous Five

Resources Mentioned:

• Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects.
• There is no B2B and B2C. Human to Human: #H2H
• Shareology
• Morgan James publishers
• com
• Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Famous 5

• Favorite Book?— Orbiting the Giant Hairball
• What CEO do you follow?— Brene Brown
• What is your 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? You’re going to be fine, just chill dude.

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

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

Software engineer by trade, designer by heart and entrepreneur in soul. Founded and bootstrapped Spontix until it’s M&A, and served as a software R&D team leader in multiple positions.

Modern Data Stack.

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Help companies align teams with OKRs.

Amit Kothari. He spent ten years in London dealing with some of the largest companies and organizations in the world and helping them with collaboration technology. After seeing a lot of failures in that industry, he realized he needed a very structured process with unstructured, human conversations to make his business succeed.

Famous 5:

• Favorite Book? – The Innovator’s Dilemma
• What CEO do you follow? — Jack Welch and Warren Buffett
• Favorite online tool? — DropBox, Xero

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—Yes
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — “Never confuse movement with action.” –Hemingway

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:10 – Nathan introduces Amit
• 01:45 – Tallyfy
• 02:05 – The company’s program helps remove routine processes throughout the day
• 02:30 – They started in Chili with a grant in 2014
• 03:00 – Then they got a grant from the US
• 03:30 – First year had no revenue
• 03:45 – $300k in 2015, with $600k total
• 04:15 – Paying customers
• 04:50 -- $39/month is the average that customers pay
• 05:15 – Monthly revenue
• 06:00 – They have several different services and processes
• 06:35 – Pure MRR in April -- $4000
• 07:10 -- Professional services is a huge chunk of revenue
• 08:20 – Starting out with professional services brings in a lot of revenue
• 08:50 – Team size is 5, with a few freelancers
• 09:05 – Total capital $500000
• 10:10 – Amit and his wife are cofounders
• • 10:25 – They have a rule to stop talking about work after 6 pm
  • 11:00 – They believe in their business
• 11:45 -- tallyfy.com and @tallyfy on Twitter
• 12:00 – Consistency is the secret to a growing company’s success
• 14:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Start a business that you believe in.
• Look for grants and funding opportunities.
• If you want to scale your business, you have to put effort into consistency.

Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Innovator’s Dilemma – Amit’s favorite business book
• DropBox – One of Amit’s favorite online tools, that allows businesses to share files online
• Xero – Online accounting tool
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Tim Valishev is the CEO of JivoChat (https://www.jivochat.com/)

🕒 Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show

0:30 – How they help customers better convert using chatbots

1:00 – Why they are north of $5M in ARR right now

2:55 – How their growth has accelerated in emerging markets

2:00 – Why they have grown to serve 230k websites worldwide

2:30 – How the average customer pays JivoChat around $13 per month

3:00 – Why they are different from Drift and Intercom

4:00 – How they have incorporated the calling-in feature

5:20 – Why they launched the company in January 2012

6:50 – How he landed his first 10 customers through existing relationships

8:10 – Why they are exhibiting 45% logo churn annually

9:45 – How they've scaled to 32k paying customers

10:15 – Why they are landing 20k new sign-ups per month

11:15 – How JivoChat is growing via word of mouth

14:00 – Why they spent $300k to break into the Brazilian market

16:00 – How their team of 120 is remotely distributed

16:45 – Why he wants to remain bootstrapped

17:40 – The Famous Five

Prior to joining Talend as CEO, Mike was the CEO of Rapid7, a security software startup that provides one of the leading security assessment platforms. Mike joined Rapid7 in 2008 and grew the company by 10x in the next 4.5 years. Rapid7 was consistently one of the fastest growing companies in Boston, and was recognized as the Best Place to Work by the Boston Business Journal.
Prior to Rapid7, Mike was General Manager of Microsoft's SQL Server Marketing team. During Mike's tenure the SQL business grew from $1.5B to $2.5B, and was the fastest growing of Microsoft’s largest businesses. Prior to re-joining Microsoft in September 2003, Mike was General Manager of Polycom's Austin division, a $190mm videoconferencing equipment business. Prior to Polycom, Mike co-founded and was Chief Operating Officer of Paramark, a marketing analytics startup. Prior to co-founding Paramark, Mike spent six years at Microsoft in an expanding range of roles including product marketing, product strategy, and product management. Mike joined Microsoft as a member of the MSN team, and became an early evangelist of the internet and MSN's first internet marketing manager. He spent the last two years as Group Program Manager of Exchange Server, driving Microsoft's email strategy, product definition, and product execution for this $700mm business. During Mike's tenure, Microsoft category market share grew from 40% to over 60%. Mike began his career at Sun Microsystems, working as an engineer on Sun's SPARC workstations. He led the design of an integrated I/O chip, one of two chips that were used across Sun's low-end and midrange systems. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Brown University (magna cum laude), a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Crowd Sourced Cloud Computing

As founder and CEO of Benevity, the global leader in CSR and employee engagement software, Bryan helps Fortune 1000 clients reinvent corporate giving programs in a way that provides better social and business returns, while simultaneously tackling the biggest struggles in the social impact landscape.

Robert Frederick, founder and CEO of Sirqul, has been focused on connected communities of devices, people, and businesses since 1993. He was inspired by the boundless future potential of smart connected devices and leveraged this passion to attend MIT, to work on projects in the MIT Media Lab, and to join one of the first startups focused on standards that would later be called BlueTooth in the late nineties. The startup’s licensed product, DeviceTalk.com, was a central server running Intelligent Agents that used event-based logic to complete actions on behalf of its users via simple commands and conditional triggers. Identity and Presence were important then and still tends to be important now. Amazon acquired the company in 1999, and Robert led the internal team, Amazon Anywhere, that focused on making it possible to interact with Amazon Anywhere, Anytime, on Any device. After becoming the technical co-founder of Amazon Web Services and setting the stage for Amazon to become profitable leveraging the Cloud, Rob started Sirqul to create an Intelligence of Things (IoT) ecosystem on top of the cloud that also works at the edge. Sirqul has numerous partners that span Retail, Smart Buildings, Autonomous Vehicles, and Robotics.

Victor Levitin. He’s the CEO of CrazyLister and last time he was at The Top was in late 2016. His company, Crazy Lister, has passed 2K customers, about 600K raised and about 30K in 2015 revenue. Each customer pays about $15 in monthly revenue. They’ve passed 25K in MRR with about 3% gross customer churn each month. They are based mainly in Tel Aviv with their team of 8.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About The Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? –  Jason Lemkin
• Favorite online tool? — Intercom
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Start with SaaS, everything else does not compound”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:44 – Nathan introduces Victor to the show
• 01:25 – CrazyLister is the easiest way to create high-converting, mobile-optimized product listings for eBay
• 01:36 – Investors call CrazyLister, the Wix for eBay
• 01:49 – CrazyLister closed the door on their Tel Aviv office and focused on just working
• 02:14 – CrazyLister has recently hit $1M in ARR
• 02:38 – CrazyLister just passed 3.5 paying customers
• 03:13 – CrazyLister’s growth is a combination of several tactics and strategies
• 03:26 – CrazyLister now nailed paid acquisition
• 03:47 – CrazyLister managed to get their CAC to LTV ratio to 1:8
• 04:01 – CrazyLister is spending $15K a month for paid acquisition
• • 04:10 – To acquire a new customer costs $80
• 04:29 – CrazyLister is trying every paid acquisition
• • 04:41 – CrazyLister is now focused on Google AdWords which is working quite well for them
• 04:58 – CrazyLister couldn’t make it on Facebook
• 05:31 – CrazyLister targets specific customer needs in retail
• 06:15 – Victor has been in California for 2 months to discuss the future of CrazyLister
• • 06:40 – Victor came to the conclusion that with the growth that they have experienced, raising a big VC round wouldn’t be healthy for them
• 07:06 – Victor now focuses on making e-commerce easier for retailers
• 07:17 – CrazyLister will first prove traction beyond eBay then raise a not-so-big round to sustain growth
• • 07:35 – It will be between $1-2M
• 07:40 – Current team size is 10
• 07:53 – CrazyLister just hit cash flow positive in March
• 08:03 – CrazyLister doesn’t really need capital, but wants to grow beyond eBay
• 08:48 – CrazyLister now has 3 plans: $9/month, $25/month and $45/month
• • 09:04 – The best customers for CrazyLister are the highest paying ones
  • 09:35 – CrazyLister tries to understand their customer even before they upgrade
• 10:24 – As CrazyLister adds more features and updates, they increase their pricing
• 10:56 – CrazyLister has developed a feature that is beneficial for businesses
• 11:37 – Victor has 2 co-founders
• 11:51 – There are 3 main pillars in CrazyLister
• • 11:55 – Victor and Max, the co-founder, are the business pillars
  • 12:06 – The second pillar is the CTO
  • 12:25 – The third pillar is the paid acquisition expert
  • 12:45 – The paid acquisition expert is a full-time employee
• 14:00 – When CrazyLister began with paid acquisition, their budget was only $5K
• • 14:08 – As the data becomes better, they’ve raised their budget as well
• 15:34 – CrazyLister now wants to replicate what they did to eBay to other channels
• 15:50 – 2016 total revenue
• 16:40 – As a seller/business, you constantly need to add listings on eBay, so there’s a considerate need to use CrazyLister
• 17:03 – Gross churn per month
• 18:38 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Focus in on your goals, then see if you can raise a bigger round.
• Paid acquisition, if done well, can get you new customers consistently and help grow your company.
• Let your pricing reflect the valuable updates and developments you make to your product.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Vincenzo Villamena, the founder of OnlineTaxman.com, the best resources for U.S. Expats looking to stay on the good side of the IRS. Listen as Nathan and Vincenzo discuss Private Equity in-depth, moving to South America, and starting OnlineTaxman from scratch.

Bio:
No Bio Available

Famous 5
Favorite Book? – The 4-Hour Work Week
What CEO do you follow?— Elon Musk
What is your favorite online tool?— Solve 360
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Don’t get a job, just pursue your dreams and ideas

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:06 – Nathan’s introduction
01:52 – Welcoming Vincenzo to the show
02:00 – Making money selling candy
03:30 – Talking PwC and the Big 4 in general
04:45 – Got into Private Equity for the money
05:28 – Getting paid in Private Equity
06:00 – Bonuses were highly discretionary
06:30 – Talking about “Carry”
08:15 – It’s all about networking
09:00 – Describing a private equity deck
09:43 – The balance between hardcore numbers and noise
11:00 – Describing IRR (investment rate of return)
11:28 – Generally in Private Equity you can expect to lock up your money for 5 years
13:55 – Moving to South America
14:39 – Living in Argentina and discovering the tax opportunity for Ex-Pats
16:05 – Clients around the world
16:24 – In January 2016, did $40K in revenue and close to $1M for the year
17:00 – 7 employees, all virtual
17:25 – Vincenzo@OnlineTaxMan.com

3 Key Points:
Go for your dreams—not a “job”—from day 1.
Do NOT make a decision purely for the money.
You can have a company that is completely virtual.

Resources Mentioned:
Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for.
Host Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable.
Carry – Share of profits paid to investment manager
PwC – Pricewaterhouse Coopers

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

EHS solutions for safer workplaces.

Erik Gatenholm, founder and president of Cellink, the world’s first bio-ink company. Erik started his own biotech business at age 18, and at 25 exited with $250k. Listen as Erik and Nathan talk biotech, getting investors on board, and why Erik went back to college after his first business.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? – No Logo
What CEO do you follow?— Peter Thiel
What is your favorite online tool?— Strikingly
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely not
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Things don’t really work the way people think they do. Keep your vision strong and trust your gut.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:00 – Nathan’s introduction
01:38 – Welcoming Erik to the show
01:40 – Erik’s first biotech company, started at age 18
03:05 – How to successful exit a company you founded
04.20 – Erik sold his shares for over $250k—a boatload of cash for a 25 year old
05:02 – Why Erik went for a Masters degree despite having enjoyed entrepreneurial success
07.05 – Talking about the origins of Cellink
08.20 – Started based on a product developed by Erik’s father
08:36 – They pay a monthly licensing fee of several thousand $
10:08 – Currently raising around $200k for trials via convertible note
10.30 – Discussion of convertible notes
11.55 – How bio-printing works
12.22 – Hope to print organs for medical patients
13:58 – Ink for printing is a patented hydrogel that mimics human tissue
14:50 – dream is to have a ‘A bioprinter in every lab’
15:00 – Each unit sells for around $5000
16:00 – Total 2016 revenue: $4 million
17:50 – Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Trust your gut and don’t be afraid to do your own thing.
If you’re working with specialists, it’s worth going back to study.
Find a partner whose skills complement your own.

Resources Mentioned:
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

"Started in finance in 98, switched to internet and mobile in 2000 and launched Bidmanagement in 2010 by using AI-based trading software for stocks to automate and optimize media buying on Google Ads. We are now active on all relevant ecommerce marketing platforms such as Amazon, Google Ads, Bing Ads, Yandex as well as >50 programmatic platforms.
Our USP: outperform everyone to maximize profits for our customers."

Productivity app

Metadata-driven document management platform.

Machines talk, we listen. So you can act on insights before they break

Brian Halligan is Co-founder and CEO of HubSpot. He has co-authored two books, 'Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media', and 'Blogs Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead'. Recently, he's been writing about how to turn your startup into a scale-up. Top 10 Highest Rated CEO by Glassdoor in 2014, 2015, and 2017. He was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of the Year in 2011 and an Inc. Founders 40 in 2016. Brian is a senior lecturer at MIT's Sloan School Of Management. His favorite charity is Camp Harbor View.

Dane is a serial entrepreneur with a focus on technology, data, and small business. He has been CEO of a dozen companies like SumAll and Squarespace, mentors of far too many others and had the pleasure of building the careers of thousands will creating billions in equity value and sometimes losing millions.

I have launched HyperProspect in August 2020 when covid started and I got a lot of time to work on my things and from there.

I went from $0 to $4k MRR bootstrapped no funding. HyperProspect is a team of growth hackers that works with the LinkedIn automation tools that we have in the house and we give ""done for you service"" to clients.

The pain point was lots of founders Don't know how to use automation tools and at the same time, they need someone who is an expert in these fields. So here HyperProspect comes in pictures.

We have a lot of clients and working with Big Companies having $Billion dollar revenue, I have been working with their founders closely.

For me, this was a great journey starting from nothing to $4k MRR. I Got lots of ups down and lots of learning I am 23 right now (solo founder) and still working on lots of projects and still exploring more and more.

I would love to share tons of value around LinkedIn and how I go from $0 to $4K?

www.hyperprospect.com
Https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajnegi

Armand Thiberge, founded SendinBlue in 2012 with the goal of making effective marketing tools available to small and medium-sized businesses at a price they can afford. In September 2017, SendinBlue raised 30 million euros to accelerate product development and continue growing their team of 150 employees spread across 3 global offices located in Paris, Delhi, and Seattle. The company now services +60,000 SMBs in 160 countries.

Greg Segall is the founder and CEO of Alyce, an AI-powered corporate gifting and incentive platform. Founded in December 2015, Alyce tells a corporate gifter exactly what to send and the most impactful times to send.
Prior to Alyce, Greg was the founder and CEO of One Pica, one the the premier global e-commerce agencies. Greg also invested, scaled and aided the acquisitions of several smaller retailers. One Pica was successfully acquired in December 2012 by a holding company in San Francisco.
Greg received his BA in Graphic Design from Boston University in 2001, with a strong focus on computer science.