Podcasts about ltv cac

This week on Partnerships Unraveled, we're joined by two heavyweights of channel innovation - Scott Frew and Nick Verykios, serial entrepreneurs and the masterminds behind multiple successful distribution ventures. From building businesses like Distribution Central and One World Systems to their current work with iAsset, they've seen firsthand how the channel has evolved, and more importantly, where it's heading.We dig into the systemic friction in current go-to-market motions and uncover why trust, not transactions, is still the foundation of successful partner ecosystems. Scott unveils his LIPP strategy (Land, Invest, Protect, Surrender), a refreshingly comprehensive lifecycle model that puts channel relationships front and center. Meanwhile, Nick breaks down the real tension between hyper-scale and hyper-customization and why the solution lies in intelligent automation, not more portals.Together, they offer a powerful vision of how ecosystem platforms can unify sales, marketing, quoting, and lifecycle management to radically improve performance. From enabling smarter channel investment strategies based on LTV: CAC, to redefining push vs. pull dynamics as loyalty vs. value, this episode is packed with practical insights for channel professionals ready to modernize.If you're a vendor, distributor, or channel leader looking to scale with agility and precision, this episode is essential listening.Connect with Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottkfrew/Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nverykios/_________________________Learn more about Channext

Lemonade (NYSE: LMND) is a new player who's really adding zest to the insurance industry. Its AI-powered underwriting enables it to write new policies much more efficiently than its less-tech-savvy traditional competitors.And in addition to its agent-related costs being a fraction of others, its unique Synthetic Agents marketing approach is providing a very lucrative LTV/CAC of 3X (which is very good).In this 7investing exclusive livestream event, I shared a formal presentation that included insights about Lemonade's fundamental results, key metrics, competitive differentiation, current valuation, and technical trading factors that might make this stock particularly intriguing.It was also an interactive event, with a real-time chat and questions in the Q&A. I enjoyed this refreshing event, where we found out whether Lemonade is worth the squeeze as an investment. Thank you to all who attended live!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2E2F6k95pfOZAxshYr5gTIpDGJ66B1AX : Mes vidéos sur le E-Commerce☎️ Prendre RDV avec Make Sense : https://ms4d.io/BfO56

Connor Ryan, Partner at Bridge Venture Fund, shares his insights on investing in overlooked markets and the importance of sustainable unit economics. He explains why he prioritizes revenue quality over aggressive growth, the difference between projected and demonstrated product-market fit, and how Bridge Venture Fund supports startups tackling inefficiencies in industries like legal tech and sports sponsorship analytics. Connor also discusses the asymmetric risks in venture capital and how VCs can better support founders, even when things don't go as planned.In this episode, you'll learn:[02:27] From private equity to venture capital—Connor's unconventional path and why he invests in overlooked industries[07:06] How Bridge Venture Fund identifies overlooked industries ripe for innovation[12:28] The two key questions Connor asks in every pitch meeting[16:52] How legal tech startups like CaseText are transforming traditional workflows[17:32] Why non-lead VCs like Bridge Venture Fund have to move fast but still maintain rigorous diligence[22:38] The most common reason Connor passes on startups: weak unit economics and misleading LTV/CAC assumptions[27:49] Connor's perspective on venture capital's asymmetric risk and why founders bear the brunt of failureThe non-profit organization that Connor is passionate about: World Wildlife FundAbout Connor RyanConnor Ryan is a Partner at Bridge Venture Fund, where he focuses on investing in startups serving overlooked and underserved industries. Before joining Bridge, he worked in private equity and investment banking, gaining deep insights into business model sustainability and market inefficiencies. Connor holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and is passionate about supporting founders who bring real innovation to lagging industries.About Bridge Venture FundBridge Venture Fund is a Chicago-based early-stage VC firm investing in startups that serve industries underserved by innovation. With a focus on sustainable unit economics and market-defining solutions, the firm has backed companies in legal tech, sports sponsorship analytics, retail, and more. Notable investments include CaseText (acquired by Thomson Reuters) and Trajektory.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show where we bring on guests from tech, business, politics, and culture to talk about all things Japan. Today's guest is Andrew Schoen, Partner at NEA (New Enterprise Associates) . Established in 1977, NEA has served as a partner to the founders and teams behind some of the most transformational innovations in healthcare and technology over the past five decades including Cloudflare, Databricks, Coursera, Perplexity, Plaid, and Robinhood. The firm manages over $25B in AUM and invests across the early to post IPO stages. Andrew joined NEA in 2014 and invests in founders innovating in AI/ML, fintech, frontier tech, infrastructure software, technically differentiated SaaS and security. Prior to NEA, he was a member of Blackstone's M&A Group. Prior to Blackstone, he founded Flicstart. Andrew serves on the Cornell University Council, the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Cornell, and is President Emeritus of the Cornell Venture Capital Club. He earned his master's degree as a Schwarzman Scholar and his bachelor's degree in economics and science of earth systems in engineering at Cornell. We've highlighted some insights from the conversation below: While NEA has had Japanese LPs for over 40 years, the firm only recently began actively investing in Japan. Talent is a leading indicator for the health of a startup ecosystem, and Japan has a high caliber of talent. Japan's startup ecosystem has key ingredients for success: A large GDP, strong technology base, quality education, and increasing enterprise demand for software and tech solutions. How Japanese founders pitch differently from US founders: Some Japanese founders are more modest about their vision, but overall, there's more similarity than difference in how founders pitch between Japan and the U.S. One major difference is that Japanese founders often set specific IPO dates early, whereas U.S. startups typically stay flexible based on market conditions. Japanese LPs often expect faster exits, but longer time horizons can lead to bigger and more successful outcomes. How to raise money from U.S. VCs: The first meeting is only about securing a second meeting — don't disqualify yourself early by making common mistakes like overstating valuation. Japanese startups should leverage local investors to get warm introductions. What NEA looks for in Japan: Mid to growth-stage, high-velocity, high-margin, software-driven businesses. Growth benchmarks also matter: $10M–$20M ARR → 100% growth $20M–$30M ARR → 50~100% growth $100M ARR → 30~40% growth Key metrics such as LTV/CAC, net revenue retention, and burn multiples are important—but potential future growth trumps past numbers. Longer term sheets = fewer surprises. Short-term sheets can leave room for bad terms later. ----- For founder's building Japan's next legendary companies, reach out to us here: https://coralcap.co/contact-startups/ If you're interested in joining a Coral startup join our talent network here: https://coralcap.co/coral-careers/

En este episodio, hablamos con Juan García, co-founder de Tuio, una aseguradora online que ha logrado recaudar 15 millones en su última ronda, junto a Alex Granados de Product Hackers.

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Welcome to Revenue Vitals, a weekly show where Chris Walker challenges the traditional status quo of B2B go-to-market strategies, including Digital Demand, RevOps, Sales Development, and GTM Strategy.  In this episode (from GTM Live #37), Chris talks about: Who should own the GTM strategy (hint: it's not the CMO) Why GTM should function like a factory Post-sale reporting lines Attribution vs. business-level KPI's  CMO & CEO alignment LTV:CAC vs. GTM Efficiency Larger vs. smaller team dynamics And more… Listen to this full episode to hear how these frameworks can transform your company's GTM approach. *** If you want to have a conversation with Chris and present your current questions, roadblocks, or projects you're working through, make sure to attend this weekly event every Tuesday at 12 central. Register here. Can't make the event but have a question for Chris? Submit it here. *** Thanks to our friends at Hatch for producing Revenue Vitals, and all of Chris's short-form video and YouTube content. Hatch is a video-first content agency that creates short-form video content, video podcasts, original video series, and YouTube videos for B2B companies. Visit www.hatch.fm to learn more.

In this short episode of the Ambitous Lifestyle Business podcast, John Lamerton looks at an accountant using direct mail to acquire clients with a Lifetime Value of £20,000 - for just £91. John shares the LTV > CAC formula from his forthcoming book Retention First (due out in 2025), and explains why you should focus on increasing Lifetime Value, NOT reducing Customer Acquisition Cost.

In dieser siebenteiligen Serie nehmen wir dich mit auf eine Reise durch die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse aus einem intensiven Zwei-Tages-Workshop mit Alex Hormozi in Las Vegas. Alex ist bekannt für seine innovativen Ansätze im Bereich Unternehmenswachstum, Vertrieb und Marketing und hat sich durch seine Bücher „100 Million Dollar Offers“ und „100 Million Dollar Leads“ einen Namen gemacht. In jeder Folge dieser Serie erfährst du wertvolle Impulse, praxisnahe Strategien und persönliche Aha-Momente aus diesem Workshop, die dir dabei helfen können, dein eigenes Business auf das nächste Level zu bringen. In dieser Podcast-Episode erhältst du spannende Einblicke in die wichtigsten Kennzahlen eines skalierbaren und erfolgreichen Unternehmens, insbesondere in das Verhältnis von Lifetime Value (LTV) und Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC). Mit praktischen Beispielen erklärt Torsten Koerting, wie Unternehmen das Verhältnis dieser beiden Größen verbessern können, um nachhaltiges Wachstum zu erzielen. Auch die Bedeutung von Strategien zur Optimierung des Kundenwerts und zur Reduzierung der Akquisitionskosten wird tiefgehend beleuchtet. Diese Folge ist ein Muss für alle Unternehmer, die ihre Wachstumsstrategien auf das nächste Level heben wollen. Quick Links: Im KI-Café für Selbstständige & Unternehmer Jeden Mittwoch um 8:30 Uhr, reflektieren wir Neues aus der Welt der KI. Mit Fokus auf der Relevanz für Selbstständige und Unternehmer. Wir gehen live auf dein individuelles Problem ein und finden gemeinsam den optimalen KI-Ansatz für deine Herausforderung. Du erhältst maßgeschneiderte Prompts, die auf deine Bedürfnisse zugeschnitten sind, um mit KI erfolgreich deine Ziele zu erreichen. Melde dich kostenfrei an … https://www.die-koertings.com/ki-cafe/   chat GPT für Gen X Dieses Buch ist dein Schlüssel, um dein Unternehmen oder deine Selbstständigkeit auf ein neues Level zu bringen. Lerne mit chatGPT, einem kraftvollen Assistenten, wie du deine Produktivität erhöhst, Zeit sparst und bessere Ergebnisse erzielst. Profitiere von praxisnahen Beispielen und konkreten Anwendungen. Unabhängig von deinem Kenntnisstand bietet dieses Buch wertvolle Einblicke und wird ein unverzichtbarer Begleiter für deinen Erfolg sein. Entdecke chatGPT und bereite dich optimal auf die Zukunft vor! Buch … https://die-koertings.com/chatgpt-genx/   KI-Masterclass Steig ein in die KI Masterclass unser Programm, welches genau für dich konzipiert ist, wenn du maximal von KI in deinem Business profitieren möchtest … du die KI in deine täglichen Arbeitsabläufe integrieren möchtest … du qualitativ hochwertigere Ergebnisse kreieren willst … du um ein Vielfaches produktiver, effektiver und effizienter werden möchtest … und du deine deine Ziele (Reichweite, Umsatz, Kunden…) und die deiner Kunden schneller und besser Wirklichkeit werden lassen möchtest! Mehr Infos … https://die-koertings.com/ki-masterclass/   Du willst mit uns sprechen? Vereinbare jetzt einen persönlichen Umsetzungstermin mit uns ... in dem wir Deine Aktuelle Situation analysieren, betrachten wo Du oder Dein Team hinmöchtest, wir können aufzeigen, wie Du dahin kommst, was Dich aktuell davon abhält und was möglicherweise notwendig ist, um Dich einen Schritt weiterzubringen und damit Du Deine Ziele erreichst. Termin ... www.die-koertings.com/termin/   Wenn du auf der Suche nach weiteren spannenden Impulsen für deine Selbstständigkeit bist, dann gehe jetzt auf unsere Impulseseite und lass die zahlreichen spannenden Impulse auf dich wirken. Impulse im Netflix Flow ... www.die-koertings.com/impulse/   Wenn dir diese Podcastfolge gefallen hat, dann höre dir jetzt noch weitere informative und spannende Folgen… Weitere Podcastfolgen ... www.die-koertings.com/podcast/  Impressum: https://die-koertings.com/impressum/

"When you finally crack this, you will have license to print money for as long as you possibly can." In this episode, Alex (@AlexHormozi) breaks down the LTV:CAC ratio and why understanding it is such a fundamental aspect to your business's growth. It's one of the key numbers Acquisition.com looks into when evaluating investment opportunities because it captures the core economic engine of the business more than almost anything else.You'll learnWhy It mattersHow to improve LTVHow to improve CACHow it will make you tons of money and scale predictablyWelcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you'll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Follow Alex Hormozi's Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition

Are you wondering how to scale your SaaS to 1M MRR? Well, the secret lies in setting up and having the right processes in place. In this episode of the 'Grow your B2B SaaS' podcast, Joran Hofman sits down with Matt Wolach to discuss how to scale your SaaS to 1M MRR using processes. Matt is a multi-faceted professional with experience as a founder, investor, mentor, and podcast host. His diverse background includes roles such as VP of Sales, CEO, CRO, and Director of Sales and Marketing, offering a wealth of insights on growing B2B SaaS companies.  Matt shares his journey of overcoming sales challenges in his early days, highlighting the importance of persistence and learning from failures. Through his own ventures and client successes, Matt emphasizes the significance of developing effective sales processes to achieve growth. Key Timecodes (00:00)Show and guest intro (1:18) Why you should listen to Matt Wolach (2:37) Minimum requirements needed for scaling to 1M MRR (03:25) Importance of a Structured Sales Process (04:41 Common Mistake: Focusing on Lead Generation without a Sales Process (06:42) Creating Pain in the Discovery Phase (10:32)Twisting the Knife in the Discovery Process (15:29) Applying Discovery and Demo in the Sales Process (17:59)The challenges encountered while trying to scale (21:31) Using Loss Aversion in Marketing Materials (23:29)Building Processes for Scaling (26:46) What metric should SaaS companies be tracking? (31:05) Where should more focus be? LTV CAC or Payback period? (32:36)Advice for Growing to 10K MRR (33:59) Advice for Growing to 10 Million ARR

This week our host Brandi Starr is joined by Denmark Francisco, CMO of BlackBox Consulting & Advisory. A seasoned marketing executive with 15 years of expertise driving revenue growth and achieving outstanding results for start-up ventures, Denmark's career highlights include assisting four start-up's in achieving successful acquisitions, contributing to a total value of $860 million. Denmark has achieved significant achievements as a CMO, such as catapulting KnowBe4's annual recurring revenue (ARR) from $62 million to $117 million within a single year. He also played a pivotal role in scaling Jive Communications from $15 million to $30 million ARR, leading to its subsequent acquisition by LogMeIn for $342 million. With a proficiency in growth hacking, he successfully scaled DigitalOcean's user base from 500 to an impressive 10,000 users. In 2019, he continued to excel, elevating Emailage's ARR from $25 million to $40 million, ultimately resulting in its acquisition by RELX for $480 million in 2020.  Denmark's skill set encompasses various aspects of marketing, including product marketing, demand generation, marketing communications, and sales development. His unique approach to marketing is rooted in a scientific and mathematical framework, prioritizing data-driven analysis, bringing a distinctive blend of CFO, CRO, and CMO thinking and action to the table. Throughout his career, he has consistently exceeded target KPIs, including LTV/CAC (>7x), Gross Retention (>95%), Net Retention (>120%), and Sales Efficiency (>1.0x), underscoring his unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional results. As a CMO/VP of Marketing, he is well-equipped to make a significant impact and contribute to the success of the next great company. On the couch in this weeks' episode of Revenue Rehab, Brandi and Denmark will tackle From Doubt to Dollars: How Email Marketing Drove Unprecedented Growth. Links: Get in touch with Denmark Francisco on: LinkedIn  Subscribe, listen, and rate/review Revenue Rehab Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts , Amazon Music, or iHeart Radio and find more episodes on our website RevenueRehab.live

In this episode, Michelle Vu discusses the current state of B2B SaaS sales and customer success with Jonah Mandel of Capchase and Brad Rosen of Sales Assembly. They dig into findings from a recent survey conducted by Capchase on sales procurement in the B2B SaaS space. Key topics include increasing sales cycle length, rising customer acquisition costs, and decline in LTV:CAC ratio. Listeners can expect to learn strategies for optimizing sales processes, managing discounting, improving customer retention, and more in today's climate.Main Discussion Points:- Factors contributing to longer sales cycles and how some companies are bucking this trend- Rising CAC and how to optimize spend on customer acquisition- Managing discounting behaviors of sales teams- Turning customer success into a profit center with skills for upsell- Getting ahead of churn risk before renewal conversationsGuest Bios:Jonah Mandel is the VP of Sales and Customer Success at Capchase, helping businesses grow through non-dilutive financing. He previously led go-to-market efforts at Alibaba for 5 years and worked in mobile payments at Square and ShopKeep.Brad Rosen is the President of Sales Assembly, which helps teams build foundational sales skills for greater efficiency. He previously led G2's go-to-market team for 7 years after a long career in finance.Company Bios:Capchase: Provides non-dilutive financing to SaaS companies through options like revenue-based financing and a buy now, pay later purchasing tool.Sales Assembly: Offers sales training and coaching to help companies scale through the development of foundational selling skills.

In this episode, we meet Liz Gordon, Vice President at L Catterton. L Catterton is a the worlds largest consumer investment fund with $35B assets under management.Liz dives deep into growth investment, as well as the themes and metrics that drive investment evaluation and valuation, and much more. Topics coveredMetrics for evaluating investmentsHow current economic environments effects investingGrowth investing vs Venture investingOmnichannel strategyCohort analysis for digital brandsGood LTV and CAC benchmarksBrand behaviours with new ios changesTakeawaysL Catterton invests in fast growing consumer companiesGross margins differ by category and channel, i..e food & beverage is on average 40%, where as beauty could be 60-80%Strong category, proof points, and working unit economics are entry point metrics that L Catteron looks forGrowth investors seek lower risk and lower returns compared to venture investorsBusinesses with high propensity for repeat purchases are attractive invesmentsDigital LTV is much easier to measure than CAC; 3-5 LTV:CAC ratios are attractiveCohort analysis is cohort or how specific group of customer look like and how to track them over time on monthly basis.Omnichannel is meeting consumer where they are; brands need to diversify channels to be resilient to changes like iOS14Please let us know your thoughts about the episode!Where to findLiz Gordon:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-gordon-32438235/​Website: https://www.lcatterton.com/Where to find Kait Stephens:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kait-margraf-stephens/Website: www.brij.it SUBSCRIBE TO THE OMNICHANNEL MARKETERwww.theomnichannelmarketer.com

From an early age, Spencer recognized the value of using and building high-quality products. With this spirit, he has built and scaled multiple successful apps and websites. BuildBetter, his current venture, helps product operation teams with product research and AI insights. He shares his product-building process - right from exchanging ideas to building MVP to getting detailed feedback from customers. With that, he has gathered a deep understanding of establishing a great relationship with investors and reflects on how he initially learnt how to make the ask for money. ... Featured Guest: Spencer Shulem, CEO, BuildBetter.ai

Since iOS 14 hit in April of 2021, the DTC world has been desperately searching for the answer to one crucial question: How do I get clear attribution? It's a valid question — understanding which ads are actually working is the basis not only for in-platform decision-making, but for assessing the value of paid social advertising as a whole. The favored response of the DTC community? Third-party attribution tools. These new APIs promise a clear window into what's really happening in your account. But all of these tools have one fatal flaw: None of them pass their measurement data back to Facebook. And Facebook can't make optimization decisions with data it doesn't have. That means third-party attribution platforms leave you with lots of information . that you can't take action on. Or, more specifically, that Facebook isn't capable of putting its incredible machine-learning capabilities towards. For months, we've been struggling with the same fundamental questions about attribution . and we're happy to report that we've found a tool that may just be the future of media buying and ecommerce in general. And we even have a case study to prove it. Meet Retina.ai: Predicting CLV Directly Within Facebook Retina.ai is an AI platform that algorithmically predicts Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) from day one. Meaning — it produces something magical that allows you to see a customer's future behavior right now. Wait . what is Customer Lifetime Value, exactly? CLV is defined as: 12-month LTV – (CAC + COGS + shipping costs) In other words, it's the bottom-line value that a customer brings over the course of a year. Optimizing for CLV:CAC is more valuable than optimizing for ROAS or simple LTV, because it takes both cost and timeframe into consideration. In practice, of course, Retina's not actual magic. But it's pretty close. Retina's sophisticated algorithm intakes historical data and correlates first-purchase behaviors with long-term outcomes. Then, it applies those learnings to your current customer acquisition, identifying first-time purchasers that are most likely to increase in value over a 12-month window. The kicker? Retina integrates directly with Facebook Ads manager. Seriously — we can literally see CLV as a metric when we're buying ads: This allows Facebook to optimize for LTV:CAC based on predictive data fed back to the platform at the individual user level in real time. Sounds amazing right? But what about the case study? The Challenge: Rising CAC, Softening Consumer Trends Born Primitive, a fitness apparel brand, faced a seemingly unbreakable revenue plateau. This was only compounded by the data integrity issues brought about by iOS 14. There was only one way to get through this barrier: Optimize Born Primitive's LTV:CAC. Born Primitive's customer base includes lots of die-hard brand loyalists, and we needed to understand how to find more of them. Using Retina's Quality of Customer Report, we confirmed there was a huge difference between the brand's highest and lowest value customers: 50% of Born Primitive's customers have a 10-year CLV of $136 or less . but the average 10-year CLV is $366. That means the top 25% of customers are worth at least 150% more to Born Primitive than the bottom 50%. But before we could run the test, there were a few hurdles . The first challenge lay in setting up a baseline LTV model. We had to create an accurate model by ingesting data from Shopify's order and customer table. Challenge two relied on feeding CLV data to the Meta platform. The team set up integrations on Facebook CAPI and configured campaign modeling. The last challenge required us to show proof of increased conversion and LTV metrics. We constructed a scientific test to measure the incrementality of the LTV-based optimization. The Solution: CLV Split Test We set up a split test to understand the effectiveness of CLV-based optimization. Hypothesis: Optimizing for CLV in near real-time results in higher CLV customers (and better camp...

India's EdTech industry is expected to grow to $30 billion in the next decade. Ravi built BrightChamps with a very first principle view of solving educational outcomes for children and equipping them with 21st-century skills. He is an IITian who spent a decade and a half in various startups building their technology and product. Listen on for some fascinating insights into the future of learning!Know about:- Finding his calling and zeroing down on kids' vertical Product roadmap Importance of LTV/CAC ratio Acquisition strategy

This latest series accompanies the new book that I have co-written with Eamonn Carey, called 'The Startup Lexicon', which is a guide to the words, phrases, jargon and terminology used in the startup and tech world.  In each episode Eamonn and I will discuss 2-3 key words that are crucial to the understanding of the world of start-ups.  In today's episode, we discuss the terms; Investor FAQ, LTV/CAC Ratio and MVP. If you have any comments regarding these terms, please contact us on the email addresses below:ken@thisisprogressive.comeamonncarey@gmail.comFinally, if you would like to purchase The Startup Lexicon, the relevant links can be found below:Amazon (Uk) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Startup-Lexicon-Demystifying-everyday-language/dp/1912300761Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Lexicon-Demystifying-everyday-language-ebook/dp/B09XG34QXSWaterstones https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-startup-lexicon/ken-valledy/eamonn-carey/9781912300761WHSmith https://www.whsmith.co.uk/search/?q=9781912300761&cgid=&category=AllFoyles https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/business/the-startup-lexicon-demystifying-the-ev,ken-valledy-eamonn-carey-9781912300761Wordery https://wordery.com/the-startup-lexicon-ken-valledy-9781912300761Bookshop.org https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-startup-lexicon-demystifying-the-everyday-language-of-startups/9781912300761And finally a big thank you to the Right Book Company https://www.therightbookcompany.com/ for their ongoing support in making this dream of actually writing a book become a reality.

Happy Memorial Day if you're in the US! WOWZA these episodes are popular...so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more. Kyle Lacy is SVP of Marketing at Seismic (Series G). Prior, Kyle was CMO at Lessonly (Series C) for almost 5 years where he 20X'd revenue growth (70% sourced by marketing). I've had Kyle on before - check out Episode 31 where we talk about “the power of irrational ideas and golden llamas” among other things. Seismic was founded in 2010, has ~1,175 people, is based out of San Diego, CA, and Series G funded. Seismic is the #1 global sales enablement solution. Lessonly got acquired by Seismic in 2021. Lessonly is focused on training and coaching sales teams and Seismic does way more. Here's what we hit on: 2022 Marketing Plan, budget splits (HINT: the board really cares about the one metric LTV/CAC so as long as that stayed in the lane we can do whatever with our budget); Marketing channels you're leaning into this year (HINT: organic should be primary, and should always be primary); Marketing content you're leaning into this year; How you're planning to build out resources; What's your secret sauce to managing such a big (marketing) ship?? (HINT: hire people that understand how to move quickly but also have empathy/EQ because it's easier to have those difficult conversations; You need to build the marketing plan that's right for YOUR team, resources, etc; Goals that Kyle wants to accomplish in 2022. You can find Kyle on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy Find out more about Seismic: https://seismic.com/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to help B2C business spend their money right - to increase profitability. My guest is Tobias Konitzer Ph.D., CEO of Ocurate Tobias Konitzer is an academically trained entrepreneur who has a proven track record of turning research into technology and into a product that addresses ubiquitous pain points.  He worked for Facebook Research and completed a Ph.D. in computational social science at Stanford University. In 2017 he co-founded of PredictWise, where he initially acted as Chief Scientist and became their CEO in 2020.PredictWise processed a large array of public opinion data collected from 260M+ Americans on hundreds of data points.  During his tenure at PredictWise, Tobias started to understand the value of this database in conjunction with modern machine learning for consumer-facing companies: Companies have a hard time optimizing over and understanding margins (LTV:CAC ratio) that is crucial for both profitability and accurate financial forecasting.  On this premise, Tobias founded Ocurate, empowering brands to focus on the right customer by predicting lifetime value, churn, conversion and growth at the individual level, with unprecedented accuracy. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Tobias to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the ability of many B2C companies to grow profitably. Tobias shares his big lessons learned in starting a revolution, and what it took to create solid traction. He touches upon the importance of investing in getting positioning right. Last but not least he shares his advice on what it takes to build a SaaS business that cannot be ignored, and what mindset and habits to develop to not burn out from the many failures you'll have to deal with on your way. Here are some of his quotes "I used to tell my investors, the vision is making a new way to thinking about efficient spending, the organizing principle of b2c companies. And this new way of of efficient spending, we call, folks call, lifetime value. And I want to say one more word here. The idea behind lifetime value is using AI to predict exactly how much profit, not revenue, but profit, every customer will bring to you as a company. And now, the big idea here is, if I would know that with 100% accuracy, all these other things all of a sudden, are very, very easy." During this interview, you will learn four things: How to win more customers by getting on the same wavelength Why valuing slowness can be the key to rapid growth Why too many SaaS businesses don't have a product-market fit issue, but a positioning issue Why you shouldn't found your SaaS business before you deeply understand the real pain point For more information about the guest from this week: Tobias Konitzer, Phd Website Ocurate Subscribe to Value Inspiration on Friday's Stressed by the thought of 'not enough' traction? Eager to know how to remove the roadblocks that slow down your entire SaaS business? Then Subscribe here It's a short weekly musing on how to shape a B2B SaaS business your customers would miss if it were gone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it possible to build a global platform for media production and creatives, raise two rounds of capital and lead a fully remote team at the age of 22 and without a high school degree?Our guest, Jonas Ngoenha, says YES YOU CAN! He's the Co-Founder & CEO of Beazy, a SaaS-enabled marketplace for content production based out of Switzerland and Mozambique. A photographer, freerunner, and a high-school drop-out, Jonas is proving that you can't let the world define your founder journey.Launched in 2018, Jonas and the Beazy team help companies find the creatives, equipment, and locations they need for their photo/video productions and give them collaborative tools to manage everything.Beazy has worked with great companies such as Zalando, Bolt, Pinterest, Delivery Hero, Babbel, SellerX, GetYourGuide, Bombinate and many more. They currently have a growing community of over 5000 creatives in 150+ cities in 50+ countries.To learn more about Beazy, please visit: https://www.beazy.co/ - use Discount Code: BzyDemo to receive 10% off your first project!Here's the link to Jonas' video re: scraping LinkedIn for specific contacts, especially fundraising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMnOeSmruC4Connect with Jonas and Beazy on social:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beazy/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonas-ngoenha/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRFJIejSPlsCmJDIQR8Glw Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beazy.co/ and https://www.instagram.com/jonas.ngoenha/ How to calculate the LTV/CAC Ratio00:00 - meet Jonas05:00 - freerunner journey stories12:00 - how the academic career parents reacted when Jonas dropped out of high school16:00 - meet Beazy.co18:30 - big hairy audacious idea vs. reality20:37 - your idea doesn't matter unless you execute on it23:00 - success is not a straight line34:00 - Scroobious! https://bit.ly/SLSScroobious38:00 - how Beazy works42:45 - how to calculate the LTV/CAC ratio 48:50 - building community from day one52:45 - best HubSpot testimonial EVERThank you for carving out time to improve your Founder Game - when you do better, your business will do better - cheers!Ande ♥https://andelyons.comCONNECT WITH ME ONLINE: https://andelyons.com https://twitter.com/AndeLyonshttps://www.facebook.com/StartupLifew... https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelyons/ https://www.instagram.com/ande_lyons/ https://www.pinterest.com/andelyons/ https://angel.co/andelyons TikTok: @andelyonsANDELICIOUS RESOURCES:JOIN STARTUP LIFE LIVE MEETUP GROUPGet an alert whenever I post a new show!https://bit.ly/StartupLifeLIVEAGORAPULSEMy favorite digital marketing dashboard is AGORAPULSE – it's the best platform to manage your social media posts and presence! Learn more here: http://www.agorapulse.com?via=ande17STARTUP DOX Do you need attorney reviewed legal documents for your startup? I'm a proud community partner of Startup Dox, a new service provided by Selvarajah Law PC which helps you draw out all the essential paperwork needed to kickstart your business in a super cost-effective way. All the legal you're looking for… only without confusion or frustration. EVERY filing and document comes with an attorney review. You will never do it alone. Visit https://www.thestartupdox.com/ and use my discount code ANDE10 to receive 10% off your order.SPONSORSHIPIf you resonate with the show's mission of amplifying diverse founder voices while serving first-time founders around the world, please reach out to me to learn more about making an impact through sponsoring the Startup Life LIVE Show! ande@andelyons.com.STREAMYARD OVERLAYS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNNicky Pasquierhttps://www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk/Visit Nicky's CANVA Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhUDgDHkkma3YhOf7uy8TAbt7HdkXhSjONicky's Canva Presentation Playlist: http://bit.ly/Canva_Present_PlaylistGET VIDEO/AUDIO TRANSCRIBED WITH OTTER.AIhttps://bit.ly/StartupLifeOtter

George Bevis, founder and former CEO of Tide Bank. As many of you may know, Tide delivers better business banking for small to medium sized businesses. It's currently valued at $650 million, serves over 400,000 businesses, and has tens of millions in revenue. George is now running his own venture studio, Can Do. In 2015, in Tide's early days, an employee ran off with their code base and they almost ran out of money in the first year. In this episode, you will hear more from George about:  1) The Psychological Journey of Failure as a Founder? What does it actually feel like when your company goes under? When do you actually feel a sense of relief? How do you know when it's time to call it quits on your startup? How do you treat the staff the right way as you wind down? 2) THE Metric for Any Startup Why LTV/CAC (Lifetime Value/Cost of Customer Acquisition) is THE Metric and Not a Metric to Live by in Your Startup How did George get to this conclusion after multiple businesses? Should you rethink your business model before you even start? 3) The Elusive Product/Market Fit (PMF) Why George disagrees with the famous Marc Andreessen blog post on product/market fit (PFM) Is PFM a myth? does it exist? What does it actually feel like to achieve PMF? Do you still need marketing even if you have PMF? 4) His Decision To Step Down From His Own Company What drove George to decide to leave Tide as the CEO? The one thing he really misses since leaving What he is up to now and why? 5) Humility - The Underrated Trait for Employees and VCs You Surround Yourself With How Tide's company values and humility translated into their consumer experience Why you need to choose a VC with humility? How you figure out if a prospective VC has humility? The power of cold references on VCs How many terms sheets should you actually expect when fundraising for your startup? After tasting success as a founder, George is now running his own venture studio, Can Do.  Find out more at KindredCapital.VC/FoundersUncut This podcast was produced by Fascinate Productions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three Things I Learned in Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events Disruption meets the sports business at the LA Super Bowl The business crowd at the Super Bowl is much different than at my first in the mid-00s and it is a harbinger of massive disruption headed the way of the team's business offices. Think of what Moneyball did to the baseball industry. Only this time, it's the quants of venture, banking, private equity and gaming playing the role of Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta. Three things we've learned, and seen, this Super Bowl week: 1) The fraternity will be over soon. The industry is full of those who 'paid their dues' in a sales office or internship to move up in the business office. That talent pool was limited back then to those who could 'survive' getting paid little money out of school while they got in the good graces of the fraternity above them. They moved up, many of them not bothering to stay up to speed with tech and disruption outside the industry. They're getting run over by disruption rapidly. We've been working with bankers and gaming for over a decade now. These are Harvard/Stanford/Etc MBAs and JDs, alongside wildly intelligent founders, operating at another level. They eat inefficiency, especially when driven by biased ego. They're here. And they're hungry. 2) Many in sports don't understand what 'early' really is. When we talk to those being displaced, or those trying to push the envelope, they often say they want to get into "new" businesses like health and wellness or gaming. They ask me all the time about StubHub, FanDuel or Hyperice, as examples. FanDuel is thirteen years old. I have a friend who was on the board through some rocky policy shifts in gaming. It ain't 'early' there. One of the leaders I admire most, Jim Heuther of Hyperice, has been there 8 years. The company is 12 years old. I joined StubHub in 04 - already the 4th year. Yes, that's 'early' to sports pros used to certainty, employment contracts and cash comp unrelated to stock, but not to the rest of the disruptive world. A lot happens before disruptive businesses cross over to our collective knowledge. 3) The conversion will be rocky. Most team execs don't understand terms like "KPI", "LTV" "CAC" or many common practice banking terms. It's not how they've valued and run their businesses. Scalable businesses use different metrics. They are much less likely to add headcount for revenue. There have been a number of acquisitions recently which didn't disclose valuations. Many categorized as "tech" firms which are really agencies selling at agency values. For more on how relationships are valued vs tech, check out Michael Ovitz's book.

Paul Orlando is the Founder of Startups Unplugged and is the author of the book “Growth Units”, a book that makes unit economics straightforward. He builds incubator/accelerator programs around the world, getting companies to solve problems that they couldn't in other ways, which allows the building of autonomy and skills that keeps employee retention high and maintains the company's top talent. Paul is an adjunct professor and runs the incubator at USC. In this episode, Paul talks about calculating lifetime value as he shares why it is important to think about pricing in relation to the LTV.   Why you have to check out today's podcast: Understand the relationship lifetime value has with pricing and why it's better to learn early and often than to fail fast Find out why overpricing and underpricing are present in various companies Discover why your lifetime value isn't and will never be limited to one number   “People are really afraid of raising prices. I think it was Marc Andreessen who said, 'a lot of problems go away if you can raise your prices.'” – Paul Orlando   Topics Covered: 01:22 – How Paul got into the work of running incubators 03:16 – Building incubators and accelerators inside a company and changing the way people work to achieve a certain goal 06:05 – Why ‘learn early, learn often' is a lot better than ‘fail fast' 08:32 – Writing a book about calculating lifetime value and its components; why thinking about pricing is important 17:15 – Pricing and lifetime value; discussion about over- and underpricing 21:00 – Thinking about lifetime value in relation to subscription and non-subscription businesses 26:03 – Your lifetime value is and will never be limited to one number; why you should model the sequence of flows 29:56 – Why Paul prefers using payback time as a metric as opposed to LTV/CAC 31:23 – Paul's pricing advice for this episode's listeners   Key Takeaways: “I actually don't want people to fail fast. I don't want them to fail slow, either. But I'd rather that they succeed fast, or second-best – succeed slow. So, I'd like to say, learn early learn often rather than fail fast. Learn early - encounter the customer upfront rather than downstream, and learn often - keep that process going like you really probably have not figured everything out just yet. You need to keep iterating. There's so much that you could test before you have committed serious resources.” – Paul Orlando “If price is some metric of value or some measure of value, you want to be able to charge something. You don't necessarily want a business that has to push prices as low as possible.” – Paul Orlando “Lifetime value is not something that you can really get a full picture of until you've been out for a while.” – Paul Orlando “These ratios or numbers that you hear about can be misleading unless you actually start digging in a bit.” – Paul Orlando “If you can start to either shorten that time, taking pre-orders, or if there's something that you can do with your own supply chain, tough today, but if there's something that you could do there, you could improve your odds of being able to use customer revenue to grow.” – Paul Orlando   People / Resources Mentioned: Growth Units: Learn to Calculate Customer Acquisition Cost, Lifetime Value, and Why Businesses Behave the Way They Do: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GJVV8RJ/ Win Keep Grow: How to Price and Package to Accelerate Your Subscription Business: https://www.amazon.com/Win-Keep-Grow-Accelerate-Subscription/dp/1631954784 MoviePass: https://www.moviepass.com/ Uber: https://www.uber.com/ Dollar Shave Club: https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/ Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com Coke: https://us.coca-cola.com/   Connect with Paul Orlando: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/porlando/ Email: orlando@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/porlando   Connect with Mark Stiving:    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com  

25 ноября состоялся "День нетворкинга СОВета Отельеров". Валентина Осокина выступила с актуальной темой для гостиничного бизнеса "КИС подход.Как мы снизили стоимость привлечения клиента и повысили его чек". Смотрите внимательно и пишите комментарии. 00:00 - вступление 01:25 - Валентина Осокина "о себе" 03:15 - КИС подход (креативный и системный) 06:58 - подход service design. CJM 07:55 - стоимость привлечения клиента 08:18 - LTV/CAC 08:30 - стоимость привлечения клиента 10:07 - оценка 11:51 - контента много не бывает 16:08 - кейс. Mastershot 20:32 - методика оценки 21:12 - коммуникация 22:43 - SEO и контент-маркетинг 24:55 - социальные сети 26:55 - АБ или ААБ 28:25 - виральность 29:39 - политика "ждем животных" 31:04 - таргет 33:49 - CJM карта клиентского пути 33:57 - рост чека - этап ДО 35:35 - заключение Ссылка на видео

In today's episode, Allan and Lauren talk to Kyle Braatz, co-founder and CEO of Fullscript, a company on a mission to help people get better.Fullscript rallies around their North Star metric, which is also their driving force: how many people is Fullscript helping get better everyday? And what about the traditional metrics like NRR and LTV:CAC? While they're still important, a metric like revenue is an outcome; a direct result of succeeding at your purpose. Hear Kyle's fresh take on a purpose-driven business and how, on the heels of a $240M USD funding round, Fullscript's rapid growth is taking integrative medicine by storm. Metrics mentioned in this episode: Net revenue retention rate: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/saas/net-revenue-retention-rate Customer lifetime value (LTV): https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/saas/customer-lifetime-value LTV:CAC Ratio: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/saas/lifetime-value-to-customer-acquisition-cost-ratio-ltvcac Payback period: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/saas/cac-payback-period If you love learning about metrics, you'll love MetricHQ, Klipfolio's online resource for all-things metrics and KPIs: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/Subscribe to the Metric Stack newsletter: https://metricstack.substack.com/subscribe 

In the last 48 months, the fintech app Truebill, which helps users manage their personal finances, has had 47 months of exceptional growth. But in this week’s episode of the Breakout Growth Podcast, brought to you by Rise with SAP, Ethan Garr and Sean Ellis find out that before this hypergrowth tear began, the company was actually on death’s doorstep. Four years ago, the two-year-old startup had just three months of runway remaining, and Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Yahya Mokhtarzada was told by one of his investors that the only option was to sell. He figured the company had the bandwidth for two more experiments; one of those tests would change everything! The test shifted the business from an affiliate to a premium subscription model, and the surprising conversion result didn’t just buy more time, it was the final piece needed for Truebill to achieve Product/Market Fit. Since then, Truebill’s breakout growth success has been a story of “eternal tweaking” where Yahya has come to learn that if you are doing growth right, resources never free up the way you expect. As Chief Revenue Officer in a B2C business, he sees his role as one of setting up teams to stay focused on the things that matter and ensuring individuals can continuously thrive by leveraging their creativity. And creativity seems to be one of the key success factors for Truebill. If you download the app, you might be surprised by the “pay what you think is fair” pricing model, and other unique elements that drive users to aha moments where they start thinking about their finances and saving money in different ways. There is plenty to learn in this episode, but before you jump in learn more about RISE with SAP S/4Hana Cloud here. If you have ambitious goals, SAP is the technology partner you need to scale and drive innovation. Instead of relying on stitched together solutions to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations, leverage the flexibility of SAP’s cloud-based ERP solution to gain the insights that will help drive your breakout growth success. Thanks for tuning in. Please subscribe and share the Breakout Growth Podcast with your colleagues and friends. We discussed: * “The app I always needed:” how an annoying $40/month subscription fee drove Truebill’s inception (04:14) * Chief Revenue Officer: a very different role in B2B vs. B2C (07:01) * “We weren’t the cool kids:” Struggling to find traction and Product/Market Fit (11:10) * Crunch time: 3 months of runway and time for two experiments. What a last-chance test on premium subscriptions taught Truebill (22:27) * Building growth: The LTV/CAC rat

Singapore is home to fewer than six million people, yet it leads the ASEAN region in venture capital investment and has been home to 10 unicorns.Our guest, Prantik Mazumdar, is a Singapore-based entrepreneur, investor and mentor, and he's sharing his startup stories along with an insider's view of the Singapore startup ecosystem.After pursuing a major in Computer Engineering and a minor in Technopreneurship from the National University of Singapore, Prantik kick-started his career with the Singapore government (Enterprise Singapore) to drive international trade promotion for the island state.He began his entrepreneurial journey with Happy Marketer in 2011, where he spent a decade building and scaling one of the top independent digital marketing services firms in the region that served brands like Standard Chartered Bank, Great Eastern Life, Royal Brunei Airlines, Starbucks, Ping An, Grab, Shopee, GoJek, Kimberly Clark, PropertyGuru, and PegiPegi.In February 2019, Prantik had a successful exit when Happy Marketer was sold to an American digital enterprise called Merkle, which is part of Dentsu International, the largest Japanese advertising conglomerate. He is currently serving as the Managing Director of the CXM Group at Dentsu Singapore.Apart from his corporate role, Prantik is an active angel and venture investor, mentor, advisor, and speaker through organizations like Quest Ventures, Tie Singapore, HealthXCapital, NUS Angel Ventures, and he is an Entrepreneur-In-Resident at INSEAD.Please connect with Prantik here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prantikmazumdar/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranmazLearn more about the Happy Marketer here:https://www.happymarketer.com/00:00 - meet Prantik07:00 - how entrepreneurship found Prantik14:00 - co-founder happiness is found in having complementary skills sets and aligned values - hooray Rachit!24:00 - bootstrapping their way to success26:00 - the best exit story and advice for founders35:00 - the most essential elements a startup must have for success - how impactful is the problem - founder problem and market fit - product market fit39:00 - celebrate the team member's exit - their contribution and the gratitude for their time with you and your startup43:25 - why Prantik is passionate about provide equitable capital opportunities to startups 44:40 - Prantik's investor criteria52:30 - design the ideal cap table before you start raising capital54:20 - why the Singapore startup ecosystem in thriving01:02:00 - Prantik's outstanding founder advice for staying strong, tenacious and resilientTo learn how to calculate the LTV/CAC ratio, watch my video here: http://bit.ly/LTVCACRatioThank you for carving out time to improve your Founder Game - when you do better, your business will do better - cheers!Ande ♥Ande Lyonshttp://andelyons.comANDELICIOUS RESOURCES:JOIN STARTUP LIFE LIVE MEETUP GROUPGet an alert whenever I post a new show!https://bit.ly/StartupLifeLIVEAGORAPULSEMy favorite digital marketing dashboard is AGORAPULSE – it's the best platform to manage your social media posts and presence! Learn more here: http://www.agorapulse.com?via=ande17STARTUP DOX Do you need attorney reviewed legal documents for your startup? I'm a proud community partner of Startup Dox, a new service provided by Selvarajah Law PC which helps you draw out all the essential paperwork needed to kickstart your business in a super cost-effective way. All the legal you're looking for… only without confusion or frustration. EVERY filing and document comes with an attorney review. You will never do it alone. Visit https://www.thestartupdox.com/ and use my discount code ANDE10 to receive 10% off your order.SPONSORSHIPIf you resonate with the show's mission of amplifying diverse founder voices while serving first-time founders around the world, please reach out to me to learn more about making an impact through sponsoring the Startup Life LIVE Show! ande@andelyons.com.STREAMYARD OVERLAYS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNNicky Pasquierhttps://www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk/Visit Nicky's CANVA Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhUDgDHkkma3YhOf7uy8TAbt7HdkXhSjONicky's Canva Presentation Playlist: http://bit.ly/Canva_Present_PlaylistGET VIDEO/AUDIO TRANSCRIBED WITH OTTER.AIhttps://bit.ly/StartupLifeOtter CONNECT WITH ME ONLINE: https://andelyons.com https://twitter.com/AndeLyonshttps://www.facebook.com/StartupLifew... https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelyons/ https://www.instagram.com/ande_lyons/ https://www.pinterest.com/andelyons/ https://angel.co/andelyons TikTok: @andelyons

Are you launching a tech startup and wishing you had a step-by-step guide to help you?Our guest, Shirish Nadkarni, has exactly what you need to succeed with his book, From Startup to Exit: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Scaling Your Tech Business!A serial entrepreneur Shirish Nadkarni came to the U.S. as a teenager with $25 in his pocket. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he worked at Microsoft where he engineered the $400 million acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.com, the world's leading web portal.Striking out on his own in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, he founded TeamOn Systems, an early pioneer of mobile email that was later acquired by BlackBerry.After a family trip to Spain rife with language barrier snafus, Shirish launched the first social language learning app Livemocha and grew it to over 15 million members in 200 different countries before it was acquired by Rosetta Stone.Get your copy of Shirish's book From Startup to Exit here: https://bit.ly/ShirishNadkarniConnect with Shirish on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirishn/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShirishnWatch my video How to Calculate the LTV/CAC ratio here: http://bit.ly/LTVCACRatio00:00 - meet Shirish!07:00 - Shirish's origin story10:35 - Why Shirish left Microsoft in 1999 to launch his first business13:00 - what happened when Shirish left the resources-rich environment of Microsoft to launch a lean startup15:00 - how Shirish pivoted after realizing his MVP was too soon21:40 - always keep a list of companies in your space that are much bigger players and potential acquirers29:00 - what makes a great startup idea35:43 - how to split founder equity40:45 - team acquisition strategies for startups43:20 - why knowing the LTV, CAC and LTV/CAC ratio are so important for startups46:20 - how to manage and lead during a downturn48:00 - why you need to make one big reduction in force instead of small layoffs at a time53:50 - Shirish's desired outcome for his book, From Startup to ExitThank you for carving out time to improve your Founder Game - when you do better, your business will do better - cheers!Ande ♥Ande Lyonshttp://andelyons.com#videochannelforstartups #howtolaunchatechbusiness #fromstartuptoexitANDELICIOUS RESOURCES:JOIN STARTUP LIFE LIVE MEETUP GROUPGet an alert whenever I post a new show!https://bit.ly/StartupLifeLIVEAGORAPULSEMy favorite digital marketing dashboard is AGORAPULSE – it's the best platform to manage your social media posts and presence! Learn more here: http://www.agorapulse.com?via=ande17STARTUP DOX Do you need attorney reviewed legal documents for your startup? I'm a proud community partner of Startup Dox, a new service provided by Selvarajah Law PC which helps you draw out all the essential paperwork needed to kickstart your business in a super cost-effective way. All the legal you're looking for… only without confusion or frustration. EVERY filing and document comes with an attorney review. You will never do it alone. Visit https://www.thestartupdox.com/ and use my discount code ANDE10 to receive 10% off your order.SPONSORSHIPIf you resonate with the show's mission of amplifying diverse founder voices while serving first-time founders around the world, please reach out to me to learn more about making an impact through sponsoring the Startup Life LIVE Show! ande@andelyons.com.STREAMYARD OVERLAYS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNNicky Pasquierhttps://www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk/Visit Nicky's CANVA Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...Nicky's Canva Presentation Playlist: http://bit.ly/Canva_Present_PlaylistGET VIDEO/AUDIO TRANSCRIBED WITH OTTER.AIhttps://bit.ly/StartupLifeOtter CONNECT WITH ME ONLINE: https://andelyons.com https://twitter.com/AndeLyonshttps://www.facebook.com/StartupLifew... https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelyons/ https://www.instagram.com/ande_lyons/ https://www.pinterest.com/andelyons/ https://angel.co/andelyons TikTok: @andelyons

My guest today is Katie Shea, Managing Partner of Divergent Capital. Katie has had alot of experience on both sides of the table as a founder, operator and angel investor and venture capital. Some of her investments include Cityrow, Parade and Topicals. We discuss why and how she launched a venture fund in the middle of the pandemic, how she approached angel investing, where the bar is for digitally native brands. Without further ado, here's Katie.You can follow Katie on Twitter Here.Some of the questions I ask Katie:I think a great place to start is what was your initial attraction to consumer?Why did you decide to start a fund during COVID?You've been both a founder and early employee. What were some of your learnings in both of those roles?You've worked in marketing with companies, as an employee and consultant. I remember in our first conversation, you spoke about being much more analytical with marketing (figuring out LTV/CAC and optimization) and less brand-marketing oriented. Since we don't have the arbitrage opportunities in growth like we did in the late 00s/early 10s, what are some creative strategies that you've seen in order to have higher LTV/CAC ratios and shorter paybacks?How should a new consumer brand approach growth?As an angel investor, what is your strategy when it comes to portfolio diversification?You invest in both technology and brands. How do you think about portfolio construction?Do you have any advice on folks that are thinking of becoming angels?Divergent Venture Fund started during COVIDWalk me through your due diligence process?What are current trends that you are focused on?When should a consumer brand think about raising capital?What's one thing that you would change as it relates to venture capital?What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?

LTV-CAC – what’s the right number early-stage founders should track?

Vad är bättre än SaaS? Ja, inte mycket. Veckans case är ett hett SaaS-bolag från grannlandet Norge: $PEXIP. Pexip är en videokonferenslösning med fokus på säkerhet och flexibilitet. Bolaget växer i rask takt och har en mängd intressanta kunder bl.a. Spotify, Nasa och Nordea. Bruttomarginal och LTV:CAC är i toppklass och nu satsar bolaget på aggressiv expansion efter att ha tagit in pengar vid noteringen i Maj 2020.Ett extremt spännande SaaS-case som ni inte vill missa!-----Är du intresserad av att investera i fysiskt guld? Besök vår samarbetspartner Nordic Gold Trade (https://www.nordicgoldtrade.com/) och använd koden MM2020 för 50% rabatt på ett års förvaringsavgifter.-----Några tidsstämplar och länkar:08:55 - Pexip Holding $PEXIPAktieentreprenörens analys av Pexip: https://tradevenue.se/aktieentreprenoren/pexip-analys-----Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketmakerspod Kontakt: podcast@marketmakers.se Hemsida: https://www.marketmakers.se/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

どうでもいい話は、バレンタインや誕生日っていう感謝やお祝いの機会はおとなになってもやったほうがよいよね、という話でした。 さて、マーケティングのコストについて、トータルのコストではなく、費用対効果のみを求めてしまうと、短期的な施策ばかりになってしまいがちです。 マーケティング本来の目的である、長期的かつ継続的な売上アップの仕組みを作るためには、長期的な施策を行わなければその仕組みづくりは中途半端なものになってしまいます。 マーケティングを狭義の視点ではなく、広義の視点＝経営視点のマーケティングを考慮してコストを捉えることで、大きくコストや成果の見え方が変わります。 費用対効果は、LTVとCAC（カスタマーアクイジションコスト）と同じように、単年ではなく複数年で考えたほうが仕組みを作りやすいです。 #マーケティング #BtoBマーケティング #インサイドセールス #コミュニケーション #顧客視点 #コンテンツ #ビジネス

O Custo por Lead é importante indicador, mas não pode ser o único. Se você gera leads, deve se preocupar também em descobrir os itens abaixo. Taxa de Conversão em Vendas: você precisa de quantos leads para gerar 1 venda? Unindo essa informação com o CPL (Custo por Lead) você consegue entender quanto você gasta na geração de Leads para gerar uma única venda. CAC: custo de aquisição de clientes. O quanto custa para sua empresa gerar um único cliente. Somando os investimentos de marketing e vendas (mídia, salários, ferramentas, etc) e dividindo pelo número de clientes gerados num período, você vai descobrir seu CAC. LTV: lifetime value é o quanto é gerado de receita por seus clientes, uma vez que se tornam clientes. LTV/CAC: a relação entre LTV e CAC deve ser olhada de perto. Se você gasta em média R$50 na aquisição de um cliente e seu LTV gira em torno de R$60, você está numa zona muito perigosa. O ideal é sempre tentar reduzir o CAC e maximizar o LTV.

Timestamps: 10:22 - Understanding your clients (needle question) 14:55 - Getting your customers to use your product more often 17:00 - Achieving negative churns, incentivizing referrals 24:51 - The best lifetime value vs customer acquisition costs ratio 36:53 - When to pull the plug on a certain channel The Episode in 60 Seconds How to find, optimize and scale your sales funnel from early stage to exit. The early mistakes to avoid - Sell like the incumbent: just because one sales funnel is working well for incumbents in your field doesn’t mean it will work for you. Especially if your unit economics are different (think for example on-premise software vs SaaS). - Ignoring the unit economics: especially if you are entering the market with a new kind of business model, it’s very important to know your unit economics in order to understand if you are selling your product in a margin enhancing way or if every sale you achieve actually incurs a net loss. - Only focusing on closing the deal: your long term goal will be to achieve negative churn (gaining more customers than you lose in a certain interval). This will not happen if your product does not delight customers across the entire lifecycle. On data and experiments - Data is your best friend when it comes to finding your most effective sales funnel. Don’t allow your organization to go astray on hunches and gut feelings. - Becoming a data driven organization starts with the mindset and the mindset starts with the people you hire. - Run experiments, and run them often. There is no way you’ll know from the start which funnels will work for you, so testing (and failing) is the only way to find out. - To run a meaningful experiment you need two things: a quantifiable definition of success (and therefore failure) and a significant sample size. Leave either one out and the experiment will not deliver its value. Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Acquisition Cost - A good way to measure success of your sales funnel is the ratio between customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (LVT). So what you spend to acquire a new customer and what they in turn spend on your product during all the time they are your customer. - There are a variety of ways how to calculate these two numbers. Whichever you choose, make sure it is comparable to benchmarks in your industry. - A good ratio of LTV/CAC is 3-4. If you are higher, you are not spending enough on marketing / growth. If you are lower, you either have a lifetime value problem or you are not spending your marketing / sales budget effectively. Scaling and optimizing your sales funnel - Don’t forget that once your sales funnel works and you have an acceptable and proven LTV/CAC ratio, this will help you get money from investors, because you can say: for X amount of money in, we’ll very likely get Y amount of revenue out. That’s a pretty safe bet. - If you are scaling one of your sales funnel rapidly (especially online), most likely prices will increase because of the higher demand. Therefore it’s important to continuously optimize. Optimization is never done. - Over time, a funnel may change and become less valuable to you. It’s time to pull the plug when you see the quality of customers you are getting through that funnel decrease (i.e. lower LTV). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/swisspreneur/message

Villi Iltchev of Two Sigma Ventures joins Nick to discuss Using "George" a Proprietary Tool to Source Startups, The Commoditization of Capital, and the New Exit Environment. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at Two Sigma? Tell us about George. What's George's biggest blind spot? What is your decision framework on investments? What characteristics do you look for in markets when identifying new sectors/spaces of interest? How long after investing in/working with a company do you tend to know whether it's going to work or not? Do you attempt to handicap execution risk vs. technical risk vs. commercial risk? Capital is a commodity and, largely speaking, there doesn't appear to be a lot of differentiation in venture.  How do you combat the commoditization of venture? Aside from bankers... who do you think stands to lose the most from the increase in SPACs and direct listings? Any other downsides, unintended consequences, or problematic issues that could arise from the increase in SPACs? A decade from now, will the U.S. be the best country to start a tech company?  If it shifts, what are the prime candidate countries to replace the U.S.? International investment strategy for Two Sigma? Three data points...  hypothetical investment scenario Let's say you're approached to invest in an enterprise SaaS startup. Founder has a great background. MRR is $200k, growing 20% MoM.   LTV:CAC is 5:1.  Quick Ratio greater than 4. Catch is, you can only ask 3 questions for 3 specific data points, in order to make your decision.  What three questions do you ask?

Today on Recur Now, we’ve got tips and tricks on how to improve your LTV: CAC ratio, plus the latest numbers from our B2B SaaS index.

Brian Hollins of BLCK VC joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss Breaking into VC; Excelling at Goldman Sachs; and the Origin of BLCK VC. In this episode, we cover: Background and path to venture? What was the most surprising thing about venture that you only realized after working in it for awhile? So you've got this great job in venture...  Why'd you decide to go back to HBS? Tell us about the origin story of BLCK VC? What are some of the specific activities and programs that BLCK VC is running? On June 4th, BLCK VC held an event, “We Won't Wait”, for people in venture to take action. What were the primary goals and outcomes of the event? I want to talk a bit about your experience at Goldman... did you have an opportunity to invest in black and/or underrepresented founders? What, if anything, did Goldman do to support black investors and founders? It's so hard breaking into this industry and orders-of-magnitude harder when you're black --  how have diversity issues and racial profiling affected your professional journey? Can you give us your take on the current social unrest and what path you want to see going forward? Do you think we'll see the systemic changes required this time or do you think progress will be limited? Who are some investors, founders or people in the space you see paving the way and driving change? What can white VCs do, specifically, to contribute to more better balance and stronger representation for black founders and investors?  What organizations do you care about? What are sites or resources that our audience can visit to get more involved? Aspen Fellowship... At New Stack we're rolling out a fellowship program to train young, college students in VC... you're back on a college campus... what are some ways that we can get our job description in front of more black, latin and underrepresented minority students? Are there any national organizations or communities for college-aged, black students that are interested in tech? 3 Data Points... Let's say you are approached to invest in an enterprise SaaS business. The startup has $10M ARR, Growing 10% MoM and LTV:CAC is 4:1. Catch is you can only ask 3 questions (for 3 additional data points) to make your decision. What 3 questions do you ask? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

What do high growth companies with savvy marketing teams do to drive traffic growth? This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Directive Consulting founder Garrett Mehrguth shares what his team does to help companies like Allstate and Cisco boost traffic even after all of the low hanging marketing and SEO fruit has been picked. TL;DR, It all starts with product marketing, SEO and a focus on bottom of the funnel, high intent leads. Garrett shares the specific strategies his team at Directive uses to get results for their clients, as well as his advice for startups that want to do it right from the beginning. Highlights from my conversation with Garrett include: Garrett says that everything Directive does is based on the belief that your brand is more important than your website. What that means is that when someone with high purchase intent is searching online for a solution, you need to make sure you're discoverable. He says that sometimes your marketing metrics have an inverse correlation with your financial metrics, meaning that if you focus on the top of the funnel, you might generate a lot of traffic, but you won't get as many high intent leads as you would if you focus on the bottom of the funnel (which generally results in less traffic). Garrett's advice is to track CAC (cost to acquire a customer) and LTV (lifetime value) and use that to determine whether you are paying a reasonable cost per demo, opportunity or proposal -- NOT cost per lead. For many companies, the best place to focus their initial marketing efforts is on ranking on review sites. Done well, this can allow a lesser known, newer market entrant to unseat an incumbent player very quickly. You can pay review sites to conduct review generation campaigns on your behalf, and Garrett says it is absolutely worth it to spend that money. Another strategy that works well is to use LinkedIn ads for awareness raising. Garrett says that leads that come through LinkedIn are not high intent, so you shouldn't spend a lot on a cost per impression basis. Instead, he and his team "trick" LinkedIn by advertising on a cost per click basis. Not many people click the ads, so LinkedIn accelerates their placement in the feed and they get seen by a lot of people. In terms of content, Garrett believes the traditional approach to pillar content and topic clusters promoted by HubSpot is wrong. Instead, he uses that same content and creates product pages as pillars, which he then uses to link to from blogs that address bottom of the funnel topics. Garrett builds authority for product pages by guest blogging (where he can control anchor text and backlinks) and doing podcast guest interviews. He says that where its tough to get your subject matter experts to create written content, you should invest more heavily in podcast guest interviews. Garrett's advice for companies right now is to double down on online advertising. Because so many companies have shut down or pulled their online ads back, prices are down and it is easier to get found. Resources from this episode: Check out the Directive Consulting website Follow Garrett on Twitter at @gmehrguth Connect with Garrett on LinkedIn Email garrett at gmehrguth[at]directiveconsulting[dot]com Listen to the podcast to get specific strategies for combining product marketing and SEO to generate more qualified bottom of the funnel leads.   Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host Kathleen Booth. And this week my guest is Garrett Mehrguth from Directive. Welcome Garrett. Garrett Mehrguth (Guest): Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. And yeah, excited to chat about search. Garrett and Kathleen recording this episode. Kathleen: Yeah, I love, I love getting into nerdy marketing topics, so I'm really excited about this. Before we dive in though, can you please tell my audience a little bit about yourself and your story and also Directive? About Garrett and Directive Garrett: I'd love to. I did my degree in three years in economics and I wanted to do my masters in a year. I was playing soccer. I thought I was going to go pro, be like a pro soccer player. I hurt my knee, and that kind of reset a lot of that stuff. And so I said, "Hey, you know, maybe I could try this consulting thing." I applied to Boston, Bain and McKinsey. I'm not sure about Deloitte, but kind of the big ones and instantly got this auto-response. In the application process, I knew I was doomed because you go to their portal and the university I attended was not one of the options. I was like, "They do not tell you that before they take your money." So from there I was like, "You know what? I'll just build my own agency and they'll have to acquire me." I don't know why. That's how I thought, and was just like where I went. I had no tangible skills, so there was that problem. I have this belief system that perception is reality and I knew that people perceived I knew the internet and so I figured I should learn it. So I started to try to learn how to do WordPress sites. And then I got this little shwarma shop in East LA. I was on my little moped. I had a 78 Peugeot 103. I was going around town on that thing and I essentially got the client. It was really, really small. I don't even remember because I was so bad at this point that I didn't put the amount in the contract. I still have the contract, but I don't remember the amount. It's probably like 200 bucks. I did that for 30 days, came back on the 30th day to get the check. He said come back tomorrow. The whole place was boarded up. So that was our first client. I was selling $5 social media calendars on Fiverr and I was just hustling and doing all this stuff. And then I got a hookah shop and the hookah shop asked me to build them a website and then I did that. It was okay. Looking back at, it wasn't the best website. And then he wanted to rank number one for hookah shop and all that stuff. I said, "All right, I'll try." I've never done it before. So I went online, read everything on Search Engine Land, Moz, WordStream, Search Engine Journal, teaching myself kind of SEO and PPC. I ranked him number one and all of a sudden you got all these people in a shop and it was completely dead before. I was like, "This is kind of cool." So, one of my best friends who's my roommate said, "Hey, don't go to law school. You know, come join this company with me. We'll be millionaires" or whatever he said. I was paying him $3 an hour at this point. So we kind of just started from there and now we get to work with really large enterprise accounts and mid market companies, mostly SaaS, doing SEO and PPC still. So pretty fun. Kathleen: Great. Now one of the things that I think is interesting about the perspective that you bring -- and we've had lots of people on the podcast talk about SEO and PPC,  I was interested to chat with you because you do have these bigger clients and I think there are pros and cons to that, right? The pro -- having owned an agency myself -- the pro of having big clients is they've got big budgets. They've got teams to support getting work done. They are generally very savvy. One of the -- I don't know if I would call it a con -- but the tough thing about accounts like that is very often, they've already done all of the basic things that they should be doing. They're sharp, they know their stuff, they have their act together, so being able to really show results and traction requires taking things to a much more advanced level. As I think you were saying when we first started talking, you've already squeezed most of the juice out of that orange. So how are you finding those opportunities for the last few drops? You had some interesting thoughts on that and I'm really interested to hear what you have to say and to get into that technical level of detail with you. What do top SEOs do to prevent traffic from plateauing? Garrett: Let's do it Kathleen. So first and foremost, it's such a blessing because I got lucky. Everyone gets lucky, I think, in business to get somewhere. I had no capital. I started this thing with 20 bucks. We have no debt. We have no anything, right? I think we got Allstate when I was like 23 to 25 years old. And we've had them ever since. Right? So there's little moments like that. Or, we did the global SEO for Cisco when I was 26, I think. So like, you get these little moments and they really help you. And obviously you have to deliver, right? And then you can scale that. But one of the things that I think allowed us to be successful regardless of who we were working with, whether it was a Series A startup who was trying to go to the moon, or a mid-market SaaS firm that was trying to go after the market leader, or the market leader, right? You have these kind of three groups to work with and they all need to slow down and reframe how they approach the idea of search. And that's what I think Directive is really special at, is taking a moment to say, how does your customer discover the products or services you sell, and how can we rethink our approach? So here's what we do. We have two kinds of fundamental beliefs. First and foremost, if you can eat enough humility as an SEO and say that my brand is more important than my website, you become an incredibly powerful and creative marketer. So our first fundamental belief at Directive is your brand is more important than your website. What that means tactically is that when someone searches at the bottom of the funnel and has the strongest purchase intent, you need to make sure you're discoverable. Now, the old adage was, you need your website to rank, but see something has changed in consumer behavior. I call this the Yelp and the Amazon effect. See, consumers got trained at the transactional level that even before we spend $3 on a lollipop or on a breakfast burrito, we're going to look on Yelp to see the reviews. Well, guess what? Before we buy quarter million dollar software, we definitely look at reviews. See, Google caught onto this and they started to change the types of websites that they were showing when there was bottom of funnel purchase intent for SaaS. That's G2, Capterra, Software Advice, PC Mag. It goes down for days and hours, right? There's all these review sites. Well if you search your primary keyword, let's say "ERP software", and you layer it with "top", "best" or "reviews" or "comparisons", you have purchase intent. Also your most expensive cost per click and Google ads, all the sites are review sites. That's because Microsoft Dynamics has no SEO. That's not because Oracle has no authority or content. That's because Google is choosing to show these types of websites. So if we take that fundamental approach that our brand is more important than our website, we can be hyper successful. Kathleen: Yeah, that makes sense. And I've noticed that, too, with reviews. Over the years I've spoken with some other review sites that you mentioned. They've pitched me when I've been at different places and it's really fascinating to just do those searches. And you're right, if you do it -- if you search those terms -- those are the sites that will absolutely come up first. So when you consider that you need to appear on review sites, how do you go about tackling that? Because it's not as simple as just claiming your presence and setting up your profile. You can still get lost in the sea of companies that have done that. How to leverage review sites to drive traffic Garrett: The first step we want to do is we want to take another fundamental hypothesis and understand it, which is that sometimes your marketing metrics have an inverse correlation to your financial metrics. And it becomes very, very, very dangerous for SaaS firms. So here's what I mean. Most agencies have this belief that in order to generate more MQLs for the demand gen team at a SaaS organization, they need to essentially increase the amount of keywords they rank for. They need to start going to top of funnel and they need to generate more leads. So what happens when organizations pursue what I call a "breadth approach" is they start to experience what's called in economics diminishing marginal returns. In other words, their marketing KPIs improve. So let's say you're trying to go for "top ERP software", but you just have a Google ad running. Instead of saying, "How can I show up more often when there's purchase intent?" and going with depth -- and so essentially expanding search impression share in Google ads for your primary terms that have purchase intent and then ranking on individual review sites through their cost per click models, and then evaluating all of that at a cost per demo level, not cost per lead level, and then doing financial allocation, right? That's what we do here. We focus first on demand capturing before pivoting to demand generation. So we go to the bottom of the funnel and say, "Cool. When there's purchase intent, we're going to show up as often as possible and as many places as possible before we try to show up for more terms." So this allows us to experience increasing marginal returns for our clients in the first two quarters and get buy-in. See, what most people do, is they start to go with their Gartner report and they start to leverage that, which isn't an intrinsically a bad idea. But when they start to essentially go after informational intent and go to the top of funnel, they start to lower their cost per lead, they start to increase conversion rate and they think they're winning. But if you're a savvy growth operator in SaaS, you know, like for example, I convert at 60% on lead gen ads on LinkedIn. Okay, target market giving me their information -- 60%. I get that all the way down to $17 a week. Yet that is 17 X more expensive than buying that same lead from ZoomInfo, and I have no greater purchase intent than someone essentially downloading an asset or me buying them from ZoomInfo. So now I'm paying 17 X on a cost per lead. And so that's the diminishing part where your marketing numbers look better, but your revenue doesn't increase because you have horrible CAC-LTV on top of funnel versus bottom of funnel. And so that's kind of the other approach, is putting everything through an LTV-CAC model and then focusing on bottom of funnel first. Start at the bottom of the funnel and capture high intent leads Kathleen: So let's, let's dig into that a little bit. So you talked about starting at the bottom of the funnel and going really deep to capture high intent leads for very specific terms. If I came to you and I said, "All right, let's go. I want to do that," can you walk me through what that looks like? You mentioned showing up as often as possible for that one, high intent term. Garrett: Yeah. So first we're going to do what's called category defining. So we need to find your category. One of the most difficult problems in SaaS, as most people approach it, is they want to create their own category or they exist as a subset of an existing category. You have a lot of experience in cybersecurity, correct? Kathleen: Yep. Garrett: We do a lot there as well. So like we've been working with SentinelOne for a long time and other large players in that space. Now that's endpoint protection, right? People know they need a security solution, they don't always intrinsically know they need an endpoint solution. Right? So how do you generate demand and increase MQLs if you're in a new category? Okay, so first we do what's called category definement. And what we'd like to do is not only position you in endpoint, but position you in the security software category and then do hyper product differentiation through like product naming conventions and positioning, so that your CTO or whoever that person is who's your audience, they're searching and when they go to security software, we want them to show up above the fold with your brand as endpoint protection and then essentially drive awareness from the greater category to our subset or our pain solving product. So that's kind of first step is define that category. Then we ask ourselves, are we above the fold? So on Capterra, when you land on that, do you have to scroll for a couple hours to find you? How many reviews do the top five have versus you? That gives us a review target. Then we'll help you and say, "Here's how we've seen other clients go about getting reviews and here's the strategy you could pursue." Now we have a competitive amount of reviews on all of our categories. Kathleen: Let me ask you a question about that real quick. Most of those review sites have, uh, call them packages that you can purchase where they will, you know, you give them your list of clients, they'll email them, offer them an Amazon gift card or something along those lines to get reviews. And so essentially there's a cost per acquisition model that you can use. Do you find in most cases that that's worth doing, or do you work with your clients to develop their own outreach and review generation campaigns? Garrett: That's totally worth doing. I think there's nothing more important than other people advocating for your product, especially with how consumer behavior has changed at the B2B and B2C level. So no, that's critically important. Now, what we need to be able to do here though, is we need to be able to measure everything on a cost per opportunity, cost per demo, cost per proposal -- whatever you want to call it -- level, not a cost per lead. What we've found across over 350 SaaS companies that we've worked with over the last five years is that the cost per lead between Google Ads, Capterra, G2, Software Advice, et cetera, has a really, like it's not that different, maybe 15 to 30% range between each. But then I found that third party review sites have a 230% lower cost per opportunity. And so what we do, like, we got hired a couple of years ago by a publicly traded sales compensation software company and within one quarter we increased their demos by over 300% by only pivoting budget. That's the craziest part of all this, is most people are still evaluating their demand generation at an MQL level, not at an opportunity level. And so the biggest, easiest thing you can do is go one step further and look at opportunity. And then the furthest step that we've now actually evolved to as an agency is putting all our clients in LTV-CAC models, and then looking at activation rate. So not cost per trial but trial activations, right? So how well people are going from trial to demo, or demo to close rate, and then we're evaluating channels by close rate or by trial activation rate. And when we start to do that, that's hugely powerful for for financial allocation. How can you use intent data to drive traffic and revenue? Kathleen: Yeah, that makes sense. Now one of the other questions I had as I was listening to you talk about this, you talked about intent and bottom of the funnel and a lot of those platforms that you mentioned, in addition to being able to purchase a package and drive reviews, now they're selling their own intent data. Are you also working with intent data and taking it and creating ABM or audience match campaigns around that for your clients? Garrett: Yeah, so you can do a lot of that stuff. I think we, like most people, are using that engagement data or enriching stuff with Bombora for sales dev. Right now, if you do traditional ABM with account based advertising, so let's say Radius, Terminus, DemandBase, Madison Logic, Listen Loop, I mean we use Terminus personally internally. Now the reason is, is we need to be able to do cookie-based targeting, not IP-based targeting. Because, for example, right now, if you're trying to run IP-based targeting campaigns during COVID, you're not reaching any of your audience. Kathleen: Oh, you are preaching to the choir, because the product that we sell incorporates IP obfuscation. So anybody using our products, you couldn't target them by IP. I think it's going to happen more and more, and more people are going to use tools like that. Garrett: Yeah. I think to answer your question, yes, we are doing bi-directional syncs from HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot or Salesforce into our ad platforms. But you still have a really poor match rate because people are using personal emails on social because they don't want to get fired from their company and their LinkedIn goes down. So, essentially what happens is, your match rate is really poor on social because the only one who still has firmographics after the whole Cambridge analytical debacle, -- because you've got Axiom data in Facebook and you can be really powerful there. Twitter has always been crap, but essentially GDN is terrible right now unless you're doing managed placements, you're actually going in a search engine results page and then searching keywords and then finding every site that ranks in the top five for your keyword that uses GDN and then doing targeted URL placements That works because it comes off as a native ad. But then other than LinkedIn, it's not working. But then LinkedIn fails because there's no purchase intent and the CPA is too high. And so what we're finding is the way we're doing LinkedIn is awareness, with text ads and spotlight ads. And that's actually working. But there's a lot of nuance in all that for sure. How to use LinkedIn ads to raise brand awareness Kathleen: So then you're generating awareness on LinkedIn and are you hoping effectively that that'll get somebody to go to the client's website? Then, you can retarget them on other platforms? Garrett: We're actually being a little bit humbler than that because I don't think I can control my user. And what I mean by that is, the click through rate is crap on LinkedIn. In fact, it's so bad for spotlight and text ads and we've tricked it and we've figured out a game. So we run brand campaigns for our clients and for ourselves based on what I call "clarity." It's this concept of saying what you do and who you do it for, and being humble enough to know that you have to get your message across without the click. So what we do is we actually do it on a cost per click level on LinkedIn and we're able to deliver because nobody clicks. What happens is LinkedIn accelerates our impressions and gives us a much lower CPM when I do CPC, than when I do CPM on LinkedIn. And then we personify everything. This is the biggest trick to LinkedIn. So you take your primary asset, let's say "The Ultimate Guide to Demand Generation", and then you turn it into "The VP's Guide to Demand Generation", "The CMO's Guide to Demand Generation", and "The Marketing Manager's Guide to Demand Generation." All you have to do is change the cover page and then run lead gen ads and we're converting at over 50% across the board. So there's that route. And then the awareness campaigns and the text ads and spotlight ads, you're on a CPC level and then you focus on what you do and who you do it for, and then you personify that. You put that all together and you have really, really cool awareness campaigns. And then I say, spend as much money as you're willing to never stop losing. And if you take that approach and you say, "Look, are you willing to spend $5,000 a month until you die and not know what it does for you?" Because I'll tell you right now, I can target your exact audience to perfection and deliver your message to them till you've decided you're done with this organization. "Are you okay 'wasting' five grand a month so that every person in your audience on LinkedIn knows who you are?" Yeah. The trick is to not get results. Because what happens is, people go into it thinking they'll get results and they pause before they ever could have gotten results through a brand campaign. And so when you take the other approach, it works really well. Kathleen: Yeah. That's a really interesting way to think about it. I would love to be a fly on the wall as you have those conversations with clients to be like, you know, "You're going to spend all this money and I'm not going to show you any quantifiable results from it, but you're going to have to believe that the results are there." It's like playing the long game and having faith. Garrett: Yeah. Do you believe that this is your exact persona on LinkedIn? Here's your exact title, firmographic, industry, size of account, revenue...do you believe that? Yes. Do you believe that your message is valuable enough to communicate it to them on a consistent basis? Yes. Cool. How much does your company spend on snacks? Kathleen: Give up the jelly beans and advertise on LinkedIn! Garrett: Yeah. Honestly, it's the frappuccino a day is the kind of the joke I make. What's your coffee budget? Cool. Could you spend that on this and never stop it? And it usually gets some pretty good buy-in. How to optimize your website for traffic Kathleen: That's a really interesting way to think about it. Do you do anything with your clients in terms of what they should be doing on their own site to support all of this? You talked about how it's not necessarily about everybody getting to your website, and how the brand is more important, but I would think that there are still some things they need to be doing on the site to provide supportive content and other assets that you can then use to go out and have success on these other platforms. Garrett: Yeah, that's a relative statement to shock people to think differently. It's not that your website's not important. It's that your brand truly is more important than your website. You really have to understand your brand is more important than it was. Now your website is obviously critical, so what you need to be able to do is communicate who you are and who you're for and what you do for them. We do custom landing pages here. We have a really strong conversion rate optimization team. And so all that review site stuff I'm telling you about, we're split testing two custom landing pages with messaging, calls to action and what I like to call psychological friction tests. So the biggest issue right now in all of SaaS that they could change if they listened to this, is changing their call to action. Almost universally it's "request a demo." There is nothing more psychologically friction than "request a demo." Every time I speak to an audience, and I get to speak about 30 to 40 times a year at conferences, I love to ask, who here likes to do a demo? Who here likes to have a day of demos? Nobody raises their hand. Kathleen: That's like saying, "Who here likes to sit through an hour long webinar?" Garrett: Yeah, and so when I ask them, I said, what if you did something really simple? What if you change it from request a demo to watch demo video? You still gated it. You still sent that lead to sales development or your account executives, but you are asking yourself, can I give my visitor something of equal or greater value to what they're giving me? That's the number one question with calls to action and demand generation is, am I giving someone something of greater value than they're giving me? When someone requests a demo, they fill out a form and nothing happens and it says "Someone from our team will contact you in 24 hours." You're not doing it. So what we always do, and we can take clients universally from around 2 to 3%, to over 10% conversion rates by simply doing watch demo video. And then all we do is have a form that says "Fill this out and we're going to give you a five minute demo video so that you can have a better educated sales conversation when we follow up." Close rates go up, activation goes up, sales development teams are begging for these leads because they're having product conversations, not like "who we are and these lame 30 minute intro slides" to finally get to price. It works universally, exceptionally well. So that's what we do on the website level. But when it comes to content, and I think that's kind of where you're headed with this, is like what do you do with that content engine? Are you familiar with HubSpot's pillar content approach that everybody's following? I think it's a bad approach, financially. The reason I believe it's a bad approach financially, it's due to what I was communicating earlier. HubSpot's approach is you take a really, really beautiful strong asset, and then you lead to that asset with other types of content clusters that support that and you essentially do lead generation through that asset. I say, do that same thing but with features. Here's an example. We do our own SaaS products at Directive to make sure that we're not just full of crap. Not enough people do that. We rank in the top five for all our keywords. We actually spend a ton of money on PPC and we try to actually test everything and our hypotheses on ourselves. What we're doing right now is, we have an educational product called Institute. This teaches our clients and we give to our clients free of charge because we believe that education drives adoption. As consultants, you don't need to only make recommendations, you need clients to adopt them, right? And so we need to educate them as to why. So we educate them on SEO, PPC, et cetera. We sell it to the market for $39 a month. It teaches people how we do what we do, all our templates, our approach, et cetera. We have 40 lessons. So I'm asking myself, at a $39 a month product, my CPA, my cost per lead is too high to do a ton of paid acquisition. So how can I drive organic leads from my product? So here's my strategy and I'll share with your audience because hopefully it can help them. I'm taking the top five to 10 keywords for every one of my lesson pages. So, "how to do Google ads" or "how to do keyword research for PPC", okay? So then I put "keyword research for PPC" into a keyword research tool. Now I take the top five questions people ask around that. Now I'm going to use entity tools like Clearscope or Content Harmony or something like that to really understand what I need to write here to rank. So then I write five articles all around that one lesson. Then, above the fold on all five articles, I link to that lesson and say "Want to learn how to do it with video?" and come up with an offer that resonates with where they're at in intent. In other words, they intend to learn this. That's why they're searching it. I can satisfy that intent with my product feature, AKA my lesson. And now I also create a content cluster. So all of these content pieces around this topic are internally linking back to my lesson page, which I'm trying to rank at the bottom of the funnel. And so I'm using middle and top of funnel content with lead gen assets all internally linking and with magnets essentially generating leads for my product. So instead of trying to generate informational intent leads, I'm trying to generate purchase intent leads. So their hypothesis of what they want to do with content clusters works for HubSpot. The issue is that getting someone from informational intent to purchase intent is incredibly long and most marketing people won't survive their tenure if they're only focused on driving informational intent leads. So we try to pivot everything to purchase intent. Does that make sense? Kathleen: Yeah. So it sounds like what you're saying, if I understand correctly, is basically the product page on your site effectively as the pillar. Garrett: Yup. Turning product pages into content pillars Kathleen: The same exact approach applies only you're not writing a 4,000 word guide. You're creating the product page. Garrett: Yeah. You just audit all the competitors in the industry to say, "Okay, how many words do I need on my product page to rank? How many internal links do I need? How many referring domains do I need?" And then you say, "Cool, now I'm going to create the entity, the topical understanding to Google that we're the best answer to the questions people have related to the product we sell." And then when you do that whole approach, you're amazing at what you can do when driving MQLs and demos at the bottom of funnel. What should your SEO strategy look like if you're just getting started? Kathleen: So one of the things we talked about when when you and I first chatted about this was that, you work with a lot of big companies and they're coming to you and saying, "We're already doing a lot right. How can you take us to the next level?" But then there is this other school of thought that, if you have, let's say a startup or a new company or a company launching a new product, they have this opportunity to do it right from the beginning -- to greenfield it. Paint a picture for me of what that looks like. You're starting a new company and you want to really ace it out of the gates. Garrett: First and foremost, I'm going to look at all the review sites and ask myself how many reviews I need to be perceived as a market leader. It's the coolest thing in the world, right? Because someone searches now "top whatever software" you sell, and a review site shows up. You don't actually have to be the best! You might not be because you've only been in the game for a couple of months. But if you can get the reviews there, you look like you're the best and that's 99.9% of marketing. So first and foremost, we're going to position ourselves to be discoverable. When there's purchase intent, we're going to focus on demand capture, okay? Because to rank our website as a new organization, we don't have the authority, link profile or content, and investing in all those things takes a large financial upfront investment and has a long runway -- probably two years to build that organic engine. So if you have a 24 month runway to build your organic engine and you need MQLs now, the easiest thing to do is paid SEO. Now with that being said, we don't want to wait two years to try to rank because now we have another two years to get there, right? So we need to start from the beginning to try to position ourselves organically, to lower our cost per acquisition and have a better CAC-LTV ratio. So what do we do? We are going to say, when someone searches for your product or your features, we're going to try to create as much bottom of funnel content as possible. So not only a product page, but a feature page and solution pages. These are saying when someone has pain that your product solves and they go to discover that, can we show up? Perfect. Next what we're going to do is, we're going to start with our link building. So one of the things I had to do at Directive is, before we niched into SaaS, we were niched into just B2B. We had a lot of like manufacturers like Pelican Cases and stuff like that. So we had a lot of B2B players as well. So I couldn't rank for the keyword "B2B SEO", but I wanted to. I didn't have enough authority. My site wasn't large enough. It just wasn't going to happen. So what I did is I went on Search Engine Journal and I wrote, or Search Engine Land, I think it was, a fresh perspective on B2B SEO. In other words, I used someone else's site to rank for my keyword and they control the narrative. So with a startup, what you're gonna want to do is, you're going to go on CIO or Tech Crunch and instead of just bragging about how much money you raised, you're going to want to actually try to position yourself for what your buyer journey is like. We're going to leverage these other third party sites to do what's called guest posting to then rank exceptionally well for these top of funnel queries while internally linking from those guest posts back to our bottom of funnel pages we already built so that we can once again increase our rankings for purchase intent. So you can actually win at the bottom of funnel faster than people realize because nobody's product pages naturally build links. So if you do a really aggressive link building strategy early, using guest posting where you can control the anchor text and the destination URL to point to bottom of funnel pages, you can grow. And so then from that guest posting for bottom of funnel, now we'll focus on those products, kind of clusters we were talking about and our blog strategy, as well as Google ads review sites. And next thing you know, you're 24 months later, you might have one of the best imagine engines in the whole entire industry because you did it right. How to get executives and subject matter experts to create content Kathleen: Love it. One of the pieces of pushback I hear often, especially when you're a startup and you don't have a huge team where often your CEO or your CTO are the primary thought leaders and they're busy, I hear a lot of "Oh, we don't have the time to do all that writing." Any tips for how you can get the goods out of their heads and onto paper in a way that's efficient and scalable? Garrett: Yeah, the most scalable, best link building and PR you can possibly do is exactly what I'm doing right now. Podcasts. There's zero preparation for the thought leader. It takes exponentially less time and you have a much more engaged audience than an article. The best part is, when you guest post and you pitch a guest post, your success rate isn't always as high because not everybody accepts guest posts. Not everybody cares what you have to say. Sometimes editors are busy. On the flip side, the entire podcast content medium is guest dependent. So Kathleen's job is to secure interesting, engaging hosts for her audience. And so when you pitch Kathleen, you're going to have a much higher success rate than if you pitched Kathleen blog articles because now Kathleen has to edit your blog. She might not agree with your opinions because blogs aren't intrinsically the same format as podcasts. They're not op-ed like podcasts are. And so the best thing SaaS companies can do right now is link-building via podcast, hands down highest success rate, most scalable, easiest ended up. Kathleen: I totally agree, but I will say please, for the love of all that is Holy, take two minutes and learn something about the podcast and what it's about and tailor your pitch. I get pitched a lot, by a lot of podcast booking agents. Generally they're pretty good at doing their homework. But I can't tell you how often I get pitched from people who are like, "So-and-so built his real estate empire and can talk about earning money and like changing your life." And I write back and I'm like, "What does this have to do with inbound marketing? This person sounds like an amazing entrepreneur, but that's not what my podcast is about." Garrett: I'd say we have over a 75% success rate. So I'd give your audience some tips on how they can pitch. Get their name right. I know it sounds simple. Write a subject line that doesn't stink. Everything should be about how you make the podcast host's life easier and better for their audience. What I mean by that is there's a really important word when you do outbound or pitching. You say, "I am emailing you because", and that quickly allows someone to know why. And then you hit them with why the audience cares, not about yourself. So a lot of people like to say, "Hey, you know, my client, uh, built his agency from one to $10 million, you know, would love to be a guest on your show. He's been featured by Forbes, Tech Crunch, in the Inc 5,000." And then the podcast host goes, "Who cares?" Right? Compared to saying, "I'm emailing you because I'd love to talk with your audience about a topic that I know they care about, that I happen to be an expert in. Here's three different topics I think your audience might be interested in. Do any of these resonate with you?" Ideally, you want your podcast host to just say "Yes, this one". And then that's all the preparation required and you're good to go and it works. Kathleen: Yeah, I totally agree. At the last two companies I've been in, it's been a part of my strategy to get my CEO as a guest on podcasts. It's so much easier than trying to get them to write blogs. I think there's a human connection element of, you hear the person's voice, you get to know their personality, that that draws you in so much more than written content can do. So there's that aspect of it too. Garrett's advice Kathleen: Well, any other last words of advice that you think my listeners should know about related to this topic? Garrett: I guess one of the blessings we have with our portfolio is we have a lot of first party data. So I guess some encouragement. Since March 1st I wanted to look at what happened across our portfolio. Spend is down 24%, but conversions are down only 18% because click through rates are up, CPCs are down and conversion rates are up. So here's the really cool part about cost per click advertising is that it scales with demand and doesn't create waste. In fact, at a unit economic level, your advertising is actually more efficient now than it was before. Is volume down? Yes. But also auction competitiveness is down. See, all CPC advertising and all channels is based on an auction. It's based on inventory. It's like an economic model. Supply and demand. Well, because fewer advertisers are advertising right now, you're actually able to satisfy the existing demand that does still exist for whatever product or service you sell at a lower rate and you will have better efficiency and effectiveness in your advertising right now than you did before. That's just at the ad level. It's not necessarily the close rate level or at the volume level. But just at the actual cost per click and cost per acquisition level, it's actually much more efficient right now to advertise, which is kind of cool. That's across over $1 million in spend. Kathleen: That makes sense. So don't give up your ad budget altogether. Garrett: Just to meet demand. But remember your ad budget will do that intrinsically. So as long as you're not spending a ton on display and CPM type stuff, you're going to find a ton of efficiency on CPC because fewer people are advertising, thus lowering your cost per click, and there are some people out there buying and you want to make sure you're discoverable to those people. So it's a kind of a cool way to still win right now. Kathleen's two questions Kathleen: Absolutely. All right, well switching gears, I have two questions I always ask all of my guests and I'd love to hear what you have to say about these. The first is, this podcast is all about inbound marketing. Is there a particular company or individual that you think is really killing it right now with inbound who my listeners could go check out as an example? Garrett: I mean, HubSpot's a monster at this. They still are. I know. And everybody knows that. Kathleen: I'm going to make you tell me someone besides HubSpot though. Garrett: I know, I know, I know. The thing is, it's a lot harder now to move somebody out of a top 10 ranking. And so you see a lot of people pivoting away from that old school, gated content theory of inbound. And so that's why off the top of my head, I can't think of someone who's like doing that part of it exceptionally well because the game's kinda changed.  Kathleen: Who do you think is killing it with marketing right now in general? Garrett: I always like what is Zoom is doing? Because I liked what they did with like offline advertising and I think that's so cool. I think they're really creative in the sense of thinking about how to position themselves. I love the organizations that are investing heavily in podcast ads. For myself, that's one of my highest performing channels is niche-based podcast ads. I advertise on almost all the SEO or PPC podcasts that I can find because it works exceptionally well at a low CPM. I like the D2C stuff. I think the D2C people are kicking B2B butt. Like Baboon to the Moon. I love their branding. I think if B2B had a little bit more boldness like this... Kathleen: Yeah. What did they, I've never heard of them. I'll have to check them out. Garrett: So yeah, if you want to see somebody who I think is brilliant and actually has a brand opinion and stance and is hyper creative and out there -- Baboon to the Moon. Drift gets way too much credit for it because I don't actually think they're that good at it from a branding standpoint. They just have a free product so it's a lot easier to act like you're doing really good at it. They like try to take the human side of positioning. I think Baboon is doing something really cool because they're taking a hyper creative approach and it's like they're on acid. It's like a goldfish on a human's body using their product, but it's brilliant because they are so consistent with it in their messaging, copy, and creative that it actually creates a brand theme that I don't recognize in B2B. I think B2B organizations need to do a better job creating a brand theme. Like for us at Directive, we're trying to do a lot of people in our branding, but instead of just doing people in our branding, we're also like labeling them with their titles and their names so that it's so people know it's not a stock photo. So we're trying to bring it to life. We can obviously do it a lot better. We're not nearly as creative as that, but I think if B2B looks at the direct to consumer brands that are doing so well right now, at the end of the day it's very similar if you have a self onboarding SaaS company to a D2C product. It's very still transactional. And so if you can take your self onboarding, your trial-based SaaS company, and do that, and take that DDC stuff, and build that brand guide and just be really bold and crazy and ambitious with it, I think it'll pay off. Kathleen: Yeah, that's, and you need to have leaders within the company that are willing to take a risk and be different. There's a lot of sameness in general in marketing and I think when everybody else is going right and you go left, there's a lot of opportunity there. Garrett: Oh, a trillion percent. It's hard to get that buy in. I mean, I don't know anyone in my portfolio is actually doing it. That's why I'm in my head trying to think. It just starts at the top. You just need a CEO and a board that supports a bold new direction, not just verbally, but actually, and really actually sees it all the way through, especially when they get that first negative feedback or whatever from someone who doesn't like it. Kathleen: Yeah. There are going to be people who don't like it, that's for sure. Garrett: B2B is terrified of making anyone feel anything. That's truth, right? They're terrified of if someone doesn't like something. And the point is, the worst marketing is marketing for everybody. And so if you can be bold enough to have people hate you or like you, that's when you actually have marketing. Kathleen: I totally agree with you. All right. Second question. The biggest pain point I hear from marketers is that trying to stay on top of the changing landscape of digital marketing is like drinking from a fire hose. And so I'm curious how you personally stay up to date and educate yourself on all of that. Garrett: I think it's actually less important to stay up to date with things than people think, and here's why. Most marketers don't have a fundamental belief and a hypothesis of how they approach generating revenue for an organization. What's allowed myself and my organization to be successful is we have a fundamental belief that you need to make a brand discoverable at the bottom of the funnel regardless of channel. Now, the beauty of that is that it doesn't matter if digital marketing changes. See in 1997 when Google first came out, what was the whole point? People came to people and said, "Hey, I want to show up on this new search engine. How do I do it?" And the answer was, "Well, you need a website." See, the new answer is, "Well, you need reviews for your brand and you need to be positioned." As long as you don't get married to Capterra and G2, but get married to the idea of showing up when someone has purchase intent for what you sell, everything can change without changing anything because your fundamental belief is that you need to be discoverable when there's purchase intent. And so my encouragement to people is ground yourself in a fundamental belief of what you actually believe. It's such a critical part of marketing. If you want to make a ton of money in marketing, you need to actually have opinions. And you actually have to have beliefs and a hypothesis. You have to also be willing to adjust those, but you need to have them. And so I think if people have a real belief system and fundamental approach and then say we want to be essentially discoverable when there's purchase intent, that allows you to just naturally adjust whatever happens in the market because all you're doing is maintaining your belief. And that's, I think, what's so important for marketers, is to get away from this idea of, "Oh, what could I try? What new trick or hack can I try in a channel?" to say, "How can I essentially take my belief of discoverability and apply it to all my chanels?" When you do that, it allows you to stay really even keeled and focus on your customers. Kathleen: Yeah, and I would add to that, the best marketers I know in many cases are not actually marketers. You're a great example. You studied economics. The best marketers I know tend to be the most avid students of human behavior. People who understand people make great marketers because they're focused on the things that are timeless. It really doesn't matter what Google does with an algorithm because, honestly, Google is just trying to solve for people, right? So if you're focused on people and how they behave and how they buy, none of the bells and whistles matter. Garrett: Take that same person and then they learn financial modeling. Now you have the best CMOs in the world. People who have a really authentic, true belief of understanding of people and how they buy, and then they also understand financials? You put those two people together -- those are the CMOs of the Fortune 500. How to connect with Garrett Kathleen: Amen. I could go on and on about that. If somebody is listening and wants to learn more about some of this or has a question and wants to get in touch with y ou, what is the best way for them to connect with you online? Garrett: I'm active on Twitter. I'm @gmehrguth. So first initial, last name. I'm active on LinkedIn. Shoot me an email, it's just initial last name at Directive consulting. I'd love the chat and help anyone who has questions around demand gen. I'm pretty active on there trying to share all of our data and different tactics and things that we're doing. Almost daily I shared a new tactic or approach and a thread for essentially how SaaS markers can generate revenue. So if you're interested in that, feel free to follow and engage. Kathleen: Great. And I'll put all those links to Garett's social profiles and his email in the show notes. So head there to check that out if you want to connect with him. You know what to do next... Kathleen: If you're listening and you liked what you heard or you learn something new, I would greatly appreciate it if you would head to Apple podcasts or the platform of your choice and leave the podcast a five star review. We talked a lot about reviews in this interview and we know how important they are, and they are equally as important for podcasts as they are for products. So take a minute and do that. That would mean a lot. And if you know somebody who's doing kick ass inbound marketing work, tweet me @workmommywork because I would love to make them my next interview. That's it for this week. Thank you so much, Garrett. Garrett: Well, thank you Kathleen. Glad to be here.

In 2018, our guest, Tara Williams tried to find a weighted blanket her six-month-old son could safely wear to help soothe him and extend his one hour sleep windows. Shocked there was nothing available for this age group, she decided to create her own blanket, and the idea for Dreamland Baby was born. In 2019, Tara launched a successful Kickstarter, and a few months later launched an e-commerce store. Prior to Dreamland Baby, Tara spent 10+ years in the medical device industry in business development, and held marketing and sales positions at several startups. Tara graduated from Bentley University with a bachelor's degree in finance in 2009 and she now resides with her husband and FOUR children in Danville, California.Tara takes us step-by-step through her bootstrapped journey to launch her eCommerce business, sharing outstanding tips and advice for anyone considering this business model.To learn more about Dreamland Baby, please click here: https://dreamlandbabyco.com/Follow Dreamland Baby via:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamlandbabyco/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamlandbabyco/Here's the link to my LTV/CAC ratio video: http://bit.ly/LTVCACRatioIf you’d like to receive an alert whenever I post a new episode, please follow the Startup Life Show wherever you listen to podcasts, including: Stitcher, Spotify or Apple/Google Podcasts… and let’s connect on social media! You’ll always find me hanging out at my favorite social media bar – Twitter! https://twitter.com/AndeLyonsDo you have a startup story you’d like to share on the Startup Life Show podcast? Please reach out to me via email – ande@andelyons.com. You'll find tons of curated DIY startup advice on my YouTube Channel Andelicious Advice: https://www.youtube.com/user/AndeliciousAdvice and please subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter, Let’s Stick Together -> http://bit.ly/AndeliciousNewsletterDo you need a pitch deck reviewed? I've raised millions from VC and thousands from Angels... and I'm a co-host of a monthly pitch event in Boston. I can make sure your deck is ready for investors and a pitch event. Click this link to learn more: http://bit.ly/PitchDeckAuditDo you need an “Urgent Care for Startup Founders” coaching session? You can schedule me by the minute here: https://andelyons.as.me/ Listeners - thank you so much for tuning in - I am genuinely grateful for your time and presence. Stay strong, stay focused – and please remember – you’ve got this – Cheers!Ande ♥

What does long-term growth look like for DTC brands? How can businesses focus on profitability beyond the initial sale and into the next 3, 6, or even 9 months? It’s not always easy for cash-hungry startups, but it’s vital for sustainable scaling. Kohlman Verheyen’s work with Bambu Earth is a great case study for combining metrics with genuine customer connections. Kohlman digs into their founder-first approach, the success they’ve had with product bundles, and the communication plan they use to grow their base of fanatical brand loyalists.

Как оценивать и определить эффективность контекстной рекламы? Как анализировать кампании? Что такое конверсии? Лиды? Продажи? Как отследить LTV и CAC? Что это вообще такое? В этом аудиоподкасте Николай Шмичков подробно остановится на методах оценки контекстной рекламы, а также уделит внимание, как можно повысить эффективность рекламы.

Have you heard the question “what’s your LTV/CAC ratio” and wondered – what the ? I’m just trying to build a business here!You may have thought to yourself “ruh roh – I have no idea what that means!Don't worry! I share with you what these acronyms mean, why they’re necessary for your business, and how to calculate them. As a founder, you have to lift “know your numbers” weights. It’s part of your hands-on training, and the LTV/CAC ratio is a valuable calculation to help you create a successful outcome for your business.Why? Because it reveals your marketing return on investment (ROI)In other words – it lets you know if you’re throwing money away on your business or if you’re investing your marketing dollars wisely.If you’re raising capital or applying for a line of credit, you’ll need to know this number.This is an audio from my Andelicious Advice YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AndeliciousAdviceBelow is the example I promised for a practice calculation. Have fun and let me know if you have any questions - cheers!Ande

Breaking through the unicorn barrier in less than 2 years, Andrew Dudum and his team at hims & hers are on a mission to make medicine more accessible... and they're having a ton of fun while they're at it. Andrew shares his insights around the novel ways hims is building a memorable and unique brand among consumers along with how he thinks about maximizing LTV/CAC. Additionally, we discuss the key performance metrics that are core to hims and hers and how the team measures their performance through concepts like multi-touch attribution. After listening to this episode, it'll be no surprise to you as to why hims has raised venture capital funding from some of the best consumer VCs out there. For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

CAC (Cost of Acquiring a Customer) & LTV (Life Time Value) are metrics I spoke about back in Ep. 590. Referral Programs make sense for Spa businesses, but I don't see such programs in place very often. But what happens when you view your Referral Program through the lens of CAC & LTV Well, you might just decide to double-down on your Referral Program and make it a major part of your marketing strategy.   #customeracquisition #lifetimevalue #LTV #CAC

The post E958: Matt Horiuchi, Director of User Acquisition at Calm, breaks down “Growth, Paid Marketing & Attribution”: best strategies for understanding LTV/CAC, where your customers are coming from, most effective channels, creating the right messaging, & optimizing competitive analysis @ Founder.University appeared first on This Week In Startups.

The post E958: Matt Horiuchi, Director of User Acquisition at Calm, breaks down “Growth, Paid Marketing & Attribution”: best strategies for understanding LTV/CAC, where your customers are coming from, most effective channels, creating the right messaging, & optimizing competitive analysis @ Founder.University appeared first on This Week In Startups.

Metta Murdaya is the CEO and co-founder of JUARA Skincare. Juara uses the Indonesian philosophy of Jamu by using ingredients found in traditional herbal medicine to create formulations that work for all skin types. Founded in 2005, JUARA initially followed a traditional retail model but after they successfully faring the recession, Metta realized she lacked a connection with the people buying her products. She pulled out of retail completely and went to a direct-to-consumer model so she could ensure the story behind JUARA accompanied the products. She does this through education and a direct selling strategy that allows her evangelist customers the opportunity to become JUARA Guides and share their love for their products with friends and family. Metta’s investment in her brand’s story paid off and she’s since successfully scaled her e-commerce presence. Brian and Metta discuss the power of direct selling, LTV:CAC and the role email can play in moving those numbers, and how vital it is to build community and know your customer first hand. Metta’s commitment to the community that’s supported her brand to grow and evolve over the past +10 years is something all entrepreneurs can find inspiration in.

What was it like scaling a marketplace after the the dot-com bubble burst? Jeff Fluhr, General Partner at Craft Ventures and former Founder and CEO at StubHub, sits down to talk lessons learned in hiring, dealing with an unfriendly regulatory environment, and exiting successfully to a strategic. Additionally, Jeff shares his take on marketplace unit economics like LTV/CAC, sell-through rate, and cohort analyses. Jeff also dives into the contrast between building StubHub and his second startup, Spreecast, which he ultimately wound down.

Rick Stollmeyer discusses his insights on the critical metric of LTV:CAC in the relationship economy,driven by the recurring revenue model in his Afternoon Keynote at the Recurring Revenue Conference 2018

Bernat Farrero, CEO de Itnig y Juan Rodríguez, CEO de Camaloon charlan con Luis Martín Cabiedes. Luis nos cuenta como pasó de Filosofía pura a vender máquinas de escribir y, de allí a ejecutivo de Europapress (la empresa de su padre) y a vender Olé a Telefónica en el momento oportuno por 6M€. Allí descubrió su vocación de inversor de Internet, que le llevaría unos años más tarde a encontrar Privalia, uno de sus grandes exits. Un proyecto que “lo hacía todo mal” pero que en 6 meses ya vendía 20 mil euros al día. Salió y con el dinero que sacó entró en Blablacar a 2M€ de valoración y salir unos años más tarde a 1.600M€. Luis explica abiertamente que busca emprendedores que sepan cómo funciona una empresa, que entiendan qué es el working capital y reconoce que le da igual la visión del negocio. Entra en negocios que tengan choque con el mercado y que cumplan con la inecuación de LTV / CAC (este último a poder ser zero). Luis cree que no hay competencia entre fondos porque todos buscan cosas distintas, pero sí ha crecido mucho la competencia entre proyectos. Luis es un inversor con mucho recorrido y que sin duda no deja a nadie indiferente. Video: https://youtu.be/wGaHcgnGtWs

I’m sure everyone knows about the classic 3:1 LTV CAC ratio that all SaaS folks should strive for. Just a reminder, LTV is the lifetime value of a client (the amount of money a client will pay you in their lifetime). CAC is the customer acquisition cost (the amount of money you spend to acquire a new customer). You can read more about these SaaS metrics and more, here. Let’s use a very simple example to put this ratio into perspective. Take the data below: —– Current LTV: $1000, New customers in the month = 50 Monthly Expenses: Sales & Marketing = $16,650, Support Costs = $6,000, Hosting = $3000, Other Personnel = $3000, Rent = $2000, Supplies = $1000, Total Expenses = $31,650 —– With this data, your CAC is $333 ($16,650 / 50 = $333). This would give you an approximate LTV CAC ratio of 3:1 ($1000:$333 = 3:1). From my experience in SaaS, sales and marketing expenses, which are used to calculate CAC, account for about 20-30% of total operating expenses. If you take into account all other necessary operating costs as per the data above, the LTV to cost ratio would be only 1.58:1 ($1000:633 = 1.58:1). This means that it would cost you $1 for a client to pay you $1.58 in their lifetime. If you ask me, the benchmark 3:1 LTV CAC ratio is too low, and approaches a fine line between growth and staying afloat, especially if you’re bootstrapped. If your intentions are to run a profitable and sustainable business, the unit economics aren’t too great. That doesn’t leave much buffer room to reinvest in your company, pay yourself, leave cash reserves, pay taxes, etc. In general, the LTV CAC ratio is very important, as it helps measure your rate of return on your sales and marketing investments. The ratio establishes a fair gauge on how efficient your sales and marketing activities are, and should not be overlooked by any stretch. I personally like to see bootstrapped SaaS companies with LTV CAC ratio of around 5 or 6 to 1. If you’re only financing source if from your revenue, than you have to operate somewhat conservatively. Having a higher ratio than the benchmark 3:1 is much healthier and sustainable for a bootstrapped company, which will improve your chances for growth in the future. Music by sifer2424

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: Listen to your customers desires and needs and respond accordingly. LTV:CAC ratio is what investors are usually looking for in a company. 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

Daniel Chait. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Greenhouse, which designs tools that help create and navigate a new world of work. Daniel has been a technology entrepreneur in New York for nearly 20 years. Before Greenhouse, he co-founded Lab49, a global firm providing technology consulting solutions for the world’s leading investment banks. He’s a proud graduate of the computer engineering program at the University of Michigan. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Nudge What CEO do you follow? – Kim Scott Favorite online tool? — Trello How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7.5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “The dotcom crash”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces Daniel to the show 02:10 – Greenhouse sells recruiting software that corporations use to design and execute their hiring process 02:40 – Greenhouse is a SaaS company 02:50 – Average customer pay per year varies 03:05 – The pricing model depends on the size of the company 03:40 – Greenhouse tends to price higher than their competitors’ because they offer a premium software solution 04:05 – Greenhouse is in the recruiting software space which is currently crowded 04:15 – Daniel shares some of their competitors depending on the categories 05:10 – The competition is extremely fragmented 05:33 – Greenhouse falls into all the categories, from the smaller ones to enterprise 06:05 – Greenhouse offers three tiers 06:24 – Greenhouse was launched in 2012 06:32 – First year revenue was around $50 07:33 – Post product revenue is around $1M 08:25 – Greenhouse currently has 2000 customers 09:03 – Team size is 195, based in San Francisco and New York 09:30 – Greenhouse has raised $16M from their series C round 09:53 – Daniel enjoyed doing their fund raising and he believes in their investors 10:13 – Every round is different 10:40 – This was the first time that Daniel raised outside the investment 11:19 – Greenhouse has a world-class retention rate 11:36 – 97% of their customers have renewed 11:55 – Most of the team is in inside sales 12:36 – Daniel shares where their expansion comes from 13:11 – Greenhouse’s newest product is Greenhouse CRM which is still in beta 14:10 – The inside sales team job is heat mapping the products used by a customer 14:41 – The expansion is through additional growth 15:15 – LTV-CAC ratio 15:48 – “We have a healthy ratio” 16:04 – Payback period 17:00 – The weirdest thing Daniel did to acquire new customers 17:43 – They went from market research to marketing 17:57 – ARR 18:07 – Daniel on hitting the $50M ARR mark by end of 2017 19:40 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Create something that will make you stand out in a competitive and crowded market. Focus on how you can increase your customer retention rate—perhaps it’s by adding new products that will better serve them. Raising a capital round can help you gain new customers.   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

Gaurav Dhillon. He’s an early investor in a company called SnapLogic. He joined in 2009, when he saw the potential of how companies integrate applications data and devices for digital business. He spearheaded SnapLogic’s rapid growth and overseas strategies, products, and operations. He’s previously the co-founder and CEO of Informatica. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Power of Habit What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove Favorite online tool? — Gmail How many hours of sleep do you get? — Close to 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish he knew more that opportunity knocks often”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces Gaurav to the show 02:04 – Gaurav and his co-founder had a $75K SBA grant when they built Informatica 02:25 – They have raised a total of $13.5M 02:57 – “11-12 years is a long time and it’s time to go” 03:32 – Gaurav is a company builder 03:47 – When Gaurav did an IPO, he sold some of his shares in a secondary public offering 03:53 – There was no lock-out 04:24 – They made $400M in secondary public offering 04:32 – Their initial raise was less than $100M 04:49 – In IPO, you are also trying to build a brand for yourself 05:23 – Gaurav left Informatica in July 2004 05:28 – Gaurav spent a year doing things on his bucket list 06:10 – When Gaurav went back to the valley, he joined a couple of boards 06:25 – Gaurav was in a board meeting when they talked about business internet, which is now cloud computing 06:37 – “People aren’t just going to buy books from the web, they’re going to balance books on the web” 06:58 – Gaurav invested in SnapLogic 07:05 – Gaurav wrote a couple of men a check saying that if there’s a business, prove it to him, and he will provide capital 07:16 – The initial check was $1M 07:26 – Gaurav structured it as convertible debt 08:06 – SnapLogic has raised a total of $136M 08:10 – Initially, it was from Venture 08:23 – Most recent round was led by Vitruvian Partners 09:04 – Gaurav built Informatica to hook up those products with each other 09:21 – SnapLogic is connecting the new cloud application to what is now Legacy, which was a new application 20 years ago 09:46 – They’re expanding out the product set in SnapLogic and providing all kinds of connections 10:12 – Is SnapLogic the unsexier version of Zapier, but more important? 10:26 – Zapier is a consumer place and Gaurav doesn’t dislike it 10:32 – There have been companies, like Bump, who try to do certain kinds of things 10:56 – The problem of overt strata in business 11:05 – What they’re solving on Zapier is on a personal level 11:20 – If you’re trying to connect your human capital system with your SAP financial system and you are a big company, you will need something like SnapLogic 11:44 – SnapLogic is the industrial version 11:58 – SnapLogic is a PaaS (platform as a service) model 12:04 – SnapLogic is a cloud product and is like Google Chrome 12:33 – SnapLogic’s average customer pay is $136K a year 12:57 – SnapLogic currently has 250 employees and is still growing 13:20 – SnapLogic’s LTV 13:32 – “We’ve got many customers in 7-figures, already” 13:50 – “You can always buy that you can sell” 14:07 – SnapLogic has inside qualification people or SDRs for customer acquisition 14:24 – SDRs ratio 14:43 – SnapLogic has less than 20 SDRs 14:56 – CAC 15:49 – “We’re a buzz company, customers love us” 17:15 – Gaurav looks at incremental growth 18:44 – Nathan thinks that it is so wrong for founders who focus on the LTV-CAC ratio 19:09 – “You don’t want to be too conservative, right, because the early market share you get is the best market share” 19:26 – Gaurav shares the business metrics 19:46 – Try to do a 6-figure deal and try to have more customers than employees 20:06 – Average ARR 20:47 – SnapLogic hasn’t broke the 9-figure ARR rate yet 21:05 – A company that can double its revenue has nothing to fear 21:34 – “What we’re doing is building a robust business which, no doubt, is growing aggressively, but also has its feet on the ground” 22:50 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: If your company can double its revenue, it’s a strong indicator that you are in good shape. The early market share you get is the best market share. Don’t fret—opportunity knocks often.   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

Clate Mask and he has been educating and inspiring entrepreneurs for over a decade. He’s recognized by the small business community as a truly visionary leader. His passion for small business success stems from his personal experience, taking Infusionsoft from a struggling startup to an 8-time Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 winner. As CEO, he’s leading Infusionsoft on its mission to create and dominate the market of sales and marketing software for small businesses. Under Clate’s leadership, the company has landed 4 rounds of venture capital including a $55M series D led by Bain, with contributions from prior investors including Signal Peak Ventures and Goldman Sachs. He’s also named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm and The Advantage What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Thumbtack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Never If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Clate wished he knew that business, not law, was the path for him AND that building a team and culture is far more fun than making money.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:18 – Nathan introduces Clate to the show 02:28 – When you serve small businesses, make sure you have the right target customers 02:35 – There are 27M small businesses 03:02 – “You got to get it right. You got to get the market fit” 03:20 – Infusionsoft focuses on businesses with 2-25 employees but the sweet spot is 2-10 employees 03:28 – Average customer pay per month is $250-300 03:54 – “It’s CRM, marketing automation, sales automation, e-commerce on one suite” 04:03 – Majority of Infusionsoft’s revenue is SaaS 04:10 – Infusionsoft’s $3.4B payments processed 04:36 – Infusionsoft created their own payment solution 2 years ago 05:04 – It triggers all kinds of Infusionsoft’s automation 05:50 – Infusionsoft started in 2002, as a software company 05:56 – Infusionsoft pivoted in 2007 and decided to really go for it 06:16 – “We started, like every small business, with no intention to build something big” 06:34 – Clate saw how Salesforce moved upfront quickly and that opened up the opportunity for Infusionsoft 06:43 – “Why not be the Quickbooks to sales and marketing software” 06:53 – Infusionsoft’s dark days 06:56 – In the first 3 years, every day was a fight for survival 07:43 – The second dark day for Infusionsoft was when their product market fit went off and the churn rate went up to a 8% gross monthly customer churn 08:08 – Infusionsoft had raised $17M when their churn skyrocketed 08:38 – Infusionsoft’s churn rate is usually 2-2.5% 09:15 – Infusionsoft has raised a total of $125M and about half was capital for the business 10:00 – “When you create something that’s growing, there’s always a new investor who wants to replace an old investor” 10:27 – When the round becomes “over-subscribed”, you have to take a percentage of what you’ve raised and make it available for your existing shareholders to sell some shares 11:09 – Infusionsoft currently has around 600 employees and still continues to grow 11:20 – Infusionsoft has around 135K users 11:30 – Infusionsoft just completed their 10 year adverse completion 11:56 – There are more things coming up for Infusionsoft 12:27 – Average MRR 13:19 – Clate shares why they haven’t gone public 13:58 – What happens is private money is easier to raise 14:06 – Historically, public valuation was better than private valuation, but that shifted over the years 15:00 – When the market changed in 2014, Clate had decided that it’s better to stay private as long as they could 15:30 – Infusionsoft is currently between $100M – 150M ARR 15:51 – The leverage that Clate pulled to turn their monthly churn 16:10 – Infusionsoft is serious about helping small businesses succeed 16:22 – The breakage model that results in you having a lot of churn 16:45 – Infusionsoft says “no” to thousands of businesses every month 17:06 – The challenge when you serve small businesses is you that have to tweak and adjust to get the LTV-CAC ratio right 17:17 – Infusionsoft is currently at $4 LTV for a dollar CAC 17:44 – The LTV-CAC ratio is the number that every SaaS business has to manage well 18:15 – It’s better to look at your revenue in unit churn 18:42 – The upfront fee was the number one factor for Infusionsoft’s churn moving from 8% to 2% 21:05 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: When you serve small businesses, make sure you have the RIGHT target customers and be committed to helping your customers. Going public requires a deep understanding of how adaptable you can be in an ever changing market. The LTV-CAC ratio is the number that every SaaS business has to manage well—that’s the trick.   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

Michael Perry, owner of Kit, an online marketing software that lets people connect eCommerce sites to different social media platforms. Listen as Nathan and Michael talk about how they started their respective businesses, how they’re using Facebook to target clients today, and why Kit should be so attractive to entrepreneurs. Famous 5Favorite Book? – Search Inside YourselfWhat CEO do you follow?— Mark ZuckerburgWhat is your favorite online tool?— ClaraDo you get 8 hours of sleep?— NoIf you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Nothing f****** matters Time Stamped Show Notes:01:15 – Nathan’s introduction01:43 – Welcoming Michael to the show01:47 – Defining small business survivalist 02:20 – How Michael currently makes money02:23 – The idea for Kit03:37 – How Kit started and how many clients currently working with it04:32 – No one wants to invest in technology for SMB—But they should!05:20 – “We didn’t want to be an agency, we wanted to become a software company and create a digital person that can work for SMB owners 24/7”06:16 – Right now, Kit has about 2000 paying customers08:22 – People have this misguided notion that everything on the internet should be free—this is simply not the case09:03 – Acquisition cost per customer is at $21 via Facebook11:26 – Kit is not a non-profit—it’s all about revenue11:48 – What revenue number would you love to hit in 2016? -$150,000-$200,000 MRR12:19 – Hitting those metrics is not an option13:26 – 99% of the time it’s the people behind the business that make the business GREAT13:34 – It’s better to have a good team than a good idea15:05 – @MichaelPerry Michael@kitcrm.com 3 Key Points:SMB business owners would be wise to invest in technology early—the long-term gains outweigh the upfront expense.Just because something is on the internet, doesn’t mean that it should be free.It’s your team—not your ideas, not your products—that make your business great. Resources Mentioned:Kit –an online marketing assistanceHost Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable. 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