BROADCASTS.com

Amit Shanbhag. He bootstrapped RocketReach from 0 to over 300K registered users in its first year. RocketReach and RocketReach API are trusted by some of the largest companies on the planet like Apple, Google, Chase and Morgan Stanley\u2014just to name a few. He has more than a dozen patents and has started his professional life writing code for geostationary satellites. He\u2019s also a judge for the MIT $100K competition and hopes to invest more time and money back into the startup ecosystem.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 N/A
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Sundar Pichai
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Google Search
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 4-5
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 Amit would tell the young ones to take risks, give everything you\u2019re doing a good shot, and that worrying isn\u2019t productive

\xa0

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:28 \u2013 Nathan introduces Amit to the show
• 02:08 \u2013 Amit was in Episode 465 and just passed 100K paying customers
• 03:03 \u2013 RocketReach has 300K signup users
• 03:31 \u2013 RocketReach has doubled its growth
• 04:00 \u2013 \u201cWe tried to go more into the lead generation space\u201d
• 04:21 \u2013 The end customers hold RocketReach responsible for higher quality data, which is out of their control
• 05:04 \u2013 RocketReach is similar to LeadGenius
• 05:10 \u2013 LeadGenius charges higher for their data
  • 05:48 \u2013 LeadGenius uses a combination of people and software to gather data
• 05:56 \u2013 Amit wants RocketReach to rely purely on software, without human intervention
• 06:25 \u2013 The other problem with the lead generation space is when the users don\u2019t follow up with the leads generated for them, then put the blame on RocketReach for not having quality leads
  • 06:51 \u2013 Amit isn\u2019t sure if Lead Genius is doing something about this problem
• 07:36 \u2013 CAC is quite high
• 07:52 \u2013 The lead generation part of RocketReach hasn\u2019t really piloted
• 08:17 \u2013 RocketReach was getting $3K \u2013 7K per delivery set, but the retention rate is low
• 09:00 \u2013 RocketReach is using a lot of open APIs like AngelList and Crunchbase
• 10:17 \u2013 Most of the APIs that RocketReach uses are paid APIs
• 10:55 \u2013 Amit has decided that RocketReach will not continue down the lead generation path
• 11:06 \u2013 Amit wants customers to think of RocketReach as a productivity tool that is accessible on their browsers
  • 11:26 \u2013 \u201cWe wanted to become more of a de facto productivity tool for sales\u201d
  • 11:33 \u2013 RocketReach focuses on features that can make a team more productive
• 12:17 \u2013 RocketReach doesn\u2019t have the self-serve team feature on their website, at the moment
• 12:57 \u2013 RocketReach currently has 7 team members and is still bootstrapped
• 13:02 \u2013 RocketReach has one of the highest revenues per employee in the lead generation space
• 13:12 \u2013 If RocketReach had continued with the lead generation model, it would have made sense to raise
• 13:25 \u2013 RocketReach is trying to scale without hiring a sales team
• 14:20 \u2013 RocketReach has an average of $70 monthly RPU
  • 14:30 \u2013 But the number of paying users is complicated
• 15:25 \u2013 RocketReach\u2019s 120K users mentioned in Episode 465 is the number of registered users
• 16:13 \u2013 Amit doesn\u2019t see the need to reveal the number of paying customers
  • 17:18 \u2013 Customers are paying anywhere from 1K-50K
• 17:42 \u2013 Gross customer monthly churn is 7%
  • 17:53 \u2013 The churn has gone down a bit
• 18:56 \u2013 RocketReach has 2 different revenue streams
• 20:40 \u2013 The Famous Five

\xa0

3 Key Points:

1. The lead generation space isn\u2019t as easy as it seems.
2. It IS possible to stay bootstrapped while, at the same time, scaling your business.
3. Take risks, give your best shot, and worry less!

\xa0

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox \u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Organifi \u2013 The juice was Nathan\u2019s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio \u2013 Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Freshbooks \u2013 Nathan doesn\u2019t 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