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Don Mal. He\u2019s the CEO and co-founder of Vena Solutions which was established in 2011 and is the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management software. Prior to Vena, he\u2019s owned several executive tech positions along the way with companies like Clarity Systems and IBM.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Who Moved My Cheese
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Satya Nadella
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Dropbox
• How many hours of sleep do you get?\u2014 7-8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cI wish I knew that sales cures all\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:44 \u2013 Nathan introduces Don to the show
• 01:21 \u2013 Vena was the fastest company to acquire a hundred customers
• 01:29 \u2013 Vena is growing a 100%, year over year
• 02:05 \u2013 CPM or corporate performance management is budgeting, planning and forecasting financial performance
• 02:28 \u2013 A fastfood chain can use Vena\u2019s service to capture the sales of their burger
• 02:55 \u2013 CPM is about measuring results in a couple of different dimensions
• 03:16 \u2013 The Top had Glen Coates of Handshake and they\u2019re an inventory management
• 03:31 \u2013 Vena is more horizontal based and vertical industry based
• 04:20 \u2013 Vena doesn\u2019t compete with Bill.com and Expensify.com
• 04:31 \u2013 Annual RPU is $50K
• 04:53 \u2013 Vena was launched in 2011
• 05:02 \u2013 Team size is almost 200
• 05:18 \u2013 Vena has raised capital with equity rounds
• 05:49 \u2013 Don was running sales for a company in the same space that Don sold
• 06:02 \u2013 Don has already built credibility, so he was able to convince families and friends to invest
• 06:21 \u2013 Don has raised over a million to launch the business
• 06:50 \u2013 Don\u2019s process of closing
• 07:06 \u2013 Don was able to raise $3M from other sources
• 07:30 \u2013 If your friends and families can\u2019t write a $25K check, a $1k check will do
• 07:42 \u2013 Don has now raised a total of $50M
• 08:35 \u2013 Having the right kind of partner is important in raising a round
• 09:17 \u2013 Vena is approaching 350 paying customers
• 09:38 \u2013 Average MRR is $1.4M
• 09:47 \u2013 Vena finds new customers with a combination of inbound and outbound marketing
• • 10:04 \u2013 Vena also nurtures their prospects through drip campaigns
• 10:22 \u2013 Total spend on paid acquisition is a couple of hundred grand a month
• 10:40 \u2013 Vena has a team that does the testing for new channels
• 11:05 \u2013 Don wants to keep their CAC below a 12-month cost of the revenue
• 11:38 \u2013 Don is looking at a 12-month payback
• 11:55 \u2013 LTV
• • 12:05 \u2013 A customer stays with Vena up to 10 years
• 12:48 \u2013 Don sees the significant expansion of their platform
• 12:55 \u2013 Client starts with 2 user cases and can end up having more than 20
• 13:28 \u2013 Gross churn
• 13:39 \u2013 Vena has hit their net negative revenue churn
• 14:05 \u2013 Vena\u2019s dollar will turn into $1.20 with their current system
• 15:15 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Before a big round of fundraising, master your pitch and start with your friends and families.
• Make your product stick to your customers and you\u2019ll experience amazing growth.
• Have experts in your sales and marketing team; trust and release them to do their job.

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Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox\xa0 \u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Klipfolio \u2013 Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar \u2013 Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you\u2019re 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 \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives