745: At $1.5m Revenue, Is This The New PowerPoint?
b'
Jose Cayasso. He\\u2019s a growth hacker, co-founder and CEO of Slidebean, 500 Startups alumni, and a frequent flyer miles hoarder.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? \\u2013 The Lean Startup and Traction
- What CEO do you follow? \\u2013 Josh Pigford
- Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Amy@X.ai
- How many hours of sleep do you get?\\u2014 6
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 Jose would tell himself that he had to quit his day job and create something for himself earlier
\\xa0
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:38 \\u2013 Slidebean has an office in New York City and Costa Rica
- 01:56 \\u2013 Slidebean is a web-based tool for making presentations
- 02:00 \\u2013 Slidebean focuses on making presentation more efficient
- 02:20 \\u2013 Slidebean is a subscription service
- 02:26 \\u2013 Most of Slidebean\\u2019s customers are previous PowerPoint users
- 02:38 \\u2013 Team plans start at $49 a month
- 02:52 \\u2013 A single presentation service is also available
- 03:00 \\u2013 Most of the revenue are from the recurring model
- 03:14 \\u2013 Jose started Slidebean in 2014
- 03:25 \\u2013 Originally, it was focused on end users
- 03:40 \\u2013 Slidebean shifted to businesses that are doing presentations monthly
- 03:58 \\u2013 Churn went down from 15% to negative churn in revenue
- 04:15 \\u2013 Gross customer churn is currently at 3.5%
- 04:42 \\u2013 Jose tried different measures for Slidebean to improve the churn rate
- 05:09 \\u2013 They changed the business model while keeping the subscription and premium value
- 05:28 \\u2013 Slidebean caters to 2500 paying customers
- 05:45 \\u2013 Average MRR is around $120K
- 06:06 \\u2013 Jose is originally from Costa Rica and he\\u2019s not a fan of outsourcing
- 06:14 \\u2013 \\u201cI still believe that office collaboration is the best\\u201d
- 06:38 \\u2013 There\\u2019s a lot of talent in Costa Rica
- 08:07 \\u2013 Team size is 22
- 08:17 \\u2013 Slidebean has raised a small seed round
- 08:22 \\u2013 \\u201cWe\\u2019re in the break of profitability\\u201d
- 08:25 \\u2013 Slidebean is burning around $25K a month
- 08:43 \\u2013 Slidebean has raised a total of $850K on a seed round
- 09:08 \\u2013 CAC is around $150
- 09:15 \\u2013 It\\u2019s quite low because Slidebean competes in SEO
- 09:22 \\u2013 Prezi is one of Slidebean\\u2019s competition
- 09:35 \\u2013 Slidebean targets keywords through AdWords
- 09:56 \\u2013 LTV is around $1000 or 18 months
- 10:39 \\u2013 Total marketing cost is around $25K-35K including head count cost
- 11:17 \\u2013 Gross margin is around 75-80%
- 11:53 \\u2013 2017 target revenue is $2M
- 12:03 \\u2013 They don\\u2019t need to raise more money at the moment
- 13:00 \\u2013 2016 ARR is around $750K
- 15:25 \\u2013 The Famous Five
\\xa0
3 Key Points:
- A shift in business model can allow your company to grow while still retaining its value and growth.
- Find the right keywords for your business and use AdWords to target them, it can help lower your CAC.
- The earlier you create something for yourself in life, the better.
\\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
- GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
- 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\\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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
'