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Jim Larrison. He\u2019s the co-founder and president of Dynamic Signal, the leading, customer-employee, advocacy engagement platform. Jim has been involved in a handful of startups that were successful from within big companies to venture-funded businesses. With a couple of sold businesses and an IPO, he is set to come forward with Dynamic Signal which has already raised over $68M in funding.

Famous Five:
Favorite Book? \u2013 Business Adventures and Into Thin Air
What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Tony Hsieh
Favorite online tool? \u2014 Owler
How many hours of sleep do you get?\u2014 5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s important to fail and not to be scared of failing\u201d

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:12 \u2013 Nathan introduces Jim to the show
01:53 \u2013 Dynamic Signal was founded 7 years ago with the mission to revolutionize how to communicate with your employee
02:03 \u2013 Big companies struggle to communicate with their employees
02:23 \u2013 Dynamic Signal focuses on simplifying this communication
02:34 \u2013 Some large companies don\u2019t use the internet to communicate\u2014they send snail mail, newsletters or magazines
03:09 \u2013 Dynamic Signal works with Slack which is a collaboration tool
03:20 \u2013 Dynamic Signal is a top-down communication tool
03:43 \u2013 Dynamic Signal is a SaaS business with monthly subscription plans
03:59 \u2013 Dynamic Signal goes after global businesses, enterprises and corporate businesses
04:40 \u2013 Dynamic Signal charges by number of employees
05:36 \u2013 Big companies grow faster than the small companies
05:56 \u2013 Dynamic Signal segment customers depending on the number of employees and where the employees are based
06:20 \u2013 Nestle is a global business with hundreds of companies under their brand
06:43 \u2013 Dynamic Signal has no cap in the number of employees
06:57 \u2013 Global 50 companies have 23K to millions of employees
07:11 \u2013 Global 1000 companies have 5K to 25K employees and 5K employees below are for corporate businesses
07:26 \u2013 Dynamic Signal was launched in 2010
07:30 \u2013 Jim and his co-founder sold their previous company Adify to Cox
07:43 \u2013 It was for $350M
07:52 \u2013 It was a quick exit and they\u2019ve raised $20-30M
08:06 \u2013 The original idea for Dynamic Signal was to go after advocates and influencers
08:25 \u2013 Jim saw that the biggest advocates for businesses like Oakley and Nike are their employees
09:30 \u2013 Jim and his co-founder built Dynamic Signal because they like working together, even after their successful exit
10:06 \u2013 When they started the company, they told themselves that they wanted to build the technology the right way
10:32 \u2013 Team size is around 200, some are in the field and some are in San Francisco
10:45 \u2013 Around 80 people are engineers/technical and 40 are on sales
11:17 \u2013 First year revenue
12:10 \u2013 2016 ARR
12:40 \u2013 Jim\u2019s vision for the company is to go public
13:00 \u2013 Total customers is close to a couple of thousand
13:25 \u2013 Dynamic Signal has 20% of the global 200 companies
13:55 \u2013 Dynamic Signal\u2019s costs are driven to the technology
14:03 \u2013 Gross margin is around 85%
14:23 \u2013 Jim and his co-founder had a good relationship with Cox
14:36 \u2013 Cox also funded Dynamic Signal
15:52 \u2013 Jim hasn\u2019t seen any logo churn since they launched
16:03 \u2013 Dynamic Signal has a long sales cycle: from 240 days to years
17:15 \u2013 Jim has tried the seat bucket license but it hasn\u2019t worked as well as their previous pricing
18:00 \u2013 \u201cThe way we drive growth is 100% based on getting more usage and that\u2019s it\u201d
18:35 \u2013 After the raise, Dynamic Signal is focused on expanding their business
18:50 \u2013 Paid spent is less than $500K
19:03 \u2013 Payback period
21:07 \u2013 The Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Larger companies struggle to communicate and connect with their employees and oftentimes, need a solution.
The biggest supporters and advocates of a brand are the employees.
Get used to failing and don\u2019t fear it\u2014it\u2019s part of your path to greater success and understanding.

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\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