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Irv Shapiro. He\\u2019s responsible for the overall business strategy and corporate leadership as the CEO of DialogTech. DialogTech provides the industry a leading, actionable, marketing analytics platform for businesses that value inbound sales calls. The company was named an Inc 500 company in servicing close to 5000 businesses worldwide\\u2014ranging from emerging companies to the world\\u2019s largest enterprises.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \\u2013 Purple Cow
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2013 Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? \\u2014The Top Inbox
• How many hours of sleep do you get?\\u2014 6.5
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cI should have stayed in architecture school\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:04 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Irv to the show
• 02:51 \\u2013 DialogTech is Irv\\u2019s third rodeo in the industry
• 03:10 \\u2013 Metamor Technologies is a system information business that built large office systems
  • 03:35 \\u2013 It scaled to 500 people and was sold to Corestaff
  • 03:51 \\u2013 It was sold in 1997 for $38M
• 04:11 \\u2013 After Metamor, Irv started Edventions which was in the early days of the internet when schools were concerned about internet safety and its environment
• 04:40 \\u2013 Edventions provided a safe internet environment
  • 04:51 \\u2013 In 2000, everything crashed and it was sold to Edison Schools
• 05:17 \\u2013 DialogTech\\u2019s team size is 150
• 05:20 \\u2013 Current revenue is at $40M
• 05:25 \\u2013 2016 revenue was $35M
• 05:30 \\u2013 DialogTech raised a total of $60M
• 05:45 \\u2013 DialogTech did their A round in July of 2007
• 06:15 \\u2013 DialogTech helps companies who receive inbound calls to become more effective, efficient and close more sales
• 06:37 \\u2013 DialogTech does four things technology-wise:
  • 06:59 \\u2013 It tells the customer\\u2019s behavior on your website
  • 07:04 \\u2013 The data then can be used by the marketing team
    • 07:33 \\u2013 An example of this is a life insurance call
  • 08:18 \\u2013 Tracking is by a unique phone number
  • 09:38 \\u2013 When a website is visited, a unique phone number is shown
• 10:14 \\u2013 DialogTech is a SaaS model, but is in essence a cloud model
• 10:32 \\u2013 Charges vary if the calls are in a batch or if it is an unlimited plan
• 10:37 \\u2013 Customers pay between $150K a month to over $100K a month
• 10:55 \\u2013 DialogTech has almost 5K customers
• 11:19 \\u2013 Irv shares a growth tactic they tried that didn\\u2019t work
  • 12:36 \\u2013 They sent burner phones to over 200 marketing executives that have videos on them that will play after opening the phone
  • 12:55 \\u2013 They\\u2019ve spent over $20K for the campaign but they were not able to get a single sale
• 13:20 \\u2013 Annual logo churn is around 8-9%
• 13:35 \\u2013 Monthly revenue churn on the enterprise side is around .4%
• 13:47 \\u2013 DialogTech has around 98% revenue retention
• 14:59 \\u2013 3K of their 5K customers are legacy customers who are at a lower price point
• 15:09 \\u2013 Irv believes that they will reach $40M in revenue by end of 2017
• 15:30 \\u2013 The volume of calls that DialogTech processes requires a technology that needs funds
• 15:55 \\u2013 Gross margin is around 65%
• 16:38 \\u2013 CAC depends on segment
• 16:43 \\u2013 Gross margin payback is 18-24 months
  • 16:59 \\u2013 Irv explains how they compute it
• 17:45 \\u2013 LTV is 5-7 years for enterprise customers
• 18:13 \\u2013 DialogTech has around 40 engineers, 50 in sales overall, 12-15 customer support, and the rest in back end
• 19:50 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

1. Target goals can be reached with a consistent model and growth tactics in play.
2. We learn from our mistakes, so don\\u2019t be afraid to make them.
3. Weigh the pros and cons of raising capital; if there is a need, then go for it.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero \\u2013 The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• 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