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James Booth. He\u2019s the founder of Scoota and he founded it in 2008. Prior to that, he was the co-founder and CEO of a company that led Europe\u2019s rich media, providing infrastructure. He sold that to DoubleClick and Google back in 2007. He\u2019s won numerous awards for his service to online advertising, an active Angel investor and a non-executive to a number of startups.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Crossing the Chasm
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Joe Zawadzki, Jeff Green and Robert Grazioli
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Gmail
• 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 James hoped he knew the internet was coming

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 \u2013 Nathan introduces James to the show
• 02:21 \u2013 The company that James exited was Tangozebra
  • 02:26 \u2013 They found the name by accident and in 1999, they couldn\u2019t find a .com address
  • 03:17 \u2013 It was initially bootstrapped and they eventually raised capital
  • 03:49 \u2013 They had trouble articulating what they were doing
  • 04:24 \u2013 They raised $1.6M and part of the business went to a media group for 5 years before it was sold
  • 04:49 \u2013 Tangozebra was sold to Google for $30M
• 05:15 \u2013 After the exit, James spent 6 months creating a business plan
  • 06:19 \u2013 James launched Rockabox (now Scoota) in 2007 with his co-founder, Torie
  • 06:51 \u2013 James had put in his own money at the start of the business
  • 07:08 \u2013 To date, they\u2019ve raised \xa312M
• 07:15 \u2013 Scoota is a technology company specializing in programmatic technology
• 07:40 \u2013 Scoota charges a low cost per thousand fee with a benchmark of \xa31.50 per thousand
  • 08:05 \u2013 There\u2019s also a managing service where Scoota takes a percentage
• 08:37 \u2013 Self-service is high-margin and media is low
• 09:17 \u2013 Two-thirds of the revenue comes from the self-service side
• 09:30 \u2013 Team size is 30\u2014based in London and looking to open a New York office
• 09:53 \u2013 Scoota has global campaigns as well
• 10:41 \u2013 In the early days, James would make up all sorts of things just to get new customers
  • 10:59 \u2013 In 1999, James had a conversation with a journalist where he spilled out mockups that gave them the exposure they needed
  • 12:17 \u2013 Suddenly, there was a story about them
• 13:00 \u2013 Average number of customers
  • 13:33 \u2013 40 agencies and hundreds of brands
• 14:04 \u2013 It was in 2013 when Scoota broke their million dollar ARR mark
• 14:26 \u2013 In 2016, Scoota hit $10M from their managing service side
• 15:50 \u2013 Average ARR in 2016 was a little under $5M
• 17:33 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

1. Digital advertising has improved tremendously profitable and continues to grow.
2. Continue to create something even after your first, big exit.
3. At the start of every business, you have to do what you can to get the first customer.

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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