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Ben Kartzman. He\u2019s the CEO and founder of Spongecell, one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. Earlier, Ben worked at venture-backed Guidester (now Searchandise.net) in product and business development. He graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon with a dual BS in Human Computer Interaction and Information & Decision Systems.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Mint
• 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 Don't stress about your first job\u2014just find things that are interesting for you, follow your passion and do those things

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:55 \u2013 Nathan introduces Ben to the show
• 02:25 \u2013 Spongecell is one of the fastest growing companies because they are revenue driven
  • 02:36 \u2013 It was in 2009 when Spongecell first measured their revenue
• 03:15 \u2013 2017 revenue goal
• 03:30 \u2013 $26M has been invested in the company and their largest investors is Safeguard
• 04:27 \u2013 Nathan shares about his first investor report
• 04:50 \u2013 Spongecell is a dynamic and creative company in the adtech space
• 04:55 \u2013 Spongecell works directly with marketers
• 05:21 \u2013 Spongecell\u2019s technology manages different creative variations
  • 05:49 \u2013 The variations can grow very quickly
• 06:04 \u2013 Spongecell sells licenses to a platform and beyond that, it is based on usage
• 06:25 \u2013 The licenses are billed monthly and their biggest client is spending $3M a year
• 06:47 \u2013 Spongecell is working with hundreds of customers
• 07:20 \u2013 Spongecell is moving to target more enterprise customers
• 07:39 \u2013 To fire clients, Spongecell raises the minimum
  • 08:47 \u2013 People are leaving because of the changes in the service
• 09:30 \u2013 Usage-based charges per impression
  • 10:00 \u2013 For every 50 cents CPM, a company would spend $50K with Spongecell
  • 10:15 \u2013 Spongecell doesn\u2019t get involved with the media side
  • 10:49 \u2013 Most clients have an allocated budget to be spent on Spongecell
• 11:50 \u2013 Spongecell has a base amount and the average usage is based on how people are using it
• 12:06 \u2013 Spongecell was launched in 2006 and they raised their first round in the same year
  • 12:41 \u2013 In 2009, they saw the need for programmatic media, which is the buying and selling of ads through technology
• 13:22 \u2013 Spongecell has 95 people on the team
• 13:53 \u2013 Average ARR
• 14:35 \u2013 Spongecell\u2019s intuition with their platform is one of the reason why companies choose them
• 15:40 \u2013 Spongecell has promised to set up an Amazon database so clients can look up the data
• 16:50 \u2013 Fully weighted CAC is changing as they\u2019re slowly transitioning, but it is more than $5K
• 17:43 \u2013 Ideal cohort of customers for Spongecell
• 19:20 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

1. It\u2019s not easy to let go of customers\u2014however, there are times where it\u2019s the best decision to make for your company.
2. The transition to focus on enterprise clients isn\u2019t as quick or as easy as it seems.
3. Find your passion and GO with 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