824: Brilliant Ad Tech Hedge: $8m Managed Services Firm RockerBox Adds $1k/mo SaaS Product

Published: Oct. 26, 2017, 9 a.m.

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Ron Jacobson. He\\u2019s the co-founder and CEO of Rockerbox and Hindsight. Ron was a project manager at AppNexus and a proud McGill alumni. Follow him on Twitter.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? \\u2013 Made in America
  • What CEO do you follow? \\u2013 Elon Musk and Mark Cuban
  • Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Spectacle
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?\\u2014 7
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cThere are going to be a lot of highs and there are going to be a lot of lows, but you just got too keep moving\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:36 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Ron to the show
  • 02:01 \\u2013 Rockerbox is an online marketing technology company
  • 02:09 \\u2013 Hindsight is a secondary offering which is an off-site analytics platform, complementary to Rockerbox
  • 02:28 \\u2013 Rockerbox is a management service and Hindsight is the SaaS part
  • 03:00 \\u2013 Rockerbox was launched in early 2014
  • 03:03 \\u2013 Team size is 18
  • 03:13 \\u2013 Target customers are marketers
  • 03:25 \\u2013 Rockerbox has partnerships with publishers and data providers
    • 04:40 \\u2013 Through different partnerships, they\\u2019re able to know the source of potential customers
  • 05:25 \\u2013 First year revenue was $640K gross
    • 05:30 \\u2013 2015: under $2M , 2016 was around $4M and it will probably be $8M this year
  • 05:48 \\u2013 10% of the customers are on Hindsight
  • 06:50 \\u2013 In 2016, Rockerbox has served 50 customers
  • 07:19 \\u2013 Hindsight currently has around 13 customers with a MRR of $16K
  • 07:43 \\u2013 Some of Rockerbox\\u2019s customers are Vimeo and Vanguard
    • 08:16 \\u2013 CAC and LTV
    • 08:26 \\u2013 No logo and revenue churn yet
    • 08:50 \\u2013 Some small companies can\\u2019t scale and their pricing is \\u201ctake it or leave it\\u201d
  • 09:32 \\u2013 5 team members are focused on Hindsight
  • 09:59 \\u2013 Hindsight is self-funded and is based on Rockerbox
  • 10:14 \\u2013 Ron shares why they raised funding despite doubling Rockerbox\\u2019s ARR
  • 11:05 \\u2013 Ron has reached out to people whom he hasn\\u2019t talked to for decades just to acquire new customers
    • 11:16 \\u2013 Ron shares the content of his email
  • 13:10 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

  1. Having fewer customers with a larger paywall works well, it allows you to focus more on your customers\\u2019 needs.
  2. Stick to your pricing and your target market.
  3. Through the highs and lows, just KEEP MOVING.

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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
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