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Danielle Morrill, the technology exec who left Twilio to found Mattermark, a SaaS business that\u2019s aiming to make almost $5 million this year. Danielle\u2019s an ambitious CEO who can\u2019t stand to be bored. Listen in to hear why you should never split equity evenly, why focusing on churn rate will make you lose customers, and the one crucial thing you should think about before you sell your business.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? \u2013 The Pyramid Principle
What CEO do you follow? \u2014 Elon Musk
What is your favorite online tool? \u2014 Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2014It was all going to be okay. She should stop angsting and just keep doing what she\u2019s doing.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:08 \u2013 Nathan\u2019s introduction
01:46 \u2013 Mattermark is a SaaS firm that lets customers research private companies
02:20 \u2013 Helps people who are looking to sell, buy, or invest in companies
02:41 \u2013 Launched in 2013
02:50 \u2013 First year revenue was around $200k
03:07 \u2013 Left Twilio to start a different startup - an affiliate marketing program
03:43 \u2013 Shut down the company completely and started again with the same investors
04:18 \u2013 Three co-founders. Danielle is the CEO, her husband codes, and her friend runs sales
05:21 \u2013 \u201cWe don\u2019t have a 1:1:1 split - because things aren\u2019t ever even.\u201d
06:04 \u2013 \u201cI think it\u2019s the CEO\u2019s job to offer equity portions that are fair and make sense\u201d
07:30 \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s intellectually lazy to not discuss the equity portions\u201d
08:01 \u2013 Topline revenue in 2015 was $2.4 million
08:20 \u2013 Monthly recurring revenue is around $260k
08:50 \u2013 Around 500 customers
09:07 \u2013 Annual customer revenue is around $10k
09:50 \u2013 Annual churn is less than 10%
10:11 \u2013 \u201cNot everyone has turned over on a year yet - around 80% of customers came on board in the last 11 months\u201d
10:34 \u2013 What other metrics measure customer engagement?
10:40 \u2013 \u201cBy the time they churn, it\u2019s too late\u201d
11:30 \u2013 \u201cWe think lifetime value will be in the $50k range\u201d
12:10 \u2013 Started up an in-house marketing team 8 weeks ago
13:40 \u2013 What\u2019s Danielle\u2019s goal with the business?
13:55 \u2013 \u201cMy goal is to work on interesting things my entire life. If I sold the company for $100 million today, what would I do?\u201d
16:02 \u2013 Danielle would be delighted if this year\u2019s revenue hit $4.8 million
16:28 \u2013 Connect to Danielle on Twitter
18:08 \u2013 Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Discuss equity portions with your co-founders. All an equal split proves is that you don\u2019t know how to have difficult conversations
By the time customers have churned, it\u2019s too late. Look at other engagement metrics to catch them before they leave.
Think about your personal goals. Why are you running the business you are? What do you really want out of it?
Resources Mentioned:
Host Gator \u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible \u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives