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Sieva Kozinsky, founder and CEO of StudySoup. The online marketplace now has over 5000 buyers and 1000 sellers. These sellers provide their notes and study guides for college courses. StudySoup helps their sellers learn how to be entrepreneurs and provides a unique service to college students everywhere.

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Famous 5:

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• Favorite Book? \\u2013 Elon Musk\\u2019s biography
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2014 Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Slack

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep? \\u2014 \\u201cI get 6.5 to 7.5 hours.\\u201d
• If you could let your 20-year-old self know one thing, what would it be? \\u2014 \\u201cPay attention to the signs. If something isn\\u2019t working, ditch it and move forward.\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:05 \\u2013 Nathan\\u2019s introduction
• 02:25 \\u2013 StudySoup is \\u201can education marketplace for college students\\u201d
• 01:55 \\u2013 It\\u2019s a monthly subscription
• 02:25 \\u2013 Sellers take notes, and the buyers use those class notes
• 03:10 \\u2013 Students get \\u201ckarmas\\u201d to access notes and study guides
• 04:10 \\u2013 the \\u201ckarma\\u201d system
• 05:10 \\u2013 The backstory
• • 05:45 \\u2013 StudySoup was tested at a few schools and took off
• 06:10 \\u2013 Year-one revenue was $45k
• 06:25 \\u2013 Now they have over 5000 subscribers
• 06:45 \\u2013 1000 note takers
• 07:09 \\u2013 Funding is over a million
• • 07:35 \\u2013 They used convertible notes
• 08:15 \\u2013 Team size
• 08:30 \\u2013 The team is distributed and remote
• • 09:05 \\u2013 Slack, Google Hangouts
• 09:25 \\u2013 Trajectory
• • 09:55 \\u2013 They will hit almost $4 million this year
• 10:05 \\u2013 A focus on getting more note takers
• 10:40 \\u2013 The revenue is seasonal according to class schedules
• 11:15 \\u2013 Revenue February to May is pretty consistent
• 11:45 \\u2013 About 4000 buyers used the service in March
• 12:25 \\u2013 All buyers and sellers are very active
• 12:45 \\u2013 Average purchase size is $42
• 13:15 \\u2013 A study guide is the best-selling item
• 13:40 \\u2013 What happens after a student graduates?
• • 14:15 \\u2013 Expanding into grad school and high school in the future
• 14:40 \\u2013 Buyers pay 15 to 20 dollars each month
• 15:25 \\u2013 Churn is 8% to 12%, lower than the average for the industry
• 16:20 \\u2013 Acquisition cost
• • 16:30 \\u2013 Training sellers to be entrepreneurs
• 17:10 \\u2013 It\\u2019s too early to see lifetime value of a customer
• 17:40 \\u2013 Contact Sieva on Twitter: @SievaKozinsky
• 19:40 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• When you find an idea that works, go for it.
• Distributed, remote teams are very doable with today\\u2019s online tools.
• Look for the signs that tell you the direction your business is headed.

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\\xa0 \\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.
• Slack and Google Hangouts \\u2013 The online tools that StudySoup uses to stay in touch with a distributed team.

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• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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