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Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, a company that provides predictive intelligence for emerging technology trends, startups, and corporate. Their customers include Cisco, Marketo, and Red Hat, just to name a few. Prior to CB Insights, Anand managed the $50 million Chairman\u2019s Innovation Fund at American Express.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Gmail

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 \u201cI wish\u201d
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cBe patient\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 \u2013 Nathan introduces Anand to the show
• 02:45 \u2013 \u201cIf you buy something for 2 and sell it for 1, you will not make it up in volume\u201d
• 03:12 \u2013 He was in-charge of spending money
• • 03:25 \u2013 Sent to London for Cosmo Europe
  • 03:40 \u2013 Overspent
• 04:00 \u2013 Rationalizing the expenses
• 04:45 \u2013 Worked in American Express after Cosmo
• 06:25 \u2013 Salary in American Express
• • 06:55 \u2013 \u201cDecided to take the plunge\u201d
• 07:30 \u2013 CB Insights
• • 07:46 \u2013 Every industry is under attack by technology
  • 08:09 \u2013 Monthly customer pay
  • 08:34 \u2013 \u201cUse our data to create a sense of urgency\u201d
  • 09:20 \u2013 Tracking the competitors
  • 10:00 \u2013 Using algorithm on the data
• 10:30 \u2013 Number of paying customers
• • 10:45 \u2013 Average of pricing
• 11:25 \u2013 Total MRR last August
• 11:40 \u2013 Hoping for 8-figure revenue this year
• 12:12 \u2013 Team size
• • 12:25 \u2013 Some are based in New York
• 13:05 \u2013 Exact MRR last month
• 13:30 \u2013 \u201cEverybody pays upfront\u201d
• 14:14 \u2013 Individual customer acquisition
• • 14:40 \u2013 Gross revenue churn
• 15:20 \u2013 Lifetime value
• • 15:29 \u2013 20% churn just to be conservative
  • 15:49 - $200,000 lifetime value
• 16:16 \u2013 Funds raised
• 16:46 \u2013 Most customers are VCs
• 18:18 \u2013 Jon Sherry is the other founder
• 19:18 \u2013 No current acquisition talks
• 19:32 \u2013 Connect with Anand through his website and Twitter
• 21:05 - The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Do not be afraid to take the plunge\u2014there are risks but just do it.
• Things happen for a reason and believe in your life plan.
• There\u2019s no absolute certainties in life\u2014only right places and right times.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal\xa0 developers.
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks\xa0\u2013 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\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• CBInsights.com \u2013 Anand\u2019s website
• @cbinsights \u2013 Anand\u2019s business\u2019 Twitter handle
• @asanwal \u2013 Anand\u2019s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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