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Sean Howell, the founder of Hornet - the second largest gay social network with 15 million members worldwide, known for its ongoing \\u201cKnow your Status\\u201d HIV campaign. He\'s a speaker on mobile technology and his opinions have been featured all over the place, even the New York Times. Outside of work, Sean likes to serve on various non-profit boards and committees like the World Affairs Council, PFLAG, and UNAIDS,

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \\u2013 Alibaba
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2013 N/A
• Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Insightly

• 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? \\u2013 \\u201cI wish I started earlier\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:38 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Sean to the show
• 02:13 \\u2013 How Hornet generates revenue
• • 02:23 \\u2013 Premium subscription model
  • 02:53 \\u2013 Direct deals
• 03:08 \\u2013 Premium subscription service
• • 03:29 \\u2013 No restrictions
  • 03:43 \\u2013 5% of their user base
  • 03:37 \\u2013 15 million user base
• 03:53 \\u2013 Hornet was founded in October 2011
• 04:13 \\u2013 MAU
• • 04:22 \\u2013 Metric
• 04:42 \\u2013 Total revenue in 2015
• • 04:50 \\u2013 Fundraising
  • 05:17 \\u2013 Multi-million revenue last year
• 05:32 \\u2013 Traditional advertising and mobile setting
• • 05:55 \\u2013 Gaming companies are buying display ads
  • 06:20 \\u2013 Direct deal with Uber
  • 06:34 - CPM
• 07:10 \\u2013 Demographic data for users
• 07:40 \\u2013 Churn number that is being tracked
• • 07:51 \\u2013 Focus on user growth
  • 08:20 - Monetization
• 08:32 \\u2013 Total churn number
• • 08:37 \\u2013 Different subscription packages
  • 09:00 \\u2013 Monthly renewal
  • 09:33 \\u2013 Users buy in at a lower amount
  • 09:49 \\u2013 Average monthly churn is 20%
• 10:00 \\u2013 Raised $ 1.5 million in the first year
• 10:26 \\u2013 Costs in acquiring new paying customers
• 10:32 \\u2013 40 employees
• 10:44 \\u2013 Getting customers through organic discovery and viral co-efficients
• • 11:00 \\u2013 Viral co-efficient technique
• 11:27 \\u2013 Attribution links for social sharing
• 11:53 \\u2013 Sean is based in San Francisco and his team members are in other parts of the world
• 12:27 \\u2013 No revenue for the first year
• • 12:33 \\u2013 Started making revenue in 2013
• 12:48 \\u2013 2 biggest competitors
• 13:00 \\u2013 Looking to raise several millions
• • 13:08 \\u2013 Valuation
• 13:47 \\u2013 Connect with Sean thru AngelList, LinkedIn and his email.
• 16:05 - The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Be motivated \\u2013 use your competitors as inspiration.
• There are tons of ways to make your brand known without spending much.
• Start early \\u2013 if you want to do something now, do it now.

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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.
• AngelList \\u2013 Sean\\u2019s AngelList account
• LinkedIn \\u2013 Sean\\u2019s LinkedIn account
• sean@hornetapp.com \\u2013 Sean\\u2019s email address
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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