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Steli Efti, CEO and founder of Close.io. Listen as Steli talks about how he uses sales and communication to his company\\u2019s advantage and why he won\\u2019t disclose their churn rate\\u2014his answer WILL surprise you.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \\u2013 The Paypal Wars
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2013 N/A

• Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Evernote
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\\u2014 Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cI wish I knew how to manage my own emotions and focus on consistency\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:23 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Steli to the show
• 01:52 \\u2013 Steli\\u2019s entrepreneurial power is in sales and communication
• 02:02 \\u2013 Close.io is Steli\\u2019s biggest success
• 02:15 \\u2013 There are less than 20 people in the team
• 02:21 \\u2013 Steli is competing with massive organizations
• 02:40 \\u2013 They launched their first product in 2013
• 02:56 \\u2013 First year revenue is $ 200,000
• • 03:10 \\u2013 They started as a services business
• 04:08 \\u2013 There\\u2019s a common pattern with SaaS companies building product
• 04:45 \\u2013 Close.io is a CRM
• • 04:55 \\u2013 Focused on inside sales team
  • 05:12 \\u2013 Paid monthly
  • 05:26 \\u2013 RPU
  • • 05:58 \\u2013 The average per month is $ 400 to $ 500
• 07:01 \\u2013 Total number of customers is between 500 and 5000
• 07:54 \\u2013 They are self-funded but they did raised for the business
• 08:45 \\u2013 CAP table
• 09:29 \\u2013 Raised a little after graduating
• • 10.08 \\u2013 They raised $ 1 million
• 10:32 \\u2013 They are not currently in any acquisition talks and not raising capital
• • 11:09 \\u2013 They have all the funds they need
• 11:35 \\u2013 There are 2 co-founders
• 12:00 \\u2013 Monthly gross churn is horrible
• • 12:26 \\u2013 \\u201cEvery customer we are losing is a tragedy\\u201d
  • 12:50 \\u2013 They don\\u2019t share churn numbers
• 13:11 \\u2013 Their sales tactics
• 13:41 \\u2013 When they launched Close.io, it doesn\\u2019t have any record in it
• 14:15 \\u2013 People will buy the product even if it\\u2019s not sufficient
• 14:54 \\u2013 They are now doing a ton of blog posts, public speaking, etc
• 16:20 \\u2013 Consistently improve your product
• 17:22 \\u2013 Fully-weighted CAC
• 17:55 \\u2013 \\u201cThe most important thing in trying new channels is to determine what a success and failure look like\\u201d
• 19:30 \\u2013 Steli won\\u2019t accept sample acquisition offer
• 21:00 \\u2013 Connect with Steli through his blog and Twitter
• 22:30 \\u2013 Steli\\u2019s podcast has thousands of followers
• 23:30 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• If you have the solution to your customer\\u2019s problem, they will stay longer.
• Plan your failure scenarios. Know what to do when you succeed AND fail.
• Every business is different. The value of your business is determined by what the market is willing to pay for it, and what you\\u2019re able to create in terms of market demand.

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 the 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.
• Assistant.to \\u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Blog.close.io \\u2013 Steli\\u2019s blog site
• @Steli \\u2013 Steli\\u2019s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives