EP: 465: 120,000 Customers, About $200k MRR, $10M 2017 ARR Goal with RocketReach.co CEO Amit Shanbhag

Published: Nov. 1, 2016, 9 a.m.

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Amit Shanbhag, co-founder of RocketReach.co, a company that allows users to lookup email addresses, phones, social links, etc. for over 250 million professionals worldwide. Amit bootstrapped to RocketReach from zero to over a hundred thousand customers including Apple, Google, and Morgan Stanley to name a few. He has more than a dozen patents and started his professional life writing code for geo-stationary satellites. He loves open water swimming, watching cricket, and spending time with his 4-year old son.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? \\u2013 N/A
  • What CEO do you follow? \\u2013\\xa0 Marissa Mayer
  • Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Google Drive
  • 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 \\u201cLive the moment and enjoy what you have\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:53 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Amit\\xa0 to the show
  • 02:33 \\u2013 RocketReach is a sales management tool
  • 02:54 \\u2013 RocketReach was founded in 2015
  • 03:03 \\u2013 Amit and his co-founder used to work for a SaaS business
  • 03:15 \\u2013 They tried to get information from www.data.com for user acquisition
    • 03:25 \\u2013 They realized that the data is 85% inaccurate
  • 03:31 \\u2013 They tried different tools
  • 04:25 \\u2013 Team size
  • 04:40 \\u2013 Completely bootstrapped
  • 04:51 \\u2013 They tried to raise a small round
    • 05:18 \\u2013 Went to institution investors
    • 05:27 \\u2013 The terms were not profitable
    • 05:40 \\u2013 Amit stopped fund-raising after 6 months
  • 05:58 \\u2013 They had 10,000 customers in March
  • 06:40 \\u2013 Companies that are the competition
  • 07:35 \\u2013 RocketReach is SaaS and has monthly subscription
    • 07:40 \\u2013 Plans are $ 49, $ 99 and $ 299
    • 07:46 \\u2013 Salespeople and recruiters are the biggest user base
    • 08:30 \\u2013 Most of the users are from the $ 99 plan
  • 09:10 \\u2013 MRR
  • 09:40 \\u2013 They were doing a lot of outbound in January
  • 10:04 \\u2013 Most of their users now are from SEO
  • 11:18 \\u2013 Customers who buy access to RocketReach API
    • 11:38 \\u2013 They are considered as competition
  • 12:29 \\u2013 First year revenue
    • 12:45 \\u2013 Total of $ 15 from October 2015 to December 2015
  • 13:02 \\u2013 March 2016 is when the growth started
  • 13:40 \\u2013 Did a deal with 500 startups companies
  • 14:40 \\u2013 Gross monthly churn
  • 16:40 \\u2013 Lifetime value
  • 17:17 \\u2013 Company expenses
  • 18:09 \\u2013 The quality of data that RocketReach has sets them apart from their competitors
  • 18:30 \\u2013 Comparison of RocketReach and Email Hunter
  • 19:50 \\u2013 Goal for 2016
  • 20:53 \\u2013 Decent offer in the SaaS space
  • 21:15 \\u2013 2-digit percentage average monthly customer growth
  • 22:15 \\u2013 Connect with Amit through his website and Twitter
  • 24:00 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

  • First year revenue is not always what you\\u2019re expecting.
  • Improve your product to the point it makes your competitors, your customers.
  • Live for the moment and enjoy what you have.

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.
  • Drip \\u2013 Nathan uses Drip\\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
  • RocketReach.co \\u2013 Amit\\u2019s website
  • @RocketReachco \\u2013 Amit\\u2019s Twitter handle
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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