BROADCASTS.com

b'

Michael Cheng, co-founder of Sniply, an innovative new marketing tool that helps companies caption the value of content sharing in social media. Sniply links has generated over 150 million clicks and is used by notable brands such as IBM, Salesforce and Greenpeace.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \\u2013 Steve Jobs Biography
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2013\\xa0 Steve Jobs

• Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Google Translate
• 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 \\u201cDon\\u2019t rush it\\u201d

\\xa0

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:39 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Michael to the show
• 02:09 \\u2013 Sniply is a content marketing platform
• • 02:11 \\u2013 It allows people to generate ROI from the links they share
  • 02:30 \\u2013 It is a SaaS subscription model
  • • 02:32 \\u2013 Premium has a customized ability on call to action and other features
• 02:49 \\u2013 Sniply was launched in 2014
• 02:59 \\u2013 Sniply generates money from the subscription
• • 03:20 \\u2013 Price range is $39 per month to $3000 per month
• 03:29 \\u2013 Monthly RPU is $70-80
• 03:45 \\u2013 Most of the users are the social media team of a company
• • 03:51 \\u2013 Dropbox, Outbrain and Autodesk use Sniply
• 04:42 \\u2013 The \\u201cName your Price\\u201d option on Sniply\\u2019s website
• • 05:03 \\u2013 The \\u201cName your Price\\u201d option allows Sniply to gauge the customers\\u2019 needs and price range
  • 05:20 \\u2013 It also allows Sniply to make an exception for non-profit groups that can\\u2019t afford the price
  • 05:33 \\u2013 It gives them a better idea of how to fill in the gaps when they release a new feature
  • 05:48 \\u2013 \\u201cPeople are very reasonable when naming their own price\\u201d
  • 06:25 \\u2013 Sniply can still reject customized requests
  • 06:50 \\u2013 It\\u2019s difficult to measure the downside
  • 07:06 \\u2013 There\\u2019s a dedicated page for Enterprise
• 08:33 \\u2013 Sniply is currently hitting 12,000 to 30,000 registered users
• • 08:44 \\u2013 Revenue is $600,000 and about $50,000 a month
  • 09:00 \\u2013 One thousand paying customers
• 09:12 \\u2013 Sniply is bootstrapped
• 09:50 \\u2013 Team size
• • 10:48 \\u2013 A small team helps Michael to prioritize and be more flexible
  • 11:10 \\u2013 Some startups invest in wrong features and wrong people
  • 11:30 \\u2013 They are based in Vancouver, Canada
• 11:37 \\u2013 Gross customer churn per month is 5%
• 11:45 \\u2013 Customer acquisition cost on average
• • 11:53 \\u2013 Michael doesn\\u2019t do ads
  • 12:00 \\u2013 Cultivate relationships with bloggers
  • 12:26 \\u2013 Most of the bloggers are also marketers
• 12:40 \\u2013 Total customer growth per month is 5%
• 13:46 \\u2013 Connect with Michael on Twitter or email
• 16:08 \\u2013 Total 2015 revenue is $400,000 and aiming for $600,000 this year
• 16:23 \\u2013 Michael is now investing on a new platform that automatically converts blog posts to videos
• 17:07 \\u2013 Not currently looking at acquisition
• 17:20 \\u2013 Michael owns 33% of the business; there are two other founders
• 17:40 \\u2013 The Famous Five

\\xa0

3 Key Points:

• A small team size has a lot of advantages.
• Business takes time\\u2014don\\u2019t rush it.
• Having a \\u201cName your Price\\u201d option gives a company a better idea of the needs and desires of customers together with their preferred price.

\\xa0

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 the 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.
• Acuity Scheduling \\u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \\u2013 Nathan uses Drip\\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• @Michaelhsc \\u2013 Michael\\u2019s Twitter handle
• Mike@Snip.ly \\u2013 Michael\\u2019s email address
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives