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Matthieu Jost, who founded his first company when he was 17 and exited it when he was 21. Most recently, he started Misterb&b in 2015 and has become the world\u2019s largest gay hotel brand in the world. Listen as Matthieu shares how he managed his first business at an early age and how Misterb&b grew exponentially in less than 4 years.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 N/A
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Brian Chesky

• Favorite online tool? \u2014 RJ Metrics
• 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 \u201cBeing less na\xefve maybe\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:31 \u2013 Nathan introduces Matthieu to the show
• 02:00 \u2013 Matthieu\u2019s first company that posted TV series was sold to PlanetSeries (French equivalent of IMDB) for about $1 million
• • 02:33 \u2013 The team composed of 4 people
  • 02:53 \u2013 The company sold series\u2019 merchandise
  • 03:18 \u2013 Matthieu built the company
  • 03:38 \u2013 Matthieu studied Computer Science for two years to work in a radio station
• 04:38 \u2013 Matthieu shares how Misterb&b is different from Airbnb
• 05:00 \u2013 Misterb&b is a marketplace
• 05:25 \u2013 The sellers are the homeowners
• 05:36 \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s not only for gay men, we are open to everyone in the LGBT community\u201d
• • 05:45 \u2013 There are straight women using Misterb&b because they find it cool and much safer
• 06:10 \u2013 Misterb&b is taking 4% from the host and 12% from the traveler
• 06:27 \u2013 Average booking for 3 nights is $300
• 06:40 \u2013 Misterb&b was founded at the last quarter of 2014
• 06:50 \u2013 Misterb&b was bootstrapped for 6 months and went on raising capital
• • 07:02 \u2013 Total funds raised was $5 million
• 07:10 \u2013 Team size is 22
• 07:44 \u2013 Currently, there are 80,000 hosts in Misterb&b in over 135 countries
• 08:00 \u2013 Misterb&b has an average of 80,000 bookings per month
• 08:22 \u2013 Most of the travelers are solo travelers
• 09:16 \u2013 First year total transaction volume is 300K
• 09:35 \u2013 Total transaction volume for 2015 is $3M and 2016 total transaction volume goal is $7M
• 09:58 \u2013 Misterb&b is seasonal
• 11:00 \u2013 Misterb&b\u2019s 2015 average revenue is $480,000
• 11:12 \u2013 Misterb&b\u2019s 2016 revenue aim is $1.3 million
• 11:24 \u2013 Misterb&b is working on different types of ads
• 12:05 \u2013 There are around 300K people on Misterb&b\u2019s email list
• 12:12 \u2013 Average opening click-thru rate is 14%
• • 12:50 \u2013 People are paying Misterb&b a flat-rate and they are getting 15,000 clicks
  • 13:00 \u2013 Misterb&b also works with non-media companies
• 13:46 \u2013 40% of Misterb&b\u2019s travelers are repeaters
• 14:28 \u2013 Follow Matthieu\u2019s company on Facebook and visit the website
• 16:33 \u2013 The Famous Five
• • 17:16 \u2013 RJ Metrics was at The Top Episode 233

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3 Key Points:

• It is always advantageous to start your business as EARLY as possible.
• Life is about making a choice; don\u2019t be afraid to step out and make that decision.\xa0 \xa0
• Misterb&b is about building a worldwide community that promotes safe travel without discrimination.\xa0

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Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal 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
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox\xa0 \u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Facebook \u2013 Matthieu\u2019s business Facebook account
• Misterbandb.com \u2013 Matthieu\u2019s business website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives