Published: March 2, 2017, 5 p.m.
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Charles Thiede. He\\u2019s the co-founder and CEO of the knowledge network platform called Zapnito. Zapnito helps organizations create privately, branded, expert communications and networks. He calls this \\u201cexperts as a service\\u201d.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? \\u2013 Lean Startup
- What CEO do you follow? \\u2013\\xa0 Elon Musk
- Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Product Hunt
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\\u2014 I try to
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cDo everything with courage\\u201d
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Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:11 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Charles to the show
- 01:41 \\u2013 Zapnito is a SaaS platform
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- 02:16 \\u2013 The idea of Zapnito is to helps brands bring their audience back to the trusted sources of knowledge
- 02:40 \\u2013 Zapnito\\u2019s Slack channel
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- 02:51 \\u2013 The platform behind the scene that pulls the audience and brands together
- 03:40 \\u2013 Each brand has their own slack domain
- 04:40 \\u2013 Average customer pay per year is \\xa360K
- 05:38 \\u2013 Zapnito started in trading in March 2013
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- 05:48 \\u2013 Started as a marketplace for experts in 2014
- 06:38 \\u2013 First year revenue
- 07:12 \\u2013 Zapnito currently has 12 customers
- 07:57 \\u2013 Average MRR
- 08:50 \\u2013 Team size is 12
- 09:36 \\u2013 Charles doesn\\u2019t batch their sales calls
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- 10:00 \\u2013 Charles usually takes the calls
- 10:32 \\u2013 Zapnito is based in London
- 10:50 \\u2013 No customer churn and negative net churn
- 11:12 \\u2013 The leverage Zapnito pulls to drive the RPU up
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- 11:30 \\u2013 \\u201cWe focus on niche networks\\u2019
- 11:50 \\u2013 Zapnito has scaled their number of networks
- 12:10 \\u2013 CAC
- 13:21 \\u2013 Zapnito was bootstrapped and raised angel money
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- 13:40 \\u2013 Zapnito has raised \\xa3650K in priced equity round
- 14:02 \\u2013 Zapnito had 3 rounds
- 14:50 \\u2013 The Famous Five
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3 Key Points:
- Continually pivoting is not a disadvantage to your company, as long as you just keep learning from the experience.
- Do not hesitate to hire the people that you need.
- Do everything with courage.
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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
- Jamf \\u2013 Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11\\u201d secure even when he left it in the airplane\\u2019s back seat pocket
- Freshbooks \\u2013 Nathan doesn\\u2019t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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