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Enrico Casati. He is the co-founder and CEO Velasca, a company that specializes in handcrafted shoes. Enrico is based in Milan, Italy.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 The 4-Hour Workweek
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Adabra
• 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 \u201cKnow your audience before doing anything business related\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:43 \u2013 Nathan introduces Enrico to the show
• 02:03 \u2013 Velasca is an online brand focused on hand-crafted shoes
• 02:26 \u2013 Velasca was self-funded and had a VC round
• • 02:39 \u2013 Velasca had raised \u20ac750K
  • 03:01 \u2013 It was an equity round
• 03:18 \u2013 Enrico\u2019s dad was an entrepreneur but not a shoe maker
• 03:31 \u2013 Enrico shares how the idea of Velasca started
• 03:51 \u2013 It was 4 years ago when Enrico started Velasca
• 04:34 \u2013 Enrico shares about one of their products
• • 04:52 \u2013 The source of the raw materials
• 05:30 \u2013 The cost to make the Artista shoes
• • 05:52 \u2013 2.4 markup
• 06:47 \u2013 Net margin
• • 06:52 \u2013 Depends on the marketing budget you want to spend
  • 06:59 \u2013 High growth pace
  • 07:32 \u2013 \u201cWe invest so much on marketing\u201d
• 08:10 \u2013 Velasca has spent \u20ac20K on marketing in January 2017
• 08:38 \u2013 Enrico had the first idea of Velasca in the summer of 2012
• • 08:52 \u2013 The first collection on their website was launched in May 2013
  • 09:25 \u2013 The first year was about the testing
  • 09:34 \u2013 Since September 2014, Velasca has grown in people
• 09:43 \u2013 Current team size is 10
• 09:54 \u2013 Around 15K customers have bought from Velasca
• 10:17 \u2013 Average check out value
• 10:50 \u2013 Customer repurchase rate
• 11:52 \u2013 CAC
• 12:00 \u2013 LTV
• • 12:10 \u2013 \u201cThe lifetime is really worth the cost we\u2019re spending\u201d
• 12:45 \u2013 Velasca has sold around 20K pairs of shoes
• 12:56 \u2013 Velasca\u2019s best-seller is the Black Oxford
• 13:16 \u2013 \u201cVersatility is what makes the shoes\u2019
• 14:00 \u2013 First year revenue is \u20ac60K
• • 14:04 - \u20ac200K the second year
  • 14:08 - \u20ac1.6M the third year
  • 14:43 \u2013 Topline revenue
• 15:25 \u2013 Enrico\u2019s goal is to reach \u20ac4M
• 16:06 \u2013 Enrico spends more on paid advertising
• 18:08 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Study your product, first, before putting it in public.
• Invest paid marketing that performs well.
• Your relationship with your customers will reflect on your customer retention.

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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