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Ry Walker. He\u2019s the co-founder and CEO of Astronomer.io, a big data infrastructure company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Astronomer is an AngelPad batch #9 company and has raised $2M from the likes of 500 Startups, CincyTech, Router Ventures and SocialStarts. Astronomer\xa0measures, connects and centralizes data\u2014making it super simple for anyone from business users to data scientists to quickly create and monitor their data and pipelines.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Dennis Mortensen
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Fabricator
• 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 Ry would tell himself to be bold and to be confident

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:35 \u2013 Nathan introduces Ry to the show
• 03:17 \u2013 Astronomer helps companies figure out how to use their data to benefit their business
• • 03:22 \u2013 Astronomer works with early stage startups and big companies
• 03:41 \u2013 Some companies in the web analytics space are Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics
• 03:57 \u2013 Astronomer helps companies get the right data from their inside companies
• 04:32 \u2013 Astronomer is called data engineering, as a service
• • 04:39 \u2013 Astronomer does the work for their customer while building the platform
  • 04:51 \u2013 Astronomer has a flat price of 6K and 10K monthly
• 05:14 \u2013 Astronomer has their private cloud edition for their customers
• 05:33 \u2013 Astronomer was launched in May 2015
• • 05:36 \u2013 Astronomer was at Collision Conference when they pivoted after the first day
  • 06:13 \u2013 They realized that their biggest problem was to get companies to send them the data to run the analysis
• 06:35 \u2013 The number one issue in the space is the onboarding
• 07:03 \u2013 Ry explains the type of company they are
• 08:02 \u2013 The Angelpad is one of the most important pivots Astronomer did
• 08:13 \u2013 Angelpad\u2019s model
• 08:46 \u2013 What Ry was thinking when they got into Angelpad
• 09:30 \u2013 First year revenue
• 09:38 \u2013 2016 revenue
• 09:57 \u2013 Team size and location
• 10:08 \u2013 Astronomer has raised $2M in 2 years
• • 10:31 \u2013 Last round was at $1.1M and a convertible note
• 10:40 \u2013 Average MRR
• 12:04 \u2013 Astronomer currently has 20 customers
• 12:14 \u2013 Customer churn
• 12:17 \u2013 Astronomer currently has a net negative churn of 48%
• • 12:46 \u2013 Ry explains the net negative churn of 48%
• 13:33 \u2013 CAC
• • 13:38 \u2013 Astronomer just started with paid CAC this year
  • 14:00 \u2013 Astronomer started with $600
• 14:21 \u2013 LTV
• 15:40 \u2013 Last round of funding was in August
• 16:21 \u2013 Ry explains the amount they are burning
• 16:42 \u2013 Ry is thinking now of the post-seed round
• • 16:52 \u2013 It\u2019s a $3-5 M upround
  • 17:14 \u2013 The valuation Ry is aiming for
  • 17:40 \u2013 \u201cWe don\u2019t really want to bump our valuation too much\u201d
• 20:30 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• The number one issue in data analytics is the onboarding.
• Know your valuation and understand the data that had led you to that valuation.
• Believe in yourself\u2014be bold and confident.

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Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Klipfolio \u2013 Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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.
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives