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Prem Bhatia, CEO and co-founder of Cooleaf. Cooleaf\u2019s a B2B platform that helps companies organise, coordinate and track their engagement efforts. Listen as Prem and Nathan talk about breaking out of the corporate world, getting startup funding, and acquiring customers at no cost.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? \u2013 The Alliance
What CEO do you follow? \u2014 Dharmesh Shah
What is your favorite online tool? \u2014 LinkedIn
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? \u2014Do it sooner. You\u2019ll learn on the job.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:10 \u2013 Nathan\u2019s introduction
02:10 \u2013 Welcoming Prem to the show
02:40 \u2013 Prem left the corporate world aged 35 to begin a startup
03:20 \u2013 Gave up a salary supporting his family
04:40 \u2013 Cooleaf is a SaaS platform designed to help businesses with engagement efforts
05:30 \u2013 Currently has 25 active customers
06:05 \u2013 Average annual contract of $25-30k
06:20 \u2013 Acquiring customers through inside sales - personal outreach; a blog
07:05 \u2013 Not spending any money on acquisitions
07:30 \u2013 Have raised about $800k in funding - in part from 500 Startups
08:10 \u2013 Funding is largely in equity
08:30 \u2013 Founded 4-5 years ago, but pivoted later into B2B
09:05 \u2013 Team of 11
10:30 \u2013 Annual churn of around 10% - a little unclear right now
11:30 \u2013 Average LTV is around $100k
11:45 \u2013 Model right now is to \u2018nail it and scale it\u2019 - tighten up what they\u2019re doing
12:50 \u2013 Made less than $500k in 2015
13:20 \u2013 Aiming to make $88k per month this year
13:30 \u2013 Connect with Prem on Twitter
15:45 \u2013 Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Startups don\u2019t come with guarantees. To be an entrepreneur, you have to be prepared to give something up.
If you\u2019re working with a small number of high-value clients, you shouldn\u2019t have to spend money on acquisitions. Reach out through your networks first.
Learn on the job. No one ever feels ready to start something - accept that you aren\u2019t, and jump in anyway.

Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator \u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible \u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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