SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

661: How Unbounce Hit $12M/Year In Revenue, 14k Customers, Very Little $$ Raised with Co-Founder Oli Gardner

16 May 2017

22 min

4487 words

2 speakers

16 May 2017

Audio

Description

Oli Gardner. He's the co-founder of Unbounce. He's seen more landing pages than anyone in the planet. He's a prolific international speaker and he's on the mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Deliver a TED Talk What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — UsabilityHub How many hours of sleep do you get? — Maybe 3 hours If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Learn how to make decisions" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan introduces Oli to the show 01:49 – Unbounce is a SaaS business and a conversion platform for marketers which started as a landing page platform 02:00 – They just expanded to convertibles that have overlays that captures more leads and signups on the website 02:17 – Unbounce was launched in August 2009 02:33 – Unbounce has 6 co-founders 03:11 – Oli was broke and filed for bankruptcy 03:26 – Unbounce was initially funded by friends and family with $15K CAD 03:38 – Unbounce had a seed round and Angel round and has raised a total of less than 1 million CAD 04:12 – The 6 co-founders are all equal 04:22 – All are working full-time 04:50 – They've figured out a rough valuation 05:25 – 5 of the 6 co-founders are still active 05:41 – Team size is 184 05:49 – Members are based all around Canada and some in South America 06:14 – RPU is $93 CAD a month 07:05 – Unbounce lets anyone in for at least 2 years 07:11 – Their plans have been restructured in a way that is most beneficial 07:38 – Their $10-plan has been removed 07:57 – Unbounce now has professional marketers 08:10 – As Unbounce continues to grow, they're trying to scale with their customers 08:33 – Unbounce currently has 14K active users 08:42 – You can create a demo account but you can't get your own domain with demo 09:13 – Average MRR is just under $1.4M 09:47 – Unbounce had a problem with churn, like what most SaaS businesses have encountered 10:03 – "We know that you need landing pages for everything you do" 10:55 – 5% is the problem churn with Unbounce 11:30 – If Salesforce or Marketo have been integrated, the company is a larger company 11:47 – Overlays have been successful and there's so much traffic and data 12:09 – Overlays are called overlays because they are similar to popups 12:20 – "We're trying to be responsible with the technology because technology is not the problem, we are" 12:52 – Oli respects Bounce Exchange when it comes to the overlays world and they're doing a lot with machine learning 13:06 – The biggest difference in using Unbounce is you will feel that you're not using templated overlays 13:40 – Unbounce's value is different from SumoMe and their targeting is getting smarter 13:55 – Most services like Unbounce charge $250-5K a month and Unbounce starts at $99 14:06 – There are cheaper ones in WordPress, but they're not really good 14:21 – Oli is primarily a public speaker now and spends most of his time on the road 14:25 – Oli was actually scared to start public speaking years ago 14:33 – Nathan recommends watching Oli speak in public 15:15 – The rest of Oli's time is spent with Unbounce's marketing team and data scientists' team 15:48 – Unbounce just got engaged with a new marketing agency 16:03 – LTV 16:14 – Unbounce had one marketing guy and he left, so they switch to a 5 digital local agency 16:33 – CAC 16:43 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Being broke should NOT hinder you from starting a business. A great product with a reasonable price will always attract more customers. Learn how to make decisions and don't hold back. Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't 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

Chapters

1. What is the main topic discussed in this episode? 2. What is Unbounce and what services do they provide? 3. What challenges did Unbounce face with customer churn? 4. How did Unbounce's founders initially fund the company? 5. How has Unbounce adjusted its pricing strategy over time? 6. What unique features does Unbounce offer compared to competitors? 7. What is the significance of having multiple co-founders in a startup? 8. How does Unbounce manage customer acquisition costs?

Featured

Nathan Latka

Oli Gardner

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 9.041 Nathan Latka

This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base.

Chapter 2: What is Unbounce and what services do they provide?

9.521 - 21.233 Nathan Latka

You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per talk. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination.

21.253 - 24.056 Oli Gardner

We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.

24.076 - 34.912 Nathan Latka

And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. I just finished traveling Southeast Asia for 41 days, and I usually always get sick when I travel. And quite frankly, eating is difficult for me.

Chapter 3: What challenges did Unbounce face with customer churn?

34.932 - 47.191 Nathan Latka

It's hard to find a restaurant, and I'm spoiled in Austin with my personal chef. Well, I took these little packets with me this time, 30 of them, in my carry-on suitcase. They kept me totally healthy with 11 different secret ingredients.

Chapter 4: How did Unbounce's founders initially fund the company?

47.231 - 51.758 Nathan Latka

You can see them at NathanLacke.com forward slash juice. I'll tell you more later on in the show.

Chapter 5: How has Unbounce adjusted its pricing strategy over time?

51.938 - 67.357 Nathan Latka

That's NathanLacke.com forward slash juice. This is episode 661. Coming up tomorrow morning, I talk to a software product CEO that helps you get new sales leads. They're doing $425,000 per month in revenue.

Chapter 6: What unique features does Unbounce offer compared to competitors?

67.418 - 73.308 Nathan Latka

You don't want to miss it. Good morning, everybody. Nathan Latke here. My guest this morning is Ali Gardner.

Chapter 7: What is the significance of having multiple co-founders in a startup?

73.328 - 93.768 Nathan Latka

He's the CEO and he's the co-founder at Unbounce. He's seen and really seen more landing pages than, quite frankly, anybody on the planet. He's a prolific international speaker, and he's on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike.

93.788 - 100.207 Nathan Latka

Ali, are you ready to take us to the top? I am really ready. Thanks for having me on, Nathan. All right, yeah, thanks for jumping on, man. I appreciate it.

Chapter 8: How does Unbounce manage customer acquisition costs?

100.327 - 107.518 Nathan Latka

So tell us first, for the rare individual that doesn't know what Unbounce does, tell us what you do and then tell us how you sustain yourself. What's your revenue model?

108.579 - 130.431 Oli Gardner

Yeah, as a SaaS business, we are a conversion platform for marketers. We started out as a landing page platform that allows you to build landing pages without any technical help. And now we just expanded about two weeks ago into something we call convertibles, which are a new suite of conversion tools. Right now we have overlays to allow you to capture more leads and signups on your website.

130.451 - 132.214 Oli Gardner

So now it's website and landing pages.

132.555 - 136.603 Nathan Latka

And take us back, give us some history here. What year did you launch the company in?

136.921 - 139.847 Oli Gardner

We launched August 14th, 2009.

139.867 - 150.329 Nathan Latka

2009. Wow. And give us some context for other entrepreneurs launching right now. I mean, were you like broken on the street and this was your last jab at making money or had you just sold a company or left corporate?

150.349 - 175.595 Oli Gardner

What's the story? Six co-founders, and we all have a kind of a- Six? I know, right? Holy mackerel. And we've never really argued. That's great. So a few of us, we all worked together back in 2010, and then all the way up to 2000, sorry, 2000, and then all up to 2000, you know, like four to 10 different companies. And some of us were indeed broke.

175.755 - 197 Oli Gardner

I just got back from a stint in Costa Rica, working for an early sketchy online casino. Yeah. I got sick down there, like, stomach thing from the water. I couldn't work for six months. I had to declare—I had to do a consumer proposal, which is like halfway bankruptcy, so completely broke. You know, sleeping in someone's apartment, all that kind of stuff.

197.101 - 200.524 Oli Gardner

But, you know, I like risk, so we all just said, let's do this.

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