SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
AdGreetz Hits $5.5m in Revenue Customizing Outbound Marketing For Enterprises
18 Sep 2020
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Depending on how you want to look at it, if you do it the way Smartly does, we're doing 10 million bucks. But a portion of that is cash in pocket. A portion of that is media that goes through us that we get a percentage of.
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We got to grow faster. Minimum is 100% over the past several years.
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My guest today is Eric Frankel. If you missed my first episode with him, you'll know, or if you heard it, you'll know he's building a company called Ad Greets based out here on the West Coast. Eric, you ready to take us to the top? I'm ready. All right. So for folks that missed that first episode, give us the quick download. What's ad greets and what do people pay for?
We're reinventing how brands converse with past, current and or prospective clients. Instead of a generic one-size-fits-all, often static message, we help brands ideate, produce, deploy, optimize, and then provide reporting for hundreds of versions, thousands of versions, tens of thousands, or millions. And instead of a brand talking to you about dresses.
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Chapter 2: What is AdGreetz and how does it revolutionize outbound marketing?
This is somewhat shocking because the business has been so easy, but a month or two into it, you realize it becomes easy, but it's like anything else. It's you or me learning how to ski if we hadn't or how to climb.
Of course. Eric, how many folks on the team do you have supporting these new Diamond customers, for example?
During COVID, where a lot of people have been furloughing and having less teams, we've increased our teams. So today, we're only 30. We just opened an office. Of course, there's no real office because of COVID. We just opened in Bangkok. We just opened in Paris. We're in London, New York, and LA.
Chapter 3: How does video personalization enhance customer engagement?
How many of the 30 are engineers?
Right now, 10 of the 30 are engineers, and we just stole away the CTO from a competitor. Which competitor? A company called Spirable, and I needed another very muscular executive in addition to our CTO. He had built their entire stack. He had built them from the ground up. How did you recruit him?
Did you go equity or just triple his pay?
Or her?
Her.
Neither. So the answer is he makes a little bit more pay, but nothing that would be meaningful to anyone. He owns less of our company than he does of their company. We just had a product that was more compelling that he thought stood a chance. to be more successful even than their terrific product. So he decided to roll the dice and, uh, and, uh, and maybe he thought I was congrats on that.
He likes your little ounce of crazy, right? You have to be a little crazy to be an entrepreneur. He likes your crazy better than the other kind of crazy.
All right. That's literally it. He didn't tell me that, but I know people who have met that.
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of hyper-personalized campaigns in advertising?
But the reality of our business is I could show you July with five. I could show you August with eight. I could show you September with 12. I could show you October with 15. And the lists are even longer, but many of them won't happen on time because that's the way of the world. But the reality is it's a really, you know, we launch on September 10th with Pepsi. That only took five years.
You know, the P&G deal took five years now, but we've gone from kid get away from me. You bother me into a probably 62 percent of the cold calls that we make turning into people saying, yes, I'd like to know more versus five percent.
We're running. That's obviously great growth. And Smartly is obviously bringing the whole market up, which is a good thing for you. We're running out of time here. So quick questions. Last 12 months, how much revenue did you guys do?
Depending on how you want to look at it, if you do it the way Smartly does, we're doing $10 million. But a portion of that is cash in pocket. A portion of that is media that goes through us that we get a percentage of, a small percentage because that's the media business.
How much of the $10 million was media spend?
How much of the $10 million is media spend is about half. So it's about $5 million in cash and a percentage of the other five.
Got it. So over the last 12 months, you did $10 million in top line revenue. Gross revenue would be something more like $5 million plus a percent of the $5 million in spend.
Media buying is in the 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% of the other number, depending on what the brand is.
Got it. So call it like $5.4 million-ish, something like that over the past 12 months.
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Chapter 5: What are the average customer values and retention rates for AdGreetz?
Um. Is there a CEO? I'm not a voracious reader of books and novels at this point in time because of my life, but I would say I'm an addict of the Apple News feed.
Is there a CEO, Eric, that you're following?
I read everything about every CEO in business all the time, and I follow many, many, many. What I think are their good qualities.
Eric, can you name one CEO that you respect?
particular ceo that i'm that i sit there and say i you know study i am not an elon musk or i am you know not uh you know i am not number three what's your favorite just name a favorite online tool quick answer here we're out of time favorite online tool for building the company favorite online tool um probably trello and asana number four how many hours of sleep do you get every night six okay and situation married single kids
Married. How many kids? Two. Two boys. One of them's out making his first feature as we sit here and talk right now. Very cool. How old are you, Eric? Oh, I'm very, very old. I'm 62.
Last question. What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?
Probably maybe to kiss a little bit more butt. Um, because then you don't, um, especially when I did 30 years of corporate life as president of Warner brothers, um, because it's easy to bend people out of shape and it might better to kiss some butt and continue to be an incredibly overpaid executive at a giant entertainment company.
Yeah. Guys, there you have it. Kiss more butt. Eric from AdGreets. Again, launched a couple years ago. Today, past 12 months, about $10 million top-line revenue. Of that, though, $5 million was ad spend, which they take 2% to 5%. So total revenue past 12 months on a gross basis, call it something like $5.5 million. Team of 30 people as they look to scale.
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Chapter 6: How does AdGreetz's pricing model work for brands?
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