SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Credo Hits $300k Revenue By Paying $2m to SEO Consultants
14 Dec 2020
Chapter 1: What is Credo and how does it operate?
We were burning somewhere in the five to seven grand a month range.
So like who covers that you?
This business has been around for four years. I ran it very profitably for the first three. So we have, we're basically pulling from our war chest.
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We got to grow faster. Minimum is 100% over the past several years.
or bootstrap founders like Vivek of QuestionPro. When I started the company, it was not cool to raise. Or Looker CEO Frank Bien before Google acquired his company for $2.6 billion.
We want to see a real pervasive data culture, and then the rest flows behind that.
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Chapter 2: How does Credo connect businesses with digital marketing firms?
We're legally not allowed to take a cut on that. So if it's 10 grand, then the pro, that's what the pro is basically charging the client, right? I see. And they're funding the ads on their own. So that couple million isn't including ad spend as well. That's what the pros, agencies and consultants are actually making from our platform.
Okay, so wait, so sorry, this year, you think that'll be what number? A million?
Yeah.
It's going to, it's going to be in the probably about in the 2 million range. Okay. So, so 2 million. Now I could essentially multiply that by 1.15 because you're keeping essentially 15%. So you're going to do about $300,000 on the 2 million through your platform. Yeah. Give or take. Yep. Yeah. So it's like 2.3 million total. You keep 300 grand, the rest you pay out to your, your pros. Exactly.
Yep. Very interesting. Okay. Um, and then round out your team for me. So, so how many folks?
Yeah. So there's, there's three of us right now, plus some contractors. So, um, full-time or close to full-time, uh, it's myself. I have a full-time business development and sales guy, um, who's doing all the client onboarding and kind of account management stuff. And then I have a, uh, basically full-time developer as well. That's building out our, uh, our platform.
Okay. Wait, so you said three full-time? Three. Yeah. Three. Okay. Three full-time and anyone quota carrying like sales rep or that's you?
Uh, that's, uh, so I, I do have a sales rep, but he's not, he's not carrying a, well, he's not getting paid commission. He's on salary. Um, but he's in that three. He has a quota. He's in that three.
Yep. Oh, wow. Okay. Got it. Cool. Okay. That's interesting to understand. So what's, what is harder about building this marketplace? Signing up more pros or getting more clients to put volume to the platform?
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Chapter 3: What is the revenue model for Credo's marketplace?
Okay. So how are you getting them today? Yeah, so it's primarily SEO. I mean, I've been in SEO for a long time. And so we get the vast majority of our clients through our own search rankings. So you search like best e-commerce SEO agencies, we're in the top three, that sort of thing. So I've invested a lot in getting us ranking there.
And then referrals from some agencies and then some other companies that basically recommend us to their clients that ask their software company, for example, and ask who should we work with? And they're like, we don't know, but Credo can help you out. Um, so, so we've done it that way.
Okay. And then on the flip side of that, how are you signing up more pros?
Yeah, it's a great question. And actually we haven't had our network. So bringing on new pros open all year. Um, so we're recording this on September 2nd, right? I'm actually launching the new pro network tomorrow. I'm opening it up again tomorrow. Okay. Um, so, so basically I have a big wait list of people that want to, that want to get on. How many people are on the wait list? Uh, around 400.
Okay. So, and why did you shut it down?
I shut it down basically because we were building out this new network. So pivoting our business model from being, it was kind of a bunch of different ones. We had like an annual listing in the directory. We had some that was like a small retainer plus commission. Others was a larger retainer to send them leads.
And basically, Nathan, we've moved from being a lead generation service for marketing firms to being a true marketplace. And so I didn't want to take on any more debt, have to go back and renegotiate contracts and agreements with people that were on the platform. Um, all of that.
And we had consistent enough of a group of pros that sign great work and pay us commission that, uh, basically our, our revenue has stayed flat.
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Chapter 4: How many professionals are currently using the Credo platform?
The mix of commission to retainers has, uh, has very much changed over the last year. Um, but basically because we were investing in building out this new platform, changing the business model, it didn't make sense to bring on, um, more pros.
Okay. Now have you raised a capital? No. Okay. So bootstrap today. And so profitable or breakeven?
We're, yeah, we've been unprofitable the last two months because of investing, but I mean, we're breaking even pretty much at this point.
So when you were burning like the past two months, how much were you burning per month?
We were burning somewhere in the five to seven grand a month range.
So like who covers that, you?
I mean, I've run it profitably for the last, this business has been around for four years. I ran it very profitably for the first three. So we have, we're basically pulling from our war chest.
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