SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 437: SaaS $10m Raised, $8m+ 2015 Revenue, The Algorithmic Mckinsey with CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal

04 Oct 2016

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Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, a company that provides predictive intelligence for emerging technology trends, startups, and corporate. Their customers include Cisco, Marketo, and Red Hat, just to name a few. Prior to CB Insights, Anand managed the $50 million Chairman's Innovation Fund at American Express. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Gmail Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "I wish" If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Be patient" Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:42 – Nathan introduces Anand to the show 02:45 – "If you buy something for 2 and sell it for 1, you will not make it up in volume" 03:12 – He was in-charge of spending money 03:25 – Sent to London for Cosmo Europe 03:40 – Overspent 04:00 – Rationalizing the expenses 04:45 – Worked in American Express after Cosmo 06:25 – Salary in American Express 06:55 – "Decided to take the plunge" 07:30 – CB Insights 07:46 – Every industry is under attack by technology 08:09 – Monthly customer pay 08:34 – "Use our data to create a sense of urgency" 09:20 – Tracking the competitors 10:00 – Using algorithm on the data 10:30 – Number of paying customers 10:45 – Average of pricing 11:25 – Total MRR last August 11:40 – Hoping for 8-figure revenue this year 12:12 – Team size 12:25 – Some are based in New York 13:05 – Exact MRR last month 13:30 – "Everybody pays upfront" 14:14 – Individual customer acquisition 14:40 – Gross revenue churn 15:20 – Lifetime value 15:29 – 20% churn just to be conservative 15:49 - $200,000 lifetime value 16:16 – Funds raised 16:46 – Most customers are VCs 18:18 – Jon Sherry is the other founder 19:18 – No current acquisition talks 19:32 – Connect with Anand through his website and Twitter 21:05 - The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Do not be afraid to take the plunge—there are risks but just do it. Things happen for a reason and believe in your life plan. There's no absolute certainties in life—only right places and right times. Resources Mentioned: Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. CBInsights.com – Anand's website @cbinsights – Anand's business' Twitter handle @asanwal – Anand's Twitter handle Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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