Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

How Defending Patents Can Make Bank

24 Dec 2015

Transcription

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

0.031 - 23.795 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. 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. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.

0

24.095 - 52.161 Nathan Latka

And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Yesterday in episode number 52, you guys heard from Stephanie Nikolic, who walked us through how to sell a $2,000 eight-week bootcamp over and over and over. You're gonna love her. Okay, Top Tribe, our guest today is Robert Caruso. He's a Forbes list top 40 social media marketers. Oh, sorry, he's on the list of the top 40 social media marketers.

0

52.802 - 78.918 Nathan Latka

He's in digital marketing, and he is a technology professional with over 20 years of creating, planning, and executing strategies within various industries. He was the co-founder of BundlePost and holds multiple internet patents, which we'll talk about. Robert writes, speaks, and consults on social relationship and digital marketing. Robert, are you ready to take us to the top? Let's do it.

0

78.958 - 92.813 Nathan Latka

All right, man. I'm excited to have you here. So walk me through. We talked a little bit in the pre-show when we were doing this. You just replaced yourself at BundlePost. Tell us a little bit about what BundlePost does and the challenges with replacing yourself as the CEO.

0

92.793 - 112.337 Robert Caruso

Sure. Bundle Post is a social content management system. So it is the only patented technology in the space that really enables folks to be way more efficient and strategic with their content curation and social content marketing.

112.317 - 118.644 Nathan Latka

So is this similar? Listeners might be going, wait, is what Robert just described Hootsuite? I mean, is this like Hootsuite except it's patented?

119.365 - 144.194 Robert Caruso

No, it works with Hootsuite and other social dashboards. So it's very, very unique. So it brings all the content and topical and sources of content via RSS into one place where you can schedule, hashtag, and manage not only curated content, your blog content, your marketing messages, and so on, all in one place.

144.535 - 157.866 Robert Caruso

I still use Hootsuite for engagement and one-off posting and things like that, but a very unique approach to the industry. It saves people about 80% of their back office time in social media.

157.846 - 169.722 Nathan Latka

I want to dig into this because a lot of the guests we have on are people like Sean Malarkey in episode number 17. They've sold about $2 million worth of an info product. So he was a blogger with a big list that wanted to figure out how to monetize.

Chapter 2: How did Robert Caruso build BundlePost and what challenges did he face?

385.585 - 412.071 Robert Caruso

And I would say they're saying something different. What they're saying is we've taken the steps to protect our unique intellectual property. And just beware that we're way ahead of you. And though it's not approved and issued yet, it is not yet a real patent. We're in process. So if you try and copy us, ultimately, we're going to come back to you.

0

Chapter 3: What makes BundlePost's technology unique in the social media space?

412.051 - 421.488 Nathan Latka

So Bundle Post has patented a process, or have you actually literally patented lines 21 through 35 in your code base? Those are unique to you. You've patented a piece of the code.

0

421.989 - 434.312 Robert Caruso

Not the code base itself, but the details around the process of how the code works, as well as other ways you could utilize it.

0

434.663 - 446.682 Nathan Latka

The technology. I see. I see. So let's get into the sense that you can. I want to get and I know you're not at Bundle Post anymore, but you said you replaced yourself now. Why did you choose to exit that company and replace yourself with a different team?

0

446.999 - 480.499 Robert Caruso

Well, it's real simple. You know, this wasn't my first barbecue. Four years. If anyone has ever done a tech startup, the way I explain it to people that have never done an internet or tech startup, it's dog years. So what a non-internet startup does every year, a internet startup does every three months. So four years, 80 hours a week, two days off. You do the math. It was time. So...

0

480.833 - 500.073 Robert Caruso

exhausted, uh, priorities changing with family and kids and things like that. It was just definitely time I was exhausted. And so it was important that, um, for the, the organization to really go to that next level, it was time, um, that, uh, for me to go. Got it.

500.454 - 509.423 Nathan Latka

And so how'd you go about replacing yourself? Did you have, well, first off, it was a self-funded or did you have investors? We self-funded from the beginning. Okay. And how, do you mind me asking how much you guys put in?

509.403 - 520.306 Robert Caruso

Uh, yeah, I won't answer, but we'll just say, um, in a very crowded space, um, we were able to, uh, successfully build a brand and, uh, and grow.

520.507 - 535.248 Nathan Latka

So, um, more or less than 500,000 just to get a general range. Far less. Far less. Okay, got it. Yeah. Okay, so self-funded, so you had some flexibility there. Walk me through again. Was it literally a LinkedIn message to a CEO you respected that you recruited? No, no, no, no.

535.549 - 550.928 Robert Caruso

Our CTO is now the CEO and chief technology officer of the organization. So he knows the technology, the industry, and the company intimately, and he's brilliant. So there's no question it will do extremely well.

Chapter 4: Why did Robert choose to patent his technology?

705.889 - 708.432 Nathan Latka

They're friends. You have them on your website. Would you sue Hootsuite?

0

709.353 - 734.78 Robert Caruso

Oh, absolutely. And you see, here's the thing with intellectual property. If you have a patent, but you do not protect it, When your patent is infringed on, all you have to do, if you know someone's infringing on your patent and you do not aggressively go after them to protect your intellectual property, you lose the right to. to do it to somebody else.

0

734.82 - 749.554 Nathan Latka

So you would have to go after Hootsuite. You have to, no question. Got it. Well, this has been very valuable. Robert, we haven't had a guest on who really talks about the patenting process, how it relates, especially to social marketing and SaaS. So this has been valuable.

0

749.534 - 776.571 Nathan Latka

If you are loving this episode, you will love episode number eight, where we talk to the head of strategy at GoPro, responsible for taking them from $300,000 a year in sales to $300 million in sales. And to celebrate the top tribe, I am giving you guys the chance to win a GoPro and my top three favorite business books. In order to win, simply text the word Nathan to 33444.

0

776.551 - 799.436 Nathan Latka

Again, N-A-T-H-A-N to 33444 for your chance to win hundreds of dollars in prizes every week. The first one is a GoPro and my favorite business books. We are about to jump into my favorite part of the show. Do you know what's next? No, I don't. Go for it. It's time for the Famous Five, brother. Are you ready? I'm ready. All right. Number one, what is your favorite business book?

800.718 - 815.57 Robert Caruso

Right now, I am reading Brian Kramer's Shareology. It's great stuff. It's stuff. I'm like 100% on board with and realize every day. My favorite book of all times is the Bible. I read it every day.

816.171 - 832.95 Nathan Latka

Oh, I love that. I appreciate that groundedness. Number two, Robert, which CEO are you following or studying right now? Nobody. You're doing your own thing. You, right? I am. Number three, Robert, what is your favorite online tool like Evernote?

833.909 - 841.365 Robert Caruso

Uh, as far as the space Evernote is in, um, wow, I don't use any of those types of tools.

841.545 - 842.768 Nathan Latka

Online tool in general.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.