SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
How He Patiently Bootstrapped To $4.5m in Revenue In Legacy Space
25 Sep 2022
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
That would be about $345,000 a month in revenue.
Yeah, that's about right.
You are listening to Conversations with Nathan Latka, where I sit down and interview the top SaaS founders, like Eric Wan from Zoom. If you'd like to subscribe, go to getlatka.com.
We've published thousands of these interviews, and if you want to sort through them quickly by revenue or churn, CAC, valuation, or other metrics, the easiest way to do that is to go to getlatka.com and use our filtering tool. It's like a big Excel sheet for all of these podcast interviews. Check it out right now at getlatka.com. Hey folks, my guest today is John Brakey.
He created a tool called Promise, which was created as a single solution that could support the growth and complexity of a multi-office IT full-service business. They achieved the status of a highly respected integrator by developing industry best practices. Check them out again at promys.com. John, are you ready to take us to the top?
I'm ready.
All right. So on your website, you say the company is the world's best CRM help desk and professional services automation software. What does that mean? Tell us about a customer who's paying you.
So what happened, maybe just understand the background that I used to be one of our customers effectively. And so I really understand that. the business that our customers are experiencing and the issues, the problems, the challenges and so forth. And so the product was really built with best practices in mind. You think about a services-based business that also does the technology.
Can you name one, John, as you tell the story so it's a real story?
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Chapter 2: How did John Brakey transition from customer to founder?
And are you 100% owner of the Promise business or does that agency own a bunch of the business?
No, I'm a majority owner, but there's a secondary owner as well.
Was that an investor? Did you raise money or have you bootstrapped?
No, we actually took money that we had from other businesses and use it to do our own investment. So it's an actual partner, not an investor.
Is that partner, are they also a customer of the tool?
No, they're not active in the business anymore. They're out doing some other things. So they're just really acting in the board of directors.
Interesting. Okay. But you own, call it 60%, 70%. They own 40%, 30%, something like that.
Exactly right.
Right. Okay. Interesting. So you launched this in 2011. Tell me more about these customers, these big agencies that use you today on average. So what's sort of a sweet spot that they pay you per month to use the technology?
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Chapter 3: What best practices were integrated into Promise's development?
We have people that are pure MSPs or managed service providers. We also have a group of physical security and fire suppression and fire security and fire alarm system companies. They all have the same common problem. They sell equipment. They need to quote the equipment and the labor. They have to deliver the equipment and the labor, and then they want to do post-implementation support.
And that's really the sweet spot for our stuff.
And that account that's 150 users, I imagine that's your largest account. What does that ACV represent? Is that like $100,000 a year contract?
That's about right. Yep.
Okay. Wow. And have they been with you since the beginning?
Most of our customers have been around for five plus years. In that case, some of the larger ones have been around for almost 10 years. And where we lose customers is actually sometimes they get bought or they go out of business. Usually the smaller ones.
How many customers are you working with today, John?
So we both have, I guess, approximately about 150, 200.
Oh, wow. Okay. That's a lot. You're managing 150 customers at $2,300 a month with a team of three people?
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Chapter 4: How does Promise help agencies manage their operations?
Okay. Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
I actually do pretty good. I do like six to sometimes seven.
Okay. That's great. And what's your situation, John? Married, single, kids?
I'm divorced and I do have three girls.
Three kiddos. And how old are you?
Pardon?
How old are you? I'm 65. Last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.
everything that I know now, more about people, people in situations that, you know, what with age comes wisdom. And it's pretty powerful because you, my favorite expression is that life is a wonderful teacher. The only problem is it gives you the test before the lesson. And so I like making mistakes because I think you learn much more from mistakes than you do from successes.
Guys, there you have it. John launched Promise, P-R-O-M-Y-S.com back in 2011. He's helping agencies track billable hours, both on machines and equipment and also humans to make sure nothing leaks through and profit margins stay high. He's doing about $300,000 a month in revenue a year ago, now $345,000 a month. Healthy growth, 150 customers, totally bootstrapped, which we love.
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