SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Language Optimization SaaS Hits $23k MRR in 6 Months, 9 FTE's, $3m Valuation
03 Apr 2022
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Now, if we take the ACV target you told us earlier, you know, those customers are all paying between five and 10K ACVs. That means you're doing something like, I mean, it sounds like something like 250,000 bucks in annual recurring revenue already. Is that about right?
Yeah, that's about right. Exactly.
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 Nadia Fisher.
She is one of the top 10 entrepreneurs in Sweden, formerly head of marketing in a San Francisco-based startup. She became an IT project manager and thereafter joined PwC to build their digital experience center. At Wittyworks, she is the CEO and acts at the interface of clients' needs and technological implementation. Nadia, are you ready to take us to the top?
Yeah, sure.
Okay. So what is Wittyworks? What are customers using you for?
Well, customers have real trouble scaling diversity and inclusion. And that's what our B2B sauce is for. It helps them to write inclusively and to act inclusively. And this thanks to a de-biased language AI and micro-learning.
So give me an example. Maybe someone's putting a copy up on their website that says, Hey, guys, we hope you enjoy your product. And you might say, Hey, the word guys is not inclusive. Try this language instead.
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Chapter 2: What is Wittyworks and what problem does it solve?
Okay. So you just started, it sounds like you just started having customers about six months ago. When did you write the first line of code for the platform?
Like one year ago, about. Yeah. We had a kind of MVP, which we tested the market with and found out that, you know, yes, customers are actually ready to spend money on inclusive language. And then as soon as we had that, we started to build the real product.
I see. Okay. So what do you work? So you get gone in 2021 last year. Now, did you, have you bootstrapping or have you raised capital?
So yeah, the first month we were bootstrapping and then we raised capital mid last year with friends and family around.
How much did you decide to raise?
A $750 US, $50,000 US, sorry.
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Chapter 3: How does Wittyworks utilize AI for inclusive language?
No, you're okay.
And most folks, when they're raising a pre-seed round in that range, they're usually raising on a note. Did you use a note?
No, this was a little bit complicated. I guess in Switzerland, we made an equity round, but in the aftermath, I wouldn't do that anymore. It's just, you know, in Switzerland, when you use notes, it's rather very small notes, like 20 to 25,000. So you would have to raise a lot of notes and that makes it very complicated. So that was why we went for an equity round.
I think in the aftermath, I'd rather go to the US or bigger markets and see if I can attract VCs from the start and two nodes.
Well, how do you price around your pre-revenue? I mean, how do you guys come up with a valuation?
Yeah, this was actually a negotiation topic. It was funny because in the beginning we thought, okay, this is a scientific thing, right? And so we researched and we calculated and calculated again. And then we find out because we didn't have any experience. We're first-time startupers. So we realized that it was much more of a negotiation thing.
So you come out with a certain number and then, you know, angels will tell you, no, that's too high or, you know, so. This is a little bit of a risk if you don't have any experience yet, actually. And also it depends very much on the market. So in Switzerland, the valuations are normally quite low. In Europe, a little bit higher.
How low in Switzerland?
Well, you know, if you come out as a pre-seed, it's really hard to get anything. Like the pre-seed valuations are like between 2 million and maybe 3 million, something like that. Where I see when I watch now the US, you know, stuff like that can already be at 8, 10 million.
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Chapter 4: What is the subscription model and pricing structure of Wittyworks?
Check it out today at founderpath.com forward slash products. That's plural forward slash valuations. Again, both plural founderpath.com forward slash products forward slash valuations. And Nadia, how many customers are you now serving today? I know you're early, but are we talking two customers or 20 or something else?
So 32 customers and some of them really big brands like Microsoft, Intel, Deutsche Bahn, Deloitte. So quite big customers, actually.
Yeah, no, that sounds great. Now, if we take the ACV target you told us earlier, those customers are all paying between 5 and 10K ACVs. That means you're doing something like, I mean, it sounds like something like 250,000 bucks in annual recurring revenue already. Is that about right?
Yeah, that's about right. Exactly.
Yeah. Or about $20,000 a month if you calculate it on a monthly basis.
Right. Exactly. It's a $23,000 MRR. There you go.
She knows the number exactly. $23,000 up from nothing a year ago. So you have infinite growth, right?
Yes.
That's great. Okay. So, I mean, look, selling, enter your first sales at five to 10 K a pop. That's not easy. Most people are selling premium tools for like five bucks a month and they upsell from there. You went right out and are landing five, 10 K contracts. How are you doing that?
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Chapter 5: When did Wittyworks launch and how quickly did it grow?
Wait.
So how many engineers, four engineers?
Yeah. Four engineers. And three of them are women.
Oh, that's amazing. That's why you're growing so fast. All right. Four engineers. Great. The others are sales marketing. Your go-to-market is content marketing strategy. It sounds like 32 customers to date. Talk to me a little bit more about the product. What's the next big product release you have planned?
So the next big product release is the whole gamification part within the app to make that better so you can see your own progress, you can see your analytics. And then naturally, you know, especially for big corporations, we have to take a look at the whole privacy and data protection issue.
Naturally, I know in the US it's maybe not such a big problem as in Europe, but, you know, many corporations cannot you know, let you work with a browser extension if the whole privacy issue is not regulated, right?
Yeah.
So we need to find their solution. We actually already got it. We just need to build it, you know, to build private clouds for these corporations so they don't have to worry about a thing.
Nadia, do you already have a sales rep that carries a quota or you're too early for that?
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Chapter 6: What challenges did Wittyworks face in fundraising?
Sorry, I didn't understand.
Your favorite online tool?
Slack.
Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
I really make sure that I get seven hours.
That's great. And what's your situation? Are you married, single, kids?
So I'm married and I have two kids. They're 14 and 16.
Oh, wow. And do you want me to ask you how old you are?
I'm 50.
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