SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
SoloSuit Makes $80k/mo Helping Consumers Fight Bank Debt Collectors
14 Dec 2021
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We think recurring revenue is a little bit overrated. And our revenue, I think, is very predictable. People are getting sued at the same rate every month. They have been for decades. So we consider our revenue to be very predictable, even though it isn't technically like monthly recurring revenue.
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 George Simons.
He started Solosuit in his first year of law school when he needed an attorney but couldn't find one. He graduated with his JD and MBA from BYU in his spare time, and he loves to cook because he loves to eat. Now helping people fight debt collectors again at Solosuit.com. George, are you ready to take us to the top?
Yeah.
Happy to be here. So what does this look like? Who is the main consumer you're supporting to help fight debt collectors?
Yeah, the main person that we help are people that are being sued for debt lawsuit, right? So when somebody gets sued for debt, they get on Google or YouTube and they search how to respond to debt collection lawsuit. And then they find Solosuit in those search results. Then we walk them through the process and give them the help they need.
But is this a particular kind of debt, like a home mortgage they're laid on or credit card debt or something else or what?
Yeah, 10 million people are sued for debt every year in the US. 9 million of them automatically lose their case because they can't figure out how to respond. So we're targeting those 9 million people to make it easier to respond. That said, usually most people that are coming to us, they're in credit card debt.
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Chapter 2: How does Solosuit help consumers fight debt collectors?
Filing a legal document is insanely difficult. People, even once they generated their document on our site, a lot of people didn't file because it was just too hard to file a document in court. So we offered a filing service, paid filing service in 2019. And then I went full-time on the project once I graduated in April 2020, right after the COVID shutdowns.
And then, so, I mean, give me a sense of scale, right? How many, I guess, lawsuits did you process in 2020?
Lawsuits processed in 2020... Good question. I'm not super sure. Right now, let me see. At the moment, we've helped over 22,000 people, and we've helped protect over $100 million from predatory debt losses.
So what does that mean? You've helped 22,000 or 2,200?
Yeah, 22,000 people have made accounts with SilverSoup.
Got it. I imagine everyone who makes an account, though, doesn't actually file paperwork. How many have you actually filed and saved $100 million for?
I don't have that number top of mind.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do consumers face when responding to debt lawsuits?
I mean, isn't that like the number one thing you're tracking in terms of success rate? How do you not have that number?
I have the accounts that people have made with our service and then how much money we're saving them on each debt lawsuit.
But you don't save them money unless they actually file, like have you review, pay the fee and you help them file, correct?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Currently, we help 400 paying customers a month. That's what we're doing.
Oh, wow. That's a lot. Okay. Can I take 400 times 12 last year? You helped, what, 4,000 or so during COVID fight back against debt lawsuits?
I don't have the aggregate number top of mind.
Okay. But right now, your run rate is like 400 in October. That's right. Interesting. Now, is there a model here where you can go from... I mean, obviously, getting $197, 400 times a month is what? $80,000 in revenue. But it's really hard for you to hire people and build a real company unless you have revenue you can plan on.
So is there a model here where it can turn into recurring or no, not really?
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: How does Solosuit's process work for generating legal documents?
How did you get so good at SEO? I mean, you were like a lawyer.
Yeah, I actually... How did I get good at SEO?
Do you do it or do you hire someone?
We do it. Yeah, it's kind of a crazy story. Then one summer before law school, I figured, you know, I'm just going to take crazy Craigslist jobs and see what kind of crazy job I can get off of Craigslist. And I sifted through a lot of scams, a lot of bizarre jobs. There's this one lady who wanted help moving her trampoline.
and then i found a lot of people were searching for content writers on craigslist um pretty bottom of the barrel content writing gigs i took some of those and got interested in like writing content and then from there i worked with another y combinator company doing content uh for them and i think that's probably where i got most of my um training.
They had a great SEO marketing channel and really learned how they were doing it. And then from there, I applied that.
Which channel is that? So my listeners can go learn too.
The company I was working for was Simple Citizen. They used SEO very well to drive revenue.
Okay. Got it. But I thought you said there was a channel you watched where you learned.
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Chapter 5: What is the pricing model for Solosuit's services?
In terms of growth rate, I mean, if you're doing like 400 new customers a month today, do you remember where you were a year ago?
What was a year ago? November 2020. Um, yeah, I think we were, we were publicly doing, we were on startup. We were on tech crunch startup battlefield last year around that time. And we were doing 15,000 revenue.
No, no. I mean, do you remember how many customers that you were... I mean, I guess I can take 15,000 divided by 179. So what is that? You were doing like 80, 90 responses per month?
Yeah. I don't remember exactly how many customers we were doing, but that sounds about right.
Yeah. Well, it sounds like more than Forex, which is great. So it sounds like you've mentioned YC, you mentioned Disrupt. So have you raised capital?
Yeah, we raised money. We went through Y Combinator at the beginning of this year, and we've done what we call Seed Round.
And how much did you raise?
We've raised less than a million so far.
Okay.
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Chapter 6: When was Solosuit officially launched and what changes occurred over time?
Why do you need the capital? I mean, why do you need to raise for something like this? Why not just keep it, print money for yourself, get rich?
Yeah. Yeah. Certainly could have done that. I think raising money in my mind as a form of de-risking a venture. I think some people think that it like increases the risk, but for us, I see it as like a form of de-risking. Why is that? Yeah. Because it allows for more of a cushion for the team. It increases our runway. It also allows us to grow faster as well.
But doesn't it mean you actually have to grow faster? I mean, doesn't it make you just go faster either up or faster down? It actually decreases your ability to do something long-term.
I don't think so. No, I don't believe that is what happens necessarily. I think a lot of people raise money and then they... feel like they have to spend that money quickly. I think that's oftentimes the pressure that people put on themselves, unless it's like a later stage raise where they're giving up control of the company with a board seat or something like that.
I think in early stage fundraising, I think that the founders maintaining control of the company, if they want to spend that money really fast, then they can, or otherwise they can uh, spend it slower to do more controlled growth.
You certainly like controlled growth, but the second you take a dollar, you are like officially on the VC track. And so if you're not raising every 12 to 18 months, the market's going, what the hell's wrong with these people? What's going on? There must be something wrong with them.
Sure. And you know, I think there's companies out there that have raised money and then gone silent for years.
Name, name a couple or name one.
Um, I think as Zapier comes to mind, I'm not super familiar with their background, but I believe Zapier followed a path where they raised the Series A. And then I think they were kind of quiet for a while and they have a multi-billion dollar valuation.
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Chapter 7: How has Solosuit scaled its operations and customer base?
Most of the filing stuff's already automated. What we're doing is we are, according to my knowledge, the first and only company that is compiling a software stack that allows us to calculate the filing information for different courts and then to file on those courts. There's thousands of courts. Nobody actually knows how many courts there are in the US.
Our estimate is there's like 10 to 30,000 courts in the US and we are quickly becoming the company that can file all those courts.
How do you feel about this? And this might be slightly controversial, but I mean, if someone went out and spent unrealistically and put $5,000 on their credit card that they cannot afford and they're getting sued, I mean, don't they owe that money? Why would you want to help them get out of that? Shouldn't they pay that back? They spent the money.
Yeah, for a few reasons. So one, we aren't necessarily, we aren't the judge, right? Solstice is not the judge. We are empowering consumers to get access to justice in courts. And it's still up to the court to decide what justice is. But there's a huge power asymmetry, just mind-blowing power asymmetry in the debt collection lawsuits currently. And we are seeking to even the playing fields.
In the news, I think we oftentimes think of lawsuits that we hear about where an individual is going and suing a multi-billion dollar corporation. You have a customer that sues McDonald's. What we don't oftentimes hear about as much is where these multi-billion dollar corporations are actually suing a lone consumer. We have customers that are being sued by Discover Bank. It's like Nancy Smith
I get all that. My point is, if Nancy Smith spent money she knew she didn't have, she's contractually signed a credit card agreement, why don't these people should pay what they spent? I mean, why shouldn't they be sued?
I'm totally fine with them being sued. They have a right to pay back. And I think regardless of whether or not she owes that money, we are very happy to provide her the support that she needs to get access to justice in court. and to fight for her own rights in court.
I'm just trying to understand what grounds would anyone have to stand on if they spent money they can't pay back to the bank? To me, that feels like what you're doing is effectively empowering. There is a power imbalance. You're empowering consumers, but something just feels wrong to me.
If someone signed and basically said, yes, I'll pay this money back, they buy whatever they buy, and then they don't, banks should sue them all day long.
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