SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Zoom Teleprompter For Sales People Hits $1k MRR in 30 Days After Spending $8k on MVP
31 Oct 2021
Chapter 1: How did the guest achieve $1k MRR in just 30 days?
So you went from nothing, sort of launch sales about a month ago to now six customers paying 150 a month for about 900 bucks a month in revenue, right? Yes, that is right. Zero to 1K in 30 days. That's a book title right there.
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Hey folks, my guest today is Robin Singby. He helps deliver perfect live sales demos via his software tool, GetSmartQ.com. Robin, you ready to take us to the top? I am, yes. Thanks for having me on the show, Nathan. You bet. Tell us more about the business. So can you maybe give us a customer example? Who's paying you and what are they paying you for?
Sure. So we have about six customers right now and we have delivered SmartQ to them that enables their SaaS sales teams deliver, like the tagline says, deliver the best product demos. Most of them are based in the US. We have a couple in Europe. So early days, but we have pretty good traction and we're getting some great feedback from the customers. When did you launch the business?
Uh, well, you know, we've been, we've been building it for the better part of this year and we've officially started selling it, uh, in September of 2021.
When did you write a first line of code?
I want to say we wrote it on January 26th of this year, which happens to be, you know, it's a big holiday in India.
So that's why I remember the date. Very cool. And who'd you write it with? Did you write all the code or you have co-founders?
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Chapter 2: What challenges did the guest face with their co-founder?
You'll have to cut me some slack. I've just been doing this for a month now. I'm like, okay, what's the best way to do it?
I could be wrong, by the way. I'm being polarizing on purpose. It just strikes me that from what I understand, that's what I would be doing.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think you're probably right. I think I'm going to look at it real quick because that's the next step, right? I mean, in terms of what we're trying to do next is, one, get a technical co-founder, two, get a growth marketer on board and raise some funding along the way as well. And then really focus on getting that scale and traction quickly. How much do you want to raise?
We're looking to raise about $2 million today. Why do you need $2 million to build this? We don't need $2 million to build SmartQ, but I think we could use all the dollars that we can get to actually acquire customers.
But you don't know how to spend money to acquire customers, do you?
You know, we have hypotheses that whether it is, you know, on SEO, whether it is actually doing, you know, Google LinkedIn ads, we're actually trying to spend money on video instead of just doing, you know, blogs and that kind of content, actually doing video content. So we have ideas on how we want to spend some of that money. Uh, but I think that's insanity.
You're going to sell such a big chunk of your business. If you raise 2 million bucks at this stage, when the, in my opinion, the clear free, no, you don't even pay for it. Go to market is like dominate the zoom app exchange. Like what, why? I just don't understand. I mean, you'd have to sell, you probably raised 2 million on four pre maybe five cap, right? Like a safe, but it's so dilutive.
Why would you do that?
Uh, I guess it's going to be a discussion, but we're talking to a few investors and we're looking to raise $2 million on a $10 million valuation.
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Chapter 3: What is the pricing model for the guest's product?
Uh, some of the folks I'm talking to, I think, uh, I think, you know, we're on the same, same level.
Robin, find me a VC that doesn't want you to go to a billion or zero in the next two years. Find me a VC that says, you know, Robin, it's cool. Just build a nice, sustainable business that got flat lines at 20 million in revenue, but it's very profitable. And if you pay yourself dividends, if you find me a VC that says that.
Yeah.
Fair enough. And that is obviously not my VC pitch. And of course, I want to grow the company, but I don't want to go crazy. I want to do it my way. I realize that I do need external funding to stand out and compete.
Why have you told yourself that story? I think it's a false narrative.
You know, I think that there is some merit in what you're saying. And I think I will go back and evaluate what you're saying if that fits into how I'm thinking of running the business, where I see myself in the next 12 to 18 months. But I think over the past 10 months since we've been building the business, this approach of raising this sort of money and this sort of valuation is
seem to sit well with me.
You know, it's going to suck. You know, it's really going to suck. You're going to raise 2 million out of 10 free. Yeah. Fine. Whatever your buddies that you, you take your buddy, your old boss's money, whatever. Great. Great for you. Then you're You're going to keep growing revenue and you're going to get a $6 million acquisition offer. And you still own 70% of the business.
You'd love to take that deal because it makes you rich very quick. It gets blocked. You can't do that because you have to sell for at least a couple of times the valuation that the folks just put money in at. So now you're stuck on this like mousetrap where it's like IPO or bust. Your optionality is drastically decreased.
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Chapter 4: What strategies did the guest use to acquire their first customers?
Cause I'm like, Oh yeah, I should probably put it on my website.
Well, that's your idea. Not mine. You said it. Um, Okay, cool. So got it.
That's what it is.
Yeah. And, and how are you, so moving forward, you're targeting Slack groups, you're testing some other stuff, six customers today.
Chapter 5: How does the guest utilize their network for business growth?
Are you higher? What's the team size right now? How many people?
Uh, it's just me right now.
It's just me right now in a dev team. How much do you pay the dev team per month?
Uh, like I said, you know, put an 8k and we're putting in about a thousand dollars a month. Okay. And where are they based?
Argentina, Krakow, somewhere else? Actually in India. They're based in Bangalore. Bangalore. Interesting. Bangalore, four people. Very cool. Are you going through like Coditas or a firm like that? Or you, you know, these people directly? No, you know, I know these folks. Yeah. That's very cool. All right. Let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, Robin favorite business book.
Uh, zero to one, uh, by, by Peter Thiel. Number two CEO, you're following or studying.
Uh, this guy called Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm.
Okay. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building a business? Uh, loom. Yep. That's a good one. Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Do you want an average?
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