Gavin Zuchlinski, the founder of Acuity Scheduling—the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He’s a self-professed tech geek and an espresso-maniac who wholeheartedly believes that business should be totally fun.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Anything You Want
• What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove
• Favorite online tool? — Canary

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “8 and a half hour is my ideal number”
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing.”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:37 – Nathan introduces Gavin to the show
• 02:09 – Gavin is on his 4^th espresso for the day
• 02:25 – How Acuity Scheduling generate sales
• • 02:30 – SaaS to manage scheduling appointments online
  • 02:48 – Developed for Gavin’s mother
  • 03:00 – 2006 started
• 03:21 – Start of Gavin’s business
• • 03:48 – 2007 first year in business
  • 04:05 – Only a side project
  • 04:54 – First year revenue
• 05:21 – Transition from working as a government employee
• • 05:50 – Organic search results and SEO
  • 06:24 – Had friends’ sign up on private link
  • 06:45 – 2013 decided to shift
  • 07:15 – Hired the first employee
  • 07:50 – “Keep things small”
• 08:20 – Number of users on free trial
• • 08:50 – Number of users at the moment
  • 09:25 – 10% month over month increase
  • 09:50 – Number of users in the past week
• 10:54 – 85% active users on paid accounts
• 11:46 – Most SaaS count their total base
• 12:57 – Growth from organic results and referrals
• 13:54 – “When the rate of growth gets too high, that’s when I need to hire”
• 14:07 – Total team size
• • 14:18 – Everyone is remote
  • 14:40 – Support works for only 6 hours a day
  • 15:18 – Team size question is Gavin’s pet peeve
• 16:06 – Growth customer churn is about 8% per month
• • 16:18 – Dashboard churn
• 16:40 – Current customer acquisition cost on average
• • 16:55 – 10 dollars to acquire for paid acquisition
• 17:12 – Total marketing spender
• 18:07 – Total expected earnings from a new unique customer
• • 18:58 – Monthly RPO
• 19:37 – Gavin’s bootstrap
• 19:50 – Goal for the company
• • 20:08 – “Create a company where I enjoy working”
• 20:47 – Connect with Gavin thru his website and LinkedIn
• 22:40 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• Sometimes, you just have to choose – and choose what makes you happy.
• Small team has advantages too – it’s easier to manage.
• Just be patient and let things grow slowly.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• AcuityScheduling.com – Gavin’s website
• LinkedIn – Gavin’s linkedin account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives