Don Breckenridge, a life-long entrepreneur and the founder of Hatchbuck. Listen as Don shares how he made Hatchbuck a successful company and the struggles he endured to bring it to life. 

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A

• Favorite online tool? — Lean Canvas
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I had mentored earlier”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:41 – Nathan introduces Don  to the show
• 02:00 – What is Hatchbuck and how it generates revenue
• • 02:05 – Sales and marketing software that  helps small businesses grow their revenue
  • 02:11 – CRM + email marketing
• 02:39 – Price point starts at $59 a month
• • 02:50 – Subscription model as recurring revenue
  • 02:55 – Discount for semi-annual and annual subscriptions
• 03:17 – Price increase is based on number of users and contacts
• 03:55 – Average revenue per customer per month
• • 04:10 – When customers see results, they’ll start to use more of the product
• 04:23 – Launched in 2012
• 04:40 – Don had a SaaS company prior to Hatchbuck
• • 05:10 – The business was running smoothly
  • 05:20 – Don saw the need for SMB apps that could actually help businesses
• 06:04 – Number of current users
• • 06:20 – Average number of users per customers
• 06:40 – First year revenue
• 06:58 – Self-funded before raised capital
• • 07:10 – Raised over $5 million
• 07:28 – Series A or series B
• • 07:45 – Their investors are great supporters
• 08:18 – The market of SaaS is an attractive business to invest in
• 08:30 – Under $2M revenue in 2015
• 09:00 – MRR computation
• 09:32 – Churn
• • 09:59 – Have a product customer fit
  • 10:16 – “We tried to focus on who our customer is”
• 10:51 – Gross customer monthly churn
• • 11:15 – Around 3% churn
  • 11:34 – In SMB, there’s an average of 3-4% churn
  • 12:00 – Hubspot 0% revenue churn
  • 12:25 – Companies that has negative churn that are not MSB
• 13:00 – Fully inbound marketing
• • 13:10 – Produce a lot of content on the web
• 13:40 – CAC ratio
• • 13:50 – “If your MRR churn rate bounces around, it starts to be really difficult”
  • 14:25 – Healthy ratio
• 14:44 – Lifetime value
• 14:48 – Acquisition cost
• 15:00 – Paid media
• • 15:10 – Marketing courses, Google Adwords
• 15:29 – Don is based in Missouri
• 15:34 – Team size is 30
• • 15:40 – Some remote employees
• 15:55 – The $5 million funding
• • 16:06 – “We’re always raising funds”
• 16:32 – Goal for the company
• 17:10 – Monthly revenue growth
• 17:35 – Connect with Don through Hatchbuck.com
• 19:05 - The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• Find a space to fill.
• Aim for positive results – that is what will make customers hold onto your product.
• It’s never too late to learn.

 

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.
• Hatchbuck.com – Don’s company
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives