Amit Shanbhag, co-founder of RocketReach.co, a company that allows users to lookup email addresses, phones, social links, etc. for over 250 million professionals worldwide. Amit bootstrapped to RocketReach from zero to over a hundred thousand customers including Apple, Google, and Morgan Stanley to name a few. He has more than a dozen patents and started his professional life writing code for geo-stationary satellites. He loves open water swimming, watching cricket, and spending time with his 4-year old son.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – N/A
• What CEO do you follow? –  Marissa Mayer

• Favorite online tool? — Google Drive
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Live the moment and enjoy what you have”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:53 – Nathan introduces Amit  to the show
• 02:33 – RocketReach is a sales management tool
• 02:54 – RocketReach was founded in 2015
• 03:03 – Amit and his co-founder used to work for a SaaS business
• 03:15 – They tried to get information from www.data.com for user acquisition
• • 03:25 – They realized that the data is 85% inaccurate
• 03:31 – They tried different tools
• 04:25 – Team size
• 04:40 – Completely bootstrapped
• 04:51 – They tried to raise a small round
• • 05:18 – Went to institution investors
  • 05:27 – The terms were not profitable
  • 05:40 – Amit stopped fund-raising after 6 months
• 05:58 – They had 10,000 customers in March
• 06:40 – Companies that are the competition
• 07:35 – RocketReach is SaaS and has monthly subscription
• • 07:40 – Plans are $ 49, $ 99 and $ 299
  • 07:46 – Salespeople and recruiters are the biggest user base
  • 08:30 – Most of the users are from the $ 99 plan
• 09:10 – MRR
• 09:40 – They were doing a lot of outbound in January
• 10:04 – Most of their users now are from SEO
• 11:18 – Customers who buy access to RocketReach API
• • 11:38 – They are considered as competition
• 12:29 – First year revenue
• • 12:45 – Total of $ 15 from October 2015 to December 2015
• 13:02 – March 2016 is when the growth started
• 13:40 – Did a deal with 500 startups companies
• 14:40 – Gross monthly churn
• 16:40 – Lifetime value
• 17:17 – Company expenses
• 18:09 – The quality of data that RocketReach has sets them apart from their competitors
• 18:30 – Comparison of RocketReach and Email Hunter
• 19:50 – Goal for 2016
• 20:53 – Decent offer in the SaaS space
• 21:15 – 2-digit percentage average monthly customer growth
• 22:15 – Connect with Amit through his website and Twitter
• 24:00 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• First year revenue is not always what you’re expecting.
• Improve your product to the point it makes your competitors, your customers.
• Live for the moment and enjoy what you have.

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 the 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.
• Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• RocketReach.co – Amit’s website
• @RocketReachco – Amit’s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives