Gary Guseinov, an investor, operator, and advisor in various technology companies including Business Hangouts, InCast, Playsino and Revenue.com. During his career, he has over $100 million in growth capital and structured complex financial transactions. He’s also acquired over 300 million users for global technology product and services.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Power the Mind
• What CEO do you follow? –  Mark Zuckerberg

• Favorite online tool? — Calendly
• 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 knew how to start a business with very little capital”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:26 – Nathan introduces Gary to the show
• 02:08 – Business Hangouts is a web-conferencing and webinar platform
• • 02:17 – It is specifically designed for Google apps
• 02:47 – Gary has raised capital for USTechSupport in 2003
• • 03:07 – Private from 2003 to 2007
  • 03:15 – From September 2007 to 2012, it became public in Nasdaq
  • 03:22 – It was bought out by a big marketing company in LA
  • 03:29 – Gary was the co-founder and left the company because he needed a break
• 04:24 – “It takes a lot of processes when it comes to legal and accounting when you shift from private to public”
• • 05:05 – SDC reviews the applications and processes
• 05:20 – Gary was in his mid-thirties when he started USTechSupport and didn’t have any experience running a company
• • 05:29 – Gary is now 46
• 05:40 – Gary acquired Business Hangouts from the previous owner
• • 05:51 – Business Hangouts had 1.7 million enterprise users when it was acquired
  • 06:02 – Over 700,000 registered users and 70,000 enterprise users
  • 06:40 – Number of paying users
• 07:10 – Business Hangouts’ competitors usually separate web conferencing and webinar leading to 2 different subscriptions
• • 07:48 – Consumers wouldn’t know what their monthly expenses were going to be
• 07:54 – Business Hangouts is not as complicated as their competitors
• • 08:10 – “Our pricing model is very simple”
• 09:07 – Average monthly RPU is $70
• 10:40 – Business Hangouts is currently getting offers from investors
• 11:45 – “We try to build a business based on purely economics”
• 12:06 – “We think that we are a strong contender to multi-million dollar entities”
• 12:54 – Gary does not wish to disclose their MRR because they are not looking for capital at the moment as they are still a small company
• 13:57 – Gary’s goal is to stay “at the radar”
• • 14:18 – “You want to be good at what you’re doing and you want the market to recognize that”
• 14:55 – Churn is less than 10% yearly
• 15:32 – Gary acquired the company for less than $10 million
• 17:00 – Gary can afford to put inside sales representatives in the demo
• 17:36 – Business Hangouts is completely bootstrapped
• 18:15 – Current CAC is zero
• 18:55 – Team size is less than 10
• 19:16 – Connect with Gray through LinkedIn
• 20:42 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• Choose a business that is viable in the marketplace. 
• Staying “at the radar” while doing an excellent job at what you do will help you become recognized by the marketplace. 
• You CAN start a business without raising capital.

 

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 the 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.
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• LinkedIn – Gary’s LinkedIn account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives