Ep 143 Pam OHara of BatchBook joins Nathan.

Pam O’Hara is the CEO of Batchbook social CRM, which she co-founded in 2006. She is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. As a businesswoman and mother, she is committed to running a company that can adapt to the unique needs of both its employees and its customers in order to foster better organization, increased productivity and more balanced lifestyles.

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3 Key Points:

1. As a business grows, it gains more sophisticated channels for customer acquisition.
2. It’s important for small businesses to be able to easily add employees and partners to their online communication networks – and Batchbook does just that.
3. Learning is a lifelong process, fail hard and fail fast instead of concentrating on getting every little thing right.

Episode Notes:

• 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
• 01:42 – Pam joins the show
• 02:31–  Small businesses needed an online tool to keep up with their advertisers, customers, and speakers
• 03:20 – Pam met her lead developer for Batchbook on the playground where their children played
• 05:20 – Batchbook, an online service offers two pricings, 33$ or 46$ per month billed annually
• 05:30 – They are a 9-year-old company that is self-funded and has around 20 team members
• 05:50 – Batchbook is used by tens of thousands of clients – free and paid
• 06:36 – Batchbook was the first online organizational and sharing service to offer an unlimited user plan
• 08:19 – They charge by successful relationships that translate into contacts
• 09:36 – The average business using Batchbook pays 42$ a month
• 09:51 – Pam looked at things in terms of 10K increments while Batchbook grew
• 11:00 – For the first 10K in revenue, Pam’s priority was getting Batchbook’s name out through word of mouth and telephone (this was before Facebook was popular)
• 11:51 – As a business grows, it gains more sophisticated channels for customer acquisition
• 13:01 – Batchbook uses channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for customer acquisition -Targeting a very specific type of customer is usually more successful
• 13:31 – A big part of Batchbook is its integration with other software products
• 14:28 – Batchbook’s churn rate is private, but the majority of customer’s will stay into the second month (mostly because of the free 30 day trial)
• 15:45 – After the second month, Batchbook has over a 95% retention rate
• 16:13 – Currently Batchbook isn’t seeking outside funding
• 16:30 – Pam’s team is launching a new standalone product in the first quarter of next year
• 17:25 – Currently Batchbook is not at break-even due to marketing spend investments
• 20:07 – Famous Five

Related: Want to learn how to go from $0-$10k/mo in revenue fast? Join Nathan live on the Starter Tribe Beta free workshop.

Famous 5:

• Favorite Book?— The Upside of Down by Megan McArdle and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• What CEO do you follow?— Chris Schroeder
• What is your favorite online tool?— Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Pam gets 1 to 24 hours of sleep every night – highly dependent on her three kids.
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Continue to learn and make mistakes instead of concentrating on doing everything right.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
• Batchbook – Pam’s business
• The Upside of Down by Megan McArdle – A book Pam stands by
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz – another book Pam stands by
• Slack – Pam’s favorite online tool
• Chris Schroeder – CEO Pam follows
• Want to learn how to go from $0-$10k/mo in revenue fast? Join Nathan live on the Starter Tribe Beta free workshop.

 

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Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

 

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