StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Jan 23, 2024 · 25m · top-founders

How to Make $3m Building a Slack Clone with no money, experience, or sales team

Dmitry Okunev · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 9m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of Conversations with Nathan Latka, Chanty founder Dimitro Okunyev explains how he bootstrapped his team collaboration platform to $3 million in annual recurring revenue and strong profitability. He details his affiliate acquisition model, rejection of multiple buyout offers, and ongoing search for an enterprise sales co-founder offering 15% equity.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 41.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 6.6 Guest teaching 3.8 Guest disagreement 2.8 Nathan pushing back 5.4
05100:0010:0020:001:28–3:59 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Bootstrapping Chanty and Product-Led Customer Growth Latka immediately checks Okunyev's customer growth numbers against his revenue history, calculating that customer count jumped 24x while revenue only doubled.4:00–9:24 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Affiliate Commission Economics and Competitive Value Pricing Latka drills down into the affiliate model mechanics, repeatedly challenging Okunyev on whether Chanty actually owns customer billing and relationships when resellers handle the transactions.9:24–13:55 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Operational Efficiency, Profitability, and Acquisition Valuation Okunyev explains his team structure and high profit margins while standing firm on his high internal valuation and refusing to sell his business.13:56–16:21 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Recruiting a Sales Co-Founder Okunyev openly discusses the struggle of acquiring enterprise accounts organically and details his exact equity compensation formula for an incoming sales co-founder.16:21–23:56 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Content Marketing Strategy, SEO Conversion, and Organic Writers Okunyev schools Latka on SEO realities, clarifying that high-traffic articles generate vanity clicks while specific high-intent comparison guides drive real conversions.1:28–3:59 · Guest teaching 3/10 Bootstrapping Chanty and Product-Led Customer Growth Latka immediately checks Okunyev's customer growth numbers against his revenue history, calculating that customer count jumped 24x while revenue only doubled.4:00–9:24 · Guest teaching 4/10 Affiliate Commission Economics and Competitive Value Pricing Latka drills down into the affiliate model mechanics, repeatedly challenging Okunyev on whether Chanty actually owns customer billing and relationships when resellers handle the transactions.9:24–13:55 · Guest teaching 3/10 Operational Efficiency, Profitability, and Acquisition Valuation Okunyev explains his team structure and high profit margins while standing firm on his high internal valuation and refusing to sell his business.13:56–16:21 · Guest teaching 2/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Recruiting a Sales Co-Founder Okunyev openly discusses the struggle of acquiring enterprise accounts organically and details his exact equity compensation formula for an incoming sales co-founder.16:21–23:56 · Guest teaching 7/10 Content Marketing Strategy, SEO Conversion, and Organic Writers Okunyev schools Latka on SEO realities, clarifying that high-traffic articles generate vanity clicks while specific high-intent comparison guides drive real conversions.1:28–3:59 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Bootstrapping Chanty and Product-Led Customer Growth Latka immediately checks Okunyev's customer growth numbers against his revenue history, calculating that customer count jumped 24x while revenue only doubled.4:00–9:24 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Affiliate Commission Economics and Competitive Value Pricing Latka drills down into the affiliate model mechanics, repeatedly challenging Okunyev on whether Chanty actually owns customer billing and relationships when resellers handle the transactions.9:24–13:55 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Operational Efficiency, Profitability, and Acquisition Valuation Okunyev explains his team structure and high profit margins while standing firm on his high internal valuation and refusing to sell his business.13:56–16:21 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Recruiting a Sales Co-Founder Okunyev openly discusses the struggle of acquiring enterprise accounts organically and details his exact equity compensation formula for an incoming sales co-founder.16:21–23:56 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Content Marketing Strategy, SEO Conversion, and Organic Writers Okunyev schools Latka on SEO realities, clarifying that high-traffic articles generate vanity clicks while specific high-intent comparison guides drive real conversions.1:28–3:59 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Bootstrapping Chanty and Product-Led Customer Growth Latka immediately checks Okunyev's customer growth numbers against his revenue history, calculating that customer count jumped 24x while revenue only doubled.4:00–9:24 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Affiliate Commission Economics and Competitive Value Pricing Latka drills down into the affiliate model mechanics, repeatedly challenging Okunyev on whether Chanty actually owns customer billing and relationships when resellers handle the transactions.9:24–13:55 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Operational Efficiency, Profitability, and Acquisition Valuation Okunyev explains his team structure and high profit margins while standing firm on his high internal valuation and refusing to sell his business.13:56–16:21 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Recruiting a Sales Co-Founder Okunyev openly discusses the struggle of acquiring enterprise accounts organically and details his exact equity compensation formula for an incoming sales co-founder.16:21–23:56 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Content Marketing Strategy, SEO Conversion, and Organic Writers Okunyev schools Latka on SEO realities, clarifying that high-traffic articles generate vanity clicks while specific high-intent comparison guides drive real conversions.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 71.7% · guest 28.3%0:00 · Nathan 71.7% · guest 28.3%3:00 · Nathan 46.9% · guest 53.1%3:00 · Nathan 46.9% · guest 53.1%6:00 · Nathan 34.4% · guest 65.6%6:00 · Nathan 34.4% · guest 65.6%9:00 · Nathan 37.2% · guest 62.8%9:00 · Nathan 37.2% · guest 62.8%12:00 · Nathan 31.9% · guest 68.1%12:00 · Nathan 31.9% · guest 68.1%15:00 · Nathan 42.1% · guest 57.9%15:00 · Nathan 42.1% · guest 57.9%18:00 · Nathan 20.9% · guest 79.1%18:00 · Nathan 20.9% · guest 79.1%21:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%21:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%24:00 · Nathan 72.7% · guest 27.3%24:00 · Nathan 72.7% · guest 27.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 18:02 Okunyev refutes Latka's third-party traffic analytics

Okunyev directly contradicts Latka's stated web traffic numbers, asserting that real visitor volume and conversion behaviors are completely different from Latka's external data.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 6:07 Latka challenges recurring retention without direct billing

Latka refuses Okunyev's vague reassurance about technical credit card support, reiterating that failing to own the direct billing relationship undermines future churn and expansion assumptions.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 16:58 Okunyev explains why vanity SEO keywords fail to convert

Okunyev explains to Latka why his seemingly top-performing productivity quote post is commercially useless compared to low-traffic, high-intent product comparison pages.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 2:57 Latka spots unit economics disparity across interviews

Latka uses historical interview data to instantly calculate that Okunyev increased customer accounts by 2400% while only growing top-line revenue by 100%.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Bootstrapping Chanty and Product-Led Customer Growth 7326 Latka immediately checks Okunyev's customer growth numbers against his revenue history, calculating that customer count jumped 24x while revenue only doubled.
Affiliate Commission Economics and Competitive Value Pricing 8448 Latka drills down into the affiliate model mechanics, repeatedly challenging Okunyev on whether Chanty actually owns customer billing and relationships when resellers handle the transactions.
Operational Efficiency, Profitability, and Acquisition Valuation 6335 Okunyev explains his team structure and high profit margins while standing firm on his high internal valuation and refusing to sell his business.
Enterprise Customer Acquisition and Recruiting a Sales Co-Founder 5213 Okunyev openly discusses the struggle of acquiring enterprise accounts organically and details his exact equity compensation formula for an incoming sales co-founder.
Content Marketing Strategy, SEO Conversion, and Organic Writers 7745 Okunyev schools Latka on SEO realities, clarifying that high-traffic articles generate vanity clicks while specific high-intent comparison guides drive real conversions.

Statements from this episode (14)

Disclosure
Chanty reached $3M revenue with zero salespeople, says founder Dimitro Okunyev
“We still doesn't have salespeople on the team. So it's just pure product-led growth.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 2:00
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Chanty generates $3 million revenue with $4,600 LTV, says Dimitro Okunyev
“We are around three million right now. The customer lifestyle value grew up to the 4.6 K and the actually user base grew up accordingly. The paid user base.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 2:19
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dimitro Okunyev says Chanty has 24,000 paying customers
“Currently we have 24,000 of paying customers, which are basically quite of them are small. That's we have a few who are like really, really, really big.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 2:36
Disclosure
Chanty pays affiliates up to 70% commission in year one, says Okunyev
“Up to 70%.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 4:12
Disclosure
Chanty excludes affiliate payouts from its $3M revenue, says Dimitro Okunyev
“No, no, that's just this 30% cut that we got for ourselves. The rest are going out of us. So, I mean, we don't even see this money.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 5:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Chanty relies on five key partners and 1,000 small affiliates
“So we have, Five key partners who runs international. Let's say like that. And we have yeah, currently more than thousand of, like, very small affiliate partners.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 6:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A single Indian reseller brings Chanty up to 300 customers monthly
“I think around two, 300.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 8:13
Assertion Supported
Dimitro Okunyev positions Chanty as 10x cheaper than Slack, Zoom, and Trello
“You know, Lapsum for the Slack, Microsoft, Slack, Zoom, and Trello would be like 41 dollar, so we are almost 10 times cheaper.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 9:02
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Chanty runs its $3M ARR business with just 16 people, says Okunyev
“Well, we are currently 16 people. So eight engineers. The other people, they are not engineers, but they are, they run technical roles.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 9:42
Disclosure
Dimitro Okunyev rejected a $10 million buyout offer from a public company
“Yeah, the offer was like quite nice. It was like, ten millions. I don't believe that this is the fair price so far.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 10:49
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dimitro Okunyev predicts Chanty will hit 70-80% profit margins within two years
“So I would expect that our profit margins would be around like 70 to 80%, maybe in a year or two.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 11:28
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Chanty's largest single customer pays approximately $300,000 annually, says Dimitro Okunyev
“So they pay around 300 K. Okay.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 14:22
Disclosure
Dimitro Okunyev is willing to offer 15% equity for a sales co-founder
“Yeah, I have a clear Clear number of mines, so I calculated that it could be like 15%.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 15:23
Disclosure
Chanty avoids paid advertising because unit economics do not work, says Okunyev
“No. in my opinion, the math barely fits here for us.”
Dmitry Okunev Jan 23, 2024 ▶ 23:26
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more