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Aug 21, 2023 · 15m · top-founders

How He hit $12k monthly revenue building the Zapier for Data

Blake Burch · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m 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 interview, Shipyard co-founder and CEO Blake Burch explains how he spun internal automation tools from an agency into a bootstrapped SaaS data orchestration platform generating $12,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Burch breaks down Shipyard's positioning as the 'Zapier for data,' detailing its usage-based pricing, low churn rates, programmatic SEO acquisition strategy, and enterprise compliance model.

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 33.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 6.6 Guest teaching 3.8 Guest disagreement 2.4 Nathan pushing back 4.6
05100:0010:000:36–2:58 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Introducing Blake Burch and Shipyard Overview Nathan introduces Shipyard and probes the value proposition by comparing it to MuleSoft and Zapier. Blake educates the audience and Nathan on the key difference: Zapier handles row-by-row logic, whereas Shipyard is designed for bulk data processing of gigabytes to terabytes.2:58–6:05 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Pricing Strategy, Usage Tiers, and Low Churn Rates Nathan aggressively interrogates Blake's metrics, demanding precise quantification on churn (gross vs. net, monthly vs. annual) and challenging the claim of 10% monthly account expansion. Blake clarifies that the high expansion percentage is due to a very low baseline pricing entry tier.6:05–9:00 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Origin Story and PMG Digital Agency Technology Spinout Nathan investigates the spinout structure from PMG Digital Agency and Momentum.com, probing potential equity complications, cap table conflicts, and whether Blake still operates with true founder autonomy.9:00–13:53 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Acquisition Milestones and Revenue Breakdown Nathan calculates MRR on the fly using customer counts and ARPU ($12k/mo) and presses Blake on why he claimed to be bootstrapped despite taking seed funding from PMG. Nathan also notices Blake manually executed SOC 2 compliance rather than using tools like Vanta.13:53–15:42 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Lessons Learned Nathan conducts the Famous Five lightning round with rapid-fire questions, highlighting Blake's programmatic SEO strategy using Webflow landing pages before summarizing the company's stats.0:36–2:58 · Guest teaching 5/10 Introducing Blake Burch and Shipyard Overview Nathan introduces Shipyard and probes the value proposition by comparing it to MuleSoft and Zapier. Blake educates the audience and Nathan on the key difference: Zapier handles row-by-row logic, whereas Shipyard is designed for bulk data processing of gigabytes to terabytes.2:58–6:05 · Guest teaching 4/10 Pricing Strategy, Usage Tiers, and Low Churn Rates Nathan aggressively interrogates Blake's metrics, demanding precise quantification on churn (gross vs. net, monthly vs. annual) and challenging the claim of 10% monthly account expansion. Blake clarifies that the high expansion percentage is due to a very low baseline pricing entry tier.6:05–9:00 · Guest teaching 4/10 Origin Story and PMG Digital Agency Technology Spinout Nathan investigates the spinout structure from PMG Digital Agency and Momentum.com, probing potential equity complications, cap table conflicts, and whether Blake still operates with true founder autonomy.9:00–13:53 · Guest teaching 4/10 Customer Acquisition Milestones and Revenue Breakdown Nathan calculates MRR on the fly using customer counts and ARPU ($12k/mo) and presses Blake on why he claimed to be bootstrapped despite taking seed funding from PMG. Nathan also notices Blake manually executed SOC 2 compliance rather than using tools like Vanta.13:53–15:42 · Guest teaching 2/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Lessons Learned Nathan conducts the Famous Five lightning round with rapid-fire questions, highlighting Blake's programmatic SEO strategy using Webflow landing pages before summarizing the company's stats.0:36–2:58 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Introducing Blake Burch and Shipyard Overview Nathan introduces Shipyard and probes the value proposition by comparing it to MuleSoft and Zapier. Blake educates the audience and Nathan on the key difference: Zapier handles row-by-row logic, whereas Shipyard is designed for bulk data processing of gigabytes to terabytes.2:58–6:05 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Pricing Strategy, Usage Tiers, and Low Churn Rates Nathan aggressively interrogates Blake's metrics, demanding precise quantification on churn (gross vs. net, monthly vs. annual) and challenging the claim of 10% monthly account expansion. Blake clarifies that the high expansion percentage is due to a very low baseline pricing entry tier.6:05–9:00 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Origin Story and PMG Digital Agency Technology Spinout Nathan investigates the spinout structure from PMG Digital Agency and Momentum.com, probing potential equity complications, cap table conflicts, and whether Blake still operates with true founder autonomy.9:00–13:53 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Customer Acquisition Milestones and Revenue Breakdown Nathan calculates MRR on the fly using customer counts and ARPU ($12k/mo) and presses Blake on why he claimed to be bootstrapped despite taking seed funding from PMG. Nathan also notices Blake manually executed SOC 2 compliance rather than using tools like Vanta.13:53–15:42 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Lessons Learned Nathan conducts the Famous Five lightning round with rapid-fire questions, highlighting Blake's programmatic SEO strategy using Webflow landing pages before summarizing the company's stats.0:36–2:58 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Introducing Blake Burch and Shipyard Overview Nathan introduces Shipyard and probes the value proposition by comparing it to MuleSoft and Zapier. Blake educates the audience and Nathan on the key difference: Zapier handles row-by-row logic, whereas Shipyard is designed for bulk data processing of gigabytes to terabytes.2:58–6:05 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Pricing Strategy, Usage Tiers, and Low Churn Rates Nathan aggressively interrogates Blake's metrics, demanding precise quantification on churn (gross vs. net, monthly vs. annual) and challenging the claim of 10% monthly account expansion. Blake clarifies that the high expansion percentage is due to a very low baseline pricing entry tier.6:05–9:00 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Origin Story and PMG Digital Agency Technology Spinout Nathan investigates the spinout structure from PMG Digital Agency and Momentum.com, probing potential equity complications, cap table conflicts, and whether Blake still operates with true founder autonomy.9:00–13:53 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Customer Acquisition Milestones and Revenue Breakdown Nathan calculates MRR on the fly using customer counts and ARPU ($12k/mo) and presses Blake on why he claimed to be bootstrapped despite taking seed funding from PMG. Nathan also notices Blake manually executed SOC 2 compliance rather than using tools like Vanta.13:53–15:42 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Lessons Learned Nathan conducts the Famous Five lightning round with rapid-fire questions, highlighting Blake's programmatic SEO strategy using Webflow landing pages before summarizing the company's stats.

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

0:00 · Nathan 46.7% · guest 53.3%0:00 · Nathan 46.7% · guest 53.3%3:00 · Nathan 27.5% · guest 72.5%3:00 · Nathan 27.5% · guest 72.5%6:00 · Nathan 24.6% · guest 75.4%6:00 · Nathan 24.6% · guest 75.4%9:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%9:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%12:00 · Nathan 33.7% · guest 66.3%12:00 · Nathan 33.7% · guest 66.3%15:00 · Nathan 43.1% · guest 56.9%15:00 · Nathan 43.1% · guest 56.9%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:32 Defending high expansion figures against skepticism

When Nathan expresses disbelief at 10% monthly account expansion, Blake pushes back to explain that small absolute dollar growth translates to high percentages at lower tier pricing.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:40 Nathan challenges bootstrapped claim

After Blake states the company is entirely bootstrapped, Nathan presses him immediately on whether money came from PMG, forcing Blake to clarify that PMG funded the technology.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:26 Explaining row-level automation vs bulk data orchestration

Blake clearly breaks down why existing tools like Zapier fail for modern data stacks due to row-level focus versus terabyte-scale data pipelines.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 3:32 Nathan cross-examines churn and upsell mechanics

Nathan demonstrates sharp SaaS financial expertise by drilling into gross vs net monthly churn rates and the exact mathematical hurdle required for account expansion.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Blake Burch and Shipyard Overview 6523 Nathan introduces Shipyard and probes the value proposition by comparing it to MuleSoft and Zapier. Blake educates the audience and Nathan on the key difference: Zapier handles row-by-row logic, whereas Shipyard is designed for bulk data processing of gigabytes to terabytes.
Pricing Strategy, Usage Tiers, and Low Churn Rates 8437 Nathan aggressively interrogates Blake's metrics, demanding precise quantification on churn (gross vs. net, monthly vs. annual) and challenging the claim of 10% monthly account expansion. Blake clarifies that the high expansion percentage is due to a very low baseline pricing entry tier.
Origin Story and PMG Digital Agency Technology Spinout 7436 Nathan investigates the spinout structure from PMG Digital Agency and Momentum.com, probing potential equity complications, cap table conflicts, and whether Blake still operates with true founder autonomy.
Customer Acquisition Milestones and Revenue Breakdown 7436 Nathan calculates MRR on the fly using customer counts and ARPU ($12k/mo) and presses Blake on why he claimed to be bootstrapped despite taking seed funding from PMG. Nathan also notices Blake manually executed SOC 2 compliance rather than using tools like Vanta.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Lessons Learned 5211 Nathan conducts the Famous Five lightning round with rapid-fire questions, highlighting Blake's programmatic SEO strategy using Webflow landing pages before summarizing the company's stats.

Statements from this episode (11)

Assertion Supported
Shipyard processes terabyte-scale bulk data whereas Zapier focuses on row-level triggers
“Zapier and other tools, they focus a lot on if this and that logic. They do things that are very specific for one row and reacting to it. For us, it's more about bulk data processing. So being able to handle gigabytes to terabytes of data and process and move …”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 2:31
Disclosure
Shipyard's median revenue per customer is approximately $400 per month
“So right now our median amount per customer is gonna be about 400 in general, the way that we price per month.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 3:08
Disclosure
Shipyard maintains a gross monthly churn rate of approximately 1%
“Churn is about one percent.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 3:37
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shipyard customers increase platform usage by 10% to 15% month-over-month
“Generally what we're seeing on our side is that people are growing their usage by about, like, 10 to 15% roughly on a monthly basis.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 5:15
Assertion Supported
Shipyard spun out from internal automation tools at digital agency PMG
“Shipyard is actually the like child product of something that was built at PMG. We ended up splitting things off and spinning the technology out on its own to focus on a totally different sort of ICP of your typical data engineer, analytics engineer and everyt…”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 7:08
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shipyard has 1,600 platform users and approximately 30 paying customers
“Currently we have about 1600 users of the platform. We have about 30 paying customers on our side right now.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 9:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Data orchestration competitors primarily sell cloud hosting for open source projects
“A lot of our competition in the data orchestration space is actually open source software that is trying to sell cloud hosted solutions.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 10:13
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shipyard generates approximately $12,000 in monthly recurring revenue
“That would be roughly correct. Yeah.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 10:47
Disclosure
Shipyard spent an entire year in development before acquiring first customer
“It was pretty much an entire year of development.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 11:17
Disclosure
Shipyard took no venture capital and is funded directly by PMG
“There is money directly from PMG, but no investment from like venture capital or anything else.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 11:44
Disclosure
Integration landing pages are a key customer acquisition channel for Shipyard
“Absolutely. It's definitely helped us scale quite a bit, and it's become one of our, like, key strategies in terms of customer acquisition.”
Blake Burch Aug 21, 2023 ▶ 14:45
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