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May 22, 2022 · 17m · top-founders

How he built 10k beta list, used it to raise $3m for new Calendar Tool

Jeremy Bell · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

Mayday founder Jeremy Bell explains how he built an AI-powered smart calendar, scaled a pre-revenue closed beta waitlist to tens of thousands of users through organic social listening, and secured a $3 million seed funding round.

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 35.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.5 Guest teaching 4.0 Guest disagreement 1.8 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:000:51–5:18 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introducing Jeremy Bell and the AI Assistant Vision for Mayday Latka tests the premise of Mayday by asking if it simply cancels all meetings, then illustrates his personal calendar pain points and batching workflow using Acuity. Bell clarifies how Mayday acts as an intelligent assistant managing context and scheduling buffers.5:20–7:51 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Organic Growth Tactics and the $3M Seed Round Latka presses Bell on exact waitlist numbers and infers the automated Zapier social listening filters. Bell details how custom social listening scripts flag high-engagement time management posts.7:54–13:18 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Sponsor Message: Scaling Global Teams with Remote.com Latka probes into Bell's personal net worth and funding history, assuming Bell profited from Facebook's acquisition of Teehan+Lax. Bell corrects the record, clarifying he left before the acquisition and funded early days via crypto and modest exits.13:24–15:53 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Superhuman Comparisons and Monetization Architecture Latka outlines specific quantitative frameworks for designing SaaS paywalls based on activation metrics and usage stack ranking. Bell explains his product strategy of forming daily habits before gating collaborative features.0:51–5:18 · Guest teaching 4/10 Introducing Jeremy Bell and the AI Assistant Vision for Mayday Latka tests the premise of Mayday by asking if it simply cancels all meetings, then illustrates his personal calendar pain points and batching workflow using Acuity. Bell clarifies how Mayday acts as an intelligent assistant managing context and scheduling buffers.5:20–7:51 · Guest teaching 3/10 Organic Growth Tactics and the $3M Seed Round Latka presses Bell on exact waitlist numbers and infers the automated Zapier social listening filters. Bell details how custom social listening scripts flag high-engagement time management posts.7:54–13:18 · Guest teaching 5/10 Sponsor Message: Scaling Global Teams with Remote.com Latka probes into Bell's personal net worth and funding history, assuming Bell profited from Facebook's acquisition of Teehan+Lax. Bell corrects the record, clarifying he left before the acquisition and funded early days via crypto and modest exits.13:24–15:53 · Guest teaching 4/10 Superhuman Comparisons and Monetization Architecture Latka outlines specific quantitative frameworks for designing SaaS paywalls based on activation metrics and usage stack ranking. Bell explains his product strategy of forming daily habits before gating collaborative features.0:51–5:18 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Jeremy Bell and the AI Assistant Vision for Mayday Latka tests the premise of Mayday by asking if it simply cancels all meetings, then illustrates his personal calendar pain points and batching workflow using Acuity. Bell clarifies how Mayday acts as an intelligent assistant managing context and scheduling buffers.5:20–7:51 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Organic Growth Tactics and the $3M Seed Round Latka presses Bell on exact waitlist numbers and infers the automated Zapier social listening filters. Bell details how custom social listening scripts flag high-engagement time management posts.7:54–13:18 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Sponsor Message: Scaling Global Teams with Remote.com Latka probes into Bell's personal net worth and funding history, assuming Bell profited from Facebook's acquisition of Teehan+Lax. Bell corrects the record, clarifying he left before the acquisition and funded early days via crypto and modest exits.13:24–15:53 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Superhuman Comparisons and Monetization Architecture Latka outlines specific quantitative frameworks for designing SaaS paywalls based on activation metrics and usage stack ranking. Bell explains his product strategy of forming daily habits before gating collaborative features.0:51–5:18 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Introducing Jeremy Bell and the AI Assistant Vision for Mayday Latka tests the premise of Mayday by asking if it simply cancels all meetings, then illustrates his personal calendar pain points and batching workflow using Acuity. Bell clarifies how Mayday acts as an intelligent assistant managing context and scheduling buffers.5:20–7:51 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Organic Growth Tactics and the $3M Seed Round Latka presses Bell on exact waitlist numbers and infers the automated Zapier social listening filters. Bell details how custom social listening scripts flag high-engagement time management posts.7:54–13:18 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Sponsor Message: Scaling Global Teams with Remote.com Latka probes into Bell's personal net worth and funding history, assuming Bell profited from Facebook's acquisition of Teehan+Lax. Bell corrects the record, clarifying he left before the acquisition and funded early days via crypto and modest exits.13:24–15:53 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Superhuman Comparisons and Monetization Architecture Latka outlines specific quantitative frameworks for designing SaaS paywalls based on activation metrics and usage stack ranking. Bell explains his product strategy of forming daily habits before gating collaborative features.

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

0:00 · Nathan 45.8% · guest 54.2%0:00 · Nathan 45.8% · guest 54.2%3:00 · Nathan 18.8% · guest 81.2%3:00 · Nathan 18.8% · guest 81.2%6:00 · Nathan 54.9% · guest 45.1%6:00 · Nathan 54.9% · guest 45.1%9:00 · Nathan 35.9% · guest 64.1%9:00 · Nathan 35.9% · guest 64.1%12:00 · Nathan 28.4% · guest 71.6%12:00 · Nathan 28.4% · guest 71.6%15:00 · Nathan 31.2% · guest 68.8%15:00 · Nathan 31.2% · guest 68.8%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:28 Bell deflects exact beta numbers

Bell refuses to give an exact number on the waitlist size, dismissing the metric's immediate importance by asking 'who cares?'.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:49 Latka challenges the 3-year pre-revenue delay

Latka directly challenges Bell on why the startup has remained pre-revenue since 2019 despite amassing over 10k waitlist signups.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:06 Bell corrects Latka on Facebook exit proceeds

Bell sets the record straight after Latka assumes he was flush with cash from a Facebook buyout, explaining he left the firm prior to the acquisition.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 14:18 Latka lectures on paywall reverse-engineering

Latka displays deep SaaS domain knowledge by outlining structured mathematical approaches to setting usage paywalls.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Jeremy Bell and the AI Assistant Vision for Mayday 5412 Latka tests the premise of Mayday by asking if it simply cancels all meetings, then illustrates his personal calendar pain points and batching workflow using Acuity. Bell clarifies how Mayday acts as an intelligent assistant managing context and scheduling buffers.
Organic Growth Tactics and the $3M Seed Round 5324 Latka presses Bell on exact waitlist numbers and infers the automated Zapier social listening filters. Bell details how custom social listening scripts flag high-engagement time management posts.
Sponsor Message: Scaling Global Teams with Remote.com 5526 Latka probes into Bell's personal net worth and funding history, assuming Bell profited from Facebook's acquisition of Teehan+Lax. Bell corrects the record, clarifying he left before the acquisition and funded early days via crypto and modest exits.
Superhuman Comparisons and Monetization Architecture 7423 Latka outlines specific quantitative frameworks for designing SaaS paywalls based on activation metrics and usage stack ranking. Bell explains his product strategy of forming daily habits before gating collaborative features.

Statements from this episode (8)

Opinion
Latka: Twenty Minutes of Free Time Is Useless
“20 minutes of free time is useless because it's just context switching, you know, three hours of free time is valuable.”
Nathan Latka May 22, 2022 ▶ 2:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mayday has tens of thousands of users on its beta waitlist
“We've got tens of thousands.”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 5:28
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Bell: Manual social listening outreach will not scale much longer
“It doesn't scale. Like, I don't think this will, you know, work for that much longer.”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 6:14
Disclosure
Mayday closed a $3M seed funding round in late 2021
“We did, we have raised funds. We just actually closed a seed round. So I raised a three million dollar seed round that we closed just at the end of last year, so right, right before the holidays we close that that round.”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 7:41
Disclosure
Bell: Mayday raised around $750,000 USD in pre-seed funding
“The total amount in US was about 750, I think.”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 9:50
Disclosure
Bell: First startup sale to Precision Nutrition returned capital without major windfall
“I raised a bit of money and then ended up exiting on that one and sold it to a company called precision nutrition made, you know, basically made all of our existing investors and myself like whole. So it wasn't like a huge liquidity event by any stretch enough…”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 11:00
Disclosure
Bell: Mayday will not copy Superhuman's paid-only access model
“I do know that it won't just be, you have to pay to get in period. So we're not going to go down the path like a superhuman. Like it won't be like that.”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 15:43
What-if
Jeremy Bell: Moving to Silicon Valley earlier would have benefited my career
“I probably, when I was younger, would have probably benefited from just going west and getting into the Silicon Valley scene a lot sooner than I did later.”
Jeremy Bell May 22, 2022 ▶ 16:56
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