StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Feb 17, 2022 · 17m · top-founders

Bootstrapped To $1m With Cookie Monitoring and Security SaaS

Tom Bendenbos · 8m 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

Nathan Latka interviews Cookie First co-founder Tom Bendenbos to examine how the European privacy compliance SaaS platform bootstrapped to over $1 million ARR. The discussion uncovers the company's hybrid distribution model, balancing paid advertising, direct mail outreach, and an expansive agency reseller partner network.

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 36.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.2 Guest teaching 2.2 Guest disagreement 1.2 Nathan pushing back 4.6
05100:0010:001:24–4:20 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Customer Segmentation, EU Compliance Drivers, and Pricing Model Nathan probes into the pricing tiers and forces Tom to nail down a concrete ARPU figure despite tiered domain pricing. Tom explains the regulatory drivers in the EU compared to the US.4:20–7:34 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Historical Revenue Trajectory and Bootstrapping Milestones Nathan converts the revenue figures to USD run-rate and pushes back gently on why a profitable bootstrapped business would want to take VC dilution.7:34–10:12 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Breakdown and Agency Reseller Partner Program Nathan immediately catches mathematical discrepancies between Tom's stated revenue and customer count, performing real-time unit economic calculations. Tom explains that reseller discounting skews the ARPU.10:15–13:39 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Sponsor Break: Founderpath Valuation Tool and SaaS Multiples Following an ad read for Founderpath, Nathan drills down on reseller metrics, repeatedly clarifying the distinction between reseller accounts and referred end-clients.13:39–17:17 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Team Composition, Equity Structure, and Acquisition Valuation Nathan tests Tom's exit threshold with a hypothetical cash acquisition offer before moving smoothly through the rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire.1:24–4:20 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Segmentation, EU Compliance Drivers, and Pricing Model Nathan probes into the pricing tiers and forces Tom to nail down a concrete ARPU figure despite tiered domain pricing. Tom explains the regulatory drivers in the EU compared to the US.4:20–7:34 · Guest teaching 2/10 Historical Revenue Trajectory and Bootstrapping Milestones Nathan converts the revenue figures to USD run-rate and pushes back gently on why a profitable bootstrapped business would want to take VC dilution.7:34–10:12 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Breakdown and Agency Reseller Partner Program Nathan immediately catches mathematical discrepancies between Tom's stated revenue and customer count, performing real-time unit economic calculations. Tom explains that reseller discounting skews the ARPU.10:15–13:39 · Guest teaching 2/10 Sponsor Break: Founderpath Valuation Tool and SaaS Multiples Following an ad read for Founderpath, Nathan drills down on reseller metrics, repeatedly clarifying the distinction between reseller accounts and referred end-clients.13:39–17:17 · Guest teaching 1/10 Team Composition, Equity Structure, and Acquisition Valuation Nathan tests Tom's exit threshold with a hypothetical cash acquisition offer before moving smoothly through the rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire.1:24–4:20 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Customer Segmentation, EU Compliance Drivers, and Pricing Model Nathan probes into the pricing tiers and forces Tom to nail down a concrete ARPU figure despite tiered domain pricing. Tom explains the regulatory drivers in the EU compared to the US.4:20–7:34 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Historical Revenue Trajectory and Bootstrapping Milestones Nathan converts the revenue figures to USD run-rate and pushes back gently on why a profitable bootstrapped business would want to take VC dilution.7:34–10:12 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Customer Breakdown and Agency Reseller Partner Program Nathan immediately catches mathematical discrepancies between Tom's stated revenue and customer count, performing real-time unit economic calculations. Tom explains that reseller discounting skews the ARPU.10:15–13:39 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Sponsor Break: Founderpath Valuation Tool and SaaS Multiples Following an ad read for Founderpath, Nathan drills down on reseller metrics, repeatedly clarifying the distinction between reseller accounts and referred end-clients.13:39–17:17 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Team Composition, Equity Structure, and Acquisition Valuation Nathan tests Tom's exit threshold with a hypothetical cash acquisition offer before moving smoothly through the rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire.1:24–4:20 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Customer Segmentation, EU Compliance Drivers, and Pricing Model Nathan probes into the pricing tiers and forces Tom to nail down a concrete ARPU figure despite tiered domain pricing. Tom explains the regulatory drivers in the EU compared to the US.4:20–7:34 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Historical Revenue Trajectory and Bootstrapping Milestones Nathan converts the revenue figures to USD run-rate and pushes back gently on why a profitable bootstrapped business would want to take VC dilution.7:34–10:12 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Customer Breakdown and Agency Reseller Partner Program Nathan immediately catches mathematical discrepancies between Tom's stated revenue and customer count, performing real-time unit economic calculations. Tom explains that reseller discounting skews the ARPU.10:15–13:39 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Sponsor Break: Founderpath Valuation Tool and SaaS Multiples Following an ad read for Founderpath, Nathan drills down on reseller metrics, repeatedly clarifying the distinction between reseller accounts and referred end-clients.13:39–17:17 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Team Composition, Equity Structure, and Acquisition Valuation Nathan tests Tom's exit threshold with a hypothetical cash acquisition offer before moving smoothly through the rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire.

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

0:00 · Nathan 49.8% · guest 50.2%0:00 · Nathan 49.8% · guest 50.2%3:00 · Nathan 16.6% · guest 83.4%3:00 · Nathan 16.6% · guest 83.4%6:00 · Nathan 28% · guest 72%6:00 · Nathan 28% · guest 72%9:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%9:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%12:00 · Nathan 20.4% · guest 79.6%12:00 · Nathan 20.4% · guest 79.6%15:00 · Nathan 47.4% · guest 52.6%15:00 · Nathan 47.4% · guest 52.6%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:56 Dismissing five million dollar acquisition valuation

Tom directly asserts that a five million dollar all-cash acquisition offer would not be enough to sell the business.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 8:01 Challenging customer count discrepancy

Nathan refuses Tom's 35,000 customer figure by computing live monthly revenue divided by 40-dollar ARPU to point out the actual paying count is roughly 2,125.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:29 Educating on EU versus US privacy regulations

Tom clarifies how European GDPR compliance mandates create broad cross-sector demand, contrasting it with the absence of US federal privacy regulations.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 8:18 Live revenue and ARPU unit economics breakdown

Nathan demonstrates sharp SaaS financial expertise by running rapid mental math to challenge the guest's customer metrics on the fly.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Customer Segmentation, EU Compliance Drivers, and Pricing Model 5314 Nathan probes into the pricing tiers and forces Tom to nail down a concrete ARPU figure despite tiered domain pricing. Tom explains the regulatory drivers in the EU compared to the US.
Historical Revenue Trajectory and Bootstrapping Milestones 5213 Nathan converts the revenue figures to USD run-rate and pushes back gently on why a profitable bootstrapped business would want to take VC dilution.
Customer Breakdown and Agency Reseller Partner Program 7327 Nathan immediately catches mathematical discrepancies between Tom's stated revenue and customer count, performing real-time unit economic calculations. Tom explains that reseller discounting skews the ARPU.
Sponsor Break: Founderpath Valuation Tool and SaaS Multiples 5215 Following an ad read for Founderpath, Nathan drills down on reseller metrics, repeatedly clarifying the distinction between reseller accounts and referred end-clients.
Team Composition, Equity Structure, and Acquisition Valuation 4114 Nathan tests Tom's exit threshold with a hypothetical cash acquisition offer before moving smoothly through the rapid-fire Famous Five questionnaire.

Statements from this episode (11)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bendenbos: Cookie First's Highest-Paying Customers Pay Around €1,500 Monthly
“Well I guess it's the highest paying customers could be 1500 euros a month.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 2:55
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bendenbos: Cookie First's Average Customer Pays €30 Per Month
“I think average on average customer would pay. 30 euros a month.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 4:06
Disclosure
Cookie First reached almost €300,000 in revenue in 2020
“2020, it was I guess almost 300 K euros.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 5:15
Disclosure
Cookie First generated €885,000 in revenue in 2021
“Last year we were, we had was it? Eight, 85 885 K euros.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 5:34
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Cookie First targets €1.2 million in revenue in 2022
“We plan to do next year. We hope to do 1.2 million.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 5:46
Disclosure
Bendenbos: CookieFirst will launch new privacy tools before fundraising
“We're currently working on a few other privacy SaaS tools. Which we want to do which we want to launch first. See how that goes. And right after the launch and we get a couple of customers on those platforms, then we want to start funding.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 6:28
Assertion Not checkable as stated
CookieFirst spent €200,000 on marketing in 2021.
“I guess last year we spent 200,000 euros. Yeah, the whole year.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 7:13
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bendenbos: Cookie First Has Around 5,000 Paying Customers
“I think it's 5000 or something.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 9:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bendenbos: Cookie First Has Around 350 Agency Resellers
“I get, I guess we got 350 resellers.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 10:00
Insight
Bendenbos: Reseller acquisition is more profitable than targeting end customers directly
“Yeah, because it's more profitable to target resellers, of course, because you only have to explain the tool once, of course, and then the reseller can do, can take that, that knowledge to their own clients. To some clients. And then it would it would be quick…”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 13:14
Opinion
Bendenbos: A $5M All-Cash Acquisition Offer for Cookie First Is Not Enough
“I think that would be not enough, but of course that, that is something that I need to discuss because yeah, well, 50% shareholder.”
Tom Bendenbos Feb 17, 2022 ▶ 14:56
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