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Sep 16, 2021 · 17m · top-founders

API Integration Tool Hit $1k in MRR, Raised $150k on $1.4m Valuation

Anton Viborny · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 3m 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, founder Anton Viborny discusses how apiway.ai combines free API integration tools with an affiliate software marketplace to achieve organic user growth and scale toward a $1.5 million seed 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 26.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.2 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 1.5 Nathan pushing back 2.7
05100:0010:001:03–3:40 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 apiway.ai Business Model and Vendor Recommendations Latka explores how APIway monetizes an otherwise free product. Viborny explains their hybrid model combining Zapier's free integrations with Capterra/G2 style vendor recommendations to earn affiliate commissions.3:40–6:23 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Key Affiliate Partnerships and Automation Community Launch Latka synthesizes how the free integration funnel converts into affiliate revenue, then drills into their previous pre-seed round valuation and strategic backing from Unisender.6:25–9:00 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Team Composition, Co-Founders, and Equity Allocation Latka presses on the co-founder structure and equity split. Viborny hedges on giving exact percentages for the third co-founder who received an option pool.9:00–11:44 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 User Growth, Daily Signups, and Lead Generation Channels Viborny explains their daily user acquisition numbers and reveals that smaller SaaS support desks direct more users to them than official app stores.11:44–15:06 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Monthly Burn Rate, Revenue Streams, and Seed Round Targets Latka calculates APIway's net burn rate and directly questions whether targeting a ten million dollar valuation on a seed round is realistic, to which Viborny defends his entrepreneurial conviction.15:07–16:20 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up with cordial responses including a humorous mention of Christopher Columbus as Viborny's favorite CEO.1:03–3:40 · Guest teaching 3/10 apiway.ai Business Model and Vendor Recommendations Latka explores how APIway monetizes an otherwise free product. Viborny explains their hybrid model combining Zapier's free integrations with Capterra/G2 style vendor recommendations to earn affiliate commissions.3:40–6:23 · Guest teaching 2/10 Key Affiliate Partnerships and Automation Community Launch Latka synthesizes how the free integration funnel converts into affiliate revenue, then drills into their previous pre-seed round valuation and strategic backing from Unisender.6:25–9:00 · Guest teaching 1/10 Team Composition, Co-Founders, and Equity Allocation Latka presses on the co-founder structure and equity split. Viborny hedges on giving exact percentages for the third co-founder who received an option pool.9:00–11:44 · Guest teaching 3/10 User Growth, Daily Signups, and Lead Generation Channels Viborny explains their daily user acquisition numbers and reveals that smaller SaaS support desks direct more users to them than official app stores.11:44–15:06 · Guest teaching 2/10 Monthly Burn Rate, Revenue Streams, and Seed Round Targets Latka calculates APIway's net burn rate and directly questions whether targeting a ten million dollar valuation on a seed round is realistic, to which Viborny defends his entrepreneurial conviction.15:07–16:20 · Guest teaching 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up with cordial responses including a humorous mention of Christopher Columbus as Viborny's favorite CEO.1:03–3:40 · Guest disagreement 1/10 apiway.ai Business Model and Vendor Recommendations Latka explores how APIway monetizes an otherwise free product. Viborny explains their hybrid model combining Zapier's free integrations with Capterra/G2 style vendor recommendations to earn affiliate commissions.3:40–6:23 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Key Affiliate Partnerships and Automation Community Launch Latka synthesizes how the free integration funnel converts into affiliate revenue, then drills into their previous pre-seed round valuation and strategic backing from Unisender.6:25–9:00 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Team Composition, Co-Founders, and Equity Allocation Latka presses on the co-founder structure and equity split. Viborny hedges on giving exact percentages for the third co-founder who received an option pool.9:00–11:44 · Guest disagreement 1/10 User Growth, Daily Signups, and Lead Generation Channels Viborny explains their daily user acquisition numbers and reveals that smaller SaaS support desks direct more users to them than official app stores.11:44–15:06 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Monthly Burn Rate, Revenue Streams, and Seed Round Targets Latka calculates APIway's net burn rate and directly questions whether targeting a ten million dollar valuation on a seed round is realistic, to which Viborny defends his entrepreneurial conviction.15:07–16:20 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up with cordial responses including a humorous mention of Christopher Columbus as Viborny's favorite CEO.1:03–3:40 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 apiway.ai Business Model and Vendor Recommendations Latka explores how APIway monetizes an otherwise free product. Viborny explains their hybrid model combining Zapier's free integrations with Capterra/G2 style vendor recommendations to earn affiliate commissions.3:40–6:23 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Key Affiliate Partnerships and Automation Community Launch Latka synthesizes how the free integration funnel converts into affiliate revenue, then drills into their previous pre-seed round valuation and strategic backing from Unisender.6:25–9:00 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Team Composition, Co-Founders, and Equity Allocation Latka presses on the co-founder structure and equity split. Viborny hedges on giving exact percentages for the third co-founder who received an option pool.9:00–11:44 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 User Growth, Daily Signups, and Lead Generation Channels Viborny explains their daily user acquisition numbers and reveals that smaller SaaS support desks direct more users to them than official app stores.11:44–15:06 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Monthly Burn Rate, Revenue Streams, and Seed Round Targets Latka calculates APIway's net burn rate and directly questions whether targeting a ten million dollar valuation on a seed round is realistic, to which Viborny defends his entrepreneurial conviction.15:07–16:20 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up with cordial responses including a humorous mention of Christopher Columbus as Viborny's favorite CEO.

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

0:00 · Nathan 38.5% · guest 61.5%0:00 · Nathan 38.5% · guest 61.5%3:00 · Nathan 20.2% · guest 79.8%3:00 · Nathan 20.2% · guest 79.8%6:00 · Nathan 13.3% · guest 86.7%6:00 · Nathan 13.3% · guest 86.7%9:00 · Nathan 20% · guest 80%9:00 · Nathan 20% · guest 80%12:00 · Nathan 16.3% · guest 83.7%12:00 · Nathan 16.3% · guest 83.7%15:00 · Nathan 67.3% · guest 32.7%15:00 · Nathan 67.3% · guest 32.7%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:35 Defending a $10M seed valuation target

When Latka sceptically asks if he actually thinks he will get a $10M valuation on low MRR, Viborny firmly holds his ground citing entrepreneurial faith.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 14:29 Latka challenges $10M valuation expectation

Latka directly confronts Viborny on whether raising $1.5M on a $10M valuation is attainable given current metrics.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:40 Customer support channels driving more leads than marketplaces

Viborny explains to Latka that customer support reps at smaller SaaS companies like Bot Help send more organic referrals than big vendor app marketplaces.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:09 Latka calculates exact net monthly burn

Latka takes Viborny's raw operational numbers and immediately reconstructs his financial model to pin down an exact $10k monthly burn rate.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
apiway.ai Business Model and Vendor Recommendations 4312 Latka explores how APIway monetizes an otherwise free product. Viborny explains their hybrid model combining Zapier's free integrations with Capterra/G2 style vendor recommendations to earn affiliate commissions.
Key Affiliate Partnerships and Automation Community Launch 5212 Latka synthesizes how the free integration funnel converts into affiliate revenue, then drills into their previous pre-seed round valuation and strategic backing from Unisender.
Team Composition, Co-Founders, and Equity Allocation 4134 Latka presses on the co-founder structure and equity split. Viborny hedges on giving exact percentages for the third co-founder who received an option pool.
User Growth, Daily Signups, and Lead Generation Channels 4312 Viborny explains their daily user acquisition numbers and reveals that smaller SaaS support desks direct more users to them than official app stores.
Monthly Burn Rate, Revenue Streams, and Seed Round Targets 6235 Latka calculates APIway's net burn rate and directly questions whether targeting a ten million dollar valuation on a seed round is realistic, to which Viborny defends his entrepreneurial conviction.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2101 Standard rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up with cordial responses including a humorous mention of Christopher Columbus as Viborny's favorite CEO.

Statements from this episode (15)

Disclosure
Apiway offers its API integration platform completely for free
“So we provide an IP integration platform and we provide it absolutely for free.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 1:23
Disclosure
Apiway generates revenue via SaaS affiliate links instead of user fees
“And we have some paid customers with affiliate links, but in most cases, it is the users who will use our platform.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 2:09
Disclosure
Apiway generates approximately $1,000 a month in affiliate revenue
“Our revenue is something like, one thousand dollars a month in an affiliate in an affiliate partner program.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 2:23
Disclosure
ActiveCampaign generates the most affiliate revenue for Apiway
“Active Campaign because I was a reseller at Active Campaign and I know these tools and in all placement, we provide Active Campaign affiliate link and we have some customers from FitNove. We sell Active Campaign. And MailerLite and Pipedrive because now we are…”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 3:46
Disclosure
Apiway raised a $130k pre-seed round
“We, yes, we raised a little bit of capital preceded around it's 130 key.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 5:17
Disclosure
Apiway raised pre-seed capital at a $1.5M valuation
“It was 1.5 million valuation.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 5:44
Disclosure
Apiway split initial equity 50-50 before adding a third co-founder
“With one founder, we split fifty-fifty, and after that, we give an option pool for third founder and he become a co-founder.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 7:05
Opinion
Viborny argues G2 Crowd reviews are uniformly positive rather than balanced
“So, it's not just like reviews, where we're reading reviews of Gito Crowd, and all these reviews are good.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 8:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Apiway attracts 40 to 60 organic signups daily without paid marketing
“We have 40, 60 signups every day. I think how many it is? I don't know. I just watched on a day. Half of the year six years, six months before, it was 10, 20, 30 signups per day. Now, it can be 50. When we are organizing some conference, it can be two, 200 sig…”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 9:13
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Apiway has reached over 10,000 total signups and 1,000 active users
“More than 10, more than 10,000, I think. And we have more than 1000 active users who are integrate some we call it way who are active way. For example, Facebook leads and Google speech is one way. People, this one thousand people using this integration and the…”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 10:01
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Small vendor support teams drive more leads to Apiway than marketplaces
“But there are some vendors, they are not very popular. They're not very popular, but the support team sent leads to us, and it's, it drives more more traffic than marketplaces from vendors.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 10:52
Disclosure
Over 25 SaaS vendors pay Apiway affiliate commissions
“I checked this information three days ago, and more than 25 SaaS vendors paid to us some couple of dollars.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 11:52
Disclosure
Apiway burns between $11,000 and $15,000 per month
“I think it's 11, sometimes it's 11,000 and 15,000.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 12:39
Disclosure
Apiway plans to raise a $1.5M seed round
“We want one million .5 if we do this, it will be okay, because we, our competitors have a deep pocket, and we need to raise a lot of capital, because we want to build, not just the tool, we want to build an ecosystem.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 13:55
Disclosure
Apiway is targeting a $10M valuation for its next funding round
“We want a ten million. We want this price.”
Anton Viborny Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 14:36
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