StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Nov 13, 2020 · 19m · top-founders

Img.ly is Image Editing SDK, $2m in Revenues, Bootstrapped, GitHub Growth Channel

Daniel Hauschildt · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m 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, Img.ly co-founder Daniel Hauschildt explains how his team bootstrapped an image and video editing SDK into a $2.4M ARR business with 400 customers and under 2% annual churn.

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 44.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 1.4 Nathan pushing back 3.4
05100:0010:001:28–4:15 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Introducing Daniel Hauschildt and Img.ly Product Overview Nathan drills into the business model and pricing tiers, quickly calculating the monthly equivalent of their top contract. When Daniel hesitates on calculating an average customer price, Nathan pushes back by explaining basic SaaS math of total revenue divided by customers.4:16–7:24 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Company Origins, GitHub Launch, and Agency Spin-Out Nathan investigates how the technology was incubated inside a digital agency and subsequently spun out into an independent entity. Daniel cooperatively details the history, seed funding from the agency, and current team headcount without any real friction.7:25–9:53 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Business Metrics, Low Churn, and Financial Growth Nathan scrutinizes Daniel's churn claim of 2%, demanding clarification on whether that figure represents annual or monthly churn. Nathan walks Daniel through the exact mathematical impact on revenue retention to ensure the metric is accurate.9:56–14:08 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Sponsor Message: Fiverr Freelance Marketplace Nathan delivers a mid-roll promotional sponsorship message for Fiverr before returning to ask Daniel about top-of-funnel customer acquisition channels.14:09–17:53 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Analyzing Customer Acquisition Cost and Marketing Channels When Daniel admits he does not know their fully weighted customer acquisition cost, Nathan steps in to model it live using team salaries and monthly customer additions. Daniel follows Nathan's financial framework to estimate their unit economics.1:28–4:15 · Guest teaching 3/10 Introducing Daniel Hauschildt and Img.ly Product Overview Nathan drills into the business model and pricing tiers, quickly calculating the monthly equivalent of their top contract. When Daniel hesitates on calculating an average customer price, Nathan pushes back by explaining basic SaaS math of total revenue divided by customers.4:16–7:24 · Guest teaching 2/10 Company Origins, GitHub Launch, and Agency Spin-Out Nathan investigates how the technology was incubated inside a digital agency and subsequently spun out into an independent entity. Daniel cooperatively details the history, seed funding from the agency, and current team headcount without any real friction.7:25–9:53 · Guest teaching 4/10 Business Metrics, Low Churn, and Financial Growth Nathan scrutinizes Daniel's churn claim of 2%, demanding clarification on whether that figure represents annual or monthly churn. Nathan walks Daniel through the exact mathematical impact on revenue retention to ensure the metric is accurate.9:56–14:08 · Guest teaching 0/10 Sponsor Message: Fiverr Freelance Marketplace Nathan delivers a mid-roll promotional sponsorship message for Fiverr before returning to ask Daniel about top-of-funnel customer acquisition channels.14:09–17:53 · Guest teaching 1/10 Analyzing Customer Acquisition Cost and Marketing Channels When Daniel admits he does not know their fully weighted customer acquisition cost, Nathan steps in to model it live using team salaries and monthly customer additions. Daniel follows Nathan's financial framework to estimate their unit economics.1:28–4:15 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Introducing Daniel Hauschildt and Img.ly Product Overview Nathan drills into the business model and pricing tiers, quickly calculating the monthly equivalent of their top contract. When Daniel hesitates on calculating an average customer price, Nathan pushes back by explaining basic SaaS math of total revenue divided by customers.4:16–7:24 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Company Origins, GitHub Launch, and Agency Spin-Out Nathan investigates how the technology was incubated inside a digital agency and subsequently spun out into an independent entity. Daniel cooperatively details the history, seed funding from the agency, and current team headcount without any real friction.7:25–9:53 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Business Metrics, Low Churn, and Financial Growth Nathan scrutinizes Daniel's churn claim of 2%, demanding clarification on whether that figure represents annual or monthly churn. Nathan walks Daniel through the exact mathematical impact on revenue retention to ensure the metric is accurate.9:56–14:08 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Sponsor Message: Fiverr Freelance Marketplace Nathan delivers a mid-roll promotional sponsorship message for Fiverr before returning to ask Daniel about top-of-funnel customer acquisition channels.14:09–17:53 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Analyzing Customer Acquisition Cost and Marketing Channels When Daniel admits he does not know their fully weighted customer acquisition cost, Nathan steps in to model it live using team salaries and monthly customer additions. Daniel follows Nathan's financial framework to estimate their unit economics.1:28–4:15 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Introducing Daniel Hauschildt and Img.ly Product Overview Nathan drills into the business model and pricing tiers, quickly calculating the monthly equivalent of their top contract. When Daniel hesitates on calculating an average customer price, Nathan pushes back by explaining basic SaaS math of total revenue divided by customers.4:16–7:24 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Company Origins, GitHub Launch, and Agency Spin-Out Nathan investigates how the technology was incubated inside a digital agency and subsequently spun out into an independent entity. Daniel cooperatively details the history, seed funding from the agency, and current team headcount without any real friction.7:25–9:53 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Business Metrics, Low Churn, and Financial Growth Nathan scrutinizes Daniel's churn claim of 2%, demanding clarification on whether that figure represents annual or monthly churn. Nathan walks Daniel through the exact mathematical impact on revenue retention to ensure the metric is accurate.9:56–14:08 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Sponsor Message: Fiverr Freelance Marketplace Nathan delivers a mid-roll promotional sponsorship message for Fiverr before returning to ask Daniel about top-of-funnel customer acquisition channels.14:09–17:53 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Analyzing Customer Acquisition Cost and Marketing Channels When Daniel admits he does not know their fully weighted customer acquisition cost, Nathan steps in to model it live using team salaries and monthly customer additions. Daniel follows Nathan's financial framework to estimate their unit economics.

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

0:00 · Nathan 63.2% · guest 36.8%0:00 · Nathan 63.2% · guest 36.8%3:00 · Nathan 26.3% · guest 73.7%3:00 · Nathan 26.3% · guest 73.7%6:00 · Nathan 36.4% · guest 63.6%6:00 · Nathan 36.4% · guest 63.6%9:00 · Nathan 65.2% · guest 34.8%9:00 · Nathan 65.2% · guest 34.8%12:00 · Nathan 34.1% · guest 65.9%12:00 · Nathan 34.1% · guest 65.9%15:00 · Nathan 37.6% · guest 62.4%15:00 · Nathan 37.6% · guest 62.4%18:00 · Nathan 56.6% · guest 43.4%18:00 · Nathan 56.6% · guest 43.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 3:41 Daniel rejects standard average metric

Daniel pushes back on Nathan's request for an average revenue per user figure, insisting that an average does not represent the real dynamic of their modular tier structure.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 7:55 Nathan challenges monthly versus annual churn confusion

Nathan refuses to accept Daniel's ambiguous statement regarding churn, directly stopping the conversation to determine whether 2% is monthly or annual.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:03 Daniel clarifies target audience and SDK model

Daniel corrects Nathan's initial premise that the tool is made for end designers, explaining it is an SDK built specifically for developers to integrate into apps.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 15:00 Nathan constructs fully loaded CAC formula

Nathan demonstrates mastery of SaaS financial modeling by guiding an uncertain founder step-by-step through calculating fully weighted CAC from team headcount and German salary averages.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Daniel Hauschildt and Img.ly Product Overview 6324 Nathan drills into the business model and pricing tiers, quickly calculating the monthly equivalent of their top contract. When Daniel hesitates on calculating an average customer price, Nathan pushes back by explaining basic SaaS math of total revenue divided by customers.
Company Origins, GitHub Launch, and Agency Spin-Out 5212 Nathan investigates how the technology was incubated inside a digital agency and subsequently spun out into an independent entity. Daniel cooperatively details the history, seed funding from the agency, and current team headcount without any real friction.
Business Metrics, Low Churn, and Financial Growth 7426 Nathan scrutinizes Daniel's churn claim of 2%, demanding clarification on whether that figure represents annual or monthly churn. Nathan walks Daniel through the exact mathematical impact on revenue retention to ensure the metric is accurate.
Sponsor Message: Fiverr Freelance Marketplace 0000 Nathan delivers a mid-roll promotional sponsorship message for Fiverr before returning to ask Daniel about top-of-funnel customer acquisition channels.
Analyzing Customer Acquisition Cost and Marketing Channels 7125 When Daniel admits he does not know their fully weighted customer acquisition cost, Nathan steps in to model it live using team salaries and monthly customer additions. Daniel follows Nathan's financial framework to estimate their unit economics.

Statements from this episode (6)

Disclosure
Img.ly Bootstrapped Entirely From Reinvested Agency Revenue
“We didn't raise at all. The only money we took was, let's say, the initial investment of the agency, which meant, like, at the very, very beginning, for sure, one employee was, like, building it on the site, let's say, on, let's say, 10 hours per week, et cete…”
Daniel Hauschildt Nov 13, 2020 ▶ 6:43
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Img.ly Had Around 400 Active Customers Worldwide in Late 2020
“Today around 400 worldwide.”
Daniel Hauschildt Nov 13, 2020 ▶ 7:26
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Img.ly Maintains an Exceptional Annual Customer Churn Rate of 2%
“No, then two percent per year, but cause it's really not, not even one person per month sometimes.”
Daniel Hauschildt Nov 13, 2020 ▶ 8:09
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Img.ly Reached $125K MRR in 2019, Averaging 2-3% Monthly Growth
“So I think 12 months ago we were like 125, something like that. And I can tell you that we, in average, it's like two to three percent currently that we are steadily growing per month in the last years.”
Daniel Hauschildt Nov 13, 2020 ▶ 9:41
Disclosure
Img.ly Spends Roughly $1,000 Monthly on Paid Advertising
“I think it's like maybe a thousand per month.”
Daniel Hauschildt Nov 13, 2020 ▶ 12:00
Insight
Low Search Volume Forces Niche B2B Startups to Rely on Customer Interviews
“The volume for the search volume isn't that high that you can, let's say be a totally data driven company that, that numbers are so solid in, in let's say a month or something. Yeah. So, so you have to be, to do a guessing and talking to customers and we talk …”
Daniel Hauschildt Nov 13, 2020 ▶ 17:25
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