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May 21, 2020 · 21m · top-founders

1762 How Convertri Used Affiliates To Hit $1m ARR, $700k Profit

Andy Fletcher · 12m spoken Nathan Latka · 6m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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In this interview with Nathan Latka, Convertri founder Andy Fletcher reveals how the funnel-builder platform bootstrapped past $1 million in ARR and built a $700,000 cash reserve through strategic affiliate partnerships, hybrid funnels, and disciplined financial management.

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 32.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 6.4 Guest teaching 2.1 Guest disagreement 1.6 Nathan pushing back 3.4
05100:0010:0020:000:00–2:10 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Episode Preview: Convertri's Growth and Affiliate Engine Nathan introduces Convertri's metrics and establishes market context by comparing them to ClickFunnels and Webflow. Andy clarifies where they fit in the competitive landscape, and both maintain a friendly, cooperative tone.2:11–5:44 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Affiliate Distribution and the Viddyoze Deal Structure Nathan drills into the customer numbers and demonstrates domain knowledge around affiliate marketing mechanics like earnings per click (EPC). Andy breaks down their hybrid funnel and upfront pricing strategy in response.5:44–10:02 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 SEO Growth Mechanics and Powered-By Viral Badges Nathan cites specific Ahrefs SEO metrics, domain ranking, and backlink counts to understand Convertri's organic traffic. He also pushes Andy on whether paying out 30% recurring commissions in perpetuity degrades company margins.10:02–12:45 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 SaaS Financials, Bootstrapping, and Capital Allocation When Andy cannot immediately provide an ARPU figure, Nathan calculates it on the fly using ARR and customer count to arrive at $50 per month. Andy outlines their frugal bootstrapped philosophy and team structure.12:45–15:02 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Refining SaaS Churn Metrics and Cohort Analysis Nathan asks about gross churn, and Andy credits Nathan's past advice for redesigning how Convertri measures churn past the three-month mark. Nathan validates the methodology and calculates the annualized retention rate.15:05–17:49 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Exploring Co-Branded Reseller Distribution with Mentors.com Nathan investigates the reseller deal with Mentors.com in real time, catching that the site claims to be unreleased, and pushes Andy when he invokes an NDA regarding commission splits.17:49–20:46 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Fundraising Decisions and the Core Affiliate Base Nathan pushes Andy to define how capital would realistically be deployed rather than just how much could be raised, before concluding with the standard Famous Five lightning round.0:00–2:10 · Guest teaching 2/10 Episode Preview: Convertri's Growth and Affiliate Engine Nathan introduces Convertri's metrics and establishes market context by comparing them to ClickFunnels and Webflow. Andy clarifies where they fit in the competitive landscape, and both maintain a friendly, cooperative tone.2:11–5:44 · Guest teaching 2/10 Affiliate Distribution and the Viddyoze Deal Structure Nathan drills into the customer numbers and demonstrates domain knowledge around affiliate marketing mechanics like earnings per click (EPC). Andy breaks down their hybrid funnel and upfront pricing strategy in response.5:44–10:02 · Guest teaching 3/10 SEO Growth Mechanics and Powered-By Viral Badges Nathan cites specific Ahrefs SEO metrics, domain ranking, and backlink counts to understand Convertri's organic traffic. He also pushes Andy on whether paying out 30% recurring commissions in perpetuity degrades company margins.10:02–12:45 · Guest teaching 1/10 SaaS Financials, Bootstrapping, and Capital Allocation When Andy cannot immediately provide an ARPU figure, Nathan calculates it on the fly using ARR and customer count to arrive at $50 per month. Andy outlines their frugal bootstrapped philosophy and team structure.12:45–15:02 · Guest teaching 4/10 Refining SaaS Churn Metrics and Cohort Analysis Nathan asks about gross churn, and Andy credits Nathan's past advice for redesigning how Convertri measures churn past the three-month mark. Nathan validates the methodology and calculates the annualized retention rate.15:05–17:49 · Guest teaching 2/10 Exploring Co-Branded Reseller Distribution with Mentors.com Nathan investigates the reseller deal with Mentors.com in real time, catching that the site claims to be unreleased, and pushes Andy when he invokes an NDA regarding commission splits.17:49–20:46 · Guest teaching 1/10 Fundraising Decisions and the Core Affiliate Base Nathan pushes Andy to define how capital would realistically be deployed rather than just how much could be raised, before concluding with the standard Famous Five lightning round.0:00–2:10 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Episode Preview: Convertri's Growth and Affiliate Engine Nathan introduces Convertri's metrics and establishes market context by comparing them to ClickFunnels and Webflow. Andy clarifies where they fit in the competitive landscape, and both maintain a friendly, cooperative tone.2:11–5:44 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Affiliate Distribution and the Viddyoze Deal Structure Nathan drills into the customer numbers and demonstrates domain knowledge around affiliate marketing mechanics like earnings per click (EPC). Andy breaks down their hybrid funnel and upfront pricing strategy in response.5:44–10:02 · Guest disagreement 2/10 SEO Growth Mechanics and Powered-By Viral Badges Nathan cites specific Ahrefs SEO metrics, domain ranking, and backlink counts to understand Convertri's organic traffic. He also pushes Andy on whether paying out 30% recurring commissions in perpetuity degrades company margins.10:02–12:45 · Guest disagreement 1/10 SaaS Financials, Bootstrapping, and Capital Allocation When Andy cannot immediately provide an ARPU figure, Nathan calculates it on the fly using ARR and customer count to arrive at $50 per month. Andy outlines their frugal bootstrapped philosophy and team structure.12:45–15:02 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Refining SaaS Churn Metrics and Cohort Analysis Nathan asks about gross churn, and Andy credits Nathan's past advice for redesigning how Convertri measures churn past the three-month mark. Nathan validates the methodology and calculates the annualized retention rate.15:05–17:49 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Exploring Co-Branded Reseller Distribution with Mentors.com Nathan investigates the reseller deal with Mentors.com in real time, catching that the site claims to be unreleased, and pushes Andy when he invokes an NDA regarding commission splits.17:49–20:46 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Fundraising Decisions and the Core Affiliate Base Nathan pushes Andy to define how capital would realistically be deployed rather than just how much could be raised, before concluding with the standard Famous Five lightning round.0:00–2:10 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Episode Preview: Convertri's Growth and Affiliate Engine Nathan introduces Convertri's metrics and establishes market context by comparing them to ClickFunnels and Webflow. Andy clarifies where they fit in the competitive landscape, and both maintain a friendly, cooperative tone.2:11–5:44 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Affiliate Distribution and the Viddyoze Deal Structure Nathan drills into the customer numbers and demonstrates domain knowledge around affiliate marketing mechanics like earnings per click (EPC). Andy breaks down their hybrid funnel and upfront pricing strategy in response.5:44–10:02 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 SEO Growth Mechanics and Powered-By Viral Badges Nathan cites specific Ahrefs SEO metrics, domain ranking, and backlink counts to understand Convertri's organic traffic. He also pushes Andy on whether paying out 30% recurring commissions in perpetuity degrades company margins.10:02–12:45 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 SaaS Financials, Bootstrapping, and Capital Allocation When Andy cannot immediately provide an ARPU figure, Nathan calculates it on the fly using ARR and customer count to arrive at $50 per month. Andy outlines their frugal bootstrapped philosophy and team structure.12:45–15:02 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Refining SaaS Churn Metrics and Cohort Analysis Nathan asks about gross churn, and Andy credits Nathan's past advice for redesigning how Convertri measures churn past the three-month mark. Nathan validates the methodology and calculates the annualized retention rate.15:05–17:49 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Exploring Co-Branded Reseller Distribution with Mentors.com Nathan investigates the reseller deal with Mentors.com in real time, catching that the site claims to be unreleased, and pushes Andy when he invokes an NDA regarding commission splits.17:49–20:46 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Fundraising Decisions and the Core Affiliate Base Nathan pushes Andy to define how capital would realistically be deployed rather than just how much could be raised, before concluding with the standard Famous Five lightning round.

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

0:00 · Nathan 53.4% · guest 46.6%0:00 · Nathan 53.4% · guest 46.6%3:00 · Nathan 16% · guest 84%3:00 · Nathan 16% · guest 84%6:00 · Nathan 20.8% · guest 79.2%6:00 · Nathan 20.8% · guest 79.2%9:00 · Nathan 29% · guest 71%9:00 · Nathan 29% · guest 71%12:00 · Nathan 32.1% · guest 67.9%12:00 · Nathan 32.1% · guest 67.9%15:00 · Nathan 38.1% · guest 61.9%15:00 · Nathan 38.1% · guest 61.9%18:00 · Nathan 30.6% · guest 69.4%18:00 · Nathan 30.6% · guest 69.4%21:00 · Nathan 88.6% · guest 11.4%21:00 · Nathan 88.6% · guest 11.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 17:03 Andy refuses to disclose Mentors.com commission under NDA

Andy firmly shuts down Nathan's attempt to uncover the exact revenue split, asserting confidentiality despite Nathan pressing him on whether it is a preferential deal.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 16:02 Nathan checks Mentors.com live and questions release status

Nathan navigates directly to the partner site during the interview and immediately challenges Andy's claim about the live integration by noting the public page says 'coming September'.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 13:07 Andy clarifies cohort-based churn calculation mechanics

Andy explains why standard blanket churn metrics are misleading for front-end affiliate funnels and demonstrates how isolating month-four-plus cohorts reveals true product retention.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:44 Nathan pulls up Convertri's Ahrefs keyword and domain data

Nathan demonstrates prep and analytical rigor by bringing up specific ranking keywords and Convertri's domain rating score to dissect their organic acquisition channel.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Episode Preview: Convertri's Growth and Affiliate Engine 5212 Nathan introduces Convertri's metrics and establishes market context by comparing them to ClickFunnels and Webflow. Andy clarifies where they fit in the competitive landscape, and both maintain a friendly, cooperative tone.
Affiliate Distribution and the Viddyoze Deal Structure 7214 Nathan drills into the customer numbers and demonstrates domain knowledge around affiliate marketing mechanics like earnings per click (EPC). Andy breaks down their hybrid funnel and upfront pricing strategy in response.
SEO Growth Mechanics and Powered-By Viral Badges 8324 Nathan cites specific Ahrefs SEO metrics, domain ranking, and backlink counts to understand Convertri's organic traffic. He also pushes Andy on whether paying out 30% recurring commissions in perpetuity degrades company margins.
SaaS Financials, Bootstrapping, and Capital Allocation 7113 When Andy cannot immediately provide an ARPU figure, Nathan calculates it on the fly using ARR and customer count to arrive at $50 per month. Andy outlines their frugal bootstrapped philosophy and team structure.
Refining SaaS Churn Metrics and Cohort Analysis 7412 Nathan asks about gross churn, and Andy credits Nathan's past advice for redesigning how Convertri measures churn past the three-month mark. Nathan validates the methodology and calculates the annualized retention rate.
Exploring Co-Branded Reseller Distribution with Mentors.com 6246 Nathan investigates the reseller deal with Mentors.com in real time, catching that the site claims to be unreleased, and pushes Andy when he invokes an NDA regarding commission splits.
Fundraising Decisions and the Core Affiliate Base 5113 Nathan pushes Andy to define how capital would realistically be deployed rather than just how much could be raised, before concluding with the standard Famous Five lightning round.

Statements from this episode (12)

Opinion
Convertri finds Webflow too developer-focused for its marketing-centric customers
“Webflow's a great tool, but it's a little bit more sort of, like, techie developer focused, maybe not developer, but, Like some of the way that they do stuff like doesn't tend to appeal to our very marketing centric customers.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 1:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Convertri has 1,700 recurring SaaS customers and 700 hybrid customers
“So about 1700 on the recurring and another 700 in phase one of our hybrid funnel.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 2:04
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Viddyoze sold over $500,000 of Convertri products across four promos
“So I think they've done four, four like really big promos. And they've sold over half a million dollars worth of product in that time.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 4:15
Insight
Affiliate marketers cannot effectively sell front-end recurring SaaS subscriptions
“Affiliates can't sell recurring on the front for toffee. Like they just can't do it. No, nobody's got any interest in it. They need a one time or pseudo one time thing.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 4:44
Insight
Convertri subdomains sometimes outrank users' own primary root domains in search
“The SEO theory, right, is that subdomains don't get any benefit from that main domain. That doesn't entirely seem to be true in our case, because we've got, we get those rankings for people to just register like productname.convertory.com. We've seen that outr…”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 6:34
Insight
Default 'Powered By' badges drive most of Convertri's backlink volume
“I'm pretty sure the bulk of it is that powered by badge doing its thing. Which, again, flies in the face of so much like conventional SEO theory, because it's all on the same IP address, well, the same handful of IP addresses in our data centers every single o…”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 7:21
Disclosure
Convertri pays affiliates 50% upfront and 30% perpetual recurring commissions
“Anything they sell on the day, so the two nine seven on the front end, the recurring upsell, which is 37 bucks or 97, depending which thing we're selling to a given audience, and that's agency or pro they get 50% of, like, for the month one, and then anything …”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 8:23
Insight
Perpetual recurring commissions ensure annual repeat promotions from major affiliates
“It works really well for us because basically the big affiliates in that kind of space will look to do one big promo for a given partner every year. And it works really well to have those recurring commissions still being paid to them like clockwork every mont…”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 9:28
Disclosure
Convertri has reached $1.05 million in annual recurring revenue
“One point, like, oh five million.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 10:44
Disclosure
Convertri grew profitably after Andy Fletcher invested $80,000 to $100,000
“I still bootstrapped. Haven't raised any capital since the first, like, I put about 80, a hundred K in my own money in day one to get it all moving. And since then we've just been profitable and growing off the money we make.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 11:00
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Convertri's post-three-month customer churn is 1% to 2% monthly
“And our churn on those is, is really good. Like it's like a percent or two a month.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 14:06
Disclosure
Convertri holds approximately $700,000 in cash reserves
“At the moment, we're sat on, I think we've got about 700 K in the war chest.”
Andy Fletcher May 21, 2020 ▶ 18:07
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