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Jan 9, 2020 · 16m · top-founders

1629 Will a Rebrand Help this $500k MRR Company Break 30% YoY Growth?

Bruce McGowan · 7m spoken Nathan Latka · 6m 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 Interweave CEO Bruce McGowan on scaling a bootstrapped CRM and ERP integration SaaS platform to $500,000 in monthly recurring revenue with 4,000 active customers. Bruce explains how Interweave leverages modular add-ons and a Gartner-guided brand transformation to achieve 115% net revenue retention while positioning itself as an intelligent integration platform for emerging CRM ecosystems.

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 5.8 Guest teaching 1.5 Guest disagreement 1.8 Nathan pushing back 5.0
05100:0010:001:22–4:52 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Origins and Configurable Integration Architecture of Interweave Nathan clarifies Bruce's jargon regarding Rackspace hosting and asks him to avoid acronyms like AR and AP while mapping out Interweave's average price points.4:52–7:28 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Scale, Historical Churn, and Revenue Metrics Nathan presses Bruce to distinguish cumulative lifetime customers (8,000) from current active paying customers (4,000), quickly calculating his estimated $500k MRR and growth rate.7:28–10:37 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Sponsor Message: HostGator Website Hosting After an ad read, Nathan explores Bruce's bootstrap approach, positioning relative to MuleSoft, and personal capital reinvestment strategy.10:37–14:06 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Revenue Retention Dynamics, Upselling, and CAC Prioritization Nathan corrects Bruce on the definition of expansion revenue versus new customer acquisition and challenges his claim that working with Gartner will establish CAC.1:22–4:52 · Guest teaching 2/10 Origins and Configurable Integration Architecture of Interweave Nathan clarifies Bruce's jargon regarding Rackspace hosting and asks him to avoid acronyms like AR and AP while mapping out Interweave's average price points.4:52–7:28 · Guest teaching 1/10 Customer Scale, Historical Churn, and Revenue Metrics Nathan presses Bruce to distinguish cumulative lifetime customers (8,000) from current active paying customers (4,000), quickly calculating his estimated $500k MRR and growth rate.7:28–10:37 · Guest teaching 2/10 Sponsor Message: HostGator Website Hosting After an ad read, Nathan explores Bruce's bootstrap approach, positioning relative to MuleSoft, and personal capital reinvestment strategy.10:37–14:06 · Guest teaching 1/10 Revenue Retention Dynamics, Upselling, and CAC Prioritization Nathan corrects Bruce on the definition of expansion revenue versus new customer acquisition and challenges his claim that working with Gartner will establish CAC.1:22–4:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Origins and Configurable Integration Architecture of Interweave Nathan clarifies Bruce's jargon regarding Rackspace hosting and asks him to avoid acronyms like AR and AP while mapping out Interweave's average price points.4:52–7:28 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Customer Scale, Historical Churn, and Revenue Metrics Nathan presses Bruce to distinguish cumulative lifetime customers (8,000) from current active paying customers (4,000), quickly calculating his estimated $500k MRR and growth rate.7:28–10:37 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Sponsor Message: HostGator Website Hosting After an ad read, Nathan explores Bruce's bootstrap approach, positioning relative to MuleSoft, and personal capital reinvestment strategy.10:37–14:06 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Revenue Retention Dynamics, Upselling, and CAC Prioritization Nathan corrects Bruce on the definition of expansion revenue versus new customer acquisition and challenges his claim that working with Gartner will establish CAC.1:22–4:52 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Origins and Configurable Integration Architecture of Interweave Nathan clarifies Bruce's jargon regarding Rackspace hosting and asks him to avoid acronyms like AR and AP while mapping out Interweave's average price points.4:52–7:28 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Customer Scale, Historical Churn, and Revenue Metrics Nathan presses Bruce to distinguish cumulative lifetime customers (8,000) from current active paying customers (4,000), quickly calculating his estimated $500k MRR and growth rate.7:28–10:37 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Sponsor Message: HostGator Website Hosting After an ad read, Nathan explores Bruce's bootstrap approach, positioning relative to MuleSoft, and personal capital reinvestment strategy.10:37–14:06 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Revenue Retention Dynamics, Upselling, and CAC Prioritization Nathan corrects Bruce on the definition of expansion revenue versus new customer acquisition and challenges his claim that working with Gartner will establish CAC.

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

0:00 · Nathan 56.5% · guest 43.5%0:00 · Nathan 56.5% · guest 43.5%3:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%3:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%6:00 · Nathan 48.3% · guest 51.7%6:00 · Nathan 48.3% · guest 51.7%9:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%9:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%12:00 · Nathan 41.2% · guest 58.8%12:00 · Nathan 41.2% · guest 58.8%15:00 · Nathan 56% · guest 44%15:00 · Nathan 56% · guest 44%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:27 Guest questions host's familiarity with Gartner

Bruce responds defensively with 'Are you familiar with Gartner?' when Nathan questions how a rebrand agency helps determine acquisition costs.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 12:19 Host rejects new customer framing for expansion revenue

Nathan bluntly interrupts Bruce to clarify that signing up new partner customers is customer acquisition, not net expansion on existing cohorts.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:20 Guest outlines configurable integration architecture

Bruce educates Nathan on how Interweave differentiated itself by offering configurable multi-object workflows instead of hardcoded vendor processes.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:19 Host demonstrates SaaS metric rigor

Nathan displays deep knowledge of SaaS unit economics by breaking down the exact mechanics of net revenue expansion versus top-of-funnel customer growth.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Origins and Configurable Integration Architecture of Interweave 4213 Nathan clarifies Bruce's jargon regarding Rackspace hosting and asks him to avoid acronyms like AR and AP while mapping out Interweave's average price points.
Customer Scale, Historical Churn, and Revenue Metrics 6115 Nathan presses Bruce to distinguish cumulative lifetime customers (8,000) from current active paying customers (4,000), quickly calculating his estimated $500k MRR and growth rate.
Sponsor Message: HostGator Website Hosting 5224 After an ad read, Nathan explores Bruce's bootstrap approach, positioning relative to MuleSoft, and personal capital reinvestment strategy.
Revenue Retention Dynamics, Upselling, and CAC Prioritization 8138 Nathan corrects Bruce on the definition of expansion revenue versus new customer acquisition and challenges his claim that working with Gartner will establish CAC.

Statements from this episode (10)

Disclosure
McGowan: Interweave annual pricing typically ranges from $999 to $1,499
“The annual is anywhere from nine 99 to 14 99. Typically.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 3:26
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McGowan: Interweave has approximately 4,000 active paying customers
“About 4000.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 5:41
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McGowan: Interweave generates roughly $500k in monthly recurring revenue
“That's pretty close, yeah.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 6:31
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McGowan: Interweave is growing at roughly 30% year-over-year
“30%.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 6:44
Disclosure
McGowan: Interweave is fully bootstrapped without outside capital
“No, we bootstrapped it.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 6:50
Disclosure
McGowan: Interweave is rebranding and in discussions with Gartner
“We're in the position right now, we're coming out with a new branding, and that's, we're in the conversations with Gartner currently, those type of things.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 6:51
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McGowan: Interweave's First Enterprise Deal with ACS Was $1.5M
“ACS, ACS, yeah, out of Dallas was their first customer. I mean, the first price point was at 1.5 million dollars.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 8:32
Disclosure
McGowan: Interweave Has 18 Employees Across Toronto and Russia
“We have six people six people out of Toronto. We have 12 people out of Out of Russia.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 9:44
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McGowan: Interweave's annual revenue churn is 20% to 25%
“Yeah, it's, revenue churn is more like 20 to 25%.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 10:46
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McGowan: Interweave's annual revenue expansion is closer to 40%
“I certainly hope so. Yeah. Closer to 40. You bet.”
Bruce McGowan Jan 9, 2020 ▶ 11:21
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