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Dec 23, 2019 · 16m · top-founders

1612 How He Used SEO To Scale To $150k MRR In Team Time Management Space

Andrew Rogoff · 7m spoken Nathan Latka · 0s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Resource Guru co-founder Andrew Rogoff explains how the team-scheduling SaaS company reached $150,000 in monthly recurring revenue across 1,450 customers through organic SEO acquisition, per-resource monetization, and disciplined capital efficiency.

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 42.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.6 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 1.2 Nathan pushing back 4.4
05100:0010:002:02–5:46 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Historical Growth Milestones and Revenue Run Rate Latka immediately calculates MRR and run rate from customer counts, then live-checks Google SERP rankings to challenge the guest on their SEO performance. Rogoff remains cooperative while explaining their early organic keyword strategy.5:46–7:51 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth and Scaling Velocity When Rogoff cannot recall revenue figures from 12 months prior, Latka firmly presses him to give at least a ballpark growth multiplier. Once Rogoff shares a 40% growth rate, Latka calculates the historical run rate instantly.7:51–10:31 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Churn Dynamics, Retention, and Per-Resource Monetization Latka drills into the difference between gross logo churn and net revenue churn, then catches a semantic nuance between charging per team member versus per resource. Rogoff explains that in project management terminology, non-login resources are billed regardless of user accounts.10:31–13:40 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback, and Marketing Spend Latka presses Rogoff on future fundraising targets and pre-money valuation multiples. When Rogoff mentions wanting an 8x multiple, Latka pushes back with SaaS market realities regarding low-end multiples.13:41–15:31 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment covering favorite books, tools, sleep habits, and upcoming family milestones without friction.2:02–5:46 · Guest teaching 1/10 Historical Growth Milestones and Revenue Run Rate Latka immediately calculates MRR and run rate from customer counts, then live-checks Google SERP rankings to challenge the guest on their SEO performance. Rogoff remains cooperative while explaining their early organic keyword strategy.5:46–7:51 · Guest teaching 1/10 Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth and Scaling Velocity When Rogoff cannot recall revenue figures from 12 months prior, Latka firmly presses him to give at least a ballpark growth multiplier. Once Rogoff shares a 40% growth rate, Latka calculates the historical run rate instantly.7:51–10:31 · Guest teaching 3/10 Churn Dynamics, Retention, and Per-Resource Monetization Latka drills into the difference between gross logo churn and net revenue churn, then catches a semantic nuance between charging per team member versus per resource. Rogoff explains that in project management terminology, non-login resources are billed regardless of user accounts.10:31–13:40 · Guest teaching 2/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback, and Marketing Spend Latka presses Rogoff on future fundraising targets and pre-money valuation multiples. When Rogoff mentions wanting an 8x multiple, Latka pushes back with SaaS market realities regarding low-end multiples.13:41–15:31 · Guest teaching 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment covering favorite books, tools, sleep habits, and upcoming family milestones without friction.2:02–5:46 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Historical Growth Milestones and Revenue Run Rate Latka immediately calculates MRR and run rate from customer counts, then live-checks Google SERP rankings to challenge the guest on their SEO performance. Rogoff remains cooperative while explaining their early organic keyword strategy.5:46–7:51 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth and Scaling Velocity When Rogoff cannot recall revenue figures from 12 months prior, Latka firmly presses him to give at least a ballpark growth multiplier. Once Rogoff shares a 40% growth rate, Latka calculates the historical run rate instantly.7:51–10:31 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Churn Dynamics, Retention, and Per-Resource Monetization Latka drills into the difference between gross logo churn and net revenue churn, then catches a semantic nuance between charging per team member versus per resource. Rogoff explains that in project management terminology, non-login resources are billed regardless of user accounts.10:31–13:40 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback, and Marketing Spend Latka presses Rogoff on future fundraising targets and pre-money valuation multiples. When Rogoff mentions wanting an 8x multiple, Latka pushes back with SaaS market realities regarding low-end multiples.13:41–15:31 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment covering favorite books, tools, sleep habits, and upcoming family milestones without friction.2:02–5:46 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Historical Growth Milestones and Revenue Run Rate Latka immediately calculates MRR and run rate from customer counts, then live-checks Google SERP rankings to challenge the guest on their SEO performance. Rogoff remains cooperative while explaining their early organic keyword strategy.5:46–7:51 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth and Scaling Velocity When Rogoff cannot recall revenue figures from 12 months prior, Latka firmly presses him to give at least a ballpark growth multiplier. Once Rogoff shares a 40% growth rate, Latka calculates the historical run rate instantly.7:51–10:31 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Churn Dynamics, Retention, and Per-Resource Monetization Latka drills into the difference between gross logo churn and net revenue churn, then catches a semantic nuance between charging per team member versus per resource. Rogoff explains that in project management terminology, non-login resources are billed regardless of user accounts.10:31–13:40 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback, and Marketing Spend Latka presses Rogoff on future fundraising targets and pre-money valuation multiples. When Rogoff mentions wanting an 8x multiple, Latka pushes back with SaaS market realities regarding low-end multiples.13:41–15:31 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment covering favorite books, tools, sleep habits, and upcoming family milestones without friction.

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

0:00 · Nathan 57.5% · guest 42.5%0:00 · Nathan 57.5% · guest 42.5%3:00 · Nathan 32.4% · guest 67.6%3:00 · Nathan 32.4% · guest 67.6%6:00 · Nathan 47.2% · guest 52.8%6:00 · Nathan 47.2% · guest 52.8%9:00 · Nathan 29% · guest 71%9:00 · Nathan 29% · guest 71%12:00 · Nathan 34.8% · guest 65.2%12:00 · Nathan 34.8% · guest 65.2%15:00 · Nathan 67.1% · guest 32.9%15:00 · Nathan 67.1% · guest 32.9%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:08 Guest sets boundary on valuation

Rogoff directly resists Latka's attempt to get a specific pre-money valuation target on air, stating he would not want to chuck a number out there.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 6:00 Latka refuses guest's lack of recall

Latka pushes back firmly when Rogoff claims not to know his year-over-year revenue, demanding at least a general multiple.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:50 Explaining resource-based billing model

Rogoff clarifies how time tracking SaaS differs from standard seat licenses by explaining that clients pay for tracked resources rather than logged-in user seats.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 3:51 Live ranking fact-check

Latka pulls up live search results to demonstrate that the company is currently ranking at position 11 for their claimed primary target keyword.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Historical Growth Milestones and Revenue Run Rate 7115 Latka immediately calculates MRR and run rate from customer counts, then live-checks Google SERP rankings to challenge the guest on their SEO performance. Rogoff remains cooperative while explaining their early organic keyword strategy.
Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth and Scaling Velocity 6116 When Rogoff cannot recall revenue figures from 12 months prior, Latka firmly presses him to give at least a ballpark growth multiplier. Once Rogoff shares a 40% growth rate, Latka calculates the historical run rate instantly.
Churn Dynamics, Retention, and Per-Resource Monetization 6325 Latka drills into the difference between gross logo churn and net revenue churn, then catches a semantic nuance between charging per team member versus per resource. Rogoff explains that in project management terminology, non-login resources are billed regardless of user accounts.
Customer Acquisition Cost, Payback, and Marketing Spend 7225 Latka presses Rogoff on future fundraising targets and pre-money valuation multiples. When Rogoff mentions wanting an 8x multiple, Latka pushes back with SaaS market realities regarding low-end multiples.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2101 Standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment covering favorite books, tools, sleep habits, and upcoming family milestones without friction.

Statements from this episode (15)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru's average customer pays approximately $105 per month
“Average, average is About a 105 dollars a month.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 1:43
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru has reached about 1,450 total customers
“We're up at about 1450 customers.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 2:15
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru is approaching a $2 million revenue run rate
“So we're coming up to about two million.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 2:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru drives most of its customer acquisition through organic SEO
“It's mostly through SEO. That's kind of how we started in the beginning.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 3:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru grew its revenue by approximately 40% year-over-year
“We've grown about 40%. We've grown about 40% in the last year.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 6:28
Assertion Supported
Resource Guru has raised £685,000 in total capital
“We raised we raised 685,000 pounds, which is about 870,000 dollars.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 7:01
Assertion Supported
Resource Guru is backed by Index Ventures and angel investors
“First round was kind of friends and family. And then we had another round which included index ventures, which is a large VC in Europe.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 7:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru Operates With an 11-Person Team
“We're 11.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 7:36
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru's monthly customer churn is approximately 3.5%
“Churn is about three and a half percent month, month on month customer churn.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 7:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru's monthly net revenue churn is approximately 0.8%
“Net, well, net revenue churn is about .8%.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 8:33
Disclosure
Resource Guru charges per scheduled resource rather than per user login
“So we charge per, per person in the app as opposed to per logged in user.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 10:02
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru's fully weighted customer acquisition cost is about $325
“CAC is about 325 dollars.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 10:40
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru is currently profitable and cash-flow positive
“Is the company profitable cashflow positive today? Yeah. Oh, that's good. Okay. So even though you've raised your cashflow positive. Yeah, exactly.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 11:35
Disclosure
Resource Guru plans to raise roughly $5 million in growth capital
“We're going to be raising soon. How much do you want to raise? I think it's going to be roughly in the ballpark of about five million, something like that.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 11:50
Opinion
Andrew Rogoff targets an 8x revenue multiple for Resource Guru's next round
“Probably what in terms of multiples of revenue. Yep. I would say Eight might make me happy.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 12:25
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