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Nov 22, 2019 · 18m · top-founders

1581 How This FinTech CEO Hit $10M ARR With No Expansion Revenue

Andrew White · 8m 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

FundApps founder and CEO Andrew White explains how he bootstrapped his regtech SaaS company to a $10M ARR run rate using a non-expansion pricing model, exceptional retention, and efficient new-logo acquisition.

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 49.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 1.3 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:000:57–7:20 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Transitioning from On-Premise to RegTech Cloud SaaS Latka drills into FundApps' SaaS pricing tiers and lack of expansion revenue. White clarifies his flat pricing structure and corrects Latka when he misinterprets CPI as cost per integration.7:24–12:50 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Special Promotion: Growth Marketing Conference in San Francisco Following a conference promo monologue, Latka runs the math on White's ARR and targets. He challenges White's claim of having zero expansion revenue by noting that selling second products to two clients represents 8% expansion.12:51–16:29 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Acquisition Unit Economics and Bootstrapped Growth Latka presses White on unit economics, expressing shock that a bootstrapped founder does not track payback periods. White explains that regtech word-of-mouth delivers 90% inbound leads, rendering heavy CAC tracking less critical.16:30–18:03 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Latka runs through the standard Famous Five lightning round with rapid, lighthearted responses before summarizing the interview metrics in an outro recap.0:57–7:20 · Guest teaching 4/10 Transitioning from On-Premise to RegTech Cloud SaaS Latka drills into FundApps' SaaS pricing tiers and lack of expansion revenue. White clarifies his flat pricing structure and corrects Latka when he misinterprets CPI as cost per integration.7:24–12:50 · Guest teaching 3/10 Special Promotion: Growth Marketing Conference in San Francisco Following a conference promo monologue, Latka runs the math on White's ARR and targets. He challenges White's claim of having zero expansion revenue by noting that selling second products to two clients represents 8% expansion.12:51–16:29 · Guest teaching 4/10 Customer Acquisition Unit Economics and Bootstrapped Growth Latka presses White on unit economics, expressing shock that a bootstrapped founder does not track payback periods. White explains that regtech word-of-mouth delivers 90% inbound leads, rendering heavy CAC tracking less critical.16:30–18:03 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Latka runs through the standard Famous Five lightning round with rapid, lighthearted responses before summarizing the interview metrics in an outro recap.0:57–7:20 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Transitioning from On-Premise to RegTech Cloud SaaS Latka drills into FundApps' SaaS pricing tiers and lack of expansion revenue. White clarifies his flat pricing structure and corrects Latka when he misinterprets CPI as cost per integration.7:24–12:50 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Special Promotion: Growth Marketing Conference in San Francisco Following a conference promo monologue, Latka runs the math on White's ARR and targets. He challenges White's claim of having zero expansion revenue by noting that selling second products to two clients represents 8% expansion.12:51–16:29 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Customer Acquisition Unit Economics and Bootstrapped Growth Latka presses White on unit economics, expressing shock that a bootstrapped founder does not track payback periods. White explains that regtech word-of-mouth delivers 90% inbound leads, rendering heavy CAC tracking less critical.16:30–18:03 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Latka runs through the standard Famous Five lightning round with rapid, lighthearted responses before summarizing the interview metrics in an outro recap.0:57–7:20 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Transitioning from On-Premise to RegTech Cloud SaaS Latka drills into FundApps' SaaS pricing tiers and lack of expansion revenue. White clarifies his flat pricing structure and corrects Latka when he misinterprets CPI as cost per integration.7:24–12:50 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Special Promotion: Growth Marketing Conference in San Francisco Following a conference promo monologue, Latka runs the math on White's ARR and targets. He challenges White's claim of having zero expansion revenue by noting that selling second products to two clients represents 8% expansion.12:51–16:29 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Customer Acquisition Unit Economics and Bootstrapped Growth Latka presses White on unit economics, expressing shock that a bootstrapped founder does not track payback periods. White explains that regtech word-of-mouth delivers 90% inbound leads, rendering heavy CAC tracking less critical.16:30–18:03 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion Latka runs through the standard Famous Five lightning round with rapid, lighthearted responses before summarizing the interview metrics in an outro recap.

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

0:00 · Nathan 53.8% · guest 46.2%0:00 · Nathan 53.8% · guest 46.2%3:00 · Nathan 30.7% · guest 69.3%3:00 · Nathan 30.7% · guest 69.3%6:00 · Nathan 69.3% · guest 30.7%6:00 · Nathan 69.3% · guest 30.7%9:00 · Nathan 48.8% · guest 51.2%9:00 · Nathan 48.8% · guest 51.2%12:00 · Nathan 38.3% · guest 61.7%12:00 · Nathan 38.3% · guest 61.7%15:00 · Nathan 56.3% · guest 43.7%15:00 · Nathan 56.3% · guest 43.7%18:00 · Nathan 63% · guest 37%18:00 · Nathan 63% · guest 37%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:40 White dismisses traditional marketing spend

White rejects the premise that they need heavy marketing or conference expenditures, stating their niche customer base already knows each other.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 14:43 Latka calls out lack of payback metric tracking

Latka pushes back on White's casual attitude towards payback metrics, insisting that paying sales commissions on contracts necessitates tracking CAC.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:28 White defines CPI for Latka

When Latka asks if CPI stands for cost per integration, White directly corrects him, explaining it is the consumer price index for inflation adjustments.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:00 Latka points out cross-sell expansion math

Latka catches White's mathematical contradiction, pointing out that cross-selling a second product to existing clients represents legitimate expansion revenue.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Transitioning from On-Premise to RegTech Cloud SaaS 5424 Latka drills into FundApps' SaaS pricing tiers and lack of expansion revenue. White clarifies his flat pricing structure and corrects Latka when he misinterprets CPI as cost per integration.
Special Promotion: Growth Marketing Conference in San Francisco 6315 Following a conference promo monologue, Latka runs the math on White's ARR and targets. He challenges White's claim of having zero expansion revenue by noting that selling second products to two clients represents 8% expansion.
Customer Acquisition Unit Economics and Bootstrapped Growth 6425 Latka presses White on unit economics, expressing shock that a bootstrapped founder does not track payback periods. White explains that regtech word-of-mouth delivers 90% inbound leads, rendering heavy CAC tracking less critical.
The Famous Five Questions and Episode Conclusion 3101 Latka runs through the standard Famous Five lightning round with rapid, lighthearted responses before summarizing the interview metrics in an outro recap.

Statements from this episode (10)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
FundApps' annual contract values start at approximately $100,000
“So we started about a 100,000 dollars upwards.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 1:51
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FundApps currently has 45 enterprise clients globally
“We currently, I think our latest total as of yesterday was 45 clients globally.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 2:47
Disclosure
FundApps sells all-inclusive contracts without typical SaaS upsells
“So we're unusual like that, that basically our fee is, is everything. It's the entire shooting match for one service. So we don't typically have an upsell or isn't the silver gold platinum service levels that you might have in your typical Zendesk. So for us, …”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 4:06
Disclosure
FundApps triggers pricing increases for M&A, not organic AUM growth
“So for us, what we call organic increase, which as you said, would be You know, going from a hundred million to five hundred million will be included in the price, where we would say, okay, you've moved to different categories, what we call non-organic growth,…”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 6:24
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FundApps has lost only one customer in eight years of business
“We've only ever lost one customer in eight years of business.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 9:47
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FundApps' total addressable market is roughly 2,000 financial institutions
“There's 500 large asset managers, you know, you've got about a thousand hedge funds, you've got quite a few investment banks, you know, about 2000.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 10:24
Prediction Not checkable as stated
FundApps will reach $20M ARR in 1-5 years depending on Brexit
“Depending where Brexit goes, et cetera, that might, could be a five-year target. If Brexit goes well, it might be a one-year target, but you know, next one of the five years, shall we say.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 11:09
Disclosure
91% of FundApps' revenue growth comes from new client acquisition
“It's 91% new, new client base, but two of our existing clients subscribe to our second product.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 12:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FundApps gets 90% of its enterprise sales from inbound leads
“Paying commissions, but as I said, most, 90% of sales have been inbound over the last few years.”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 14:50
Disclosure
FundApps is highly profitable and will not raise outside capital
“No plans to raise cost of capital. We're very profitable at the moment. Our revenue curve is, is increasing faster than our cost curve. So not respect. I don't see a need for plans for next year. We're opening an APAC office, you know, that will be funded with…”
Andrew White Nov 22, 2019 ▶ 16:01
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