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Nov 8, 2019 · 15m · top-founders

1567 How New Employee Feedback Tool Plans to Monetize

Riley Moore · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m 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 podcast interview, host Nathan Latka discusses with founder Riley Moore how his bootstrapped startup DirectSuggest reinvents the corporate suggestion box and balances freemium user adoption against SaaS monetization.

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 33.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.3 Guest teaching 1.3 Guest disagreement 2.3 Nathan pushing back 6.0
05100:0010:001:26–3:51 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Freemium Pricing, Bootstrapping, and Initial Pilot Traction Latka immediately cuts through Moore's vague revenue descriptions to establish that the company is currently at zero revenue. He pushes on why nobody is paying after nearly a year in the market, while Moore remains cooperative and transparent about their bootstrap numbers.3:51–12:36 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Debating Activation Metrics, Paywalls, and SaaS Monetization Strategy Latka drills heavily into Moore's lack of concrete activation metrics, citing SaaS precedents like Expensify and Facebook. When Moore resists charging pilots like Nokia out of fear of being 'pushy', Latka aggressively pushes back, arguing Moore lacks confidence in the product's value.12:36–15:46 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 The Famous Five Questions and Closing Remarks Latka conducts his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, bluntly mocking Moore's favorite business book as fluffy. Moore takes the critique in stride and explains why the simple format worked for him.1:26–3:51 · Guest teaching 1/10 Freemium Pricing, Bootstrapping, and Initial Pilot Traction Latka immediately cuts through Moore's vague revenue descriptions to establish that the company is currently at zero revenue. He pushes on why nobody is paying after nearly a year in the market, while Moore remains cooperative and transparent about their bootstrap numbers.3:51–12:36 · Guest teaching 2/10 Debating Activation Metrics, Paywalls, and SaaS Monetization Strategy Latka drills heavily into Moore's lack of concrete activation metrics, citing SaaS precedents like Expensify and Facebook. When Moore resists charging pilots like Nokia out of fear of being 'pushy', Latka aggressively pushes back, arguing Moore lacks confidence in the product's value.12:36–15:46 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Questions and Closing Remarks Latka conducts his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, bluntly mocking Moore's favorite business book as fluffy. Moore takes the critique in stride and explains why the simple format worked for him.1:26–3:51 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Freemium Pricing, Bootstrapping, and Initial Pilot Traction Latka immediately cuts through Moore's vague revenue descriptions to establish that the company is currently at zero revenue. He pushes on why nobody is paying after nearly a year in the market, while Moore remains cooperative and transparent about their bootstrap numbers.3:51–12:36 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Debating Activation Metrics, Paywalls, and SaaS Monetization Strategy Latka drills heavily into Moore's lack of concrete activation metrics, citing SaaS precedents like Expensify and Facebook. When Moore resists charging pilots like Nokia out of fear of being 'pushy', Latka aggressively pushes back, arguing Moore lacks confidence in the product's value.12:36–15:46 · Guest disagreement 2/10 The Famous Five Questions and Closing Remarks Latka conducts his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, bluntly mocking Moore's favorite business book as fluffy. Moore takes the critique in stride and explains why the simple format worked for him.1:26–3:51 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Freemium Pricing, Bootstrapping, and Initial Pilot Traction Latka immediately cuts through Moore's vague revenue descriptions to establish that the company is currently at zero revenue. He pushes on why nobody is paying after nearly a year in the market, while Moore remains cooperative and transparent about their bootstrap numbers.3:51–12:36 · Nathan pushing back 9/10 Debating Activation Metrics, Paywalls, and SaaS Monetization Strategy Latka drills heavily into Moore's lack of concrete activation metrics, citing SaaS precedents like Expensify and Facebook. When Moore resists charging pilots like Nokia out of fear of being 'pushy', Latka aggressively pushes back, arguing Moore lacks confidence in the product's value.12:36–15:46 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 The Famous Five Questions and Closing Remarks Latka conducts his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, bluntly mocking Moore's favorite business book as fluffy. Moore takes the critique in stride and explains why the simple format worked for him.

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

0:00 · Nathan 36.4% · guest 63.6%0:00 · Nathan 36.4% · guest 63.6%3:00 · Nathan 17.1% · guest 82.9%3:00 · Nathan 17.1% · guest 82.9%6:00 · Nathan 47.8% · guest 52.2%6:00 · Nathan 47.8% · guest 52.2%9:00 · Nathan 31.1% · guest 68.9%9:00 · Nathan 31.1% · guest 68.9%12:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%12:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%15:00 · Nathan 38.3% · guest 61.7%15:00 · Nathan 38.3% · guest 61.7%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:34 Moore defends non-pushy culture

Moore resists Latka's pressure to demand money from pilot users, standing firm on his family business philosophy of remaining affordable and avoiding aggressive sales tactics.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 8:07 Latka calls out lack of confidence

Latka directly refuses Moore's justification for free pilots, claiming Moore does not believe in his own product enough to enforce a paywall.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:07 Moore clarifies the 50-user paywall threshold

Moore educates Latka on their specific tiering strategy, explaining that large enterprises like Nokia are capped at 50 users and must pay once rolled out organization-wide.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:10 Latka illustrates SaaS activation loops

Latka leverages specific onboarding benchmarks from Facebook and Expensify to demonstrate how SaaS companies must engineer clear value-activation triggers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Freemium Pricing, Bootstrapping, and Initial Pilot Traction 5115 Latka immediately cuts through Moore's vague revenue descriptions to establish that the company is currently at zero revenue. He pushes on why nobody is paying after nearly a year in the market, while Moore remains cooperative and transparent about their bootstrap numbers.
Debating Activation Metrics, Paywalls, and SaaS Monetization Strategy 8249 Latka drills heavily into Moore's lack of concrete activation metrics, citing SaaS precedents like Expensify and Facebook. When Moore resists charging pilots like Nokia out of fear of being 'pushy', Latka aggressively pushes back, arguing Moore lacks confidence in the product's value.
The Famous Five Questions and Closing Remarks 3124 Latka conducts his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, bluntly mocking Moore's favorite business book as fluffy. Moore takes the critique in stride and explains why the simple format worked for him.

Statements from this episode (8)

Disclosure
Moore: DirectSuggest Caps Monthly Enterprise Pricing at $10,000
“It's free for companies with no more than 50 employees, and then it's no more than 50 cents per employee per month. As the company size increases, the amount they pay per employee is cheaper, and we cap it 10,000 dollars per month.”
Riley Moore Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 1:35
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moore: DirectSuggest Has Not Signed Any Paid Contracts Yet
“We're in early revenue where we are, haven't signed any contracts that are paid yet. They're all currently in trial process.”
Riley Moore Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 2:06
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DirectSuggest Secured Nokia and Drive.ai for Product Trials Pre-Revenue
“So, Nokia, Drive AI, Johnny Morse's Wonders of Wildlife Museum, they all signed up in October.”
Riley Moore Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 3:21
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moore: DirectSuggest Has Spent Under $2,000 Total on Marketing
“So, we haven't spent any money on Facebook, haven't spent any money on Twitter. We've spent around 500 bucks on LinkedIn, and that's all the money that we've spent. We've spent less than 2000 dollars overall.”
Riley Moore Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 3:36
Assertion Partly supported
Latka Shares Facebook and Expensify's Early User Activation Benchmarks
“When Facebook launched, they knew they had to get seven friends to a new user in the first week for you to be sticky, right? And then you're going to stick, Expensify, right? A B to B SaaS company. They know when an employee downloads their app, they've got to…”
Nathan Latka Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 6:13
Disclosure
DirectSuggest Adopts Unlimited Freemium Sandbox Model Over Time-Limited Trials
“We chose to go with something similar to Braintree, where we left them with a sandbox where we aren't going to give them a time limit. We're going to give them the solution, see if they enjoy it, see if it's something that they're going to make a difference wi…”
Riley Moore Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 9:30
Opinion
Latka Calls Dean Graziosi's 'Millionaire Success Habits' Fluffy and Impractical
“I skimmed it and it's like, it is the fluffiest thing I've ever read in my life. It is like about rah, rah stuff with like, in my opinion, I find it very not practical.”
Nathan Latka Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 13:09
Disclosure
Moore: DirectSuggest is bootstrapped, family-run, and operates with four people
“Because we're bootstrapped and we're family owned, family run, there's four of us doing everything. So I do all the marketing with direct suggest and being able to save time by scheduling my posts ahead of time and posting things, doing it through Hootsuite sa…”
Riley Moore Nov 8, 2019 ▶ 14:17
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