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Apr 2, 2019 · 18m · top-founders

1347 "Our minimum is $500m" Says Ecommerce Tool CEO

Chad Rubin · 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

In this episode of The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews Skubana CEO Chad Rubin to examine how the e-commerce operations platform scaled to over $1.5 million in monthly recurring revenue. Rubin shares insights on bootstrapped capital efficiency, upmarket pricing, disciplined product prioritization, and his ambition to achieve a $500 million valuation floor.

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 44.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.9 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 2.3 Nathan pushing back 3.1
05100:0010:000:00–2:11 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Book Promotion: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Monologue segment where Nathan promotes his book 'How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital' and provides introductory background on the guest and company.2:13–4:16 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introduction to Chad Rubin and Skubana's Platform Nathan introduces Chad Rubin and asks about his transition from selling vacuums to building Skubana, with Chad explaining what algorithmic purchase orders do.4:18–7:10 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Growth, Upmarket Pricing, and Feature Prioritization Nathan presses Chad on revenue and ARPU metrics as Skubana moves upstream, forcing rough arithmetic on monthly recurring revenue when Chad avoids disclosing exact figures.7:12–11:07 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Capital Efficiency and Bootstrapped Funding Structure Nathan challenges Chad's habit of equating employee headcount growth with revenue growth, pointing out that more staff directly implies higher costs.11:07–13:38 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Managing Churn and Legacy Customer Dynamics Chad explains his concept of addressable churn versus legacy uncontracted clients, while Nathan inquires about net negative revenue churn.13:38–16:06 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Acquisition and Lifetime Value Metrics Nathan explores customer acquisition and lifetime value dynamics before testing Chad's exit expectations, where Chad firmly demands a minimum 500 million dollar valuation.16:08–17:53 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions A standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire round covering books, CEOs, sleep, and advice to Chad's twenty-year-old self.0:00–2:11 · Guest teaching 0/10 Book Promotion: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Monologue segment where Nathan promotes his book 'How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital' and provides introductory background on the guest and company.2:13–4:16 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introduction to Chad Rubin and Skubana's Platform Nathan introduces Chad Rubin and asks about his transition from selling vacuums to building Skubana, with Chad explaining what algorithmic purchase orders do.4:18–7:10 · Guest teaching 2/10 Customer Growth, Upmarket Pricing, and Feature Prioritization Nathan presses Chad on revenue and ARPU metrics as Skubana moves upstream, forcing rough arithmetic on monthly recurring revenue when Chad avoids disclosing exact figures.7:12–11:07 · Guest teaching 3/10 Capital Efficiency and Bootstrapped Funding Structure Nathan challenges Chad's habit of equating employee headcount growth with revenue growth, pointing out that more staff directly implies higher costs.11:07–13:38 · Guest teaching 4/10 Managing Churn and Legacy Customer Dynamics Chad explains his concept of addressable churn versus legacy uncontracted clients, while Nathan inquires about net negative revenue churn.13:38–16:06 · Guest teaching 2/10 Customer Acquisition and Lifetime Value Metrics Nathan explores customer acquisition and lifetime value dynamics before testing Chad's exit expectations, where Chad firmly demands a minimum 500 million dollar valuation.16:08–17:53 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions A standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire round covering books, CEOs, sleep, and advice to Chad's twenty-year-old self.0:00–2:11 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Book Promotion: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Monologue segment where Nathan promotes his book 'How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital' and provides introductory background on the guest and company.2:13–4:16 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introduction to Chad Rubin and Skubana's Platform Nathan introduces Chad Rubin and asks about his transition from selling vacuums to building Skubana, with Chad explaining what algorithmic purchase orders do.4:18–7:10 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Customer Growth, Upmarket Pricing, and Feature Prioritization Nathan presses Chad on revenue and ARPU metrics as Skubana moves upstream, forcing rough arithmetic on monthly recurring revenue when Chad avoids disclosing exact figures.7:12–11:07 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Capital Efficiency and Bootstrapped Funding Structure Nathan challenges Chad's habit of equating employee headcount growth with revenue growth, pointing out that more staff directly implies higher costs.11:07–13:38 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Managing Churn and Legacy Customer Dynamics Chad explains his concept of addressable churn versus legacy uncontracted clients, while Nathan inquires about net negative revenue churn.13:38–16:06 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Customer Acquisition and Lifetime Value Metrics Nathan explores customer acquisition and lifetime value dynamics before testing Chad's exit expectations, where Chad firmly demands a minimum 500 million dollar valuation.16:08–17:53 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions A standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire round covering books, CEOs, sleep, and advice to Chad's twenty-year-old self.0:00–2:11 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Book Promotion: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital Monologue segment where Nathan promotes his book 'How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital' and provides introductory background on the guest and company.2:13–4:16 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Introduction to Chad Rubin and Skubana's Platform Nathan introduces Chad Rubin and asks about his transition from selling vacuums to building Skubana, with Chad explaining what algorithmic purchase orders do.4:18–7:10 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Customer Growth, Upmarket Pricing, and Feature Prioritization Nathan presses Chad on revenue and ARPU metrics as Skubana moves upstream, forcing rough arithmetic on monthly recurring revenue when Chad avoids disclosing exact figures.7:12–11:07 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Capital Efficiency and Bootstrapped Funding Structure Nathan challenges Chad's habit of equating employee headcount growth with revenue growth, pointing out that more staff directly implies higher costs.11:07–13:38 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Managing Churn and Legacy Customer Dynamics Chad explains his concept of addressable churn versus legacy uncontracted clients, while Nathan inquires about net negative revenue churn.13:38–16:06 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Customer Acquisition and Lifetime Value Metrics Nathan explores customer acquisition and lifetime value dynamics before testing Chad's exit expectations, where Chad firmly demands a minimum 500 million dollar valuation.16:08–17:53 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions A standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire round covering books, CEOs, sleep, and advice to Chad's twenty-year-old self.

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

0:00 · Nathan 86.8% · guest 13.2%0:00 · Nathan 86.8% · guest 13.2%3:00 · Nathan 36.2% · guest 63.8%3:00 · Nathan 36.2% · guest 63.8%6:00 · Nathan 42% · guest 58%6:00 · Nathan 42% · guest 58%9:00 · Nathan 20.7% · guest 79.3%9:00 · Nathan 20.7% · guest 79.3%12:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%12:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%15:00 · Nathan 35.2% · guest 64.8%15:00 · Nathan 35.2% · guest 64.8%18:00 · Nathan 95.3% · guest 4.7%18:00 · Nathan 95.3% · guest 4.7%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:38 Chad rejects hypothetical 100M acquisition

Chad abruptly rejects Nathan's hypothetical acquisition valuation, asserting that his absolute floor to sell is 500 million dollars.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 8:36 Nathan refuses headcount as revenue proxy

Nathan cuts through Chad's evasion on revenue figures by directly objecting to the idea that hiring more staff represents company growth rather than merely higher costs.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:55 Chad details legacy customer dynamics

Chad educates Nathan on why early legacy customers on non-contractual plans should be separated from true addressable churn metrics.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:49 Nathan calculates MRR on the fly

Nathan leverages stated customer count and minimum pricing tiers to corner Chad into admitting a 1.5 million dollar monthly revenue run rate.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Book Promotion: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital 0000 Monologue segment where Nathan promotes his book 'How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital' and provides introductory background on the guest and company.
Introduction to Chad Rubin and Skubana's Platform 5212 Nathan introduces Chad Rubin and asks about his transition from selling vacuums to building Skubana, with Chad explaining what algorithmic purchase orders do.
Customer Growth, Upmarket Pricing, and Feature Prioritization 6235 Nathan presses Chad on revenue and ARPU metrics as Skubana moves upstream, forcing rough arithmetic on monthly recurring revenue when Chad avoids disclosing exact figures.
Capital Efficiency and Bootstrapped Funding Structure 7346 Nathan challenges Chad's habit of equating employee headcount growth with revenue growth, pointing out that more staff directly implies higher costs.
Managing Churn and Legacy Customer Dynamics 6434 Chad explains his concept of addressable churn versus legacy uncontracted clients, while Nathan inquires about net negative revenue churn.
Customer Acquisition and Lifetime Value Metrics 6244 Nathan explores customer acquisition and lifetime value dynamics before testing Chad's exit expectations, where Chad firmly demands a minimum 500 million dollar valuation.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 4111 A standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire round covering books, CEOs, sleep, and advice to Chad's twenty-year-old self.

Statements from this episode (11)

Disclosure
Skubana is a pure-play SaaS platform with annual commitments
“Subana is a pure play SaaS model. We're one year commitments build monthly for our clients, really focusing on advanced sellers and we're an operation platform.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 3:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Skubana is approaching 1,000 customers
“We're approaching quadruple digits.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 4:19
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Skubana has 27 employees
“27 employees right now.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 4:29
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Skubana's minimum entry price is $1,400 per month
“Now our min is 1400 dollars.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 5:18
Disclosure
Skubana raised only $880,000 in outside capital
“Nope. And only 880,000 of that was actually, and you can see it's on crunch base, was actual like investors outside of myself.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 7:23
Disclosure
Brian Lee and James Thomson invested early in Skubana
“And then eight, eight, eight is Brian Lee from shoe dazzle, honest company, legal zoom James Thompson, who one of the early employees of Amazon, who's founder of the prosper show.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 7:44
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Skubana takes a full year to ramp up account managers
“It takes us about a year to ramp up an account manager, to get them to be, to like run, like efficiently,”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 9:18
Disclosure
Skubana shifted hiring to NYC due to New Jersey talent scarcity
“So we used to be only devs, only engineering team in New York City, and then the rest of the team was in Jersey in our other office, and now we've actually started building our team in New York City just because it's been very, very difficult to find talent in…”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 10:08
Disclosure
Skubana's addressable annual logo churn is 3% to 5%
“I think we're right at the, right now, if you look at our addressable churn, we're right at the average, three to five percent.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 11:48
Disclosure
Skubana does zero paid advertising, relying on two sales reps
“No direct paid spend. Outside of, we do have an inbound salesperson, right, that manages all the inbound leads that come our way, and then we also have one outbound that we just activated in September of last year, so you could technically count that as, you k…”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 13:50
Disclosure
Chad Rubin's minimum acquisition price for Skubana is $500 million
“My min is five hundred million, firstly.”
Chad Rubin Apr 2, 2019 ▶ 15:42
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