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Mar 2, 2019 · 16m · top-founders

1316 3000 Hotels Pay Him $4.3m in ARR to Help With Website Bookings

Juan Rodriguez · 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

In this episode of The Top Entrepreneurs, host Nathan Latka interviews Juan Rodriguez, founder of The Hotels Network, exploring how the hospitality SaaS platform scaled to $4.3 million in ARR across 3,000 hotel clients with highly efficient unit economics.

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 47.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 2.3 Guest disagreement 1.8 Nathan pushing back 4.0
05100:0010:001:31–6:00 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Company Overview and Pricing Model Nathan actively calculates the company's ARR and tests Juan's math when the $300 list price contradicts the $150 average contract value. Juan clarifies that legacy customers pay lower rates and that they do not offer a free tier.6:01–9:54 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Sales Organization and Unit Economics Analysis Nathan drills into the unit economics, questioning Juan on gross versus net churn and challenging how payback period is calculated in relation to churn. Juan explains their low churn rate and why they ignore lifetime value metrics at this stage.9:54–14:04 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Fundraising History and Growth Strategy When Juan refuses to state the exact pre-money valuation, Nathan pivots to extract the ARR revenue multiple (6-8x). Juan shares his perspective that European investors specialized in hospitality understand the travel vertical better than generic tech VCs.14:04–15:48 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five questions. The interaction is calm and conversational, with Nathan offering a slight correction to refocus Juan's answer regarding advice to his younger self.1:31–6:00 · Guest teaching 3/10 Company Overview and Pricing Model Nathan actively calculates the company's ARR and tests Juan's math when the $300 list price contradicts the $150 average contract value. Juan clarifies that legacy customers pay lower rates and that they do not offer a free tier.6:01–9:54 · Guest teaching 2/10 Sales Organization and Unit Economics Analysis Nathan drills into the unit economics, questioning Juan on gross versus net churn and challenging how payback period is calculated in relation to churn. Juan explains their low churn rate and why they ignore lifetime value metrics at this stage.9:54–14:04 · Guest teaching 3/10 Fundraising History and Growth Strategy When Juan refuses to state the exact pre-money valuation, Nathan pivots to extract the ARR revenue multiple (6-8x). Juan shares his perspective that European investors specialized in hospitality understand the travel vertical better than generic tech VCs.14:04–15:48 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five questions. The interaction is calm and conversational, with Nathan offering a slight correction to refocus Juan's answer regarding advice to his younger self.1:31–6:00 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Company Overview and Pricing Model Nathan actively calculates the company's ARR and tests Juan's math when the $300 list price contradicts the $150 average contract value. Juan clarifies that legacy customers pay lower rates and that they do not offer a free tier.6:01–9:54 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Sales Organization and Unit Economics Analysis Nathan drills into the unit economics, questioning Juan on gross versus net churn and challenging how payback period is calculated in relation to churn. Juan explains their low churn rate and why they ignore lifetime value metrics at this stage.9:54–14:04 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Fundraising History and Growth Strategy When Juan refuses to state the exact pre-money valuation, Nathan pivots to extract the ARR revenue multiple (6-8x). Juan shares his perspective that European investors specialized in hospitality understand the travel vertical better than generic tech VCs.14:04–15:48 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five questions. The interaction is calm and conversational, with Nathan offering a slight correction to refocus Juan's answer regarding advice to his younger self.1:31–6:00 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Company Overview and Pricing Model Nathan actively calculates the company's ARR and tests Juan's math when the $300 list price contradicts the $150 average contract value. Juan clarifies that legacy customers pay lower rates and that they do not offer a free tier.6:01–9:54 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Sales Organization and Unit Economics Analysis Nathan drills into the unit economics, questioning Juan on gross versus net churn and challenging how payback period is calculated in relation to churn. Juan explains their low churn rate and why they ignore lifetime value metrics at this stage.9:54–14:04 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Fundraising History and Growth Strategy When Juan refuses to state the exact pre-money valuation, Nathan pivots to extract the ARR revenue multiple (6-8x). Juan shares his perspective that European investors specialized in hospitality understand the travel vertical better than generic tech VCs.14:04–15:48 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five questions. The interaction is calm and conversational, with Nathan offering a slight correction to refocus Juan's answer regarding advice to his younger self.

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

0:00 · Nathan 68.8% · guest 31.2%0:00 · Nathan 68.8% · guest 31.2%3:00 · Nathan 42.8% · guest 57.2%3:00 · Nathan 42.8% · guest 57.2%6:00 · Nathan 34.6% · guest 65.4%6:00 · Nathan 34.6% · guest 65.4%9:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%9:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%12:00 · Nathan 40.9% · guest 59.1%12:00 · Nathan 40.9% · guest 59.1%15:00 · Nathan 61.2% · guest 38.8%15:00 · Nathan 61.2% · guest 38.8%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 4:19 Juan shuts down the free customer assumption

When Nathan assumes a portion of the 3,000 hotels are on a free tier, Juan firmly interrupts and states that every single one is a paying customer and they offer no free product.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 3:05 Nathan challenges the pricing math discrepancy

Nathan refuses to let a pricing contradiction pass, immediately pressing Juan on how an average customer pays $150 to $200 if the stated property price is $300.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:57 Juan explains early legacy pricing dynamics

Juan educates Nathan on why multiplying 3,000 customers by current pricing overstates ARR, explaining that early category creators must discount heavily before proving full value.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:18 Nathan breaks down payback period calculation

Nathan intervenes when Juan conflates churn with CAC recovery, directly laying out the exact math connecting average monthly spend, acquisition cost, and month-to-payback.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Company Overview and Pricing Model 6325 Nathan actively calculates the company's ARR and tests Juan's math when the $300 list price contradicts the $150 average contract value. Juan clarifies that legacy customers pay lower rates and that they do not offer a free tier.
Sales Organization and Unit Economics Analysis 6225 Nathan drills into the unit economics, questioning Juan on gross versus net churn and challenging how payback period is calculated in relation to churn. Juan explains their low churn rate and why they ignore lifetime value metrics at this stage.
Fundraising History and Growth Strategy 6324 When Juan refuses to state the exact pre-money valuation, Nathan pivots to extract the ARR revenue multiple (6-8x). Juan shares his perspective that European investors specialized in hospitality understand the travel vertical better than generic tech VCs.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2112 Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five questions. The interaction is calm and conversational, with Nathan offering a slight correction to refocus Juan's answer regarding advice to his younger self.

Statements from this episode (10)

Assertion Supported
The Hotels Network charges $300 per month per property for full package
“So we, our current price is 300, US dollars per month per property for the full package.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 2:37
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Hotels Network clients pay an average of $150 to $200 monthly
“It depends a bit, but that would say that about, I mean, I'm 50 to 200, if you do it on average, it depends on, on the dollars dollars, US.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 2:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Hotels Network reaches over 3,000 paying hotel customers
“We have over 3000 hotels that we work with now.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 4:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Hotels Network grew revenue roughly 100% to 150% year-over-year
“We we've grown the last year. We've grown over a hundred percent. It's I think it's about, if you see a year a year, it's probably a hundred, a 50%.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 5:31
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Hotels Network acquires hotel properties for $600 to $800 each
“So if you do it per property, our cost of acquisition is probably around 600 dollars, six to 800 maybe.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 7:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Hotels Network achieves CAC payback within 6 to 9 months
“So we are seeing how much the average fee is compared to the number we have spent and it is between six and nine months.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 8:47
Disclosure
The Hotels Network reached profitability after raising under $300K
“Less than three, 300 K from the founders ourselves, and then from a small round from NFX in in San Francisco. And then we became profitable on that.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 10:05
Disclosure
The Hotels Network raised a $3.7M round while profitable
“And then we raised money in February, 3.7 million us to drive growth away when we were already profitable.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 10:19
Opinion
Rodriguez: Raising travel tech capital is easier in Europe than US
“I actually think that for the travel space in which we are, it might be easier to raise in Europe today than it is in the US. Because the hospitality market in Europe is very dynamic, very large, and there are many people who really know the market well, and t…”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 11:06
Disclosure
The Hotels Network raised its Series A at a 6x–8x ARR multiple
“We were, let's say we were working between six and eight.”
Juan Rodriguez Mar 2, 2019 ▶ 11:44
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