Feb 18, 2019 · 22m · top-founders
1304 Raising $10m on $30m Pre Right Now for Video Feedback Platform, $5m ARR
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this podcast interview, Voxpopme CEO Dave Carruthers joins host Nathan Latka to discuss how his video-based consumer sentiment platform scaled to $4.8 million in ARR and achieved net negative churn while seeking a $10 million Series B funding round.
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 30.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 1.5 Nathan pushing back 3.0
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:25 Reframing Mobile App Adoption
Dave pushes back against Nathan's skepticism regarding high user friction by emphasizing active app downloads and detailing how the company broadened its addressable market through survey software integrations.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 5:25 Calling Out App Download FrictionNathan bluntly challenges the feasibility of consumer acquisition, asserting that forcing users to download an app represents huge friction.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:17 Correcting Back-of-the-Napkin Revenue MathDave politely corrects Nathan's $800k monthly estimate by explaining that older cohorts have smaller contract values, bringing current monthly revenue to $400k.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 15:58 Translating Valuation Multiples to DilutionNathan immediately translates Dave's valuation multiple comments into concrete terms, calculating the $30 million pre-money valuation and 25% dilution Dave is targeting for his Series B.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Origins of Voxpopme and Consumer Incentive Dynamics | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Nathan probes how Voxpopme actually collects consumer video and questions the incentive structure using his own behavior of ignoring CVS receipt surveys. Dave explains that cash payouts incentivize users and notes that video responses allow customers to speak naturally and convey far more information than text forms. | |
| Platform Evolution and Survey Software Integrations | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | Nathan directly challenges the friction involved in making users download an app. Dave addresses this by explaining their core shift toward becoming an embedded API integration within major survey tools like Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, while Nathan calculates unit margins per video response. | |
| Revenue Run Rate, Funding, and Geographic Expansion | 6 | 6 | 2 | 4 | Nathan attempts to extrapolate monthly revenue to $800k based on 240 customers at a $40k ACV. Dave clarifies that historical cohorts pay less, bringing actual monthly revenue to $400k, while highlighting US expansion driving recent growth. | |
| Historical Growth, Churn Performance, and Account Expansion | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Nathan drills into SaaS unit economics including net negative churn, CAC, and payback periods. When discussing the upcoming Series B fundraising, Nathan rapidly computes the implied $30 million pre-money valuation and 25% equity dilution from Dave's revenue multiple targets. | |
| Customer Lifetime Value Projections and Enterprise Transition | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Dave outlines LTV projections based on shifting towards larger enterprise contracts and answers the rapid-fire Famous Five questions, sharing his early entrepreneurial lessons and personal work-life balance goals. | |
| Episode Conclusion and Performance Summary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | This is a closing solo recap by the host summarizing Voxpopme's core operational metrics and Series B round details; host-side interaction metrics are zeroed out due to the monologue format. |
Statements from this episode (20)
Voxpopme pays users $1 to $1.50 per video response
“We pay about a dollar to a dollar 50. For each response that people leave, and when they get to 15 dollars, they can cash out.”
Carruthers: Video feedback yields 6 to 8 times more info than written
“And what we found is that people tell you about six to eight times more just by talking, you know, they find it far easier to articulate themselves verbally than they do in a kind of written form.”
Carruthers: Manchester City Soccer Club was Voxpopme's first client
“A lot of our first client was actually Manchester City Soccer Club.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme's average customer spends $40,000 to $50,000 annually
“Yeah, I mean, I would say probably our average customers are probably spending 40 to 50,000 dollars a year with us.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme charges $35 per video for one-off projects
“And then we have an ad hoc model where if you just want to do a one off project, it's 35 bucks a video.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme's client base is 45% brands, 45% agencies, 10% partnerships
“Our clients really break down into three cohorts. The first being like major brands. So people like Microsoft, eBay, Verizon using this technology extensively. Then we power a lot of the market research agencies. So people like Kantar and Nielsen and the big r…”
Carruthers: Voxpopme generates approximately $400,000 in monthly recurring revenue
“So yeah, I would say yeah, a little bit, a bit lower than that, about 400,000 dollars a month.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme ARR is growing 25% to 30% quarter-over-quarter
“And yeah, I would say kind of, you know, we've got, you know, great churn metrics and kind of ARRs going up about kind of 25, 30% quarter on quarter.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme's US business grew from 5% to 70% after moving
“You know, when I first moved over here the US was just five percent of our business. It's now 70%.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme generated $250,000 in monthly revenue in July 2017
“July, 27, a year ago, we're probably doing two 50. And then a year before that, we were probably doing like 75.”
Carruthers: 85% of Voxpopme's ad-hoc clients are repeat customers
“So we've got about half our business that's on an ad hoc kind of As you go, but then of that cohort, 85% of repeat customers doing regular projects.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme's fully baked customer acquisition cost averages $6,000
“So from a CAC perspective where I would say typically over the last 12 months, it probably averages out to about 6000 dollars. Kind of fully baked.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme customer CAC payback period is under six months
“The payback, yeah, I mean, the payback period is usually less than six months.”
Carruthers: Voxpopme targets $10M Series B following $2.5M Series A
“Yeah, so I'll probably raise ten million dollars which, you know, is a, Obviously modest in compared to some of today's Series B rounds, but I think, you know, given our A round was only two and a half million, it kind of you know, it's kind of relevant to whe…”
Carruthers: US venture is 'go big or go home' compared to UK
“Clearly there's the UK and US venture markets are slightly different in terms of their approach. Kind of the US more of a kind of go big or go home approach, whereas the UK may be a bit more conservative and smaller rounds and, you know, more wanting to see mo…”
Carruthers: Voxpopme targets $150k to $200k average customer lifetime value
“Probably a 150 to 200 K lifetime value as an average is where we want to be getting to.”
Carruthers: Prefers HubSpot over Salesforce despite reporting limitations
“HubSpot. Absolutely love it. I mean, it's an interesting battle because our CMO wants to move over to Salesforce and stuff. And there's this, you know, it's got this great integration of sales and marketing. The reporting is maybe not as good as it should be, …”