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Sep 29, 2018 · 23m · top-founders

1162 Pittsburg Placed Niche.com Passes 10m Uniques/Mo, $3m in SaaS Revenue

Luke Skurman · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 8m 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 Niche.com founder and CEO Luke Skurman about transforming a high-traffic education discovery portal into a rapidly growing SaaS platform generating over $250,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Skurman details his inbound acquisition funnel, SaaS pricing, retention metrics, and vision for expanding into a $100 million ARR enterprise.

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 42% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 1.4 Nathan pushing back 3.2
05100:0010:0020:002:41–8:00 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Niche.com Overview and Business Model Nathan digs deeply into Niche's pricing mechanics, challenging Luke on how they set prices if the contracts are flat fees rather than direct performance attribution. Luke explains how large clients back into cost-per-lead numbers while schools value overall brand enhancement.8:00–12:02 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Market Potential and Customer Growth Nathan calculates Niche's monthly recurring revenue on the fly based on average contract values and customer count. The dynamic is collaborative as Luke explains their cold outbound dynamic mail merge strategy to acquire school partners.12:03–16:39 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Sponsor Segment: Freshworks Freshchat Following a sponsor read, Nathan questions Luke on the tech stack and jokingly challenges him on why he chose to raise outside venture capital instead of remaining bootstrapped. Luke explains the strategic rationale for hiring and entering workplace reviews.16:39–20:18 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Retention Metrics, LTV/CAC, and Long-Term Targets Nathan showcases strong SaaS domain expertise by converting Luke's 80% gross annual retention figure into monthly churn rate, customer lifetime duration in months, and baseline customer lifetime value.20:19–22:10 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, playfully teasing Luke for giving conventional answers to the tools question before closing out the interview.2:41–8:00 · Guest teaching 3/10 Niche.com Overview and Business Model Nathan digs deeply into Niche's pricing mechanics, challenging Luke on how they set prices if the contracts are flat fees rather than direct performance attribution. Luke explains how large clients back into cost-per-lead numbers while schools value overall brand enhancement.8:00–12:02 · Guest teaching 2/10 Market Potential and Customer Growth Nathan calculates Niche's monthly recurring revenue on the fly based on average contract values and customer count. The dynamic is collaborative as Luke explains their cold outbound dynamic mail merge strategy to acquire school partners.12:03–16:39 · Guest teaching 2/10 Sponsor Segment: Freshworks Freshchat Following a sponsor read, Nathan questions Luke on the tech stack and jokingly challenges him on why he chose to raise outside venture capital instead of remaining bootstrapped. Luke explains the strategic rationale for hiring and entering workplace reviews.16:39–20:18 · Guest teaching 2/10 Retention Metrics, LTV/CAC, and Long-Term Targets Nathan showcases strong SaaS domain expertise by converting Luke's 80% gross annual retention figure into monthly churn rate, customer lifetime duration in months, and baseline customer lifetime value.20:19–22:10 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, playfully teasing Luke for giving conventional answers to the tools question before closing out the interview.2:41–8:00 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Niche.com Overview and Business Model Nathan digs deeply into Niche's pricing mechanics, challenging Luke on how they set prices if the contracts are flat fees rather than direct performance attribution. Luke explains how large clients back into cost-per-lead numbers while schools value overall brand enhancement.8:00–12:02 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Market Potential and Customer Growth Nathan calculates Niche's monthly recurring revenue on the fly based on average contract values and customer count. The dynamic is collaborative as Luke explains their cold outbound dynamic mail merge strategy to acquire school partners.12:03–16:39 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Sponsor Segment: Freshworks Freshchat Following a sponsor read, Nathan questions Luke on the tech stack and jokingly challenges him on why he chose to raise outside venture capital instead of remaining bootstrapped. Luke explains the strategic rationale for hiring and entering workplace reviews.16:39–20:18 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Retention Metrics, LTV/CAC, and Long-Term Targets Nathan showcases strong SaaS domain expertise by converting Luke's 80% gross annual retention figure into monthly churn rate, customer lifetime duration in months, and baseline customer lifetime value.20:19–22:10 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, playfully teasing Luke for giving conventional answers to the tools question before closing out the interview.2:41–8:00 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Niche.com Overview and Business Model Nathan digs deeply into Niche's pricing mechanics, challenging Luke on how they set prices if the contracts are flat fees rather than direct performance attribution. Luke explains how large clients back into cost-per-lead numbers while schools value overall brand enhancement.8:00–12:02 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Market Potential and Customer Growth Nathan calculates Niche's monthly recurring revenue on the fly based on average contract values and customer count. The dynamic is collaborative as Luke explains their cold outbound dynamic mail merge strategy to acquire school partners.12:03–16:39 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Sponsor Segment: Freshworks Freshchat Following a sponsor read, Nathan questions Luke on the tech stack and jokingly challenges him on why he chose to raise outside venture capital instead of remaining bootstrapped. Luke explains the strategic rationale for hiring and entering workplace reviews.16:39–20:18 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Retention Metrics, LTV/CAC, and Long-Term Targets Nathan showcases strong SaaS domain expertise by converting Luke's 80% gross annual retention figure into monthly churn rate, customer lifetime duration in months, and baseline customer lifetime value.20:19–22:10 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, playfully teasing Luke for giving conventional answers to the tools question before closing out the interview.

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

0:00 · Nathan 78.2% · guest 21.8%0:00 · Nathan 78.2% · guest 21.8%3:00 · Nathan 21.4% · guest 78.6%3:00 · Nathan 21.4% · guest 78.6%6:00 · Nathan 36.9% · guest 63.1%6:00 · Nathan 36.9% · guest 63.1%9:00 · Nathan 25.7% · guest 74.3%9:00 · Nathan 25.7% · guest 74.3%12:00 · Nathan 56.7% · guest 43.3%12:00 · Nathan 56.7% · guest 43.3%15:00 · Nathan 18% · guest 82%15:00 · Nathan 18% · guest 82%18:00 · Nathan 42.7% · guest 57.3%18:00 · Nathan 42.7% · guest 57.3%21:00 · Nathan 63.3% · guest 36.7%21:00 · Nathan 63.3% · guest 36.7%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:57 Luke pushes back against random pricing assumption

Luke refutes Nathan's suggestion that clients pick random price tiers by walking through the specific example of Carnegie Mellon and the clear volume of clicks and applications generated.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 6:39 Nathan demands clarity on pricing attribution

Nathan refuses to accept the vague pricing tiers and pushes Luke to identify the exact utility metric justifying why one school pays $5k and another pays $500k.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:12 Luke explains flat-fee branding over pure CPC

Luke clarifies for Nathan that Niche does not charge on a performance CPM basis, but rather on an annual flat fee that dramatically boosts organic brand traffic.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 19:17 Nathan translates retention into unit economics

Nathan demonstrates SaaS financial mastery by taking Luke's 80% annual retention figure and instantly computing monthly churn (1.6%), customer lifespan (60 months), and estimated LTV ($37k).
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Niche.com Overview and Business Model 6325 Nathan digs deeply into Niche's pricing mechanics, challenging Luke on how they set prices if the contracts are flat fees rather than direct performance attribution. Luke explains how large clients back into cost-per-lead numbers while schools value overall brand enhancement.
Market Potential and Customer Growth 6212 Nathan calculates Niche's monthly recurring revenue on the fly based on average contract values and customer count. The dynamic is collaborative as Luke explains their cold outbound dynamic mail merge strategy to acquire school partners.
Sponsor Segment: Freshworks Freshchat 4224 Following a sponsor read, Nathan questions Luke on the tech stack and jokingly challenges him on why he chose to raise outside venture capital instead of remaining bootstrapped. Luke explains the strategic rationale for hiring and entering workplace reviews.
Retention Metrics, LTV/CAC, and Long-Term Targets 7213 Nathan showcases strong SaaS domain expertise by converting Luke's 80% gross annual retention figure into monthly churn rate, customer lifetime duration in months, and baseline customer lifetime value.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2112 Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions, playfully teasing Luke for giving conventional answers to the tools question before closing out the interview.

Statements from this episode (13)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Niche.com sees 50M trailing unique visitors and 70-80% traffic growth
“Last 12 months we had fifty million unique visitors. This month we're going to do about nine, ten million monthly visits. We're growing traffic 70, 80% right now.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 3:06
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Niche SaaS revenue to surpass 50% of total revenue in 2019
“Yeah, so this year, I would say that SaaS is going to be just shy of 50%. Next year that flips to more SaaS.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 4:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Niche SaaS revenue grows at 200% year-over-year
“But SaaS is growing at about 200% right now.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 4:26
Disclosure
Niche institutional contracts range from $5,000 to $500,000 annually
“We have some clients that are spending a half a million dollars a year with us, and we have some clients that are spending 5000 dollars a year with us. I would say for most schools, the bread and butter contracts are between five and 20 K a year.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 4:41
Opinion
Niche estimates US school and college TAM at 15,000 clients
“I would say that that market could look like 15,000 paying clients just with high schools and colleges in the United States.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 8:14
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Niche targets 800 paying SaaS clients by end of 2018
“The end of 16, we had 78. The end of 17, we had three 36, and the end of this year, we'll have 800 paying clients.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 9:31
Disclosure
Niche drives leads via automated monthly traffic reports to all US schools
“We also have a very successful mail merge every month to our clients and our non-clients where we send them every month. Here's how much traffic is on our page. Here's how much traffic your competitors are getting. And here's how many clicks we're driving back…”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 10:07
Assertion Supported
Niche raises $6.6M after operating on only $1M in prior funding
“We just raised 6.6 million dollars and before that, we had only raised a million dollars in the history of the company.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 15:03
Disclosure
Niche plans to launch workplace reviews targeting major tech companies
“So by the end of this year, we'll have moved into workplaces. So the same model, but on what it's like to work at Apple, Facebook, and Google.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 15:55
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Niche maintains 80% annual gross logo retention rate
“We're at 80% right now.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 16:45
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2023
Skurman projects Niche will reach $100M ARR with 10,000 clients
“I'm confident we're building a business that's going to have 10,000 paying clients averaging 10,000 dollars a year and building a hundred million dollars of recurring revenue.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 19:08
Disclosure
Niche targets a three to six-month CAC payback period
“I like to be paid back in three to six months.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 20:11
Insight
Skurman advises startups to never outsource sales or tech development
“One, go after the biggest market humanly possible. Always own your sales folks internally. Don't ever outsource that and own tech internally. Never outsource that.”
Luke Skurman Sep 29, 2018 ▶ 21:59
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