StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Nov 24, 2017 · 22m · top-founders

SaaS: North Dakota $400k+ MRR Helping You Manage Marketing Calendar

Garrett Moon · 12m 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," host Nathan Latka interviews Garrett Moon, CEO and co-founder of CoSchedule, to analyze how the North Dakota-based marketing calendar platform scaled past $400k in MRR and 8,000 customers. Moon breaks down their capital-efficient inbound marketing tactics, product-led expansion strategies, and roadmap for capturing enterprise accounts.

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 38.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.9 Guest teaching 2.3 Guest disagreement 2.1 Nathan pushing back 3.6
05100:0010:0020:000:44–4:57 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Promotional Segment: GetLatka.com SaaS Intelligence Database Access Nathan teases Garrett over his claim of being the fastest-growing startup in North Dakota and pushes for customer specifics. He demonstrates quick SaaS comprehension by analogizing CoSchedule to a marketing-specific Trello or Basecamp.4:57–7:30 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Founding Journey, Early Traction, and Scaling to $400k MRR Nathan performs rapid mental math to extrapolate Garrett's customer count and ARPU into a clean $400k+ MRR figure. The dialogue remains collaborative as Garrett confirms the financial metrics.7:30–10:14 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Feature Adoption Insights and Product Hunt Launch Realities Garrett educates Nathan on why Product Hunt upvotes and viral press spikes do not convert into meaningful B2B SaaS revenue. He explains the nuance between consumer traffic hype and targeted enterprise acquisition.10:14–14:21 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Building Free Interactive Tools and Pre-Launch Content Strategy Nathan demands unconventional marketing stories, rejecting standard inbound marketing answers. When Garrett elaborates on free data tools like the Headline Analyzer, Nathan validates the strategy by comparing it to HubSpot's Website Grader.14:21–17:24 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Team Structure, Churn Management, and Expansion Revenue Models When Garrett declines to reveal his exact retention and churn figures, Nathan directly calls him out by asserting that secrecy usually implies poor performance. Garrett defends his position by offering benchmark ranges instead.17:24–20:11 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Acquisition Costs, Scaling Upmarket, and Future Growth Targets Nathan drills down on CAC figures to ensure Garrett is reporting fully loaded numbers including team salaries. Garrett clarifies their lean inbound economics before Nathan pivots to mid-roll ad reads.20:12–21:36 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Garrett Moon A friendly rapid-fire Famous Five round where Garrett reflects on his education and early career choices, closing out the interview smoothly.0:44–4:57 · Guest teaching 2/10 Promotional Segment: GetLatka.com SaaS Intelligence Database Access Nathan teases Garrett over his claim of being the fastest-growing startup in North Dakota and pushes for customer specifics. He demonstrates quick SaaS comprehension by analogizing CoSchedule to a marketing-specific Trello or Basecamp.4:57–7:30 · Guest teaching 1/10 Founding Journey, Early Traction, and Scaling to $400k MRR Nathan performs rapid mental math to extrapolate Garrett's customer count and ARPU into a clean $400k+ MRR figure. The dialogue remains collaborative as Garrett confirms the financial metrics.7:30–10:14 · Guest teaching 6/10 Feature Adoption Insights and Product Hunt Launch Realities Garrett educates Nathan on why Product Hunt upvotes and viral press spikes do not convert into meaningful B2B SaaS revenue. He explains the nuance between consumer traffic hype and targeted enterprise acquisition.10:14–14:21 · Guest teaching 2/10 Building Free Interactive Tools and Pre-Launch Content Strategy Nathan demands unconventional marketing stories, rejecting standard inbound marketing answers. When Garrett elaborates on free data tools like the Headline Analyzer, Nathan validates the strategy by comparing it to HubSpot's Website Grader.14:21–17:24 · Guest teaching 3/10 Team Structure, Churn Management, and Expansion Revenue Models When Garrett declines to reveal his exact retention and churn figures, Nathan directly calls him out by asserting that secrecy usually implies poor performance. Garrett defends his position by offering benchmark ranges instead.17:24–20:11 · Guest teaching 1/10 Acquisition Costs, Scaling Upmarket, and Future Growth Targets Nathan drills down on CAC figures to ensure Garrett is reporting fully loaded numbers including team salaries. Garrett clarifies their lean inbound economics before Nathan pivots to mid-roll ad reads.20:12–21:36 · Guest teaching 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Garrett Moon A friendly rapid-fire Famous Five round where Garrett reflects on his education and early career choices, closing out the interview smoothly.0:44–4:57 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Promotional Segment: GetLatka.com SaaS Intelligence Database Access Nathan teases Garrett over his claim of being the fastest-growing startup in North Dakota and pushes for customer specifics. He demonstrates quick SaaS comprehension by analogizing CoSchedule to a marketing-specific Trello or Basecamp.4:57–7:30 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Founding Journey, Early Traction, and Scaling to $400k MRR Nathan performs rapid mental math to extrapolate Garrett's customer count and ARPU into a clean $400k+ MRR figure. The dialogue remains collaborative as Garrett confirms the financial metrics.7:30–10:14 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Feature Adoption Insights and Product Hunt Launch Realities Garrett educates Nathan on why Product Hunt upvotes and viral press spikes do not convert into meaningful B2B SaaS revenue. He explains the nuance between consumer traffic hype and targeted enterprise acquisition.10:14–14:21 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Building Free Interactive Tools and Pre-Launch Content Strategy Nathan demands unconventional marketing stories, rejecting standard inbound marketing answers. When Garrett elaborates on free data tools like the Headline Analyzer, Nathan validates the strategy by comparing it to HubSpot's Website Grader.14:21–17:24 · Guest disagreement 5/10 Team Structure, Churn Management, and Expansion Revenue Models When Garrett declines to reveal his exact retention and churn figures, Nathan directly calls him out by asserting that secrecy usually implies poor performance. Garrett defends his position by offering benchmark ranges instead.17:24–20:11 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Acquisition Costs, Scaling Upmarket, and Future Growth Targets Nathan drills down on CAC figures to ensure Garrett is reporting fully loaded numbers including team salaries. Garrett clarifies their lean inbound economics before Nathan pivots to mid-roll ad reads.20:12–21:36 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Garrett Moon A friendly rapid-fire Famous Five round where Garrett reflects on his education and early career choices, closing out the interview smoothly.0:44–4:57 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Promotional Segment: GetLatka.com SaaS Intelligence Database Access Nathan teases Garrett over his claim of being the fastest-growing startup in North Dakota and pushes for customer specifics. He demonstrates quick SaaS comprehension by analogizing CoSchedule to a marketing-specific Trello or Basecamp.4:57–7:30 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Founding Journey, Early Traction, and Scaling to $400k MRR Nathan performs rapid mental math to extrapolate Garrett's customer count and ARPU into a clean $400k+ MRR figure. The dialogue remains collaborative as Garrett confirms the financial metrics.7:30–10:14 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Feature Adoption Insights and Product Hunt Launch Realities Garrett educates Nathan on why Product Hunt upvotes and viral press spikes do not convert into meaningful B2B SaaS revenue. He explains the nuance between consumer traffic hype and targeted enterprise acquisition.10:14–14:21 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Building Free Interactive Tools and Pre-Launch Content Strategy Nathan demands unconventional marketing stories, rejecting standard inbound marketing answers. When Garrett elaborates on free data tools like the Headline Analyzer, Nathan validates the strategy by comparing it to HubSpot's Website Grader.14:21–17:24 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Team Structure, Churn Management, and Expansion Revenue Models When Garrett declines to reveal his exact retention and churn figures, Nathan directly calls him out by asserting that secrecy usually implies poor performance. Garrett defends his position by offering benchmark ranges instead.17:24–20:11 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Acquisition Costs, Scaling Upmarket, and Future Growth Targets Nathan drills down on CAC figures to ensure Garrett is reporting fully loaded numbers including team salaries. Garrett clarifies their lean inbound economics before Nathan pivots to mid-roll ad reads.20:12–21:36 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Garrett Moon A friendly rapid-fire Famous Five round where Garrett reflects on his education and early career choices, closing out the interview smoothly.

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

0:00 · Nathan 67.4% · guest 32.6%0:00 · Nathan 67.4% · guest 32.6%3:00 · Nathan 20.6% · guest 79.4%3:00 · Nathan 20.6% · guest 79.4%6:00 · Nathan 27.8% · guest 72.2%6:00 · Nathan 27.8% · guest 72.2%9:00 · Nathan 28.7% · guest 71.3%9:00 · Nathan 28.7% · guest 71.3%12:00 · Nathan 32.3% · guest 67.7%12:00 · Nathan 32.3% · guest 67.7%15:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%15:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%18:00 · Nathan 66.2% · guest 33.8%18:00 · Nathan 66.2% · guest 33.8%21:00 · Nathan 51.8% · guest 48.2%21:00 · Nathan 51.8% · guest 48.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:38 Garrett refuses to disclose exact churn rate

Garrett firmly withholds proprietary retention metrics despite Nathan's pointed skepticism about withheld numbers.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 15:39 Nathan challenges Garrett's secrecy on churn

Nathan refuses to let Garrett dodge the retention question, explicitly calling out that founders usually conceal metrics when performance is substandard.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:35 Debunking the value of top Product Hunt rankings

Garrett breaks down how vanity launch platforms like Product Hunt generate empty traffic spikes rather than qualified B2B SaaS buyer conversions.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:19 Connecting free utility tools to the HubSpot playbook

Nathan immediately contextualizes Garrett's Headline Analyzer tool against proven SaaS growth engines like HubSpot's Website Grader.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Promotional Segment: GetLatka.com SaaS Intelligence Database Access 5224 Nathan teases Garrett over his claim of being the fastest-growing startup in North Dakota and pushes for customer specifics. He demonstrates quick SaaS comprehension by analogizing CoSchedule to a marketing-specific Trello or Basecamp.
Founding Journey, Early Traction, and Scaling to $400k MRR 6112 Nathan performs rapid mental math to extrapolate Garrett's customer count and ARPU into a clean $400k+ MRR figure. The dialogue remains collaborative as Garrett confirms the financial metrics.
Feature Adoption Insights and Product Hunt Launch Realities 4622 Garrett educates Nathan on why Product Hunt upvotes and viral press spikes do not convert into meaningful B2B SaaS revenue. He explains the nuance between consumer traffic hype and targeted enterprise acquisition.
Building Free Interactive Tools and Pre-Launch Content Strategy 6235 Nathan demands unconventional marketing stories, rejecting standard inbound marketing answers. When Garrett elaborates on free data tools like the Headline Analyzer, Nathan validates the strategy by comparing it to HubSpot's Website Grader.
Team Structure, Churn Management, and Expansion Revenue Models 5357 When Garrett declines to reveal his exact retention and churn figures, Nathan directly calls him out by asserting that secrecy usually implies poor performance. Garrett defends his position by offering benchmark ranges instead.
Acquisition Costs, Scaling Upmarket, and Future Growth Targets 5114 Nathan drills down on CAC figures to ensure Garrett is reporting fully loaded numbers including team salaries. Garrett clarifies their lean inbound economics before Nathan pivots to mid-roll ad reads.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Garrett Moon 3111 A friendly rapid-fire Famous Five round where Garrett reflects on his education and early career choices, closing out the interview smoothly.

Statements from this episode (10)

Disclosure
Moon: CoSchedule Plans Range $40–$700, ARPU is $50–$150/Month
“So our plans range, you know, about 40 dollars a month up to about six, 700 dollars a month you know, and then past that and some higher plans. So, you know, it's you know, average customer is probably going to be between 50 and a 150 bucks a month or so.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 3:11
Disclosure
Moon: CoSchedule Has Raised Roughly $2.7M Total, Starting With $500k in 2014
“We raised half a million dollars in 2014. Total raise to date has been about 2.7.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 6:05
Disclosure
Moon: North Dakota Angels Pushed CoSchedule to Raise Priced Equity Rounds
“No, both, both our rounds actually were priced. And you know, a lot of that just has to do with the investor community in our state and angels that were here and what they were used to seeing and the types of deals that we could put together. So we never reall…”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 6:17
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moon: CoSchedule Serves More Than 8,000 Customers Across 100+ Countries
“We're serving more than 8000 customers, you know, a hundred plus countries and growing very quickly.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 6:42
Insight
Moon: PR and Product Hunt Traffic Bumps Rarely Drive B2B MRR
“I think one of the things that a lot of those types of events, you know, you could feature an entrepreneur.com or anchor or those types of things we've had. We've had all of those things happen, and frequently they bring a bump in traffic frequently they don't…”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 9:40
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moon: CoSchedule Amassed 10,000 Pre-Launch Email Subscribers via Inbound Content
“When we launched, we had over 10,000 people in our email list already interested in the product that we were launching.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 12:05
Insight
Moon: Diverting Dev Resources to Build Free Marketing Tools Pays Off
“They're a heavy upfront investment and oftentimes they require you to Take development resources away from product. I have to have engineers go up and stiff data and help me kind of comb through some of those things. I have to help to have them help me build a…”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 13:32
Opinion
Moon: The Social Media Tools Industry Is a Race to the Bottom
“The social media marketing industry, social media tools industry is definitely tough. It's sort of a race to the bottom in many ways.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 14:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moon: CoSchedule relied entirely on inbound self-serve until late 2016
“Well, so until just till last November, we had, we've had no paid paid sales. So we've done everything inbound self-serve.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 17:41
Insight
Moon: Recent college graduates should take career risks sooner
“Take risks sooner. Like just you know, like particularly your first job coming out of school, like you can make 50,000 bucks a year doing anything. So do something else.”
Garrett Moon Nov 24, 2017 ▶ 21:27
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more