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Aug 8, 2017 · 17m · top-founders

745: At $1.5m Revenue, Is This The New PowerPoint?

Nathan Latka · 7m spoken Jose Cayasso · 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 Slidebean co-founder and CEO Jose Cayasso to discuss how the presentation software startup scaled to $122,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Cayasso breaks down the company's strategic pivot to B2B clients, its capital-efficient distributed team in Costa Rica, and the high-intent SEO acquisition engine driving its path toward a $2 million ARR run rate.

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 50.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 1.2 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 3.4
05100:0010:001:15–5:49 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Introducing Jose Cayasso and the Slidebean Value Proposition Latka immediately catches Cayasso attempting to give net revenue churn instead of gross logo churn and forces him to give the exact customer churn percentage. Latka also does on-the-fly math translating average seat cost and business customer counts into monthly recurring revenue.5:50–10:36 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Distributed Team Strategy and Capital Efficiency Latka presses on fully weighted CAC calculations and checks for hidden service costs depressing gross margins. Cayasso openly explains his SEO keyword validation strategy and blended team economics.10:37–12:52 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Financial Growth Targets and ARR Milestones When Latka asks for 2016 total revenue and Cayasso starts explaining organic search traffic changes, Latka interrupts to redirect him back to the specific revenue dollar figure.12:53–16:13 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Host Promotion: The Top Inbox Acquisition and Income Report After a mid-roll solo ad promotion, Latka conducts the Famous Five questionnaire and strongly pushes back against Cayasso's favorite software tool, calling it completely broken.16:13–17:12 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Episode Recap and Next Episode Preview Solo host recap summarizing Slidebean's core business metrics, headcount, and teaser for the upcoming episode.1:15–5:49 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introducing Jose Cayasso and the Slidebean Value Proposition Latka immediately catches Cayasso attempting to give net revenue churn instead of gross logo churn and forces him to give the exact customer churn percentage. Latka also does on-the-fly math translating average seat cost and business customer counts into monthly recurring revenue.5:50–10:36 · Guest teaching 2/10 Distributed Team Strategy and Capital Efficiency Latka presses on fully weighted CAC calculations and checks for hidden service costs depressing gross margins. Cayasso openly explains his SEO keyword validation strategy and blended team economics.10:37–12:52 · Guest teaching 1/10 Financial Growth Targets and ARR Milestones When Latka asks for 2016 total revenue and Cayasso starts explaining organic search traffic changes, Latka interrupts to redirect him back to the specific revenue dollar figure.12:53–16:13 · Guest teaching 1/10 Host Promotion: The Top Inbox Acquisition and Income Report After a mid-roll solo ad promotion, Latka conducts the Famous Five questionnaire and strongly pushes back against Cayasso's favorite software tool, calling it completely broken.16:13–17:12 · Guest teaching 0/10 Episode Recap and Next Episode Preview Solo host recap summarizing Slidebean's core business metrics, headcount, and teaser for the upcoming episode.1:15–5:49 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Jose Cayasso and the Slidebean Value Proposition Latka immediately catches Cayasso attempting to give net revenue churn instead of gross logo churn and forces him to give the exact customer churn percentage. Latka also does on-the-fly math translating average seat cost and business customer counts into monthly recurring revenue.5:50–10:36 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Distributed Team Strategy and Capital Efficiency Latka presses on fully weighted CAC calculations and checks for hidden service costs depressing gross margins. Cayasso openly explains his SEO keyword validation strategy and blended team economics.10:37–12:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Financial Growth Targets and ARR Milestones When Latka asks for 2016 total revenue and Cayasso starts explaining organic search traffic changes, Latka interrupts to redirect him back to the specific revenue dollar figure.12:53–16:13 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Host Promotion: The Top Inbox Acquisition and Income Report After a mid-roll solo ad promotion, Latka conducts the Famous Five questionnaire and strongly pushes back against Cayasso's favorite software tool, calling it completely broken.16:13–17:12 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Episode Recap and Next Episode Preview Solo host recap summarizing Slidebean's core business metrics, headcount, and teaser for the upcoming episode.1:15–5:49 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Introducing Jose Cayasso and the Slidebean Value Proposition Latka immediately catches Cayasso attempting to give net revenue churn instead of gross logo churn and forces him to give the exact customer churn percentage. Latka also does on-the-fly math translating average seat cost and business customer counts into monthly recurring revenue.5:50–10:36 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Distributed Team Strategy and Capital Efficiency Latka presses on fully weighted CAC calculations and checks for hidden service costs depressing gross margins. Cayasso openly explains his SEO keyword validation strategy and blended team economics.10:37–12:52 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Financial Growth Targets and ARR Milestones When Latka asks for 2016 total revenue and Cayasso starts explaining organic search traffic changes, Latka interrupts to redirect him back to the specific revenue dollar figure.12:53–16:13 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Host Promotion: The Top Inbox Acquisition and Income Report After a mid-roll solo ad promotion, Latka conducts the Famous Five questionnaire and strongly pushes back against Cayasso's favorite software tool, calling it completely broken.16:13–17:12 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Episode Recap and Next Episode Preview Solo host recap summarizing Slidebean's core business metrics, headcount, and teaser for the upcoming episode.

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

0:00 · Nathan 57.6% · guest 42.4%0:00 · Nathan 57.6% · guest 42.4%3:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%3:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%6:00 · Nathan 20.5% · guest 79.5%6:00 · Nathan 20.5% · guest 79.5%9:00 · Nathan 31.6% · guest 68.4%9:00 · Nathan 31.6% · guest 68.4%12:00 · Nathan 87.6% · guest 12.4%12:00 · Nathan 87.6% · guest 12.4%15:00 · Nathan 64.8% · guest 35.2%15:00 · Nathan 64.8% · guest 35.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:04 Cayasso defends AI scheduling assistant

When Latka vehemently trashes X.ai as broken and unusable, Cayasso pushes back by maintaining that it saves him significant time despite its quirks.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 4:06 Latka refuses net revenue churn metric

Latka cuts off Cayasso multiple times when Cayasso cites negative churn, refusing the framing and insisting on seeing raw gross customer logo churn.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:39 Cayasso explains pricing increase and single purchase model

Cayasso explains the counterintuitive dynamic of how raising monthly prices and introducing one-time unbundled presentations cured a fatal 15 percent monthly churn rate.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 4:06 Latka exposes SaaS metric conflation

Latka demonstrates deep SaaS literacy by identifying that Cayasso is deflecting with expansion revenue rather than giving true logo attrition.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Jose Cayasso and the Slidebean Value Proposition 6215 Latka immediately catches Cayasso attempting to give net revenue churn instead of gross logo churn and forces him to give the exact customer churn percentage. Latka also does on-the-fly math translating average seat cost and business customer counts into monthly recurring revenue.
Distributed Team Strategy and Capital Efficiency 5213 Latka presses on fully weighted CAC calculations and checks for hidden service costs depressing gross margins. Cayasso openly explains his SEO keyword validation strategy and blended team economics.
Financial Growth Targets and ARR Milestones 5114 When Latka asks for 2016 total revenue and Cayasso starts explaining organic search traffic changes, Latka interrupts to redirect him back to the specific revenue dollar figure.
Host Promotion: The Top Inbox Acquisition and Income Report 3125 After a mid-roll solo ad promotion, Latka conducts the Famous Five questionnaire and strongly pushes back against Cayasso's favorite software tool, calling it completely broken.
Episode Recap and Next Episode Preview 0000 Solo host recap summarizing Slidebean's core business metrics, headcount, and teaser for the upcoming episode.

Statements from this episode (13)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cayasso: Most Slidebean customers switch from PowerPoint
“Mostly PowerPoint but we do have some, you know, former Prezi people that also, you know, are looking for a more efficient way to do it.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 2:23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cayasso: Slidebean reduced monthly customer churn to around 3.5%
“So you know it ended up being around three, 3.5%.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 4:15
Insight
Slidebean cut churn by raising prices and offering one-time purchases
“So actually increasing the pricing was what helped our churn drop significantly. And by increasing the pricing, I mean shifting to a different type of user and changing the business model by offering this one-time presentation option so that people that don't …”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 4:59
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cayasso: Slidebean has around 2,500 paying business customers
“So we're in around 2500 businesses.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 5:25
Opinion
Slidebean CEO: Remote work and outsourced teams don't work well
“I'm not a big fan of outsourced teams, and I'm not a big fan or fan of remote work. Like, I don't think that that works significantly well. I still believe that, like, in-office collaboration is the best.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 6:04
Disclosure
Slidebean burns $10K to $20K monthly, approaching profitability
“We're burned around 10, 20 K per month which is small considering the, you know, the size of our team, but, you know, we are confident that, you know, if we ever start running out of cash in the bank from our round, we can very easily scale the operation back …”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 7:13
Disclosure
Slidebean has raised $850K in total seed funding
“We total 850 K on a seat round.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 7:34
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cayasso: Slidebean acquires customers for around $150 fully weighted CAC
“So we acquire a customer for around a 150 bucks, which is actually very good for us.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 7:55
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cayasso: Slidebean's LTV reached over $1,000 with reduced churn
“Our lifetime value, you know, lasts is actually around over a thousand dollars with our, you know, with our newcomers and our churn started reducing you know, that's new less, you know, with our recent, more recent progress in turn, but, you know, through most…”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 8:46
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Slidebean maintains 75% to 80% gross margins despite in-house design
“We're on the 75 to 80% range mainly because we have a large wholesales and design team, you know, just to, you know, to provide this premium service that we advertise.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 10:10
Disclosure
Slidebean will delay fundraising until reaching $2M to $3M ARR
“So we're, you know, we're stretching and trying to speed up our growth as much as possible until we get to two to three million dollars. And then we believe that that'd be a great opportunity to, you know, to start approaching investors.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 10:55
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Slidebean's CAC dropped from $250 after gaining organic SEO traction
“You know, we used to pay 200 to 50 to acquire our customers, but then when that organic reach and that you know, those SEO rankings and new rankings started paying out, paying back that's where our acquisition cost decreased.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 11:28
Opinion
Latka: X.ai's automated scheduling assistant Amy is broken and unusable
“Jose, I hate that thing. There are so many CEOs that I'm trying to schedule a meeting with, and they say, oh, I'm going to introduce you to Amy. She'll help us find a time. I just, I ignore the CEO completely. That thing is so broken.”
Nathan Latka Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 14:50
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