Apr 28, 2017 · 25m · top-founders
643: Nimble Passes $1.5M In ARR Last Year, $200k MRR now as CRM space heats up with CEO Jon Ferrara
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In this episode of The Top Podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews CRM pioneer Jon Ferrara, founder of GoldMine and Nimble, exploring his $125 million exit, his recovery from a life-threatening brain tumor, and Nimble's capital-efficient scaling to $200k MRR and a $35 million Series A valuation.
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 43.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 3.7 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 1.1 Nathan pushing back 2.0
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 19:02 Ferrara rejects Latka's $10M acquisition premise
Ferrara dismisses Latka's suggestion that he would sell Nimble for $10M, stating bluntly that the valuation in his head is vastly larger.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 20:43 Latka presses Ferrara on unannounced Series A fundingLatka catches Ferrara mentioning a new Series A round, refusing to let him deflect until Ferrara admits the round size and a $35M post-money valuation.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:26 Ferrara explains stereotactic rotational radiationFerrara educates Latka on medical physics, clarifying how 360-degree rotating radiation beams converge inside the brain to eliminate a tumor without scorching external skin or tissue.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:43 Latka computes MRR from unit economicsLatka synthesizes Ferrara's average seat pricing and customer counts in real time, calculating that Nimble is generating approximately $200k in monthly recurring revenue.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preview of Upcoming Interview with Tyler Tate | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Latka introduces Ferrara and immediately digs into the Goldmine exit metrics, calculating a 1.7x top-line multiple on cash without earnouts. Ferrara explains pioneering contact management software on floppy disks prior to Outlook and Salesforce. | |
| Surviving a Brain Tumor and a Decade of Fatherhood | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Ferrara shares his battle surviving a brain tumor and his decade raising his children and doing USC photography. Latka is fascinated by the radiation technology and asks Ferrara to explain how focused beams hit tumors without damaging surrounding tissue. | |
| The Founding Vision and Product Evolution of Nimble | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Ferrara details the genesis of Nimble as a response to broken CRMs that act as management reporting tools rather than relationship builders. He outlines shifting his go-to-market playbook from Novell IT resellers to modern social media influencers like Brian Solis. | |
| Nimble Funding, Customer Metrics, and SaaS Economics | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Latka drills Ferrara on Nimble's SaaS metrics, funnel conversions, and capitalization. Ferrara explains converting 10% of 80k web visitors to trial and 20% to paid across 10,000 customer accounts, yielding $200k in MRR. | |
| Churn Metrics, Remote Team Architecture, and Growth Targets | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Ferrara breaks down their low 3% gross monthly churn, Microsoft Outlook integration, and hiring philosophy. Latka maps out the 25-person team distribution across Santa Monica and Ukraine alongside 2017 target revenue projections of $3M-$5M. | |
| Sponsor Break: Organifi Daily Juice Supplement | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Following the mid-roll ad read, Latka conducts the Famous Five, prompting Ferrara on hypothetical acquisition offers from Marc Benioff. Latka pushes Ferrara into disclosing an upcoming, unannounced Series A round at a $35M post-money valuation. | |
| Episode Summary and Latka's Concluding Remarks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Host-only monologue reviewing the core financial metrics and history of Nimble and Goldmine, followed by podcast housekeeping and a HostGator sponsor promotion. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Ferrara: I bootstrapped GoldMine with $5,000 and retired at age 40
“So I invented it started on 5000 dollars, no bank loans, no venture capital, ran it for 10 years, had five million customers around the world, and sold it and retired at 40.”
Ferrara: Standalone CRMs fail by forcing users out of inbox workflow
“And I actually think that was a better solution because today you really live in your inbox and now more and more social media, and then you have to go to your serum to work for it. And that kind of blows.”
Ferrara: GoldMine achieved $70M annual revenue and 5M users before sale
“Five million total users, about seventy million in annual revenue, about 250 team members worldwide, about 5000 bars and 500 third-party add-on products.”
Ferrara: GoldMine was acquired for $125M in all-cash deal in 1999
“And so we took cash back in the day and it was about one hundred and twenty five million dollars in cash, but no strings attached.”
Ferrara: Diagnosed with a life-threatening head tumor at age 41
“About a year after I sold Goldmine, I got a head tumor, and I spent about a year, you know, getting treatment and going through the journey of health, and I'll tell you what, Nathan,
I think the most important thing you have around you is your health.
Next is …”
Ferrara: It's called Salesforce because you must force salespeople to use it
“CRMs today don't stand for customer relationship management. They stand for customer reporting management. You actually have to force your salespeople to use it. That's why they call it sales force. Cause you have to force salespeople to use it.”
Ferrara: Nimble Generated Roughly $30,000 in First-Year Revenue
“You know, we didn't turn the payroll on until 2013, and I think we might have done, like, 30 grand or so.”
Ferrara: GoldMine was the first networkable sales and marketing tool
“Imagine in 1989, you built the first networkable sales and marketing tool when people were figuring out just what to even use a network for. There wasn't any networkable business software, let alone sales and marketing software.”
Ferrara: Cold calling Novell resellers drove GoldMine's first $50k/month revenue
“And I cold called every Novell reseller in the country, and I got them to use it. Because people sell what they know, and they know what they use, then they started to recommend it, and that gave me my first 50,000 dollars a month in revenue for Goldmine.”
Ferrara: I put $3 million of my own capital into Nimble
“So I put in my own money to start the company up.
How much?
And after I got it, three million.”
Ferrara: Nimble took angel investment from Cuban, Calacanis, and Dharmesh Shah
“And then after I got it all started up friends and family wanted to give me money, so I took money from Mark Cuban Dharmashar, Jason Calacanis, and other people, Google, and other people like that.”
Ferrara: Nimble converts 20% of trials to paid with zero salespeople
“We're generating about 80,000 unique visitors per month on our website with zero marketing. We're converting at 10% of trial and 20% of paid with zero salespeople.”
Ferrara: Sales and marketing software should never have been separated
“Because I believe, Nathan, that sales and marketing should have never been split apart. Goldmine did all that in one single unit, and I think today, people don't want to go buy MailChimp to Marketo, HubSpot to Salesforce, and then go out and buy Yesware and To…”
Ferrara: Nimble rolled out on 40M Outlook Mobile handsets for free
“We just rolled out Nimble with Microsoft Outlook Mobile on forty million handsets for free, which means you can Nimble anybody in any of your emails and get instant insights on people and companies, and imagine the upsell we're going to be able to do with thos…”
Ferrara: Hiring and training retail workers beats hiring $100k sales reps
“So rather than going out and hiring a sales guy for a 100,000 dollars, I'd rather go find somebody who's really cares about customer Customer experience who works at an Apple store or Best Buy or Victoria's Secret, and they may not even have a business or tech…”