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Apr 8, 2017 · 18m · top-founders

EP 623: rfactr Raises $9m, $900k MRR Helping 220 Customers With Social Selling With CEO Richard Brasser

Nathan Latka · 9m spoken Richard Brasser · 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 Podcast, host Nathan Latka interviews rfactr CEO Richard Brasser to explore how his social selling SaaS platform achieved nearly $1 million in monthly recurring revenue with an 18-person team. Brasser reveals the company's consulting origins, $9 million capitalization journey, top-down enterprise sales architecture, and sub-10% annual churn 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 54% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.3 Guest teaching 0.7 Guest disagreement 0.7 Nathan pushing back 2.3
05100:0010:000:28–3:56 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Pre-Show Sponsors: Travel Nutrition and FreshBooks Accounting Pre-show sponsor reads and podcast introduction. Richard introduces his business model collegially without any tension.3:57–7:31 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 rfactr SaaS Pricing Structure and Customer Segments Nathan presses Richard to pin down an average monthly price across customer cohorts and explores Richard's background as a professional golfer funding the seed round.7:31–11:23 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Consulting Roots and Multi-Million-Dollar Product Spinoff Nathan catches a timeline contradiction regarding company age, calculates monthly recurring revenue on the fly, and questions Richard's enterprise-first approach.11:25–13:42 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Retention Rates, Land-and-Expand CAC, and Team Distribution Nathan instantly catches Richard confusing annual churn for monthly churn and corrects the calculation, then drills into paid marketing spend.13:44–16:17 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Episode Synthesis Nathan executes the Famous Five rapid-fire series and delivers a comprehensive numerical summary of rfactr's metrics and trajectory.16:18–18:41 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Post-Show Recap, Accelerator Spotlight, and Review Call-to-Action Monologue segment featuring host reflections, sponsor promotions, and calls to action for reviews.0:28–3:56 · Guest teaching 0/10 Pre-Show Sponsors: Travel Nutrition and FreshBooks Accounting Pre-show sponsor reads and podcast introduction. Richard introduces his business model collegially without any tension.3:57–7:31 · Guest teaching 1/10 rfactr SaaS Pricing Structure and Customer Segments Nathan presses Richard to pin down an average monthly price across customer cohorts and explores Richard's background as a professional golfer funding the seed round.7:31–11:23 · Guest teaching 2/10 Consulting Roots and Multi-Million-Dollar Product Spinoff Nathan catches a timeline contradiction regarding company age, calculates monthly recurring revenue on the fly, and questions Richard's enterprise-first approach.11:25–13:42 · Guest teaching 1/10 Retention Rates, Land-and-Expand CAC, and Team Distribution Nathan instantly catches Richard confusing annual churn for monthly churn and corrects the calculation, then drills into paid marketing spend.13:44–16:17 · Guest teaching 0/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Episode Synthesis Nathan executes the Famous Five rapid-fire series and delivers a comprehensive numerical summary of rfactr's metrics and trajectory.16:18–18:41 · Guest teaching 0/10 Post-Show Recap, Accelerator Spotlight, and Review Call-to-Action Monologue segment featuring host reflections, sponsor promotions, and calls to action for reviews.0:28–3:56 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Pre-Show Sponsors: Travel Nutrition and FreshBooks Accounting Pre-show sponsor reads and podcast introduction. Richard introduces his business model collegially without any tension.3:57–7:31 · Guest disagreement 1/10 rfactr SaaS Pricing Structure and Customer Segments Nathan presses Richard to pin down an average monthly price across customer cohorts and explores Richard's background as a professional golfer funding the seed round.7:31–11:23 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Consulting Roots and Multi-Million-Dollar Product Spinoff Nathan catches a timeline contradiction regarding company age, calculates monthly recurring revenue on the fly, and questions Richard's enterprise-first approach.11:25–13:42 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Retention Rates, Land-and-Expand CAC, and Team Distribution Nathan instantly catches Richard confusing annual churn for monthly churn and corrects the calculation, then drills into paid marketing spend.13:44–16:17 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Episode Synthesis Nathan executes the Famous Five rapid-fire series and delivers a comprehensive numerical summary of rfactr's metrics and trajectory.16:18–18:41 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Post-Show Recap, Accelerator Spotlight, and Review Call-to-Action Monologue segment featuring host reflections, sponsor promotions, and calls to action for reviews.0:28–3:56 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Pre-Show Sponsors: Travel Nutrition and FreshBooks Accounting Pre-show sponsor reads and podcast introduction. Richard introduces his business model collegially without any tension.3:57–7:31 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 rfactr SaaS Pricing Structure and Customer Segments Nathan presses Richard to pin down an average monthly price across customer cohorts and explores Richard's background as a professional golfer funding the seed round.7:31–11:23 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Consulting Roots and Multi-Million-Dollar Product Spinoff Nathan catches a timeline contradiction regarding company age, calculates monthly recurring revenue on the fly, and questions Richard's enterprise-first approach.11:25–13:42 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Retention Rates, Land-and-Expand CAC, and Team Distribution Nathan instantly catches Richard confusing annual churn for monthly churn and corrects the calculation, then drills into paid marketing spend.13:44–16:17 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Episode Synthesis Nathan executes the Famous Five rapid-fire series and delivers a comprehensive numerical summary of rfactr's metrics and trajectory.16:18–18:41 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Post-Show Recap, Accelerator Spotlight, and Review Call-to-Action Monologue segment featuring host reflections, sponsor promotions, and calls to action for reviews.

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

0:00 · Nathan 66.1% · guest 33.9%0:00 · Nathan 66.1% · guest 33.9%3:00 · Nathan 26% · guest 74%3:00 · Nathan 26% · guest 74%6:00 · Nathan 36.1% · guest 63.9%6:00 · Nathan 36.1% · guest 63.9%9:00 · Nathan 37.9% · guest 62.1%9:00 · Nathan 37.9% · guest 62.1%12:00 · Nathan 56.7% · guest 43.3%12:00 · Nathan 56.7% · guest 43.3%15:00 · Nathan 87.9% · guest 12.1%15:00 · Nathan 87.9% · guest 12.1%18:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:24 Richard defends enterprise-first market focus

Richard jokingly counters Nathan's question about why they did not start in SMB by admitting early naivety before defending the complex enterprise content distribution need.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 7:31 Nathan calls out contradictory timeline dates

Nathan directly challenges Richard after he stated the product was launched in 2009 but the company had been around for 16 years, demanding clarification on which was right.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:35 Richard details enterprise content orchestration complexity

Richard educates Nathan on why lightweight SMB tools like Hootsuite fail to address the heavy governance and multi-division needs of global sales forces.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:25 Nathan flags and corrects 10% churn mistake

Nathan immediately identifies that a 10% monthly churn would be catastrophic and forces Richard to clarify that he meant annual churn, calculating the monthly rate at under 1%.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Pre-Show Sponsors: Travel Nutrition and FreshBooks Accounting 0000 Pre-show sponsor reads and podcast introduction. Richard introduces his business model collegially without any tension.
rfactr SaaS Pricing Structure and Customer Segments 5114 Nathan presses Richard to pin down an average monthly price across customer cohorts and explores Richard's background as a professional golfer funding the seed round.
Consulting Roots and Multi-Million-Dollar Product Spinoff 6225 Nathan catches a timeline contradiction regarding company age, calculates monthly recurring revenue on the fly, and questions Richard's enterprise-first approach.
Retention Rates, Land-and-Expand CAC, and Team Distribution 5114 Nathan instantly catches Richard confusing annual churn for monthly churn and corrects the calculation, then drills into paid marketing spend.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions and Episode Synthesis 4001 Nathan executes the Famous Five rapid-fire series and delivers a comprehensive numerical summary of rfactr's metrics and trajectory.
Post-Show Recap, Accelerator Spotlight, and Review Call-to-Action 0000 Monologue segment featuring host reflections, sponsor promotions, and calls to action for reviews.

Statements from this episode (14)

Assertion Supported
rfactr integrates with CRMs to track social selling revenue
“It's directly plugged in typically to their CRM system so they can see the exact amount of dollars that are resulting from activity and social.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 3:31
Assertion Not checkable as stated
rfactr co-developed its platform with Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP
“We started with the top of the enterprise, so we cut this solution and developed it in conjunction with companies like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP you know, and a lot of others, and now we're coming down market.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 3:59
Assertion Not checkable as stated
rfactr's typical starting contract price is roughly $5,000 per month
“Our kind of, our typical, unless you're part of another organization, our typical starting point is about five grand a month.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 4:36
Disclosure
rfactr plans to raise a Series A within a year
“We'll probably go out and do a series A here sometime in the next, I don't know, six months to a year.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 5:04
Assertion Not checkable as stated
rfactr deployed $9M across seed funding and founder capital
“I risked about nine million dollars.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 5:18
Assertion Contradicted
rfactr raised its $3.25M seed round in 2010
“The last round was in 2000 10, and we raised 3.25.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 7:16
Disclosure
rfactr targets $7M to $10M for its upcoming Series A
“Probably in the seven to 10 range.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 7:27
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founders sold a previous community product spin-off for over $5M
“It was for more.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 9:04
Disclosure
Founders reinvested entire $5M spin-off proceeds back into rfactr
“I would love to say that we went and bought Ferraris and things like that, but we poured it straight back into the company.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 9:11
Disclosure
rfactr manages 220 enterprise clients with an 18-person team
“So very small 18 folks servicing about 220 clients.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 9:32
Disclosure
rfactr's revenue is heavily concentrated in 10 large enterprise customers
“So we've got eight, eight to 10 customers that are you know, very, very large customer very large companies.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 9:54
Disclosure
rfactr is approaching $1M in monthly recurring revenue
“Not actually not quite, but it's, yeah, I'm close. We're close.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 10:04
Disclosure
rfactr uses $40k pilots to land seven-figure enterprise contracts
“So you know, we're in, in order to land a seven figure account, we're not doing that all at once. We'll land, you know, a 40,000 dollar pilot, prove it out, show the numbers, you know, so our costs on that might be, you know, 40, 50%. Yeah. But then the phase …”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 11:42
Disclosure
rfactr reached nearly $1M MRR with zero paid acquisition spend
“We do not.”
Richard Brasser Apr 8, 2017 ▶ 12:12
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