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Mar 26, 2017 · 16m · top-founders

EP 610: Toofr Hits 100 Active Customers Paying $180 Monthly to Get Better, More Accurate Emails With CEO Ryan Buckley

Ryan Buckley · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Host Nathan Latka interviews entrepreneur Ryan Buckley, who shares how he bootstrapped email discovery platform Toofr to $18,000 in monthly recurring revenue with 100 paying customers and lean operations alongside managing Scripted.com.

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 40.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.6 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 0.6 Nathan pushing back 1.8
05100:0010:001:13–5:23 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Meet Ryan Buckley and the Scripted.com Business Model Nathan categorizes Scripted's hybrid SaaS marketplace model and raises funding history before probing how Ryan retained the intellectual property created during his prior employment.5:23–7:36 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Bootstrapping Toofr and Maintaining a Lean Cost Structure Nathan evaluates Twofr's bootstrapping financials and cost structure, highlighting the ultra-lean setup of a single offshore contractor for DevOps.7:37–10:26 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Customer Traction, MRR, and Balancing Work-Life Demands Nathan quickly computes MRR from customer numbers and presses on churn and plateaued growth, prompting Ryan to candidly discuss product bugs and family time limits.10:26–12:33 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Data Accuracy and Competitive Advantage Against Competitors Nathan compares Twofr's positioning against competitors like Hunter and Clearbit, leading Ryan to explain Twofr's technical edge in email pattern database learning over simple server pings.12:35–14:51 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 HostGator Sponsor Break and Website Deal Nathan delivers a HostGator sponsor segment and transitions smoothly through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.1:13–5:23 · Guest teaching 3/10 Meet Ryan Buckley and the Scripted.com Business Model Nathan categorizes Scripted's hybrid SaaS marketplace model and raises funding history before probing how Ryan retained the intellectual property created during his prior employment.5:23–7:36 · Guest teaching 2/10 Bootstrapping Toofr and Maintaining a Lean Cost Structure Nathan evaluates Twofr's bootstrapping financials and cost structure, highlighting the ultra-lean setup of a single offshore contractor for DevOps.7:37–10:26 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Traction, MRR, and Balancing Work-Life Demands Nathan quickly computes MRR from customer numbers and presses on churn and plateaued growth, prompting Ryan to candidly discuss product bugs and family time limits.10:26–12:33 · Guest teaching 5/10 Data Accuracy and Competitive Advantage Against Competitors Nathan compares Twofr's positioning against competitors like Hunter and Clearbit, leading Ryan to explain Twofr's technical edge in email pattern database learning over simple server pings.12:35–14:51 · Guest teaching 1/10 HostGator Sponsor Break and Website Deal Nathan delivers a HostGator sponsor segment and transitions smoothly through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.1:13–5:23 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Meet Ryan Buckley and the Scripted.com Business Model Nathan categorizes Scripted's hybrid SaaS marketplace model and raises funding history before probing how Ryan retained the intellectual property created during his prior employment.5:23–7:36 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Bootstrapping Toofr and Maintaining a Lean Cost Structure Nathan evaluates Twofr's bootstrapping financials and cost structure, highlighting the ultra-lean setup of a single offshore contractor for DevOps.7:37–10:26 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Customer Traction, MRR, and Balancing Work-Life Demands Nathan quickly computes MRR from customer numbers and presses on churn and plateaued growth, prompting Ryan to candidly discuss product bugs and family time limits.10:26–12:33 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Data Accuracy and Competitive Advantage Against Competitors Nathan compares Twofr's positioning against competitors like Hunter and Clearbit, leading Ryan to explain Twofr's technical edge in email pattern database learning over simple server pings.12:35–14:51 · Guest disagreement 0/10 HostGator Sponsor Break and Website Deal Nathan delivers a HostGator sponsor segment and transitions smoothly through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.1:13–5:23 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Meet Ryan Buckley and the Scripted.com Business Model Nathan categorizes Scripted's hybrid SaaS marketplace model and raises funding history before probing how Ryan retained the intellectual property created during his prior employment.5:23–7:36 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Bootstrapping Toofr and Maintaining a Lean Cost Structure Nathan evaluates Twofr's bootstrapping financials and cost structure, highlighting the ultra-lean setup of a single offshore contractor for DevOps.7:37–10:26 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Customer Traction, MRR, and Balancing Work-Life Demands Nathan quickly computes MRR from customer numbers and presses on churn and plateaued growth, prompting Ryan to candidly discuss product bugs and family time limits.10:26–12:33 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Data Accuracy and Competitive Advantage Against Competitors Nathan compares Twofr's positioning against competitors like Hunter and Clearbit, leading Ryan to explain Twofr's technical edge in email pattern database learning over simple server pings.12:35–14:51 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 HostGator Sponsor Break and Website Deal Nathan delivers a HostGator sponsor segment and transitions smoothly through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

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

0:00 · Nathan 65.4% · guest 34.6%0:00 · Nathan 65.4% · guest 34.6%3:00 · Nathan 12.8% · guest 87.2%3:00 · Nathan 12.8% · guest 87.2%6:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%6:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%9:00 · Nathan 19.5% · guest 80.5%9:00 · Nathan 19.5% · guest 80.5%12:00 · Nathan 50.1% · guest 49.9%12:00 · Nathan 50.1% · guest 49.9%15:00 · Nathan 99.2% · guest 0.8%15:00 · Nathan 99.2% · guest 0.8%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:57 Ryan pushes back on Hunter's data quality

Ryan directly addresses competitor Hunter beating him in SEO while asserting that Twofr's underlying data accuracy performs better in tests.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 4:54 Nathan challenges intellectual property retention

Nathan questions how Ryan ensured his Python scripts and intellectual property stayed his own rather than belonging to his past employer.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:45 Ryan breaks down multi-source pattern detection

Ryan educates Nathan on why basic mail server pinging fails and explains how Twofr's five-year recorded email pattern database yields higher accuracy.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 10:26 Nathan assesses email data competitor landscape

Nathan demonstrates industry domain expertise by contrasting front-end marketing heavy tools like Hunter against deep data providers like FullContact and Clearbit.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Meet Ryan Buckley and the Scripted.com Business Model 5313 Nathan categorizes Scripted's hybrid SaaS marketplace model and raises funding history before probing how Ryan retained the intellectual property created during his prior employment.
Bootstrapping Toofr and Maintaining a Lean Cost Structure 5201 Nathan evaluates Twofr's bootstrapping financials and cost structure, highlighting the ultra-lean setup of a single offshore contractor for DevOps.
Customer Traction, MRR, and Balancing Work-Life Demands 5302 Nathan quickly computes MRR from customer numbers and presses on churn and plateaued growth, prompting Ryan to candidly discuss product bugs and family time limits.
Data Accuracy and Competitive Advantage Against Competitors 6523 Nathan compares Twofr's positioning against competitors like Hunter and Clearbit, leading Ryan to explain Twofr's technical edge in email pattern database learning over simple server pings.
HostGator Sponsor Break and Website Deal 2100 Nathan delivers a HostGator sponsor segment and transitions smoothly through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

Statements from this episode (9)

Assertion Partly supported
Buckley: Scripted has raised $15 million in capital
“We have, we've raised fifteen million dollars for scripted.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 2:19
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Buckley: Toofr's ARPU is $180 per month
“Our poo right now is 180 dollars.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 5:34
Disclosure
Buckley: Toofr is completely bootstrapped without outside capital
“Completely bootstrapped.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 6:38
Disclosure
Buckley spent zero personal dollars to bootstrap Toofr
“I'd say no, it's none. Zero.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 7:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Toofr's monthly gross customer churn hovers around 10 percent
“Yeah. It still hovers around 10%. Last couple months have actually been pretty good, like six, seven percent range acquisition.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 7:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Toofr's MRR has remained flat at $18,000 for the past year
“So that 18 grand MRR has actually been relatively flat for the last year.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 8:08
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Toofr acquires customers completely organically with zero ad spend
“It's completely word of mouth organic. I don't spend on AdWords. I don't really do anything.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 8:40
Disclosure
Toofr has 16,000 lifetime registered users but only 100 active customers
“There's like 16,000 people who have registered in Twofer's lifetime. Like I said, I got a hundred active customers in any given month, but like 16,000 email addresses that are inbounds.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 10:11
Assertion Supported
Buckley admits competitor Email Hunter beats Toofr in SEO
“Hunter kicks my ass in, in SEO.”
Ryan Buckley Mar 26, 2017 ▶ 10:58
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