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Feb 8, 2017 · 21m · top-founders

EP 564: Proleads Passes 100 Customers, $75 ARPU Helping You Find Better Leads with CEO Anders Fredriksson

Nathan Latka · 9m spoken Anders Fredriksson · 8m 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 ProLeads CEO and CTO Anders Fredriksson to discuss building an AI-powered sales acceleration platform, navigating 500 Startups, scaling to hundreds of customer seats at $75 per month, and reducing churn through annual enterprise commitments.

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 4.4 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 2.2 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:0020:002:00–5:10 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Introducing Anders Fredriksson and His University Dropout Story Nathan introduces Anders' background and inquires about his dropout decision and ProLeads' core offering. Nathan lightly verifies whether pricing is strictly annual or monthly when Anders quotes a per-month seat price.5:10–7:20 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Joining 500 Startups and Expanding the Founding Team Anders recounts getting into 500 Startups after being rejected multiple times and adding a new co-founder. Nathan presses on whether revenue growth was the main leverage for getting accepted.7:21–10:55 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Seat Breakdown, Convertible Funding, and Enterprise Utility Anders attempts to withhold specific MRR and company breakdown numbers. Nathan pushes back by narrowing down ranges and reframing the question to successfully extract average seat count per company.10:56–15:52 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Scaling MRR Goals, Avoiding Churn, and Sales Tools Anders explains the trap of accelerator-driven growth and subsequent post-demo-day churn. Nathan directly challenges the rationale of selling to bad-fit customers, and later brings up his interview with DiscoverOrg's CEO to show sector knowledge.15:53–19:33 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Read: Acuity Scheduling Extended Free Trial Nathan delivers a mid-roll Acuity Scheduling endorsement and transitions smoothly into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questionnaire with minimal friction.2:00–5:10 · Guest teaching 1/10 Introducing Anders Fredriksson and His University Dropout Story Nathan introduces Anders' background and inquires about his dropout decision and ProLeads' core offering. Nathan lightly verifies whether pricing is strictly annual or monthly when Anders quotes a per-month seat price.5:10–7:20 · Guest teaching 1/10 Joining 500 Startups and Expanding the Founding Team Anders recounts getting into 500 Startups after being rejected multiple times and adding a new co-founder. Nathan presses on whether revenue growth was the main leverage for getting accepted.7:21–10:55 · Guest teaching 2/10 Customer Seat Breakdown, Convertible Funding, and Enterprise Utility Anders attempts to withhold specific MRR and company breakdown numbers. Nathan pushes back by narrowing down ranges and reframing the question to successfully extract average seat count per company.10:56–15:52 · Guest teaching 5/10 Scaling MRR Goals, Avoiding Churn, and Sales Tools Anders explains the trap of accelerator-driven growth and subsequent post-demo-day churn. Nathan directly challenges the rationale of selling to bad-fit customers, and later brings up his interview with DiscoverOrg's CEO to show sector knowledge.15:53–19:33 · Guest teaching 1/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Read: Acuity Scheduling Extended Free Trial Nathan delivers a mid-roll Acuity Scheduling endorsement and transitions smoothly into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questionnaire with minimal friction.2:00–5:10 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Anders Fredriksson and His University Dropout Story Nathan introduces Anders' background and inquires about his dropout decision and ProLeads' core offering. Nathan lightly verifies whether pricing is strictly annual or monthly when Anders quotes a per-month seat price.5:10–7:20 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Joining 500 Startups and Expanding the Founding Team Anders recounts getting into 500 Startups after being rejected multiple times and adding a new co-founder. Nathan presses on whether revenue growth was the main leverage for getting accepted.7:21–10:55 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Customer Seat Breakdown, Convertible Funding, and Enterprise Utility Anders attempts to withhold specific MRR and company breakdown numbers. Nathan pushes back by narrowing down ranges and reframing the question to successfully extract average seat count per company.10:56–15:52 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Scaling MRR Goals, Avoiding Churn, and Sales Tools Anders explains the trap of accelerator-driven growth and subsequent post-demo-day churn. Nathan directly challenges the rationale of selling to bad-fit customers, and later brings up his interview with DiscoverOrg's CEO to show sector knowledge.15:53–19:33 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Read: Acuity Scheduling Extended Free Trial Nathan delivers a mid-roll Acuity Scheduling endorsement and transitions smoothly into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questionnaire with minimal friction.2:00–5:10 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Introducing Anders Fredriksson and His University Dropout Story Nathan introduces Anders' background and inquires about his dropout decision and ProLeads' core offering. Nathan lightly verifies whether pricing is strictly annual or monthly when Anders quotes a per-month seat price.5:10–7:20 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Joining 500 Startups and Expanding the Founding Team Anders recounts getting into 500 Startups after being rejected multiple times and adding a new co-founder. Nathan presses on whether revenue growth was the main leverage for getting accepted.7:21–10:55 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Customer Seat Breakdown, Convertible Funding, and Enterprise Utility Anders attempts to withhold specific MRR and company breakdown numbers. Nathan pushes back by narrowing down ranges and reframing the question to successfully extract average seat count per company.10:56–15:52 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Scaling MRR Goals, Avoiding Churn, and Sales Tools Anders explains the trap of accelerator-driven growth and subsequent post-demo-day churn. Nathan directly challenges the rationale of selling to bad-fit customers, and later brings up his interview with DiscoverOrg's CEO to show sector knowledge.15:53–19:33 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Read: Acuity Scheduling Extended Free Trial Nathan delivers a mid-roll Acuity Scheduling endorsement and transitions smoothly into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questionnaire with minimal friction.

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

0:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%0:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%3:00 · Nathan 29.1% · guest 70.9%3:00 · Nathan 29.1% · guest 70.9%6:00 · Nathan 39.4% · guest 60.6%6:00 · Nathan 39.4% · guest 60.6%9:00 · Nathan 33.3% · guest 66.7%9:00 · Nathan 33.3% · guest 66.7%12:00 · Nathan 21.1% · guest 78.9%12:00 · Nathan 21.1% · guest 78.9%15:00 · Nathan 62.9% · guest 37.1%15:00 · Nathan 62.9% · guest 37.1%18:00 · Nathan 60.6% · guest 39.4%18:00 · Nathan 60.6% · guest 39.4%21:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%21:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:37 Anders stonewalls customer count disclosure

Anders pushes back against disclosing how many client companies ProLeads has, forcing Nathan to re-angle his questioning to get an answer.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 13:14 Nathan challenges accelerator vanity selling

Nathan bluntly refuses the premise of selling to low-retention customers just to hit accelerator demo day milestones, calling it a waste of energy.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:15 Anders explains post-demo day churn phenomenon

Anders educates the audience and Nathan on the systematic pressure inside accelerators to hit MRR targets at all costs, resulting in severe post-demo-day churn.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 15:37 Nathan cites DiscoverOrg founder's trajectory

Nathan displays deep industry knowledge of the B2B data space by referencing DiscoverOrg scaling to seventy million ARR and its private equity exit.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Anders Fredriksson and His University Dropout Story 4112 Nathan introduces Anders' background and inquires about his dropout decision and ProLeads' core offering. Nathan lightly verifies whether pricing is strictly annual or monthly when Anders quotes a per-month seat price.
Joining 500 Startups and Expanding the Founding Team 4123 Anders recounts getting into 500 Startups after being rejected multiple times and adding a new co-founder. Nathan presses on whether revenue growth was the main leverage for getting accepted.
Customer Seat Breakdown, Convertible Funding, and Enterprise Utility 6246 Anders attempts to withhold specific MRR and company breakdown numbers. Nathan pushes back by narrowing down ranges and reframing the question to successfully extract average seat count per company.
Scaling MRR Goals, Avoiding Churn, and Sales Tools 6536 Anders explains the trap of accelerator-driven growth and subsequent post-demo-day churn. Nathan directly challenges the rationale of selling to bad-fit customers, and later brings up his interview with DiscoverOrg's CEO to show sector knowledge.
Mid-Roll Sponsor Read: Acuity Scheduling Extended Free Trial 2112 Nathan delivers a mid-roll Acuity Scheduling endorsement and transitions smoothly into the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questionnaire with minimal friction.

Statements from this episode (10)

Disclosure
ProLeads pricing averages around $75 per user per month
“So let's say that we can say that it's about the cost per seat varies, but it's around 75 bucks per user per month.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 4:43
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ProLeads joined 500 Startups after four rejections, says Fredriksson
“Actually got accepted into batch 11 after being turned down four times, and but then I emailed with them and convinced them to actually accept us.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 5:42
Disclosure
ProLeads had roughly $1,000 MRR when applying to 500 Startups
“We had like, I don't know, a thousand bucks per month, maybe.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 6:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
New co-founder Brendan Short scaled Wiser to over $200k MRR
“So we recently got a new co-founder, co-founder on board, Brendan Short, who is an amazing sales guy. He was recently at Weiser and scaled that operation from about 10 KMR to I think like 200 and something MRR.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 6:56
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
ProLeads has raised roughly $500,000 in total funding
“So for us, it was the a hundred K. So but then after that, we also, we raised some money during the program from friends and family. From friends and family. And then we raised some additional Sort of notes here and there in the past year as well. So we're tot…”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 8:02
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ProLeads averages five to ten user seats per customer
“We can say it's between five and 10 seats per company.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 8:50
Prediction Not checkable as stated
ProLeads targets $1 million ARR by end of Q3 2017
“So our goal is by end of Q three to be at a million AR.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 11:54
Insight
Accelerators force artificial MRR growth leading to post-demo churn
“At the accelerator, it's pretty common that you need to grow your MRR sort of by any means necessary. So we started doing that and we were like, we hit our weekly and monthly goals and we were growing our MRR like crazy. Problem was that after sort of demo day…”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 12:36
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ProLeads acquires customers without any paid marketing spend
“So we're actually not paying anything to acquire customer. I mean, of course we're paying in terms of our salaries and time and so on, but we're not doing any paid marketing.”
Anders Fredriksson Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 14:37
Assertion Partly supported
DiscoverOrg reached $70 million ARR before private equity exit
“They went from nothing to 70, seventy million in ARR pretty quickly, and then exited to a private equity firm.”
Nathan Latka Feb 8, 2017 ▶ 15:45
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