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Jan 26, 2017 · 16m · top-founders

EP 551: Sortd, 200,000 users, $500k invested so far, launched2014, othe rbusness funding this that does $1m/yr. Raising $1m sortd

Wayne Silberman · 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

In this episode of The Top, host Nathan Latka interviews entrepreneur Wayne Silberman to explore how Sortd scaled to 200,000 users as a visual Gmail management tool, self-funded through an affiliated $1M/year mobile business while preparing for a $1M seed round.

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 39.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.5 Guest teaching 2.3 Guest disagreement 1.5 Nathan pushing back 3.0
05100:0010:002:15–5:27 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Sortd Product Concept and Inbox Workflow Transformation Nathan clarifies Sortd's zero-revenue status and business model while Wayne explains the product concept and how email functions as an ad-hoc to-do list.5:27–10:07 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 User Base Metrics, Organic Acquisition, and Capital Invested Nathan presses on user numbers and challenges Wayne on why users would pick Sortd over lighter Chrome extensions that integrate Trello or Slack into Gmail.10:08–13:01 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Accidental Launch History, Development Team, and Parallel Revenue When Wayne hesitates to disclose revenue figures for the sister company funding Sortd, Nathan pushes for an explicit bracket until Wayne concedes it does between one and ten million.13:01–15:29 · Nathan as informed peer 1/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Spotlight: Acuity Scheduling Promotion Segment features a solo sponsor read for Acuity Scheduling followed by standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire questions.2:15–5:27 · Guest teaching 2/10 Sortd Product Concept and Inbox Workflow Transformation Nathan clarifies Sortd's zero-revenue status and business model while Wayne explains the product concept and how email functions as an ad-hoc to-do list.5:27–10:07 · Guest teaching 3/10 User Base Metrics, Organic Acquisition, and Capital Invested Nathan presses on user numbers and challenges Wayne on why users would pick Sortd over lighter Chrome extensions that integrate Trello or Slack into Gmail.10:08–13:01 · Guest teaching 3/10 Accidental Launch History, Development Team, and Parallel Revenue When Wayne hesitates to disclose revenue figures for the sister company funding Sortd, Nathan pushes for an explicit bracket until Wayne concedes it does between one and ten million.13:01–15:29 · Guest teaching 1/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Spotlight: Acuity Scheduling Promotion Segment features a solo sponsor read for Acuity Scheduling followed by standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire questions.2:15–5:27 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Sortd Product Concept and Inbox Workflow Transformation Nathan clarifies Sortd's zero-revenue status and business model while Wayne explains the product concept and how email functions as an ad-hoc to-do list.5:27–10:07 · Guest disagreement 2/10 User Base Metrics, Organic Acquisition, and Capital Invested Nathan presses on user numbers and challenges Wayne on why users would pick Sortd over lighter Chrome extensions that integrate Trello or Slack into Gmail.10:08–13:01 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Accidental Launch History, Development Team, and Parallel Revenue When Wayne hesitates to disclose revenue figures for the sister company funding Sortd, Nathan pushes for an explicit bracket until Wayne concedes it does between one and ten million.13:01–15:29 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Spotlight: Acuity Scheduling Promotion Segment features a solo sponsor read for Acuity Scheduling followed by standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire questions.2:15–5:27 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Sortd Product Concept and Inbox Workflow Transformation Nathan clarifies Sortd's zero-revenue status and business model while Wayne explains the product concept and how email functions as an ad-hoc to-do list.5:27–10:07 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 User Base Metrics, Organic Acquisition, and Capital Invested Nathan presses on user numbers and challenges Wayne on why users would pick Sortd over lighter Chrome extensions that integrate Trello or Slack into Gmail.10:08–13:01 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Accidental Launch History, Development Team, and Parallel Revenue When Wayne hesitates to disclose revenue figures for the sister company funding Sortd, Nathan pushes for an explicit bracket until Wayne concedes it does between one and ten million.13:01–15:29 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Mid-Roll Sponsor Spotlight: Acuity Scheduling Promotion Segment features a solo sponsor read for Acuity Scheduling followed by standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

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

0:00 · Nathan 75.6% · guest 24.4%0:00 · Nathan 75.6% · guest 24.4%3:00 · Nathan 19.1% · guest 80.9%3:00 · Nathan 19.1% · guest 80.9%6:00 · Nathan 10.9% · guest 89.1%6:00 · Nathan 10.9% · guest 89.1%9:00 · Nathan 12.8% · guest 87.2%9:00 · Nathan 12.8% · guest 87.2%12:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%12:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%15:00 · Nathan 74.9% · guest 25.1%15:00 · Nathan 74.9% · guest 25.1%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:13 Wayne resists disclosing revenue details

Wayne actively attempts to deflect Nathan's financial question, stating he prefers not to disclose metrics due to upcoming fundraising.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:24 Nathan drills down on revenue bracket

Nathan refuses to accept Wayne's deflection and directly demands a revenue range, bounding the figures between one and ten million dollars.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:14 Wayne breaks down the context-switching problem

Wayne educates Nathan on user workflow psychology, explaining why external integration plugins fail compared to an embedded Gmail workspace.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 8:03 Nathan brings up competing lightweight extensions

Nathan demonstrates market awareness by challenging Wayne on whether a heavy full-app extension is necessary given lightweight Trello and Slack integrations.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Sortd Product Concept and Inbox Workflow Transformation 4212 Nathan clarifies Sortd's zero-revenue status and business model while Wayne explains the product concept and how email functions as an ad-hoc to-do list.
User Base Metrics, Organic Acquisition, and Capital Invested 5324 Nathan presses on user numbers and challenges Wayne on why users would pick Sortd over lighter Chrome extensions that integrate Trello or Slack into Gmail.
Accidental Launch History, Development Team, and Parallel Revenue 4335 When Wayne hesitates to disclose revenue figures for the sister company funding Sortd, Nathan pushes for an explicit bracket until Wayne concedes it does between one and ten million.
Mid-Roll Sponsor Spotlight: Acuity Scheduling Promotion 1101 Segment features a solo sponsor read for Acuity Scheduling followed by standard, friendly Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

Statements from this episode (9)

Disclosure
Sortd plans to monetize through industry-specific workflow power packs
“What we want to do to monetize it eventually is we're going to roll out different power packs for specific industries.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 3:53
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sortd has reached approximately 200,000 total users
“Probably in the region of about 200,000.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 5:36
Disclosure
Sortd has self-invested $500K to $600K into the product
“So we've probably put in about in the region of 506 100,000 dollars, I would say.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 6:38
Disclosure
Sortd's 200,000-user acquisition has been entirely organic
“All of our traffic has been organic, and all of our acquisition has come from user referral, things like Product Hunt, Lifehacker”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 6:53
Disclosure
Sortd is building a Slack product to capture shifting internal communications
“We're actually building a Slack product as well, because we found that a lot of internal communication within organizations is shifting that way.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 8:33
Disclosure
Sortd is self-funded by an affiliated mobile content annuity business
“So there's another three developers on a different business, which is really a low maintenance annuity business in the mobile content space. And that is really actually what funds the development and growth of Sorted.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 11:00
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founders' affiliated mobile content business generated over $1M in 2015 revenue
“Yeah, like north of a million dollars.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 11:28
Assertion Not checkable as stated
South African VCs mostly target post-revenue Series A deals over seed
“I think you find that a lot of a lot of players in the venture space in South Africa are looking for post-revenue opportunities, you know, typically series A.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 11:43
Disclosure
Sortd is looking to raise approximately $1 million
“So we're looking in the region of about a million dollars.”
Wayne Silberman Jan 26, 2017 ▶ 12:48
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