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Jan 18, 2017 · 21m · top-founders

EP 543: Bant CEO Hits $32K MRR, Helping Companies Get Higher Quality Leads with CEO Andrei Breaz

Andre Brees · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 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

Host Nathan Latka interviews Andrei Breaz, founder and CEO of Bant.io, exploring how the bootstrapped B2B lead generation agency scaled to nearly $400,000 in annual revenue and $37,000 MRR. The conversation breaks down Bant.io's managed outreach model, data verification strategies, unit economics, and client retention dynamics.

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 43.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.7 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 2.2 Nathan pushing back 4.3
05100:0010:0020:000:28–5:03 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Top Tribe Weekly Cash Giveaway Announcement Latka introduces the show and questions Breaz on Bant.io's exact value proposition, comparing it to outsourced SDR teams or static data vendors. Breaz clarifies that they provide enriched pre-sales outreach rather than raw contact lists.5:03–7:12 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Subscription Pricing and Lead Guarantees Latka drills into the mechanics of Bant.io's money-back guarantee and presses Breaz on how they resolve subjective disputes over what constitutes a qualified 'hot lead'. Breaz explains the distinction between total outreach volume and guaranteed positive email responses.7:12–10:48 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Bootstrapping Origins and Active Client Dynamics Latka calculates MRR from active client counts and pushes Breaz to name specific brand-name customers rather than giving generic industry descriptions. Breaz lists several active B2B software clients.10:48–14:02 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Word-of-Mouth Acquisition, Unit Economics, and Churn When Breaz claims zero customer acquisition cost, Latka pushes back to show that onboarding account managers running demos represent a fully weighted CAC. They also discuss managing high monthly churn in a service-heavy model.14:02–17:37 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Data Verification, LinkedIn Scraping, and Platform Risks Latka explores Bant.io's data provenance and platform risk, questioning whether scraping LinkedIn risks legal action after the Microsoft acquisition. Breaz resists naming software tools currently in testing before explaining their proprietary extraction methods.17:38–19:56 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Sponsor Feature: Acuity Scheduling Efficiency Following an Acuity Scheduling mid-roll sponsor pitch, Latka briskly runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.0:28–5:03 · Guest teaching 3/10 Top Tribe Weekly Cash Giveaway Announcement Latka introduces the show and questions Breaz on Bant.io's exact value proposition, comparing it to outsourced SDR teams or static data vendors. Breaz clarifies that they provide enriched pre-sales outreach rather than raw contact lists.5:03–7:12 · Guest teaching 3/10 Subscription Pricing and Lead Guarantees Latka drills into the mechanics of Bant.io's money-back guarantee and presses Breaz on how they resolve subjective disputes over what constitutes a qualified 'hot lead'. Breaz explains the distinction between total outreach volume and guaranteed positive email responses.7:12–10:48 · Guest teaching 2/10 Bootstrapping Origins and Active Client Dynamics Latka calculates MRR from active client counts and pushes Breaz to name specific brand-name customers rather than giving generic industry descriptions. Breaz lists several active B2B software clients.10:48–14:02 · Guest teaching 2/10 Word-of-Mouth Acquisition, Unit Economics, and Churn When Breaz claims zero customer acquisition cost, Latka pushes back to show that onboarding account managers running demos represent a fully weighted CAC. They also discuss managing high monthly churn in a service-heavy model.14:02–17:37 · Guest teaching 4/10 Data Verification, LinkedIn Scraping, and Platform Risks Latka explores Bant.io's data provenance and platform risk, questioning whether scraping LinkedIn risks legal action after the Microsoft acquisition. Breaz resists naming software tools currently in testing before explaining their proprietary extraction methods.17:38–19:56 · Guest teaching 1/10 Sponsor Feature: Acuity Scheduling Efficiency Following an Acuity Scheduling mid-roll sponsor pitch, Latka briskly runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.0:28–5:03 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Top Tribe Weekly Cash Giveaway Announcement Latka introduces the show and questions Breaz on Bant.io's exact value proposition, comparing it to outsourced SDR teams or static data vendors. Breaz clarifies that they provide enriched pre-sales outreach rather than raw contact lists.5:03–7:12 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Subscription Pricing and Lead Guarantees Latka drills into the mechanics of Bant.io's money-back guarantee and presses Breaz on how they resolve subjective disputes over what constitutes a qualified 'hot lead'. Breaz explains the distinction between total outreach volume and guaranteed positive email responses.7:12–10:48 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Bootstrapping Origins and Active Client Dynamics Latka calculates MRR from active client counts and pushes Breaz to name specific brand-name customers rather than giving generic industry descriptions. Breaz lists several active B2B software clients.10:48–14:02 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Word-of-Mouth Acquisition, Unit Economics, and Churn When Breaz claims zero customer acquisition cost, Latka pushes back to show that onboarding account managers running demos represent a fully weighted CAC. They also discuss managing high monthly churn in a service-heavy model.14:02–17:37 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Data Verification, LinkedIn Scraping, and Platform Risks Latka explores Bant.io's data provenance and platform risk, questioning whether scraping LinkedIn risks legal action after the Microsoft acquisition. Breaz resists naming software tools currently in testing before explaining their proprietary extraction methods.17:38–19:56 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Sponsor Feature: Acuity Scheduling Efficiency Following an Acuity Scheduling mid-roll sponsor pitch, Latka briskly runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.0:28–5:03 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Top Tribe Weekly Cash Giveaway Announcement Latka introduces the show and questions Breaz on Bant.io's exact value proposition, comparing it to outsourced SDR teams or static data vendors. Breaz clarifies that they provide enriched pre-sales outreach rather than raw contact lists.5:03–7:12 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Subscription Pricing and Lead Guarantees Latka drills into the mechanics of Bant.io's money-back guarantee and presses Breaz on how they resolve subjective disputes over what constitutes a qualified 'hot lead'. Breaz explains the distinction between total outreach volume and guaranteed positive email responses.7:12–10:48 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Bootstrapping Origins and Active Client Dynamics Latka calculates MRR from active client counts and pushes Breaz to name specific brand-name customers rather than giving generic industry descriptions. Breaz lists several active B2B software clients.10:48–14:02 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Word-of-Mouth Acquisition, Unit Economics, and Churn When Breaz claims zero customer acquisition cost, Latka pushes back to show that onboarding account managers running demos represent a fully weighted CAC. They also discuss managing high monthly churn in a service-heavy model.14:02–17:37 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Data Verification, LinkedIn Scraping, and Platform Risks Latka explores Bant.io's data provenance and platform risk, questioning whether scraping LinkedIn risks legal action after the Microsoft acquisition. Breaz resists naming software tools currently in testing before explaining their proprietary extraction methods.17:38–19:56 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Sponsor Feature: Acuity Scheduling Efficiency Following an Acuity Scheduling mid-roll sponsor pitch, Latka briskly runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

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

0:00 · Nathan 75.8% · guest 24.2%0:00 · Nathan 75.8% · guest 24.2%3:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%3:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%6:00 · Nathan 23.8% · guest 76.2%6:00 · Nathan 23.8% · guest 76.2%9:00 · Nathan 25.4% · guest 74.6%9:00 · Nathan 25.4% · guest 74.6%12:00 · Nathan 41.6% · guest 58.4%12:00 · Nathan 41.6% · guest 58.4%15:00 · Nathan 35.1% · guest 64.9%15:00 · Nathan 35.1% · guest 64.9%18:00 · Nathan 84.3% · guest 15.7%18:00 · Nathan 84.3% · guest 15.7%21:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 0%21:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:19 Guest refuses to disclose test vendors

Breaz directly stonewalls Latka's line of questioning about which data tools Bant.io is experimenting with, flatly responding 'Don't want to tell.'

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 13:01 Host insists on fully loaded CAC calculation

Latka refuses to accept Breaz's claim of spending zero dollars on customer acquisition, forcing him to account for account manager demo time as sales labor.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 16:48 Guest explains LinkedIn email extraction architecture

Breaz breaks down how they bypass traditional list brokers by deploying their own crawler to extract direct verified emails from LinkedIn profiles.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 8:57 Host calculates MRR run rate on the fly

Latka rapidly synthesizes Bant.io's average contract value with active client numbers to accurately estimate their monthly run-rate around $37k.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Top Tribe Weekly Cash Giveaway Announcement 4323 Latka introduces the show and questions Breaz on Bant.io's exact value proposition, comparing it to outsourced SDR teams or static data vendors. Breaz clarifies that they provide enriched pre-sales outreach rather than raw contact lists.
Subscription Pricing and Lead Guarantees 5326 Latka drills into the mechanics of Bant.io's money-back guarantee and presses Breaz on how they resolve subjective disputes over what constitutes a qualified 'hot lead'. Breaz explains the distinction between total outreach volume and guaranteed positive email responses.
Bootstrapping Origins and Active Client Dynamics 5224 Latka calculates MRR from active client counts and pushes Breaz to name specific brand-name customers rather than giving generic industry descriptions. Breaz lists several active B2B software clients.
Word-of-Mouth Acquisition, Unit Economics, and Churn 6226 When Breaz claims zero customer acquisition cost, Latka pushes back to show that onboarding account managers running demos represent a fully weighted CAC. They also discuss managing high monthly churn in a service-heavy model.
Data Verification, LinkedIn Scraping, and Platform Risks 6446 Latka explores Bant.io's data provenance and platform risk, questioning whether scraping LinkedIn risks legal action after the Microsoft acquisition. Breaz resists naming software tools currently in testing before explaining their proprietary extraction methods.
Sponsor Feature: Acuity Scheduling Efficiency 2111 Following an Acuity Scheduling mid-roll sponsor pitch, Latka briskly runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions.

Statements from this episode (13)

Disclosure
Bant.io CEO: Bant.io pairs a SaaS dashboard with full-service hand-holding
“They get access to an analytics dashboard as well, so it looks like a SaaS based business model, but it's also a service that we're providing because we Need to, and we have to hold our customers' hands through the whole process.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 3:00
Disclosure
Breaz: Bant.io's most popular plan costs almost $1,200 per month
“The average, I would say is the medium plan. That's our most popular one. It's almost 1200 a month.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 5:20
Disclosure
Breaz: Bant.io guarantees 10 to 15 hot leads per campaign
“The hot leads, Are a lot less like 10 to 15 hot leads. Those are the guaranteed ones.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 6:49
Disclosure
Breaz: Bant.io is entirely bootstrapped and self-funded
“Self-funded. Self-funded. Yeah, you could say bootstrapped.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 7:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io has around 30 to 31 active clients in December 2016
“So existing ones right now, active, considering we've got holidays approaching fast we're around 30, 31 active ones.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 8:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io peaked at around 50 to 55 active monthly clients in 2016
“Around 50, 55 but I'd also like to mention that we're now in, I mean, up until now, we were in a sort of a discovery phase, so it, we never really started to ram things up and made all the efforts to scale things up”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 8:33
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io generated almost $400K in revenue in 2016
“Yes, that would be pretty much accurate. I would say around almost 400 K in revenue for the past year.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 9:12
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io aims for at least $1.5M in revenue in 2017
“Considering the strategies that we've got lined up for the next year, I would say we're now aiming for 1.5 million at least for next year.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 9:19
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io has a team of 12 people
“12 people right now.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 10:50
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io launched off an initial $200 AdWords campaign
“First customer was Captify, but no, we basically ran like a 200 dollars AdWords campaign right when we started and everything took off from there.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 11:29
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io customer lifetime value is around $7,000
“Around seven K right now and increasing.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 12:28
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io experiences 25% to 30% monthly gross customer churn
“Around 25, 30%.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 14:21
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Breaz: Bant.io tool pulls email addresses from 70% of LinkedIn profiles
“I would say LinkedIn is one of our main data sources. We've got our own tool that is too much to say plugs into LinkedIn, but it's a software that basically pulls the email addresses off any LinkedIn profile. Well, I would say, 70% of those.”
Andre Brees Jan 18, 2017 ▶ 16:52
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