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Oct 26, 2016 · 18m · top-founders

EP 459: Magically Make Paper Dissappear with $2m/yr Company Amipaperless CEO George Bandarian

George Vandarian · 10m 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,' Nathan Latka interviews Amipaperless CEO George Bandarian, exploring how he scaled a 50-year-old family microfilm enterprise into a bootstrapped, $2.5 million document digitization and SaaS workflow automation company.

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 35.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 1.2 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:001:07–4:33 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introducing George Bandarian of Amipaperless When George gives a vague answer regarding what SpaceX pays, Nathan interrupts and pushes for specific dollar ranges. Nathan also steps in to classify the business model as a services/agency operation rather than pure tech.4:33–7:05 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Contract Sizes, Pricing Models, and Client Count George breaks down the physical assembly-line process of scanning paper. Nathan probes into labor economics by asking if rising minimum wages will force automation.7:05–11:11 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Company Heritage, Transition, and Revenue Growth Nathan drills into revenue milestones and challenges George on his SaaS ambitions, referencing specific incumbent competitors like PandaDoc and DocuSign.11:11–13:12 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 George's Purpose, Executive Coaching, and Contact Information Nathan openly questions why George offers executive coaching rather than remaining selfishly focused on building his core company. George politely defends his purpose and operational delegation.13:14–17:22 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five format with low conflict, though Nathan reminds George to keep answers concise.1:07–4:33 · Guest teaching 3/10 Introducing George Bandarian of Amipaperless When George gives a vague answer regarding what SpaceX pays, Nathan interrupts and pushes for specific dollar ranges. Nathan also steps in to classify the business model as a services/agency operation rather than pure tech.4:33–7:05 · Guest teaching 3/10 Contract Sizes, Pricing Models, and Client Count George breaks down the physical assembly-line process of scanning paper. Nathan probes into labor economics by asking if rising minimum wages will force automation.7:05–11:11 · Guest teaching 2/10 Company Heritage, Transition, and Revenue Growth Nathan drills into revenue milestones and challenges George on his SaaS ambitions, referencing specific incumbent competitors like PandaDoc and DocuSign.11:11–13:12 · Guest teaching 1/10 George's Purpose, Executive Coaching, and Contact Information Nathan openly questions why George offers executive coaching rather than remaining selfishly focused on building his core company. George politely defends his purpose and operational delegation.13:14–17:22 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five format with low conflict, though Nathan reminds George to keep answers concise.1:07–4:33 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing George Bandarian of Amipaperless When George gives a vague answer regarding what SpaceX pays, Nathan interrupts and pushes for specific dollar ranges. Nathan also steps in to classify the business model as a services/agency operation rather than pure tech.4:33–7:05 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Contract Sizes, Pricing Models, and Client Count George breaks down the physical assembly-line process of scanning paper. Nathan probes into labor economics by asking if rising minimum wages will force automation.7:05–11:11 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Company Heritage, Transition, and Revenue Growth Nathan drills into revenue milestones and challenges George on his SaaS ambitions, referencing specific incumbent competitors like PandaDoc and DocuSign.11:11–13:12 · Guest disagreement 2/10 George's Purpose, Executive Coaching, and Contact Information Nathan openly questions why George offers executive coaching rather than remaining selfishly focused on building his core company. George politely defends his purpose and operational delegation.13:14–17:22 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five format with low conflict, though Nathan reminds George to keep answers concise.1:07–4:33 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Introducing George Bandarian of Amipaperless When George gives a vague answer regarding what SpaceX pays, Nathan interrupts and pushes for specific dollar ranges. Nathan also steps in to classify the business model as a services/agency operation rather than pure tech.4:33–7:05 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Contract Sizes, Pricing Models, and Client Count George breaks down the physical assembly-line process of scanning paper. Nathan probes into labor economics by asking if rising minimum wages will force automation.7:05–11:11 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Company Heritage, Transition, and Revenue Growth Nathan drills into revenue milestones and challenges George on his SaaS ambitions, referencing specific incumbent competitors like PandaDoc and DocuSign.11:11–13:12 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 George's Purpose, Executive Coaching, and Contact Information Nathan openly questions why George offers executive coaching rather than remaining selfishly focused on building his core company. George politely defends his purpose and operational delegation.13:14–17:22 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard rapid-fire Famous Five format with low conflict, though Nathan reminds George to keep answers concise.

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

0:00 · Nathan 64.1% · guest 35.9%0:00 · Nathan 64.1% · guest 35.9%3:00 · Nathan 16% · guest 84%3:00 · Nathan 16% · guest 84%6:00 · Nathan 23.2% · guest 76.8%6:00 · Nathan 23.2% · guest 76.8%9:00 · Nathan 16.3% · guest 83.7%9:00 · Nathan 16.3% · guest 83.7%12:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%12:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%15:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%15:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%18:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:42 George defends his coaching work

George politely pushes back against Nathan's premise that giving time to coaching is a distraction from building his business.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 3:16 Nathan refuses vague client pricing answer

Nathan cuts through George's broad generalities to demand concrete pricing tiers and contract sizes.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 6:16 George details BPO physical scanning operations

George educates Nathan on the multi-stage assembly line required for high-volume enterprise document digitization.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 10:13 Nathan contextualizes SaaS pivot with competitors

Nathan demonstrates domain knowledge by immediately naming specific SaaS players like DocuSign, PandaDoc, and SeamlessDoc.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing George Bandarian of Amipaperless 5315 When George gives a vague answer regarding what SpaceX pays, Nathan interrupts and pushes for specific dollar ranges. Nathan also steps in to classify the business model as a services/agency operation rather than pure tech.
Contract Sizes, Pricing Models, and Client Count 4314 George breaks down the physical assembly-line process of scanning paper. Nathan probes into labor economics by asking if rising minimum wages will force automation.
Company Heritage, Transition, and Revenue Growth 5213 Nathan drills into revenue milestones and challenges George on his SaaS ambitions, referencing specific incumbent competitors like PandaDoc and DocuSign.
George's Purpose, Executive Coaching, and Contact Information 3125 Nathan openly questions why George offers executive coaching rather than remaining selfishly focused on building his core company. George politely defends his purpose and operational delegation.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2112 Standard rapid-fire Famous Five format with low conflict, though Nathan reminds George to keep answers concise.

Statements from this episode (10)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bandarian: Amipaperless digitized SpaceX's accounting department
“So SpaceX As a typical client, they want to go paperless, they had an initial. So with their accounting department, and so we took care of that need for them.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 2:56
Disclosure
Bandarian: AMI Paperless secured a $367,000 government contract in 2016
“Recently we had a win with a government entity. Which was a full service solution. And that was a 367,000 dollar win earlier this year.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 4:58
Disclosure
Bandarian: AMI Paperless contract sweet spot is around $100,000
“The sweet spot's probably right around the 100,000 you know, for a mid-level enterprise customer that has a real challenge, they want to solve it.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 5:19
Disclosure
Bandarian: AMI Paperless actively works with about 100 clients
“At any one given time, we're generally working with about a hundred clients.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 5:37
Disclosure
Bandarian: Amipaperless will scale from 25 to 40 employees by year-end
“We have about 25 employees, and we had a great end of quarter. We're scaling up again, so we should be at 40 by the end of the year.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 5:51
Assertion Supported
Bandarian: Amipaperless reached just over $2M in annual revenue
“We made the Inc. 5000 fastest growing. We just ended a little bit north of two million.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 8:34
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Bandarian projects Amipaperless will reach $2.5M in revenue for 2016
“We're on a pretty good clip. We'll end that somewhere around two and a half million.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 8:44
Opinion
Bandarian: Acquired enterprise software from IBM, Oracle, and EMC is bloated and fails
“You know, some of the ones are the ones that, for example, IBM and Oracle, and EMC, and all the big behemoths have app acquired and they just become so bloated and expensive, and implementations fail”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 9:26
Disclosure
Bandarian: Amipaperless has been profitable for decades without outside financing
“And I thought you were talking about the startup, but as far as our business, yeah, I mean, we've been profitable, geez, for decades. Never had to raise financing, but”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 11:02
What-if
Bandarian: President Obama's Mars commitment would not have happened without Elon Musk
“You would never think that a president would say that, and the president wouldn't have said that if it wasn't for Elon.”
George Vandarian Oct 26, 2016 ▶ 15:16
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