The Exchanges

Q lot of folks listening right now that might've raised a 203 105 100,000 dollar seed round two, three years ago. And they're going, man, I love my investors. I want to make them whole, but this business is not working. I want to shut it down and launch their own version of high platform. How do you shut down that thing without pissing off the old investors at direct TV?

A Uh, we actually didn't shut down. Uh, we merged with another startup. It was a, a Brazilian startup for, uh, uh, Social media, customer care, customer care, and we started speaking, talking with their investors, and they are, they were very into Uh, uh, they, they wanted to invest in, in some chatbot products here in Brazil, and Direct Talk used to have this product, and, and, and these guys, they, they just asked me, uh, could you speak with the, the other founders, and, and see if you can work together? Uh, can you, can you imagine an angle where you put, uh, all these products together, and, uh, The conversations went, went pretty well. Uh, the products were very, um, Complimentary.

AI assessment note: “we actually didn't shut down. Uh, we merged with another startup.”

Q That's great. And this is, uh, this is a great story here. So take me back to when you launched the company. What year was that?

A Uh, actually I've started in the year 2000. Uh, we are, we were one of the, one of the first startups here in Brazil. Uh, we had some seed money from one large bank and some, some entrepreneurs here. And we've started with, our thesis was just about trying to help companies to, to sell, uh, to improve their sales on, on their website. So it was the very beginning of e-commerce here in Brazil and the very beginning of internet as, as, as an, General thing here and companies were trying to, to make money with the internet. So we deployed a web chat in order to try to help them to, to, to improve their sales and to improve their businesses on the internet. And what have you raised to date? I'm sorry.

AI assessment note: “actually I've started in the year 2000.”

Q Yeah. Okay. Very good. And what is, I mean, how's that going? What's the funding environment like in Brazil?

A Uh, I think we are, uh, at this moment, we are in a different, in a unusual position because in Brazil we have lots of VCs and early stage money, and we don't have, um, more funds, um, specific to growth money or to stages that are later stages. So we are actually talking to some funds in the U S because we are kind of, you know, cheap and they have more track record, uh, working with companies that are not in the early stages. And we are also speaking with, uh, very few people here in Brazil, uh, that can handle a company with our profile. And actually we, we find, we find out, found out that here in Brazil, we had to do private equity. Uh, but we are still a small for them, you know, so when we are in a, in unusual spots that we are not big and not small anymore, you know?

AI assessment note: “in Brazil we have lots of VCs and early stage money, and we don't have”

Q Where, let's say you do get the month, this five million dollars. What is your current CAC and, and, and where is that money being spent?

A Uh, today our, our CAC is, is, is about Uh, I'm sorry. Our CAC is about, uh, two, 2.5, uh, between 1.5 and 2000 dollars. Uh, our CAC payback is about, uh, the average CAC payback is about eight months. Uh, and we put money, uh, uh, We are putting money in, in, uh, we are doing some events and, uh, uh, inbound, uh, sales. So we are doing Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, uh, to, to bring leads and, and events. That's our, our main, uh, efforts. Uh, we have two sales teams. We have sales teams there that there's, uh, Uh, one of them is focused on inbound and the other one is on field sales, uh, for larger companies. So we do cold calls.

AI assessment note: “Our CAC is about, uh, two, 2.5, uh, between 1.5 and 2000 dollars.”

Q And so why, um, I mean, look, that's good growth, but it's not fast growth, right? If you went from nine million in 2018 to thirteen million today, you're only adding about a million net new ARR per year. Why haven't you grown faster?

A Uh, another good question, uh, Nathan. Uh, we, we, we've chosen a path, a path to the company, uh, to have, um, different products. We didn't focus in one product. So we've built a, a whole platform that can help companies selling and help companies, uh, doing customer care. So there are, 10 different kind of features, and we did some, we did, we had the merger, but we did some M&A, uh, during this, this, uh, during this, uh, the past three years. So we had to put this all together as one product, and Try to find the right, uh, sweet spot and the right, uh, market fit to, to all these features. So, and, and, and we've raised money very late. Uh, we actually raised money last tag, last August. Uh, we raised, uh, uh, seven million dollars. Uh, that was our, our first round. Uh, so we had very little money. We came All the, all the way with.

AI assessment note: “we've chosen a path... to have, um, different products. We didn't focus in one product.”

Q lot of folks listening right now that might've raised a 203 105 100,000 dollar seed round two, three years ago. And they're going, man, I love my investors. I want to make them whole, but this business is not working. I want to shut it down and launch their own version of high platform. How do you shut down that thing without pissing off the old investors at direct TV?

A Uh, we actually didn't shut down. Uh, we merged with another startup. It was a, a Brazilian startup for, uh, uh, Social media, customer care, customer care, and we started speaking, talking with their investors, and they are, they were very into Uh, uh, they, they wanted to invest in, in some chatbot products here in Brazil, and Direct Talk used to have this product, and, and, and these guys, they, they just asked me, uh, could you speak with the, the other founders, and, and see if you can work together? Uh, can you, can you imagine an angle where you put, uh, all these products together, and, uh, The conversations went, went pretty well. Uh, the products were very, um, Complimentary.

AI assessment note: “we actually didn't shut down. Uh, we merged with another startup.”

Q Okay. Very interesting. Well, this is a heck of a story. We didn't, I want to wrap up talking about the product, right? I mean, where do you see the customer success service space going over the next three, four or five years?

A Uh, very good question. I actually, Uh, think that Every company, and I think a high platform as well, has to do, first of all, basics, ah, to guarantee that our customers are using, ah, the products in the proper way, and also being a hub of information and data, ah, benchmarking of using the products and, and, and getting results of the product. So I think this is, ah, Step one for, for customer success. Uh, but, uh, what, what I do see different, uh, in the coming years is that technology is make, making things, uh, very different in the way that we can delivery, uh, content we can delivery, we can have education products, you know, programs in order to use our products. And as well as the way, uh, uh, WhatsApp messenger, Facebook messenger, uh, and, and this kind of apps, they are changing the way we relate to each other, uh, as a B to B, uh, software business. Uh, so I think we have a, a, a very different, same, same purpose, uh, with the basics, uh, uh, With the basic concept, but delivering it in a different way.

AI assessment note: “what I do see different in the coming years is that technology is make”