The Exchanges

Q So let's start there real quick. So AppSumo promo deal, how did that pan out?

A Really well. I mean, I think we got it, uh, being used by about 500 companies, uh, just from that one absolute promo, which just lasts like two weeks. Uh, so it's a really good way to get exposure, get some word of mouth going. It's a really, it's a product that's really conducive to being product led because like Intercom, it's a widget that our customers will install publicly on their web apps. Um, so it's really easy for people to discover us just by using, like we work, for example, like we have customers like Intercom, Hotjar, Drift. So any user of those products will actually see Beamer in action Um, just by using those products and, and many, many people discover us that way. That's how we generate a lot of leads.

AI assessment note: “Really well. I mean, I think we got it, uh, being used by about 500 companies”

Q Interesting. So you would recommend both those things to any SaaS founders kind of first month startup launch plan, product hunt, app sumo. Is that accurate? And if so, anything else?

A Yeah, absolutely. I think those two things were super key for us. And then, uh, yeah, I would recommend like cold, basically cold outreach to a very defined, uh, buyer persona. So like we knew, for example, that we were building this for product teams and within product teams, specifically product marketers. So we knew that if we went and reached out to product marketers at some of the top like SaaS companies, uh, that, you know, if we did it in a very personalized way that we could probably get land some, uh, you know, High profile logos to start, which is really key for like validation. And then for, in our case, since we have such a product led growth model where people could see us in those products, um, it was like, especially important. So I'd say those three things.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, absolutely. I think those two things were super key for us.”

Q And where, where were you from like a mental state? Had you saved up enough cushion from the investment banking salaries that you could afford Forward to go out and take this risk? Or did you do it? Some entrepreneurs do, which is you literally had it on the line, like credit card debt. You had to make this work.

A No, totally, just being honest, I, I did not have everything on the line. I had a good amount of savings from having worked in, in banking for a few years up in New York City, and then, and then a year in Santiago. Um, and yeah, I mean, for me, it was kind of an obvious decision. Like, I was already in South America, um, single, young, you know, had a great idea with the, with a guy that I saw as like a really trustworthy, and, you know, again, complimentary skill set sort of partner with him, having studied tech, and being from Latin America, me having studied finance and business, and being from, uh, The U S and, uh, yeah, it really made sense for me, uh, to go for it. So I went kind of full steam ahead.

AI assessment note: “I did not have everything on the line. I had a good amount of savings”

Q Okay. That makes perfect sense. So, uh, take me through some of the economics on these kinds of customers. So obviously with the SAS business churn is critical. What's your gross monthly churn?

A Our monthly term right now is 6.2% monthly. And so that's definitely higher than we want. We're doing a lot of things to improve that right now. And actually that's something I might, I can, can delve into right now. This is a pretty cool thing we're about to launch. Um, it's a new product called Beamer. So we came across the problem of, you know, we're constantly uploading, you know, new features, you know, or minor improvements to kind of, you know, the way our UX works or, you know, whatever improvements we're doing in the platform. And, you know, our users don't always, um, you know, aren't always aware of all these changes that we're doing, right? And so they're less engaged and maybe more likely to, to churn. Um, so we had the idea of, you know, went out, let's see if there's a tool, um, you know, that did this currently to let you have like a kind of plug and play change log for all these different improvements, um, that you're making to your product. And there really isn't a product like that that exists. So we're about to launch in the next Two weeks, a product called Beamer that lets you essentially notify product changes to your user base from within your product, um, by just plugging in a super easy, um, script, um, to essentially like a change log as a service. Um, and yeah, it lets users have like one specific place where they know they can always go to see all th…

AI assessment note: “Our monthly term right now is 6.2% monthly.”

Q Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay. Last question here before we wrap up with the famous five, what's the weirdest thing? So you can't say paid marketing or inbound marketing. What's the weirdest thing you've done to acquire customers?

A The weirdest thing we've done to acquire customers. Um, Well, we've seen that. So, you know, one of the biggest things we want to do is, you know, we've got this huge database of people that have signed up for one of our products over the last, you know, three to four years, right? How, what can we do? Cause these, these are the best people to target and people that were interested in your products at one point and didn't convert. Um, you know, that's a low hanging fruit. Like how can you go back and convert those people? Um, so we sent out an email, uh, saying that I had a fight with my, Business partner. Um, I lost a bet with him basically, and to get back at him, I was going to offer a 50%, uh, discount forever. We actually had a bunch of people either respond to that saying it was funny and they were going to check it out again and a decent amount of people converted.

AI assessment note: “we sent out an email, uh, saying that I had a fight with my, Business partner.”

Q And then, so fast forward to today, I mean, have you, have you bootstrapped or have you raised capital for the company?

A So we raised a couple, um, seed rounds from angel investors in both the United States and in South America. Um, being based in Latin America, it's a little bit tougher to access US, um, you know, VC money. Um, you know, VC funds typically like to be able to, you know, meet with you in person, you know, they like to see kind of like your core operations and client base being in their same geography. It's just, you can definitely do it, but it's, it's definitely tougher and you're in a different geography. And, um, you know, just kind of through the context that we both had and pitching the idea to some angel investors, we were able to raise two, two rounds of around 500 K a piece over the last three years.

AI assessment note: “we raised a couple, um, seed rounds from angel investors”

Q Perfect. Okay. Take us back to the founding story. You went from like, you know, Austin, Texas and rock climbing to investment banking to now high box and software. Why leave JP Morgan and do this?

A Yeah, it's an interesting story. So in JP Morgan, um, it was a great gig. I was working in as an M&A analyst in a LATAM, uh, focused firm in, in New York, but, um, I wanted to change. I mean, I wanted to have my own product. Um, you know, in investment banking, you're essentially selling advice. Um, You work with a lot of smart people. It's a really good gig, but you, at the end of the day, you don't get to create something tangible that you can then, you know, give to people and sort of see that, that result, um, that do that effect that you're having on people in a little bit more tangible way. And also just have always been really passionate about Latin America, really interested in foreign languages, Spanish and Portuguese. Um, and

AI assessment note: “I wanted to have my own product. Um, you know, in investment banking, you're essentially selling advice.”

Q So who are your closest competitors, would you say?

A I mean, like some people will say like intercom could be a competitor because you can use it in a similar way, right? You could send like an intercom in app message or pop up to announce a new feature. Um, but the problem is that if you send a message, um, on intercoms chat badge, you know, that typical icon bottom, right? Um, those messages just like get ignored because people are so inundated with automated messages from bots. It's hard to get user attention in that way. And then if you send a pop up, that's fine. That will get their attention. But when they close that out, There's no history of those product changes anywhere. They can't go to an easy spot and scroll through a feed and say, Hey, these are all the awesome changes that these guys are making for me that are making this product valuable. Um, so yeah, it could be thought of as a competitor, but it's in my mind, it's more of a compliment, like intercoms for the live, um, You know, chat experience with your support and sales teams and Beamer is more for like announcing these, these product changes.

AI assessment note: “some people will say like intercom could be a competitor”

Q That's great. And, and where do you see the majority of like your future growth coming from? What, what's the tactic or the strategy?

A Yeah, totally. So in terms of like how we generate our paying customers, about 75% comes from organic. So that's content marketing, which we'll keep doing, uh, SEO. And then just people like seeing us, like I mentioned, in, in other products. So like as many like high Profile logos that we can get where their customer bases are very similar to our ideal customers, like Intercom, for example. Um, just any, any, like, SaaS companies that sell to other SaaS companies, that's perfect to us. Uh, so, like, trying to get in with as many of those guys as we can. Uh, referrals, so, like, from our watermark, so getting our watermark and as many of our in-app widgets and emails that we send out as possible, um, even on paid plans, like, if we can. Uh, and then ads is not significant. Like, right now, it represents about, like, five percent of The leads we generate, and I, I don't foresee that becoming like an important, important, important part of our play.

AI assessment note: “about 75% comes from organic. So that's content marketing, which we'll keep doing”

Q Very cool. And what's okay. So again, back to JP Morgan, what year did you quit? And when did you launch a high box?

A So I was in 2012, and I actually did a brief stint at a local Chilean investment bank, um, and that's where I met my current, uh, business partner. Um, so, you know, we essentially met, he was doing a program called Startup Chile, um, at the time, which is really cool, um, that entrepreneurs, if they come and physically stay in Santiago for six months and participate in a bunch of, you know, networking and mentoring programs. Um, he was doing that for another idea. We met, saw that we had a lot of complimentary skills, um, and started talking about this idea of how can we launch, um, you know, a product that will help people collaborate, um, in a better way at work. And, um, that's when we decided to start, uh, join cube, which was our first product.

AI assessment note: “So I was in 2012, and I actually did a brief stint”

Q Okay. So, so yeah, it's a good, it's a good size, not a huge size. Um, okay. Last question here. Do you, do you care about things like payback period? And if so, what are you trying to optimize for?

A Yeah, we definitely care about it. Um, you know, we've always kind of started this as, we want this to be profitable as, you know, as soon as we can. Um, I think that's more the mentality of, like, entrepreneurship in, in Latin America, and sort of that's where we started. That's, you know, my partner's background, so we've always operated with that, um, that focus. So yeah, we just try to be as lean as possible, you know, whether that's for, you know, how many people that are on our team. I mean, I think we have a Relatively small team for kind of the scope of what we're running in terms of the number of products, number of companies, you know, between joint Q and high box that are signed up. So yeah, keeping the team as lean as possible. Um, that's a big thing for us. You know, we optimize every, we test, you know, as, as just as much as we can on everything we do, every single aspect of the landing pages, you know, to our different ads, you know, always AB testing to, to kind of reduce those costs. I mean, if I had to say two things, those are the two things we, yeah,

AI assessment note: “Yeah, we definitely care about it. Um, you know, we've always kind of started”