The Exchanges

Q That's great. Well, congrats on, congrats on the, on the growth. Where were you exactly one year ago in terms of MRR? So we can calculate growth rate.

A Um, let's say about a thousand. Um, but like six months ago, we were also at a thousand. Like the thing is with this market, because there's also obviously it's a crowded market. We spent the entire first year focusing on product market fit, interviewing hundreds of users for averaging about five years interviews per week since we launched. And we just keep that going because that feedback is very valuable. So only in January this year, we switched to growth. So also in January, 23, we were still at about a thousand. Uh, dollars MRR. Uh, and since then we switched, uh, switched, uh, uh, focus. We moved on towards growth, started utilizing our own product because it was good enough to actually start, start selling for us. And hence we found product market fit because then it means that it would also be good enough for our users. And that's why we've been, uh, growing 50% month over month.

AI assessment note: “let's say about a thousand”

Q So who are your customers? Say is there a specific sector that's using you?

A Uh, two sectors, actually, uh, it's digital agencies. That's a very big one. Uh, and the other one is, uh, SaaS companies. So the digital agencies, because they do not want to hire a sales team, that's too much of an investment for them. It's of course, uh, a lot of uncertainty in the ROI because someone needs to take six to nine months in order to become profitable if they will become profitable. So that's a huge leeway there. And the other one is, uh, companies, uh, B to B SaaS companies, uh, that have a huge growth Potential and growth ambition. And they want to scale up their sales and get in touch with the right people. And that's, uh, what we're helping them do now.

AI assessment note: “two sectors, actually, uh, it's digital agencies... and the other one is, uh, SaaS companies.”

Q Um, and, and you, so you price based off a couple of interesting things, credits or monthly emails, you know, 255 hundred, a thousand. You also have feature based upselling, like you don't get autonomous mode unless you're on, you know, plan, you know, X, which of these are the most effective for you in terms of driving expansion revenue?

A Uh, expansion revenue, like the, the, the most important one to get people to actually convert to being a paying customer is that we have a couple of premium features. We have a free trial, like a freemium model, but, uh, premium features that actually helps people to convert to the first stage. And then the second one is a number of emails. And especially since we launched autonomous mode, which we did recently, where you do not have to, uh, like you would take the human component out of doing sales outreach. Uh, that's a very big one as well, because now everybody just It stops at tier three, and then when they run out of credits before the end of the month, they expand to a higher package.

AI assessment note: “And then the second one is a number of emails.”

Q You then left. I assume you didn't leave. It was growing fast and you thought there was a path to really change the world and get super wealthy here. So you left and then it merged with a competitor, which is maybe an acqui-hire. So I guess, how do you, you obviously learned a ton, it sounds like, right? But I mean, financially, that wasn't a massive win for you.

A That's true. Like I was, I was a young guy. I did not have a lot of experience. My co-founders neither. So, uh, we were learning everything on the job. We, uh, raised funding, uh, as well. We did a couple of funding rounds that were not the best valuations for us at that, um, at that moment. So like we, uh, we, we made a lot of beginner mistakes in that sense. So it grew into a beautiful company and it's helping, uh, like it's, it's, uh, uh, making like basically transferring millions of kilometers a week from gasoline to electric right now, which is, uh, Making a sustainable and good impact. Um, but yeah, we, we built a huge company, uh, for the sake of the company, but not necessarily for the sake of us. And that's not necessarily what motivates me. I love to build big companies and, and, and highly scalable and just basically keep on challenging myself. And I think in the end, uh, uh, you, you will get the rewards for that. Um, but yeah, it's more to say that more to show that that's, uh, the, the growth stage, which we are entering right now, Uh, it's something that I've already seen once. Uh, and I learned a lot from that. I know a lot of things that I can do better this time to grow even faster. And that's, uh, what we're going to be doing with Luna.

AI assessment note: “That's true. Like I was, I was a young guy.”

Q Okay. And I guess you, you, you mentioned like competitors. Who would you say is the biggest competitor in your space?

A Uh, well, there are a lot of companies working on the same technology, but I think the biggest competitor for us would be, uh, Apollo actually, Apollo.io, which is a very interesting one because they're a partner as well. Uh, so they're targeting another segment, but if you take a look at the, the, the proposition that we're, that we're selling right now, that we're putting in the market, which is an all in one solution and not, not just like, like I said, the, the, the party trick of generating a sales email, but also finding the right leads, Uh, scraping the internet, all kinds of different sources, sources of information to write proper emails, but also generating data, right? If I can write a standardized template and reach out to you, or I can, uh, see in our database of all the emails that we've already sent, like, uh, Nathan has these kind of demographics and stuff like that. And based on classification and prior data, say, well, he's a very busy guy. I need to be straight to the point. I need to use like a hundred words max and then like use a lot of white space and stuff like that, which is built

AI assessment note: “I think the biggest competitor for us would be, uh, Apollo actually, Apollo.io”

Q And you're targeting a new round now. How much are you looking to raise?

A Uh, we're thinking about, about two million, like, uh, one and a half, two million, something like that. Depends a bit on the, on the funding climate as well, because I hear a lot of horror stories about, uh, investors not wanting to invest anymore. So depends a bit on, on how that is and what they think of our traction so far. I think we're doing, uh, we're doing, we're doing pretty well in comparison to our competitors because they have a hard time getting off the ground, uh, also because it's so crowded. So you actually need to have a competitive edge there to, to actually start growing. And we found that, and that's what we're, what we're, uh, uh, doubling down upon right now.

AI assessment note: “we're thinking about, about two million, like, uh, one and a half, two million”

Q For you then Steven, just pause for a second. How do you get people to believe the story that you have an edge over Apollo when you're three people and they're 926 people?

A That's for now because we're like, it's, they're, they're very big. They have a lot of people and they have a huge market share right now. Um, and the thing is only speed is going to, uh, going to make us a true competitor for them. So if we, if we're, we're doing 24 and a half right now, if we in, in six months, like do 30 or 35, then we're never going to win. So we really need to crank up our game and get our market share. And we have a superior product right now, but having a superior product is nothing if, Nobody knows about it. And that's the thing that we're going to be focusing on for the next couple of years.

AI assessment note: “we have a superior product right now, but having a superior product is nothing”