Insight
Rusenko: Having no competition indicates a market is small
“If you have no competition, that's a bad sign. You know, that's usually means you're in a small market.”
Insight
Rusenko: Startup founders commonly overhire and spend money without discipline
“What I've witnessed is a lot of very suboptimal decision-making as far as spending goes. Very common to get ahead of your skis ... Very common to just hire too many people. I think just being deliberate about how you grow the team is just critically important.…”
Disclosure
Rusenko: Weebly holds more cash in bank than total capital raised
“And you know, today we actually have more cash in the bank than we've raised.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Substantially all of Weebly's growth comes from word of mouth
“So, so, so I'll start by saying that that we've had substantially all of our growth has been via word of mouth.”
Insight
Rusenko: Freemium models require word-of-mouth growth and low marginal costs
“If there's a couple of things that has to work, it only works. Number one, if it is driving word of mouth for you, it only works. Number two if your marginal cost per additional user is low enough to sort of support the freemium model.”
Insight
Rusenko: Freemium fails if paywalls feel like artificial constraints
“Your model has to resonate with your customers in a way that they understand why they have to pay more for something, or they just won't do it. If it comes off as sort of fake, comes off as this like artificial constraint, it's not going to work.”
Insight
Rusenko: Renewal rates are the key indicator of product-market fit
“If you have a product that doesn't have product market fit, you're going to see really low renewal rates. If you have a product that has really great product market fit, you're going to see really high renewal rates. And I think that that, that, that is a key …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Most paying Weebly customers pay $8 to $15 per month
“No, most people are sort of somewhere in that like eight to 15 dollar a month price range.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Weebly sees some free users convert to paid after six years
“We see people converting six years later for the first time, someone who signed up for the first time, who has been consistently using the service, who's paying us for the first time six years later.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Weebly has over 50 million users on its platform
“We're over fifty million people that are using Weebly.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Weebly sites get 325 million monthly visits globally
“About three hundred twenty-five million people every single month visit one of those websites or online stores that were created by those entrepreneurs. I think that's really cool. That's a global number, just the US component of that represents about half of …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Weebly saw under 0.5% conversion at paid launch in 2008
“When we first started to introduce our first paying subscription, which was Weebly Pro, and when we first introduced that I think it was in June of 2008. We saw a conversion rate of just under .5%.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rusenko: Weebly provides 80% of features free, charging $4 to $35/month
“Actually about 80% of what we offer is completely free. And then it's very honest. If you like the service it starts at four dollars a month all the way up to about 35 dollars a month.”
