Insight
Hsiao argues 'try a lot of things' is terrible startup strategy advice
“The biggest kind of bullshit kind of strategy advice we've been given and what a lot of people tout is just try a lot of things and see what sticks. And I just realized, man, especially for any kind of early stage startup, time and resources is limited, and yo…”
Insight
Video SaaS faces intermittent usage because customers rarely produce video continuously
“And what's interesting about video as opposed to, I think, a lot of other SaaS businesses is video is still kind of one of those things. Even though video is everywhere, not everyone is actually convinced that they, you know, yeah, that they need to be using v…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Animoto operates with a 24-month customer acquisition cost payback period
“We kind of use a 24 month payback period.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Animoto's average revenue per customer is $200 to $250
“Yeah, more like the two, two 50 kind of range. So we kind of have our professional plan, the middle plan.”
Disclosure
Animoto pitched Sequoia the exact week the 2008 financial crash hit
“We were actually about to raise kind of our first serious round, like literally the day, the week of that, where everything kind of like everything crashed and Sequoia posted their rest in peace, you know, memo or whatever it was. And we were like sitting in w…”
Disclosure
Animoto has over 100,000 active paying subscribers
“We have active, we've got like a 130 active paying subscribers, and a lot of them are kind of coming back. So, but active, I'd say right now, like, you know, over a 100,000.”
Disclosure
About 20% of Animoto customers remain active subscribers indefinitely
“We know that, I don't know, about, like, about 20% of folks who come in will actually just stick around, you know, with us forever.”
Disclosure
Animoto's annual gross revenue churn is approximately 25%
“Yeah, probably about 25%.”
Disclosure
Animoto maintains a net revenue retention rate close to 100%
“I'd say it's close, but I think where we do better is we're kind of strong in our top of the funnel. So our growth kind of comes more from top of the funnel and finding new, new customers. I think we could actually honestly do better and kind of like the win b…”
Disclosure
Animoto spends approximately $1 million per month on paid advertising
“Oh, yeah, yeah. Probably yeah, it's probably around, it's probably up there, around there, and we're trying all sorts of different channels”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Animoto attracts approximately 150,000 new business trial users per month
“Business customers, we get probably average about a 150,000 a month.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Animoto converts roughly 7% of free business trials into paying customers
“We have about, like, a seven percent conversion rate.”
Disclosure
Animoto employs zero quota-carrying sales reps due to its low price point
“Too cheap for that. We've kind of entertained the idea, but I think It's we need to rely more on kind of cheaper channels.”
Disclosure
Animoto has operated cash-flow neutral or positive since its inception
“Pretty much from day one, we have run basically a cashflow, you know, call it neutral business. So we were always, we've always been making money.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Animoto is growing at approximately 20% year-over-year
“No, no, we're probably like in the 20% growth rate.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Hsiao predicts Animoto will reach $50 million ARR within 24 months
“Probably a couple years, maybe a year and a half. 17 months, 18 months.”
Assertion Supported
Animoto launched in 2007 charging $3 per video or $30 annually
“In the early days, it was like, three bucks a video, and, or 30 bucks for, you know, 30 bucks a year for all you can make, and we just kind of made that up, because no one else was really charging for stuff.”
