Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bootstrapped 30-person Shopper Approved competes against $100M-backed Trustpilot and Yotpo
“We're less than 30, which is kind of cool because like Trustpilot and Yotpo, they've had over a hundred million in BC and they have between 300 to 500 employees and we have less than 30 and we're giving, we're neck and neck with them.”
Opinion
Brandley: Shopper Approved is anti-VC and only bootstrapped player left
“We're in fact, we're kind of anti VC at this point. Everybody else in our industry is sold out and we're the only ones that haven't.”
Insight
Brandley: Active, Business-Driven Reviews Produce More Accurate Customer Scores
“What we do is active reviews where, or business driven reviews where the business hires us to collect reviews for them. And that way we collect reviews from everyone equally, which we feel gives a better score.”
Assertion Supported
Trustpilot's passive reviews skew heavily negative compared to active collection
“So if you go to like Trustpilot and there, people are just leaving passive reviews that are pissed off, their score is like 1.2. But if you go to like reseller ratings who Newegg hires to actively collect reviews for them, their score is like 4.9.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Outbound call centers drive almost 100% of Shopper Approved's revenue
“Almost a hundred percent of our revenue is driven by direct by call centers, direct calls to our to different businesses.”
Disclosure
Brandley: Shopper Approved profits are reinvested into launching new software companies
“So what we, what we've been doing is taking the money out and investing it into other companies.”
Disclosure
Brandley's six rigid criteria for launching any new software venture
“Everything that had, so it's gotta be sexy. It's gotta be sticky. It's gotta have recurring revenue. We have to be able to sell it in a call center. It has to be able to be developed within six months and it has to have low low customer support.”
Assertion Open · timeframe Dec 2017
Shopper Approved generated $4.7M in 2017 revenue
“We did about 4.7 million.”
Assertion Supported
Shopper Approved generated $3.8M in 2016 revenue
“3.8.”
Prediction Not publicly verifiable
Shopper Approved is on track to exceed $6M in 2018 revenue
“We're on track to do over six.”
Assertion Partly supported
Shopper Approved is one of just ten Google Ads review syndicators
“So if you go to Google and you see five-star listings next to a pay-per-click ad, we're one of about 10 companies that have the ability to do that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shopper Approved passes 7,000 paying customers
“We've passed 7000 customers.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shopper Approved achieves nearly $500k in monthly revenue
“Close to 500,000.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shopper Approved has a 0.8% monthly revenue churn rate
“Churn is .8%.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Goldman Sachs required Shopper Approved to calculate churn during acquisition talks
“We almost sold out a couple of years ago, and Goldman Sachs made us figure it out.”
Disclosure
Shopper Approved CAC is about $400
“It's about 400 dollars.”
Disclosure
Goldman Sachs-backed competitor nearly acquired Shopper Approved for $12M in 2014
“It was twelve million.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Brandley: Shopper Approved profit margins are way higher than 20%
“Yeah, way more than that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Brandley has built over 30 companies and actively operates five
“So we've built over 30, but we probably have five that are currently actively running and we're building.”
Disclosure
Shopper Approved charges businesses $100 to $150 per month
“It depends on the size of the business, but I would say between a hundred and a 150 a month.”
