694: Why 1 Year Payback Period is Important From $50M Funded CEO

Don Mal. He's the CEO and co-founder of Vena Solutions which was established in 2011 and is the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management software. Prior to Vena, he's owned several executive tech positions along the way with companies like Clarity Systems and IBM.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Who Moved My Cheese
• What CEO do you follow? – Satya Nadella
• Favorite online tool? — Dropbox
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7-8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew that sales cures all"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:44 – Nathan introduces Don to the show
• 01:21 – Vena was the fastest company to acquire a hundred customers
• 01:29 – Vena is growing a 100%, year over year
• 02:05 – CPM or corporate performance management is budgeting, planning and forecasting financial performance
• 02:28 – A fastfood chain can use Vena's service to capture the sales of their burger
• 02:55 – CPM is about measuring results in a couple of different dimensions
• 03:16 – The Top had Glen Coates of Handshake and they're an inventory management
• 03:31 – Vena is more horizontal based and vertical industry based
• 04:20 – Vena doesn't compete with Bill.com and Expensify.com
• 04:31 – Annual RPU is $50K
• 04:53 – Vena was launched in 2011
• 05:02 – Team size is almost 200
• 05:18 – Vena has raised capital with equity rounds
• 05:49 – Don was running sales for a company in the same space that Don sold
• 06:02 – Don has already built credibility, so he was able to convince families and friends to invest
• 06:21 – Don has raised over a million to launch the business
• 06:50 – Don's process of closing
• 07:06 – Don was able to raise $3M from other sources
• 07:30 – If your friends and families can't write a $25K check, a $1k check will do
• 07:42 – Don has now raised a total of $50M
• 08:35 – Having the right kind of partner is important in raising a round
• 09:17 – Vena is approaching 350 paying customers
• 09:38 – Average MRR is $1.4M
• 09:47 – Vena finds new customers with a combination of inbound and outbound marketing
• • 10:04 – Vena also nurtures their prospects through drip campaigns
• 10:22 – Total spend on paid acquisition is a couple of hundred grand a month
• 10:40 – Vena has a team that does the testing for new channels
• 11:05 – Don wants to keep their CAC below a 12-month cost of the revenue
• 11:38 – Don is looking at a 12-month payback
• 11:55 – LTV
• • 12:05 – A customer stays with Vena up to 10 years
• 12:48 – Don sees the significant expansion of their platform
• 12:55 – Client starts with 2 user cases and can end up having more than 20
• 13:28 – Gross churn
• 13:39 – Vena has hit their net negative revenue churn
• 14:05 – Vena's dollar will turn into $1.20 with their current system
• 15:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Before a big round of fundraising, master your pitch and start with your friends and families.
• Make your product stick to your customers and you'll experience amazing growth.
• Have experts in your sales and marketing team; trust and release them to do their job.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives