Ep 483: Pipedrive Passes $10M ARR, Helping 30,000 Customers w/ CRM with CEO Timo Rein

Timo Rein, CEO and co-founder of Pipedrive, a provider of sales CRM software that gives sales teams control over their selling processes. After spending $15,000 on a CRM for his own business that ended up being a total waste of money, Timo brought together a few engineering friends to create a better CRM solution for his own needs. This was the genesis of Pipe Tribe, which now has over 30,000 small business users worldwide and has reached $13.4 million in VC funding.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Turning Pro
• What CEO do you follow? – Stephen Curry and Gregg Popovich

• Favorite online tool? — Slack and Viber
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— "No, still trying."
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Take action. It is important to work hard first. Discover who I am and know where my energy flows."

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:47 – Nathan introduces Timo to the show
• 02:31 – It was in 2002 when Timo spent $15,000 on a business
• • 02:41 – It turned out that the business wouldn't have much return
• 02:56 – Pipe Tribe helps small businesses around the world control their complex processes
• 03:23 – Pipe Tribe was founded in June 2010 and the product came out March 2011
• 03:30 – Current team size
• 03:48 – They have an office in Estonia and Manhattan
• 04:28 – Timo is based in California
• 04:50 – In 2010, revenue is zero
• 05:30 – 2015: total revenue
• 06:16 – Current ARR
• 06:30 – They are doing about a million dollars per month
• 06:48 – They have 30,000 paying customers
• 07:00 – Pipe Tribe's pricing
• • 07:07 – They have 3 plans at the moment
• 07:25 – Average customers' pay per month
• 08:21 – They are doing cohort tracking
• 08:30 – Monthly customer churn
• • 08:37 – Churn tends to be quite high
  • 09:32 – The churn depends on the tool and business size
• 10:45 – CAC will depend on the company's growth
• 12:00 – 25% of new sign-ups are paying annually
• 12:28 – How do you drive the company?
• • 12:45 – Timo and his co-founders built the company from the ground up
  • 13:22 – They have an internal goal
• 13:33 – They raised $9 million from Series A
• 13:53 – Some of the money they raised was from seed investors
• 14:13 – Timo won't sell his business for $90 million or even $150 million
• 14:49 – Timo sees the company as a work undone
• 15:11 – "When you build a startup, it seems like you're building an airplane while you are on air"
• 16:22 – They have a revenue goal and customer goal
• 16:45 – Connect with Timo through his LinkedIn
• 18:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The world around us changes—the economy goes up and down.
• When you build a startup, it seems like you're building an airplane while you are on air.
• Take action. It is important to work hard first. Discover who you are and know where your energy flows.

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• LinkedIn – Timo's LinkedIn account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives