EP 569: GrowSumo Helping 70 B2B SaaS Companies Grow Affiliate Programs, $100k New MRR So Far with CEO Bryn Jones

Bryn Jones. He's the co-founder and CEO of GrowSumo. GrowSumo graduated from Y Combinator in the summer of 2015, and they're building a marketplace for influencer programs. Prior to building companies, Bryn was also a member of a swim team.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? –
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "To just go for it"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:15 – Nathan introduces Bryn to the show
• 01:41 – Nathan found Bryn through Product Hunt
• 02:42 – There are large enterprise clients who came from GrowSumo
• 02:53 – GrowSumo builds a marketplace for influencer programs
• 03:10 – GrowSumo charges a one-time annual fee
• • 03:14 – GrowSumo takes a percentage of every dollar the influencer earns from the brand
• 03:22 – GrowSumo is an affiliate program on top of an affiliate program
• 03:33 – An influencer can be anyone
• 04:19 – GrowSumo has a month over month fee which is $300 a month
• • 04:48 – It is for a new startup with no affiliate program
  • 04:56 – It lets you go in and manage the program yourself
• 05:16 – For an enterprise account, GrowSumo automates the entire program
• • 05:23 – GrowSumo helps you identify the influencers
  • 05:32 – The enterprise account: $10K annually
  • 05:36 – GrowSumo takes 10% from all payouts to influencers
• 06:20 – "You have a lot of customers today that are influencers and you just don't know where to find them"
• 07:03 – Bryn shares how they identify the influencers
• 07:43 – GrowSumo doesn't have the ability to qualify an influencer based on the list size they have
• 08:33 – GrowSumo was launched in August 2015
• 09:06 – GrowSumo has a lot of traction
• • 09:20 – Percentage of customers that GrowSumo is currently working with
• 10:30 – GrowSumo's biggest competition are Commission Junction and Influitive
• 11:07 – GrowSumo hasn't raised capital yet, but they're going to soon
• 11:35 – Current Y Combinator terms
• 12:45 – Team size is 8
• 13:03 – Bryn is Canadian
• 13:50 – Number of unique new customers driven by GrowSumo
• • 14:00 – GrowSumo has driven over $100K recurring monthly revenue
• 14:20 – GrowSumo still qualifies and chooses the customers
• 15:20 – GrowSumo is software and there is no need for an internal tool
• 16:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Find new ways to grow your following by leveraging websites that are popular in your niche.
• Having a feature that your biggest competitors do not offer will give you an edge.
• There is no clear path to success—the only way to succeed is to START trying.

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives