Nimble Passes $1.5M In ARR Last Year, $200k MRR now as CRM space heats up with CEO Jon Ferrara
This is from The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast by Nathan Latka:
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01:17 – Nathan introduces Jon to the show
02:13 – There was no Outlook, CRM or Salesforce when Jon had the idea of GoldMine
02:31 – Jon started on $5K with no bank loans and VC
02:35 – Jon ran GoldMine for 10 years, had 5M customers around the globe, sold it and retired at 40
02:44 – GoldMine was a software platform
02:55 – GoldMine started as a floppy disk until it became a CD
03:28 – Jon started GoldMine in 1989 and sold it in 1999
03:38 – GoldMine passed $70M in annual revenue, with 250 team members worldwide
04:00 – ARR wasn’t necessary before when it comes to valuation
04:22 – Jon sold GoldMine for $125M in cash with no strings attached
04:55 – A year after GoldMine was sold, Jon was diagnosed with a head tumor
05:07 – “The most important thing you have around you is your health, next is your family, then your passion and business”
05:19 – Jon was 41 when they found the tumor
05:27 – “We are on this planet to grow our souls”
05:51 – After the tumor, Jon spent next 10 years of his life with his family and friends, adding value to people
06:15 – Jon got into photography and worked as the photographer for USC football for 10 years
06:42 – “You need to be your own advocate”
06:56 – Jon found a doctor who developed the technology to have a radiation beam reach the center of your head without touching any vital nerves
07:17 – The tumor disappeared after 7 weeks of radiation treatment
07:42 – The radiation is like burning the seed inside the watermelon without burning the watermelon’s skin
08:18 – Jon started in social media in 2006-2008
08:33 – Jon saw that relationship managers are contact managers
08:58 – Jon looked at CRM and saw the gap
09:07 – You have to use salespeople to use CRM
09:08 – “That’s why they’re called salesforce because you force salespeople to use it”
09:27 – Nimble’s team was formed in 2010, Alpha in 2011, and they turned the paywall in 2013
09:36 – “Just like with GoldMIne, I was early to the idea of an intelligent social relationship manager that works for you”
09:57 – Business is social and life is social
10:11 – First year revenue
10:21 – Jon got their first customer for Nimble the same way he got their first customer for GoldMine:
10:36 – Jon had a trusted advisor for his prospect
10:51 – Jon got his first $50K revenue in GoldMine from resellers
10:56 – Jon grew the $50K by mobilizing writers who write about technology and business
11:10 – In 2009-2011, there was no reseller because everything was cloud
11:27 – Jon looked for influencers
11:36 – Jon put in his own $3M to the company
11:48 – Jon also got some cash from Mark Cuban, Jason Calacanis and others
12:05 – Jon’s money went to the company’s capitalization
12:20 – Nimble currently has 100K customers and 10K paying companies
12:31 – An average of 3 seats per company
12:36 – Nimble is a SaaS business and is generating 80K website visitors with zero marketing
12:43 – Trial to paid conversion is 20%
13:05 – Nimble started at $15 per user per month
13:08 – It recently rolled out to $25 and will have $45 and $65 buckets with a $99 mark automation add on
13:16 – “Sales and marketing should never have been split apart”
14:07 – $200K average MRR
14:15 – Gross churn is about 3%
14:22 – “We provide a lot of value and satisfaction to our customers”
14:32 – Nimble just rolled with Microsoft Outlook mobile by providing 40M handsets for free
15:04 – CAC is really small because they don’t have a large team
15:25 – You don’t need to spend or overspend in order to build a company
15:35 – It is great to find people who want to grow with your help
15:42 – Rather than hiring a sales guy, Jon would rather hire someone who truly cares about the customer experience
16:16 – Jon’s team is based in Santa Monica with remote workers in USA and Ukraine
16:53 – 2017 target revenue
18:30 – The Famous Five
In Episode #643, Nathan interviews Jon Ferrara. He’s in CRM—a relationship management entrepreneur and noted speaker about social media’s effects on sales marketing. He’s reimagined the CRM by building a simply smarter social sales and marketing platform. His most recent venture is called Nimble.com.
Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff
Favorite online tool? — Buffer
Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — 7-8
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Not to sweat shit so much”