Matt Ekstrom's guest appearances

Matt Ekstrom

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship

Steli Efti

Neil Patel

Thomas Smale

Randy Rayess

Jon Ferrara

Calvin Correli

Laura Roeder

ALlan Wille

Tyler Tringas

Kyle Racki

Ryan Kulp

Wade Foster

Rand Fishkin

Matthew Bellows

Nathan Latka

OwlTail

Matt Ekstrom is the co-founder of Prospectify, a B2B prospecting platform that helps you to automate your lead generation process. Prospectify uses data search, data enrichment, and verification systems to help you build highly targeted prospect lists.The Show NotesProspectifySalesforceHubspotReplyappSalesloftCadenceMatt on TwitterOmer on TwitterEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training &amp; support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Matt Ekstrom is the co-founder of Prospectify, a B2B prospecting platform that helps you to automate your lead generation process. Prospectify uses data search, data enrichment, and verification systems to help you build highly targeted prospect lists. The Show Notes<ul><li><a href="https://prospectify.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Prospectify</a></li><li><a href="https://salesforce.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Salesforce</a></li><li><a href="https://www.hubspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hubspot</a></li><li><a href="http://www.reply-app.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Replyapp</a></li><li><a href="https://salesloft.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Salesloft</a></li><li><a href="https://www.cadence.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cadence</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/504matt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Matt on Twitter</a></li><li><a href="https://www.twitter.com/omerkhan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Omer on Twitter</a></li></ul>Enjoyed this episode?<ul><li>Subscribe to the podcast</li><li>Leave a rating and review</li><li><a href="https://www.twitter.com/omerkhan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Follow Omer</a> on Twitter</li></ul>Need help with your SaaS?<ol><li><a href="https://saasclub.co/plus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join SaaS Club Plus</a>: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training &amp; support.</li><li><a href="https://saasclub.co/launch" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join SaaS Club Launch</a>: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.</li><li><a href="https://saasclub.io/accelerate-saas-coaching/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate</a>: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.</li></ol>

138 How Prospectify Went From Zero To $20,000 MRR In 9 Months - With Matt Ekstrom

Matt Ekstrom. He’s one of the founders of Prospectify and formerly co-founded HiringSolved. He’s in-charge of all things revenue for Prospectify, which is a promising sales and intelligence platform. Famous Five:  Favorite Book? – Sales Acceleration What CEO do you follow? –  Gary Vaynerchuk Favorite online tool? — Google Search and HubSpot Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would have studied more about startups and being an entrepreneur”    Time Stamped Show Notes:  01:30 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show 01:55 – Prospectify is a SaaS model 02:14 – Prospectify’s long term goal is to be able to scale personalization from the sales standpoint 02:25 – Prospectify has monthly subscriptions 02:45 – Prospectify’s pricing:   03:25 – The prices from the website are $40, $190, $490, and $975   03:33 – Average customer pay per month is $352 03:50 – Prospectify was launched in February 2016, and was in beta in January 2016 04:16 – Current number of customers is around 100 04:46 – MRR is over $20K 05:09 – Prospectify is based in Phoenix 05:20 – Prospectify just closed their first month   05:25 – It was in Angels and a million dollar round   05:45 – Matt shares why he decided on an equity round and not a convertible note 06:31 – Matt uses the trajectory to argue for higher valuation 07:29 – Prospectify is about to launch their company search which includes 12 million companies starting in the USA 08:10 – The people Prospectify has targeted 08:18 – Prospectify’s customer base is diverse 08:45 – Annual customer churn 09:45 – Matt shares what he will do to keep customers paying and NOT cancel after receiving all the data 11:10 – Prospectify’s top data sources   11:22 – Matt shares what they used to validate the concept of Prospectify   12:18 – Fixed cost per month for crawling 13:11 – Matt shares where to get credits 14:00 – Customer LTV 14:34 – Current team size   14:45 – Headcount expenses   16:30 – The Famous Five    3 Key Points:  Keep people up to date—that way, they will keep on paying. Decide whether an equity round or convertible note will be most advantageous for you. Discern what is the right track and try to stay on it.       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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives 

Matt Ekstrom. He’s one of the founders of Prospectify and formerly co-founded HiringSolved. He’s in-charge of all things revenue for Prospectify, which is a promising sales and intelligence platform. Famous Five: <ul> <li>Favorite Book? – Sales Acceleration</li> <li>What CEO do you follow? –  Gary Vaynerchuk</li> <li>Favorite online tool? — Google Search and HubSpot</li> <li>Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No</li> <li>If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would have studied more about startups and being an entrepreneur”</li> </ul> Time Stamped Show Notes: <ul> <li>01:30 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show</li> <li>01:55 – Prospectify is a SaaS model</li> <li>02:14 – Prospectify’s long term goal is to be able to scale personalization from the sales standpoint</li> <li>02:25 – Prospectify has monthly subscriptions</li> <li>02:45 – Prospectify’s pricing:</li> <li> <ul> <li>03:25 – The prices from the website are $40, $190, $490, and $975</li> </ul> </li> <li>03:33 – Average customer pay per month is $352</li> <li>03:50 – Prospectify was launched in February 2016, and was in beta in January 2016</li> <li>04:16 – Current number of customers is around 100</li> <li>04:46 – MRR is over $20K</li> <li>05:09 – Prospectify is based in Phoenix</li> <li>05:20 – Prospectify just closed their first month</li> <li> <ul> <li>05:25 – It was in Angels and a million dollar round</li> </ul> </li> <li>05:45 – Matt shares why he decided on an equity round and not a convertible note</li> <li>06:31 – Matt uses the trajectory to argue for higher valuation</li> <li>07:29 – Prospectify is about to launch their company search which includes 12 million companies starting in the USA</li> <li>08:10 – The people Prospectify has targeted</li> <li>08:18 – Prospectify’s customer base is diverse</li> <li>08:45 – Annual customer churn</li> <li>09:45 – Matt shares what he will do to keep customers paying and NOT cancel after receiving all the data</li> <li>11:10 – Prospectify’s top data sources</li> <li> <ul> <li>11:22 – Matt shares what they used to validate the concept of Prospectify</li> </ul> </li> <li>12:18 – Fixed cost per month for crawling</li> <li>13:11 – Matt shares where to get credits</li> <li>14:00 – Customer LTV</li> <li>14:34 – Current team size</li> <li> <ul> <li>14:45 – Headcount expenses</li> </ul> </li> <li>16:30 – The Famous Five</li> </ul> 3 Key Points: <ul> <li>Keep people up to date—that way, they will keep on paying.</li> <li>Decide whether an equity round or convertible note will be most advantageous for you.</li> <li>Discern what is the right track and try to stay on it.   </li> </ul> Resources Mentioned: <ul> <li>Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments</li> <li>Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel</li> <li>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</li> <li>Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.</li> <li>Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.</li> <li>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</li> <li>Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket</li> <li>Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives</li> </ul>

EP 553: Prospectify Raises $1M at $4M Post Money Valuation, $25k MRR, for Better Prospecting with CEO Matt Ekstrom