Brandon Foo's guest appearances

Brandon Foo

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

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David Darmanin

Steli Efti

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Melanie Duncan

Bernie Sanders

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Engelo Rumora

OwlTail

Brandon Foo is the co-founder and CEO of Paragon, a platform designed to help software companies create integrations with third-party applications.Show Notes: https://saasclub.io/353Join Email List: Get weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox: https://saasclub.io/email/Join Community: SaaS Club is the community for early-stage SaaS founders and entrepreneurs: https://saasclub.co/join

Brandon Foo is the co-founder and CEO of Paragon, a platform designed to help software companies create integrations with third-party applications. Show Notes: <a href="https://saasclub.io/353" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://saasclub.io/353</a> Join Email List: Get weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox: <a href="https://saasclub.io/email/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://saasclub.io/email/</a> Join Community: SaaS Club is the community for early-stage SaaS founders and entrepreneurs: <a href="https://saasclub.co/join" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://saasclub.co/join</a>

353: Paragon: From Painful Integrations to Finding Product Market Fit - with Brandon Foo

This week I talk with Brandon Foo of Polymail! Brandon and I talk about how math has influenced him as a startup founder, about having a huge influx of new users thanks to being one of the top upvoted products on Product Hunt ever, balancing feedback from consumers when you’re building a business product and much more! Enjoy!  http://founderchats.com https://polymail.io https://baremetrics.com

This week I talk with Brandon Foo of Polymail! Brandon and I talk about how math has influenced him as a startup founder, about having a huge influx of new users thanks to being one of the top upvoted products on Product Hunt ever, balancing feedback from consumers when you’re building a business product and much more! Enjoy! <ul> <li><a href="http://founderchats.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://founderchats.com</a></li> <li><a href="https://polymail.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://polymail.io</a></li> <li><a href="https://baremetrics.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://baremetrics.com</a></li></ul>

Brandon Foo (Polymail)

Brandon Foo, co-founder and CEO of Polymail (YC S16) – an email platform making businesses and companies more productive. Previously, he co-founded CTRL LA Collective, a co-working space in LA. He graduated from UCLA where he co-founded Bruin Entrepreneurs which is now the biggest entrepreneurship organization at UCLA. Listens as Brandon shares how he built Polymail and why entrepreneurs prefer it over Gmail. Famous Five:  Favorite Book? – N/A What CEO do you follow? –  Aaron Levie   Favorite online tool? — Asana 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? – “Spend more time with side projects and less on school work”    Time Stamped Show Notes:  01:35 – Nathan introduces Brandon to the show 02:08 – Polymail is a super-powerful email platform designed for business users   02:18 – With just 1 app, you can do a lot with your email 02:37 – It is a complete stand-alone email client   03:15 – How are you convincing people to make the switch?   03:20 – Polymail supports multiple accounts 03:52 – People are looking for a complete product experience and Polymail has that   04:31 – A lot of features of Polymail are not in the regular Gmail 04:54 – Polymail started in 2015   05:02 – Launched a Mac prototype in December 2015 05:12 – There’s a tremendous traction   05:38 – Brandon built a small community of people who were invited to try the app   05:48 – They have a Slack group so Brandon can get feedback on a daily basis 06:10 – When they officially launched Polymail, these people downloaded the app and left reviews   07:12 – Polymail is a free app at the moment   07:20 – Polymail pro is in the works but you can sign-up for it now 07:41 – Polymail pro has much more advanced features   08:00 – Over 20,000 daily active users of Polymail 08:12 – 150,000 total downloads and people who signed up 08:27 – Every time Polymail will release a new feature, they will email the whole list of people who signed up to get them engaged in using Polymail 08:52 – Brandon had raised around a million dollars   09:12 – Brandon used a convertible equity   09:24 – Team size of 5 09:48 – The goal for Polymail is to build the platform for external communication on top of email 10:08 – “Email is a critical product for business people so we saw the opportunity there” 11:23 – Polymail is not for a short-term outcome 12:00 – They just wrapped up their seed round   12:30 – They wrapped it up in September 2016   12:48 – Target people   12:56 – A lot of the users are solo entrepreneurs   13:45 – There’s no significant changes with Gmail for the past 10 years   14:09 – Maybe because they make money from ad revenue and let Gmail be a generic email platform   14:40 – Find Brandon on Twiter 16:44 – The Famous Five    3 Key Points:  An update on a product can make non-active users use the product again. Consistent feedback from a group of customers can significantly improve the product. Spend more time with side projects and less on school work.  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. @Foolywk – Brandon’s Twitter handles Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives 

Brandon Foo, co-founder and CEO of Polymail (YC S16) – an email platform making businesses and companies more productive. Previously, he co-founded CTRL LA Collective, a co-working space in LA. He graduated from UCLA where he co-founded Bruin Entrepreneurs which is now the biggest entrepreneurship organization at UCLA. Listens as Brandon shares how he built Polymail and why entrepreneurs prefer it over Gmail. Famous Five: <ul> <li>Favorite Book? – N/A</li> <li>What CEO do you follow? –  Aaron Levie</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Favorite online tool? — Asana</li> <li>Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7-8</li> <li>If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time with side projects and less on school work”</li> </ul> Time Stamped Show Notes: <ul> <li>01:35 – Nathan introduces Brandon to the show</li> <li>02:08 – Polymail is a super-powerful email platform designed for business users</li> <li> <ul> <li>02:18 – With just 1 app, you can do a lot with your email</li> <li>02:37 – It is a complete stand-alone email client</li> </ul> </li> <li>03:15 – How are you convincing people to make the switch?</li> <li> <ul> <li>03:20 – Polymail supports multiple accounts</li> <li>03:52 – People are looking for a complete product experience and Polymail has that</li> </ul> </li> <li>04:31 – A lot of features of Polymail are not in the regular Gmail</li> <li>04:54 – Polymail started in 2015</li> <li> <ul> <li>05:02 – Launched a Mac prototype in December 2015</li> <li>05:12 – There’s a tremendous traction</li> </ul> </li> <li>05:38 – Brandon built a small community of people who were invited to try the app</li> <li> <ul> <li>05:48 – They have a Slack group so Brandon can get feedback on a daily basis</li> <li>06:10 – When they officially launched Polymail, these people downloaded the app and left reviews</li> </ul> </li> <li>07:12 – Polymail is a free app at the moment</li> <li> <ul> <li>07:20 – Polymail pro is in the works but you can sign-up for it now</li> <li>07:41 – Polymail pro has much more advanced features</li> </ul> </li> <li>08:00 – Over 20,000 daily active users of Polymail</li> <li>08:12 – 150,000 total downloads and people who signed up</li> <li>08:27 – Every time Polymail will release a new feature, they will email the whole list of people who signed up to get them engaged in using Polymail</li> <li>08:52 – Brandon had raised around a million dollars</li> <li> <ul> <li>09:12 – Brandon used a convertible equity</li> </ul> </li> <li>09:24 – Team size of 5</li> <li>09:48 – The goal for Polymail is to build the platform for external communication on top of email</li> <li>10:08 – “Email is a critical product for business people so we saw the opportunity there”</li> <li>11:23 – Polymail is not for a short-term outcome</li> <li>12:00 – They just wrapped up their seed round</li> <li> <ul> <li>12:30 – They wrapped it up in September 2016</li> </ul> </li> <li>12:48 – Target people</li> <li> <ul> <li>12:56 – A lot of the users are solo entrepreneurs</li> </ul> </li> <li>13:45 – There’s no significant changes with Gmail for the past 10 years</li> <li> <ul> <li>14:09 – Maybe because they make money from ad revenue and let Gmail be a generic email platform</li> </ul> </li> <li>14:40 – Find Brandon on Twiter</li> <li>16:44 – The Famous Five</li> </ul> 3 Key Points: <ul> <li>An update on a product can make non-active users use the product again.</li> <li>Consistent feedback from a group of customers can significantly improve the product.</li> <li>Spend more time with side projects and less on school work.</li> </ul> Resources Mentioned: <ul> <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  developers.</li> <li>Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.</li> <li>Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.</li> <li>Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+</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><a href="http://Assistant.to" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Assistant.to</a> – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.</li> <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>@Foolywk – Brandon’s Twitter handles</li> <li>Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives</li> </ul>

EP 480: YC Backed Polymail Raises $1M, hits 20k Users with CEO Brandon Foo