842: SaaS: Ukraine SEO Tool 3x MRR yoy from $20k July 2016 to $70k July 2017

Artem Borodatyuk. He’s the founder of NetPeak Group and cofounder of Seed Fund WannaBiz. He’s focused on the development of B2B SaaS product companies. His first SaaS company was an all-in-one SEO platform for professionals called Serpstat.com, with 2000 customers and 100K users.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – From Third World to First
• What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Google Spreadsheet
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Find some experienced entrepreneur and mentor”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:44 – Nathan introduces Artem to the show
• 02:23 – Serpstat was born as a cure to a search tool that was built by Netpeak
• 03:00 – Netpeak is the biggest SEO agency in Eastern Europe
• 03:20 – Netpeak currently has 300 projects in 4 markets
• 03:38 – Netpeak was founded in 2007 and was initially bootstrapped
• 03:43 – They haven’t raised funds for the agency side of Netpeak
• 04:27 – 2016 revenue of the agency side of Netpeak was $5-$15M
• 04:50 – Serpstat was initially created to be used by Netpeak itself
• 05:35 – In April 2015, Serpstat became independent
• 07:00 – In 2016, Serpstat received $250K of funding for 15% equity from Digital Future, a local VC fund
• 07:41 – Serpstat will almost hit their $1M ARR mark
• 07:58 – July 2017 MRR
• 08:26 – Igor Gor is Serpstat’s evangelist; he markets their product
• 08:45 – Team size is 52 in Serpstat with 20 in marketing
• 09:25 – ACG is $69
• 09:39 – Total number of customers is between 1000 to 2000 paid customers
• 10:36 – Serpstat can be paid in monthly payments or a one-time payment
• 12:03 – Serpstat loses 1-3% of their users monthly
• 12:40 – CAC
• 13:50 – LTV
• 14:20 – Serpstat spends $2K monthly on AdWords and $1K on Facebook Ads
• 15:04 – Serpstat is based in Ukraine
• 15:38 – Serstat plans to expand globally soon
• 16:02 – Gross margin is around 89%
• 17:23 – In July of 2016, monthly revenue was $20K
• 17:54 – 2016 revenue is almost $190K
• 19:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Create a product that can be used by your own company; that way you can attest to its usability and value.
2. Europe offers different recurring payment plans than what is offered in the US.
3. Take an offered fund as an opportunity to grow your company.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• 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
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• 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
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives