Don Mal. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Vena Solutions which was established in 2011 and is the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management software. Prior to Vena, he’s owned several executive tech positions along the way with companies like Clarity Systems and IBM.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Who Moved My Cheese
What CEO do you follow? – Satya Nadella
Favorite online tool? — Dropbox
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7-8
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew that sales cures all”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:44 – Nathan introduces Don to the show
01:21 – Vena was the fastest company to acquire a hundred customers
01:29 – Vena is growing a 100%, year over year
02:05 – CPM or corporate performance management is budgeting, planning and forecasting financial performance
02:28 – A fastfood chain can use Vena’s service to capture the sales of their burger
02:55 – CPM is about measuring results in a couple of different dimensions
03:16 – The Top had Glen Coates of Handshake and they’re an inventory management
03:31 – Vena is more horizontal based and vertical industry based
04:20 – Vena doesn’t compete with Bill.com and Expensify.com
04:31 – Annual RPU is $50K
04:53 – Vena was launched in 2011
05:02 – Team size is almost 200
05:18 – Vena has raised capital with equity rounds
05:49 – Don was running sales for a company in the same space that Don sold
06:02 – Don has already built credibility, so he was able to convince families and friends to invest
06:21 – Don has raised over a million to launch the business
06:50 – Don’s process of closing
07:06 – Don was able to raise $3M from other sources
07:30 – If your friends and families can’t write a $25K check, a $1k check will do
07:42 – Don has now raised a total of $50M
08:35 – Having the right kind of partner is important in raising a round
09:17 – Vena is approaching 350 paying customers
09:38 – Average MRR is $1.4M
09:47 – Vena finds new customers with a combination of inbound and outbound marketing
- 10:04 – Vena also nurtures their prospects through drip campaigns
10:22 – Total spend on paid acquisition is a couple of hundred grand a month
10:40 – Vena has a team that does the testing for new channels
11:05 – Don wants to keep their CAC below a 12-month cost of the revenue
11:38 – Don is looking at a 12-month payback
11:55 – LTV
- 12:05 – A customer stays with Vena up to 10 years
12:48 – Don sees the significant expansion of their platform
12:55 – Client starts with 2 user cases and can end up having more than 20
13:28 – Gross churn
13:39 – Vena has hit their net negative revenue churn
14:05 – Vena’s dollar will turn into $1.20 with their current system
15:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Before a big round of fundraising, master your pitch and start with your friends and families.
Make your product stick to your customers and you’ll experience amazing growth.
Have experts in your sales and marketing team; trust and release them to do their job.

Resources Mentioned:

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
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

694: Why 1 Year Payback Period is Important From $50M Funded CEO

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