In Episode #621, Nathan interviews Nevin Shetty. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Registry, an innovative wedding registry platform where you can shop for products from a variety of retailers based on the layout of your home. The company has generated over $10M in their first 2 years of operation.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Smarter Faster Better
What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
Favorite online tool? — SimilarWeb
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 should’ve learned computer programming”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:25 – Nathan introduces Nevin to the show
02:00 – Blueprint Registry is a wedding registry platform for newly-engaged couples
02:23 – Blueprint Registry gets commission from the retailers on their platform
02:38 – An example of Blueprint Registry’s partners is Target
02:43 – Nevin explains how their platform works and how it is different from the traditional wedding registry
- 03:08 – Instead of couples going to different retailers physically, they can just go to Blueprint Registry
- 03:23 – Blueprint Registry has a unique visual representation of your home
03:45 – Blueprint Registry was conceptualized in January 2015
- 03:49 – Nevin shares how he came up with the idea
04:04 – Blueprint Registry’s co-founder is a designer
- 04:13 – Nevin found his co-founder through networking
- 04:55 – The equity conversation with the co-founder
05:21 – Blueprint Registry was launched in 2014
- 05:29 – Blueprint Registry did $225K of gross sales
- 05:44 – Average cart value
05:53 – Blueprint Registry raised $700K with friends and families
05:58 – Blueprint Registry did $4M in sales in 2015
06:04 – Blueprint Registry did $6M in sales in 2016
06:12 – Blueprint Registry has had 2000 users
06:19 – Blueprint Registry is originally focused on weddings but now they have people who use them for baby registries, house warming parties, and fundraising
06:40 – Blueprint Registry spends the most on development and marketing
07:25 – Team size
07:46 – Blueprint Registry just closed a million dollar seed round
- 08:00 – It was an equity round
- 08:09 – The friend and family round was a convertible note
- 08:12 – Nevin shares why he decided to have an equity round
- 08:45 – Blueprint Registry’s value depends on gross and growth
08:55 – 2017 target revenue
09:09 – Blueprint Registry deals with seasonality
09:30 – There’s no monthly subscription
10:20 – Nevin wants to keep Blueprint Registry as accessible as possible
10:35 – Blueprint Registry was founded in New York and they stayed for a year and a half
- 10:38 – Blueprint Registry is currently based in Seattle
11:15 – Blueprint Registry’s biggest competitors
- 11:26 – The wedding registry market is a huge market
- 11:38 – Zola, Myregistry, Honeyfund are some of the newest in the market
11:53 – Blueprint Registry has the lowest fees
- 12:00 – 2.5% of credit card processing fee
12:25 – Nevin will accept Zola’s $20M imaginary acquisition depending on their vision
13:43 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Finding co-founders is easy, choosing the right one is hard.
In a saturated space, having the best features that set you apart can make all the difference.
An acquisition will not always depend on the price.

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
Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
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
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 621:BluePrintRegistry Raises $1.7M, Passes 2500 Postings and $10M in Transaction Volume with CEO Nevin Shetty

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders