Magnus Åström. He's the CEO and founder of Now Interact, a machine-learning, SaaS platform for omni channel optimization. He's also the founder of InLead, a business consultant and operations company which was sold in 2010 and prior to that, he was founder of Primelog, a transportation management SaaS platform which was sold in 2006.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Blue Ocean Strategy
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "It's all about focus"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces to the show
02:17 – Primelog started in 2000
- 02:29 - Primelog connects transportation providers with transportation buyers
- 02:57 - Annual revenue
- 03:10 – Primelog was sold to Swedish group
04:44 – They raised 4.5M
04:57 – Inlead's idea is to help customers sell in C-level
- 05:39 – Inlead turned out to be too heavy on the consultancy side, so Magnus sold it
- 05:48 – It didn't turn out as a software play
- 06:10 – Inlead's annual revenue was $1.5 M
06:27 – Now Interact offers machine-based algorithm software to large businesses
06:40 – The software personalizes how each customer is offered a customer service channel
07:00 – Businesses get less calls from customer service
07:30 – Now Interact tracks the data of how customers behave on a website and how they interact with a customer service
08:06 – Magnus goal is to get telco giants like AT&T and Verizon as customers
09:04 – Now Interact has a group that chooses their customization
09:22 – Now Interact is a SaaS model
09:31 – Average customer pay per month is $10K
09:39 – Now Interact was founded in 2010
09:45 – Now Interact raised $100K in 2012
- 10:46 – Now Interact has raised a total of $7M
11:20 – Customer churn
11:31 – Team size
11:47 – Headquartered in Stockholm
12:04 – CAC is $30K
12:22 – Now Interact has salespeople and are doing paid content marketing
- 12:58 – "Sales play a lot"
13:30 – Magnus discusses what they’ll do with the capital they've raised
- 13:45 – Some would go to the expansion in the USA
14:05 – 2015 total revenue
14:30 – 2016 total revenue
15:00 – Magnus shared how he negotiated for the valuation
15:45 – The top 3 most important terms when negotiating
- 15:48 – The preference structure, the lock-in and the investors you want to have
18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can choose to close your company if it is not going in the direction you intended it to go.
Valuation is not always everything—there are more things to consider when negotiating.
Stay focused, don't take on more than you can handle.

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
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 591: Now Interact Closes $5M Round On $18M Pre Money Helping Enterprises With OmniChannel Data with CEO Magnus Astrom

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders