Aseem Badshah. He’s the founder and CEO of the company called Socedo. Before that, he built his own full-service marketing agency called Uptown Treehouse that leveraged social media and digital channels to reach current and potential customers. He’s upgraded and improved that initial business model with his current company, Socedo.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Crushing the Cashman
What CEO do you follow? –
Favorite online tool? —
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Aseem wished that he would have prioritized building relationships

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:15 – Nathan introduces Aseem to the show
01:50 – Aseem noticed that there was so much data on prospects for B2B marketers in an agency
- 02:07 – Socedo’s goal
- 02:13 – Lead generation is what Socedo uses to get more customers
- 02:45 – Socedo provides behavioral data
- 02:56 – Socedo makes money from their software license
- 03:03 – Clients sign-up from 6 months to 1 year of license usage
03:11 – Average pay the company gives to Socedo monthly
03:25 – Socedo started in 2013
03:37 – In social media marketing, everything was setup for B2C marketers
04:25 – Social media is like a big CRM so Aseem leveraged it in a way to help B2B marketers
04:45 – There are 200 paying customers
04:50 – Socedo has raised $1.5M
05:00 – Socedo’s revenue has tripled in 2016
05:10 – Average contract price
05:25 – Socedo started with SMB
05:50 – 2016 total revenue
06:05 – Socedo has 25 people
06:20 – 2017 goal
06:30 – Aseem is targeting 2x for 2017
06:41 – Aseem wants to focus on their current customers
07:17 – “It’s not necessarily about growth at all costs; we want to focus on the fundamentals, focus on the relationship with customers”
07:35 – All 25 members are in Seattle
07:53 – The round was an equity round
08:32 – Socedo is currently cash flow positive
08:50 – Socedo is willing to take in new capital if they are ready
09:11 – Socedo has almost broken even
09:23 – How Socedo drives new customers
- 09:37 – Socedo doesn’t spend much money on marketing
10:30 – The data source which Aseem thinks is the most accurate
- 10:39 – “Everyone is accurate in their own way”
- 10:52 – How Socedo matches data
- 11:10 – Socedo’s goal is to get metrics as high as possible
11:31 – “We don’t guarantee an accuracy rate, but our accuracy rate is pretty high”
12:00 – The data sources that are connected to Socedo’s API are Full Contact, ClearBit and SellHack
12:34 – Socedo’s unique data advantage
- 13:30 – As a B2B marketer, there’s a bigger chance of a higher conversion rate
13:50 – Data sources that have the most accurate revenue numbers are Marketo and Salesforce
14:22 – Socedo doesn’t have the marketing budget for each lead
- 14:45 – Socedo has the company size which can be used as a revenue basis for each lead
15:15 – Gross customer churn
15:36 – CAC
15:45 – LTV
16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Social media is a big CRM that can be leveraged to build a better marketing space for B2B businesses.
Focusing on fundamentals and customer relationships can be more advantageous than focusing on just growth.
Each data source out there is accurate in their own way.

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 583: Socedo Does $1.5M+ In 2016, $200K MRR Now Helping 200 Customers Close More Leads with CEO Aseem Badshah

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders