Kyle Racki, co-founder and CEO of Proposify. He’s passionate about design, SaaS, and marketing. He loves jamming out to 90s covers/tunes at open mic nights, and also has the unique ability to work in perfectly, cromulent Simpsons’ references to any conversation.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Lean Analytics
What CEO do you follow? – Alex Turnbull

Favorite online tool? — Heap Analytics
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Sometimes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That it’s all going to be okay and…I’m going to give myself a hug”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Kyle to the show
02:24 – Proposify is a SaaS business and it helps people streamline their sales and close more deals
02:40 – Average customer pay per month is $40-$50
02:53 – Current number of customers
03:10 – Average MRR
03:25 – Proposify was launched in 2013
- 03:35 – Proposify had less than $1000 MRR for 17 months
- 04:03 – Kyle and his co-founder had an agency
- 04:22 – Kyle raised $250K in seed capital from a local investor
- 04:39 – Kyle and his team’s pay is around $60K a month during that time
05:40 – Team size is 15 and are located in Halifax, Canada
- 06:20 – Kyle shares how the startup market is in Halifax
- 06:50 – Known startup companies from Halifax
07:24 – Kyle does weekly phone calls with customers to check in on them
07:50 – Kyle shares how one of their customers beat VaynerMedia in a proposal
09:15 – How Proposify creates proposals in a flash
09:40 – Proposify’s competition
10:04 – Proposify is more focused on the digital agency space
11:25 – Average number of new customers per month
11:50 – Proposify has a free and no-credit card sign-up
12:00 – Proposify does inbound sales, but organic search is the biggest source of traffic
12:43 – Best podcast that drives Proposify’s traffic
13:05 – Proposify has a general marketing budget
- 13:28 - $10K for paid marketing
13:45 – CAC is quite low
14:18 – LTV
14:40 – Gross monthly customer churn
15:00 – Proposify currently has 2 sales people
15:35 – Other system Kyle uses for business intelligence is Heap Analytics
16:16 – Total 2015 revenue is $551K
17:11 – Proposify is profitable and continually growing
18:30 – “We’ll always entertain acquisition offers if it makes sense”
19:00 – The process Kyle will go through if there’s a possible acquisition
19:47 – Number of Proposify’s developers
20:00 – Connect with Kyle through their website and help Kyle look for Proposify.com’s owner and he’ll pay you
22:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

There’s a temptation to spend VC money; be decisive when you want to raise capital and stick to your goals.
Organic traffic is good, but getting paid marketing can still drive more traffic and customers.
There are a lot of things to consider in an acquisition – it should match your personal goals, be a cultural fit, and the numbers need to make sense.

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
Proposify.biz – Kyle’s business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 527: Proposify Hits 3200 Customers and $150k in MRR with CEO Kyle Racki

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders