Timo Rein, CEO and co-founder of Pipedrive, a provider of sales CRM software that gives sales teams control over their selling processes. After spending $15,000 on a CRM for his own business that ended up being a total waste of money, Timo brought together a few engineering friends to create a better CRM solution for his own needs. This was the genesis of Pipe Tribe, which now has over 30,000 small business users worldwide and has reached $13.4 million in VC funding.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Turning Pro
What CEO do you follow? – Stephen Curry and Gregg Popovich

Favorite online tool? — Slack and Viber
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “No, still trying.”
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Take action. It is important to work hard first. Discover who I am and know where my energy flows.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:47 – Nathan introduces Timo to the show
02:31 – It was in 2002 when Timo spent $15,000 on a business
- 02:41 – It turned out that the business wouldn’t have much return
02:56 – Pipe Tribe helps small businesses around the world control their complex processes
03:23 – Pipe Tribe was founded in June 2010 and the product came out March 2011
03:30 – Current team size
03:48 – They have an office in Estonia and Manhattan
04:28 – Timo is based in California
04:50 – In 2010, revenue is zero
05:30 – 2015: total revenue
06:16 – Current ARR
06:30 – They are doing about a million dollars per month
06:48 – They have 30,000 paying customers
07:00 – Pipe Tribe’s pricing
- 07:07 – They have 3 plans at the moment
07:25 – Average customers’ pay per month
08:21 – They are doing cohort tracking
08:30 – Monthly customer churn
- 08:37 – Churn tends to be quite high
- 09:32 – The churn depends on the tool and business size
10:45 – CAC will depend on the company’s growth
12:00 – 25% of new sign-ups are paying annually
12:28 – How do you drive the company?
- 12:45 – Timo and his co-founders built the company from the ground up
- 13:22 – They have an internal goal
13:33 – They raised $9 million from Series A
13:53 – Some of the money they raised was from seed investors
14:13 – Timo won’t sell his business for $90 million or even $150 million
14:49 – Timo sees the company as a work undone
15:11 – “When you build a startup, it seems like you’re building an airplane while you are on air”
16:22 – They have a revenue goal and customer goal
16:45 – Connect with Timo through his LinkedIn
18:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

The world around us changes—the economy goes up and down.
When you build a startup, it seems like you’re building an airplane while you are on air.
Take action. It is important to work hard first. Discover who you are and know where your energy flows.

Resources Mentioned:

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 developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
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.
LinkedIn – Timo’s LinkedIn account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ep 483: Pipedrive Passes $10M ARR, Helping 30,000 Customers w/ CRM with CEO Timo Rein

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders