Chris Bruznicki, CEO of Vaystays, which is a vacation rental marketplace tool used by propriety manager like Wyndam. He has been featured in Entrepreneur and was awarded the bronze star. Listen as Chris tells us how Vaystays is earning and what made him decide to raise capital.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs

Favorite online tool? — DocuSign
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Networking is super important and consider raising capital”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
02:20 – Vaystays is used by professionals managing a vacation companies
- 02:27 – People who have houses in Tahoe and the like will have the vacation companies manage their properties
- 03:44 – Vaystays gives them a marketplace for distribution
- 03:55 – Vaystays provides open cable like service
04:17 – Team size and location
04:26 – Vaystays is making 5 million transactions and Chris is earning 13% of every transaction
04:51 – Vaystays was founded in 2010
06:10 – Average order value is $ 2000
07:10 – Vaystays’ software automates all the check in procedure
08:15 – Vaystays takes percentage both from the traveler and seller
09:15 – Vaystays is transparent in their website about the pricing
- 09:30 – Pricing varies depending on the season
10:30 – Vaystays is connecting specific needs to specific supplies
10:40 – Total transaction volume
11:55 – Vaystays business model
12:20 – Vaystays is in the process of creating subscription fees
13:50 – The marketplace still has lifetime value
15:09 – Vaystays currently has 2000 propriety management companies
- 15:15 – Average is 10 units per company
16:10 - 25,000 stayed in their properties in September
- 16:30 – Now is a slow period for Vaystays
- 18:03 – 312 bookings in September
18:48 – Vaystays has been self-funded for a long time
19:05 – Did a price round for fundraising
19:33 – $ 650,000 revenue in the last 12 months
19:47 – Valuation
20:56 – Chris has 2 co-founders
22:30 – Chris and his co-founders thought about a high valuation
- 22:53 – They came up with something between $ 3-6 million
24:24 – Connect with Chris through his LinkedIn and his email
16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Look for quality partners who can support you.
Networking is important – it can lead to tons of opportunities.
Consider raising capital if you see a reason to do so.

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 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.
Vaystays.com – Chris’ website
Chris@Vaystays.com – Chris’ email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 475: VayStays Helps 150,000+ Quickly Plan Vacations, $5M In TTM Transaction Volume with CEO Chris Brusznicki

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