Patrick Ambron, co-founder and CEO of BrandYourself.com, which helps people look better online. He’s an instructor at General Assembly and was included INC’s 30 under 30 list. Listen as Patrick talks about his experience on SharkTank and how it boosted his company’s revenue.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Made to Stick
What CEO do you follow? – Reed Hastings

Favorite online tool? — X.AI
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish that when I was building my business, I knew how important it was to have people who don’t have your strengths”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Patrick to the show
02:00 – Patrick got a $ 2 million deal on SharkTank but didn’t take it
- 02:11 – Patrick didn’t take the deal because they wanted 25%
- 02:30 – Patrick’s episode was aired 2 years ago and it was a good exposure
- 02:40 – Patrick did over $ 1 million in revenue while they were on SharkTank
- 03:10 – Patrick said No on-air
04:07 – BrandYourself provides software and services that helps someone look good online
04:28 – Users buy BrandYourself’s subscription
04:40 – User base is from college students to high level professional
04:55 – BrandYourself is a SaaS business
05:03 – Half of the revenue comes from professional customized services
- 05:10 – BrandYourself handles issues online that is affecting the customers’ livelihood
05:30 – 10,000 paying customers for software
05:35 – A few thousand paying customers for professional services
06:12 – $ 10,000 annual RPU for professional services
06:40 – MOR is $ 7,000 on the software
07:19 – $ 533,000 per month in revenue
07:35 – BrandYourself has advisors
08:30 – The professional services customers problems that BrandYourself is getting
- 09:10 – One example is an employee who was fired and ranting online
- 09:20 – One of the usual problem is what they call “You Shot Yourself in the Foot”
10:36 – BrandYourself was founded in 2009
10:40 – 2015 revenue
10:50 – Target for 2016
10:52 – BrandYourself has raised about $ 6 million recently
11:19 – Team size
11:28 – Team location
12:30 – Gross monthly customer churn
13:30 – Lifetime value
13:40 – Customer acquisition cost
- 13:45 – All of their leads are organic
- 15:30 – BrandYourself won’t theoretically spend for a customer
- 15:40 – BrandYourself do retargeting
- 15:56 – Paid acquisition is not a necessary channel for BrandYourself
16:31 – What if Reputation.com buys BrandYourself for $ 40 million, will you say yes?
- 16:40 – “That’s not the goal right now”
- 16:55 – “What we really want to do is help people prevent issues and be pro-active”
18:26 – Current valuation
18:58 – Connect with Patrick through his website and Twitter
21:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Find someone who can fill your gaps.
Help people prevent issues and make them pro-active.
Saying “No” on national TV can also be beneficial and increase your revenue.

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.
BrandYourself.com– Patrick’s website
@PatrickAmbron – Patrick’s Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 474: SharkTank No Deal, $6M Raised, $4.2M in 2015 Revenue, 10,000 Customers To Help Clean Up Your Online Image with Brandyourself CEO Patrick Ambron

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders