Don Breckenridge, a life-long entrepreneur and the founder of Hatchbuck. Listen as Don shares how he made Hatchbuck a successful company and the struggles he endured to bring it to life.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Lean Canvas
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 I had mentored earlier”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:41 – Nathan introduces Don to the show
02:00 – What is Hatchbuck and how it generates revenue
- 02:05 – Sales and marketing software that helps small businesses grow their revenue
- 02:11 – CRM + email marketing
02:39 – Price point starts at $59 a month
- 02:50 – Subscription model as recurring revenue
- 02:55 – Discount for semi-annual and annual subscriptions
03:17 – Price increase is based on number of users and contacts
03:55 – Average revenue per customer per month
- 04:10 – When customers see results, they’ll start to use more of the product
04:23 – Launched in 2012
04:40 – Don had a SaaS company prior to Hatchbuck
- 05:10 – The business was running smoothly
- 05:20 – Don saw the need for SMB apps that could actually help businesses
06:04 – Number of current users
- 06:20 – Average number of users per customers
06:40 – First year revenue
06:58 – Self-funded before raised capital
- 07:10 – Raised over $5 million
07:28 – Series A or series B
- 07:45 – Their investors are great supporters
08:18 – The market of SaaS is an attractive business to invest in
08:30 – Under $2M revenue in 2015
09:00 – MRR computation
09:32 – Churn
- 09:59 – Have a product customer fit
- 10:16 – “We tried to focus on who our customer is”
10:51 – Gross customer monthly churn
- 11:15 – Around 3% churn
- 11:34 – In SMB, there’s an average of 3-4% churn
- 12:00 – Hubspot 0% revenue churn
- 12:25 – Companies that has negative churn that are not MSB
13:00 – Fully inbound marketing
- 13:10 – Produce a lot of content on the web
13:40 – CAC ratio
- 13:50 – “If your MRR churn rate bounces around, it starts to be really difficult”
- 14:25 – Healthy ratio
14:44 – Lifetime value
14:48 – Acquisition cost
15:00 – Paid media
- 15:10 – Marketing courses, Google Adwords
15:29 – Don is based in Missouri
15:34 – Team size is 30
- 15:40 – Some remote employees
15:55 – The $5 million funding
- 16:06 – “We’re always raising funds”
16:32 – Goal for the company
17:10 – Monthly revenue growth
17:35 – Connect with Don through Hatchbuck.com
19:05 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Find a space to fill.
Aim for positive results – that is what will make customers hold onto your product.
It’s never too late to learn.

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 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.
Hatchbuck.com – Don’s company
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 449: SMB SaaS <3% Churn, $5M Raised, $200k MRR Helping SMB's Manage Relationships with Hatchbuck CEO Don Breckenridge

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders