Nathan interviews Joel Holland, founder of VideoBlocks - a company that distributes over a million clips of royalty-free stock video and audio each month to over 150K customers in the television and video production industry, ranging from professional outlets like NBC to video hobbyists and enthusiasts. They're a 5x INC 500 out of 5000 fastest growing company, and Joel has been named one of the Top 25 under 25 by Business Week, and INC magazine’s prestigious 30 under 30 list.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Influence
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Mailchimp

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “I do now”
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I have lived my college life”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:50 – Nathan introduces Joel to the show
02:57 – What is VideoBlocks and how does it generate sales
- 03:00 – Stock media company
- 03:22 – Elements that creative professionals can incorporate to their projects
03:45 – VideoBlocks was founded 2010
- 04:00 – Idea of VideoBlocks
04:40 – VideoBlocks’ model
- 04:50 – Started selling by the collection
- 05:10 – Launched subscription plan as a test in 2010
- 05:20 – 150,000 paying members
- - 05:38 – Monthly and annual plan
05:43 – Total revenue in 2015
06:15 – Royalty-free
- 06:30 – 6,000 videographers now shooting for VideoBlocks
07:10 – RPU
- 07:37 – Created more premium plans
08:00 – The 80/20 rule
08:30 – How much would a videographer get if National Geographic buys his clip?
- 08:40 – Standard pricing
- 08:50 – “If National Geographic bought it for 49 bucks, the videographer will get a check”
- 09:00 – 2 types of libraries
09:38 – VideoBlocks buy clips to put in the library
10:10 – Customers only need to download 2 clips in a year to avail unlimited clips
11:00 – “We want shooters to make as much money as possible”
11:24 – A few million dollars to acquire creative lights
11:40 – “Content is king”
12:00 – MRR
12:09 – Annual churn
- 12:16 – Subscription business is like a puzzle
- 13:05 – Churn on monthly plan
- 13:26 – Returning cost acquisition
- 14:10 – Customer insights operation
14:25 – Direct response marketing
- 14:33 – Million dollars spent monthly
- 14:40 – Example of direct response marketing
14:58 – Joel has a huge number of list
15:15 – Launching other products
15:42 – Weighted average cap
15:55 – Lifetime value on average
16:16 – Blended channels
17:17 – 80 team members
- 17:25 – Based in Virginia
17:36 – Funding history: Raised under 20 million to date
- 18:02 – North Atlantic Ventures
- 18:11 – SBA gives you leverage
- - 18:40 – Interest rate
19:35 – “Currently, we are not raising nor in any acquisition talks”
20:15 – “Going public is a tough process”
21:07 – Connect with Joel through his LinkedIn and website
22:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Work hard but don’t forget to live your life.
Give life to your ideas if you want your business to grow.
Know your customers and the people who supports your products.

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.
LinkedIn – Joel’s LinkedIn account
VideoBlocks.com – Joel’s business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 443: SaaS $20M 2015 ARR, 150K Customers Giving People Quality Video, Photos, Audio with Joel Holland, CEO of VideoBlocks

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders