Jon Lee, CEO of ProsperWorks. Jon has jumped to many different industries, from gaming to tech to banking. As an entrepreneur with success in multiple companies, he believes in going after your business goals as soon as possible. Listen to his journey through his businesses and how he ended up with ProsperWorks.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm
What CEO do you follow? — Marc Benioff
Favorite online tool? — Google Apps

Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — No.
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Start your companies earlier.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:05 – Nathan introduces Jon Lee
02:10 – “Banking to tech to Yahoo to gaming”
02:40 – He saw a need for advertisers when he worked for Yahoo
03:10 – Bizarre Advertising
03:25 – They automated the business
04:10 – How they got revenue
04:35 – Started in their apartment in Palo Alto
04:50 -- $47-million business in two years
05:10 – Applied algorithms to find success
05:35 – Bound to confidentiality on the exit value
06:00 – Balance between cost and revenue
06:40 – How he got into the gaming industry
06:45 – Background in mathematics
07:00 – DNA games
07:15 – They could provide different gaming experiences according to the customer
08:00 – Stickiness is measured according to a customer’s engagement
08:20 – Lifetime value helped companies build better games and make more money
09:10 – They sold when Facebook changed their gaming policies
09:50 – They partnered with a larger company
10:10 – ChefVille
10:40 – A good exit for the investors and the company
11:00 – ProsperWorks
12:00 – CRM
12:10 – Partnering with Google Apps
12:30 – Problems with bad data
13:00 – Automating the data entry
13:30 – They have raised of $10 million
14:20 – Founded in 2011
14:30 – A SaaS platform
14:40 – 40000 customers
14:55 -- The Famous Five
15:00 – Profitable sales and marketing
15:15 – Free two-week trial
15:45 – You want a profitable acquisition
16:00 – Focus on building great partnerships and relationships
16:35 – For every $1 spent, they get a $6 return
17:10 – A less mature product needs funding to get customer feedback
17:35 – Team of 67
17:50 – Diminishing marginal returns
18:15 – Invest and get the right type of customer
18:30 – Building up the sales team
19:15 – Average customer pays $49
19:50 – Majority of their contracts are annual
20:30 – Focus to build a useful product
21:00 – Attracting small and medium-sized businesses
21:30 – Revenue churn is negative
23:00 – Jon Lee on LinkedIn or Twitter @prosperworks

3 Key Points:

If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, pursue your ideas immediately.
Be realistic about what is best for your company.
Partner with big companies to gain credibility.

Resources Mentioned:

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.
Google Apps – The online tool that has partnered with ProsperWorks
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 397: ProsperWorks SaaS 40k Paying Customers, Announces New Funding Adding to $10M Already

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders