Frank Ricotta, CEO of BurstIQ, which helps professionals and businesses in the healthcare industry connect. Frank has been through the grinder as an entrepreneur. Huge crash-and-burn businesses have gotten him to this point.

Famous 5:

Favorite Book? – The Executive in Action
What CEO do you follow? — PayPal
Favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Trust your instincts, and don’t lose your balance.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:13 – Nathan introduces Frank
01:44 – BurstIQ is a platform service
02:00 – They help their customers create a network
02:53 – Founded in April 2015
03:05 – Frank had been working in health and saw an issue
03:24 – There are three founders
03:52 – First-year revenue was $150k
04:05 – Involvement in several other startups
04:25 – His “crash and burn” story
05:29 – The cofounders
05:55 – May 2016 customers: 10
06:20 – Average pay per customer is $250k to $1M
06:35 – A focus on the base plan
07:00 – $75k/month
07:35 – No patterns yet for churn
08:45 – Customer acquisition cost
09:00 – Inside sales and partners
09:15 -- $150k to $200k
09:40 – 12 team members
10:00 – What ratio Frank likes to see
10:40 – “Work to keep your head above water”
11:09 – The company’s capital
11:37 – Valuation for BurstIQ
12:40 – They want to raise $5M
13:10 – Based in Denver
13:55 – Techstars
14:25 -- @fricotta or Frank Ricotta on LinkedIn
16:26 -- The Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Come up with a business that makes something simpler.
Being an entrepreneur means experiencing failure along with success.
If you don’t stretch yourself to reach high goals, no one will believe that you can ever achieve them.

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.
Slack – Frank’s favorite online tool to connect with coworkers and customers

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 376: $5M on $15M Pre Money Goal For BlockChain Based BurstIQ

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders