Alex Taub, the co-founder of Social Rank. He and his co-founder created an algorithm to identify the ‘Most Valuable Follower’ on Twitter and other social media - and it went viral. Now they’re making over $50k each month from their social media analytics software. Listen in to hear why businesses are leaping on the chance to curate their followers, how Alex built his business so fast, and why you should work for someone else before you launch your big idea.

Famous 5:

Favorite Business Book? – I like blogs more - but I guess my book, Pitching and Closing
What CEO do you follow? —Marc Benioff
Favorite online tool? — Rapportive
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —Go to a medium sized startup and work there before you do your own thing

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:20 – Nathan’s introduction
02:06 – Social Rank is primarily for brands and agencies
01:50 – “We found out that in many cases, the most valuable followers are public figures”
02:56 – Social rank allows brands to analyze their followers
03:00 – They generate revenue through a premium subscription model
03:50 – Social Rank Premium is $50 per month, while the Market Intelligence model allows organizations to view the whole ecosystem and costs from $100 to several $1000 dollars
04:20 – Over 250,000 users, and over 50,000 paying customers on the Market Intelligence model
04:40 – Social Rank doesn’t focus on user growth - they look at MRR and customer growth
05:34 – Revenue has grown by 30% each month in 2016
05:40 – In early 2015, MRR was under $7k per month, while it’s now $50k per month
06:55 – How many basic subscribers upgrade to the premium model?
07:20 – “We’re more interested in using it as a potential leads generator”
07:56 – “It’s a non-traditional SaaS model...we’re using the premium model as a loss leader to find leads”
08:50 – Premium model has only been out for 2 weeks
10:00 – “Most Valuable Follower”, “Most Engaged Follower”, and “Best Follower” metrics
10:33 – “Those metrics are a very small piece of what we do”
11:00 – It’s a way to rank more valuable, in-demand, and interactive followers
12:25 – How is it valuable to curate followers?
12:45 – People use it to find the right people for events in specific areas
13:20 – The primary use case is finding the right people for the right things
13:54 – Raised a little over $2 million in seed rounds
14:17 – Connect with Alex on Twitter or via email
15:47 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Work for someone who knows what they’re doing before you strike out on your own
Curate your social media followers and find the right people to promote your events
If an idea works - run with it
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.

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 347: How Social Rank Hit $50k In MRR In Under 2 Years With CEO Alex Taub

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders