David Dunne. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Velocidi, a marketing intelligence company that harnesses data for leading brands and agencies. In the 7 years since founding Velocidi, it enables marketers to make data-driven decisions that optimize marketing spend. David is currently leading the firm’s next chapter into artificial intelligence.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Selling the Invisible
What CEO do you follow? – Richard Branson
Favorite online tool? — Tidal
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5-6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Hurry up, things are changing fast, you have to move faster”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:07 – Nathan introduces David to the show
01:41 – Velocidi focuses on how AI can speed up insights
01:48 – Velocidi’s technology has always been enabling the process of analysts driving the insights
02:22 – The analysts are Velocidi’s customers
02:39 – Velocidi is a SaaS business selling licenses
03:01 – Pricing starts at $3K a month
03:23 – Average monthly RPU is around $6K
03:44 – Velocidi charges by the amount of data streams
04:20 – Velocidi uses API calls to bring in the data
04:42 – Velocidi was launched in 2010
05:19 – There are people who are with David in building Velocidi
05:44 – David was a part of a global business
06:11 – David was happy with Edelman, but he wanted to reinvent himself
07:46 – David was 43 when he started Velocidi
09:26 – Every entrepreneur takes risks
09:51 – David has always separated personal assets with work
10:15 – Velocidi was capital intensive for the first few years
10:56 – Velocidi has initially raised $3M from friends and families
11:01 – Velocidi just closed a $12M round
11:18 – David has ambitious plans for growing the business
11:49 – More capital allows you to have more options
12:10 – CAC
12:21 – Most of Velocidi’s customers are large global agencies
12:31 – Velocidi is expanding into other industries
13:45 – LTV to CAC ratio
13:58 – David tries to look at some of the classic businesses for comparison
15:19 – Velocidi focuses on what they can give to customers
16:04 – Velocidi keeps their customers for at least 5 years
16:54 – Some of Velocidi’s customers have thousands of customers and there’s a lot of room to grow
17:39 – Velocidi is innovating their product at a much faster rate
17:55 – The innovations depend on the customer's’ needs
18:21 – Velocidi is expanding their automated self-serve platform this year
18:40 – Velocidi has hundreds of customers
19:19 – Self-service means different things
20:08 – Analysts have been using excel and powerpoint
20:42 – Velocidi delivers the core-data and the clients tailor the data
21:11 – The quality of the data alongside a creative makes Velocidi’s clients standout
- 23:01 – David believes that data with creative is a better creative
23:55 – Average MRR
25:36 – David won’t sell Velocidi
26:53 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Entrepreneurs will always take risk—what matters is how big of a risk you’re willing to take.
Focus on what you CAN commit to your customers.
Things change faster than you think; so KEEP moving and don’t get left behind!

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
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

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