Joe Hyrkin, CEO of Issuu. Joe enjoys working in the publishing industry because it is driven by passion. It is a collective space for people who are moved about something to experience that thing together. Listen as Joe talks about Issuu, which has brought the publishing industry into a modern, digital context.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing about Hard Things
What CEO do you follow? — Mark Zuckerberg
Favorite online tool? — Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—Not now.
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Put in effort to make an impact. Have a broader learning perspective. Care and effort matter over anything else.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:05 – Nathan introduces Joe
01:40 – Issuu is a modern media company
02:20 – Tools for publishers
02:45 – Access to premium tools brings in revenue
03:05 – Revenue from Issuu itself
03:40 – Started in Copenhagen
03:55 – A more current platform of digital media
04:15 – He was not part of the original founding team
04:50 – A focus on giving great content to people who are passionate about it
05:20 – It grew through word of mouth and digital marketing
05:30 – Over 3 million publishers have used Issuu
06:20 – Almost 100,000 publishers had paid for the service
06:40 – Primarily recurring revenue payment
07:30 – 90% of revenue is recurring revenue
08:15 – The new subscription plan
08:45 – Most pay $35/month
09:30 – Publishers come and go
10:00 – Customer churn is 2%/month
10:30 – Focus is to help the customers
10:50 – The new plan helps with collaborative efforts
12:00 – Center of the business is in the west coast
12:40 – Raised $21 million
13:30 – His focus is to create products that have an impact
14:40 – Team of 60 people
15:20 – Acquisition costs
- 15:30 – Not much is spent on marketing
- 15:50 – They are found through search engines and word of mouth
- 16:10 – “We’re clearly the leader in the space.”
- 16:40 – About $40/customer
17:30 – Customers see the value
18:00 – Why publishing?
- 18:20 – “It’s about what moves people in their lives.”
- 18:50 – Example of Malala’s birthday celebration
19:35 – Getting publishers into podcasting
20:00 -- @yankeejoe or jhy@issue.com
22:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Get into an industry that you are passionate about.
Take an ancient product or service and update it for today’s world.
Focus on doing what’s best for your customers.

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 – The online tool Joe uses
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 392: 3M Publishers Use Issu, 100,000 Have Paid with CEO Joe Hyrkin

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 392: 3M Publishers Use Issu, 100,000 Have Paid with CEO Joe Hyrkin