661: How Unbounce Hit $12M/Year In Revenue, 14k Customers, Very Little $$ Raised with Co-Founder Oli Gardner

Oli Gardner. He’s the co-founder of Unbounce. He’s seen more landing pages than anyone in the planet. He’s a prolific international speaker and he’s on the mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How to Deliver a TED Talk
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A
• Favorite online tool? — UsabilityHub
• How many hours of sleep do you get? — Maybe 3 hours
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Learn how to make decisions”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:10 – Nathan introduces Oli to the show
• 01:49 – Unbounce is a SaaS business and a conversion platform for marketers which started as a landing page platform
  • 02:00 – They just expanded to convertibles that have overlays that captures more leads and signups on the website
• 02:17 – Unbounce was launched in August 2009
• 02:33 – Unbounce has 6 co-founders
  • 03:11 – Oli was broke and filed for bankruptcy
• 03:26 – Unbounce was initially funded by friends and family with $15K CAD
• 03:38 – Unbounce had a seed round and Angel round and has raised a total of less than 1 million CAD
• 04:12 – The 6 co-founders are all equal
  • 04:22 – All are working full-time
  • 04:50 – They’ve figured out a rough valuation
  • 05:25 – 5 of the 6 co-founders are still active
• 05:41 – Team size is 184
  • 05:49 – Members are based all around Canada and some in South America
• 06:14 – RPU is $93 CAD a month
• 07:05 – Unbounce lets anyone in for at least 2 years
  • 07:11 – Their plans have been restructured in a way that is most beneficial
  • 07:38 – Their $10-plan has been removed
• 07:57 – Unbounce now has professional marketers
• 08:10 – As Unbounce continues to grow, they’re trying to scale with their customers
• 08:33 – Unbounce currently has 14K active users
• 08:42 – You can create a demo account but you can’t get your own domain with demo
• 09:13 – Average MRR is just under $1.4M
• 09:47 – Unbounce had a problem with churn, like what most SaaS businesses have encountered
• 10:03 – “We know that you need landing pages for everything you do”
• 10:55 – 5% is the problem churn with Unbounce
• 11:30 – If Salesforce or Marketo have been integrated, the company is a larger company
  • 11:47 – Overlays have been successful and there’s so much traffic and data
  • 12:09 – Overlays are called overlays because they are similar to popups
  • 12:20 – “We’re trying to be responsible with the technology because technology is not the problem, we are”
• 12:52 – Oli respects Bounce Exchange when it comes to the overlays world and they’re doing a lot with machine learning
• 13:06 – The biggest difference in using Unbounce is you will feel that you’re not using templated overlays
• 13:40 – Unbounce’s value is different from SumoMe and their targeting is getting smarter
• 13:55 – Most services like Unbounce charge $250-5K a month and Unbounce starts at $99
  • 14:06 – There are cheaper ones in WordPress, but they’re not really good
• 14:21 – Oli is primarily a public speaker now and spends most of his time on the road
  • 14:25 – Oli was actually scared to start public speaking years ago
  • 14:33 – Nathan recommends watching Oli speak in public
  • 15:15 – The rest of Oli’s time is spent with Unbounce’s marketing team and data scientists’ team
• 15:48 – Unbounce just got engaged with a new marketing agency
• 16:03 – LTV
• 16:14 – Unbounce had one marketing guy and he left, so they switch to a 5 digital local agency
• 16:33 – CAC
• 16:43 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Being broke should NOT hinder you from starting a business.
2. A great product with a reasonable price will always attract more customers.
3. Learn how to make decisions and don’t hold back.

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
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• 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
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives