692: With Microsoft Deal and $225k MRR, Will He Win CRM Space?

Jon Ferrara. He’s been recognized for pioneering innovation in the customer service management category for many years. Prior to founding Nimble, he was the creator and co-founder of the award-winning customer management product GoldMine. In 1999, Goldmine got acquired by FrontRange and he left to pursue other interests. During those years, he continued to watch the CRM market grow. He saw that most CRMs in the industry that were serving small businesses moved up market and became way more expensive and more complex—leaving the small business market totally underserved. It was at that point that Jon decided to create the next generation CRM product for small businesses called Nimble.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
• What CEO do you follow? –  Marc Benioff
• Favorite online tool? — Buffer App
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— Around 8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Start a business earlier”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:44 – Nathan introduces Jon to the show
• 01:42 – Jon was on Episode 643 of The Top
• • 01:55 – Nimble has around 10K paying customers with a monthly RPU of $20
  • 02:08 – 3% monthly churn
  • 02:14 – CAC is around $5
  • 02:24 – Team size is 25
• 02:43 – Nimble has recently closed a $9M round
• 03:07 – Acquiring SMBs is the exact same way they’ve scaled Goldmine
• • 03:20 – The problem with most CRMs today is that only sales and marketing people use these systems when in fact, everyone in the company should use it
  • 03:56 – Jon cold called every Novel reseller in the country when Goldmine was just starting
  • 04:00 – “People sell what they know and know what they use”
• 04:15 – When Jon started Nimble, no one knew that social media would be the way to grow a business
• 04:30 – Jon looked around for influencers for Nimble’s launch
• • 04:48 – Nimble is the early pioneer of influencer marketing
  • 05:08 – Nimble was getting 100K website views with 0 marketing spend
• 05:25 – As a company scales up, it should also touch the customers in different ways
• 05:43 – Nimble doesn’t pay influencers
• 05:45 – To find influencers, you have to know the core influencers around your product
• • 06:00 – You find ways on how to build a relationship with influencers
• 06:32 – Nimble will now try to get around with ad spend
• 06:41 – Jon always believed that there was another way to get access to customers
• 06:44 – Jon is going to replicate the strategy they used with Goldmine by partnering with people similar to Microsoft and Google and get their VARs to use Nimble and start recommending it
• 07:01 – Nimble just signed a deal with Microsoft where they can be a reseller of Nimble
• • 07:12 – Microsoft can now give their VARs Nimble so their VARs can be better, smarter and faster in sales and marketing
  • 07:33 – Nimble will work on top of Office 365 as the operating system of a business
• 07:57 – Microsoft is currently passing their revenue to the VARs
• 08:11 – The VARs are the one making the MRR which is 20%
• 08:30 – Nimble’s average RPU is now around $30
• 08:41 – If you can help a business person with their sales and marketing needs, you’re now opening yourself up to other functionalities for that customer
• 08:53 – Every business struggles with sales, marketing and relationship management
• 09:20 – Nimble just rolled out new pricing and marked on automation add-on
• 10:13 – March MRR is around $225K
• 10:25 – Nimble now has around 10.5K customers
• 11:31 – Without relying on the VARs, it’s going to be a long term strategy for Nimble
• 11:48 – Microsoft has bundled Nimble inside of Outlook mobile, Office 365 and Outlook desktop
• • 12:07 – It is like a free acquisition
• 12:32 – Jon won the deal with Microsoft because of their relationship
• 12:42 – In every business relationship, you want to know how the other person answers and what success looks like for that person
• 13:21 – Nimble is now a free plug-in with Office 365
• • 13:37 – Users can use Nimble for free without paying $30 a month
  • 13:42 – Nimble is like Rapportive on steroids
  • 13:48 – Nimble has a limited feature for free users
• 14:14 – Business people are the ones who usually convert to paid users
• 14:33 – The market of Nimble is a very fragmented market
• 14:37 – Nathan mentions the people in the same market that were on The Top:
• • 14:39 – Hatchbuck
  • 14:55 – Pipedrive
  • 15:02 – Close.io
  • 15:08 – Contactually
• 15:29 – In a fragmented market, you need to be top of the line with your customers, influencers and with business products that people use
• 15:52 – Nimble continues to be rated as No. 1
• 17:00 – The way Nimble wins is how it executes the distribution channels
• 17:13 – Team size is currently 32 and based in Santa Monica and Ukraine
• 17:44 – You don’t go to raise with a particular value in mind
• • 17:53 – Let the market determine the value
• 18:06 – The last round raised was a series A
• • 18:22 – Nimble has talked to a number of VCs and with this deal, they’re bringing in a seasoned CEO
• 19:18 – What people are vetting for Nimble is the future
• 19:41 – “We’re definitely going for a large exit with Nimble”
• 20:14 – Office 365 is now dominating the email cloud productivity space and they’re just starting
• 20:48 – “And Nimble, I believe, is positioned today to dominate in this space”
• 22:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• In a fragmented market, you need to be TOP of line—a product that people will always recommend.
• You have to know how a potential client answers a question and how they define success when making a deal.
• Nurture your business relationships—this is KEY to your success.

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