EP 565: Giraffe360 Hits $84k MRR Helping Real Estate Industry Record 360 Virtual Tours Quickly with CEO Mikus Opelts

Mikus Opelts. He’s the CEO at Giraffe360. He started this company 7 years ago, in February of 2010, when he got involved with Giraffe Visual which provides interactive visualization services. It has now developed into something so much more.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – How Google Works
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — Trello
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Everything I’m thinking about and planning for will take three times of the time than what I was hoping for”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:07 – Nathan introduces Mikus to the show
• 01:40 – Giraffe360 has the best visual tool technology
• • 02:00 - Giraffe360 has a virtual tool that works with virtual reality headsets
• 02:15 – 6 years ago, Mikus started the company
• 02:37 – It took 14 months to develop
• 03:16 – Mikus spent $200K on software development
• 03:34 – Mikus just raised $500K for their product development
• • 03:39 – It is a convertible note
  • 03:49 – Mikus describes how it’s like to raise capital in London
  • 04:15 – Mikus went through a hundred meetings before getting that $500K
  • 04:25 – 90% of the investment is from one company
• 05:15 – Giraffe360’s camera is free for companies who have a large volume of properties
• • 05:31 – Giraffe360 charges per property
  • 05:47 – Giraffe360 has developed their technology and it is on par with professional companies
  • 06:13 – 1 apartment tour costs €67 or $70
  • 06:28 – Minimum is 20 apartments per company
  • 06:45 – Payment is done monthly depending on the properties
  • 07:12 – Giraffe360 has sold their first 10 cameras in the market
  • 07:19 – There are 50 new cameras coming in at the end of February 2017
  • 07:39 – Giraffe360 already had 50 pre-sells who wanted to try the cameras
  • 08:00 – The incoming 50 cameras are almost sold out
• 08:30 – Average MRR
• 09:00 – Cost per hardware
• 09:10 – The hardware is made solely by Giraffe360’s engineering team
• 09:55 – People find out about Giraffe360 through word-of-mouth
• 11:20 - Giraffe360’s only team is the engineering team with 8 people
• • 11:28 – 3 people in the back office
• 11:50 – No customer churn yet
• 12:20 – Giraffe360 is similar to a SaaS model
• 13:13 – 2017 goal is to have 100 subscriptions and cameras in the market
• 14:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Create something of the BEST quality that will stand out from the rest.
• Raising capital takes perseverance; it may take 100 meetings before landing what you need.
• Great things take time—relax, be patient, and get things done.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• 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.
• 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
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• 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