EP 594: Klipfolio Raises $12M on $45M+ PreMoney Valuation with 7000 Customers, $500k+ in MRR Helping With Business Dashboards with CEO ALlan Wille

Allan Wille. He was on The Top on December 12, 2016, Episode 506. His company, Klipfolio, raised $7.9M in the past and has grown to 7000 paying customers. They create dashboard software for companies who want to monitor their business processes. Klipfolio is into something incredible, tune in as Allan shares about it on today’s episode.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? –
• What CEO do you follow? – 
• Favorite online tool? —
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? –

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:22 – Nathan introduces Allan to the show
• 02:52 – Klipfolio is an online and cloud based, and they create real-time dashboard software for SMBs
• 03:03 – There are over 7000 companies globally who uses Klipfolio
• 03:15 – Klipfolio just had a $12M Series B raise
• 03:33 – Klipfolio has a total of $19.9M total raised
• 03:41 – Klipfolio already has good investors in their cap table
• 03:56 – Allan shares how he came up with the Series B
• • 04:19 – The initial intent was to bring in new investors
  • 04:30 – Things turned out differently from the initial intent
• 04:47 – RPU
• 04:55 – MRR
• 05:02 – 2017 MRR goal
• 05:52 – Klipfolio licenses per number of dashboards
• 06:25 – Allan wants customers to see Klipfolio’s value first
• 06:35 – CAC
• 07:20 – LTV
• 07:33 – Team size
• 08:00 – Klipfolio believes in product first policy
• 08:21 – Most of the investment will go into Klipfolio’s product
• 08:35 – Allan shares where they spend most of their CAC
• • 09:00 – Klipfolio will add more people in sales and support
  • 09:13 – “We’re actually gonna put a lot of effort in content strategy”
• 09:37 – Allan is friends with Craig Fitzpatrick from Pagecloud, who talks about content marketing, too
• 10:26 – Allan wants the system to be more efficient to maximize user experience
• 10:44 – Allan was able to get a great valuation
• 11:06 – Allan shares how things happened during the valuation
• • 12:23 – Allan shares the offer he received
  • 12:55 – The questions Allan had before accepting the offer
  • 13:30 – The first offer was a low-ball
  • 15:03 – “In many cases, terms are probably more important than valuation—multiple or the actual preimposed”
• 15:54 – “We got to basically where we wanted to be”
• 16:35 – Allan was happy with the terms
• • 16:45 – One of the terms is 1x multiple
  • 17:14 – The other term includes an anti-dilution clause
• 18:20 – Nathan closing the episode

3 Key Points:

• There are cases where terms are more important than valuation.
• Content strategy plays a big role in marketing – invest in it.
• Go in the direction you want to be.

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