Magnus Åström. He's the CEO and founder of Now Interact, a machine-learning, SaaS platform for omni channel optimization. He's also the founder of InLead, a business consultant and operations company which was sold in 2010 and prior to that, he was founder of Primelog, a transportation management SaaS platform which was sold in 2006.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Blue Ocean Strategy
- What CEO do you follow? – N/A
- Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "It's all about focus"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:35 – Nathan introduces to the show
- 02:17 – Primelog started in 2000
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- 02:29 - Primelog connects transportation providers with transportation buyers
- 02:57 - Annual revenue
- 03:10 – Primelog was sold to Swedish group
- 04:44 – They raised 4.5M
- 04:57 – Inlead's idea is to help customers sell in C-level
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- 05:39 – Inlead turned out to be too heavy on the consultancy side, so Magnus sold it
- 05:48 – It didn't turn out as a software play
- 06:10 – Inlead's annual revenue was $1.5 M
- 06:27 – Now Interact offers machine-based algorithm software to large businesses
- 06:40 – The software personalizes how each customer is offered a customer service channel
- 07:00 – Businesses get less calls from customer service
- 07:30 – Now Interact tracks the data of how customers behave on a website and how they interact with a customer service
- 08:06 – Magnus goal is to get telco giants like AT&T and Verizon as customers
- 09:04 – Now Interact has a group that chooses their customization
- 09:22 – Now Interact is a SaaS model
- 09:31 – Average customer pay per month is $10K
- 09:39 – Now Interact was founded in 2010
- 09:45 – Now Interact raised $100K in 2012
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- 10:46 – Now Interact has raised a total of $7M
- 11:20 – Customer churn
- 11:31 – Team size
- 11:47 – Headquartered in Stockholm
- 12:04 – CAC is $30K
- 12:22 – Now Interact has salespeople and are doing paid content marketing
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- 12:58 – "Sales play a lot"
- 13:30 – Magnus discusses what they’ll do with the capital they've raised
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- 13:45 – Some would go to the expansion in the USA
- 14:05 – 2015 total revenue
- 14:30 – 2016 total revenue
- 15:00 – Magnus shared how he negotiated for the valuation
- 15:45 – The top 3 most important terms when negotiating
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- 15:48 – The preference structure, the lock-in and the investors you want to have
- 18:00 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- You can choose to close your company if it is not going in the direction you intended it to go.
- Valuation is not always everything—there are more things to consider when negotiating.
- Stay focused, don't take on more than you can handle.
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
This post first appeared on Why You Should Turn Down A $14m Acquisition Offer With Derek Blueford, please read the originial post: here