Jon Lee, CEO of ProsperWorks. Jon has jumped to many different industries, from gaming to tech to banking. As an entrepreneur with success in multiple companies, he believes in going after your business goals as soon as possible. Listen to his journey through his businesses and how he ended up with ProsperWorks.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm What CEO do you follow? — Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Google Apps Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — No. If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Start your companies earlier.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:05 – Nathan introduces Jon Lee 02:10 – “Banking to tech to Yahoo to gaming” 02:40 – He saw a need for advertisers when he worked for Yahoo 03:10 – Bizarre Advertising 03:25 – They automated the business 04:10 – How they got revenue 04:35 – Started in their apartment in Palo Alto 04:50 -- $47-million business in two years 05:10 – Applied algorithms to find success 05:35 – Bound to confidentiality on the exit value 06:00 – Balance between cost and revenue 06:40 – How he got into the gaming industry 06:45 – Background in mathematics 07:00 – DNA games 07:15 – They could provide different gaming experiences according to the customer 08:00 – Stickiness is measured according to a customer’s engagement 08:20 – Lifetime value helped companies build better games and make more money 09:10 – They sold when Facebook changed their gaming policies 09:50 – They partnered with a larger company 10:10 – ChefVille 10:40 – A good exit for the investors and the company 11:00 – ProsperWorks 12:00 – CRM 12:10 – Partnering with Google Apps 12:30 – Problems with bad data 13:00 – Automating the data entry 13:30 – They have raised of $10 million 14:20 – Founded in 2011 14:30 – A SaaS platform 14:40 – 40000 customers 14:55 -- The Famous Five 15:00 – Profitable sales and marketing 15:15 – Free two-week trial 15:45 – You want a profitable acquisition 16:00 – Focus on building great partnerships and relationships 16:35 – For every $1 spent, they get a $6 return 17:10 – A less mature product needs funding to get customer feedback 17:35 – Team of 67 17:50 – Diminishing marginal returns 18:15 – Invest and get the right type of customer 18:30 – Building up the sales team 19:15 – Average customer pays $49 19:50 – Majority of their contracts are annual 20:30 – Focus to build a useful product 21:00 – Attracting small and medium-sized businesses 21:30 – Revenue churn is negative 23:00 – Jon Lee on LinkedIn or Twitter @prosperworks
3 Key Points:
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, pursue your ideas immediately. Be realistic about what is best for your company. Partner with big companies to gain credibility.
Resources Mentioned:
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Google Apps – The online tool that has partnered with ProsperWorks Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives