Matt Tumbleson is the founder and CEO of Teckst – a New York based startup that's transforming customer service by directly connecting consumers with businesses via 2-way text messaging. His own frustrations with lengthy hold times and incompetent customer service representatives are why he decided to launch Teckst. Prior to jumping into entrepreneurship, Matt worked as the Creative and Marketing director of Seamless (now Grubhub), and worked as a graphics journalist at The Miami Herald.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — WorkFlowy Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Stick to one thing long enough to see it through”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:37 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show 02:31 – What Matt does and how they make money 03:09 – Selling ROI 03:15 – Created software in a house in NY 03:33 – They have monthly subscription plan 03:50 – Currently have 5 clients 04:10 – How a client used Matt’s product 05:37 – Created encrypted SMS 06:40 – Works with Memebox 05:22 – How does Betterment use you? 06:40 – 65% gross margins on labor 06:55 – Matt put his own equity for the company 07:30 – How old were you when you launched this and did you feel comfortable leaving your job? 07:40 – Started in his late 20s 08:20 – 6 months deal 08:51 – Reason Matt left his job 09:13 – Launched Teckst in 2012 but officially launched in 2013 10:06 – First year revenue 10:45 – Total funding raised 11:40 – Enterprise client pay per month 11:50 – Thousands or tens of thousands monthly 12:05 – Number of team members 13:12 – Acquisition costs and churning 13:35 – Lost a client once 14:15 – Did Google Adwords 14:50 – Matt’s lifestyle 15:50 – Average the customer have to pay to get them on board 18:39 – Upside on quarterly business review 19:13 – MRR last month 21:17 – Connect with Matt on his LinkedIn and twitter @teckstco 23:53 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Think 10x. That’s how you should think regarding business. Even if you’re the CEO, you still need to learn and grow. If we can do everything right, we can hit all the numbers.
Resources Mentioned:
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 quality of Toptal developers. 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. LinkedIn – Matt’s LinkedIn account @teckstco – Matt’s Twitter handle Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
