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