Ben Kartzman. He’s the CEO and founder of Spongecell, one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. Earlier, Ben worked at venture-backed Guidester (now Searchandise.net) in product and business development. He graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon with a dual BS in Human Computer Interaction and Information & Decision Systems.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Five Dysfunctions of a Team What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Mint How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Don't stress about your first job—just find things that are interesting for you, follow your passion and do those things
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:55 – Nathan introduces Ben to the show 02:25 – Spongecell is one of the fastest growing companies because they are revenue driven 02:36 – It was in 2009 when Spongecell first measured their revenue 03:15 – 2017 revenue goal 03:30 – $26M has been invested in the company and their largest investors is Safeguard 04:27 – Nathan shares about his first investor report 04:50 – Spongecell is a dynamic and creative company in the adtech space 04:55 – Spongecell works directly with marketers 05:21 – Spongecell’s technology manages different creative variations 05:49 – The variations can grow very quickly 06:04 – Spongecell sells licenses to a platform and beyond that, it is based on usage 06:25 – The licenses are billed monthly and their biggest client is spending $3M a year 06:47 – Spongecell is working with hundreds of customers 07:20 – Spongecell is moving to target more enterprise customers 07:39 – To fire clients, Spongecell raises the minimum 08:47 – People are leaving because of the changes in the service 09:30 – Usage-based charges per impression 10:00 – For every 50 cents CPM, a company would spend $50K with Spongecell 10:15 – Spongecell doesn’t get involved with the media side 10:49 – Most clients have an allocated budget to be spent on Spongecell 11:50 – Spongecell has a base amount and the average usage is based on how people are using it 12:06 – Spongecell was launched in 2006 and they raised their first round in the same year 12:41 – In 2009, they saw the need for programmatic media, which is the buying and selling of ads through technology 13:22 – Spongecell has 95 people on the team 13:53 – Average ARR 14:35 – Spongecell’s intuition with their platform is one of the reason why companies choose them 15:40 – Spongecell has promised to set up an Amazon database so clients can look up the data 16:50 – Fully weighted CAC is changing as they’re slowly transitioning, but it is more than $5K 17:43 – Ideal cohort of customers for Spongecell 19:20 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
It’s not easy to let go of customers—however, there are times where it’s the best decision to make for your company. The transition to focus on enterprise clients isn’t as quick or as easy as it seems. Find your passion and GO with it.
Resources Mentioned:
Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. 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 GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments 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 Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives