Gavin Zuchlinski, the founder of Acuity Scheduling—the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He’s a self-professed tech geek and an espresso-maniac who wholeheartedly believes that business should be totally fun.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Anything You Want What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove Favorite online tool? — Canary Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “8 and a half hour is my ideal number” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing.”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:37 – Nathan introduces Gavin to the show 02:09 – Gavin is on his 4th espresso for the day 02:25 – How Acuity Scheduling generate sales 02:30 – SaaS to manage scheduling appointments online 02:48 – Developed for Gavin’s mother 03:00 – 2006 started 03:21 – Start of Gavin’s business 03:48 – 2007 first year in business 04:05 – Only a side project 04:54 – First year revenue 05:21 – Transition from working as a government employee 05:50 – Organic search results and SEO 06:24 – Had friends’ sign up on private link 06:45 – 2013 decided to shift 07:15 – Hired the first employee 07:50 – “Keep things small” 08:20 – Number of users on free trial 08:50 – Number of users at the moment 09:25 – 10% month over month increase 09:50 – Number of users in the past week 10:54 – 85% active users on paid accounts 11:46 – Most SaaS count their total base 12:57 – Growth from organic results and referrals 13:54 – “When the rate of growth gets too high, that’s when I need to hire” 14:07 – Total team size 14:18 – Everyone is remote 14:40 – Support works for only 6 hours a day 15:18 – Team size question is Gavin’s pet peeve 16:06 – Growth customer churn is about 8% per month 16:18 – Dashboard churn 16:40 – Current customer acquisition cost on average 16:55 – 10 dollars to acquire for paid acquisition 17:12 – Total marketing spender 18:07 – Total expected earnings from a new unique customer 18:58 – Monthly RPO 19:37 – Gavin’s bootstrap 19:50 – Goal for the company 20:08 – “Create a company where I enjoy working” 20:47 – Connect with Gavin thru his website and LinkedIn 22:40 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Sometimes, you just have to choose – and choose what makes you happy. Small team has advantages too – it’s easier to manage. Just be patient and let things grow slowly.
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. AcuityScheduling.com – Gavin’s website LinkedIn – Gavin’s linkedin account Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
