Greg Raiz, founder of Raizlabs – a technology innovation firm for design custom applications, web platforms and other cutting-edge software. Listen how Greg earned the respect of startups and Fortune500 companies through his business.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Blink What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Invision Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Just make sure to stop and smell the roses”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:41 – Nathan introduces Greg to the show 02:10 – What Raizlabs does and how it makes money 02:14 – It is a software design company 02:21 – Build iphone and android apps 02:45 – Average project size and price 03:10 – Raizlabs as a product business service 03:22 – Raizlabs helps with the technology side of the business 03:35 – Greg started Raizlabs in 2003 03:47 – Greg was making $ 60-70,000 when he was working with Microsoft 03:57 – Greg was 23 when he left Microsoft 04:11 – First year revenue in 2013 04:25 – Greg was living off his savings 04:55 – Total revenue in 2015 05:10 – 80 people in team 05:35 – Business has been cash deposited for more than a year 05:44 – Margin and business capital 06:09 – “Paying yourself as a CEO has always been a challenge” 06:23 – Reasonable salary 06:58 – Total annual personal expenses 07:37 – Total savings back then 07:53 – Greg had a day job when he was just starting his company 08:20 – Total monthly headcount expenses on an average 08:55 – Greg uses Basecamp and other tools 09:24 – Spending on tools 09:47 – How Greg feels when their client earns more than them 10:00 – They did some good stuff for HubSpot 10:25 – Just released an interesting product for The Perkins School for the Blind 10:35 – Challenge for micro-navigation 10:50 – How to get people to the bus stop 11:10 – Launched earlier this week 11:30 – RunKeeper as a client 11:37 – Fitness mapping idea 12:10 – Design development of the product with the iphone GPS 12:40 – Success to take in-house 13:04 – Equity with the companies 13:25 – How much RunKeeper pays Greg 13:40 – Charged 15K early on 14:20 – Exploring apps that can help the employees betterment 14:41- Methodology on how to facilitate feedback 14:48 – Product exploration and incubation 15:05 – Connect with Greg on his website and Twitter 16:40 - The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
As an entrepreneur, you have to manage your stability and your company’s. It is not about how much other companies earn – it is about how you become a part of their success. You can never turn back time – pause and enjoy the beauty of the present.
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. @graiz – Greg’s Twitter handle Raizlabs.com – Greg’s business website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives