Aner Ravon. He’s the co-founder and chief product officer of his new company called Zirra. Zirra’s mission is to solve the education and entry pain of the retail investors when it comes to equity investments. Before this company, Aner spent his time at Celltick as a VP of media and head of business unit.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – The Tipping Point What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs Favorite online tool? — Ask Wonder Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Not to worry so much”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
02:42 – Nathan introduces Aner to the show 02:58 – Zirra steps into the void between data and excel analysis of the companies 03:10 – There’s a big void in the data collection and actual decision making of a company for the people who want to invest 03:48 – Zirra is a service 03:52 – Zirra has an a la carte system which is pay-as-you-go 03:55 – Zirra has 2 main products 03:58 – Spotlight reports which costs $49 04:11 – Value packages for corporate investors which is a monthly subscription 04:29 – Average customer pay is $99 monthly 05:05 – Zirra started in August 2014 05:30 – Zirra first offered their services for free 05:45 – Aner shares how they decided to stop the free service 06:01 – Zirra had 150 free users 06:13 – Some of the free users are large equity firms 06:23 – Zirra started in Israel 06:35 – Microsoft was using ZIrra heavily, for free 07:00 – 80% of the free users converted to paid users 07:20 – Zirra managed the free service with free coupons 07:41 – Zirra didn’t take away the credits, but started renewing them 07:48 – When users use up their credits, they’ll be greeted with a pay wall 08:05 – Zirra’s paywall: pay $49 to get the report or buy 10 reports for $299 08:40 – Zirra’s revenue comes from pay-as-you-go and monthly subscriptions 09:10 – 15 customers are on monthly subscriptions 09:20 – 40-50 of the customers are habitual users 10:35 – Another product Zirra offers is deep report which sells from $1K-3K 11:45 – Team size is 15 12:39 – Zirra is based in Telavi, Israel 12:49 – Zirra has raised capital and closed almost $3M 13:19 – Zirra is founding new investors without going through another round because of their current Angel investors 13:51 – 2016 revenue 13:55 – 2017 goal revenue 14:28 – There are currently a hundred thousand companies in Zirra 14:55 – Zirra can deliver the report in just a few hours 15:30 – Zirra has 85 different data sources 16:09 – The resources are running through ZIrra’s search engine 17:12 – Zirra’s vision 18:19 – Aner thinks PitchBook and CB Insights are great services 18:28 – Zirra’s ability to storify the data makes them different from their competitors 20:15 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Having access to and understand the data of the company will help inform that decision to invest. Shifting from a free service to paid is risky move, but needs to be done. Don’t worry too much—it won’t do very much for you in the end.
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