How Apiway Reached $1K MRR With 10,000 Free Users and 25 Affiliate Partners (Interview with CEO Anton Viborniy)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Anton Viborniy. He's building a tool called API way.ai. It's an API integration platform and b to b software marketplace. Great tool. He's living and building us from Kyiv, Ukraine. Anton, are you ready to take us to the top?

Anton Viborniy

00:15>> Yes. Hi, Nathan. Thank you for having me. Nice to meet you. I'm ready.

Business Model and Early Revenue

Nathan Latka

00:20Now you're early stage, which we love. Help us understand where you're at today. Do you have customers or are you pre revenue?

Anton Viborniy

00:27>> Yes. We have some little bit customers, but we have another business model like our competitor like our competitors, and now we are focusing on acquiring users. So we provide an IP integration platform, and we provide it absolutely for free. And we hope that it will drive traffic to our platform. And when the user connect different apps and automate their workflow, we show the recommendations of other SaaS vendors. For example, when the user connect Facebook leads and

01:04>> Google Spreadsheets, it means that he is launching ads and he manage leads in the Spreadsheets. But the next logical step for automating their business, it will be implementing in CRM. And we say that, okay, you can use, for example, HubSpot CRM or you can use a Pipedrive and use a clicks, and we we get a affiliate commission or vendor paid for it. And we have some cost paid customers with affiliate links, but in most cases, it's

01:32>> a it is a users who will use our platform.

Nathan Latka

01:35So, how much revenue did you do last month?

Monthly Revenue from Affiliate Partnerships

Anton Viborniy

01:39>> Our revenue is something like $1,000 a month in

Why Affiliates Over Direct SaaS Pricing

Nathan Latka

01:47affiliate partner program. Why did you choose to get your original revenue via affiliates instead of selling customers a SaaS platform directly?

Anton Viborniy

01:58>> Because when we started our business two years ago, we wanted to create integration platform in Russia and Ukraine, but after that, we think that it's a bad market for us, and we think that, okay, we need to go to a global market in the English speaking market. But there are very strong competitors like Zapier and Integromat, and to compete with them, it is very hard. And we start to think how we can be different. And so

02:32>> we say, okay, what will will be if we provide integrations for free? Users will will like us, but how we want we need to earn money.

Nathan Latka

02:42So when we say, okay.

Anton Viborniy

02:43>> We we saw the G2Crowd or Capterra websites, and we say, okay. What will what will be if we combine these two business models? So when we provide something like a free Zapier and G2Crowd mix.

Nathan Latka

02:58And so right now, who who which affiliate pays you the most money? Who do you make the most money from?

Top Affiliate Partners: ActiveCampaign and Others

Anton Viborniy

03:03>> Active Active Campaign. Active Campaign because I was a reseller at ActiveCampaign and I know these tools, and in all placement we provide ActiveCampaign affiliate link, and we have some customers from think we sell ActiveCampaign and MailerLite and Vibra because now we are focusing on email marketing and CRM automation.

Nathan Latka

03:28So when people want to connect their Gmail to Google Spreadsheets or to Facebook leads or Power Editor on Facebook, they'll use API Way for free. When they come use you for free, they get introduced to new tools like Pipedrive or ActiveCampaign. When you sign up a new customer to Pipedrive or ActiveCampaign, you get an affiliate cut back. That's how you make money today.

Community Forum Launch

Anton Viborniy

03:49>> Yes. Yes. Yes. But now we one month ago, we launched our community work where where people can post articles, ask questions about different software. Every software has its own sub forum, and we want to to create something like a social network automation experts, because I don't know any place where you can find a strong community for low cost specialists and especially marketing automation specialists. And we want to create a place where they can publish their useful

04:28>> content and communicate with each other.

Nathan Latka

04:32And have you bootstrapped, or did you raise capital?

Funding History and Investors

Anton Viborniy

04:35>> We yes. We raised a little bit capital. Pre seed round, it's 130 k one years ago. And now we want to try the seed round maybe on the end of this year or at the beginning of the next year. But I think it's bootstrapped 100 k.

Nathan Latka

04:56When you raised the $150,000 what valuation did you raise at? It was 1,500,000 valuation. And who was the investor or was it family and friends?

Anton Viborniy

05:08>> Yes. It was a it's it's a company called Unisender. Unisender, it is a Russian Mailchimp. It is a leader in CISC countries in the email marketing software. So when they invested in us because they paid money for Capterra, G2Crowd, and Zapier, and they understand what the difference because because the the cost of traffic, customer acquisition cost for SaaS vendors, it's extremely high. And we want to provide want to reduce the customer acquisition cost for vendors. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

05:42And are you doing this yourself, Anton? What is your team size today?

Team Size and Co-Founder Structure

Anton Viborniy

05:47>> We have 12 team size with me and with my co founders, five engineers, and also I have two co founders. They are coders, two CTOs, so something like this. And other people, it is in marketing, we have an event manager because we are providing online conferences and assistants who help me with another task.

Nathan Latka

06:13So how many founders are there? Three or two?

Anton Viborniy

06:16>> Three, three, three.

Nathan Latka

06:18And did you split equity evenly?

Anton Viborniy

06:21>> No, no. With one founder, we split fiftyfifty, and after that, we give an option pool for a third founder, and he becomes a co founder.

Nathan Latka

06:35I got it. So you own 50%, your other co founder owns 50%, and a third has options?

Anton Viborniy

06:41>> Well, options, yeah, but I don't want to tell what what what the what the percent, but with one one founder, we have equal, and the third founder is less

Nathan Latka

06:58than you two.

Anton Viborniy

07:00>> Yes. Yes.

Nathan Latka

07:01I see. I see. Very cool. And so what's next? You mentioned the community you're launching. You're doing a lot of events. What's the next product you're going be pushing?

Anton Viborniy

07:10>> Now we will not push the next product because we already create a lot of things, and we will develop details. For example, we we provided some feature that where you can post a software button. For example, you came to our platform and make a post like in Facebook and say,

07:34>> Who is best? For example, Mailchimp and MailerLite. And this post become online and on this page, people can post positive and negative arguments from the different sites. So it's not it's not just like reviews where where I'm reading reviews of G2Crowd and all these reviews are good. So you have a page where you where you can see the pros and cons, for example, for Mailchimp and pros and cons for ActiveCampaign. And and these arguments are

08:03>> posted by real users. And they in most cases, they tell a really true and

08:13>> and on and on these bottles, vendors can launch ads, for example.

Nathan Latka

08:18I see. You mentioned the way that you get new users is by building integrations into Pipedrive's marketplace and Active Campaign's marketplace. How many total new sign ups to API Way did you get last month?

Daily Sign-Ups and User Growth

Anton Viborniy

08:31>> We have forty, sixty sign ups every day. I think half of how many of these, I don't know. Just watch them on a day. Half of the year, six months before, it was ten, twenty, 30 sign ups per day. Now it can be 50. We organize some conference, it can be 200 sign ups and the tail. But if we don't do anything, it's forty, fifty sign ups per day without marketing. It's word-of-mouth.

Nathan Latka

09:08And so you launched in 2019. How many total sign ups do you have today?

Total Users and Active Integrations

Anton Viborniy

09:16>> Everybody. I think

09:19>> more than 10 more than 10,000, I think. And we have more than 1,000 active users who integrate some we call it WAI, who act active way. For example, Facebook leads

Nathan Latka

09:34and Google speech is one way.

09:37People this 1,000 people using this integration and they created 3,000 ways. For example, one one user can create three, four integrations. I understand. And which marketplace drives you the most new sign ups? ActiveCampaign, Pipedrive, or somebody else?

Marketplace Channels Driving Sign-Ups

Anton Viborniy

09:57>> Pipedrive and ActiveCampaign. Now we maybe two weeks ago we launched HubSpot, and we think that this marketplace will give to us leads in most cases. But there are some vendors, they are not very popular, They are not very popular, but the support team sends leads to us, and it drives more traffic than marketplaces from vendors. For example, chatbot software can support teams and

Nathan Latka

10:32these Can you name a couple of those smaller software?

Anton Viborniy

10:35>> Yeah. For example. BotHelp. BotHelp.

Nathan Latka

10:38It's a it's a Russian chatbot software. Like So the helper support team sends you a lot of new users.

Anton Viborniy

10:47>> Well, yes. Yes. Yes. And users ask them how we can connect bot help with a Pipedrive or AmoCRM, and they send links to us.

Nathan Latka

11:01Understood. And how many companies pay you at least a dollar in affiliate revenue per month right now?

Affiliate Partner Count and Sales Generated

Anton Viborniy

11:09>> I checked this information three days ago and more than 25 SaaS vendors paid to us some couple of dollars. So we provided for them, I think, 300 or 400 leads and make maybe 50 sales. But these 50 sales is something like website builder. Not a lot of money. But for example, ActiveCampaign, because you can sell ActiveCampaign for 25,000 contacts, and the affiliate will be more than

11:48>> simple website building, for example.

Nathan Latka

11:51Understood. How much capital are you guys burning per month right now?

Monthly Burn Rate

Anton Viborniy

11:57>> I think it's 11, sometimes it's 11,000 and 14, 15,000. Because we are living in Russia and in Ukraine, and we have not so

12:13>> expensive coders and something. And I think it's our good side because we have very qualified engineers that have a normal price for sales.

Nathan Latka

12:27So you're spending about $20,000 per month in total expenses. You have

12:3511,000 in total expenses, 1,000 in revenue, so you're burning about $10,000 per month?

Anton Viborniy

12:40>> Oh, yes, something like that. Because sometimes more, because for example, we provided online conference and we buy for some ads, And I take this money from my previous business. It is reselling ActiveCampaign. I have some users from from from this. We have two two revenue streams from ActiveCampaign. It's Acutimate with Zapier Way, and reselling, it is another business.

Nathan Latka

13:06>> So you

13:06mentioned you're thinking about raising capital right now. How much are you thinking about raising?

Seed Round Plans and Vision

Anton Viborniy

13:12>> We want 1,000,000.5. If we do this, it will be it will be okay because we our competitors have a deep pocket and we we need to raise a lot of capital because we we want to we want to build not just the tool, we want to build an ecosystem. It will be something like GitHub and Stack Overflow. You know, developers have a GitHub and Stack Overflow, and we want to create something like this for automation expert

13:43>> and for user who like automation. We use a b to b software.

Nathan Latka

13:47Understand. If you raise 1,500,000, what valuation are you hoping to raise on?

Anton Viborniy

13:53>> We want 10,000,000. We want this this price.

Nathan Latka

13:56And do you think you'll get it?

Anton Viborniy

13:59>> All times. I think that we will do it because I'm an entrepreneur, and I have to to to to believe in this.

Nathan Latka

14:08Good answer. Understand that

Anton Viborniy

14:10>> this may be hard, and we we we don't hold this, Maya. I understand this. But we want to we want to build very big things, and we try to find the people who will believe in us.

Famous Five Rapid Fire

Nathan Latka

14:24It makes a lot of sense. Let's wrap up, Anton, with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book?

Anton Viborniy

14:31>> My favorite business book is The Black Swan.

Nathan Latka

14:34Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Anton Viborniy

14:39>> Christopher Columbus. It's my favorite CEO.

Nathan Latka

14:42Number three, what is your favorite tool for building API Way?

Anton Viborniy

14:47>> Loom.

14:48>> Who? Loom. Loom. Loom. Where where you can where you can record the video on this?

Nathan Latka

14:54Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Anton Viborniy

14:58>> Eight hours.

Nathan Latka

14:59And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Anton Viborniy

15:03>> I'm single. No kids now.

Nathan Latka

15:05How old are you?

Anton Viborniy

15:09>> I'm 31.

Nathan Latka

15:1131?

15:12Did you say 31? No. Yes. 31. 30 What's something you wish you knew when you were 20, Anton?

Anton Viborniy

15:22>> When I was what I have to know when I was 20?

Nathan Latka

15:25Yeah. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

Anton Viborniy

15:30>> Move to US, I think learn English and

15:36>> learn how to raise capital.

Nathan Latka

15:39Guys, apiway.ai, they help you manage connections between things like Pipedrive and Google Sheets or your Gmail. They also want to build a community around these automation, no code type people and personas. They're on their way, they have 25 affiliate partners that pay them about $1,000 a month total, so $12,000 a year run rate right now. They raised a $150,000 last year on a $1,500,000 valuation, and as they grow this year, hoping to raise another $1,500,000 at

16:08a $10,000,000 valuation with their team of twelve and three co founders. Anton, thanks for taking us to the top.

Anton Viborniy

16:15>> Thank you very much.

Nathan Latka

16:18One more thing before you go. Have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU, CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday, 1PM Central.

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17:06a big sale, a big profitability statement or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you want to take this conversation deeper and further, we have by far the largest private Slack community for B2B SaaS founders. You want to get in there. We've probably talked about your tool if you're running a company or your firm if you're investing. You can go in there and quickly search and see what people are saying. Sign up

17:27for that @nathanlatka.comslashslack. In the meantime, I'm hanging out with you here on YouTube. I'll be in the comments for the next thirty minutes. Feel free to let me know what you thought about this episode and if you enjoyed it, click the thumbs up. We get a lot of haters that are mad at how aggressive I am on these shows, but I do it so that we can all learn. We have to counter those people. We got

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