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Founder Interview

How Edusign Reached More Than 300 Customers and an 80% Profit Margin in Its First Four Months (Interview with Co-Founder Elliot Boucher)

Interview Date
July 2020
Interviewee
Elliot BoucherCo-Founder
Watch
Watch the full interview

Company Metrics at Interview Time

Customers (2020)

More than 300

ARPU (2020)

€80 per month

Profit Margin (2020)

80%

Team Size (2020)

6

Historical Snapshot

These numbers were reported by Elliot Boucher during the interview recorded in July 2020 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Edusign’s current numbers.

Key Takeaways

  • 01Edusign launched in March 2020 and reached more than 300 customers within four months
  • 02Average revenue per customer is €80 per month
  • 03Customer acquisition cost for a paid customer is €2 to €3
  • 0480% of revenue is profit, with the three co-founders not drawing salaries
  • 0570% of customers come from organic SEO, 10% from paid search, and 20% from partnerships or referrals
  • 06Website conversion rate from visitor to sign-up is approximately 15%, with roughly half of those converting to paid
  • 07The team has 6 people including 3 co-founders, with 1 engineer
  • 08Partner affiliate commissions are around 20% recurring for 24 months for some partners
  • 09The company is not looking to raise external funding and is focused on cash flow
  • 10Edusign pivoted to an online signing product in two days when the COVID-19 lockdown began in France

Company Metrics at Time of Interview

MetricValueSource
Customers (2020)More than 300Founder interview, July 2020
ARPU (2020)€80 per monthFounder interview, July 2020
Profit Margin (2020)80%Founder interview, July 2020
CAC (paid customer) (2020)€2 to €3Founder interview, July 2020
Team Size (2020)6Founder interview, July 2020
Engineers (2020)1Founder interview, July 2020
Year Founded2020Founder interview, July 2020
Website Conversion (2020)About 15% of visitors sign up; about half of those become paying customersFounder interview, July 2020
Monthly Revenue (2020)Approximately 10K last month (currency not stated)Founder interview, July 2020
SEO Share of Customer Acquisition (2020)70%Founder interview, July 2020
Paid Search Share of Customer Acquisition (2020)10%Founder interview, July 2020
Partnership and Referral Share of Customer Acquisition (2020)20%Founder interview, July 2020
Partner Affiliate Commission (2020)Around 20% recurring for 24 months, for some partnersFounder interview, July 2020

Growth Breakdown

Revenue

Elliot Boucher said Edusign did approximately 10K in revenue in the month before the interview, without naming a currency for that figure. Customers paid about €80 a month on average, an amount he said fluctuates because little training happens in summer. The company prices in euros and was focused on the French market.

Customers

The company acquired more than 300 customers in its first four months after launching in March 2020. Roughly 70% came through organic SEO targeting French-language keywords for digital attendance sheets, with 10% from paid search and 20% from partnerships and referrals.

Team

The team consists of 6 people: 3 co-founders and 3 additional members joining at the time of the interview. One of the three additional members is a paid employee, one is an intern, and one is there for the vision. Those joining were willing to work unpaid or for a little pay in exchange for some equity, with pay expected in September or October. The company has one engineer.

Profitability and Funding

Edusign is profitable, with approximately 80% of revenue flowing through as profit. The co-founders are not drawing salaries and are covering personal expenses through other income sources. The company is not seeking external funding and is focused on managing cash flow carefully.

Growth Strategy

Organic SEO in French

Seventy percent of customers came through organic search. The company targets French-language keywords around digital attendance sheets and benefits from a roughly 15% visitor-to-sign-up conversion rate.

Low-Cost Paid Search

Around 10% of customers come from paid advertising, but the company keeps spend minimal given the limited size of the addressable online market. Customer acquisition cost for a paid customer is €2 to €3.

Partner Co-Marketing

Edusign is building partnerships with larger software providers in the training organization space. Partners either exchange client referrals at no cost or receive an affiliate commission of around 20% recurring for 24 months.

Rapid Product Pivot

Two days before France's pandemic lockdown, Edusign had no way for students to sign online and was focused on offline use. The team developed online signing in two days, and by the time of the interview it was the company's main business. The product let students sign either online or offline.

Best Quotes

“So it's been four months since we started and we have more than 300 customers.”
“On average, I think it's €80 but it's fluctuating every month because in summer you don't use training in general.”
“Right now it's almost nothing. It's maybe €2 or €3. It's really nothing. So it's really organic.”
“No. Actually, it's like 80% of what we earn is profit. So we could... We don't pay ourselves and we just keep the money on the banking accounts for the moment, but yeah.”
“So it's mostly SEO. So we have 70% of our customers that come from SEO. We have around 10% SEA, so advertising, and we have 20% that is either partnership or referral.”
“It depends, but sometimes it's just a partnership where we're going to give them some clients and they're going to give us some clients and they're happy to help. And sometimes it's around 20%.”
“So we are very focused on our cash flow right now. We don't want to spend too much go too fast.”
“Well, I wish I knew that there was going to be a pandemic, we would have go faster and stronger, definitely.”

What Happened Next

At the time of this interview in July 2020, Edusign had been operating for just four months and was already profitable with more than 300 customers in the French market. The co-founders were planning to expand the team and grow through partnerships and continued SEO investment. Visit the Edusign company profile on GetLatka for current figures.

View Edusign’s current profile and metrics

Full Transcript

Chapters

Introduction and What Edusign Does

Nathan Latka

00:00Hello, everyone. My guest today is Elliot Boucher. He's the cofounder of edusign, a SaaS that makes attendance sheets manageable, simple online and offline. He's the founder of ecommerce RTM, former Capgemini consultant, and bestseller of online courses on Udemy. Alright, Elliot. You ready to take us to the top?

Elliot Boucher

00:16Yeah, great.

Nathan Latka

00:17So what is edusign? The website is edusign.fr.

Elliot Boucher

00:22Yeah, right. So our goal is to digitize attendance sheet. So you know, you have sometimes training courses where you have paper to sign. So we were in 2020, and why do we still have paper? So we figured out that we don't have any solution right now in the market that solves this problem. So we have a SaaS that allows training organization to upload information online, make digital attendance sheet, and makes the students sign online

00:51or offline.

Customer Count and Launch Date

Nathan Latka

00:53How many customers do you have today?

Elliot Boucher

00:56So it's been four months since we started and we have more than 300 customers.

Nathan Latka

01:01That's great. So 300 customers and you launched in late twenty nineteen or early twenty twenty?

Elliot Boucher

01:06March this year, 2020.

Nathan Latka

01:07March this year, wow. Okay, that's a heck of a time to launch in the middle of a global pandemic.

Elliot Boucher

01:12Yeah, well, funny story because two days before the global pandemic containment in France, we didn't have any solution for signing online. So we were focused on offline business. And so we had to develop something in two days and that's our main business right now.

Pricing and Average Revenue Per Customer

Nathan Latka

01:29And what are customers paying on average per month to use the technology?

Elliot Boucher

01:33On average, I think it's €80 but it's fluctuating every month because in summer you don't use training in general. In September, it's going to be a huge buck.

Nathan Latka

01:44Now is that €80 per month or per year?

Elliot Boucher

01:47Yeah, per month, per month.

Nathan Latka

01:48Per month. Okay. So €80 is about 90 US dollars. I mean, can I take 90 US dollars times 300 customers you're doing, what is that $27,000 a month in revenue?

Elliot Boucher

02:00Yeah, right now it's not exactly that, but in September it should be that year approximately.

Nathan Latka

02:04Okay, what did you do last month in revenue?

Elliot Boucher

02:07Last month we did approximately 10K.

Nathan Latka

02:10Dollars 10,000. Okay. And where did... I mean, this is remarkable. You went from like nothing to 300 customers so quickly. Where did you get these customers from?

Customer Acquisition and SEO Strategy

Elliot Boucher

02:19So it's mostly SEO. So we have 70% of our customers that come from SEO. We have around 10% SEA, so advertising, and we have 20% that is either partnership or referral. And right now it's going to turn a little bit. So we are still expanding our SEO in the web, but we also have a lot of clients that are going to get us all the clients. So it's an organic growth and that's really amazing.

Nathan Latka

02:49What do you mean when you say coming from SEO? When I look you up on Ahrefs, I can't see any organic keywords that drives you significant volume. So what's the SEO strategy?

Website Conversion Rate and Traffic

Elliot Boucher

03:00Yeah, well, interestingly, we have a very high conversion rate. So we have maybe 15% of our people coming to our website that are going to sign up. And from those 15%, we have half of them that are going to be paying customers. So that's, it's going fast. So if you have 2,000 people, well, you already have almost a 100 clients.

Nathan Latka

03:25But what keywords get you the most traffic would you say?

Elliot Boucher

03:28So in French it's so it means attendance sheets. So it's digital attendance sheets, stuff like that.

Nathan Latka

03:36I see. And then maybe that's also why I'm looking this up on Ahrefs. Maybe I'm not getting the keywords in French. That might be why.

Elliot Boucher

03:42Yeah, that's why. Right now we are focusing in French, in France, but we are going to expand in the next month.

CAC, Paid Advertising and Cash Flow

Nathan Latka

03:50And then talk to me about advertising. What's your CAC to get a new $35 a month customer?

Elliot Boucher

03:56Right now it's almost nothing. It's maybe €2 or €3. It's really nothing. So it's really organic.

Nathan Latka

04:03To get a trial sign up or a paid customer?

Elliot Boucher

04:06Paid customer.

Nathan Latka

04:07Okay, got it. So why not go spend $10,000 a month on ads?

Elliot Boucher

04:12Because the problem is that the market is not that big on internet. So you have to go see people to make them pay. So our sales team is going to have a lot of work in the coming months to grow this aspect. But we are also not trying to spend a lot of money because we want to keep our shares of the company and we are not looking to raise any money like next month or something.

04:37So we are very focused on our cash flow right now. We don't want to spend too much go too fast.

Profitability and Unpaid Founders

Nathan Latka

04:44Are you profitable?

Elliot Boucher

04:46We are profitable.

Nathan Latka

04:47That's great. How much? Like 1,000, 2,000 a month or is it about breakeven?

Elliot Boucher

04:52No. Actually, it's like 80% of what we earn is profit. So we could... We don't pay ourselves and we just keep the money on the banking accounts for the moment, but yeah.

Nathan Latka

05:04Yeah. So how are you paying for like your rent and your food and all that?

Elliot Boucher

05:09For the moment, we still have other revenues and for example, I have a passive income from my online courses that you mentioned at the beginning.

Nathan Latka

05:17That's great. How much do you make from Udemy courses? I have a Udemy course too, and it did terribly. So I'm sure you're doing better than me.

Elliot Boucher

05:24Yeah. No, actually it's in French. So the French market for Udemy is not that big. So I'm making around $1,000 per month.

Nathan Latka

05:24Okay. That's better than

Elliot Boucher

05:24Yeah. That... That's that's... Actually, it's a best seller in France. But

Nathan Latka

05:24Wow.

Elliot Boucher

05:24For for for US markets, it would be really small. Yeah.

Team Size and Structure

Nathan Latka

05:42That's interesting. Okay. And what's the team size today? How many people?

Elliot Boucher

05:45So we have three co founders and we have three people that are joining joining us right now. And we're going to expand in September probably to eight people.

Nathan Latka

05:55So six people, obviously the three co founders will work for free because you have equity, but you have to pay the three other people, right? So, I mean, you're doing 10,000 a month. I imagine you have to spend most of that money to pay the new three employees, right?

Elliot Boucher

06:07Yeah, for the moment

06:10it's people that are willing to not be paid or paid a little bit and then are going to take some equities and going to be... Get paid in September, October.

Nathan Latka

06:20Got it. So they're still doing like another full time side gig to make cash, but they like your vision. So they're doing your work on the side.

Elliot Boucher

06:28Yeah, it depends. So we have one guy that is really focused on edusign and that we are paying. There is another person that is an internship and there is another person that is here for vision.

Nathan Latka

06:40Okay. How many engineers are on the team?

Elliot Boucher

06:43One. One, So it's, yeah, he's really good.

Nathan Latka

06:46Yeah, that's great. What about churn? It's obviously it's early, but you have enough customers. What's monthly churn look like?

Elliot Boucher

06:53I think for this moment, have like maybe five customers that went off. Yeah, not much, but it's hard to say because it's a beginning. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

07:03Yeah. So it's like one or 2% churn per month, something like that.

Elliot Boucher

07:06Yeah. Yeah. Something like that.

Nathan Latka

07:07That's very good, very good. So what am I missing about the story? We hear how you got your first customers, a lot of it's SEO, we hear churn, we know you're profitable, what am I missing?

Partnership Strategy and Affiliate Model

Elliot Boucher

07:20Yeah. So there is something that we're trying to do. We are trying to build strong partnerships. So we are trying to not be something that is very expensive and we are trying to scale as fast as possible

07:35without paying a lot. So we are relying on existing strong businesses. So for example, in training organization, you always have bigger softwares as on what we have, and we're going to make partnership with them, give them some money and make that happen. So that's something big.

Nathan Latka

07:53What will you pay your partners in exchange for them promoting you?

Elliot Boucher

07:57It depends, but sometimes it's just a partnership where we're going to give them some clients and they're going to give us some clients and they're happy to help. And sometimes it's around 20%.

Nathan Latka

08:09I see. 20% recurring?

Elliot Boucher

08:12Yeah. Yeah. For twenty four months and it depends. But, yeah, approximately.

Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

08:17Alright, Elliot. We're rooting for you, man. Let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, favorite business book?

Elliot Boucher

08:23Made to Stick.

Nathan Latka

08:24Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Elliot Boucher

08:29Well, actually, not really.

Nathan Latka

08:30Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building the company?

Elliot Boucher

08:37Hard to say. I think we we use a lot Trello and Pipedrive.

Nathan Latka

08:42Number four, how many hours of sleep do get every night?

Elliot Boucher

08:46Seven, I think.

Nathan Latka

08:47And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Elliot Boucher

08:51I'm single.

Nathan Latka

08:52Okay. No kids?

Elliot Boucher

08:53No kids.

Nathan Latka

08:54Alright. And how old are you, Elliot?

Elliot Boucher

08:5621. So...

Nathan Latka

08:5621.

08:57Okay. There you go. Early. I like it. Early. Alright. Last question. What's something you wish you knew a year ago?

Elliot Boucher

09:04Well, I wish I knew that there was going to be a pandemic, we would have go faster and stronger, definitely.

Nathan Latka

09:12Guys, there you have it. Edusign, really strong in the French market. They've got 300 customers over the past two or three months launched during the pandemic, doing $10K a month in revenue. They are profitable. They're doing about 5 to 6 k in profits per month as the three cofounders essentially work for free. They pay for their meals with side gigs and Udemy courses. They're only churning about one to 2% of their customers per month right now

09:31as they look to continue to scale using partnerships and an SEO strategy. Elliot, thank you for taking us to the top.

Elliot Boucher

09:37Thank you very much, Nathan.