Founder Interview
How Famoco Reached 400 Business Customers and 250,000 Devices Shipped, Charging $1 or $2 per Device a Month for Software (2018 Interview with CEO Lionel Baraban)
- Interview Date
- December 9, 2018
- Interviewee
- Lionel BarabanCEO and Co-Founder
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Business Customers (2018)
400
Devices Shipped, Total (2018)
250,000
Team Size (2018)
120
Total Funding Raised
21M (currency not stated)
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Lionel Baraban during his interview with Nathan Latka in December 2018 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Famoco’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01Famoco had 400 business customers as of late 2018, counting organizations rather than consumers, ranging from small businesses with 20 or 30 devices up to companies with 10,000 to 40,000 devices.
- 02The company had shipped 250,000 Android-based POS and transaction devices in total since launching sales in January 2014.
- 03Software pricing was $1 or $2 per device per month for the mobile device management platform, while a single hardware device cost from $100 up to $300 or $400, depending on the model.
- 04Asked how fast the software side was growing year over year, the guest said Famoco grew about 50 to 60% per year.
- 05Revenue split was approximately 60% hardware and 40% software over the prior twelve months.
- 06The company was founded in 2010 and spent three years in R and D before raising its first million in 2013 and beginning sales in January 2014.
- 07Famoco had about 120 employees, with roughly 60 in Paris, 20 to 30 in Brussels, an R and D team in Rennes, and salespeople globally.
- 08Churn was very low: the guest said Famoco had almost no churn, the only churn coming from customers that went bankrupt or stopped their business.
- 09Growth tactics include inbound website leads, trade shows such as Money20/20 and Mobile World Congress, and local offices in New Delhi, Singapore, Abidjan, Nairobi, and Brussels.
- 10On average, a customer that buys 100 devices in year one buys another 100 in year two and another 40 in year three, then starts replacing the year-one fleet at the beginning of year four.
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Business Customers (2018) | 400 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Devices Shipped (total) (2018) | 250,000 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Software-Side Growth (2018) | Between 50 and 60% per year | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Revenue Split (hardware vs software) (2018) | 60% hardware, 40% software | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Device Management Platform Pricing (2018) | $1 or $2 per device per month | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Hardware Unit Price Range (2018) | $100 to $400 per device | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Team Size (2018) | 120 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Paris Headcount (2018) | About 60 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Brussels Headcount (2018) | 20 to 30 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Year Founded | 2010 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Sales Start Year | 2014 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Total Funding Raised (founder's figure) | 21M (currency not stated) | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Customer Churn (2018) | Almost none (only customers going bankrupt or stopping their business) | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
Famoco's revenue split over the prior twelve months was approximately 60% hardware and 40% software. The software side was priced at $1 or $2 per device per month for the mobile device management platform. Asked how fast that side was growing year over year, the guest said Famoco grew about 50 to 60% per year. Hardware margins are lower than software, though the guest noted that decent margins are achievable depending on how the hardware is manufactured.
Customers
Famoco had 400 customers as of late 2018, counting organizations rather than consumers, from SMBs running fleets of 20 or 30 devices up to companies with tens of thousands of devices. The guest noted that smaller customers are typically growing their fleets because the service is new, and Famoco does not turn away small buyers. Customers included the United Nations, for which Famoco digitalized humanitarian vouchers: a refugee presented a biometric ID card at one of Famoco's POS devices to receive a voucher that could be spent only on food, not on alcohol or tobacco. Famoco also equipped thousands of shops with devices that let Chinese tourists pay with WeChat Pay or Alipay.
Team
The company employed about 120 people at the time of the interview. Roughly 60 were based in Paris, 20 to 30 in Brussels, with an R and D team in Rennes and salespeople spread across offices in New Delhi, Singapore, Abidjan, and Nairobi.
Funding
Famoco had raised 21M in total, mostly from investors in Europe; the guest did not name the currency. The company raised its first million in 2013 and began selling commercially in January 2014 after three years of R and D.
Growth Strategy
Inbound Website Leads
The guest credited the company website as a consistent source of incoming leads, noting that Famoco had built enough of a name in its ecosystem that customers were increasingly coming to them directly.
Trade Shows and Live Events
Famoco was doing trade shows all over the world, including Money20/20, Seamless and the Mobile World Congress. The guest described them as one part of a mix, alongside incoming website leads and word of mouth.
Local Office Presence
The company opened offices in New Delhi, Singapore, Abidjan, Nairobi, and Brussels to allow local teams to develop their own regional markets. This distributed sales approach complements the global trade show strategy.
Moving Up the Value Chain
Famoco began by providing hardware, an OS, and a device management platform, then started building its own business applications and value-added services such as BI, predictive fleet failure analytics, and a QR code payment gateway. These additions create new revenue streams from existing customers.
Hardware-Driven Recurring Revenue
The hardware replacement cycle creates a natural recurring revenue pattern: on average, a customer that buys 100 devices in year one buys another 100 the next year and another 40 the third year, then starts replacing the year-one fleet at the beginning of the fourth year, about 20% of the fleet a year, generating ongoing hardware and software revenue from the same accounts.
Best Quotes
“Famoco is what we do basically, we validate digital transactions. So when I say we validate digital transactions, what we all have in mind when I talk about transaction are financial transaction payments. Now in reality, transaction is not only about payment, but transportation is a transaction. Crossing a border is a transaction with two government, one letting you out, one letting you in. Access control is a transaction. So the world of transaction is much broader than only payment.”
“Our business model is very simple. I sell you the piece of hardware that can run the business I'm selling you to, and and I will, take $1 or $2 per month per device for the mobile device management platform.”
“We we grow about between 50 to 60% per year.”
“We have almost no churn. So the only churn we have are companies companies that are going bankrupt or stopping their business or whatever.”
“We never say you're too small so you cannot buy from Famoco. Yeah. You're never too small to buy.”
“We started the company by just creating the hardware, the OS on the hardware and the mobile device management platform, and taking the business apps from partners. And now slowly we're trying to get up the value chain and propose some gateways or some added value services such as BI, artificial intelligence, predictive failure on on on the fleet, or we have a QR code gateway for payment today.”
What Happened Next
At the time of this December 2018 interview, Famoco had 400 business customers, 250,000 devices shipped in total and a team of about 120 people, with growth of about 50 to 60% a year on the software side. The guest described plans to move further up the value chain by adding gateways and value-added services, such as BI and predictive failure analysis for device fleets, on top of its hardware, OS and device management platform. This page captures Famoco as it stood at that moment. Visit the Famoco company profile for current figures.
View Famoco’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:01Host Introduction and Lionel's Background
- 0:38Entopia: The Prior Company Story
- 1:41What Famoco Does and Its Revenue Model
- 4:04Hardware Business: Devices, Subsidies, and Scale
- 5:06Hardware vs Software Revenue Split
- 7:41Software Pricing, Customer Examples and Hardware Prices
- 9:43Company Timeline, Funding, and Customer Count
- 12:10Software Growth Rate and Customer Acquisition
- 14:30Team Size and Global Office Locations
- 14:57Retention, Churn, and Expansion Revenue
- 16:35Hardware Replacement Cycles as Recurring Revenue
- 18:01Famous Five: Books, CEOs, Tools, and Sleep
Host Introduction and Lionel's Background
Nathan Latka
00:01Hello, everyone. My guest today is Lionel Baraban. He is a serial entrepreneur and started the adventure in France where he launched several successful startups. He then went on to manage a technology incubator in Israel from '95 to '98. In 1998, he founded Intopia, a company specialized in semantic analysis and raised $40,000,000. He headed the company from the silk... So from Silicon Valley until 2006. After France and Israel and The USA, he moved to China where he
00:25develops Zanadu, a key player of online travel services with Nicolas, his founder. In 2010, they co founded Famoco, of which he is now the CEO. Lionel, are you ready to take us to the top?
Lionel Baraban
00:36Thank you.
Entopia: The Prior Company Story
Nathan Latka
00:38Alright. You have to close out the story first. So you you mentioned the company Intopia. You raised $40,000,000 for that in 1998. What the hell happened?
Lionel Baraban
00:46We sold the technology.
Nathan Latka
00:49Okay. That's that's not a full answer. '98 was obviously a rough time, and '99 was even rougher. Did you guys lose all the investors money?
Lionel Baraban
00:56No. We don't. No. No. We did not. No. No. We we sold the technology. We did not lose all the investor money.
Nathan Latka
01:01Okay. Did you worry... Was it a... Did you end up going public in '99 or did you stay private?
Lionel Baraban
01:07No. No. We stayed private all the time.
Nathan Latka
01:09Okay. You stayed private. And and why did you decide to sell versus keep building it?
Lionel Baraban
01:15It's a long story. It's because at that time, we had a lot of competition. And at that time, we had an offer, and, I was not in a position to refuse the offer we got.
Nathan Latka
01:27Was that pre the crash or post the crash?
Lionel Baraban
01:27Post the crash.
Nathan Latka
01:27Post the crash. Okay, very good. Alright. And then you jump into your current company. Walk us through what Famoco does and how you make money. What's your revenue model?
What Famoco Does and Its Revenue Model
Lionel Baraban
01:41Okay. Famoco is what we do basically, we validate digital transactions. So when I say we validate digital transactions, what we all have in mind when I talk about transaction are financial transaction payments. Now in reality,
01:56transaction is not only about payment, but transportation is a transaction. Crossing a border is a transaction with two government, one letting you out, one letting you in. Access control is a transaction. So the world of transaction is much broader than only payment. We validate all those transactions and we do that by providing to that world Android devices. So we are doing hardware and software. So we provide Android sort of POS, if you will, point of sale,
02:32on which you can do the transaction. You can validate your transaction. We accept the transaction through QR code, NFC card, contactless card, or biometric. So we create those smart POS,
02:52smart touchpoint. And on the top of that, there is a mobile device management platform enabling you to put a business app in order to transact, to do your transaction. So just to give you a few examples of that. For example, we work with the United Nations and we digitalize humanitarian vouchers
03:14for the United Nations. So it's like we have invented money, a digital money with usage restrictions. So we provide a card, an ID card, to all the refugees in the world. This is a biometric card, and when the refugee approach the card on one of our POS, he will receive the voucher that he's entitled to. So we give him money, but with that money he can buy only food, no guns, no ammunition, no alcohol, no tobacco,
03:48and it came by
03:49the
Nathan Latka
03:49How many of these IDs have you shipped?
Lionel Baraban
03:52We have today around 15,000,000 users.
Nathan Latka
03:56No. How many of the physical IDs have you shipped the hardware?
Lionel Baraban
04:01250,000 devices.
Hardware Business: Devices, Subsidies, and Scale
Nathan Latka
04:04I want to split the company and understand hardware, and then we can talk about software. So I want to make sure I understand the hardware side. You've shipped 250,000 devices. Are these actual and they look like Android phones or it's more like a chip?
Lionel Baraban
04:18No, no. It's a let me show you one. Okay. This is one of those. This one has I just happened to have this one on my table. This one is one with a
Nathan Latka
04:31So it's like a credit card built in.
Lionel Baraban
04:33So, yeah. So it's it's like a it's like a phone that we we not phone.
Nathan Latka
04:39Yeah. Okay. So you've shipped 250,000 of those.
Lionel Baraban
04:39Yeah.
Nathan Latka
04:39Do you subsidize those? Have you raised a ton of capital, or do you pass it on to United Nations paying for them?
Lionel Baraban
04:47No. It's 250,000 in total, not 250,000 for the United Nations.
Nathan Latka
04:55Sorry. Know. I know. I'm using it as an example. I mean, your business model, do you subsidize these to your customers or do you do you make them pay for it?
Lionel Baraban
05:03Depends. Some we subsidize and some we make them pay for it.
Hardware vs Software Revenue Split
Nathan Latka
05:06Okay. I see. Let me ask you a different question. I'm trying to understand if you're more hardware or more software business. Over the past twelve months, if you look at your total revenue, what percent was hardware versus software?
Lionel Baraban
05:1760, 40.
Nathan Latka
05:1760 hardware?
Lionel Baraban
05:1740. Yeah. 60. It's it... The the the hardware in the Trojan horse on which you put your OS, your secure... The mobile device phone. The hardware has no value in it. It just has the value because that... It did not exist at the time we created the company. Do they
Nathan Latka
05:40I totally get that.
Lionel Baraban
05:41Create our own hardware or we take another hardware. So the hardware has no real value beside the fact that when we build it, we control it, we know what's running on it, we know exactly what is inside, and when you are in the security business, and in our days it's more and more important.
Nathan Latka
05:57Yeah. So just to be clear, over the past twelve months, 60% of your revenue has come from basically people paying for these hardware, the phones. 40% has come from the software people buy to go on top of the phones.
Lionel Baraban
05:57Yes.
Nathan Latka
05:57I imagine margins, though, it's very different. Your margins on the software are way, way higher than this... The the way you're making on the hardware.
Lionel Baraban
06:17Yeah.
Nathan Latka
06:18Are are are... What's... Over the next twelve months, I've interviewed probably, I wanna say, maybe 20 or 30 CEOs that are doing anywhere between caught 1,000,000 and 70,000,000 per year with some kind of hardware subsidized hardware, plus software business. And many of them, their goal is to continue using the software to drive down the cost of hardware to increase basically penetration. Over your next twelve months, are you following that same pattern? And if so, what's going
06:44to enable you to drive the cost of the hardware down?
Lionel Baraban
06:48Quantities, of course, but also the economy. What we do basically, we
06:54when we started the company, it was only our hardware. So today we have developed the technology in in a way that I can I can take another hardware than our hardware, flash our OS on that hardware, and put our mobile device management and and send the keys directly through our, secure network? So, today, more and more, we will just send the OS and the mobile device management sometime on our hardware and sometime on other people's hardware.
Nathan Latka
07:23Oh, when you say other people's hardware, you mean an iPhone, an Android phone?
Lionel Baraban
07:28Not necessarily a phone, but a hardware that you can find in China. You have thousands, millions of hardware manufacturer. They have good hardware, but the software running on them is crappy, so we are trying to give you a better better
Nathan Latka
07:28Okay.
Software Pricing, Customer Examples and Hardware Prices
Nathan Latka
07:41Let's let's switch now and talk about software for the next seven minutes. The software business, when an organization signs up to use you, and it sounds like you're in the enterprise space, if you're citing the United Nations as a customer example, how do you price them? What do you price against?
Lionel Baraban
08:00Our job is when you're in an Android business and when you look at mobile device management platform, they all come from the BYOD concept, so bring your own device concept. We don't do that. What we do is you take a piece of hardware and you dedicate that piece of hardware to a very specific use case. So it can be KYC, can be payment, can be access control, can be transportation, whatever. So our business model is very
08:28simple. I sell you the piece of hardware that can run the business I'm selling you to, and and I will, take $1 or $2 per month per device for the mobile device management platform. On the top of that, you will have a business app. Sometime we do that business app, and sometime other people do that business app. Give you another example. We are POS for WeChat Pay and Alipay. So we equip thousands of shops with our
09:03devices enabling Chinese tourists to pay with their WeChat Pay or Alipay wallets. And so when I provide that, or I run the device with all the applications inside, or I sell the device, and those people will pay me a couple dollar per month in order to be able to use the service.
Nathan Latka
09:22Okay. So either it's an individual consumer paying you a couple of dollars per month to use the service or it's United Nations buying a bulk package of 10,000 or something.
Lionel Baraban
09:31Exactly.
Nathan Latka
09:31I see. What's the... If I just buy one of the pieces of hardware from you, what's that cost me?
Lionel Baraban
09:37Depends on which one, but it goes from a $100 to $300, $400, depends on you got.
Company Timeline, Funding, and Customer Count
Nathan Latka
09:43Okay. And put this on a timeline for me. When did launch the company? What year?
Lionel Baraban
09:47So we we launched the company. I have a co founder called Nicolas, and we together created the company in 2010. We had really, three years of r and d. So from 2010 until 2013, it was more, four, five people in a garage trying to do some r and d stuff. And then we raised the first million in 2013, and we started really to sell January 2014.
Nathan Latka
10:15Okay. How capitalized is the business today? How much capital raised total?
Lionel Baraban
10:1921,000,000.
Nathan Latka
10:19Okay.
10:2021. Mostly from investors in Europe or The US or?
Lionel Baraban
10:25Mostly from investors in Europe.
Nathan Latka
10:27Yeah. In Europe. Very good. And then, so 2010, your R and D, you start selling just a couple years ago. How many customers have you scaled to today? Not consumers, the actual organizations.
Lionel Baraban
10:35Yeah, yeah, 400.
Nathan Latka
10:37Okay, so fairly healthy. So I mean, these all enterprise level? Tell me about the smallest customer you have that's not a prosumer.
Lionel Baraban
10:46Smallest, I would say, I don't know, we have people using 20 devices, 30 devices.
Nathan Latka
10:52Okay. So those are very small customers.
Lionel Baraban
10:55So we go from a company that are willing to have or getting their fleet of devices of 30, 50 devices, up to a company that have 10, 20, 40 thousands of devices.
Nathan Latka
11:08Yeah. And you said so far you've shipped about 250,000 devices. Correct?
Lionel Baraban
11:12Mhmm. Mhmm.
Nathan Latka
11:12Okay.
11:13Can can I divide the the 400 in... Into the 250,000 to basically get an average number of seats per kind of account of about 600 or 700?
Lionel Baraban
11:23It doesn't work really like that because you have, I would say we have, 20 there and the rest are SMBs.
Nathan Latka
11:33Totally understand.
11:35Power loss.
Lionel Baraban
11:35But the beauty of the business model is all those SMBs are growing because it's a new service. It's new equipment, so they are growing.
11:46We never say you're too small so you cannot buy from Famoco. Yeah. You're never too small to buy.
Nathan Latka
11:52That's great. So totally understand that. You have very different kind of customer cohorts, but if you have shipped 250,000 devices and people pay a dollar to $2 kind of for the software per device, I mean, I can kind of take $2, right, times 250,000 and say you guys are doing north of $500,000 a month at this point on just the software. Is that accurate?
Software Growth Rate and Customer Acquisition
Lionel Baraban
12:10Yeah.
Nathan Latka
12:10Okay. And and help me understand growth rates. So a year ago, just looking at software, what were you doing per month?
Lionel Baraban
12:17So I I don't like to think about, you know, our actual numbers, but let let's say we have, there is a paper on the news. If I take from 2014 up to now, on average we do a growth of over 300%.
Nathan Latka
12:36Well, yeah, but that's kind of a... That number doesn't really mean anything, because going from $1 to $2 is 100% year over year growth. And you know that and that's why you cited that number. Doesn't it doesn't help my audience at all. Talk talk to me specifically. I mean, again, you said $2 per these are numbers you gave me $2 per device, 250,000 devices shipped.
Lionel Baraban
12:53$1 or $2 per device. Yes.
Nathan Latka
12:55Okay. One and 2 per device.
12:56Okay. So, okay. So just to be clear, you be lower on the software side. You might be $250,000 per month. That's still a healthy business if you just started selling it two or three years ago.
Lionel Baraban
13:05It is a very healthy business.
Nathan Latka
13:07Me under... Mean, can you help me understand growth rate of just the software side or are you not wanting to talk about that? What what it grow percentage wise year over year?
Lionel Baraban
13:14We we grow about between 50 to 60% per year.
Nathan Latka
13:18Oh, okay. I mean, so that's healthy. That means, again, just on the software side, which is only 40% of your business, you're maybe doing call it 150 or $170,000 a month, just about a year ago.
Lionel Baraban
13:27Yeah.
Nathan Latka
13:28That'd give you 50, 60% year over year growth. That's great. How are you finding these customers? Talk to me about how you're landing them.
Lionel Baraban
13:34It's an interesting question. We doing a lot of so we receive a lot of incoming leads from the website, very simple. We are doing a lot of trade shows, and we start now to have a little name in our local ecosystem. So people are more and more coming to us. So it's a mix of we have also locations. So we have an office in New Delhi, we have an office in Singapore, we have an office in
14:01Abidjan. We just opened something in in in Nairobi. We have an office in Brussels. So all those local people are digging their own local markets. Plus we are doing trade shows all over the world, the Money20/20, the the, Seamless, the Mobile World Congress, and so on. So it's a mix of incoming leads coming from the website, word-of-mouth,
14:29and trade shows.
Team Size and Global Office Locations
Nathan Latka
14:30Got it. And help me understand team size today. Where are you guys at?
Lionel Baraban
14:34We are 120, something like that.
Nathan Latka
14:38One twenty. And where's everyone based?
Lionel Baraban
14:40So we have about 60 people in Paris,
14:4630, 20 in Brussels. We have a team in Rennes in France, an R and D team, and the rest salespeople all over the world.
Retention, Churn, and Expansion Revenue
Nathan Latka
14:57That's great. Now, one of the upsides I've seen with folks like yourself that are combining hardware plus software is that retention is extremely high because they own a piece of hardware. So your software revenues are going to be really sticky, and ideally when you go raise your next 21,000,000, your valuation will be higher because of that. True or false? Are you seeing really, really high retention rates for people that are paying a buck to $2 per
15:21month per piece of hardware?
Lionel Baraban
15:23No, no, it's absolutely true. We have almost no churn. So the only churn we have are companies companies that are going bankrupt or stopping their business or whatever.
Nathan Latka
15:32That's less than I imagine 5% per year, right?
Lionel Baraban
15:35Yes.
Nathan Latka
15:36Okay. That's great. And, okay, so yeah, that's healthy. What about expansion revenue? There are some hardware companies where, you know, they'll start them at a buck per month or $2 per month, and they have very strong pricing axes that can drive that user to 10 a month, you know, one year after they start. Do you have those levers yet?
Lionel Baraban
15:53Yeah, of course. Because we started the company by just creating the hardware, the OS on the hardware and the mobile device management platform, and taking the business apps from partners. And now slowly we're trying to get up the value chain and propose some gateways or some added value services such as BI, artificial intelligence, predictive failure on on on the fleet, or we have a QR code gateway for payment today. So we have various services that, help
16:33us to drive better revenue from our customer.
Hardware Replacement Cycles as Recurring Revenue
Nathan Latka
16:35Do you know what expansion is year over year just on the hardware side? Like, can you say it's usually about 100%, or is the cohort too small right now to predict that?
Lionel Baraban
16:44No, no, no. We know. It's a new business, yes?
Nathan Latka
16:44Yep.
Lionel Baraban
16:44So basically, on average, when a customer buys you a 100 the year one, it will buy another 100 the next year, and and another 40 the third year. And beginning of the fourth year, it will start to replace the fleet from the year one.
Nathan Latka
17:08You have to replace the hardware.
Lionel Baraban
17:10Yeah. Those are low cost hardware. So they they are not here to stand ten years. Yeah. After three years, four years, you start to replace your fleet, you will replace 20% of your fleet the first year, then 20% the next and so on.
Nathan Latka
17:28You know, Lionel, this is a very Tim Cook move. Know, keep the nice camera out of the iPhone X and then, you know, three months later launch the iPhone XR with a better camera and make everyone replenish their fleet. Right? That's how... That's basically recurring revenue.
Lionel Baraban
17:42Yes.
Nathan Latka
17:43Alright. Very good.
17:44Let's...
Lionel Baraban
17:44It is recurring revenue.
17:45Yeah.
Nathan Latka
17:46Let's... A low... Very... Much, much, much lower margin than software, but it is still recurring revenue.
Lionel Baraban
17:51It depends what... It depends how you make the hardware. You can have decent margin in hardware.
Nathan Latka
17:55What's decent? Like, 30%?
Lionel Baraban
17:57Decent is decent.
Nathan Latka
17:59Net net. I'm talking net margin. Right?
Famous Five: Books, CEOs, Tools, and Sleep
Lionel Baraban
18:01Yeah. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
18:01Yeah. Very good. Let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book?
Lionel Baraban
18:08Crossing the Chasm.
Nathan Latka
18:09Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Lionel Baraban
18:16CEO...
18:19I don't know. I love Bill Gates.
Nathan Latka
18:22Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building the company?
Lionel Baraban
18:28Online tool to build a company?
Nathan Latka
18:32Yep.
Lionel Baraban
18:33Our CRM.
Nathan Latka
18:34Which is?
Lionel Baraban
18:35Zoho. Zoho.
Nathan Latka
18:36Number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Lionel Baraban
18:41Four.
Nathan Latka
18:42Four? Lionel, that's not healthy. Four hours?
Lionel Baraban
18:47I know.
Nathan Latka
18:48How are you how are you living? You get... You only get four hours of sleep each night?
Lionel Baraban
18:52Yeah.
Nathan Latka
18:53I feel like you're gonna die early because of that.
Lionel Baraban
18:57No. No. Don't say that. Don't say that. You know what? I I have a mission here. What we do is we are protecting. We are democratizing access to security.
Nathan Latka
19:06No. No. Lionel, I get that. But I think too many entrepreneurs tie the idea of less sleep to, like, more passionate about their mission. And I just feel like that's a horrible correlation to make.
Lionel Baraban
19:17I agree. But you know what? They... I have four kids. I have a lot to do. I'm okay with it.
Nathan Latka
19:21Four kids.
19:22And married or single?
Lionel Baraban
19:24Married.
Nathan Latka
19:24Four...
19:25Okay. Four kids married and how old are you?
Lionel Baraban
19:2850.
Nathan Latka
19:2850.
19:29Last question. What do wish your 20 year old self knew?
Lionel Baraban
19:35Repeat your question.
Nathan Latka
19:36What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?
Lionel Baraban
19:43Nothing. What I love is learning.
Nathan Latka
19:46Guys, what he loves is learning. Make sure you're always doing it. Launched his company, Famoco, back in 2010, did r and d for a couple of years, raised $21,000,000 to build out essentially a piece of hardware that folks like the United Nations use to basically get access, better access to more quality goods to folks like refugees, and they can track all this, which is great. Over 250,000 devices shipped. In terms of the software side, they charge
20:08a dollar to $2 per device. So doing north of $250,000 per month. Just on the software side, that's up about 50 to 60% year over year. They've got a team of 120 people in Paris, Brussels, France, and remote locations. Less than five percent revenue churn per year gross. Again, very sticky once the hardware is installed. Lionel, thank you so much for taking us to the top.
Lionel Baraban
20:27Thank you. You're awesome.