How fuelfinance Reached $360K ARR with 30 Customers While Building Through War (Interview with CEO Alyona Mysko)

Introduction and Background

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Alyona Mysko. She is she's got really fuel she's building fuelfinance, which is fuel for your cloud based financial department. She does spreadsheets, graphs, and automations, but her backstory is interesting. Obviously, founder and CEO, but she worked in finance for more than ten years, being an expert in financial planning and risk management. During this period, she was a lecturer for students over 1,500, participated in an incubator, an all around startup person.

00:24Two years ago, she launched fuelfinance, dove deep into stuff, into CEO stuff, the details trying to change the world of finance. It's fuelfinance.me if you wanna follow along. Alyona, are you ready to take us to the top?

Alyona Mysko

00:36>> Yeah. Hi. Hi. Nice to meet you.

Nathan Latka

00:39I I'm thank you for making time for me. The audience won't know this because you're wearing a massive smile and you look super healthy, but you're actually based in Ukraine. What part of Ukraine are you in?

Alyona Mysko

00:49>> I'm in Western Ukraine. It's near Lviv, but another city.

Nathan Latka

00:55Yep. Well, again, thanks for reaching out. The second you reached out, I said, I I wanna obviously capture your story, talk about your startup, and I'm glad you're hopefully in a safe spot right now.

Alyona Mysko

01:05>> Yeah. We have we have, like, today, one hour ago, but I'm glad that I can talk now today. With you.

Nathan Latka

01:14So what happens? A siren goes off and you you sort of go into a bunker or a basement or something?

Alyona Mysko

01:20>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bomb shelter, usually.

Nathan Latka

01:22Well, are is that where you are right now?

Alyona Mysko

01:25>> No. No. It's not bomb shelter. I'm now in coworking, but we have bomb shelter here, like, near this coworking. So we are all usually go there.

Nathan Latka

01:34Okay. Okay. Got it. Well, thanks for that extra context. I'm glad you're okay. Tell me about fuelfinance. What are you tell me tell me give me a story of a customer that's paying you.

Why fuelfinance Exists: The Finance Problem for Founders

Alyona Mysko

01:43>> Yeah. First of all, like, I was working really in finance very long time, and I always see these problems, these huge problems that founders, they really don't like their finance, and it's not something glamorous or not something very exciting for all people, not only for founders. But I'm really in love with finance, and I believe that it's like the new way of business management. It is a new way of thinking and, like, additional, very cool skill

02:15>> for all founders. That's why we created fuel to completely change the way how founders think about finance and make really cool, easy, fast financial function for all founders, for all startups because I believe they can really grow faster and more efficient with good financial functions.

Nathan Latka

02:34So are these founders paying for your tool or CFOs at startups paying for the tool?

Alyona Mysko

02:40>> Founders. We completely like work with founders and we really like cloud financial department. So we cover software parts with all automations and with planning, plan fact analysis with all dashboards beautiful. And, also, we covered, like, financial success manager. They are, like, guided by our clients guided by our financial success managers to help them understand what is going on inside their software and inside their old graphs.

Nathan Latka

03:10And so what is a what are companies or founders paying per month on average to use your tool?

Pricing and Product Overview

Alyona Mysko

03:16>> Yeah. Like, we have subscriptions starting from $999 per month. And usually, it's like our basic price was

Nathan Latka

03:25That's like $1,000, 1,000 per month?

Alyona Mysko

03:27>> Yeah. Yeah.

Year Founded and Solo to Co-Founder Transition

Nathan Latka

03:28Okay. And when did you launch the business? What year?

Alyona Mysko

03:32>> It was two and a half years ago. So it was 2019 before COVID.

Nathan Latka

03:382019. And are you the are you the sole founder, Alyona, or do you have a cofounder?

Alyona Mysko

03:43>> I was a solo founder, six months ago, I am now have cofounder, Yara Salvajic. So now I'm not solo founder, and I'm happy.

Nathan Latka

03:57Oh, what's going on there, YouTube? Good to see you guys. Now imagine this. You love watching these interviews with SaaS founders, but imagine if we took all of the valuation data out from over 2,807 interviews I've done manually, saves you a lot of time. Well, we've done this. We've built it into the beautiful interface inside of Founderpath. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second. But you log in, you connect

04:20your Stripe account, you see your valuation real time. You can see what it changed over the past eighty eight days and even set goals for valuation this year. Now the secret evaluation is there's many different ways to value a SaaS business. So the reason you're gonna see three or four different valuations inside of your Founderpath dashboard, this is all free by the way, is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SaaS company, you're gonna

04:44get a different valuation. A VC is gonna pay a different valuation. Private equity firm is different. If you're gonna do a minority sale, that's different. And if you sell the whole business, that's a different valuation. You can see all those when I hover over here.

Alyona Mysko

04:57>> Right? So

Nathan Latka

04:58the teal is what a VC would pay. Yellow is what private equity And red is if you sold the whole thing outright. Now what's cool about this is this is not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founder share with us on the show. So traction 1,200,000 seed round 3.7 raise. They sold 22% of their business. Go in here and filter

05:22by the event. Maybe you only wanna see companies that have sold the whole business. Well, here are a bunch that have been acquired the valuation and the multiple. Maybe you're going out right now and you're raising your seed round. We'll go in here and look at all this recent seed deals that went down, what they raised, what valuation they raised at, and what percent that they sold. There's never been a larger dataset of SaaS valuations than

05:47what you can get now inside of Founderpath. And we're thrilled to bring it to you. All right, we're gonna go back to the YouTube video here in a second, but if you wanna check this tool out, if you wanna jump in and sign up, you can check it out for free to get your valuation at this link, this link, founderpath.com/products/valuations. Or if you go to founderpath.com and hover over products, click on get your valuation here, and

06:12go ahead and sign up to give it a whirl. Again, all that valuation data live right inside the platform. I hope to see you there. Alright. Let's jump back into the interview. How much equity did you give him or her?

Alyona Mysko

06:25>> Equity?

Nathan Latka

06:26Yeah. Did you give him equity?

Alyona Mysko

06:29>> Yeah. But it's not information that we are ready to share.

Nathan Latka

06:33Do you still you still you owned a 100% at the beginning, though. Right? Yeah. Okay. Got it. And you still own the majority. Right?

Alyona Mysko

06:41>> Yeah.

Nathan Latka

06:42Okay. Fair enough. And how many folks are on the team today full time?

Team Size and Paying Customer Count

Alyona Mysko

06:46>> We have 23 people full time.

Nathan Latka

06:4923. Wow. Okay. And how many paying customers today?

Alyona Mysko

06:54>> We have already 30 paying customers.

Nathan Latka

06:58And and they pay on average, you told us, 1,000 per month. So you're doing about 30,000 a month in revenue.

Alyona Mysko

07:03>> Some some of them paying more. So we have, like, the price the price starting from $1,000, but we have also other higher packages for more, like, later stage startups.

Nathan Latka

07:16So 30 times your minimum price of 1,000 per month is 30,000 of monthly recurring revenue. It sounds like you're doing more. How much more?

Alyona Mysko

07:25>> We have, like we're now growing from month to month, 20%.

Nathan Latka

07:31That's great. And I guess if you're at, like, 30 or 40,000 a month today in revenue, where were you exactly one year ago?

Alyona Mysko

07:39>> We like, one year ago, we were, like, completely three times less.

Nathan Latka

07:45So what does that mean? Like, says that 5,000 a month or 10,000 a month?

Alyona Mysko

07:49>> Yeah. Yeah. 10,000. It was a little bit, like, 10,000 a month one year ago.

Nathan Latka

07:55Okay. So you've you've tripled the business then over the past twelve months?

Alyona Mysko

07:59>> Yeah.

Nathan Latka

08:00Congratulations.

Alyona Mysko

08:01>> We are keep keep growing even during the war.

Nathan Latka

08:04That's amazing. And have you bootstrapped the business or did you decide to raise?

Bootstrapped, Profitable, and Planning to Raise

Alyona Mysko

08:08>> We now, like, every time before, like, this this month, we were, like, bootstrapped. And, like, all two years two years and a half, we were, like, profitable and breakeven. And but now we already start to think about fundraising.

Nathan Latka

08:28Mhmm. And how much would you look to raise?

Alyona Mysko

08:31>> I was thinking about $1 to $2 millions, but we still analyze the situation because we are really breakeven, and we simply want now to invest this money to boost sales, marketing, and product development, like, with more speeds.

Nathan Latka

08:49Mhmm. I got it. Do I mean, are you sure that more money will enable you to move faster? Like, do do you know where you would plow that money into? Because obviously, dilution's a real thing. You gotta give up a bunch of equity.

Alyona Mysko

09:01>> Yeah. We, we made many different tests, like, one year ago. And as I'm really a financial person, so I need to have, like, data proven ideas and very understandable and proven financial forecast. That's why I I had many thoughts about if we need to really fundraise because we are breakeven and we are growing. But on the other hand, I also understand that market and what we want to deliver to this market, what we want to create,

09:36>> we need much much more. And we simply already understand what's what's already works in sales and marketing for us. And especially, we also understand how products should be developed in the nearest like months and years. So that's why for us now at this period of time fundraising is really reasonable I think.

Fundraising Plans: $2M Seed Round

Nathan Latka

09:58And now, Alyona, how much equity do you think you have to give up if you raise 2,000,000?

Alyona Mysko

10:03>> We think about like we have now seed round basic. So it's like 20% usually when we talk about seed rounds. It's usually part part of equity.

Nathan Latka

10:14Yeah. You'd raise 2,000,000, and this would be your seed round.

Alyona Mysko

10:18>> Yeah.

Nathan Latka

10:18Yeah. Yeah. So you're willing to sell 15 to 20% of the business for 2,000,000? Yeah. Okay. Well, maybe this interview, people will reach out afterwards and go, I wanna invest. See let's see what happens.

Alyona Mysko

10:30>> Wait a minute.

Operating Through the War in Ukraine

Nathan Latka

10:31I mean, it is I mean, look. Everyone's gonna be wondering, listening to this, like, how is she doing this in Ukraine in the middle of a war? I mean, are you just really good at compartmentalizing? How do you keep your team focused on this when they've got family members being killed, then there's bombs flying and sirens going off?

Alyona Mysko

10:49>> I think that all Ukrainians now very hard working. I think even more than it was before the war because now we have no other ways. So we all should work to help Ukrainian economy and especially, I also understand now all our team members when they work, it's like like type of I think type also for relaxation and don't thinking about all other around and don't drink like all different views. So that's why I think it's because,

11:24>> like, how how we deal with it with everything what is going on now in Ukraine. And that's why I think people stay productive. But, we now already understand after two months. So it's like we understand that it can be like much longer period of time with the worst. So now we tried to understand when we need like to make some short break and some day offs for different team members because it's also complicated to work. I

11:52>> think now we work like fifteen hours per day and simply like without some weekend or something like that because when we have time, we try to volunteer and make all other things. So we couldn't say that we have some weekend of time to rest now or, like, different hobbies time for hobbies. So that's why we simply have work or help the country.

CAC, LTV, and Unit Economics

Nathan Latka

12:17Understood. Understood. That makes sense. Well, again, we're we're obviously rooting for you guys, and congrats on balancing all this in at one time. Shifting back to growth before we wrap up, you obviously are a tester. You're an analytics. You're all in on analytics. What does it cost you? What's your CAC to get a new a thousand dollar a month customer?

Alyona Mysko

12:37>> We have now most acquisition. So, like, LTV to CAC ratio, seven to one. So that's why we are, like

Nathan Latka

12:45Well, that doesn't answer the question, though. So what what what's the dollar value of the lifetime you're putting on a customer?

Alyona Mysko

12:52>> We now have approximate, like, lifetime value more than $20,000 Mhmm. Per customer.

Nathan Latka

12:59Okay. And so when you say seven to one, you're spending something like $2,500 to acquire a customer?

Alyona Mysko

13:08>> Twenty five hundred, twenty five hundred. Like, something like that. Yes.

Nathan Latka

13:13Yeah. So 20,000 of lifetime value divided by 2,500 on CAC is about an eight to one or seven to one ratio.

Alyona Mysko

13:19>> Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

13:21And where are you spending that 2,500 on CAC?

How CAC Is Calculated: Salary Hours Only

Alyona Mysko

13:25>> We now calculate in this amount only our hours spending for because we don't have, like, digital marketing or some special investments in marketing. So we simply calculate, like, our salaries now.

Famous Five: Books, Tools, and Personal Life

Nathan Latka

13:39Oh, Alyona, on that note, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's the last book that you read?

Alyona Mysko

13:46>> Last book. I'm now reading this book about ventures, Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Your Venture Capitalist, because I had the recommendation that this book is very important to read before fundraising.

Nathan Latka

14:00Number two. Is there a founder or CEO that you're following or studying?

Alyona Mysko

14:06>> Founder or CEO?

14:11>> Couldn't remember. I I really following now on Twitter, founder of SaaStr, And I like the podcast that he has now special for SaaS businesses. I couldn't remember, like, his name, but it's really interesting

14:26>> Yep.

Nathan Latka

14:27To Yeah. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building fuel?

14:34Favorite tool for building fuel?

Alyona Mysko

14:37>> Yep. Notion.

14:39>> Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

14:40Number four. How many hours of sleep do get every night?

Alyona Mysko

14:45>> Now I think it's like six six hours on average. Six.

Nathan Latka

14:51Okay. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Alyona Mysko

14:55>> Single.

Nathan Latka

14:56Okay. No kids. And how old are you?

Alyona Mysko

14:59>> 29.

15:00>> 29. Last question.

Nathan Latka

15:01Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

Alyona Mysko

15:06>> When I was 20? No. I think everything was okay with me. 20.

Nathan Latka

15:12It's not something that you wish you had changed. It's just something you wish you knew.

Alyona Mysko

15:17>> Yeah.

15:20>> One reason I wish I knew is that I simply can ask everyone about, like, thirty minutes call and ask about different recommendation about personal development. And I wish I could meet much earlier than at twenty six or twenty seven.

Nathan Latka

15:39Guys, there we have it. Fuelfinance, helping founders of startups understand their finances more clearly. They've grown from $10,000 a month up to $30,000 a month in revenue or 360,000 in terms of run rate. She's building something special here, team of twenty three. They're bootstrapped today and profitable breakeven, looking at raising 2,000,000, selling the 15 to 20% of the business. We'll see if she can get it done doing this all with her teammates in Ukraine, Western Ukraine,

16:04Eastern Ukraine spread all out. Alyona, incredible story. Thanks for taking us to the top.

Alyona Mysko

16:09>> Thank you.

Nathan Latka

16:12One more thing before you go. We 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

16:37Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM Central. To make sure you don't miss any of that, make sure you click the subscribe button below here on YouTube, the big red button and then click the little bell notification to make sure you get notifications when we do go live. I wouldn't want you to miss breaking news in the SaaS world, whether it's an acquisition, a big

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17:21for that at nathanlatka.com slack. 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.

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