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Founder Interview

How GetEmails Reached $4M ARR Bootstrapped with 750 Customers and 50% Margins (Interview with Adam Robinson)

Interview Date
May 26, 2021
Interviewee
Adam RobinsonFounder
Watch
Watch the full interview

Company Metrics at Interview Time

ARR (2021)

$4M

Customers (2021)

750

Profit Margin (2021)

50%

Year-over-Year Growth (2021)

250%

Team Size (2021)

6

Historical Snapshot

These numbers were reported by Adam Robinson during the interview recorded in May 2021 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See GetEmails’s current numbers.

Key Takeaways

  • 01GetEmails reached $4M ARR bootstrapped with no outside investors
  • 02GetEmails had 750 paying customers at the time of the interview
  • 0350% total margin on the business with 6 full-time employees
  • 04The company grew 250% year over year
  • 05One salesperson using entirely cold email outreach added 50k MRR in the last 30 days
  • 06In GetEmails' first year, its top 10 customers showed huge revenue expansion, paying $5,000 to $30,000 a month each, which led Adam to refocus the business on accounts like them
  • 07Monthly revenue churn was in the single digits, and Adam said all of the top 10 accounts were showing huge expansion revenue
  • 08The company had 2 engineers and kept a target cash reserve of about $250K
  • 09Adam founded GetEmails in November 2019 as a spin-out from Robly Email Marketing
  • 10Adam owned 42% of the business, with his two co-founders holding the rest

Company Metrics at Time of Interview

MetricValueSource
ARR (2021)$4MFounder interview, May 2021
Customers (2021)750Founder interview, May 2021
Profit Margin (2021)50%Founder interview, May 2021
Year-over-Year Growth (2021)250%Founder interview, May 2021
Team Size (2021)6Founder interview, May 2021
Engineers (2021)2Founder interview, May 2021
Sales Reps (2021)1Founder interview, May 2021
Cash in Bank (2021)$250KFounder interview, May 2021
New MRR Added (Last 30 Days) (2021)$50KFounder interview, May 2021
Biggest Customer Monthly Contract (2020)$30K per monthFounder interview, May 2021
Revenue Churn (2021)Single digits monthlyFounder interview, May 2021
Year Founded2019Founder interview, May 2021
Founder Equity Stake (2021)42%Founder interview, May 2021
Ad Spend (2021)$0Founder interview, May 2021

Growth Breakdown

Revenue

GetEmails had crossed $4M ARR by May 2021, and Adam said the company had grown 250% since a year earlier. The business was bootstrapped, with no outside investors, and he put its total margin at 50%.

Customers

At the time of the interview GetEmails had 750 paying customers. In its first year, when it grew on Facebook ads, its top 10 customers were paying $5,000 to $30,000 a month each. After the pivot away from ads it added far fewer customers, but each new account paid $2,000 to $10,000 a month.

Team

GetEmails ran with six full-time employees, and Adam's stated attitude was to keep the company as small as possible. Sales was one salesperson with an assistant. Engineering was two people: Adam's co-founder, the CTO, and one engineer who built integrations full time.

Profitability and Funding

GetEmails was bootstrapped, with no investors, and paid its profits out every month as dividends; employees shared in them through shadow equity. Adam kept a target cash reserve of about $250K and, having built up to it, distributed the cash flow the business generated.

Growth Strategy

Pivot from Facebook Ads to Outbound Cold Email

The company initially grew through Facebook selfie video ads that paid back in a day, but churned heavily. Around the turn of 2021 Adam stopped the ads and pivoted to an entirely outbound cold email model aimed at larger accounts, bringing in a totally different customer profile.

Focus on High-Value Accounts

After noticing that the top 10 customers had huge revenue expansion and were paying between $5,000 and $30,000 per month, the team stopped chasing volume and concentrated exclusively on customers with 300,000 to 500,000 monthly unique visitors.

Shadow Equity for Employee Incentives

Rather than giving up large equity stakes, Adam used shadow equity: at the end of every month, an employee with 1% shadow equity got a check for 1% of that month's distribution. The salesperson got no commission; instead her shadow equity percentage grew with ARR, and it doubled when GetEmails crossed $4M ARR.

Spin-Out from Existing Product

GetEmails was spun out of Robly Email Marketing after the identity resolution feature proved extremely popular. Robly users loved the feature and rated it 10 out of 10 on NPS, even though using it meant downloading files and uploading them to their email marketing app, but nobody was switching to Robly to get it. So Adam launched it as a product of its own, connected to everything.

Planned Exit to Private Equity for Scale

In May 2021 Adam's plan was to grow the business fast and sell it around the end of the year, perhaps to private equity, to a buyer that would scale the team. Until then he was keeping the company as small as possible and leaving the build-out of a sales force to whoever bought it.

Best Quotes

“Six six full time employees bootstrapped, 50% total margin.”
“We noticed that our top 10 customers had huge revenue expansion. They were paying us between 5 and $30,000 a month. We need to focus everything on them. So end of the year last year, beginning of this year, we did a pivot, stopped running ads.”
“It's entirely an outbound sales model, and we're bringing on people between like, you know, 2 and $10,000 a month now. That is just a totally different... Like, the number of customers that we're adding is much lower, but, like, we added 50 k MRR in the last thirty days.”
“The quota is kind of like, bring in as much as you can. But it's one salesperson who brought in 50 k MRR last month, so she's doing pretty well.”
“I love this shadow equity. You know, at the end of every month, if you have 1% shadow equity, I just write them a check for 1%. It comes out of the next month's expenses, if that makes sense.”
“We've grown 250% since a year ago.”
“I I don't know. What's a what's a 4,000,000 ARR company growing at 15% a month with 50% total margin and six full time employees worth?”
“Skip Wall Street and learn how to build software, dude.”

What Happened Next

This interview captured GetEmails in May 2021, when it had just crossed $4M ARR with 750 paying customers and six full-time employees, without outside investors. Adam Robinson said he planned to keep growing fast and sell the company around the end of 2021, perhaps to private equity. For later data on the company, see its GetLatka profile.

View GetEmails’s current profile and metrics

Full Transcript

Introduction and Background

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Adam Robinson. He's running a very cool tool called GetEmails, and he started this after spending ten years on Wall Street trading credit default swaps at Lehman Brothers and started his first startup product, Robly Email Marketing. The company was bootstrapped ranked number one in customer satisfaction in 2017. The company distributed mid 7 figures and was sold for 8 figures. His current venture, GetEmails, helps ecommerce and publishing customers identify their anonymous web

00:24traffic and retarget them over email. He launched the company in November 2019 and just crossed. I'm gonna let him tell the revenue number. Adam, ready to take us to the top?

Adam Robinson

00:33>> Yeah. Sure.

Nathan Latka

00:36How are you doing? Okay. What's the revenue number?

Revenue and Key Metrics

Adam Robinson

00:38>> Let's not forget about 4,000,000 ARR.

Nathan Latka

00:41That's great. Okay. And so...

Adam Robinson

00:42>> Six six full time employees bootstrapped, 50% total margin.

Nathan Latka

00:46That's incredible. Eighteen

Adam Robinson

00:48>> months old.

Nathan Latka

00:49Wow. 18. Okay. Got it. So talking through the first, that's the starter story. How did you get your first 100 customers?

How GetEmails Works and Origin Story

Adam Robinson

00:54>> So I had... As you as you read in the bio, I had an email marketing company that I started called Robly Email Marketing. That's a very difficult space, incredibly challenging, but we had a really nice lifestyle business. And in attempting to niche, I discovered this identity resolution space, which is like basically identifying anonymous web traffic and then without the person actually filling out a form, we'll pass you a plain text email address, add it to your

01:18>> list so you can market to them. And whereas you would get like three to 5% of people to fill out a form, we'll get you 40% of your traffic. So just an unbelievable email list growth tool. It was a feature in Robly. Everybody loved the feature. Nobody was actually switching to the platform. So so we thought, hey, if they're if they're, like, downloading these files and uploading them in their email marketing app and they're enduring that

01:41>> horrible experience and, like, give us a 10 out of 10 on the NPS report. We need to spin this out, connect it to everything, and launch the product on its own.

Nathan Latka

01:48So Ask me a a plain text email. So I've used tools like this before.

Adam Robinson

01:53>> It is magic.

Nathan Latka

01:54That's how. Me just ask the question because I think my audience will ask the same exact thing, is Sure. There's tons of tools like this out there. The issue I always have is you get a massive list of company names based on IP addresses. It'll say, you know, someone from SendGrid was on your site for twenty minutes, but I don't know what the hell to do with that. You're sending...

Adam Robinson

02:13>> We give you the person.

Nathan Latka

02:14You'll give me the email of the person who was on the site?

Adam Robinson

02:17>> Yeah. So we connect anonymous We connect anonymous digital identifiers that are used in the advertising network to rich customer profiles.

Nathan Latka

02:26And

Adam Robinson

02:28>> yeah, like Lead Forensics, for instance, does what you're doing, what you're talking about. But we go a step farther. It's primarily b to c tool because all the all the emails are, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and stuff like that. But we actually give you the person.

Nathan Latka

02:42And it's worth b to b?

Adam Robinson

02:44>> It can. We have some b two b customers, but, like, we're having so much success in the b two c world. We're just not focused on it. Mhmm. You know what I mean?

Nathan Latka

02:52Alright.

02:54So launch in '28... Wait. Late twenty eighteen, it sounds like.

Adam Robinson

02:57>> 2019. 2019. Okay.

Nathan Latka

03:00Scaled nicely. So so first of our customers came from your last company, which is great. How many customers are you adding per month these days?

Facebook Ads Era and Pivot to Outbound

Adam Robinson

03:07>> So this is kind of like a a tale of two businesses. There was what we did to get it off the ground and there's what we did... What we're doing now. So the first... I would characterize the first year as the Facebook year. My wife and I did these, like, outrageous and funny Facebook selfie videos. Then they were like... The ads were paying back in a day. They were giving us unbelievable reach. It was working incredibly

03:30>> well. But nine months in, we're like, this is the wrong type of customer. Churns through the roof. Even though the ads... Even though it's quick payback and allowed us to grow really quickly, we noticed that our top 10 customers had huge revenue expansion. They were paying us between 5 and $30,000 a month. We need to focus everything on them. So end of the year last year, beginning of this year, we did a pivot, stopped running ads.

03:54>> It's entirely an outbound sales model, and we're bringing on people between like, you know, 2 and $10,000 a month now. That is just a totally different... Like, the number of customers that we're adding is much lower, but, like, we added 50 k MRR in the last thirty days. You know what I mean?

Nathan Latka

04:10And and across how many customers?

Adam Robinson

04:12>> I would say probably,

04:16>> you know, 25 to 50. Whereas if you if you if you did 50 k a year ago, it would have been like 500 or something like that. You know I mean?

Nathan Latka

04:25Pay a new MRR or ARR? MRR. MRR. Got it. Okay. So quick growth. So just to be clear, absolutely no dollars on ads right now.

Adam Robinson

04:33>> $0 on ads.

Nathan Latka

04:34Well, what does the sales team look like if you're doing outbound? Is there a salesperson or what?

Sales Team Structure and Cold Email Strategy

Adam Robinson

04:38>> There is one salesperson and one person assisting that salesperson. She's What's doing the salesperson? Entirely cold email. The quota is kind of like, bring in as much as you can. But it's one salesperson who brought in 50 k MRR last month, so she's doing pretty well.

Nathan Latka

04:53Is she is she... I mean, the reason I'm asking here is because this is, like, like, pivotal moment for a lot of SaaS companies is the comp that you put on your first sales rep.

Adam Robinson

05:03>> Say that again? Sorry. I I

Nathan Latka

05:05This is a pivotal moment in many SaaS companies. Is when to bring on your first outside sales hire and what quota had incentivized them? So so...

Adam Robinson

05:11>> Yeah. She's she's she's been there since she's been there since day one, and she has a a sort of cofounder incentive structure. She's got, like, shadow equity that her equity percentage grows with our ARR. So, like, she just got her equity doubled when we crossed 4,000,000 ARR. You know? That that that would never, yeah, that would never work for a sales team, but, you know, my attitude is keep this thing as small as possible. I actually

05:36>> wanna, like, sell it to private equity or something that will actually scale the team, like, at the end of the year.

Nathan Latka

05:41So how much equity do you currently still own the business?

Cap Table and Bootstrapped Structure

Adam Robinson

05:44>> We have the same cap structure as the last company because it was a spin out of the last company Oh. If that makes sense. And the last company, I had two cofounders. I own 42% of the last company, and I own 42% of this one.

Nathan Latka

05:58Got it. And did your wife... You said, does your wife own any here too?

Adam Robinson

06:02>> My wife does not own any equity. She was just a significant contributor to the ad campaign.

Nathan Latka

06:07Oh, got it. Not a co founder. Okay. Cool.

Adam Robinson

06:09>> Yeah. Not a co founder. I mean, I I started the first company like five years before I met her.

Nathan Latka

06:13Got it. Got it. Okay. And what's the... So so the other two cofounders own the other sort of 60 ish percent or or what?

Adam Robinson

06:20>> Exactly. Bootstrap. No investors.

Nathan Latka

06:22Okay. And so the... But I'm asking there was no investors at the old company either?

Adam Robinson

06:26>> No investors.

Nathan Latka

06:27Why didn't you just... Why didn't you buy them out? I mean, why take them into the new business?

Adam Robinson

06:32>> Man, that's too long of a story for this podcast, but it was just

06:40>> know, one of them is my brother, one of them is my best friend.

06:45>> There were several ways to handle this and I just thought... Just rewinding a little bit. I sort of experimented with growth tactics for like three years with the other company's money as it was doing fine. You know, it's great lifestyle business. Something finally works, right? If I'm the investor in the old company, I say, you just spent my money for three years trying to to figure this out. So, you know, it's my asset. Yep. That's kind

07:12>> of the conclusion I came to. And it's really hard to buy somebody out when you're like so excited about the future prospects of this thing. Like, what what would you sell? Yeah. We we did, like, 50 k MRR in, like, the first six weeks. What would you have sold that equity for?

Nathan Latka

07:26Well, just one. Going back Do you know? Going back to the cofounder story, Adam, I mean, they're all... Are they working currently as hard as you are in the company?

Adam Robinson

07:34>> One of them is. One of them is not.

Nathan Latka

07:36So, like, the one that's not, like, that's the argument of why you would reshuffle the cap table thing. Right?

Adam Robinson

07:41>> I I hear you. There was one other sort of tricky moment in, like, 2015 or '16, and I think maybe if that tricky moment hadn't happened, I would have been more assertive about it. But, you know, but with this one, my plan the entire time was to sort of grow it really fast and exit fairly quickly. So that also is just, you know, if I was in this for like ten years, I a 100% would push

08:03>> for that.

Customer Count and Churn Discussion

Nathan Latka

08:04How many customers are they paying?

Adam Robinson

08:07>> 750 paying customers.

Nathan Latka

08:09Seven fifty. Okay. Cool. And then talk to me about churn.

Adam Robinson

08:13>> So churn is a really hard thing to talk about because I I explained that Facebook ad strategy and it... Like, the people we're bringing on last year probably had an average of 10,000 unique monthly visitors, whereas everybody we're bringing on now has 300,000 to 500,000. Totally different customer profile. I told you about our top 10 churn. So looking at it by segments, our top 25 has been around for... 75% has been around for over a year.

08:37>> All the top 10 is huge expansion revenue. But, like, the the bottom churn... The the top line churn number just, like, doesn't even mean anything because it's the old people's.

Nathan Latka

08:46Listen. We just the whole magazine issue last month was focused on logo churn. It doesn't mean anything, but Yeah. It doesn't mean anything for the exact reason you just articulated. And that's why we use revenue churn, which accounts for large contracts that are super sticky and expanding. So what does your revenue churn look like over the past twelve months?

Adam Robinson

09:01>> It looks great. I mean, I'm not gonna give you an exact number but it's single digits.

Nathan Latka

09:06Okay. Single digits monthly or annually?

Adam Robinson

09:08>> Monthly.

Nathan Latka

09:09Okay. Got it. So under 10% revenue churn per month. Now does the expansion revenue driving the same forwards make up for the churn? Is your net revenue retention above a 100%? Yes. Okay. Got it. How far above a 100% did you even drive that with your big expansion accounts?

Adam Robinson

09:24>> I mean, we just kinda started a few months ago really focusing on these guys. So it's... It... All these questions are are super hard when you're really early in a company. You know what I mean?

Nathan Latka

09:34It's like No. I'm not... That's

09:37no. I don't... Like, I'm not gonna buy that because you're trying to grow and exit the private equity firm. They're gonna be way tougher than I am on all these questions. So I just don't buy... I don't I don't buy that at all. What what what's happening is you're growing so fast, it's not worth your time to focus on it right now. Just know it's working.

Adam Robinson

09:50>> You you just gave me my answer to those guys.

Nathan Latka

09:54Yeah. But but by the way, you're gonna have to polish all this up. Right? If you end up running the process. But but really what's... I mean, there's people listening right now that are gonna go, yeah. I'm like Adam. I... We're growing so fast. I'm not losing money. We're profitable. I know it's working. Even if it turns high, I know it's working. So I'm gonna keep going.

Adam Robinson

10:10>> Right. I mean, yeah.

Nathan Latka

10:12That all that all makes good sense. That makes good sense. Talk to me about... So grow grow fast and then exit. I mean, what would you guide the company at today?

Valuation and Exit Plans

Adam Robinson

10:20>> I mean, I I don't know. What's a what's a 4,000,000 ARR company growing at 15% a month with 50% total margin and six full time employees worth?

Nathan Latka

10:30Well, that... That's that's the that is... That's the science, but a sale is never about science. It's always an art.

Adam Robinson

10:36>> It

Nathan Latka

10:37comes down to when you go home at night and you have to tell your wife you turned down an x size offer, big how does it have to be before she says, I can't believe you did that. I'm leaving.

Adam Robinson

10:45>> I mean, are you asking my opinion of what I'd sell for?

Nathan Latka

10:47No. I'm asking how you personally would value the business.

Adam Robinson

10:51>> I think that this thing would make sense to certain buyers, you know, I think 25 on the low side. Mhmm. I think a good price for it's probably 50. Mhmm. If I get... If I double revenues before the end of the year, like maybe a little bit a little bit above that, and I think that I will.

Nathan Latka

11:12Interesting. And so so...

Adam Robinson

11:14>> What's your opinion? I I mean, you're the person who talks to a 100 people a day about this stuff.

Nathan Latka

11:19The most viable thing I've heard from you so far is what the top 20% of accounts look like and what the expansion pattern looks like. You're gonna get it...

Adam Robinson

11:30>> Because that's all we're doing now. You know?

Nathan Latka

11:32Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, I don't know what the breakdown is. Right? But Yeah. What I can tell you is the companies right now, they're at the highest valuations. They they all have net dollar retention above a 150%.

Adam Robinson

11:43>> Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

11:44Right? So, like, that's one of the key... That plus just overall growth rate are really the key drivers I'm seeing today of SaaS valuations. You know, the closest comp that I put you guys to would probably be Lemlist and Guillaume. Very similar space, you know. What's the name? Lemlist. Lemlist. Lemlist? Yeah. I mean, he just... You know, they're three co founders. They're very pro... How much are you profiting on the 4,000,000?

Profitability and Dividend Distribution

Adam Robinson

12:05>> 50% total margin, so couple bucks.

Nathan Latka

12:07So last month you did about how much top line?

Adam Robinson

12:10>> Like, 300.

Nathan Latka

12:12The 150. The bottom for that. What do you do with that currently? Do you pay it out as dividends? Yep. Interesting. And and can you explain to me how, like, you're... Is it just to the founders, or do the six employees get to take part... A little part of participation there?

Adam Robinson

12:24>> You know, as I explained, our our employees have a little shadow equity sort of portion of it.

Nathan Latka

12:29It scales up. To dividend checks every month or no?

Adam Robinson

12:31>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They get dividend checks.

Nathan Latka

12:33How how does that work? Founders ask me all the time that are bootstrapped. How do we get our employees incentivized without giving up a big chunk of equity and they do dividend?

Shadow Equity Employee Incentive Model

Adam Robinson

12:39>> Well, I love this shadow equity. You know, at the end of every month, if you have 1% shadow equity, I just write them a check for 1%. It comes out of the next month's expenses, if that makes sense.

Nathan Latka

12:531% of what though?

Adam Robinson

12:54>> Of the... Whatever whatever the total distribution was going to be.

Nathan Latka

12:58Okay. And is the total distribution... So if you did $300,000 last month and one fifty goes to the bottom line, will you distribute a 100% of the one fifty? Yeah. Okay. Got it. So so that...

Adam Robinson

13:06>> Yeah. Like, I I I have, like, you know, a target bank account amount that I like running for the size of company. Let's say it's 250. Right? So, like, we built up to that point and then now it's a one to one with the cash flow we generate.

Nathan Latka

13:19Is You know I mean? Because Why is your bank pushing number two fifty? How'd you

Adam Robinson

13:23>> come up with that? I don't... I have no idea, honestly.

Nathan Latka

13:26Yes, you do. It's emotional.

Adam Robinson

13:28>> I

13:30>> just didn't... You know, that seemed like a number that like no matter what we wanted to do, it was gonna be enough to to gas it if we wanted to. I was never gonna get in trouble. You know, it's... You would... Is that like... Does that seem high to you for like a tiny company like this?

Nathan Latka

13:46No. What are your total your total monthly expenses are $150,000?

Adam Robinson

13:49>> Yeah. About.

Nathan Latka

13:51Alright. So you have

Adam Robinson

13:52>> I mean, yeah, it's like six weeks of expense. I mean, but it's a SaaS business, so it's not gonna go away. I don't know. It's it's... You could probably run it with a lot less. You might run it with lot more than

Nathan Latka

13:59rule is just take your fixed expenses, multiply it times six months. I don't know what your fixed expenses are.

Adam Robinson

14:03>> Yeah. Not a lot.

Nathan Latka

14:05Yeah. I mean, the employees obviously are in there. Exactly. Fixed. Right? Hosting, server, etcetera.

Adam Robinson

14:10>> Yes. So it's probably it's it's probably right around there.

Nathan Latka

14:13Yeah. Interesting. No. I mean, look, I think, you know, I think, you know, a company... And exactly one year ago, what was revenue?

Adam Robinson

14:21>> We've grown 250% since a year ago. So it's probably like $50, $75. I don't know.

Nathan Latka

14:28Yeah. You were like one... A 1,500,000 run rate about a year ago.

Adam Robinson

14:32>> Yeah. Exactly.

Nathan Latka

14:33Yeah. No, I mean, think this is great growth. Congratulations. I mean, this is also a space where, know, I mean, again, there's a ton of churn. So the fact that you've sort of figured out how to how to get that above a 100% net... On net dollar wise is pretty impressive.

Engineering Team and Argentina Development

Nathan Latka

14:48Cool. Okay. Got it. Six people on the team total, one salesperson. How many engineers?

Adam Robinson

14:53>> One engineer.

Nathan Latka

14:54One engineer. How do you build this whole thing with one engineer? Did you use an outsource dev shop or something?

Adam Robinson

14:58>> No. He's a total... Actually, we have two engineers. We have one guy who builds integrations full time but doesn't touch the code. And and the the CTO is my cofounder. He's just like a super genius.

Nathan Latka

15:09Where did you find in person just as integrations full time?

Adam Robinson

15:12>> Through my other company. We hired somebody. I actually built a development team in Argentina for the... For my first startup when I wanted to pull everybody off to work on this one. Wow. And the guy we hired down there to manage them knew this this other guy.

Nathan Latka

15:29Did you use a firm to spin up a team in Argentina or do you just know someone on the

Adam Robinson

15:32>> That was incredibly difficult. Yeah. You know, I went to... I lived down there for a year, and then it still didn't work until I figured I had to, like, hire people to manage... Hire someone to manage the entire team. It was it was just... I'll... If anybody wants to email me, [email protected], I'm happy to jump on a call about this. It is is a bear.

CAC and Sales Compensation

Nathan Latka

15:50Alright. Last thing before we wrap up. What's your fully weighted CAC including salesperson commission to get a new call at five hundred dollar a month customer?

Adam Robinson

15:58>> I mean, that's... So we added 50 k MRR last month and we have two salespeople.

Nathan Latka

16:05So... What commission do you pay?

Adam Robinson

16:07>> Well, I don't pay them commission. I pay them based off MRR. They're sort of... You know what I mean? Like, she's a basically cofounder sort of level employee, and her commission grows as revenue grows, and she's like the sole driver of growth right now. Because she's the only one adding it. Does that make sense?

Nathan Latka

16:24Out of equity structure.

Adam Robinson

16:25>> Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

16:27So But you don't you don't really have a good idea of what that is?

Adam Robinson

16:30>> No. I haven't even... We haven't even thought about it.

Nathan Latka

16:32Made it purely variable.

Adam Robinson

16:34>> Yeah. And that would have to change if I were the one building out a sales force under her, but my whole plan is to let somebody else do that. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

16:40Yeah. So so, I mean, do you think you... I mean, if someone came to you, they was... I mean, with a lot buyers that listen to this podcast, they come and offer you something around, I don't know, $15 to 20,000,000 bucks all cash up front. Do you sell the business?

Exit Price Expectations

Adam Robinson

16:52>> Probably not for 15 or 20. I just think it's grown so fast that that there's somebody out there who likes it for more than that.

Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

17:00Mhmm. Interesting. Okay. Very good. Let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, favorite business book.

Adam Robinson

17:05>> Four Steps to the Epiphany.

Nathan Latka

17:07Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Adam Robinson

17:11>> I share an office with Dave Rogenmoser from Proof, and those guys are doing some unbelievable stuff right now.

Nathan Latka

17:16Oh, are you down here in Austin? Yeah. Oh, amazing.

Adam Robinson

17:19>> Get a coffee sometime.

Nathan Latka

17:20I'm like five minutes from you. I love that. Alright. Number... Are you gonna take over their office or no?

Adam Robinson

17:27>> No. I'm just, you know, I'm just hanging out in there every day.

Nathan Latka

17:30Got it. Well, I know they're trying to sublet a part of it, but then they bought things that are kind of headliner.

Adam Robinson

17:35>> Then they then they started this thing called and they're they're... Yeah. Conversion AI, and they're not looking to do anything anymore. They're absolutely crushing it with that. He needs to get on here and talk about it because it's phenomenal. It's just like the story of that is unreal.

Nathan Latka

17:48Alright. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building a business besides your own? Intercom. Number four, how many hours of sleep to eat every night?

Adam Robinson

17:55>> Seven ish.

Nathan Latka

17:57You know these. You you listen to the show, don't you?

Adam Robinson

17:59>> I do. I'm a... I'm like a I'm like a fan girl.

Nathan Latka

18:04Is it is it what you expected sort of being on it versus listening?

Adam Robinson

18:09>> Yes. Good.

Nathan Latka

18:09Yes. I like that. I think that's a compliment. So that's good.

Adam Robinson

18:12>> That... It was exactly exactly what I expected.

Nathan Latka

18:14Good. No. And you still feel good about it. Right?

Adam Robinson

18:17>> I do. I'm glad I did it. You know, especially because I'm very upfront with what I'm trying to do at the end of the year, which is Yeah. All this thing.

Nathan Latka

18:23So... Now look look. A lot of people will say, like, read all these negotiation books, they say you have to be approached and to do... I'll tell you what, if you put out there that you wanna sell and you can create a bidding war, that is how you get irrational offers. Like, I'm also more sort of saying we're accepting term sheets on August 1.

Adam Robinson

18:43>> Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

18:43You know, give us indicative terms to open up Data Room 1 on August 15 and we're picking a term sheet designed by August 30. Let's rock and roll.

Adam Robinson

18:50>> Drumming up demand, baby. Let's go. If you have any other if you have any other, ideas for how I might sort of further drum up demand, would I would love to.

Nathan Latka

18:58Well, look, I'd love to take it to market for you. I mean, I have plenty of buyers I think could, you know... I I don't know. I mean, look, I have to put some feelers out, but I think getting, you know, sounds like 15 was too low, 20 is more interesting, but 25, especially on clean terms, starts to get really interesting at your current run rate. Obviously, be more if you grew.

Adam Robinson

19:14>> Yeah. I think you're probably in the right zip code. And I was... You know, my whole idea was like, get it to the end of the year, be doing six and a half or seven because we got a couple other growth things that are gonna crush it. And then that number's higher, you know?

Nathan Latka

19:26Great. What's your situation? Married? So we know you're married. Single kiddos?

Adam Robinson

19:30>> I'm married. No kiddos. Working on it.

Nathan Latka

19:32Okay. Oh, nice. Exciting. How old are you? I'm 40. 40. Last question, Adam. What are you wishing you when you were 20?

Adam Robinson

19:39>> Skip Wall Street and learn how to build software, dude. Quit as an around.

Nathan Latka

19:44Statement. There's a lot of very rich people that love Wall Street.

Adam Robinson

19:48>> No. I know. But this is this is just more satisfying to me, to be honest.

Nathan Latka

19:52And it's not really TM. I mean, when you think about every... Right now in SaaS, it's so hot. Every dollar of MRR you add to your business is effectively worth $60 in equity because you multiply times 12 to annualize it and a minimum five x multiple. It's an ATM. You put a dollar in and get 60 out. It's crazy. Hey.

Adam Robinson

20:10>> Let's do this.

Nathan Latka

20:11Let's do this. Guys,

20:14there you have it. Adamgetemails.com did $1,500,000 run rate last year, have grown about 4,000,000 in terms of run rate. Now they do 300 ish thousand dollars in top line revenue per month, profit $150,000 at the bottom line every month. They pay out dividends to their team. Only six people, high revenue per employee, which we love, 750 customers, helping you understand those anonymous website visits, but not just telling you what company that visit is from, but

20:36actually giving you the email so you can follow-up and take action on. And Adam, thanks for taking us this out.

Adam Robinson

20:40>> Thanks, Nathan. It's fun.

Nathan Latka

20:43One 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

21:07central. 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

21:28fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement, or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you wanna take this conversation deeper and further, we have by far the largest private Slack community for B2B SaaS founders. You wanna 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 for

21:49that 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. We gotta

22:08push them away. Click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys' support. Alright. I'll be in the comments. See you.