Founder Interview
How GoComet Reached 50 Enterprise Customers with 400% Growth in 2019 (Interview with Co-Founder Gautam Prem Jain)
- Interview Date
- January 2019
- Interviewee
- Gautam Prem JainCo-Founder
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Customers (2019)
50 large enterprises
Year-over-Year Growth (2019)
400%
Avg Contract Value (2019)
$15,000 per year
Net Revenue Retention (2019)
95%
Team Size (2019)
30
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Gautam Prem Jain during the interview recorded in January 2019 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See GoComet’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01GoComet had 50 large enterprise customers as of January 2019
- 02The company grew five times (400%) in the year leading up to January 2019
- 03Average contract value was approximately $15,000 per year, with contracts ranging up to $100,000 per annum
- 04Contracts are annual with quarterly billing
- 05Net revenue retention was about 95%, with 5% loss attributed to changes in company or export structure
- 06All 50 customers were acquired through cold outreach, starting with lists of top exporters found via Google and LinkedIn
- 07GoComet raised a $300,000 seed round in late 2016 and was approximately breakeven at interview time
- 08The team of 30 was spread across five offices in Singapore, Bangkok, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore
- 09Pricing is based on number of shipments (air) or number of containers (ocean freight)
- 10The company was founded in 2016
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Customers (2019) | 50 large enterprises | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Year-over-Year Growth (2019) | 400% | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Avg Contract Value (2019) | $15,000 per year | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Contract Range (2019) | $15,000 to $100,000 per annum | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Contract Type (2019) | Annual contract, quarterly billing | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Net Revenue Retention (2019) | 95% | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Team Size (2019) | 30 | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Total Funding Raised | $300,000 | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Seed Round (2016) | $300,000 | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Year Founded | 2016 | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Largest Customer Shipments (2019) | 100,000 containers per year | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
| Smallest Customer Shipments (2019) | 50 shipments per month | Founder interview, Jan 2019 |
Growth Breakdown
Customers
GoComet had 50 large enterprise customers as of January 2019, spanning pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and agro commodity companies. The smallest customer ships around 50 shipments per month and the largest ships approximately 100,000 containers per year.
Growth
The company grew five times in the year leading up to January 2019, representing 400% year-over-year growth. This growth was driven entirely by direct cold outreach to large exporters.
Team
GoComet had 30 team members at interview time, spread across five offices in three global locations: Singapore, Bangkok, and three cities in India (Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore).
Profitability and Funding
GoComet raised a $300,000 seed round in late 2016 and was approximately breakeven at the time of the interview. At the time of recording, the company was raising a new round that Jain put at between $2,000,000 and $5,000,000; the details were still under wraps.
Growth Strategy
Cold Outreach to Large Exporters
All 50 customers were acquired through cold calling and cold email. The team identified target companies by searching for lists of the biggest exporters in a given country, freely available via Google.
LinkedIn for Contact Discovery
Once target companies were identified, the team used LinkedIn to find the right point of contact, typically a VP of Supply Chain or Chief Financial Officer, then called the company's main line or sent a guessed email to reach that person.
Direct Enterprise Sales Model
GoComet uses a direct sales model with an enterprise sales team, with no inside sales function at interview time. Meetings were secured by pitching the solution and referencing results at other companies.
Customer References and Retention
As the customer base grew, GoComet began receiving referrals from existing customers. The platform's deep integration into legacy logistics processes makes it difficult for customers to leave, supporting 95% net revenue retention.
Expansion Revenue
At the time of the interview, GoComet was beginning to turn on expansion revenue within existing accounts, though no specific numbers were available yet for that cohort.
Best Quotes
“So GoComet is a logistics resource management solution. We are an enterprise SaaS company.”
“The companies are paying us quarterly and the contracts are annually.”
“The typical size for a company is approximately $15,000 to a $100,000 per annum.”
“Cold calling. All of our customers are obtained through cold calling, and now we are starting to get references from old customers.”
“We have not lost any company. ... Once they start using the platform, it's very difficult for them to leave the platform.”
“Net revenue retention is about, I would say, 95%. The 5% loss is due to sometimes change in the structure of company or change in the export structure of the company.”
“We have raised a seed round, two years ago in the end of twenty sixteen.”
“We are about breakeven right now.”
“We have a team which is, 30 members strong.”
“Oh, so we were one fifth of the revenue. So basically we have grown five times in the last one year.”
What Happened Next
This interview captures GoComet at an early stage in January 2019, when the company had 50 enterprise customers and was approximately breakeven after raising a $300,000 seed round in 2016. At the time of recording, the team was raising a new round, which Jain put at between $2,000,000 and $5,000,000 and expected to announce within a couple of months. Visit the GoComet company profile on GetLatka for current metrics and funding history.
View GoComet’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Background
- 0:26What GoComet Does and How It Makes Money
- 1:44Pricing and Contract Structure
- 3:09Company Launch and Customer Count
- 3:32Growth: Five Times in One Year
- 3:49Cold Outreach Growth Channel
- 5:52Funding and Burn Rate
- 6:15Team Size and Office Locations
- 6:39Churn and Net Revenue Retention
- 7:37CAC, LTV, and Payback Period
- 8:45Current Raise and Valuation Target
- 10:21Famous Five: Books, Habits, and Advice
Introduction and Background
Nathan Latka
00:00Hello, everybody. My guest today is Gautam Jain. He is the co founder he's sorry. He's an experienced co founder with a demonstrated history of working in the logistics and supply chain industry today working on GoComet. He's skilled in business planning, product strategy, operations management, and sales. He's got a strong pro he's a strong professional with a bachelor in technology major in computer science and engineering from IIT Delhi. Alright. Gautam, you ready to take us to
00:24the top?
Gautam Prem Jain
00:25>> Sure.
What GoComet Does and How It Makes Money
Nathan Latka
00:26Alright. What is GoComet and how do you guys make money?
Gautam Prem Jain
00:29>> Alright. So GoComet is a logistics resource management solution. We are an enterprise SaaS company.
Nathan Latka
00:37That's great. And and what do you so help help people understand what you deliver.
Gautam Prem Jain
00:41>> Sure. So we essentially solve the problem of opaqueness and inefficiency in the in the export logistics processes.
Nathan Latka
00:49So just give an idea of Give me an example of what that market is.
Gautam Prem Jain
00:52>> I'll I'll just give an example. So in the export logistics is when any manufacturing company trans transports goods internationally, and that is the big containers, the air freight that we see for all the movement of the manufacturing companies and the agro commodities. This movement is is actually this is freight spend of a trillion, $2,000,000,000,000 annually globally. So this freight spend is almost all of it is happening on emails and phone calls. Right? So this this is
01:25>> the industry due to the in the large companies face a lot of inefficiencies in managing these shipments. Right? And that is what where we come in. We help companies, give a lot we help we give the companies a logistics resource management solution where their processes are digitized and hence the problem of opaqueness is resolved.
Pricing and Contract Structure
Nathan Latka
01:44Okay. And how do you bill? So on average, are people paying you per month or per year for this?
Gautam Prem Jain
01:49>> The companies are paying us quarterly and the contracts are annually.
Nathan Latka
01:52Okay. And how much are they typically?
Gautam Prem Jain
01:54>> The typical size for a company is approximately it's approximately $15,000 to a $100,000 per annum.
Nathan Latka
02:01Okay. That's a particular concept size.
02:04Okay. That's a big range though. Would you say the average is probably $15,000 a year?
Gautam Prem Jain
02:08>> The average is probably 15,000 year.
Nathan Latka
02:10Yeah. Okay. Got it. So $15,000 a year or $1,200 per month, but they have to pay annually.
Gautam Prem Jain
02:16>> That's right.
Nathan Latka
02:16Okay. So they
Gautam Prem Jain
02:17>> have to be quarterly, actually. Quarter.
Nathan Latka
02:18Quarter. Okay. So what is that? That's like 3,600 per quarter, something like that?
Gautam Prem Jain
02:23>> That's right.
Nathan Latka
02:24That's great.
Gautam Prem Jain
02:24>> This varies a lot depending on the size of the company that we are dealing with.
Nathan Latka
02:28Well, so tell me about that. So so what are the pricing axes you price against? Is it number of containers shipped or number of seats? What are they?
Gautam Prem Jain
02:36>> They are the number of containers Okay. No. Okay. The number of shipments.
Nathan Latka
02:40Say that again?
Gautam Prem Jain
02:42>> In in air shipments, it's the number of shipments.
Nathan Latka
02:44Okay. So air is number of shipments. And then what would like an average like like your largest customer, how many containers per month or per year are they sending?
Gautam Prem Jain
02:53>> Our largest customer, they are sending about
02:58>> a 100,000 ship containers a year.
Nathan Latka
03:00Oh, wow. And the smallest customer is sending about how many?
Gautam Prem Jain
03:03>> Our smallest customer is sending about 50 shipments a month, which is approximately, yeah, 600 a year.
Company Launch and Customer Count
Nathan Latka
03:09Okay. Interesting. And when did you launch the company? What year?
Gautam Prem Jain
03:12>> We launched this company in 2016.
Nathan Latka
03:132016. That's great. And how many customers are you working with today?
Gautam Prem Jain
03:17>> We are working with approximately 50 large enterprises.
Nathan Latka
03:20Five zero or one five. That's great. Okay. So can I take 50 times the price point you just gave me? It means you're doing about $60,000 a month right now?
Gautam Prem Jain
03:28>> That's right.
Nathan Latka
03:29Congratulations. That's great.
Gautam Prem Jain
03:31>> Thank you.
Growth: Five Times in One Year
Nathan Latka
03:32What were you doing exactly a year ago in January 2018?
Gautam Prem Jain
03:36>> Oh, so we were one fifth of the revenue. So basically we have grown five times in the last one year.
Nathan Latka
03:42Okay. So that means you're doing about $12,500 a year ago. Now you're doing call it $62,000. That's nice growth.
Gautam Prem Jain
03:48>> Thank you so much.
Cold Outreach Growth Channel
Nathan Latka
03:49How are you getting the growth? What growth channel are you using to sign up these 50 customers?
Gautam Prem Jain
03:53>> So ours is the direct direct point of sales with the large enterprises.
Nathan Latka
03:57Okay. But to be specific, the last like the first customer you had to hustle to close, what'd you do? Where'd you find them? How'd you get connected?
Gautam Prem Jain
04:04>> Cold calling. All of our customers are obtained through cold calling, and now we are starting to get references from old customers.
Nathan Latka
04:10Okay. How do you get their phone number?
Gautam Prem Jain
04:13>> Oh, it's calling on the board line and finding about with the person on LinkedIn and then calling on the board line to get connected to the person, pitching that this is what we can provide you. This is how we have been helping other companies. And hence, after that, the meeting is obtained. In that meeting, we we we share our solution. That is how we have been helping companies.
Nathan Latka
04:29Okay. But be specific. So the start of this is a LinkedIn search. What terms are you searching on LinkedIn?
Gautam Prem Jain
04:34>> Actually, we already know the companies that we have to target. Right? For example, if you're talking the major we
04:43>> we have a list of the biggest exporters of any country. Right? In that country, you will see the top pharmaceutical companies, top agro commodity companies, which are companies like you can say, Olam International, Sun Pharmaceuticals, which are the biggest companies of the world. Right? Now in them, you have to find who is the right point of contact. Right? So that there you go to LinkedIn and you are able to find probably see chief financial officer or
05:09>> VP of supply chain. Once you find the name of the person, you go to board line and you call or you send an email.
Nathan Latka
05:15That's great. And how are you getting their email?
Gautam Prem Jain
05:19>> The email is mostly guessed.
Nathan Latka
05:21Okay. And how are you getting the phone number? Just from their website?
Gautam Prem Jain
05:25>> The phone number is obtained from the website. Yes. That's receptionist and connect the person.
Nathan Latka
05:28Okay. So where did you get this list from? Did you just scrape it from like a marketing website or something?
Gautam Prem Jain
05:34>> Oh, it is available freely on the on on the Google.
Nathan Latka
05:38But what, like, what did you search on Google? Just like top exporters in The US?
Gautam Prem Jain
05:42>> That's correct.
Nathan Latka
05:43Okay. And there most of your customers are agriculture or pharma?
Gautam Prem Jain
05:47>> Most of our customers are, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and agro commodity companies.
Funding and Burn Rate
Nathan Latka
05:52Interesting. Okay. Have you bootstrapped this or raised capital?
Gautam Prem Jain
05:55>> We have raised a seed round, two years ago in the end of twenty sixteen.
Nathan Latka
06:00How much?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:01>> And that that roundabout was about $300,000.
Nathan Latka
06:04Okay. And that's all you've raised to date?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:06>> That's all we have raised to date.
Nathan Latka
06:08That's awesome. I love that. Staying lean and mean. Okay. Now are you burning cash today? Are you profitable?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:13>> Oh, we are about breakeven right now.
Team Size and Office Locations
Nathan Latka
06:15Okay. And how many team members do you have?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:18>> We have a team which is, 30 members strong.
Nathan Latka
06:2130?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:21>> Three zero.
Nathan Latka
06:22That's great. Yes. Where's everyone based?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:25>> We are we have actually five offices spread across three global locations. So we have offices in Singapore, Bangkok, and in India, we have offices in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore.
Nathan Latka
06:35That's great. Okay. So basically a remote team all spread out.
Churn and Net Revenue Retention
Gautam Prem Jain
06:39>> That's right.
Nathan Latka
06:39That's great. Okay. Talk to me about churn. Have you lost customers?
Gautam Prem Jain
06:43>> Actually, retention is one of the biggest parameters for us. The one thing important is that these companies, are each of them is doing all of the shipments on our platform since this is this is an LRM solution for them. Right? Secondly, we have not lost any company. Once these companies are really they have their legacy processes. Once they start using the platform, it's very difficult for them to leave the platform.
Nathan Latka
07:06Okay. So net revenue retention annually is about what?
Gautam Prem Jain
07:10>> Net revenue retention is about, I would say, 95%. The 5% loss is due to sometimes change in the structure of company or change in the export structure of the company.
Nathan Latka
07:20Okay. So that's 5% kind of gross revenue churn per year. Do you have any expansion revenue or no?
Gautam Prem Jain
07:27>> Oh, we do have. And that's actually starting right now. So yeah, not not really numbers on that for the past six So
Nathan Latka
07:34you're just kind of turning on that on?
Gautam Prem Jain
07:36>> That's right.
CAC, LTV, and Payback Period
Nathan Latka
07:37Okay. Very good. That's good stuff. And then what are you spending fully weighted to get a new customer that's gonna pay you call it $15,000 a year?
Gautam Prem Jain
07:45>> So our ratio of CAC and LTV, so that is about one is to five.
Nathan Latka
07:52Okay. And what is what do you assume lifetime value is in dollars?
Gautam Prem Jain
07:55>> Lifetime value of a customer? Well, we haven't seen much of a churn right now. Right? So it's it's it's, still still, going through that phase, but we see that the lifetime years in terms of the average should be five years.
Nathan Latka
08:09Okay. So you're taking five years at $15,000 a year.
Gautam Prem Jain
08:15>> $15,000 a year divided by 5 to $75,000 is an average customer value for a medium level customer?
08:20>> Yep.
Nathan Latka
08:21So if you're if you're saying basically your ratio is one to five there, I can take $75,000 lifetime value divided by five years willing to spend $15,000 to get a new customer.
Gautam Prem Jain
08:29>> That's right.
Nathan Latka
08:30Okay. Which means you get paid back in about a year.
Gautam Prem Jain
08:32>> We get paid back in a year. Definitely.
Nathan Latka
08:34That's great. Very cool. Alright. Now of the team of 30, do you have any inside salespeople? Do you have an inside sales model or no?
Gautam Prem Jain
08:41>> Not right now. We only have a direct model where, we have enterprise sales, professional team.
Current Raise and Valuation Target
Nathan Latka
08:45Okay. Now sometimes when people raise and they raise like two or three years ago, it's a good time to ask them, hey. Are you raising right now or selling to your number one competitor? Which one are you doing?
Gautam Prem Jain
08:54>> We are raising right now.
Nathan Latka
08:55Okay. How how much are you raising?
Gautam Prem Jain
08:57>> So it's still under the wraps, but we we should be publicizing it soon in a couple of months.
Nathan Latka
09:03Well, sorry. Don't tell me what the actual term sheet says, but but in a what do you hope that you raise? Are you talking like a million or 10,000,000 or what?
Gautam Prem Jain
09:10>> So it's it's between 2 to $5,000,000.
Nathan Latka
09:13Okay. So so you wanna raise and by the way, don't don't say what you actually have. Like, don't say what's on the term sheet. I'm just talking about for your business. In an ideal world, you wanna raise about $2,000,000.
Gautam Prem Jain
09:22>> That's correct.
Nathan Latka
09:23Okay. And and again, don't say what's actually on your term sheet, but what what kind of valuation would make you really happy to raise that 2,000,000 on?
Gautam Prem Jain
09:31>> Probably five x of that.
Nathan Latka
09:32Okay. So and and how do you get to this? So you're basically saying raise $2,000,000 on a 10,000,000 pre money valuation?
Gautam Prem Jain
09:38>> That's right.
Nathan Latka
09:38And how do get walk me through what's going on in your head. How do you get to that?
Gautam Prem Jain
09:42>> Oh, so that is actually more of a you can say we have a plan on how we are going to expand. We know the demand. Right? It's it's pretty very interesting to see that the kind of product we have built even in Southeast Asia and Middle East, there is no product like that, right, which companies are using en masse. Right? So it is a huge potential opportunity for us. Right? And that that is what we are
10:05>> going to go for. We know what is the plan. We we have a successful working model of acquisition of companies. We have a successful retention model. Companies are super happy with us, and that is why we are we we know that we can capture those markets, and that is how we are we are arriving at a valuation.
Famous Five: Books, Habits, and Advice
Nathan Latka
10:21That's great. Very good. Alright. Let's wrap up here, Gautam, with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book?
Gautam Prem Jain
10:26>> Oh, Lean Startup.
Nathan Latka
10:28Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Gautam Prem Jain
10:31>> Elon Musk.
Nathan Latka
10:32Number three, what's your what billing tool do you guys use? I'm sorry? What billing tool do you use?
Gautam Prem Jain
10:38>> Oh, we use Zoho.
Nathan Latka
10:40Zoho. Okay. Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Gautam Prem Jain
10:44>> Actually, I'm a I I sleep a lot. So eight hours.
Nathan Latka
10:48That's good. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?
Gautam Prem Jain
10:51>> I'm single.
10:52>> Not married, no kids.
Nathan Latka
10:53And how old are you?
Gautam Prem Jain
10:55>> I am 25.
Nathan Latka
10:56I just turned 20.
10:57I love that.
Gautam Prem Jain
10:58>> 25. Alright. And so last question.
Nathan Latka
10:59What do you wish your 20 year old self knew?
Gautam Prem Jain
11:02>> I'm sorry?
Nathan Latka
11:03What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?
Gautam Prem Jain
11:06>> Oh, so I wish, I would be reading more. I would be getting more knowledge from experienced people. I would be networking with the mentors to help me develop faster.
Nathan Latka
11:16Guys, read more. Again, freight and shipping management, 50 customers that each pay $1,200 a month doing about $62,000 bucks a month right now in revenue up from $12,000 a month just a year ago. They price based off number of containers shipped or if it's in the air, it's number of shipments. The way they got their customers, they cold called all their customers. They got a list of the biggest exporters from any country, looked up in the
11:36VP of fine of supply chain or CFO on LinkedIn, then hustled to either call them or email them to ultimately close them. They've raised $300,000 They're breakeven today hoping to raise $2,000,000 on call it maybe a 10,000,000 pre team of 30 all remote 5% gross revenue churn per year. No expansion yet, but they're turning that on. 95% net revenue retention today spending $15,000 to get a new customer, which they get paid back then, obviously there in
11:57about a year. Alright. Gautam, thank you so much for taking us to the top.
Gautam Prem Jain
12:01>> Thank you so much. It was lovely speaking to you.