How LeafLink Built a Cannabis Wholesale Marketplace With Almost 1,300 Brands and $123M in GMV in One Month (Interview with Ryan Smith)

Nathan Latka

00:00You're gonna love this interview. Just got done editing it. I'm glad I got it live for you. I'll be in the comments for the next thirty minutes hanging out answering any questions you have. In fact, leave a comment below about data points or what you think is gonna happen to the company, and I will respond to every comment. Additionally, if you're just loving the content, click the thumbs up and I will go and check out your

00:18profile as well and give your videos some love as well. In the meantime, enjoy the interview.

Introduction and Background

Nathan Latka

00:25Hello, everyone. My guest today is Ryan Smith. He's now working on a company called LeafLink, the wholesale cannabis marketplace. Before founding the company, successfully founded and exited two companies, one of which he sold to a New York Stock Exchange public firm. Ryan brings his experience creating and managing b two b firms and online marketplace investing in a highly regulated space to LeafLink as its CEO. Ryan, you ready to take us to the top?

Ryan Smith

00:46Yeah. Let's do it, Nathan.

Founding Story and First Capital

Nathan Latka

00:47Now did you found the company as well?

Ryan Smith

00:48Yeah. I'm one of the cofounders of Zach Silverman, who's our CTO.

Nathan Latka

00:51Okay. When'd when'd you guys launch?

Ryan Smith

00:53We raised the first million bucks in an angel round in December 2015. So the software actually went live March 2016.

Nathan Latka

01:01Okay. And why do you sue... Why do you why do you tie the start of the business to to your first raise?

Ryan Smith

01:08So after I sold the last company, which was this investor relationship management platform, there was a full year I had to commit to the next company and quit the day after that year. And then Zach and I started working immediately on this. And once the capital was in, we were both... Zach was able to leave his job, and we were both fully, you know, committed. So

Nathan Latka

01:27So when... I guess, what... When was the first line of code written for the platform?

Ryan Smith

01:31January. So January 2016. Yeah. I mean, all the things that we were doing research in, like, q four twenty fifteen was really... None of that kinda carried over. It was just more like starting to pencil it out and whiteboard it together.

Nathan Latka

01:42So 2016. And when was your first dollar of revenue?

Ryan Smith

01:46Probably end of that summer. So, like, yeah, end of q two... End of q two, q three of twenty sixteen.

Nathan Latka

01:54And so, I mean, when you when you sum it up, I mean, if I asked you how much total cash did you guys invest, right, in the MVP before your first dollar revenue, what would your answer be?

Ryan Smith

02:02Probably around 200 k. Okay. 150 to 200 k.

Nathan Latka

02:07And what made it so... I mean, where'd you spend that?

Ryan Smith

02:10Really just all engineering. So we had, you know, we had one engineer at the time. We had two first hires, and that was really the core team through the middle of twenty sixteen. And so that's a lot of what the capital was spent on. The thing we really celebrated, I remember though, in, like, in that March 2016 was when the first order organically was generated between buyer and seller. Because, obviously, you know, the first few clients,

02:31you give it away, just get some feedback. And then a little bit after that's when we started making... You know, beginning to charge a few clients.

Team Size and Office Locations

Nathan Latka

02:36Well, I wanna dive into how you built the early stages of the marketplace because that's obviously critical. You have the chicken and egg problem. But what's the team size today? How many people?

Ryan Smith

02:43We have just under 90 people today.

Nathan Latka

02:45Okay.

Ryan Smith

02:46Around 50 in New York, just under 20 in LA, and then we have, three satellite offices with, you know, less than four people in them.

Nathan Latka

02:53Okay. How many engineers are the 90?

Ryan Smith

02:55We're we're... We just nearly doubled our engineering team size, so about 30 right now. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

03:02And any quota carrying reps, sales reps?

Ryan Smith

03:05Yep. We have about 24 sales reps and client success managers within that within that group.

Nathan Latka

03:11So well, of the 24, how many actually carry a quota? Do the customer success folks carry a quota too?

Ryan Smith

03:16Yep. They have quotas around churn, engagement, upsell. And then on the account executive side, they have like brand sign ons and that's pretty much their quota.

Sales Quotas, Brand Sign-Ups and Customer Count

Nathan Latka

03:26What... I mean, when you when you set, you know, hiring salespeople and doing it scale is an art because you have to get kinda guess on pro formas, you have to guess on bookings target, you have to guess on ramp up time. You're, you know, you're fully matured AEs today. What do you try? I mean, what is healthy for them to be closing annually in terms of new revenue for you guys? Is it like a million

03:43dollar quota or something else?

Ryan Smith

03:45So we just recently transitioned to revenue quotas for the last, like, three and a half years. It was really just around... Because we're going for market penetration and growth of the community on the network was number of brands. So brands of the sell side companies to retailers who do the buy in the marketplace. And so, in early... Can pull some numbers for you. But in early twenty eighteen, we were bringing on about 30 brands per month,

04:09as a company, and there was probably five reps. So somewhere between, like, five to seven brands per rep. And now we've, you know, have a VP of sales. We've done a lot of education. Really, teams leveled up in a significant way, and we're closing on that number of... That I mentioned earlier around... We just broke a 100 brands signed for the first time in a month. I think reps are closing closer to, like, 13 to 17

04:32brands a month now.

Nathan Latka

04:33So last month, you signed a 100 new brands?

Ryan Smith

04:35Yeah. We we... First time, we broke a 100 new brands.

Nathan Latka

04:37Yeah. Like, total or new sign ups that month?

Ryan Smith

04:40New sign ups that month. So we have in total almost 1,300 brands on LeafLink's platform today.

Marketplace Structure: Brands and Retailers

Nathan Latka

04:47Yep. And then fill out the marketplace for me. So you define brands as the sell side. There's 1,300. What's the other side?

Ryan Smith

04:53Retailers. So the use case would be if you're a purchasing manager at a dispensary, you need to buy from... Each state has its own marketplace because you can't go across state lines. So let's say you're in California. You can buy from over 400 brands in one cart on LeafLink. Hit submit, and then all of the orders go out by their license number to those brands. And then we have some SaaS tools in the back end to

05:14help them manage the life cycle of the order, but that's, like, the use case.

Nathan Latka

05:14So the reason I'm

05:18a real retailer, like, in LA or Denver.

Ryan Smith

05:21So, like, Harborside would... You know, is a big client of ours up in Northern California. In in Denver, Medicine Man is one of our great clients out there. And so, like, there's a guy Josh Best, was actually a retailer of the year, last year, but he can order from all these different brands in one cart. Whereas previously, he was calling, texting, emailing 30 to 50 brands. And now all these brands are launching new products constantly. It's

05:46highly competitive on the buy and sell side, so this creates transparency.

Nathan Latka

05:49How many buy side folks do you have, retailers?

Ryan Smith

05:52We have over 3,400 retailers. So about four... So four out of five retail... Licensed retail dispensaries in The United States have placed an order on LeafLink.

Nathan Latka

06:01And how do you define active? So is it at least a dollar through your platform over the past year?

Ryan Smith

06:05Yeah. So at least an order... One order through the marketplace every month.

Nathan Latka

06:10One order marketplace every month and 30 so 3,400 did that over the past thirty days?

Ryan Smith

06:15Yes.

Nathan Latka

06:15Okay. I mean, that's that's great. So I wanted again, I'm getting these so that can then dive into the early days. But just to be clear, give me also a real example on the brand side.

Ryan Smith

06:24So, a company like Kiva or Dosist in California, Dixie or Juana in Colorado,

06:32brands that we sell. And what we really focus on, though, because it's one of the early bets we made is when you think about the cannabis industry, think about, like, the physical flower, like, agricultural product. We believe really in brands as the future. That's where we know companies have real margin. Just growing plants isn't really the business it was three or four years ago even. So we bet on CPG SKUs that are consistent to buy time

06:54and time again, and that's where we see the future in the space. So when you go on LeafLink's marketplace, the vast majority of our 70,000 odd SKUs are products that are well branded and consistently packaged.

Nathan Latka

07:04So those 70,000 SKUs, those are published and uploaded the metadata, everything from these 1,300 brands?

Ryan Smith

07:10Exactly. Yep.

Nathan Latka

07:11Okay. So 1,300 brands. Sorry. And then you just said the 70,000 SKUs you said?

Ryan Smith

07:16Yeah. Over 70,000 SKUs in the platform.

Nathan Latka

07:19Interesting. Do you see power laws and there's just one SKU make up 40% of total volume?

Ryan Smith

07:27Sorry. You cracked up.

Nathan Latka

07:27Yeah. Do you

07:28see any power laws, Ryan? Does one SKU make up like 40% of your total volume?

Ryan Smith

07:34We see pretty... Like, in in... When you see, like, eighty twenty split in some more traditional supply chains, we see something closer to, like, sixty five thirty five in terms of, like, how things are consolidated. The one thing that's interesting about our space is the space itself is an... Is a start up, and a lot of our clients are start ups too. So the companies that we're talking about that had significant market share even a year

07:55ago, it changes so quickly. And so a lot of us is just, like, staying up to beat with with those changes in the space.

GMV and Market Penetration

Nathan Latka

08:01Okay. And what is the what is the total? I guess, how do I define this? The total GMV of these kinds of SKUs right in the world right now is how much over the past twelve months or how much annually?

Ryan Smith

08:14For for the whole industry? Yeah. So we... The way we get to our, like, GMV market penetration is we think the 2019 whole industry size was, like, right around $12,700,000,000 in retail. And those are... So all these numbers are reported, like, the retail to consumer, retail to patient numbers. We know that a lot of our clients charge 40 to 60% margin. So we basically cut that in half at this $6,350,000,000 in wholesale transactions. And a few

08:43more numbers. Last month, we did a $123,000,000 in GMV. So those are buy and sell transactions in the marketplace, which is roughly, like, a $1,400,000,000 annual run rate, which is, like, 23% ish of, all legal cannabis wholesale and now on LeafLink's marketplace.

Nathan Latka

08:59So one twenty three through the platform exactly last month. Break down the economics on the buy side, on the brand side, the Dixie's of the world, and on the medicine man side. Right? So if 123 goes through your platform, where... How does that money get split up?

Ryan Smith

09:12So the... Back to, like, each of the different marketplaces being... Each of the different territories being their own marketplace. So we're like a collection of 23 different marketplaces. Like, Colorado is its own. California is its own. Our largest markets right now are... California is our largest, not surprisingly, just under, like, $40,000,000 in, GMV last month. Cal... Colorado is just, just over 30,000,000, and then Michigan, Oregon, Nevada are, like, the three that trail those. And what we're

09:40starting to do now is, like, we've opened up in some markets that are really new. Like Florida, it's just rec... It's just medical. Only a few shops. We opened up in Oklahoma, interesting enough, you know, right by you. And

Nathan Latka

09:52Oklahoma is pretty far from Texas. Just because we're in the South doesn't mean we're all living, like, right right next to each other.

Ryan Smith

09:57Well, it it close. You know?

Nathan Latka

09:59Yeah. Kinda close, I guess.

Ryan Smith

10:01Kinda close. But... Yeah. So we're we're starting to open up a lot of these new markets where they've never ordered on something that wasn't LeafLink, and that's a really cool opportunity for us to set this, like, standard defining how the supply chain works.

Revenue Model: SaaS, Ads, and Transactions

Nathan Latka

10:13So how do you make money?

Ryan Smith

10:15So we have four different revenue lines. Historically, you know, when you when you think marketplace, you think take rate. Right? Like, you have to get participate in the transaction. For us, over the last three years, we've been charging a flat SaaS fee really more just to the sell side companies, more as a validation of the product being valuable to them. We are not a cannabis company. We are a technology company, and that seems like a word

10:41game, but it's actually very important because a lot of our investors, our Hippeaus and Thrives of the world, they can't make investments as institutionally backed funds in cannabis touching companies. So we're not involved in the actual transaction. So we, for the first three years, couldn't take transaction fees until we recently figured out a way to enable that process. So up to so... SaaS ads, and, we're beginning to monetize that GMV number that we shared, just in

11:05the last six months.

SaaS Pricing and Revenue Breakdown

Nathan Latka

11:06Okay. And let's go down each of those real quick. So the flat SaaS fee, I'm sure you have all kinds of different, you know, amounts people are paying, but the sweet spot for you, what do they pay you per year to use the SaaS side on average?

Ryan Smith

11:18Between, yeah, between two... Between $399 and $1,499 a month. $1,499 is definitely a company more minority group. Those are for very large distribution companies that have multiple brands within them, and then we charge by brand.

Nathan Latka

11:31Got it. So so they pay about $400 per month minimum across the 1,300 sell side folks, the Dixies of the world.

Ryan Smith

11:40That's about right. Yeah. And they... That's really, like, we think of as the entrance fee to the community, to the marketplace, validation of value on the product.

Nathan Latka

11:48Okay. Can I multiply? Can I take 1,300 times 400 that? I mean, that puts that revenue stream at $500K a I know.

Ryan Smith

11:54Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. Go... Yeah. Yeah.

11:55So that that gets to where the SaaS revenue is.

Nathan Latka

11:58Okay. Good. So that... But that is fairly accurate. That's around what you're doing there. What what was that stream a year ago? Do you remember? Did you double it? You triple it?

Ryan Smith

12:06So, yeah, we've we've quadrupled that... The SaaS revenue line from this time last year.

Nathan Latka

12:12Okay. So you're doing, like, a $125K a year ago on the SaaS side then?

Ryan Smith

12:17Yep. 4x. It was... Yeah. Annual... Or or on the monthly side. Yeah. That's right.

Nathan Latka

12:22Yeah.

Ryan Smith

12:23So... Yeah. So that's that's about right on SaaS. And then once you're a member of the platform, you get access to a number of other different tools. So we have... There's a lot of restrictions in the space around advertising, and so we allow brands at the point of purchase to retailers in this closed community to advertise new products, deals, all these different things. And that's that's historically been our our second largest... Up until last month, actually,

12:48our second largest revenue line.

12:51And then the third

Nathan Latka

12:51I imagine,

12:52though, Ryan, that that's pretty... I mean, I imagine that's fairly small. Right? I mean, SaaS probably makes up what? 80% of your total revenue?

Ryan Smith

13:00Yeah. It's right around right around... Historically, right around there.

Nathan Latka

13:03Yeah. Okay. So ads are like what? Ads are like 15 and transaction fees are like 5% or something?

Ryan Smith

13:10I'd say ads are yeah, around 15 to 20%. Yeah, your breakdown is not far off.

LeafLink Financial, Transaction Fees and GMV Growth

Nathan Latka

13:15Okay. So what, so first off, I love this. One of things I love about the show is that since I do so many of these like pattern recognition tends to kick in, there are so many SaaS companies killing it right now because they are jumping into the transaction game. So you now have a GMV model because there's basically 300 bps up for grabs on every dollar through your platform, 200 bps goes to Visa and then the

13:36other 100 right or the credit card company, the other 100 essentially are up for grabs. So how are you thinking about launching and getting into this transaction model?

Ryan Smith

13:43So we very much believe in this, like, managed marketplace, SaaS enabled marketplace concept. That's very much how we see ourselves. And we think on the b two b side, simply taking a transaction fee in these closer... Knit communities is more difficult because they know each other. Like, if I'm a b two c marketplace Let's go around here. To today. Yeah. I'll pay 15% to find the next Nathan because I may never see you again. In this...

14:06On these b to b marketplaces, what we think is you really need to bring additional value to charge. So there's things around financial products that we can create for companies to end streamlining cash flow issues that they have, are pretty significant in our space because people are literally moving cash. And so the the points you're talking about, 2% to, like, Mastercard, Visa, actually can't work with. If we were a shoe marketplace, we could use Stripe, PayPal,

14:28whatever. We can't use any of those merchants. So we had to create something called LeafLink Financial on our own that allows capital to move over the ACH rails and also removes the need for people to be moving cash in these transactions. And on those deals, we're taking, three to 5% depending on their risk profile. We're we're building out credit risk profiles on companies as well to judge their... You know, what their... What the risk is on

14:53lending some of this capital to them.

Nathan Latka

14:54Yeah. But 3% on a 123,000,000 in GMV monthly, that's a $3,000,000 a month revenue stream if you get that cranking across your entire base. Correct?

Ryan Smith

15:02Yeah. Really significant. And we've been doing this for the last six months. We launched... Well, we launched in January. We originated, like, right around $26,000 in transactions through it. Last month, we did well over, 2,250,000. And so... And that's all totally manual. Like, we're literally calling banks and setting

Nathan Latka

15:02Wait.

15:21Sorry. Sorry. I I don't understand what you mean by that. So when you say last month, you do 2 and a quarter million, two and a quarter million of what?

Ryan Smith

15:27Over... Of of transactions within our larger GMV that have moved through this LeafLink financial program.

Nathan Latka

15:33I I see. Okay. Got it. So so basically, you have

Ryan Smith

15:35a 123 part.

Nathan Latka

15:36Yeah. 123,000,000 total. 2.25 went through this system of which you're able to capture on a minimum bottom end point o three, you know, 3% of that.

Ryan Smith

15:47Yes. Exactly.

Nathan Latka

15:48Yeah. I mean, that's like $60 to $70 grand. That's pretty good.

Ryan Smith

15:51And so what we've done since closing the b round with Thrive is all that's been really manual with... We partner with the side fund that handles all the transactions. And so we're beginning to automate a lot of that. We've made some of our first hires on LeafLink Financial, and we were gonna be bringing it into... Back to your point on, like, Visa, Mastercard, make it native to the checkout process. So for our clients, they feel empowered

16:12in the same way they would if they were in a more traditional industry on using these payment solutions.

Nathan Latka

16:16Yeah. Well, is it easy for you to go from 2.25 of your total 123,000,000 through your platform monthly? Is it easy for you to go and and get a 100% penetration out of the 3%, or is it difficult to convince people to basically give you 3% of GMV?

Ryan Smith

16:30We... What we found is, like, it... It's similar in how it's grown to the network effect around, like, quit... Liquidity in the marketplace. So in the very beginning, people are... The problem in the space is that there isn't a clear price point for a lot of very basic services. So, like, distribution companies are charging a very wide range for their services, payment processors. Some are, you know, kind of legal. Others are international. So those range as

16:54well in in pricing. So what we've seen is we came in at the... At these numbers we mentioned. There's definitely always a lot of questions and pushback. What we found is it's not it's not a no. We don't want this service. It immediately goes into negotiation around the price. And so that's part of the manual process that we're looking to to automate.

Nathan Latka

17:11Between 3 and 5%.

Ryan Smith

17:12Yeah.

17:15And... But we feel really confident about, you know, as we begin to automate more of this, moving that from the small penetration that we're at now to, I think, breaking, like, 30 to 50% of the GMV in the next two years is... That's like our north star.

Nathan Latka

17:29Yeah. What's your g m... What... What's your GMV growing by month over month?

Ryan Smith

17:35So right around 11% month on month with the the GMV growth. We closed out last year. So the goal for 2018 was to move $500,000,000 in GMV. We closed out just under 700,000,000, and this year, the goal is 1,800,000,000. So, yeah, a little more than a tripling year on year.

Nathan Latka

17:54You're on track to do it?

Ryan Smith

17:57Yeah. We are. We're... We were... Like you said, we're... It like, one one twenty two point eight last month. One twenty five is 1.5, And so we're 2,000,000 short of... We're we're definitely on track for the one eight, which is where we're looking to hit by end of the year.

Nathan Latka

18:09Yeah. That's great. So so let me... Let's fast forward a couple years. You're now doing a 100,000,000 years in revenue, not GMV, but you as coming in revenue. Of the transaction... Of the of the revenue lines you just told me, SaaS, ads, and transaction fees. What's your prediction? What's gonna make up the majority of that 100,000,000?

Ryan Smith

18:26Certainly, the the the LeafLink financial revenue line will be the largest. SaaS will continue to grow. I think it's powerful. We've actually only raised prices twice in the history of the company in certain markets. And so I think there's potential for us to have... You know, we just hired our first professional professional services and integrations team. There's upsell opportunities around a lot of those things, and those will continue to grow in a in a great way.

18:50But for us, like, empowering companies around payments and movement of product is key to the liquidity of the marketplace.

Capital Raised and Funding Strategy

Nathan Latka

18:56Yep. Okay. So walk me through... You've obviously raised capital. You just announced, I think, like, in August, 35 from Thrive. How much total have you raised now to date?

Ryan Smith

19:06We've raised, $49,000,000 for the The US entity, and we did a $2,000,000 JV with Canopy Rivers, which is the benchmark of Canopy Growth up in up in Canada.

Nathan Latka

19:06Okay.

Ryan Smith

19:06So 51 total as a company.

Nathan Latka

19:20Okay. Got it. So so 51 total. And then why... You know, obviously, dilution is a real thing. Right? So so why did you need to go raise that capital? Why couldn't you get creative and and and just keep using the money you already had?

Ryan Smith

19:34So we've always been really capital efficient. I mean, we were barely through we were barely through half the money that we raised in the series a almost twenty months before the b closed. For us, I think there's... It's really

Nathan Latka

19:34Wait.

19:45Sorry. Say that again. What? Twenty months before the b closed?

Ryan Smith

19:48So twenty months before the b closed, we still had a significant chunk of the a capital.

Nathan Latka

19:48Oh, got it.

Ryan Smith

19:48And the reason and the reason to your point we've gotten more aggressive is we think... Really two things. First is we clearly have a lead in market penetration and where we're... What... We have to use that lead to our advantage, also the uniqueness of the industry. We think that right now, particularly this year and into next year,

20:10as the East Coast falls in line with the West Coast on legalization, it's really like second place is the first loser for marketplaces, particularly industry specific marketplaces. So for us to raise even maybe a little bit more than we need, but to pedal the metal as aggressively as we possibly can, that was, like, really the theme behind it. And knowing that second place is the first loser, concerns around dilution and and potentially raising a little more

20:33than maybe was even needed were, you know, one way to rest easier on those.

Burn Rate and Spending

Nathan Latka

20:37Yeah. So, I mean, help me understand what you're comfortable with. And, right, obviously, you're putting pedal to metal to drive growth. I mean, are you comfortable burning a million bucks a month?

Ryan Smith

20:46We're...

20:48If we... Are we comfortable? I mean, it's it's... I feel like I see us potentially getting there. Yep. It's definitely more aggressive spending than we've ever done historically as a company. We've always kinda covered half of our expenses, but, like, it's part of that commitment. And so if that's what it takes to hit the goals that we're doing, increase those penetration numbers on LeafLink Financial, and just be this industry standard platform in the next eighteen months,

21:11you know, that's that's what that's what we raise capital for, and that's the bet that we all make together with our with our investor partners.

Nathan Latka

21:17Yep. So what a burn today is what, like, $100K, $200K a month?

Ryan Smith

21:22No. The burn today is like... So it's still like that that half mark. So

Nathan Latka

21:25$500K. Yeah. Okay. Good. Good. I mean, that's... Look, based off... Basically what you're saying is your total expenses are your total expenses are three x your monthly revenue. So net net, you're burning about half of your total revenue.

Ryan Smith

21:41We're burning half. Yes. If we're spending like, you know, one, one a month, and we're bringing in half of that as revenue, the burn is, like you said, five around 500.

Churn and Net Revenue Retention

Nathan Latka

21:49Yep. Yep. No, exactly. Right. That's good. Okay, cool. And then last question here, churn is critical, right? In SaaS companies in general. Right? When you look at on their... Just your SaaS product line, revenue churn over the past maybe month, what do what is that coming at?

Ryan Smith

22:02So last month was a particularly good month. We try to keep it to between this, like, 12 to 15% annual churn on the brand side. So last month was half a percent, but we've historically kept it below the 1% per month to meet that yearly goal.

Nathan Latka

22:16And what is this expansion more than make up the the 12% churn?

Ryan Smith

22:21Will expansion make up for it?

Nathan Latka

22:23In other words, for the cohort, you have signed up exactly a year ago, you'll churn 12% out over a year, but will you expand that same base by more than 12%? So net revenue retention is greater than a 100%?

Ryan Smith

22:33Yeah. Absolutely. There's, like, this interesting dynamic right now where new... As new states come online, like Illinois goes legal, doors open in January, there's gonna be a flood of several 100 licenses there that we'll bring onto the platform. They're likely clients already in another state. And those are, you know, several states that can be coming online every three to six months now, that far outpaces any churn that we've experienced.

Competitive Landscape

Nathan Latka

22:52And who are your closest competitors? Name two.

Ryan Smith

22:58So I'd say there's no competitor that we have that's in more than one state right now. I'd I'd say, like, there's there's some ecommerce hubs that sit on top of, distribution companies, but, like, we we have logins to those platforms, and and we've used them. We know, you know, people that are... Have left them to come to LeafLink, and none of them have really raised any capital to speak of. I think the more... The longer term

23:24concern for us would be, like, this is, like, the uniqueness of the space. So I'd say a Shopify, honestly, or, like, an Ariba version of, like, a b two b marketplace for SaaS, but in more traditional spaces is, like, a long term

Nathan Latka

23:37Okay. Well, let let me run through some for you. So what about what about Flower? Obviously, they're they're they're the darlings of YC. Right? Is Flower a real threat or no?

Ryan Smith

23:45So that's like a b to c subscription service. Right?

Nathan Latka

23:48Kind of. Depends on how you look at it.

Ryan Smith

23:50Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't I wouldn't... I'd say no. No for that one. I think they'd probably be a client of, yeah. Again

Nathan Latka

23:57A client of yours. What about Toker?

Ryan Smith

24:01No. I think they were like a payment solution. Right?

Nathan Latka

24:03They all... Everyone has a different mousetrap.

Ryan Smith

24:07Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I would say... So I would say that, like, there's a few companies that are trying to launch, like, ecommerce solutions that sit above, you know, like, brands and and be used in that way, but there... No one has this, like, centralized marketplace that we, like, aggressively are thinking about, you know, putting out business.

Famous Five and Closing

Nathan Latka

24:27Very good. Alright. Let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, favorite business book.

Ryan Smith

24:33Recently, really liked... I read International Bank of Bob. It was about, oh, actually, you know what? That was a good one on Kiva where he goes and visits everyone he's lent money to. Actually, memos from the chairman, I recently read that one. I don't know if you know, like, the... It's a it's all... It's a collection of all the memos by, I think I think it... Maybe it's Bear Stearns. But over the history of the CEO

24:56at this company, and it was just, a fascinating, like, twenty year

Nathan Latka

24:59Yeah. You're talking about you're talking about Alan Alan Greenberg.

Ryan Smith

25:03Yes. Alan Greenberg. That was it.

Nathan Latka

25:05Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Number number of...

Ryan Smith

25:08And he is obviously former chairman of Bear Stearns.

Nathan Latka

25:12Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Ryan Smith

25:16We've been getting closer with some... So I... Why don't we say Isaac Oates at Justworks right now?

Nathan Latka

25:24Number three.

Ryan Smith

25:25What's some cool stuff on board management.

Nathan Latka

25:28Number three. What's your favorite online tool for building your company?

Ryan Smith

25:33So I was in love with inbox by Google, not Google inbox. And then they shut it down, and it was just crushing. But really, like, even still now that some of the tools on, like, snoozing emails, reminders that pop up in the inbox as this, like, hub of the day to day. Love it.

Nathan Latka

25:48Gmail. Good. Number four. How many hours of sleep do get every night?

Ryan Smith

25:55I guess seven.

Nathan Latka

25:56Seven. Okay. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Ryan Smith

26:00Single. Oh, sorry. I'm not married, but I'm not single. I've had a girlfriend for like, just over sixty

Nathan Latka

26:05Nice catch. Don't don't hurt to listen to this. You'd be in trouble.

Ryan Smith

26:08No, no. I was thinking like, is

26:09this a tax question single, but we have a serious girlfriend.

Nathan Latka

26:13Yeah.

26:13Why do you think I'm a... Do I look like a government official to you?

Ryan Smith

26:13You know, some of these questions are so like boom, boom, boom. I'm like, alright. So legally single.

Nathan Latka

26:20Okay. That's just my style. And how how old

Ryan Smith

26:2020

Nathan Latka

26:20are

Ryan Smith

26:25eight.

Nathan Latka

26:2528. Last question.

26:27What do you wish your 20 year old self knew?

Ryan Smith

26:31Talk to even more people. Like, even if you don't know what you necessarily wanna talk about with them, just like there's so much to learn from... And you never know who knows who to talk to even more people than you're already talking to because that's the best way to learn that.

Nathan Latka

26:44Guys, there you have it. LeafLink. They've raised $51,000,000 to grow their brand with a recent round. They've got 1,300 brands like Dixie on the sell side of their marketplace paying $400 per month for their SaaS products. So 520 ish grand a month right there in revenue or a $6,000,000 run rate on the SaaS side of their business. Again, going through to the sell side to connecting through to buy side retailers about 3,400 on that side of

27:05the marketplace. Those are folks like Harborside and Medicine Man in Denver. Total GMV through the platform last year broke, call it $700,000,000, hoping to break about 1,800,000,000 in GMV this year. Three revenue lines that SaaS model I just mentioned, two, they're getting the transaction fees via LeafLink Financial where they'll take between 3 and 5% of that GMV through their platform. And lastly, an ads marketplace. So we'll see as each one scales where they end up. Ryan, thanks

27:28for taking us to the top.

Ryan Smith

27:30Thanks a lot, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

27:32Do you guys know I fight like heck to get these data points for you from these CEOs that rarely do these kinds of shows? If you want more shows like this, make sure you subscribe right now. We're trying to get 10,000 YouTube subscribers by the end of September here 2019, and it would mean the world to me if you clicked now to subscribe. Additionally, I've got two more great interviews for you. If you want more data

27:55points from the world's leading SaaS CEOs, click and watch one of

27:59them right now.