Founder Interview
How Lymb Built €6,500/Month of SaaS Revenue on Top of €4.5M in Lifetime Hardware Sales (Interview with Founder Markoss Kern)
- Interview Date
- January 12, 2022
- Interviewee
- Markoss KernFounder
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Monthly SaaS Revenue (Jan 2022)
€6,500/mo
Lifetime Hardware Sales (since 2017)
€4.5M
Gross Revenue Retention (2022)
100%
Total Funding Raised
€2.4M
Team Size (2022)
32
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Markoss Kern during the interview recorded in January 2022 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Lymb’s current numbers.

Key Takeaways
- 01Monthly recurring SaaS revenue was approximately €6,500 as of January 2022 — the figure Markoss Kern gave after correcting an attempt to annualize his earlier estimate
- 02Kern first estimated annual SaaS revenue at around €45K, a trailing figure for a SaaS line that only switched on in early 2021; it is not the annual equivalent of the €6,500 monthly rate
- 03The company had around 70 customers paying for SaaS subscriptions at the time of the interview
- 04Gross revenue retention stood at 100%, with no hardware customer ever canceling
- 05Around 600 hardware units had been installed across 45 countries since the first sale in 2017
- 06Total lifetime hardware sales reached approximately €4.5M since Lymb's first sale in 2017, of which Kern said roughly €2.5M came in the last year alone
- 07Lymb raised roughly €2.4M to €2.8M in total funding — Kern gave both figures and said he would have to check — including a €1M seed round from institutional investors in 2021
- 08The team had grown to 32 people, including 12 engineers and 6 sales reps
- 09The platform offered 45 apps and games, with 70 to 80% of content built in-house
- 10The new B2C console's premium subscription was priced at €19.90 per month under a freemium model; B2B SaaS pricing varied by customer and Kern did not disclose a single figure
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Recurring SaaS Revenue (2022) | €6,500 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Annual SaaS Revenue (founder's first estimate) (2022) | €45K | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Customers (SaaS) (2022) | 70 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Gross Revenue Retention (2022) | 100% | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| B2C Console Premium Subscription (2022) | €19.90/month | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Hardware Units Installed (2022) | 600 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Lifetime Hardware Sales Volume (since 2017) | €4.5M | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Countries Served (2022) | 45 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Hardware Preorders (Kickstarter) (2022) | 500 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Total Funding Raised | €2.4M | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Seed Round (Institutional) (2021) | €1M | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Team Size (2022) | 32 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Engineers (2022) | 12 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Sales Reps (2022) | 6 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Apps on Platform (2022) | 45 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Patents (approx., 3 types; 2 granted in the US) (2022) | ~6 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Investor Equity Sold (cumulative) (2022) | 35% | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| ESOP Pool (2022) | 10% | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| Hardware Retail Price Range (2022) | €4,500 to €60,000 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
| B2C Console Retail Price (2022) | €1,480 | Founder interview, Jan 2022 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
Markoss Kern first put annual SaaS revenue at around €45K, then corrected the current run rate upward when Nathan tried to annualize it, putting monthly recurring revenue at about €6,500 as of January 2022. The SaaS line only switched on in early 2021 — before that every system was sold on a one-time lifetime license, and Kern said around 80% of the systems already installed were still on those lifetime licenses. That is why the SaaS base was small relative to Lymb's hardware footprint at the time of the interview.
Customers
Around 70 customers were paying for SaaS subscriptions at the time of the interview, drawn from a broader installed base of approximately 600 hardware units deployed across 45 countries. Every customer who had ever purchased hardware remained active, giving the company a 100% gross revenue retention rate.
Team
Lymb had grown to 32 people by January 2022, including 12 engineers and 6 sales reps. The sales team had recently doubled from 3 to 6 people, and the engineering team supported both hardware development and an in-house game studio building content for the platform.
Funding
Lymb raised about €2.4M to €2.8M in total funding over roughly five years — the founder gave both figures during the interview and said he would have to check which was right — including a €1M seed round from its first institutional investors in 2021. Kern noted the company had grown to this point on surprisingly little capital and was preparing to raise a larger Series A round later in 2022.
Growth Strategy
Inbound-Only Sales Motion
Markoss Kern stated that Lymb had never spent money on advertising and that inbound demand exceeded what the sales team could handle at the time of the interview. The company was working to optimize its inbound process before adding outbound capacity.
Hardware as a Moat for SaaS Retention
By requiring hardware installation before any SaaS subscription, Lymb created a naturally sticky revenue model. Kern credited this structure for the company's 100% gross revenue retention, noting that no customer had ever returned a unit or canceled.
Freemium Pricing on the New B2C Console
The consumer console Lymb was launching retailed at €1,480, and rather than making it useless without a subscription, the company shipped a freemium tier: owners could keep playing without paying, while a €19.90 per month premium subscription unlocked the paid content. Kern drew the contrast with Peloton deliberately, saying that because Lymb's customers included families and elderly care facilities, the company wanted a fairer approach than locking the hardware behind a paywall. He also said the price was provisional while the app store filled out.
Open Platform and Revenue Share for Content
Lymb operated an open app store model where third-party developers could build games and apps for the platform under a revenue share arrangement. At the time of the interview, roughly 70 to 80% of the 45 available apps were built in-house, but the company expected external developers to contribute a growing share over time.
Transition from Lifetime Licenses to Subscriptions
The company's early growth relied on one-time lifetime license fees, and Kern said that was a deliberate choice rather than a customer demand: the fitness industry and schools, in his words, hate monthly payments and hate yearly payments. Instead of charging a recurring fee, Lymb charged once and told buyers they would never have to pay again — pulling years of revenue forward and, Kern said, doing a great deal for cash flow. Starting in early 2021, Lymb began putting new customers on monthly SaaS subscriptions, and Kern described this shift as the key driver of the emerging MRR base.
Best Quotes
“Yeah. Sort of. I mean, I love the the effect of what happened there because it got people out. It's it's the same approach. We obviously like to focus on a much more holistic workout, so we really wanna make you sweat, not just walk around. And, obviously, we wanna create a hype that's a little bit more consistent and a little bit more sustainable than just doing it for a couple of weeks.”
“No. We just started 21, so we have around 6.5 k per per month right now, actually.”
“I think right now, we're, like, approaching around the €4.4, €4.5 no. It must be close to 4,500,000 in lifetime revenue, which probably we made 2.5 last year.”
“To be honest, so far, the sales approach is very different because we're so we've never spent any money on advertising. We're very happy that so far the inbound is much more than we can actually do. We're now 32 people. I think we have we just upgraded to six people in sales until a couple of months ago. It's only been three.”
“They didn't. It was just our choice in the very beginning because people hate in that business. Like, the the fitness industry and schools, they hate monthly payments. They hate yearly payments.”
“No. Yeah. So one thing that we're also super happy with, all the hardware comes with a five year warranty. So we're we're very German. Like, all the metal parts are, like, massive stainless steel. Everything's, like, industry grade, and it's, you know, we literally been asked by school operators what happens if kids pee into the sensors that the sensors can take. We're like, yeah, I guess.”
“Like, we only raised 2.8 over the whole five years.”
What Happened Next
This interview captured Lymb at an early stage of its SaaS transition in January 2022, when the company had just begun converting its installed hardware base from lifetime licenses to monthly subscriptions. At that point, Markoss Kern was preparing to raise a Series A round and experimenting with subscription-only hardware bundles to accelerate MRR growth. The figures here reflect what the founder reported at that moment and should not be taken as current. Visit the Lymb company profile on GetLatka for the latest available numbers.
View Lymb’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Company Overview
- 0:27Gamification and the Pokemon Go Comparison
- 0:45B2B vs B2C Market and Current Customers
- 1:25Hardware Plus SaaS Business Model Explained
- 1:41SaaS Revenue and 100% Retention
- 2:12Correcting the Run Rate: €6,500/Month MRR
- 2:30Hardware Units, Pricing and Production Cost
- 6:20Back to the Interview: Margins on Hardware Sales
- 6:48Company History and First Hardware Sales
- 9:00Switching Customers from Lifetime Licenses to SaaS
- 11:00Team Size, Sales Reps and Inbound Growth
- 11:26Funding Rounds and Cap Table
- 12:33ESOP Pool and Founder Equity
- 13:00Subsidizing Hardware to Drive MRR: Leasing and Subscription-Only Systems
- 17:25Hardware Retention and Zero Returns
- 18:12Valuation Expectations and the Next Round
- 19:38Patents and Engineering Team
- 20:05App Platform and Content Strategy
- 20:50Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions
Introduction and Company Overview
Nathan Latka
00:00Folks. My guest today is Markoss Kern. He's a Munich based sports tech company on a mission to make the world more physical physically active using the power of gamification. If you wanna follow along, the website is lymb.io. Markoss, you ready to take us to the top?
Markoss Kern
00:13>> Absolutely. Always ready to be active.
Nathan Latka
00:15Alright. I feel like the most recent version of this was this, like, AR Pokemon Go. Everyone who's usually sitting on their couches now running around towns capturing Pokemon. Is this sort of what you're building here but at scale?
Gamification and the Pokemon Go Comparison
Markoss Kern
00:27>> Yeah. Sort of. I mean, I love the the effect of what happened there because it got people out. It's it's the same approach. We obviously like to focus on a much more holistic workout, so we really wanna make you sweat, not just walk around. And, obviously, we wanna create a hype that's a little bit more consistent and a little bit more sustainable than just doing it for a couple of weeks.
B2B vs B2C Market and Current Customers
Nathan Latka
00:45Who's buying this? Is it consumers or you're signing sports teams or what?
Markoss Kern
00:49>> Well, right now, we're very strong in the business to business market. So it's sports teams, clubs, facilities, even kindergartens, a lot of offices. But now we're also launching our b two c console, so it's also gonna jump into your living room.
Nathan Latka
01:04Mhmm. And and but who's paying for this right now, though? Is it mainly b two b?
Markoss Kern
01:08>> Yes. Mainly b to b because we just launched the new console. It's gonna come out probably in February because, obviously, we have a little bit of delay with the whole SMB crisis. So so far right now, we're in 45 countries, and it's only b to b, about 500 pre orders for the console.
Hardware Plus SaaS Business Model Explained
Nathan Latka
01:25Okay. So wait. Are you selling a SaaS tool here or is it a physical piece of hardware?
Markoss Kern
01:29>> It's a hardware connected with a SaaS.
Nathan Latka
01:32Oh, okay. So I love this model because once they install the hardware, they never churn on the SaaS. So so let's let's talk just to be clear, do you have any SaaS revenue yet or your pre revenue on that side?
SaaS Revenue and 100% Retention
Markoss Kern
01:41>> No. No. We we have around I think the annual should be around 45k in euros right now, SaaS revenue, but we just started early two thousand twenty one to even switch on the SaaS. Before that, it was just lifetime licenses. And, yeah, just like you said, it's it's a hard it's a hard sell because it's hardware, but so far we have a retention rate of a 100%, so we're happy.
Nathan Latka
02:01Well, okay. So let me break all this down real quick. So you're doing right now at about $4,000 a month in SaaS revenue, which is about 50,000 United States dollar run rate annually. Correct? And you have 500 preorders of the hardware?
Correcting the Run Rate: €6,500/Month MRR
Markoss Kern
02:12>> No. We just started 21, so we have around 6.5 k per per month right now, actually. Oh, I see.
Nathan Latka
02:20Of SaaS revenue?
Markoss Kern
02:22>> Exactly. Because probably around 80% of the systems that we have out there already, they went with a lifetime license. So we just started switching over to SaaS.
Hardware Units, Pricing and Production Cost
Nathan Latka
02:30How many systems are out installed currently?
Markoss Kern
02:33>> Around 600, I guess.
Nathan Latka
02:35Oh, wow. How much does it cost you to make each of those units?
Markoss Kern
02:40>> The production cost is depends. The range is pretty good. So the retail price is between I think the cheapest one is $4,500. The biggest one is around $60,000, which is full LED. The production cost is always about 70% of that. So we have a 30% margin.
Nathan Latka
02:58That's a massive difference, 4,500 to 60,000. What drives that cost up again?
Markoss Kern
03:03>> Well, the smallest one is just what you would put in classroom, for example, then we have complete sets that go into squash courts and we also have massive LED walls that you just put outdoors and you let people interact with it. You can swipe a card. You can play or you can pay with the app and just book it whenever you want.
Nathan Latka
03:20I see. So what was the like, take 600 times all of their retail prices. How much total sales of the hardware today?
Markoss Kern
03:29>> Obviously, in the beginning, we've been selling at quite other prices. As you know, it was like more like, hey. Get it, please. I think right now, we're, like, approaching around the $4.4, $4.5 no. It must be close to 4,500,000 in lifetime revenue, which probably we made 2.5 last year.
Nathan Latka
03:47And that's just on hardware. Right? Not lifetime SaaS stuff?
Markoss Kern
03:50>> It's a very small portion of, like, of SaaS, but probably Okay.
Nathan Latka
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06:18into the interview. But we can take that 4,500,000 of hardware sales multiplied by 70% cost of goods sold to get your margin of the 30%. Yes. Which should be about 1,300,000 on 4.5 of total sales.
Markoss Kern
06:32>> Yeah. We always have to factor in that in the beginning, obviously, creating this hardware, it's it's it's not as profitable in the beginning. We're also now bringing down or bringing up the margin quite much. But at the very beginning, it was obviously much you you sell the first units as it added as a deficit, obviously.
Company History and First Hardware Sales
Nathan Latka
06:48And you did all of that. This is just you launched in 2020, so your first hardware sale was last year or two years ago?
Markoss Kern
06:54>> No. Actually, we're more almost five years old now.
Nathan Latka
06:57Oh, okay. It took a very
Markoss Kern
06:58>> long time to develop the tech before we even started going on the market, and it it was a very slow start. Hardware is like to get the first clients took a very long time. And now the last year, we've grown 2.9 times the size that we had before. So now it's really starting to show off.
Nathan Latka
07:17So when what year was your first hardware sale?
Markoss Kern
07:20>> 2017, I think '2.
Nathan Latka
07:23'2 you sold two units in 2017?
Markoss Kern
07:26>> Something like that. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
07:27Okay. Got it. So between 2017 and today, you've done 4,500,000 total of hardware sales, which is about 600 units. Does that 4,500,000 include the 500 in preorders for the 500 new units?
Markoss Kern
07:41>> No. It doesn't.
Nathan Latka
07:42Okay. So you're you've done much more than 4,500,000 revenue if you add the 500 in preorders?
Markoss Kern
07:48>> Yeah. We had a kick Kickstarter campaign, so that's where we obviously sold the preorders at a quite discounted price. And now there's, like, every week, four, five, six, nine, ten sometimes coming in.
Nathan Latka
07:58I see. Interesting. Okay. And and the what'd you sell it for on the Kickstarter campaign?
Markoss Kern
08:04>> Well, the Kickstarter campaign, started with around 800 to $900, which is also the retail price that we're aiming for. Right now, we had to go up quite a lot because production is insane. So we're now selling it at around 1,400 for the first But units at
Nathan Latka
08:18if you pre sold a bunch at 600 a pop, let's say, just to make the math easy, sold all 500 at 600 a pop, that's $300,000 in sales. With COVID supply chains changing so rapidly, couldn't you potentially lose money on every one of those pre sales?
Markoss Kern
08:32>> To be honest, on the Kickstarter ones, definitely. Yes. Absolutely. We factored that in already in the beginning, and this is also what we're compensating with the new price for. But, obviously, the very first batches, when you produce something, you always have to estimate that you're, like, not making any it's economy of scale, like, you're always losing money. If we would sell the first 20 units, we would have to charge, $3,000 per system. We're now sending them
08:54>> out, actually, which obviously wouldn't it would be very hard to sell those. So it's it's always quite an investment.
Switching Customers from Lifetime Licenses to SaaS
Nathan Latka
09:00Mhmm. Okay. Understood. So so tell let's let's now I understand this. Let's now talk about how you're turning on the SaaS revenue. So how many customers are are making up the 6,500 a month right now you're doing in SaaS revenue?
Markoss Kern
09:14>> I'd have to exactly look around that. I think about sixty, seventy, 80, something like that.
Nathan Latka
09:20Okay. And just to be clear, have to have hardware in order to pay for SaaS. Right? They can't only pay for SaaS?
Markoss Kern
09:26>> No. Makes no sense. Why would someone buy the part
Nathan Latka
09:30why would someone buy the hardware and then not pay the SaaS?
Markoss Kern
09:34>> They didn't. It was just our choice in the very beginning because people hate in that business. Like, the the fitness industry and schools, they hate monthly payments. They hate yearly payments. So we always just said, hey. Instead of charging them, let's say, $99 per month, let's just charge them a thousand and say that you never have to pay again. So it was, like, the kind of, like, cost that we did for for just getting Yeah.
Nathan Latka
09:55You're pulling ten months or a hundred months of revenue forward effectively.
Markoss Kern
09:59>> Exactly. So and also for our cash flow, it was amazing because every sale was like, okay. We have a much higher margin. So now we're slowly shifting. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
10:09No. This this story is making complete sense to me. So launch in 2017, you get your first hardware sales and sorry. First hardware sales in 2017. You launched also that year as well. You've wrote first line of code that year?
Markoss Kern
10:20>> Late twenty sixteen.
Nathan Latka
10:222016. Okay, cool. So first hardware sales, twelve months later, 2017, you did two. Now today, up through this last year, you've done, call it 600 orders that are now out in the wild, 4,500,000 total volume. You just add another $300,000 in sales from 500 preorders on Kickstarter at $600 a pop. You're still adjusting what your hardware costs will be because supply chain issues with COVID, but what's growing really nicely is you just recently turned on your
10:46SaaS revenue with 70 ish customers paying $95 a month for $6,500 a month in monthly recurring revenue. Is that all accurate?
Markoss Kern
10:55>> Sort of. We have a range obviously for the SaaS, but you're probably pretty close to the common average.
Team Size, Sales Reps and Inbound Growth
Nathan Latka
11:00Interesting. Okay. So what's the sales approach now? How are you convincing? You changed. Now people are paying monthly. How'd you change your sales approach?
Markoss Kern
11:07>> To be honest, so far, the sales approach is very different because we're so we've never spent any money on advertising. We're very happy that so far the inbound is much more than we can actually do. We're now 32 people. I think we have we just upgraded to six people in sales until a couple of months ago. It's only been three. So so far
Nathan Latka
11:23So have 32 people total?
Markoss Kern
11:25>> Yes.
Funding Rounds and Cap Table
Nathan Latka
11:26Oh, wow. Okay. You've raised cap you've raised you've raised capital?
Markoss Kern
11:31>> Yes. We did. Surprisingly little so far, but yes.
Nathan Latka
11:35What's little?
Markoss Kern
11:36>> Like, we only raised 2.8 over the whole five years.
Nathan Latka
11:41Break break down the rounds for me.
Markoss Kern
11:44>> Oh, that would be very because we've very obviously, we're not a classic startup. Everybody hates hardware. We started with little tickets here and there, a hundred, two hundred, 300. And now last year, we just raised about a million from the first institutional investors.
Nathan Latka
11:58Okay. So when what would you consider that? Like, your seed?
Markoss Kern
12:02>> Yeah. Yeah. You could say seed. It was a little late because yeah. But I would say seed. We're now preparing for a big round towards end of the year, so that would have been a seed. So now it's a series a.
Nathan Latka
12:12And most folks in their seed are selling 10 to 20% of the business. Is that about what you sold for the million bucks?
Markoss Kern
12:18>> Over the time over the whole time, we sold about 35 over the whole process until today.
Nathan Latka
12:24Okay. So so right now, your cap table, investors own 35%. Do you have an ESOP pool set up for your teammates?
ESOP Pool and Founder Equity
Markoss Kern
12:33>> Yes. We do.
Nathan Latka
12:34How do you structure that? The founders always wonder how we set that thing up.
Markoss Kern
12:38>> I wonder myself, to be honest. Obviously, it's just we have a couple of people that have been with the company so far. I'm still the only founder. So I still hold the rest of the percentages and we blocked about 10%, which we now slowly give out to the employees.
Nathan Latka
12:52I see. So 45% between investors and your ESOP pool and then you own the others, call it 55%.
Subsidizing Hardware to Drive MRR: Leasing and Subscription-Only Systems
Nathan Latka
13:00Great model. Love that. Okay. Talk to me about the hardware side of things. If you could figure out a way to subsidize the hardware and give it away for free, all of a sudden, you, like, really jack up your ability to drive MRR. Have you considered, like, raising a debt fund or something to facilitate this?
Markoss Kern
13:19>> Yeah. Very smart, smart idea, and and this is what we're also working on. Right now, the pain points to our growth are are a little bit different, so it's not exactly it's first of all, we're only working with inbound. So we're structuring a couple of things to optimize that and fully get up to capacity, but we're already preparing to raise some money for our own financing model, so we work with leasing partners and financing partners, but
13:38>> you know how it is, especially globally, it's a very complicated deal sometimes, so it's very hard to find somebody who does a financing deal in Dubai, and then obviously the one making the most money out of it a lot of times is the bank. So we're already experimenting with giving out systems only for subscriptions, so you don't pay, let's say, the $7,000 that you need for a Multipol, which is a small system for a school, and
14:01>> instead of paying $7,000 and $59 per month for the software, we just tell you, listen, you're gonna be paying 299, and you just pay for that forever. So we're experimenting with it. At this point, I think we're not gonna take it to the crazy scale because just with the fact that the hardware is so expensive, it would be insane. Like, we would need to raise, like, 25 mil to really scale with that. And in the end,
14:26>> we're not trying to be a bank, so we try to find partners to rather give us this working capital for a certain fee that we can then work with.
Nathan Latka
14:33Mhmm. Can lend out? I mean, I'm looking at this beautiful thing. It almost looks like futuristic three d goggles, but it's not. You don't wear it on your face. You put it on the wall and it projects out. Can you lease these out or or you wanna keep selling them? Do your customers actually own them?
Markoss Kern
14:50>> It's a it's a question of the time. In the beginning, obviously, the first movers and the people that wanna be sexy and, you know, own this, their threshold to actually getting this and having it in their room is really, really high. Obviously, this is what we now want to first take care of, but then obviously we're going to reach to a point where we then have to get into real scale, and then these things, it's like
15:10>> you only rent it, will be highly attractive for people that are not as sold as they are right now. So I think it's probably gonna be one to two years until we go into models like these, but it's definitely on the list.
Nathan Latka
15:21Mhmm. And just to make sure, like, I'm getting this pricing right. I mean, I'm on your limb.io forward slash product right This graphic I see just this projector, it looks like it's about sort of like this big ish. This thing is is how much per month for for that's how much does it cost to purchase retail?
Markoss Kern
15:38>> Right now, it's 1,480 to purchase it. Right now, we're still working with a freemium model. So because also there's only 45 apps on the on the system. You can already start purchasing stuff like a monthly subscription, but we're still waiting. I think we're now at $19.90. We're still waiting till we fill up the app store more, so it actually gets much more interesting. So it's not gonna be a model like with the usual Peloton, where you
16:03>> say like, hey, listen, if you buy the hardware and you're not paying this subscription, you can't do anything with it. Because our clients, also our families, their elderly care facilities, they're like so we try a little bit more more of a fairer freemium approach. You can still play if you don't pay. It's just not gonna be the premium content, but you still use it. If you wanna have the premium content, you obviously gotta do your subscription.
Nathan Latka
16:25I see. But but your cost of goods sold on this model I'm looking at right here, $1,480 retail, your cost of goods sold is still about 70% or a thousand bucks, so your margin per sale is about $400?
Markoss Kern
16:36>> Not at this time, to be honest. We're planning to go there again. With the current crisis right now. It's it's actually much worse than that. It's like you buy some components and they would normally be like $1.5 and they're like $15. Wow. So it's it's a crazy time to be doing this insane, like and people just broker stuff and you buy something and you pay the purchase order and they call you back. It's like, listen. Somebody
17:00>> else wants to have it. Are you also gonna be willing to pay double price? You're like, hey, guys. We we ordered 2,000 units from you. It's sold. We sent you the money. I can send the money back or you pay double. It's it's the Wild West right now when it comes to hardware.
Nathan Latka
17:13That is crazy. Okay. Interesting. So so SaaS growing quickly now. Has any any of these seventy, eighty customers that are paying the SaaS, have any of them signed up with the hardware and then canceled?
Hardware Retention and Zero Returns
Markoss Kern
17:25>> No. Yeah. So one thing that we're also super happy with, all the hardware comes with a five year warranty. So we're we're very German. Like, all the metal parts are, like, massive stainless steel. Everything's, like, industry grade, and it's, you know, we literally been asked by school operators what happens if kids pee into the sensors that the sensors can take. We're like, yeah, I guess. So every single system that we ever
17:48>> sold pinky shit over there in Berlin.
Nathan Latka
17:49That's all I have to say.
Markoss Kern
17:50>> That's weird.
17:51>> Maybe. Maybe. So every single system that we still sold, none have return have been returned and all of them are still active.
Nathan Latka
18:00Yep. Interesting. Okay. Very cool. Again, you you you've sold about 35% to investors so far and you raised, you said, 2,000,000, 2,200,000 total?
Markoss Kern
18:08>> I'd have to check. I think it was 2.4, 2.6, something like 2.4.
Valuation Expectations and the Next Round
Nathan Latka
18:12Okay, cool. So valuation wise, I mean, you could argue it's sort of like a 6 to 11,000,000 valuation, but I predict, you know, as you add on the SaaS component, your valuation will go up. You're planning to raise later this year, you said?
Markoss Kern
18:25>> Yes. But for we're actually also because the last time that we raised is quite a while back, so we're we're aiming at a quite higher valuation.
Nathan Latka
18:33What valuation would you are you gonna try and raise that or you're targeting?
Markoss Kern
18:37>> Well, we're right now exactly in that phase, so we're gonna keep that a secret. But it's
Nathan Latka
18:42What would make you happy? Maybe it's not what you end up going with, but what would make you happy?
Markoss Kern
18:50>> Let's say it this way. Low double digits is a good point to be.
Nathan Latka
18:56Okay. So call it something between, like, 10 and $30,000,000, something like that.
Markoss Kern
19:01>> Somewhere in that range, maybe.
Nathan Latka
19:03What do you think you need to get SaaS revenue to to raise it a 30,000,000 valuation?
Markoss Kern
19:08>> Well, I mean, right now, also, our valuation is a little bit different because we're we're taking a classic SaaS approach, so our valuation would be a little bit would not be fully suitable because with the hardware, you have such a long term but a very, very solid and very predictable. For example, we have a hardware sales quota of around 30% quarter to quarter increase.
Nathan Latka
19:32>> There's been
19:32some Flip side of that would be much harder to go to market if everyone has to buy a piece of hardware to use your SaaS tool. Right? It's both double edged sword.
Patents and Engineering Team
Markoss Kern
19:38>> Exactly. Exactly. But so so, generally, there's also patents. There's also proper technology with we build our own sensors stuff like that.
Nathan Latka
19:46Patents?
Markoss Kern
19:47>> Yes. How many? Actually, even six so far, even one in, like, three three different kinds of patents. Two of them already been granted also in The US.
Nathan Latka
19:59So How many engineers are on the team?
Markoss Kern
20:02>> We have altogether around 12 engineers right now.
App Platform and Content Strategy
Nathan Latka
20:05Okay. Pretty heavy. And do you have your own in house creative and media people designing these 45 apps and games, or is that do you do you incentivize the market, the world to build?
Markoss Kern
20:13>> A little bit both. So we we have our own game development part. So we have four, five game developers. And we also work with so we also have some revenue share models where other people create apps on our system. So it's like, it is an open platform, but it's more like an app store. Like, we Yep. There's profit shares. There's but people can actually join very easy and just create cool stuff.
20:38>> So, yeah, I think in the in the long term, it's gonna switch quite much. Right now, we're probably building around 70 to 80% of the content that's on the platform that comes from us.
Nathan Latka
20:46Mhmm. But in the future, we're looking more like at 20 to 80%.
Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions
Nathan Latka
20:50Mhmm. Interesting. Hey. I love this model. I wanna get an update from you in a year, but in the meantime, let's wrap up today with the Famous Five. Number one, favorite business book, Markoss.
Markoss Kern
20:59>> Favorite business book? The funny thing is I think my favorite business book is is probably not I love business books and there's a lot of them that I could recommend, but what I would recommend at this point is probably Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, which is not a classic business book, but it very well defines the origin of people, why we started forming communities, and how people interact with each other, and what effect that has, which
21:25>> is the main basis of business, like working Number together onto
Nathan Latka
21:31two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Markoss Kern
21:36>> There's a few not really following or studying. There's a few people that I highly highly respect for the way that they're they're doing their decisions, but not really like
Nathan Latka
21:48Okay. No worries. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building lymb?
Markoss Kern
21:52>> For what?
Nathan Latka
21:53For building the company.
Markoss Kern
22:00>> Probably end up with Slack because it's just a nice communication tool. It's not even like a so many I don't know.
Nathan Latka
22:08Number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Markoss Kern
22:12>> Pretty pretty straight with, five and a half, six.
Nathan Latka
22:15Okay. In situation, married, single kids?
Markoss Kern
22:19>> Not married, but I have the right woman for it. It just didn't it just didn't occur right now, but I I'm very, proud father of 1.5 year old.
Nathan Latka
22:28Very cool. And how old are you?
Markoss Kern
22:29>> And four raccoons.
Nathan Latka
22:31And four raccoons. How old are you?
Markoss Kern
22:32>> Yes. I'm now 39.
22:35>> 39.
Nathan Latka
22:36Last question. Something you wish knew when you were 20.
Markoss Kern
22:40>> Wish. Don't take myself too serious and realize that some things just take time.
Nathan Latka
22:45Guys, there you have it. Lymb.io. They're helping people get active finally in your homes, at your businesses, etcetera. They sell a little unit for $1,400. You install that piece of hardware then pay 90 to $95 per month to access all these games you can play with your family. It's taken them many years to get this level, but they have 600 of these devices installed in the wild today, about $4,500,000 in total sales there where they made
23:04an average call at 30% margin. That margin plus a million bucks or $2.2 to $2.4 million they raised from outside partners has enabled them to grow that hardware, decrease their costs, launch games on the platform now, 45 apps available as they look to continue to scale, maybe raising a series A or maybe, you know, late seed later this year at a 10 to 30,000,000 valuation. We'll see what happens. Markoss, thanks for taking us to the top.
Markoss Kern
23:26>> Thanks for perfectly summing it in the top, man. You're a machine. I'm just gonna steal that. And that's gonna be my pitch, Tom. Thanks, man.
Nathan Latka
23:34One 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
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