MarkMe LLC Funding (2023)

[00:00] Guys, Make Me Icons got started with a WhatsApp group based in Kenya. He's teaching folks graphic design via his application. He spent a dollar 50 on Facebook ads to get his first 102 beta users. 64 are still active on a daily basis. He's making sure those metrics look good. And then he's launching a paywall coming up here in January for $10 a month or about $30 for a quarter for a three month period. He raised $18,000 [00:24] in pre seed funding last year, is now scaling with his team of six. Hey, folks. My guest today is Tony Mumo. He is working on education technology at markmeicons.com. Tony, you ready to take us to the top? [00:38] >> I'm ready to take it to the top. [00:40] Alright. Who uses Mark Me Icons today? [00:43] >> Today, our users are mainly beta users. We are looking for people who are interested in courses like advertising photography, web design, and business skill sets, which is our first courses that we launched with. So we actually started teaching people about subgroups. This was the test pilot for our concept to see whether we can use a chat room feature to educate people. So we did some Facebook ads, but about 100 students in our WhatsApp groups. So after [01:15] >> testing it on WhatsApp is when we saw that it is a viable product if we give it full attention. And that's when we started building mac. Me icons in twenty twenty one December. And we finally launched a beta this year. So that's a bit of background of what where we've gotten so far. [01:36] And how many beta users do you have today? [01:39] >> Today we have a 102 beta users and 64 active devices as of today. [01:46] That's great. 64 active devices. How do you define an active device? [01:50] >> An active device for us is a user who at least checks one session in a day of the seven sessions that we have available. So that ranks as a daily active user for us and it's a good metric for us to gauge the effectiveness of our classes. And engagement has been low since we started, but we're at least able to see people clicking on our classes. [02:17] What's your most popular class today? [02:20] >> The most popular class is web design skills. And this is because in Kenya, technology is really evolving and there's a lot of interest in websites, in software. So codeless web design is the best place for someone to start their journey, especially if they don't know coding. Because for me, codeless web design, it was my first attempt to building platforms. So codeless web design is a course in Kenya. [02:49] You offer courses like Talk Like a Boss, Business Communication, Create Better graphic design. My Photos Are Lit, so you teach you about advertising photography. And you're based fully a 100% in Kenya. Correct? [03:01] >> Yes. Yes. Our app is only available in Kenya as of today. [03:05] So it sounds like your first version was actually just a WhatsApp group. Is that right? [03:09] >> Yes. Yes. So that's our first version. [03:11] How did you get the first 50 people on the WhatsApp group? [03:15] >> Facebook ads. So we have had quite a journey before we came to technology. We first started with video marketing. And during that video marketing phase, we really got to understand how to use Facebook ads. And in Kenya, Facebook ads are really, really affordable for as low as 120 shillings, which is about a dollar. You can run an ad. So So it was a platform for us to get to know how to target people within Kenya, especially [03:45] >> in different provinces, because marketing in Kenya has to be really targeted depending on which community you are addressing. So during that phase, we really got to understand Facebook ads. So we just collected that information that we had, did some Facebook ads for WhatsApp groups, and that's how we've got our first 100 students on WhatsApp. [04:07] How much did you have to spend to get one student on WhatsApp? [04:12] >> We spent around 500 shilling, 5,000 shillings during that phase. So that would be at about 50, $50.50 shillings. Yeah. 50 shillings a user. So that would be less than a dollar, maybe some cents. [04:32] Okay. So maybe like a dollar 50 per user that signed up and you were just using your own saved money to run these ads or did you raise capital? [04:40] >> I was using my salary at the time. I worked for a company called Samchik Group as a marketer. So with my salary, was able to channel that money to my company, and that is how we got off. So at least I've had the experience of an employee. And right now where we are, I'm able to understand my team a lot better. [05:02] Oh, what's going on there, YouTube? Good to see you guys. Now imagine this, you love watching these interviews with SaaS founders. But imagine if we took all of the valuation data out from over 2,807 interviews I've done manually saves you a lot of time. Well, we've done this. We've built it into the beautiful interface inside of founder path. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second, but you log in, you [05:25] connect your Stripe account, you see your valuation real time. You can see what it changed over the past eighty eight days and even set goals for valuation this year. Now the secret evaluation is there's many different ways to value a SaaS business. So the reason you're gonna see three or four different valuations inside of your Founder Path dashboard, this is all free by the way, is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SaaS company, [05:49] you're gonna get a different valuation. A VC is gonna pay a different valuation. Private equity firm is different. If you're gonna do a minority sale, that's different. And if you sell the whole business, that's a different valuation. You can see all those when I hover over here, Right? So the teal is what a VC would pay. Yellow is what private equity and red is if you sold the whole thing outright. Now what's cool about this is [06:11] this is not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founders share with us on the show. So traction, 1,200,000 seed round, 3.7 raise. They sold 22% of their business. Go in here and filter by the event. Maybe you only wanna see companies that have sold the whole business. Well, here are a bunch that have been acquired, the valuation and the multiple. [06:36] Maybe you're going out right now and you're raising your seed round. Well, go in here and look at all this recent seed deals that went down, what they raised, what valuation they raised at, and what percent that they sold. There's never been a larger dataset of SaaS valuations than what you can get now inside of Founder Path. And we're thrilled to bring it to you. Alright. We're gonna go back to the YouTube video here in a [06:59] second, but if you wanna check this tool out, if you wanna jump in and sign up, you can check it out for free to get your valuation at this link. This link, founderpath.com/products/valuations. Or if you go to founderpath.com and hover over products, click on get your valuation here, and go ahead and sign up to give it a whirl. Again, all that valuation data live right inside the platform. I hope to see you there. Alright. Let's jump [07:25] back into the interview. Who built or how'd you get the initial version of the app built? [07:31] >> The initial version of the app was built to a friend of ours, and this was bootstrapped from friends and family. So I met the developer when I was working in Samchit Group. So he took a lot of interest in our subgroup classes and how they were growing. And at the time, with the money I had, he was a lifesaver really and took on our concepts. And with the money that we afforded at the time, we were [07:58] >> able to start the projects. At the time, I didn't understand how slow it can be to build an app. [08:05] We How much how much did you pay him to build the app? [08:08] >> A 150,000 shillings. [08:11] How many USD is that? [08:13] >> I mean, that would be [08:15] >> Shillings. Shillings. [08:16] 150,000 shillings would be about a thousand US dollars. [08:20] >> Yes. Yes. Yes. So which was really afford was the most affordable. Also, as a friend, also for a startup for us, it was the perfect situation, which at least got our project off the ground. We saw a first line of code, and we were very [08:37] do you plan to start charging, or are you are you already charging for the app? [08:43] >> Currently, we're not charging for the app. We intend to start charging on seventh, January. Currently, there is a mobile app awards going on in Kenya, and it's been nominated, in the best education category. So, we are we are using this opportunity to gain some creators for our platform. During the beta, what we learned was that we have a whole set of users who would like to use our features for their own classes. And once we learned [09:15] >> this, we saw that we can give more creative ability in our platform. And we are working on that update currently. And January 7 is when we are planning to the [09:31] Connie, how are you funding right now, continuing to pay your developer friend to make updates to the application, or is he working for equity? [09:38] >> He's not working for equity. Currently, we have our venture venture capital investor called AfriNext Ventures. So AfriNext Ventures met us last year on September, and they were able to invest 1,800,000, which is about $18,000, if I'm not wrong, on 800,000 shillings. So that is the money that has kept us going up until now, and they are very crucial part in what we do, and they're really doing a good job of investing in very early technology in [10:11] >> the country. [10:12] How much of that money, the 18,000 USD, how much of that money do you still have in the bank? [10:17] >> Oh, that we have about 500,000 in the bank. [10:21] Okay. So that that is what is 500,000? [10:25] You have about 3,300 USD still in the bank. [10:29] >> Yes. [10:30] That's great. So how much are you gonna charge when you launch the paywall in in January? [10:37] >> The initial idea for pricing was about $454,500 shillings for a three month course. And as we are recruiting creators, we are advising them to keep their classes within that price range, at least for the first, first few months of their product, because affordability is one thing we're really trying to push for here in Kenya. And 4,500 shillings is where we would like to start pricing our courses for a three month duration. We're starting with short courses. [11:10] Very cool. Are you still getting users from Facebook apps or ads? Or do you have another way to get users now? [11:17] >> Currently, Facebook ads are currently our only marketing tool. At the moment, we are not currently running more ads. We are still working on the product a little bit more. So we stopped running our ads about two months into the beta so that we focus on updating it and pushing up better products once we had gathered the information needed. [11:39] And Tony, is it just still two people on the team, you and the engineer? [11:43] >> No. No. Currently, are a team of six people. [11:46] Six people. What do the others do? [11:49] >> We have an analytics and and design manager, So he takes care of our statistics. At the same time, he's a very gifted artist. He's actually the one who has produced the MapMe icons. Can see him Yeah. The So he's the one who designs our avatars and keeps our brand alive. The other employees are Fort and Developer. So we are currently using Flutterflow to keep improve our workflow. And we have me and it is our creative director. [12:25] >> So we do work on Flutterflow, which enables our work to go a little bit faster. My other team member is a chief legal officer, so she's the one who connected me to Affinix Ventures, I was able to help me negotiate a favorable agreement with them. And then we have They have an education manager. So in our beta app, there's something called lesson packs. Lesson packs are ready made content for users to consume. So Education Manager is [12:56] >> able to write Got it. Yeah. He's really good at writing, so he generates such content. And then we have the developer. That is what the team might have right now. [13:08] Well, we're rooting for you. We hope the Paywall launch goes well in January. You have beautiful artwork. You got your first 100 users, 64 active on a daily basis. Tony, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book? [13:20] >> The Bible. [13:21] Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying? [13:26] >> Mark Zuckerberg. [13:27] Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building make me icons? [13:33] >> FlutterFlow. [13:34] Number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night? [13:39] >> About six hours. [13:41] And what's your situation? Married, single, kids? [13:44] >> I am dating, currently dating. [13:47] No kids? [13:48] >> No kids, yeah. [13:49] Alright. And how old are you? [13:51] >> I'm 25. [13:52] Last question. What's something you wish you knew five years ago when you were 20? [13:57] >> Not everything is going to work out and this is my purpose in life and I can't feel. [14:03] Guys, Make Me Icons got started with a WhatsApp group based in Kenya. He's teaching folks graphic design via his application. He spent a dollar 50 on Facebook ads to get his first 102 beta users. 64 are still active on a daily basis. He's making sure those metrics look good. And then he's launching a paywall coming up here in January for $10 a month or about $30 for a quarter for a three month period. He raised $18,000 [14:27] in pre seed funding last year, is now scaling with his team of six. Tony, thank you for taking us to the top. [14:33] >> Thank you so much as well. [14:35] One 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 [15:00] Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM Central. To make sure you don't miss any of that, make sure you click the subscribe button below here on YouTube, the big red button and then click the little bell notification to make sure you get notifications when we do go live. I wouldn't want you to miss breaking news in the SaaS world, whether it's an acquisition, a big [15:22] fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you wanna take this conversation deeper and further, we have by far the largest private Slack community for B2B SaaS founders. You want to get in there. We've probably talked about your tool if you're running a company or your firm if you're investing. You can go in there and quickly search and see what people are saying. Sign up [15:44] for that at nathanlatka.com/slack. In the meantime, I'm hanging out with you here on YouTube. I'll be in the comments for the next thirty minutes. Feel free to let me know what you thought about this episode and if you enjoyed it, click the thumbs up. We get a lot of haters that are mad at how aggressive I am on these shows, but I do it so that we can all learn. We have to counter those people. We [16:04] got to push them away. Click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys'support. All right. I'll be in the comments. See you.