Latka logo

Founder Interview

How Maynuu Reached $36K ARR Serving 180 Active Restaurants Across Malaysia and Singapore (Interview with Co-Founder Aaron D'Cruz)

Interview Date
June 1, 2022
Interviewee
Aaron D'CruzCo-Founder and GM
Watch
Watch the full interview

Company Metrics at Interview Time

Annual Run Rate Revenue (2022)

$36K ARR

Active Restaurant Customers (2022)

180

Total Sign-Ups (2022)

1,800

ARPU (2022)

$17 per month

Team Size (2022)

5

Historical Snapshot

These numbers were reported by Aaron D'Cruz during the interview recorded in June 2022 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Maynuu’s current numbers.

Key Takeaways

  • 01Maynuu reached $36K in annual run rate revenue as of June 2022, up from roughly $12K ARR one year prior.
  • 02The platform had 1,800 total restaurant sign-ups across Malaysia and Singapore at the time of the interview.
  • 03Approximately 180 restaurants, or 10% of sign-ups, were active users defined as generating daily sales.
  • 04ARPU was approximately $17 per restaurant per month across active customers.
  • 05Maynuu charges an 8% platform fee on every transaction, with roughly 4% going to Stripe.
  • 06Average order value on the platform was about $80 per order.
  • 07The company is fully bootstrapped and self-funded, founded in May 2020 in Malaysia.
  • 08The team consists of 5 people, including 2 co-founders and approximately 2 engineers.
  • 09Cold outreach via Instagram DMs and word-of-mouth referrals are the primary customer acquisition tactics.
  • 10Aaron D'Cruz supplements company runway with freelance web development work while the SaaS business grows.

Company Metrics at Time of Interview

MetricValueSource
Annual Run Rate Revenue (2022)$36K ARRFounder interview, June 2022
Active Restaurant Customers (2022)180Founder interview, June 2022
Total Sign-Ups (2022)1,800Founder interview, June 2022
ARPU (2022)$17Founder interview, June 2022
Average Order Value (2022)About $80 per orderFounder interview, June 2022
Platform Fee (2022)8% of GMVFounder interview, June 2022
Net Take Rate (after Stripe) (2022)About 4% of GMVFounder interview, June 2022
Team Size (2022)5Founder interview, June 2022
Engineers (2022)2Founder interview, June 2022
Free Users (Sign-Ups) (2022)1,800Founder interview, June 2022
Year Founded2020Founder interview, June 2022
Growth Accelerator Cost (2022)$500 per monthFounder interview, June 2022

Growth Breakdown

Revenue

Maynuu was generating approximately $3,000 per month in total revenue across Malaysia and Singapore as of June 2022, equating to a $36K annual run rate. Aaron noted that roughly one year prior the business was doing about a third of that amount.

Customers

The platform had 1,800 total restaurant sign-ups across two countries, but only about 10% of those, roughly 180 restaurants, were active in the sense of generating daily sales. The remaining sign-ups used the platform for seasonal or occasional events.

Team

Maynuu had a team of 5 people at the time of the interview, including two co-founders. Aaron described the engineering capacity as about 2 full engineers, counting himself as a self-taught developer contributing roughly half an engineer's output.

Funding and Runway

The company is fully bootstrapped and self-funded. Aaron supplemented the company's runway with personal savings from the sale of his restaurant and bakery, as well as ongoing freelance web development work.

Growth Strategy

Cold Outreach via Instagram DMs

Aaron identified cold DMs on Instagram as the single most effective customer acquisition channel at the time of the interview. This approach replaced an earlier reliance on a paid sales consultant.

Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Existing customers and personal contacts referred new restaurants to the platform. Aaron credited this organic channel as a reliable and cost-free complement to direct outreach.

Early Sales Consultant

In the early days in Malaysia, Maynuu hired a sales consultant through a local network connection, paying a flat fee of approximately RM 15,000 per month. This drove the initial wave of sign-ups but was discontinued due to cost.

Growth Accelerator Program

Aaron enrolled in a growth accelerator program at $500 per month for a one-year commitment, with the goal of building repeatable systems for customer acquisition rather than depending on a single person or tactic.

Building in Public on Twitter

Aaron actively shared his journey publicly on Twitter, which attracted inbound attention including the outreach that led him to the growth accelerator program and ultimately to this interview.

Best Quotes

“So basically, we help small restaurants make more money online. How it works is restaurants can use our system to digitalize their menu and streamline the entire online ordering process. So it covers everything from deliveries to takeaways to reservations, as well as QR code ordering for their in house customers.”
“We take a percentage platform fee on the on every transaction. So it's 8%.”
“About half of that goes to Stripe. So we don't make very much.”
“So currently, the the one that works best is, cold outreach. I do a lot of, cold DMs on Instagram. And but apart from that it's a lot of word-of-mouth referrals from people that I know, my friends and people that have signed on they tell other people as well. So, you know, nothing beats that.”
“I like to say two and a half because I'm the half. I'm the 0.5.”
“So, yeah, you're right. I I do have some savings from the sale of the the restaurant and the bakery that I used to have. I also do freelance work, web development. Yeah. So that's that kind of helps to, pad the runway.”
“Have the courage to be your true self and everything will be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end.”

What Happened Next

This interview captures Maynuu at an early stage in June 2022, when the company had 1,800 sign-ups, 180 active restaurant customers, and a $36K annual run rate across Malaysia and Singapore. The figures here are a point-in-time snapshot reported by Aaron D'Cruz during the conversation and do not reflect the company's current state. Visit the Maynuu company profile on GetLatka for the most up-to-date data available.

View Maynuu’s current profile and metrics

Full Transcript

Chapters

Introduction and Guest Background

Aaron D'Cruz

00:00This meeting is being recorded.

Nathan Latka

00:02>> Hey, folks. My guest today is Aaron D'Cruz. He's an ex restaurateur of fifteen years turned self taught web developer. He's now building tools for small restaurant owners at maynuu.com. That's maynuu.com. Aaron, you ready to take us to the top?

Aaron D'Cruz

00:17Yep. Let's go.

Restaurant Background and Path to Software

Nathan Latka

00:18>> Okay. So what what came first? Writing code or running a restaurant?

Aaron D'Cruz

00:26So I started coding in 2001, but I didn't kind of I didn't go all the way because, you know, I had to get a job and stuff. So then I went into the restaurant business for fifteen years. After that, I sold it and then I went, you know, full full full on in deep dive into web development.

What Maynuu Does for Small Restaurants

Nathan Latka

00:45>> That's amazing. Okay. So what is the tool that small restaurants are paying you for today?

Aaron D'Cruz

00:50So basically, we help small restaurants make more money online. How it works is restaurants can use our system to digitalize their menu and streamline the entire online ordering process. So it covers everything from deliveries to takeaways to reservations, as well as QR code ordering for their in house customers.

Revenue Model: 8% Platform Fee

Nathan Latka

01:14>> Oh, wow. And what do they pay you per month on average to use the technology?

Aaron D'Cruz

01:19We take a percentage platform fee on the on every transaction. So it's 8%.

Nathan Latka

01:26>> 8%. Okay. And it's 8% across all all the restaurants?

Aaron D'Cruz

01:31Yes. That's right. About half of that goes to Stripe. So we don't make very much.

Nathan Latka

01:35>> 4% goes to Stripe?

Aaron D'Cruz

01:37Yeah. Around that.

Launch Story: Malaysia 2020 and Expansion to Singapore

Nathan Latka

01:39>> Interesting. Okay. So I guess let's get more of the origin story here. When did you launch the business? What year?

Aaron D'Cruz

01:47It launched in May 2020 in Malaysia. Then about six to eight months ago, we decided to branch out into Singapore as well.

Bootstrap Decision and Sign-Up Numbers

Nathan Latka

01:56>> So 2020. And then have you decided to bootstrap the company or raise capital?

Aaron D'Cruz

02:02We're self funded. Yes.

Nathan Latka

02:04>> Bootstrapped. We love that. Congratulations. Now how many how many of these restaurants are paying you today or using you?

Aaron D'Cruz

02:12So we've got about 1,800 sign ups across two countries.

Nathan Latka

02:20>> And in in well, we just finished the month of May. So in May, how many total sales do those 1,800 sign ups put through Maynuu?

Aaron D'Cruz

02:33Well, I've I've got to check. I don't have the number off the top of my head.

Nathan Latka

02:38>> What's the range?

Aaron D'Cruz

02:38What

Nathan Latka

02:43>> would a range be?

Aaron D'Cruz

02:45So the ticket average is about $80 per restaurant. But I I don't have the full figure for me. Yeah. Sorry?

Nathan Latka

02:55>> Per month?

Aaron D'Cruz

02:57No. Per order.

Nathan Latka

03:01>> Okay, so I guess the reason I'm asking this is obviously if you charge off a percent of volume, this is critical for you to understand. I find it hard to believe you wouldn't know what that number is, right? So how do you know if the business is doing well or not?

Aaron D'Cruz

03:14I don't know the total volume of what all the restaurants are doing, but I know how much we're making. So in Malaysia, we've done about RM 10,000 and in Singapore, it's between 500 to $800.

Nathan Latka

03:28>> Okay. Got it. So you're doing 500 to $800 per month right now?

Aaron D'Cruz

03:32Yeah. That's our that's our sort of take home.

Nathan Latka

03:35>> Okay. Okay. So I guess if I if I convert 10,000 Malaysian ringgit to United States dollars, it's about 2,300 United States dollars per month. And you're saying you keep about 25% of that, so $506,100 dollars per month?

Aaron D'Cruz

03:51No, no, sorry. In Singapore, in Malaysia, we're doing average RM 10,000 per month. And in Singapore, we're doing an average of 500 to $800 per month.

Nathan Latka

04:04>> 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 Founderpath. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second. But you log in, you connect

04:27>> 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 Founderpath dashboard, this is all free by the way, is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SaaS company, you're gonna

04:51>> 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 this is

05:13>> not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founder 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. Maybe you're

05:39>> going out right now and you're raising your seed round. We'll 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 Founderpath. And we're thrilled to bring it to you. All right. We're gonna go back to the YouTube video here in a second. But

06:01>> 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 back into

06:27>> the interview. So together, you're doing about 3,000 per month across the whole business.

Aaron D'Cruz

06:32I That's see.

Active Users: 10% of 1,800 Sign-Ups

Nathan Latka

06:34>> I see. Yeah. Okay. Now are all 1,800 restaurants putting dollars through you right now or are some of them not activated yet?

Aaron D'Cruz

06:42So I think only about 10% are active users. And what we mean by active is they're getting daily sales.

06:52Because our system is very flexible, some of them use it for maybe seasonal sales only or know, like once a month sort of events.

Nathan Latka

07:02>> Mhmm.

Aaron D'Cruz

07:03So I count about 10% of that have daily active sales.

ARPU: $17 Per Active Restaurant Per Month

Nathan Latka

07:06>> The 10% of 1,800 is 180 restaurants. You're making $3,000 a month right now total. We could take $3,000 a month total divided by a 180 restaurants. You're doing about $17 per restaurant per month right now. Correct?

Aaron D'Cruz

07:20There thereabouts. That sounds right.

Nathan Latka

07:22>> This is amazing. How did you get 1,800 sign ups? That's a lot of restaurants.

Aaron D'Cruz

07:28So when we first started out in Malaysia, we hired a sales consultant to do the work.

Nathan Latka

07:33>> How did you find the sales consultant?

Aaron D'Cruz

07:38I think it was a friend of a friend, you know, local network sort of thing.

Nathan Latka

07:43>> How did you pay them? Was it a flat fee or a percent of sales or what?

Aaron D'Cruz

07:47We paid them a flat fee. We paid them, I think, about RM 15,000 a month. It was very costly. So, this year onwards, I actually signed up for, growth accelerator by Dan Martell, and we're trying out a different way to, you know, grow and scale our business. Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

08:07>> How'd you find Dan Martell?

Aaron D'Cruz

08:10He approached me on Twitter.

Nathan Latka

08:13>> Ah, very cool. How did he approach you? He runs a great business. Did he just DM you?

Aaron D'Cruz

08:17Yeah, they just DM me.

Nathan Latka

08:19>> What does he say? What's the copy?

Aaron D'Cruz

08:24Don't remember exactly, but I'm on Twitter quite a bit and I do the whole build in public thing. A few of my tweets maybe got people's attention and I think it happened from there.

Nathan Latka

08:37>> I see. I see. And so what does what does growth I mean, you you paid this person 15,000 ringgit, which is $3,400 United States dollars per month. That's expensive. What is growth accelerator by Dan Martell cost?

Aaron D'Cruz

08:50It's 500 a month.

Nathan Latka

08:52>> Okay. So cheaper, much cheaper.

Aaron D'Cruz

08:55Much cheaper. And I think it's also, we learn things that we can take away for life. Like we're not just dependent on one person to do all the work. So, you know, we learn how to put in systems

09:07that can properly run, you know, perpetually if we do it right. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

09:13>> Now how do you I mean, do you anticipate using growth accelerators for a couple months? Because $500 against your $3,000 a month in total revenue is actually a big percent of your revenue.

Aaron D'Cruz

09:24That's right. Yep. But I think it's worth it, and I've committed for one year. Okay. So is that?

Nathan Latka

09:32>> So one year is $500 times 12, so you've committed for 6,000 Yes. I see. I see. Very good. And are you putting your whole team through it or just you?

Aaron D'Cruz

09:41It's just me.

Nathan Latka

09:42>> Just you. Okay. And what does your team look like today? How many folks?

Aaron D'Cruz

09:46We've got five.

Co-Founder Equity Split and Partnership

Nathan Latka

09:49>> Five. Okay. And how many founders? Just you?

Aaron D'Cruz

09:54There's two of us. That's me and there's who's based in Malaysia. He's my partner.

Nathan Latka

10:00>> The equity conversation at the beginning of a company is really difficult sometimes. How did you guys decide to have that conversation and split equity?

Aaron D'Cruz

10:14Think we're both pretty easygoing people, so we just decided to keep it simple.

Nathan Latka

10:20>> Which is what? Fifty fifty?

Aaron D'Cruz

10:22Yeah, thereabouts.

Nathan Latka

10:24>> Okay. Do you regret that? Like, looking you know, you're two years into the company today. Would you do the same thing again today?

Aaron D'Cruz

10:31Do I regret what?

Nathan Latka

10:33>> Splitting it fifty fifty exactly.

Aaron D'Cruz

10:36No. Not at all. So

Nathan Latka

10:39>> what happens when you guys disagree on something? How do you work through an issue?

Aaron D'Cruz

10:45Good question. We haven't actually

10:50encountered that yet. Mhmm. I think we've you know, this is not our first rodeo, so

10:58far so far we've been on the same page about pretty much everything.

Nathan Latka

11:02>> Mhmm.

Aaron D'Cruz

11:02Yeah.

Nathan Latka

11:03>> It's very rare though that two co founders are on the same page about everything, especially as the company grows and there's more to lose. Right? There's not a lot to lose right now. You're doing 3,000 a month in revenue, but as you grow, there may be disagreements. Right? So how do you break a tie? How do you anticipate having that tough chat?

Aaron D'Cruz

11:19So I think it's probably part of my personality to of give in to the other person.

11:29At the end of the day, right, nothing is that important to, you know, it's not worth making enemies for, if you know what I mean. And we can always find ways around things.

Growth Strategy: Cold Outreach and Word of Mouth

Nathan Latka

11:41>> Fair enough. So between the Growth Consultant that you used to sign up your initial restaurants and you learning from Growth Accelerator, How are you getting customers today? What what strategy are you using?

Aaron D'Cruz

11:53So currently, the the one that works best is, cold outreach. I do a lot of, cold DMs on Instagram. And but apart from that it's a lot of word-of-mouth referrals from people that I know, my friends and people that have signed on they tell other people as well. So, you know, nothing beats that.

Team Size and Engineering Capacity

Nathan Latka

12:17>> Yep. This is a great story. Now of the five people folks, Aaron, how many of them are engineers and are you an engineer?

Aaron D'Cruz

12:25I like to say two and a half because I'm the half. I'm the 0.5.

Nathan Latka

12:30>> Self taught. Self taught. Right? Yep. That's awesome. That's great. Okay. Very cool. And what's it like in Malaysia right now? Are there a lot of software companies popping up? Do you sense momentum?

Aaron D'Cruz

12:42I would say yes. It's a developing country and so

12:50definitely trying to model themselves after Silicon Valley. We actually have a place called Buthrajaya which we call the Silicon Valley Of Malaysia. So a lot of very ambitious and very talented people there.

Nathan Latka

13:04>> And I guess last question here. If you're doing about $3,000 a month today in revenue, do you remember what you were doing exactly one year ago?

Aaron D'Cruz

13:14One year ago, I think we were doing a third of that.

Nathan Latka

13:17>> Okay, so about 1,000 a month. So, I mean, let me ask It you a sounds like you sold a restaurant business before, so maybe you have some savings, but, you know, you're building in public, you're being very vulnerable. You know, you don't have enough revenue yet to to pay yourself really a real salary. So how are you buying time, you know, paying your living expenses while your SaaS company grows?

Runway: Savings and Freelance Work

Aaron D'Cruz

13:37So, yeah, you're right. I I do have some savings from the sale of the the restaurant and the bakery that I used to have. I also do freelance work, web development. Yeah. So that's that kind of helps to, pad the runway.

Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

13:52>> I see. That makes sense. Great. Well, Aaron, this is a fantastic story. Let's wrap here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Aaron D'Cruz

14:02Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson.

Nathan Latka

14:05>> I was not expecting you to say that. Okay. Number number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Aaron D'Cruz

14:13It's got to be Dan Martell of SaaS Academy.

Nathan Latka

14:16>> Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building Maynuu?

Aaron D'Cruz

14:21Online tool.

14:24Oh, it's got to be Llama Life. Shout out to Marie Anne. Yep. She's three hour coffee on Twitter. Go follow her.

Nathan Latka

14:32>> That's amazing. I just. We just had her on the show. She did a really great interview. Is that how you heard about me?

Aaron D'Cruz

14:38Yes. Yes. Yes.

Nathan Latka

14:39>> Nice. Think you are following that.

Aaron D'Cruz

14:42You DM'd me.

Nathan Latka

14:43>> Yeah. She she's she's awesome. She's awesome. Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get each night?

Aaron D'Cruz

14:50Seven, eight.

Nathan Latka

14:51>> Seven. Okay. And and what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Aaron D'Cruz

14:57I'm currently single. No kids.

Nathan Latka

14:59>> Okay. And how old are you?

Aaron D'Cruz

15:01Sorry?

Nathan Latka

15:02>> How old are you, Aaron?

Aaron D'Cruz

15:0543.

15:0643.

Nathan Latka

15:07>> Last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

Aaron D'Cruz

15:13Oh,

Closing Advice and Wrap-Up

Aaron D'Cruz

15:15that's a good one.

15:23Have the courage to be your true self and everything will be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end.

Nathan Latka

15:34>> Guys, there you have it from Aaron. Started off running his own bakery and shop, ended up selling that and then launching software that he would have loved to have when he had his own bakery to make it run smoother. It's called maynuu.com. They broke $1,000 a month in revenue a year ago, now doing $3,000 a month in revenue. They have over 1,800 restaurants signed up, of which a 180 are active, meaning they do daily sales. His

15:56>> revenue model is he takes 8% fee from GMV going to the platform, but Stripe keeps 4%. So he nets about four-ish percent on each of those sales. Five people on the team today as they look to continue to scale. He's biding his time doing freelance work and consulting on the side while a SaaS company grows. Aaron, thanks for taking us to the top.

Aaron D'Cruz

16:14Oh my god. That was amazing, Nathan. How do you do that?

Nathan Latka

16:21>> 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

16:46>> 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

17:08>> fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you want to 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

17:30>> 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

17:50>> got to push them away. Click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys' support. Alright, I'll be in the comments. See you.