Founder Interview
How Plobal Apps Reached $54K MRR and 260 Customers by Leveraging Shopify's App Store (Interview with Founder and CEO Atul Poharkar)
- Interview Date
- November 25, 2018
- Interviewee
- Atul PoharkarFounder and CEO
Company Metrics at Interview Time
MRR (2018)
$54,000
Customers (2018)
260
ARPU (2018)
$210 per month
Cash Flow to Bottom Line (2018)
$20K per month
Total Funding Raised
$500K
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Atul Poharkar during his interview with Nathan Latka in November 2018 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Plobal Apps’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01Plobal Apps was generating $54,000 in MRR in 2018, up from $9,000 MRR one year earlier
- 02The company had 260 paid customers at an average of $210 per month
- 03Plans start at $99 per month and go up to $1,299 per month
- 04The team of about 24 people is entirely based in India
- 05Shopify's billing API handles all billing and takes a 20% cut of revenue
- 0650% of traffic comes from the Shopify App Store, 40% from SEO, and 10% from Quora and other organic channels
- 07Logo churn was 5.5% per month at the time of the interview
- 08$20,000 per month was flowing to the bottom line
- 09The company raised $500K total from friends and family to build the product
- 10Plobal Apps was founded in 2016, and merchants had made over $10,000,000 in sales through the mobile apps built on its platform; Plobal did not take a cut of those sales
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| MRR (2018) | $54,000 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| MRR (one year prior) (2017) | $9,000 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Customers (2018) | 260 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| ARPU (2018) | $210 per month | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Entry Plan Price (2018) | $99 per month | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Top Plan Price (2018) | $1,299 per month | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Cash Flow to Bottom Line (2018) | $20K per month | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Logo Churn (2018) | 5.5% per month | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Total Funding Raised | $500K | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Team Size (2018) | 24 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Shopify Billing Cut (2018) | 20% | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Cumulative Merchant Sales Through Plobal-Built Apps (Plobal Takes No Cut) | Over $10,000,000 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Year Founded | 2016 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Marketing Team Size (2018) | 2 | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Shopify App Store Traffic Share (2018) | 50% | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| SEO Traffic Share (2018) | 40% | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
| Quora and Other Traffic Share (2018) | 10% | Founder interview, Nov 2018 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
Plobal Apps was generating $54,000 in MRR at the time of the interview in November 2018, up from approximately $9,000 MRR one year earlier. The average customer pays $210 per month, with plans ranging from $99 to $1,299 per month.
Customers
The company had 260 paid customers in 2018. Atul noted that the business had moved upmarket over time, shifting away from early-stage businesses toward merchants with dedicated teams focused on mobile commerce.
Team
All of the roughly 24 people on the team are based in India. Atul said "you just get a ton of great talent at very affordable costs in India": asked what he would pay a developer hired there today, he put a mid-level developer at around $1,000 a month in the first year, a junior at around $500 and a senior at $2,000 to $3,000.
Funding and Cash Flow
Plobal Apps raised $500,000 in total from friends and family to build the product, and after that funded its growth from its own cash flow. At the time of the interview, approximately $20,000 per month was flowing to the bottom line.
Growth Strategy
Shopify App Store Presence
At the time of the interview, Atul described Plobal Apps as the top rated app on the Shopify App Store. The store drove about 50% of its traffic, and the majority of its customers came directly from it. Shopify also handled all billing through its billing API and acted as an acquisition channel as well.
Organic SEO
The company ranked number one on Google for "Shopify mobile app," and SEO keywords brought in around 40% of its traffic. Atul noted that its SEO channels were in place before the product even launched.
Content Marketing and Quora
A marketing team of two people took care of everything, including SEO, content marketing and organic posts on Quora. Quora and other activities brought in roughly 10% of traffic, and the company was not spending anything on customer acquisition.
Moving Upmarket to Reduce Churn
Plobal Apps shifted its focus from early-stage businesses, where it originally sold apps at $29, to more established merchants with dedicated mobile commerce teams. This move upmarket is intended to reduce the 5.5% monthly logo churn rate.
Exploring Paid and Influencer Channels
At the time of the interview, Atul had just hired someone to explore paid marketing channels. The team was also considering Instagram influencer campaigns and customer success story content, given that most customers are ecommerce merchants active on Instagram.
Best Quotes
“So we basically are the top rated app on the Shopify app store, which is... So we integrate with Shopify. ... So majority of our customers come directly from the Shopify app store, and then we've got a lot of inbound channels. We ranked number one on Google for Shopify mobile app. We've got a healthy amount of Quora and content marketing going on. So most of the growth has been purely inbound.”
“So we actually work with the Shopify billing API. So billing is handled by Shopify completely for us.”
“So I think we are generating enough cash flows to actually drive growth. So I don't think at this stage we need the capital to actually boost growth.”
“So one of the metrics that we track is how much sales have happened through our mobile apps, and we've crossed over $10,000,000 in sales just from the platform itself.”
“So I think one thing is that SaaS has really picked up very well in India. Right? A lot of people have actually figured out how to solve SaaS and B2B. Also, you just get a ton of great talent at very affordable costs in India. Right? That's why a lot of companies are moving their tech centers to India.”
“So what we realized is when we started, we are selling apps at $29, and we are selling to businesses which are just starting out. Over a period of time, we've actually been now working with businesses who understand the importance of a mobile app and can actually have an entire team working on it.”
“About automation because, we've just realized that you could just automate so much stuff and it just works so much better.”
What Happened Next
At the time of this November 2018 interview, Plobal Apps had 260 paid customers, $54,000 in MRR, and $20,000 per month flowing to the bottom line after raising just $500,000 in total. Atul was exploring paid marketing and influencer channels as the next growth lever while continuing to rely primarily on Shopify's App Store and organic SEO. Visit the Plobal Apps company profile on GetLatka for current figures and updated metrics.
View Plobal Apps’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Company Overview
- 0:24What Plobal Apps Does and Its SaaS Model
- 1:20Pricing and Average Revenue Per Customer
- 1:43Customer Count, MRR Growth and the Shopify App Store
- 2:47Fundraising and Team Size
- 3:18Why India Is a SaaS Powerhouse
- 4:12Developer Salaries in India
- 4:33Cash Flow Positive and Reinvestment Strategy
- 5:42Churn Rate and Moving Upmarket
- 6:44Customer Acquisition: Zero Paid Spend
- 7:32Plans for Paid Marketing and Influencers
- 8:18Famous Five: Favorite Books
- 9:25Billing via Shopify API and Revenue Cut
- 9:57Sleep, Personal Life, and Advice to Younger Self
Introduction and Company Overview
Nathan Latka
00:00Hello, everybody. My guest today is Atul Poharkar. He is the founder and CEO of Plobal.ai. In 2016, he realized that even though mobile apps were the default future, the technology was limited to just the bigger players. That's when Plobal was born. He he and his team built a platform for developing mobile apps and setting up the mobile commerce success journey for businesses without compromising on any tech abilities. Okay. Atul, are you ready to take
00:22us to the top?
Atul Poharkar
00:23Yep.
What Plobal Apps Does and Its SaaS Model
Nathan Latka
00:24Alright. So what does the company do, and is it a pure play SaaS model?
Atul Poharkar
00:28Yes. So it's a pure play SaaS model. Essentially, when we started out, we were just a app building company. Over a period of time, what we've realized, the bigger problem that businesses have is not building the mobile app, but actually what happens next. Right? So how to actually drive installs, how to drive engagement, and essentially scale revenues. Right? So what we've done is we've built a platform which actually builds your app in as less as five
00:53minutes, And then we've built tools and automation which helps you through the entire mobile commerce journey in terms of getting installs, sending out push notifications, and then optimizing revenues.
Nathan Latka
01:03So is that like a dumb marketer like me, instead of bugging my development team, can go drag and drop together my own app and use you to push it out?
Atul Poharkar
01:10Right. So that's the phase one.
Nathan Latka
01:12Did you just call your customers dumb marketers?
Atul Poharkar
01:14No. So the whole idea is that they are not... They're non tech people. Right?
Pricing and Average Revenue Per Customer
Nathan Latka
01:20So Yeah. That's a better way that's a better way to say it. Non tech people. And what do they pay you on average per month for this?
Atul Poharkar
01:28So we start anywhere from $99 going up to $1,299.
Nathan Latka
01:32Okay. What would you say on average is? It's like a $100 a month?
Atul Poharkar
01:34Around $210 a month. That's our ad.
Nathan Latka
01:39Very specific. When did you found the company? What year?
Atul Poharkar
01:412016.
Customer Count, MRR Growth and the Shopify App Store
Nathan Latka
01:432016. Okay. Got it. And what I mean, so what have you scaled to today? How many customers?
Atul Poharkar
01:49So we've got around two sixty customers.
Nathan Latka
01:52Two sixty?
Atul Poharkar
01:53Two sixty paid customers. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
01:56That's great. I mean, so I can multiply that times the two ten you just gave me. You're doing about $54,000 a month?
Atul Poharkar
02:01We're doing 54,000 a month. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
02:01That's awesome. Global SaaS model.
02:04Yeah. Congrats. And what's growth rate look like? So a year ago today, what were you at?
Atul Poharkar
02:08We were doing around, I think, $9,000 in MRR.
Nathan Latka
02:11Oh, great. Well, obviously, growth is easy going from, you know, a dollar to $5, but still, everyone has to start at zero and you have some healthy growth. Where are you getting all these customers? How are you signing them up?
Atul Poharkar
02:20So we basically are the top rated app on the Shopify app store, which is... So we integrate with Shopify. We are our largest partners. So majority of our customers come directly from the Shopify app store, and then we've got a lot of inbound channels. We ranked number one on Google for Shopify mobile app. We've got a healthy amount of Quora and content marketing going on. So most of the growth has been purely inbound.
Nathan Latka
02:44Is Shopify gonna acquire you?
Atul Poharkar
02:46Oh, hopefully.
Fundraising and Team Size
Nathan Latka
02:47Let's see. Have
02:48you have you raised capital or bootstrapped?
Atul Poharkar
02:51So we've raised our friends and family to actually build the product since it's an intense product. It's actually like Shopify for mobile apps. Right? So the development team has to be quite substantial for this.
Nathan Latka
03:02So how much have you raised total?
Atul Poharkar
03:04We raised around 500 k.
Nathan Latka
03:06Okay. So not a not a ton, but enough to get you guys going. What's the what's the team size look like today?
Atul Poharkar
03:11We are around 24 people.
Nathan Latka
03:13And where's everyone based?
Atul Poharkar
03:15Oh, we are based out of India, all of us. We have an inside sales team.
Why India Is a SaaS Powerhouse
Nathan Latka
03:18I'll tell you what. You know what? I I am starting to fall in love with India, and I've never been to India because I'm meeting so many founders from India who are just crushing it. And they're friendlier than people in The United States. They're usually smarter. They move quicker. What's happening in India?
Atul Poharkar
03:36So I think one thing is that SaaS has really picked up very well in India. Right? A lot of people have actually figured out how to solve SaaS and B2B. Also, you just get a ton of great talent at very affordable costs in India. Right? That's why a lot of companies are moving their tech centers to India.
Nathan Latka
03:54Yeah. I mean,
03:55let's call that what it is.
03:56It's cheap labor that's really freaking smart.
Atul Poharkar
03:58Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And it's something that I think we have been building world class products out of India, which people do not realize. Right? Like Yeah. We will be using a ton of product based out of India without having a clue about it.
Developer Salaries in India
Nathan Latka
04:12First year, what what do you pay? If you're gonna hire a developer today, would you... From India, what would you pay them first year?
Atul Poharkar
04:17In dollars?
Nathan Latka
04:17Yeah.
Atul Poharkar
04:17Around a thousand dollars a month.
Nathan Latka
04:21Wow. That's... And that's like that's like a junior kind of talent level or they're pretty good?
Atul Poharkar
04:25Mid level. I would say. Mid level. Junior would be around $500 a month.
Nathan Latka
04:29And senior would be what? $2,000 a month?
Atul Poharkar
04:32$2,000 to $3,000 a month.
Cash Flow Positive and Reinvestment Strategy
Nathan Latka
04:33Yeah. That's still... That's... Mean, that's obviously still really great. That's great. So so you've raised $500,000, you've got two ten customers, $54,000 a month up from $9,000 a year ago. Are you cash flow positive today?
Atul Poharkar
04:46Yes. We are cash flow positive.
Nathan Latka
04:47That's great.
04:47So are you looking
Atul Poharkar
04:48profitable since April.
Nathan Latka
04:50That's great. Are you looking at raising another round of capital or no?
Atul Poharkar
04:53No. We've been... So we've not raised capital. We built... We raised capital just to build a product. After that, we've been funding ourselves, naturally.
Nathan Latka
05:00And you wanna wanna stay bootstrapped? No need to raise capital, scale faster?
Atul Poharkar
05:04So I think we are generating enough cash flows to actually drive growth. So I don't think at this stage we need the capital to actually boost growth.
Nathan Latka
05:11That's great. Of the $54,000 you're making each month, I mean, do you mind asking how much of that goes right to the bottom line? Are you talking like $10,000, $20,000?
Atul Poharkar
05:18Around $20,000.
Nathan Latka
05:20That's amazing. That's really great. And so where... When you choose to then reinvest that, I mean, does that just kinda sit in the bank to create a cushion for you? What do do with it?
Atul Poharkar
05:28Right. So the initial months, we created a safety net. So we needed some amount of salaries to be there in case some things go wrong. What we're focusing now is we are looking at paid channels to figure out if that can boost growth for us.
Churn Rate and Moving Upmarket
Nathan Latka
05:42Interesting. That's great. Now building a SaaS company, obviously, churn is critical. What's your churn today?
Atul Poharkar
05:46Right. We were around 5.5%.
Nathan Latka
05:49That's revenue churn or a logo churn?
Atul Poharkar
05:52That's logo churn.
Nathan Latka
05:53Per month or per year?
Atul Poharkar
05:55Per month.
Nathan Latka
05:55Okay. Per month.
05:56Okay. Got it.
05:57So call it maybe 60, 65% per year. Right. What is it? Is it about the same amount in terms of revenue churn?
Atul Poharkar
06:04Yeah. Around 5% in terms of revenue churn.
Nathan Latka
06:06Okay. So about 60%. So that's pretty high. How do you get that down?
Atul Poharkar
06:09Right. So we've actually been moving up market. So what we realized is when we started, we are selling apps at $29, and we are selling to businesses which are just starting out. Over a period of time, we've actually been now working with businesses who understand the importance of a mobile app and can actually have an entire team working on it. Right? So one of the metrics that we track is how much sales have happened through our
06:34mobile apps, and we've crossed over $10,000,000 in sales just from the platform itself.
Nathan Latka
06:39Total or per month?
Atul Poharkar
06:41Total.
Nathan Latka
06:41Do you take a cut of that?
Atul Poharkar
06:43No, we don't.
Customer Acquisition: Zero Paid Spend
Nathan Latka
06:44You should. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. Who knows? SaaS model is probably better and people will probably hate you if you ask for a percentage. What do you... So to get a new customer that's paying you call it 200 or $210 per month, what are you spending on customer acquisition fully weighted?
Atul Poharkar
06:58We are actually not spending on anything. Our SEO channels have been there before we even launched the product. So we've been... We get a... Like, 50% of our traffic comes from the Shopify App Store, 40% comes from our SEO keywords, and then 10% comes from Quora and other activities.
Nathan Latka
07:15Quora, you mean organic posts on Quora or paid?
Atul Poharkar
07:17Yes.
07:18Organic posts.
Nathan Latka
07:19How many people on your team are dedicated to like the SEO, the content marketing Quora, etcetera?
Atul Poharkar
07:24So we have a marketing team of two people right now who take care of everything.
Nathan Latka
07:27So really two people are driving your customer growth, two full time salaries.
Atul Poharkar
07:31Yeah.
Plans for Paid Marketing and Influencers
Nathan Latka
07:32That's great. That's good. Let me see. I mean, any any plans to experiment with more pay... Direct kind of paid spend for acquisition or no?
Atul Poharkar
07:40Yes. We actually just hired someone to look at paid marketing and figure out how paid channels would work. Another thing that we want to focus on is figure out if influencers and social media could actually play a big role in this.
Nathan Latka
07:52And how would you see that happening?
Atul Poharkar
07:55So majority of our customers are ecommerce merchants. Right? And they are super active on Instagram. So we want to kind of do this brand building activity where we share about success stories about our customers, the kind of features that we are building, and just tell more about the company.
Nathan Latka
08:09Yeah. You want like... If someone wants to be like Kim Kardashian, have their own Kimoji app, you want them to use you to build their Kimoji thing and
Atul Poharkar
08:16We want everyone to use our platform to build their apps.
Famous Five: Favorite Books
Nathan Latka
08:18Yeah. Well, my my butt cannot compete with Kim Kardashian, so I'm not gonna build the application, but maybe somebody else can. Okay. I love this. What a cool story. Very good. Let's let's wrap up here, Atul, with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business
Atul Poharkar
08:33So when I started, it was The Lean Startup. Then when we were actually developing, it was The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Now it's The Four by Scott Galloway just
Nathan Latka
08:33Wait,
Atul Poharkar
08:33starting
Nathan Latka
08:33what's the one?
08:42Oh, The Four by Scott Galloway? Yeah.
Atul Poharkar
08:44I really love that.
Nathan Latka
08:46And what you said now is what?
Atul Poharkar
08:48I'm just starting High Output Management.
Nathan Latka
08:50These are all great books. Very good. How frequently do you read? Like once a month, once a year?
Atul Poharkar
08:54Once a month.
Nathan Latka
08:55Once a month, a new book.
Atul Poharkar
08:56Yeah.
Nathan Latka
08:57I love that. Alright. Number two, name an under the radar CEO in your city that you really respect.
Atul Poharkar
09:04In my city would be Paras. He's the founder of Wingify.
Nathan Latka
09:09Of what?
Atul Poharkar
09:10Wingify, which is a AB testing company.
Nathan Latka
09:13Oh, VWO? VWO. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They they were just on the show. They're doing doing really, really well.
Atul Poharkar
09:19Yeah. So I really appreciate what they've built and the kind of growth that they've had completely bootstrapped. Is just amazing.
Billing via Shopify API and Revenue Cut
Nathan Latka
09:25Yep. Yep. Yeah. They've they've had really great growth. Number three, what tool do you use for billing?
Atul Poharkar
09:30So we actually work with the Shopify billing API. So billing is handled by Shopify completely for us.
Nathan Latka
09:36Oh, interesting. Okay. Do they take a cut of revenues?
Atul Poharkar
09:39Yeah.
Nathan Latka
09:40How much?
Atul Poharkar
09:4120%.
Nathan Latka
09:42Of your $210 per month average customer?
Atul Poharkar
09:42Yeah.
Nathan Latka
09:42Oh, that's a bummer. Well, maybe not a bummer. They... Because they'll see you growing and then
Atul Poharkar
09:50Yeah. So they handle billing. They even handle the... They act as an acquisition channel as well. Right? So you're not spending any marketing dollars.
Sleep, Personal Life, and Advice to Younger Self
Nathan Latka
09:57Yeah. I guess that's true. Okay. Yeah. Number number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Atul Poharkar
10:02Around five, I think.
Nathan Latka
10:03Okay. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?
Atul Poharkar
10:06Single. No kids.
Nathan Latka
10:07No kids. And how old are you?
Atul Poharkar
10:09I'm 33 now.
Nathan Latka
10:1033. Last question.
10:11What do wish your 20 year old self knew?
Atul Poharkar
10:14About automation because, we've just realized that you could just automate so much stuff and it just works so much better.
Nathan Latka
10:21Plobal Apps, helping you guys build Shopify apps for mobile much, much faster launched in 2016 now serving two sixty customers at $210 a month. That's $54,000 per month today in monthly recurring revenue up from $9,000 a month. Just a year ago, number one growth channel SEO keywords, number one for Shopify mobile app and the Shopify app exchange. They are profitable, about $20,000 per month going to the bottom line. They've only raised $500,000. Team of 24 in
10:46India, 60% revenue churn per year. He's working on driving that down. Again, no really cat get. It's all SEO and content marketing for these key terms and Shopify's AppExchange. Okay. Very good. Atul, thank you for taking us to the top.
Atul Poharkar
10:59Thank you so much, Nathan. Pleasure talking to you.