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Founder Interview

How Quabbly Reached $36K ARR with 30 Customers Building No-Code Internal Apps (Interview with CEO David Ogbonna-Eze)

Interview Date
October 13, 2021
Interviewee
David Ogbonna-EzeCEO
Watch
Watch the full interview

Company Metrics at Interview Time

ARR (2021)

$36K

Customers (2021)

30

Total Funding Raised

$300,000

SAFE Valuation Cap (2021)

$4M

Team Size (2021)

20

Historical Snapshot

These numbers were reported by David Ogbonna-Eze during the interview recorded in October 2021 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Quabbly Technologies Inc.’s current numbers.

Key Takeaways

  • 01Quabbly had 30 paying customers as of October 2021
  • 02ARR stood at $36K at the time of the interview
  • 03Pricing was $20 per user per month on the most expensive plan
  • 04Average account size was 5 seats, giving an average contract value of about $100 per month
  • 05Raised $300,000 on a SAFE with a $4M cap from a mix of local, Silicon Valley, and UK investors
  • 06Team of 20 people, mostly engineers based in Lagos, Nigeria
  • 07Monthly headcount spend was about $7,000, enabled by lower engineering costs in Nigeria
  • 08Primary growth channels were direct sales, word-of-mouth, and implementation partners
  • 09Company was founded in 2020 during the height of COVID-19
  • 10Goal was to reach $100K ARR by end of Q4 2021

Company Metrics at Time of Interview

MetricValueSource
ARR (2021)$36KFounder interview, Oct 2021
MRR (2021)$3,000Founder interview, Oct 2021
Customers (2021)30Founder interview, Oct 2021
Average Seats per Account (2021)5Founder interview, Oct 2021
Average Contract Value (2021)$100 per monthFounder interview, Oct 2021
Price per Seat (2021)$20 per user per monthFounder interview, Oct 2021
Total Funding Raised$300,000Founder interview, Oct 2021
SAFE Valuation Cap (2021)$4MFounder interview, Oct 2021
Team Size (2021)20Founder interview, Oct 2021
Monthly Headcount Spend (2021)$7,000Founder interview, Oct 2021
Year Founded2020Founder interview, Oct 2021

Growth Breakdown

Revenue

Quabbly was generating $3,000 per month in MRR, equating to $36K ARR at the time of the interview. The company started with early testers who later churned, and the then-current 30 paying customers represented the rebuilt customer base.

Customers

The company had 30 customers across verticals including venture capital, agency banking, financial services, and manufacturing. Each account averaged 5 seats, and the team was focused on adding more customers rather than expanding seats within existing accounts.

Team

Quabbly had grown to 20 people, with a large engineering team based in Lagos, Nigeria. Monthly headcount costs ran to about $7,000, reflecting the lower cost of engineering talent in Nigeria relative to North America.

Funding

The company raised $300,000 on a SAFE with a $4M cap from a diverse group of investors spanning Nigeria, Silicon Valley, and the UK. The funds were used primarily to upgrade the product and were then being directed toward go-to-market efforts.

Growth Strategy

Implementation Partners (Value-Added Resellers)

Quabbly worked with implementation partners, described as professionals who use tools to build solutions for clients, to bring in new customers. This channel was one of the primary drivers of customer acquisition at the time of the interview.

Direct Sales and Cold Outreach

David and his co-founders personally conducted outreach, targeting heads of operations at manufacturing companies and similar roles at other target accounts. LinkedIn Sales Navigator was the primary platform for finding and reaching these prospects.

Word-of-Mouth

Organic referrals from existing customers contributed to growth, though David acknowledged this was effectively an extension of direct sales relationships rather than purely passive referrals.

Digital Marketing and Paid Ads

The team had begun running ads but had not yet scaled this channel significantly. Digital marketing was identified as a future growth lever rather than a current primary driver.

Use-Case-Led Expansion

Quabbly was doubling down on the verticals where it already had customers, using existing deployments in manufacturing and financial services as proof points to win similar accounts.

Best Quotes

“So we we price on a user base, like, you know, basis. So we have we price based on number of users in the team using the product. I'm using, like, the internal tools they've built in the product. Yeah. We do we try to, like, make our pricing as simple as possible since we are just, like, early stage. Yeah. And both yeah. We we charge $20 per user per month on our for our our most expensive plan.”
“It's an average of five customers across all these things. So we have an average customer per account of five.”
“So we had some customers testing, those customers have actually churned at the moment. Those were like early testers, they've actually churned right now. But yeah, we had like customers paying to like, you know, test with us there.”
“So we have, like, you know so a mix of, like, you know, investors from local investors to Silicon Valley investors to a number of folks in UK, and we got we have, like, a very diverse cap table.”
“Basically, so so we did that month back. Right? And then we use most of it to, upgrade our products. So our products are basically very shitty at that point. Right? So we used that to upgrade our product plan. And right now, we're, you know, investing a lot on our go to market side of things.”
“So we we we're, like, you know, targeting to our our goal is to get to a 100 k ARR by this by the end of q four this year and still take it up from there.”
“I'm based in Lagos, Nigeria, and it's it's it's pretty much so, of course, we we have, like, a very, you know, diverse team. So we're based in Nigeria and Canada, but most of our engineering team is here in Nigeria, and it's pretty much not as expensive as it is over there.”

What Happened Next

This page captures Quabbly Technologies Inc. as it stood in October 2021, when the company had 30 customers, $36K ARR, and a team of 20 people operating out of Lagos, Nigeria. David Ogbonna-Eze had just wrapped a $300,000 SAFE raise and was targeting $100K ARR by the end of Q4 2021. For the latest recorded revenue, customer count, and funding data, visit the Quabbly company profile on GetLatka.

View Quabbly Technologies Inc.’s current profile and metrics

Full Transcript

Chapters

Introduction and What Quabbly Does

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey folks, my guest today is David Ogbonna-Eze. He is building a tool called Quabbly. It's a platform that teams and businesses use to create internal applications like CRMs, HRMs, etcetera, to manage and automate their processes without writing code. David, are you ready to take us to the top?

David Ogbonna-Eze

00:14>> Yes. Sure, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

00:16Alright. So tell us more about this thing. And are people only using this to build internal applications, or are they building external applications as well?

David Ogbonna-Eze

00:23>> Alright. So for external application applications, that's part of our long road map. Right? So we have an API that teams can pretty much use to build external applications on top of Quabbly. Yeah. But for now, our product allows you to build internal applications without writing code. We currently have a customer who is, like, piloting with our APIs and who's building, like, a SaaS platform on our APIs. So the Quabbly just set us his own database.

Customer Count and Use Cases

Nathan Latka

00:46Very cool. And you have a bunch of customers, I think, already, right?

David Ogbonna-Eze

00:50>> Yeah. A number of customers already.

Nathan Latka

00:52How many customers do you have?

David Ogbonna-Eze

00:54>> I have about 30 customers.

Nathan Latka

00:5530? Any obvious use cases? Like, are most of those VCs or manufacturing companies or something else?

David Ogbonna-Eze

01:02>> Yeah. We have venture capitalists and companies in the agency banking, financial services space, and and manufacturing companies.

Pricing Model and Per-Seat Fees

Nathan Latka

01:09Mhmm. And how do you decide to price it? I mean, are you you know, what are they paying per month on average to use the technology?

David Ogbonna-Eze

01:16>> Okay. So we we price on a user base, like, you know, basis. So we have we price based on number of users in the team using the product. I'm using, like, the internal tools they've built in the product. Yeah. We do we try to, like, make our pricing as simple as possible since we are just, like, early stage. Yeah. And both yeah. We we charge $20 per user per month on our for our our most expensive

01:37>> plan.

Average Account Size and MRR Calculation

Nathan Latka

01:38And about how many users did these 30 customers sign up for on average? Teams of five, ten, 20?

David Ogbonna-Eze

01:44>> It's an average of five customers across all these things. So we have an average customer per account of five.

Nathan Latka

01:50Got it. So five seats per 30 accounts, about a 150 seats at $20 a month?

David Ogbonna-Eze

01:56>> Yeah.

Nathan Latka

01:57Cool. That's hey. Congrats. That's $3,000 a month in revenue. Right?

Early Testers and Churn History

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:01>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

02:02Where were you a year ago? Were you pre revenue?

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:05>> Yeah. So we started building this about around in mid twenty twenty. Mid year, during during like the height of COVID, so instead of building this. So we had some customers testing, those customers have actually churned at the moment. Those were like early testers, they've actually churned right now. But yeah, we had like customers paying to like, you know, test with us there.

Nathan Latka

02:25And, David, is this your baby? Do you own a 100% of the business?

Fundraising: $300K SAFE at $4M Cap

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:29>> Yeah. Obviously, I wanna scale this and take it to the top.

Nathan Latka

02:32But do you own a 100% of the business, or have you raised capital?

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:36>> Okay. Yes. I've raised, like, capital pre pre pre ground. Yes. Currently, like, ongoing. Yep.

Nathan Latka

02:43You're currently raising pre seed?

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:46>> Yeah. Kind of wrapped wrapped up, like, some months back, actually.

Nathan Latka

02:49I see. How much were you looking to raise?

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:52>> $300,000.

Nathan Latka

02:54And and how did that go? Who did you talk to?

David Ogbonna-Eze

02:57>> Okay. So we have, like, you know so

03:01>> a mix of, like, you know, investors from local investors to Silicon Valley investors to a number of folks in UK, and we got we have, like, a very diverse cap table.

Nathan Latka

03:09That's great. And so you raised 300,000. Was it on a safe or a a priced round?

David Ogbonna-Eze

03:14>> A safe.

Nathan Latka

03:15Safe. What cap did you use?

David Ogbonna-Eze

03:18>> 4,000,000.

Nathan Latka

03:19That feel fair at the time?

03:23Did that feel fair or would you rather it be, you know, higher, lower or something different?

David Ogbonna-Eze

03:27>> It felt fair. It's quite quite okay. Yeah.

How the Raise Was Spent

Nathan Latka

03:30How are you planning to spend the money?

David Ogbonna-Eze

03:33>> Okay. Basically, so so we did that month back. Right? And then we use most of it to, upgrade our products. So our products are basically very shitty at that point. Right? So we used that to upgrade our product plan. And right now, we're, you know, investing a lot on our go to market side of things.

Growth Channels: Partners, Direct Sales, Digital Marketing

Nathan Latka

03:47How are customers finding you today? What's your sort of growth channels?

David Ogbonna-Eze

03:51>> Okay. So what you have like three major channels. We're using implementation partners. That's folks like, you know, who use tools to build stuff for clients and direct sales and, of course, digital marketing.

Nathan Latka

04:04And so when you say digital marketing, what does that mean?

David Ogbonna-Eze

04:07>> Yeah. So we we do, like, run ads, but we've not really, you know, scale that particular channel. So we're really focused currently, of course, like I said, how are folks finding us right now? Word-of-mouth and then implementation partners.

Nathan Latka

04:19Okay. Got it. So you're scaling up with digital marketing. You're spending some money on ads. Do you know what your CAC is? How much does it cost you to get a, you know, a $20 a month new seat?

David Ogbonna-Eze

04:29>> Okay. Like like I said, we've not really, you know, I said we have three channels that we, like, you know, looking at. Right? But for so like I said, we've not really, like, you know, put on the engines on ads yet, but our main channels for now are word-of-mouth and direct word-of-mouth has direct sales and then implementation partners.

Nathan Latka

04:46Yeah. But what does word-of-mouth mean? Right? These people don't just magically find you. And if you can't define how they found you, then you can't repeat it.

David Ogbonna-Eze

04:51>> I called that direct sales. Direct sales. So we have, like, sales sales folks. Like, I myself are the, you know, my co founders, and we we, like, talk to people about product and, you know, about folks.

Nathan Latka

05:02And so who do you guys reach out to to talk to? What are you like, what job titles are you targeting and what platforms?

Targeting Head of Operations via LinkedIn

David Ogbonna-Eze

05:08>> Okay. So pretty much scaling with use cases because the product's kind of wide. So, of course, we have, like, a customer manufacturing and some customer manufacturing, so we're really targeting customers that we have like that custom like in use cases that but I think so our ideal customer profile is that we're targeting are from the use cases that we already have already, like the customers we already have. So we're like just killing use cases that we

05:30>> already have on board in our platform.

Nathan Latka

05:32So when you when you're targeting manufacturing folks, who are you targeting? What's the job title at the manufacturing company and the person

David Ogbonna-Eze

05:38>> that's using Head operations.

Nathan Latka

05:39Head of operations.

Co-Founders and Equity Split

Nathan Latka

05:41Okay. And how do you find those people? Is it on LinkedIn or somewhere else? Yeah. LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Got it. And you mentioned co founders. Tell me more about your guys'backstory. How'd you guys meet and how many of you are there?

David Ogbonna-Eze

05:53>> Okay. So we have three co founders. The CTO is my friend, my childhood friend, while I met the CRO while we were in college.

Nathan Latka

06:02And did you guys split equity evenly? 33, 33, 33?

David Ogbonna-Eze

06:06>> Okay. So I and the CTO split it equally. It's like, you know, split it equally because we started to get up and and while my my friend came on board, while we were, like, you know, waiting to project, so he has something.

Nathan Latka

06:16So you you guys put it fifty fifty, then maybe only give him 20% when he joined or something like that?

David Ogbonna-Eze

06:22>> Something like that.

ARR Goal and Path to $100K

Nathan Latka

06:23Nice. Very what are next steps for you?

David Ogbonna-Eze

06:26>> Okay. So basically, like, know, growth. So we we we're, like, you know, targeting to our our goal is to get to a 100 k ARR by this by the end of q four this year and still take it up from there.

Nathan Latka

06:39800 or 100?

David Ogbonna-Eze

06:41>> 100 k ARR.

Nathan Latka

06:43And you're at about 36 right now. Right?

David Ogbonna-Eze

06:45>> Yeah.

Nathan Latka

06:47And what do you what do you think is the path to get there? Adding more customers or more seats across your 30 customers today?

David Ogbonna-Eze

06:53>> Yeah. More customers, basically. And of course, if you can, like, you know, get an expansion revenue, that'd awesome, but it must more customers.

Origin Story: Agency to No-Code Platform

Nathan Latka

07:01Mhmm. Where did you go with this idea? Were you working a full time job somewhere else, or how'd you come up with it?

David Ogbonna-Eze

07:06>> Okay. Awesome. So we so while we were, like, running my running, like, doing, like, our full time jobs and my co founder, like, software engineers Sorry. Yeah. We used to run a mini agency, so we used to, like, you know, build internal tools for for for our clients, and we figured out two problems. Internal tools, like, built with professional means, like, takes a lot of time to, like, come up with I mean, you you spend, like,

07:28>> so much time and to build, a product, maybe, like, two months, three months to build an internal product internal, like, tools to manage your operations. Yeah. So that that was the first part of it. And number two was that no two businesses have the same same processes. So building one tool to, like, solve the problems of, like, maybe 50 businesses is was kind of, like, in a link for us. So we wanted to build something that

07:48>> could solve all problems. And then this so the the current version of our products is a second iteration. So we we we tried it out some years back, and it it, like, failed. So we, like, you know, went back to the drawing board and, you know, took a look at our brochure, build this.

Nathan Latka

08:03Got it. So you start off as an agency. You're Azure's a problem. You built this for your own internal clients, and then you said, you know what? This is a better business. Let's launch it by itself.

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:10>> Yeah. Sure.

Nathan Latka

08:12Got it. Very cool. What's the next are you still two just two of you guys on the team, have you hired your first full time person yet?

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:18>> Yeah. We've hired our first full time person.

Nathan Latka

08:20How many people are on the team?

Team of 20 Based in Nigeria

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:21>> We have about 20 people on the team.

Nathan Latka

08:2320?

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:25>> Yeah. So we have a large engineering team right now. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

08:2920 people. Who how are you paying them?

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:31>> Okay. So I'm based in Lagos, Nigeria, and it's it's it's pretty much so, of course, we we have, like, a very, you know, diverse team. So we're based in Nigeria and Canada, but most of our engineering team is here in Nigeria, and it's pretty much not as expensive as it is over there.

Nathan Latka

08:48Yeah. How much does a software engineer cost in Nigeria?

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:51>> Basically, like, thousand dollar per month.

Nathan Latka

08:53Wow. Okay. Got it. So okay. Got it. So what? Your total headcount expenses per month right now are about how much?

David Ogbonna-Eze

08:59>> Sorry?

Nathan Latka

09:00How much do you spend right now just on people every month, your headcount expenses?

David Ogbonna-Eze

09:04>> About $7,000.

Nathan Latka

09:06Oh, wow. Okay. So there are some people making less than $1,000 a month?

David Ogbonna-Eze

09:10>> Yeah. It's quite it's quite spending power is like it's it's completely different over here. It's not

Nathan Latka

09:15Well, it's a beautiful UI. I mean, when I was preparing for the call, looking at the website, I'm going, wow. This looks beautiful. It's got a lot of functionality. This is incredible. I I thought you were doing based off just the website, I'm like, these guys must be doing a $100, $200 grand a month in revenue. So that's that's good. You have a quality product.

David Ogbonna-Eze

09:30>> Yeah. Well, it's just time to scale it up. Not right now. I'm like, you know, to, like, you know, take it up to the top.

Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

09:36Yeah. Yep. Let's wrap up, David, with the famous five. Number one, favorite business book?

David Ogbonna-Eze

09:40>> The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz.

Nathan Latka

09:42Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

David Ogbonna-Eze

09:46>> I'd say,

09:50>> Elon Musk.

Nathan Latka

09:51Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building a business besides your own?

David Ogbonna-Eze

09:56>> Intercom.

Nathan Latka

09:57Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?

David Ogbonna-Eze

10:00>> Average of five hours.

Nathan Latka

10:02Okay. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

David Ogbonna-Eze

10:05>> Single.

Nathan Latka

10:06Single. Not married. Okay. And how old are you?

David Ogbonna-Eze

10:09>> I'm 22.

Nathan Latka

10:1022. Last question.

David Ogbonna-Eze

10:11>> Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

10:16>> Oh, just 20 some two years back.

Nathan Latka

10:21Yep.

Closing Summary

David Ogbonna-Eze

10:22>> I really haven't answered that.

Nathan Latka

10:25No answer. Guys, very cool. There you have it. Launch an agency, now building quabbly.com. Think of it as, like, an easy way for you and your team to build internal applications, like your own internal CRM. They currently have 30 customers paying. Those customers have on average five seats. They pay on average a $100 per month. They're doing about $3,000 a month right now in revenue. Their goal is to break, call it, $10,000 a month by December

10:45here of 2021. We'll see if they can do it. They raised $300,000 pre seeded about a, call it, 4,000,000 ish valuation. Team of twenty based in Nigeria. David, thank you for taking us to the top.

David Ogbonna-Eze

10:55>> Thanks, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

10:57One 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 alive. It is fun to watch every Thursday one

11:22p. M. Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at two p. M. 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

11:43an acquisition, a big fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or something 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

12:05people are saying. Sign up 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

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