How ReadyWhen Went From Zero to a $50K Annual Run Rate and 700 Paying Customers in a Year (Interview with Co-Founder and CMO Sachin Bhalla)

Introduction and Guest Background

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Sachin Bhalla. He's the co founder and chief marketing officer at readywhen. With over fifteen years experience in the marketing advertising industry, he's worked on iconic brands like Apple, Rogers, Campbell's, Visa, and others before moving into the tech sector. This is when he joined an automotive scale up that grew to over 800 employees in just three years and was ultimately acquired by a Fortune 1,000 US based company. Now, again, CMO at

00:22readywhen they're on day one. Sachin Sachin, ready to take us to the top?

Sachin Bhalla

00:25>> Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Nathan Latka

00:27You worded that very carefully in your bio. Can you not share what that automotive startup was that you were with?

Sachin Bhalla

00:32>> No. 100%. It's it was called TradeRev.

Nathan Latka

00:36TradeRev. Interesting. Okay. And I imagine there's, a big out there. You don't wanna stick around for a while?

Sachin Bhalla

00:41>> So, know, TradeRev was an amazing opportunity. Was there within the first 50 employees. I was, you know, we were working there and we helped grow that company really quickly. And then when we got acquired, we went into a corporate culture, you know, the company that bought us, you know, there was at that time close to about 15,000 employees, part of KAR. So they asked me to run international marketing in 2019 and I enjoyed it. But what

From TradeRev to ReadyWhen

Sachin Bhalla

01:13>> I really missed was that startup culture, you know, with TradeRev you were building, there was a hustle, you were nimble, you were agile, and I really was looking to get back into it. And more importantly, I actually learned a lot during my TradeRev days, business modeling, strategy, sales, operations. And at some point, I wanted to take a bet on myself. And so my partner and the founder of readywhen, Jesse Vade, he had an idea late in

01:40>> 2019. He's been a trusted BC notary for over fifteen plus years. He was also the president of the BC notary public society out there. And so when he came to me with this idea of readywhen, I was instantly intrigued because I did my competitive research, there wasn't anything really like that. And we always say, and if there was, he would have been using it. But also my parents passed away, both of them. My mom went first,

The Personal Story Behind ReadyWhen

Sachin Bhalla

02:09>> my dad went second and it was really hard. And when I had to become the executor of the estate, you know, it was difficult and I wanted to make things easier for people when they had to deal with, you know, the worst of times.

Who Is Paying: Three Client Bases

Nathan Latka

02:23And so who is paying you for this? Is like children nervous about managing their parents'estates when they pass?

Sachin Bhalla

02:31>> So we have three client bases, would say. Three avenues that we kind of describe as our core clients. One is we have, you know, people like, I would say early adopters who want to become proactive planners so that their information is all in one place. So for instance, my wife, you know, she doesn't know where all the information really lies. So I want to be better prepared and make her part of my team and create that

03:00>> accessibility, which readywhen allows. So she now knows where all that information lives and she doesn't need to go to it often. She doesn't need to go to it at all actually, but it's there and she has the And I and her both have peace of mind.

Nathan Latka

03:14And who are the second two Sachin?

Sachin Bhalla

03:16>> Parents. So, aging parents. So now that my wife, her parents are aging, we're actually doing their readywhen account for them and putting it in there. And the third is the professionals. So we're going through B2B2C channels to drive that volume

Nathan Latka

03:31because ultimately Name their title, professional title.

Notaries, Planners and Corporate Partners

Sachin Bhalla

03:34>> Notaries, financial planners, legal professionals. And then we're also working with tier A corporate clients, insurance companies, life insurance companies, providing the service as a value add. And also in some cases as a revenue driver to help build their businesses up as well.

Nathan Latka

03:54And Sachin, what are, I know I'm sure you have a wide range, but on average, what are these customers paying you per month or per year to use the technology?

Pricing: Monthly, Annual, and Lifetime

Sachin Bhalla

04:02>> So right now we charge $50 per year, $5 per month, or right now we're offering $500 for a lifetime membership.

Nathan Latka

04:12Okay. And what's the thinking behind that? Obviously, when you offer a lifetime membership plan, it decreases your ability to drive expansion revenue over time. Maybe investors don't like that, but also it creates a little bit of lock in.

Sachin Bhalla

04:23>> A 100%. And for us as a startup, we, you know, getting that additional revenue right now is critical. So we're thinking that right now we might do this 500 just to get a sense of what customers actually are more, their appetite is for a service like this. There's not a lot of services like ours out there and we know people hesitate when it comes to thinking and acting upon, you know, their passing. So what actually resonates

04:52>> and we're figuring that out slowly but fast over the past two years. And, you know, the price point is one of those things as a startup, as you know, they fluctuate and they change quite often. So right now we're doing it just to drive some additional revenue into the system.

Nathan Latka

05:08Understood. So moving forward, when did you guys launch the business? When was the start date?

Launch Timeline and Product Milestones

Sachin Bhalla

05:13>> Yep. So we officially launched readywhen as a beta in November 2020. And then we launched our MVP in spring of twenty twenty one. And we've been constantly iterating over the course of this year.

Nathan Latka

05:29So you've had this year sort of build up the customer base. How many customers are you serving now today?

Customer Count and Engagement

Sachin Bhalla

05:33>> So just about a week ago, we hit actually over a thousand customers, which was fantastic. We're getting great feedback, but more importantly, we've had over close to over 1,200, we call them items entered into readywhen, that could be information or documentation.

Nathan Latka

05:53Across the thousand customers?

Sachin Bhalla

05:55>> Correct.

Nathan Latka

05:55Interesting. And

Sachin Bhalla

05:56>> out of that, out of that, more than 70% are paying customers.

Nathan Latka

06:00Got it. So 700 are paying customers?

Sachin Bhalla

06:02>> Correct.

Nathan Latka

06:03Got it. So can I take 700 times $5 a month to get your revenue?

Sachin Bhalla

06:08>> Well, yeah, some are some are doing the 50, some did the 500. But, yeah, it's a it's a it's a cross around the 50 and the 500.

Nathan Latka

06:15Yeah. You you blend those together, you're in about $4,000 a month in revenue, about a 50,000 a year run rate right now.

Sachin Bhalla

06:21>> Correct.

Nathan Latka

06:22Something like that. Okay. Interesting. And a year ago, nothing. Right?

Sachin Bhalla

06:26>> No. Not at all.

Nathan Latka

06:28And did you guys bootstrap or did you guys decide to raise?

Sachin Bhalla

06:31>> So we've been we did do a raise to help us fund the project. We've done two friends and family raises so far. The last raise that we did was really focused on strategic partnerships. Sorry, what

Nathan Latka

06:45year Sachin and how much?

Funding Rounds and Capital Raised

Sachin Bhalla

06:47>> Yeah, so first year, the first in 2020, we raised close to over a little over 100,000 to help us build the prototype and carry us through for a few months. And then later this year, sorry, in 2021, we raised close to $1,000,000 through strategic partners with professionals. So legal and financial partners. Interesting.

Equity Split and Co-Founder Roles

Nathan Latka

07:10Okay. So you did your pre seed round and your seed round. Now you mentioned you were there early. Now, you, you know, are you effectively the co founder, but now you're CMO or how did you guys split equity early on? You just split it down the middle or what?

Sachin Bhalla

07:20>> No, we didn't split it down the middle. Jesse, our partner and the founder, he actually had the idea. So we've been working with him. I've been there since literally day one. I came up with the name and everything, so, and the branding. So the CMO title was just given because effectively the branding and UX fell in my lap. He took on the CEO title just because he's run a few more businesses than I have. And together

07:46>> we are doing that. So in terms of equity, we split it in a very fair way and we're constantly like working it out as we consider options and other partners who will come into the mix.

Nathan Latka

07:56When most people are raising their seed round, say you're selling between 10 and 20% of the business. Is that about what you guys did?

Sachin Bhalla

08:01>> Correct.

Valuation Talk and 2022 Raise Plans

Nathan Latka

08:02Okay. Got it. So so a million on like six or seven or eight pre something like that?

Sachin Bhalla

08:07>> Correct.

Nathan Latka

08:08Yeah. Interesting. Any plans to raise additional capital?

Sachin Bhalla

08:12>> 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely next year in 2022 around well, we're gonna start the the the VC tours in January. And then, you know, the goal is to have some funding in place by May.

Nathan Latka

08:25How are you? You're marketing guy. So let me ask you this. What's your CAC to get a new $5 a month customer?

Sachin Bhalla

08:30>> Pardon, say that again?

Nathan Latka

08:31What's your customer acquisition cost to get a new $5 a month customer? Yeah.

Sachin Bhalla

08:38>> Sorry. Hold on for one second.

Nathan Latka

08:40The noise is fine. We can just keep going.

Sachin Bhalla

08:42>> Yeah. Hold on. I just gotta tell my Shelley? Shelley? Yeah. Can you just stop for a second? I'm just on an interview. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Go ahead.

Nathan Latka

08:51Yeah. So so what's your CAC?

08:53What do you charge to get a new 5 What do you pay to get a new $5 a month customer?

CAC and B2B2C Go-to-Market

Sachin Bhalla

08:56>> So right now, actually, we're not charging a lot. We're doing a lot of social and most of our volume right now is coming through the B2B2C path. So we're not really creating a lot of cost per acquisition.

Nathan Latka

09:11How many partners like a notary have driven you at least one customer?

Sachin Bhalla

09:14>> So right now we're working on around 20 notaries.

Nathan Latka

09:19Those are your partners. They've driven most of your customers today.

Sachin Bhalla

09:21>> Correct.

Nathan Latka

09:22How do you get them to pick you over trust and will and some of your competitors? So trust and will is not in Canada.

Sachin Bhalla

09:27>> Ah, okay.

Nathan Latka

09:28Is that a big thing? Is that important?

Competing in Canada vs Trust and Will

Sachin Bhalla

09:30>> It's important to it's it it is a big thing. Yeah. A 100% because there's very, you know, readywhen has been built through Jesse's subject matter expertise as a legal professional. And with that, we've been able to build a very Canadian based product. So when you go to probate, when someone does pass, the goal of readywhen, it takes up to two to three years to settle an estate. If readywhen is filled out correctly, you might be

09:55>> able to do it in months and that could save thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours. So we're really focused on that. And trust and will so far hasn't built a readywhen type of product, which is a guided journey to help you get set up for your estate. Trust and will right now has been focusing on estates, on will, sorry, and trust. As they get it bigger into The US, I'm sure they're going to start to build

10:20>> this idea of document storage and guided journeys. But for right now, readywhen has a very, very focused goal, which is to help people really plan and proactively plan for the future.

Willful, Wills and Where ReadyWhen Fits

Nathan Latka

10:33And this is specifically you're winning in Canada because they are not there yet. What about willful.co? How are you beating those guys?

Sachin Bhalla

10:39>> So again, different product, right? Willful is very focused on the legal sector, building wills. They are not in the same space as us. In fact, we're very much

10:51>> partnering in this space where they can actually do the wills. You could store it right on readywhen, when you have it done from a willful or any lawyer. And then we're helping to do that. Readywhen is actually more of a nucleus.

Nathan Latka

11:04Yes. So, you guys are more of a storage company. I should think of you more like Google Drive. It's where people store all their life documents. It's not where they're actually like redoing or writing their will.

Not a Storage Company: Guided Journeys and Estate Access

Sachin Bhalla

11:12>> Yeah. And you know what? I actually really don't like that term storage because with that, you know, we're more than that. It's more of guided journeys. We're actually educating people on what to do when it comes to their end of life situation.

Nathan Latka

11:27Okay, I don't know what that means, but I mean, end of life means wills and right?

Sachin Bhalla

11:32>> So, you actually do pass, there's a lot to do with your estate. Like there's mortgages, there's assets, there's digital assets, there's health, there's all this information that needs to be passed, informational inheritance. So what happens? And we are also creating accessibility. So with readywhen you can actually assign people to a team and then you can actually give them access to information pre death or after death, depending on what you want to do in team matrix. And

12:02>> then also in readywhen, you can leave messages for your loved ones through ready mode. So you can actually do that. So a will is a part of an estate, a 100% and probably one of the most important legal documentations that you need in an estate plan. But in order to settle an estate, you really need to understand the full financial structure of what someone has, their assets, now they're digital. So with readywhen, you're actually completing all

12:26>> of that.

Team Size and Engineers

Nathan Latka

12:27Understood. Okay. We're out of time, so we've to wrap up here with the famous five, but first some rapid fire things. What's the team size today? How many people?

Sachin Bhalla

12:34>> We're 11.

12:35>> 11. How many engineers?

Nathan Latka

12:37Three. Okay. Cool.

Famous Five Rapid Fire

Sachin Bhalla

12:38>> Famous five here. Number one, favorite book?

12:43>> Catcher in the Rye as a as fiction, non fiction creativity, inc.

Nathan Latka

12:47Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Sachin Bhalla

12:50>> Yeah. Steve Stout, Larry Jackson, and the recently passed Virgil Abloh.

Nathan Latka

12:56Number two, what's your favorite online tool for building your business?

Sachin Bhalla

13:00>> Right now, I'm really obsessed with Datorama within Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Nathan Latka

13:04Number four. How many hours of sleep do get every night?

Sachin Bhalla

13:06>> Six.

Nathan Latka

13:07And situation, married, single, kids?

Sachin Bhalla

13:09>> Married with kid.

13:11>> Married with kids.

Nathan Latka

13:12Okay. And how old are you?

Sachin Bhalla

13:14>> I'm 42.

Nathan Latka

13:15Last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

Sachin Bhalla

13:19>> The importance of work ethic. I wish I had that when I was younger.

Nathan Latka

13:24Guys, he's been another company, seen fast growth, now building readywhen.com launched in 2019, doing no revenue a year ago, now about $4,000 a month in revenue across 700 customers. Their go to market is working directly with notaries. Today, they're working directly with about 20 notaries who brought them in customers, and those customers are active. They put over 1,200 items into their readywhen accounts as they look to continue to scale. A million dollar seed round done sold

13:43between 10 and 20% as they look to scale. Sachin, thanks for taking us to the top.

Sachin Bhalla

13:47>> Thank you.

Nathan Latka

13:50One 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 one

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