How ReferBox Built a 52-Startup Waitlist Before Launch Targeting $1,000 MRR in Month One (Interview with CEO Damilare Ololade)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Guys, referbox.app, he started coding it back in earlier this year in 2022. They've got 52 on the waitlist. They're launching pricing here in one month, hoping to get a thousand bucks in MRR quickly by getting customers pay $30 a month. Their idea is to build on top of Flutterwave down in Africa and Nigeria. Specifically, this refer comp this ReferBox app will enable you to get more referrals into your stores to sell more product. They're working on

00:21building integration right now to Flutterwave, again, as they look to scale. Hey, folks. My guest today is Damilare Ololade. He is the founder of a company called ReferBox App, which is a referral marketing tool for Africans. He's a software developer and it launched this back when he was he started his journey when he was 20 in terms of the startup world. His team won the top 10 teams awards at Africa Hacks Hackathon in his home country

00:43of Nigeria, and he's passionate about solving problems with code. Alright. Damilare, are you ready to take us to the top?

Damilare Ololade

00:50>> Sure. Let's go.

Nathan Latka

00:51Alright. So the the website well, what is the website? Is it referbox.com?

Damilare Ololade

00:56>> Referbox.app.

Nathan Latka

00:58Dot We couldn't

Damilare Ololade

00:59>> get the.com domain.

Nathan Latka

01:00Yeah.

Target Customers and Use Cases

Nathan Latka

01:01That's okay. Okay. Refer referbox.app. And talk to me about what your customers look like. Who are they? And give me an example of how they use you.

Damilare Ololade

01:09>> Yeah. So, medium customers are startups who want to use referral marketing as a leverage leveraging to to acquire customers and also like grow their customer base. But we have a second market segments, which are small businesses. And I don't know if you want me to run you through how we started.

Nathan Latka

01:30No. Well, I mean, I'll ask all the questions. Tell us first though, what's the what's the what's the average customer paying you per month right now?

Private Beta and Waitlist

Damilare Ololade

01:37>> So the funniest thing is that we're still in private beta, we just put out our private beta a few weeks ago, but incredibly, we have about 52 startups who are on our waitlist. Our private testing with three startups in Nigeria.

Nathan Latka

01:54So you're you're pre revenue right now. You haven't launched yet, but you have five zero. You have 50 startups on your waitlist.

Damilare Ololade

02:00>> 52.

Nathan Latka

02:01Yes. 52. Tell me how you got them on your waitlist. How'd you build it?

How the Waitlist Was Built

Damilare Ololade

02:06>> So I just made a tweet that we just launched and I spoke about the problems current startups in Nigeria face when it comes to acquiring customers. You need to do ads, you need to do influencer marketing, and all of this does not really guarantee you the type of customers you want. Referral Marketing be it a platform where you need to do less to get more, and with that, surprisingly, we're able to get about 52 people on

02:36>> that waitlist. And these are businesses that have hundreds and even thousands of customers. Yeah.

Pricing Launch Timeline

Nathan Latka

02:42That's amazing. So when do you plan to launch your your pricing, your paywall?

Damilare Ololade

02:47>> Yeah. We cannot launch in about a month because we have startup competition we are planning for in about a few weeks. So that's one of the things that actually be pushing things back. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

02:58So so you're launching in one month?

Damilare Ololade

03:00>> Yes. In a month.

Nathan Latka

03:02And how much how

Damilare Ololade

03:03>> much money do you wanna make? Is like mhmm.

Nathan Latka

03:05Much money do you wanna make in the first month?

Damilare Ololade

03:07>> In the first month, in terms of

03:12>> maybe a thousand dollars.

Nathan Latka

03:14And how many customers would that be? How many people do you to get to pay you to make a thousand bucks?

Damilare Ololade

03:19>> Okay. That would be about 30 plus customers actively. Yes.

Nathan Latka

03:25How many?

Damilare Ololade

03:26>> 30. 30 active. Yeah. 30 active customers.

Nathan Latka

03:31So, you're gonna charge, like, $30 a month, something like that?

Damilare Ololade

03:35>> Yes. And the interesting part is big big companies tend to pay more because then they have, like, bigger user base and, like, they require more API request and all of that. But API lot request for now. Yeah. That makes of sense.

Nathan Latka

03:52Did you build this yourself or do have a cofounder?

Team Structure and Equity Split

Damilare Ololade

03:55>> Yes. I have a team. Two cofounders besides me. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

04:00How much equity did you give them?

Damilare Ololade

04:03>> Yeah. We I don't know if I can say that.

Nathan Latka

04:05Now you can say it. They're not listening. Yeah.

Damilare Ololade

04:09>> Yeah. It's what it is, but, like, it's it's something we know, but maybe not the public.

Nathan Latka

04:13Did you Did you guys

04:15did you split it evenly, 33% each?

Damilare Ololade

04:19>> Yes. Yes. We did.

Nathan Latka

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06:45the interview. Okay. So you have 33, they each have 33, and you're off to the races.

Damilare Ololade

06:51>> Not that equal, but it's somewhere, like, in in the balance. I'm the CEO. I'm, like,

06:59>> we don't have Rosie yet. We don't have Rosie yet, but, like, I'm the main guy in the team.

Nathan Latka

07:04Yeah. Fair enough. Are you guys bootstrapping or have you decided to raise capital?

Bootstrapping and Funding Approach

Damilare Ololade

07:07>> Yeah. We're bootstrapping. We're bootstrapping because, like, we have a road map we want to meet and we want to make sure, like, we're you know what we really want and also, like, grow at this steady pace. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

07:21Interesting. And and obviously, if you're bootstrapping, that means you have to pay for rent and meals and all that right now. You don't have any any revenue from the company. So how are you paying your bills?

How Founders Pay Their Bills

Damilare Ololade

07:30>> Yes. So I am a student and I also work part time building websites for brands and businesses, so I make money from that while my co founders also work in different companies where they can use it to source for funds. Yeah, that's how we make money for now.

Nathan Latka

07:50So when are you guys gonna quit your full time jobs and go all in on the company?

Damilare Ololade

07:54>> So the thing is we're students and I'm in my third year. I'll be finishing next year. So by then, I'm going full in. Also, my cofounders too. Okay.

Nathan Latka

08:05That's awesome.

Damilare Ololade

08:06>> Full in from there.

Nathan Latka

08:07When did you write the first line of code for ReferBox?

First Line of Code and Origin Story

Damilare Ololade

08:11>> It was February 22 this year. And it was it just came as an idea, and from there, we have, like, metamorphosed into what it is now. K?

Nathan Latka

08:24Referbox. App. Very cool. So 50 on the yep. 52 on the waitlist launching in one month. You wanna get 30 customers paying $30 a month for your first thousand bucks in sales. Your your bootstrapped other and is there anyone else working on this besides the three founders?

Damilare Ololade

08:41>> No. No. Just the three of us.

Nathan Latka

08:43Just the three of you. Okay. And how do you split the roles? Who like, who do you do all the engineering?

Roles and Engineering Focus

Damilare Ololade

08:49>> So my two co founders are major engineers. So I do front end development, the UI UX, and also I do the business side. And my two co founders are like basic engineering, back end stuff. So we split the roles. Since we're kind of building like a very technical product, so we're trying to focus more on the engineering part. Yeah, first.

Nathan Latka

09:14That makes sense.

09:16And why is $30 a month the right price point? How did you come up with that?

Pricing Research and Rationale

Damilare Ololade

09:21>> So, first we did a research on existing platforms around the world. Obviously, there's nothing in Africa yet, so we did a research on GrowSurf, Referral Rock, the rest, and we figured that that's like a good enough pricing amount. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

09:40Okay. Well, we'll we'll see what happens. We're rooting for you. Anything you wanna sneak in here before we wrap up with the famous five?

Flutterwave Integration Plans

Damilare Ololade

09:46>> So there's something really different about ReferBox that I really love to talk about is the fact that so we started ReferBox as a platform to help small businesses acquire customers and all of that and our major plan is to provide APIs and plug ins So allow these small businesses to integrate on platforms like for instance Shopify or there's a Nigerian platform called Flutterwave Store, I'm ahead of them. For instance, a small business, when you're Flutterwave Store,

10:14>> you can create referral marketing campaign, share it to your friends and your family and they join. And we have a marketplace app for those people so they can manage their rewards. If you're giving them coupon codes, you can manage it on the app. This is what other platforms

Nathan Latka

10:30So Damilare, are are you launched are you launched on the Flutterwave AppExchange already?

Damilare Ololade

10:35>> No. We are working on that because Flutterwave is a big company that we are trying to take the step step by step. Yeah.

Famous Five

Nathan Latka

10:43We're rooting we're rooting for you. And in the meantime, now, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Damilare Ololade

10:50>> My favorite book is The Monk Test. Monk Test. That's my one. One. The Test

10:56>> is a good one.

Nathan Latka

10:57Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Damilare Ololade

11:00>> Shopify. So, I watched the Netflix Shopify series and has been very interesting. So, I'm following up on that story. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

11:08Shopify What's your favorite online tool for building ReferBox?

Damilare Ololade

11:13>> Online tool would be FullStory. It's a way you can see what people are doing on your platform and have insights about that. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

11:21Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Damilare Ololade

11:24>> Yeah. About five. Sometimes I oversleep, but I try to, like, maintain five hours of sleep.

Nathan Latka

11:31Alright. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Damilare Ololade

11:34>> Single. Single.

Nathan Latka

11:35Alright. And you're a student, third year. How old are you?

Damilare Ololade

11:39>> I'm 23 now. Yeah.

11:41>> 23. Last question.

Nathan Latka

11:42What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?

Damilare Ololade

11:45>> Yeah. I think it should be be a jack of all trades, but you must have won. Surprisingly, I'm writing that in my next newsletter because it's something that I've experienced by myself being a generalist. I want to do so many things, but I've learned that you need to be a jack of all trades even if you're a generalist or a master of one.

Nathan Latka

12:06Guys, referbox.app, he started coding it back in earlier this year in 2022. They've got 52 on the waitlist. They're launching pricing here in one month, helping get a thousand bucks in MRR quickly by getting customers pay $30 a month. Their idea is to build on top of Flutterwave down in Africa, Nigeria. Specifically, this refer comp this ReferBox app will enable you to get more referrals into your stores to sell more product. They're working on building integration

12:27right now to Flutterwave, again, as they look to scale. Damilare, thank you for taking us to the top.

Damilare Ololade

12:33>> Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

Nathan Latka

12:38One 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

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