How TakeTask Reached €4,500 Average Monthly Contract Value Serving 16 Enterprise Deskless Worker Accounts (Interview with CEO Sebastian Starzyński)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Sebastian Starzynski. He's the CEO and founder at taketask, a field force management application for companies with dispersed workforce. He's also the co founder of the Education of the Future Foundation, which localizes the resources of Khan Academy Foundation in Poland. He's a futurist and evangelist of artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things, nanotechnology, collaborative economy, and human one:thirty engagement. Sebastian, are you ready to take it to the top?

Sebastian Starzyński

00:25>> Sure. Why not?

How TakeTask Competes with ClickUp, Monday, and Jira

Nathan Latka

00:26All right. Take task. All right. So where are you guys competing? How do you fit in with Basecamp, ClickUp, Monday, Jira? How do fit in?

Sebastian Starzyński

00:33>> We are like Monday, Jira, ClickUp for deskless workers. So most of them cover the workers that are at the computer. We cover 80% of workers that have no access on daily basis to computer, they're

Target Customers: Deskless and Field Workers

Nathan Latka

00:50in Name the a couple of jobs that you would serve

Sebastian Starzyński

00:52>> or Shop that you would employees, field service, maintenance guys, also factory workers that, you know, work in the factory, but they actually go around the facility. They're, you know, most of the jobs actually, you know, you and me work with a computer, we don't think about all the jobs that are done, not at the computer, but most of them, like 80% is done without the computer on daily basis.

Nathan Latka

01:20And so name a company in one of these jobs, like would an Amazon fulfillment worker in their warehouse in Iowa be an example?

Sebastian Starzyński

01:27>> Yeah, yeah, for example, most of our clients now are retail chains. So you have those shop clerks in a grocery,

01:36>> have, you know, like HACCP, is quality, food quality and safety controls like merchandising, all of this task that, you know, you have both recurring and ad hoc task on the shop floor. And instead of getting all this information, different channels of communication, like you'd get something with an SMS, you get something printed on the back of the store and so on. So we just have one channel, which is kind of communication, which is structured as simple

02:04>> tasks now. So it helps to organize the work. It makes the work easier.

Shell as a Global Client

Nathan Latka

02:11And can you actually name a specific retail chain that uses you?

Sebastian Starzyński

02:15>> Yeah, for example, Shell. We have a global contract with Shell. We are implementing it already in four countries. Are another one rolling out.

Nathan Latka

02:25So a cashier at Shell might use you to manage when like the peanuts in row three are almost out and how to organize the peanuts next to the almonds next to the cashews?

Sebastian Starzyński

02:34>> Oh, they're a bit different use cases. Yeah. But for example, placing a poster of a new promotion or checking daily, checking the prices of their competitors, we have an AI feature, which is reading the

02:48>> prices from the monolids when the employee is going to check the price of the, there is a GPS stamp, TAM stamp, and the AI is reading those numbers. Of course, checking the temperatures and the quality of food, you can just write it on another piece of paper, but then you don't know if this temperature was actually checked at that time. And we give this timestamp. So, you know, the quality of these audits are much more, you

03:15>> know, higher.

Pricing Model and Per-Seat Plans

Nathan Latka

03:18So you have, just to summarize from your website, petrol stations like Shell, beauty and drugstores, fashion, non food retail, transport logistics, and utilities. Those are all your kinds of customers. Give me a general sense of what they're paying you on average per month or per year to use your technology.

Sebastian Starzyński

03:33>> It's based on number of users and a chosen plan. So most of the clients get in the advanced plan, which is the medium one, which is €15 per user per month. We have some clients with a lower plan, which is €8 and some of them with the highest one, which is €22 plus Azure cloud costs. So each client has a separate Azure cloud because it's not a full SaaS where you just plug it into the application

04:02>> and get your entrance code and so on and swipe your card. It's an enterprise software. So you need to sign a deal and we have to implement it. So it takes about two weeks to implement it in the company, but you have a separate private cloud so all your data is secured. They have a white label app for your own. And that's a bit different.

Average Contract Value and Moving Up-Market

Nathan Latka

04:26And Sebastian, I don't know when one of the folks paying you €15 per month, per user per month. I don't know how many users they typically sign up with. So make the math easy for me. A customer Hundreds. Usually signs up

Sebastian Starzyński

04:35>> The average deal is about

04:38>> €4,500 per month, something like that.

Nathan Latka

04:41Okay. So call it $5,000 month or about $60,000 sort of ACVs? No. Were you always there or did you move up market?

Polish Government COVID Monitoring Deployment

Sebastian Starzyński

04:49>> We moved a bit up because at the beginning, of course, you have to give some discounts, you know, people, you know, chase every kind of client. So we also have some smaller clients. And then, you know, when you have a better product or better recognizability on the market, so you can go to bigger clients and have bigger tickets. Our biggest actually client is the Polish government. This is a funny story. We deployed a COVID monitoring, a

05:22>> home quarantine monitoring application now. So there are like 9,000,000 user accounts up to date. So they are making sometimes hundreds of thousands of tasks per day. Average client, they make up to 100 or 200 tasks per month, yeah, a thousand tasks per month. And those guys, they can do hundreds of thousands of tasks per day. But it shows, you know, the scalability of the app, yeah. So it's kind of really a huge system.

Company History and Crowdfunding Origins

Nathan Latka

05:49And you mentioned you've scaled since start date. When was start date? When did you launch?

Sebastian Starzyński

05:53>> So the product was launched something like three years ago.

Nathan Latka

05:58What about the company though?

Sebastian Starzyński

06:00>> It was like four and a half year ago. So we had this first crowdfunding campaign where we got some money for developing the MVP. And then we got our first client

Nathan Latka

06:13Which platform was that on?

Sebastian Starzyński

06:16>> It was a Polish platform. It's Beesfund. We are from Poland, so we use the Polish What's it called? Sorry, Beesfund? Beesfund. Yeah, it's like from Bees. But

06:29>> it was like a very small ticket at that time. It could be up to €100,000. So generally, it was just a very small ticket. But with this 100, we got some grants from EU and so on. So we had something like about 200 and we build a MVP in one year. And based on this MVP, we got our first global client, which is Shell. So it was really, really cool.

Nathan Latka

06:54What year was that?

Sebastian Starzyński

06:57>> So we started in '17, yeah, and we launched the product in '18.

Revenue Mix: Subscription vs Implementations

Nathan Latka

07:02And in 2018, how many customers did you end with and how much total revenue would you guess?

Sebastian Starzyński

07:07>> It was like a 100, something like this, the total revenue. The next year we had two fifty. And last year we have 1,200,000.

Nathan Latka

07:19And what did you do last month in terms of MRR?

Sebastian Starzyński

07:24>> So, you know, we have different so it's like 50 ks MRR, but total revenue up to date was something like 1,200,000. So we actually have the same revenue as we had last, the total last year. So we should end up with something like 2,000,000.

Nathan Latka

07:43It sounds like about half, yeah, it sounds like about half your revenue then is SaaS and the rest is something else. What's the rest?

Sebastian Starzyński

07:50>> Oh, it's implementations, you know, it's some additional What do

Nathan Latka

07:54charge for that implementation?

Sebastian Starzyński

07:56>> It depends on, like the minimum charge is about 5 to $7,000 but we have clients with bigger implementations that can be 50 or $70,000 So it really depends, you know, what they need, if they need some integrations or some this kind of stuff. So we are not very happy with making too big integrations, but if for example, the client requires some additional features that are in line with our products, so it's actually they're paying for the

08:27>> development of some features. So it's a good way to check if the feature is important for the client, But also it gives you funds to found a feature.

Nathan Latka

08:37And Sebastian, about how many customers do you have today?

Sebastian Starzyński

08:40>> We have now 16 customers.

Nathan Latka

08:42Six zero? Sixteen.

08:45One six, got it. 16 customers.

Sebastian Starzyński

08:46>> As I said, we are enterprise software, so it doesn't grow so fast. We are now going slowly to launch more like a SaaS product. We are now talking with several smaller, like restaurant chains, And we see very good fit over there. But this will be smaller tickets, and it will be launched, you know, on one server, one app. So much faster implementation, this sort of stuff. So we should be ready with this till the end of

09:14>> the year. We are now testing it with eight small retailers.

Capital Raised and Convertible Notes

Nathan Latka

09:19Okay, very cool. That makes a lot of sense. Now you have raised some capital, ignoring grants and everything else. How much total capital have you raised to date?

Sebastian Starzyński

09:25>> 1,000,000.

Nathan Latka

09:26Okay, about 1,000,000. And the last round, I think was about 140,000 United States dollars in December?

Sebastian Starzyński

09:32>> Yeah, we had this accelerator from Betatron, it was $270,000 It was in September. And then we had the last round of 170, which was like a kind of a bridge round of 170. The last second part of 2020, we had something like 400.

Nathan Latka

09:53Got it. And the last round of 2020, which was 170,000, it sounds like, what valuation did you raise that at?

Sebastian Starzyński

09:59>> Oh, it was a convertible loan. So both of them were convertible notes actually. So they will be converted with the next round. So there was no valuation. You know, we want to go for the round once we, met meet something like 100 k. So then the valuation, should be about 10,000,000.

Nathan Latka

10:18Sorry. What was the cap on the note if it was a note not a priced round?

Sebastian Starzyński

10:25>> So there are you know, we have different so there was a cap that was like 5,000,000. But it was, you know, with accelerators, it's a bit different because they give a bit different value and so on. It was based on some

10:40>> previous investment of those funds. It was much more complicated. But yeah, we will probably go for something like 10 plus million with the next round.

Next Round and Use of Funds

Nathan Latka

10:50So just to be clear, the convertible note, if you raise $170,000 at a 5,000,000 cap, assuming your next round is higher than a $5,000,000 valuation and that note converts at the cap, you essentially sold about 3.5% of your business for 170,000. And if you go out and raise it a $10,000,000 valuation here in the next couple months, how much capital do you think you'll look to raise?

Sebastian Starzyński

11:11>> We'll probably go for like 2 or 3,000,000.

Nathan Latka

11:13Why is that the right number you think?

Sebastian Starzyński

11:16>> Oh, it's based on the needs because we are almost good with the tech part. We have like 11 developers, it's mostly full stack and regulars. And we need something like two or three additional developers, but most of the money will go for

11:35>> business development. So we want to launch a sales team in UK or Ireland of five people and then maybe in Germany or France. So these are like the sales teams plus all the marketing plus launching the full SaaS with all growth hacking. It will simply require this amount we just calculated. It's something that we need money for another one and a half, two years, you know, to get to a point of something like 500 ks monthly

12:06>> recurring revenue. And then when you can go to a higher A round.

Equity Ownership, ESOP and Investor Base

Nathan Latka

12:11Sebastian, how much equity do you still own?

Sebastian Starzyński

12:14>> So it depends if you count the convertible loans or not.

Nathan Latka

12:18Assume they converted.

Sebastian Starzyński

12:20>> Yeah, me and my founder and my co founder, we own over 50%. So what we should end up after the A round, it would be slightly above 50%. So after the A round, we would probably have like 52, 53, something like this.

Nathan Latka

12:36And you're at like sixty, sixty two ish right now, something like that.

Sebastian Starzyński

12:39>> Oh, we don't. Now we have like 70 something, but some of the convertible loans are not converted. So yeah, yeah, we have something like 60 something.

Nathan Latka

12:47See, I see. Who else owns the rest of it? Do give options to employees?

Sebastian Starzyński

12:52>> Yeah, yeah. We have a couple of, you know, we have an ESOP plan for not everything goes ready. You know, we just started to do the ESOP, this year. So, you know, it goes for the next couple of years now to be launched. Not everything is allocated, so we still have some shares to be allocated, mostly, you know, with the next hires. So, you know, if we have some, so we have some shares, you know, for

13:20>> the sales director and this sort of stuff.

Nathan Latka

13:25And ESOP stands for equity stock option plan for those of you that are thinking about doing this yourself, Sebastian, it's obviously a smart move to recruit even better talent to have that plan set up, even if it's an allocated equity. What did you decide to set that up at? Is it a 10% ESOP plan or 20%? How much equity do set aside?

Sebastian Starzyński

13:40>> No, it's like in total, it's something like 8%.

Nathan Latka

13:438%. Okay, cool. So you and your co founder own 70% currently, your ESOP plan is about 8% and then you have some earlier investors and thoughts.

Sebastian Starzyński

13:50>> No, no, so this, you know, the ESOP is together with, you know, in the 70%, yeah.

Nathan Latka

13:56So you and your co founder own about 60. The ESOP plan is 8% on top of that. Where's the other 20%?

Sebastian Starzyński

14:01>> We have one Polish small seed VC owning something like 5%. And then the rest of it is owned by different angel investors because with this crowdfunding, we had over 100 people. Now it went down to something like, like 80, but still we have a lot of, know, like small investors.

Nathan Latka

14:23We'll

Sebastian Starzyński

14:23>> probably, once we plan to go to US with not this round, but the next round. So probably then we'll pack them to one entity and they will be as one entity in the cup table. But this is not something that we need to do now. Once we incorporate in US, then we'll do this move.

Team Size, Engineers, and No Sales Reps

Nathan Latka

14:43Couple of quick questions just because we're running out of time here. You mentioned 11 engineers, but what's the total team size today?

Sebastian Starzyński

14:49>> 20.

Nathan Latka

14:5020 people. Okay. Great. So about 50% engineers. Any quota carrying sales reps or no?

Sebastian Starzyński

14:54>> No. No. So we not in.

Nathan Latka

14:57Okay. So that's fine.

Geographic Expansion Strategy

Sebastian Starzyński

14:58>> We want make no. This is what I said, know, after the the the the fundraising, we want to jump already to five people business development team in but not in Poland, but in Ireland or UK, you know, to already have pan European outreach.

Nathan Latka

15:13That makes a lot of sense.

Sebastian Starzyński

15:16>> We tried with some business developments in business developers in Poland, but they are too much focused on the Polish market And we do not want to focus only on the Polish market.

CAC and Enterprise Sales Cycles

Nathan Latka

15:25And Sebastian, what's it cost you to get a new customer today? Do you track CAC?

Sebastian Starzyński

15:29>> No, it's very hard to track it, you know, honestly, because, you know, the sales cycle is very long And, you know, and there is a you can have a customer, we just signed a deal with the biggest copper mining corporation in Poland, it's one of the biggest in the world. And it took just us like, I don't know, two months, you know, to sign a deal. And we are after one week, in the middle of implementation

15:54>> of the system. So in one or two weeks, we'll implement everything. So this will be a very fast and easy implementation. But another one, it took us over one year. And now the implementation is after six months is still going because this is the one with 50 ks implementation. So they had a huge implementation project. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

16:14Very cool. All right. Let's wrap

Famous Five: Books, Sleep, and Lessons Learned

Nathan Latka

16:16up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book, Sebastian?

Sebastian Starzyński

16:21>> Oh my God. There are so many. Life 3.0 or Lifespan or, you know,

16:30>> like, I I read something like three or four books per month, but but oh, oh, Guns, Germs, and Steel also very good.

16:38>> Yep.

Nathan Latka

16:39Guns, What, and Steel?

Sebastian Starzyński

16:39>> Guns, Germs,

16:40>> and Steel or Jared Diamond. Like, generally, Jared Diamond's books are really, really very good.

Nathan Latka

16:47Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Sebastian Starzyński

16:52>> I don't know. As as we as everyone a bit Elon Musk, yeah, but but it's it's like a, you know, high profile. So it's rather looking at his boldness, you know, and yeah. But I would say maybe this one.

Nathan Latka

17:06Three, what's your favorite online tool for building the platform?

Sebastian Starzyński

17:12>> Honestly, we do not do we do not use any tools to build the platform. We we use You don't use Jira?

17:21>> You know, we use ClickUp, but it's it's more a task management tool.

Nathan Latka

17:26Great. So number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Sebastian Starzyński

17:30>> Oh, eight hours.

Nathan Latka

17:31And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Sebastian Starzyński

17:34>> Yeah, I'm married. I have two boys, like teen, already teens.

Nathan Latka

17:39And how are you, Sebastian?

Sebastian Starzyński

17:41>> I'm 46.

Nathan Latka

17:42Okay, take us home.

17:43What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?

Sebastian Starzyński

17:47>> Oh my God, don't do so many business at the same time. I had some times when I was owning, you know, like seven different businesses and trying to run them. So it was stupid. Was really a serious entrepreneur.

Nathan Latka

18:01TakeTask launched in 2017. They did their first $100,000 in revenue in 2018. Today, this year, they'll break $2,000,000 in revenue serving 16 enterprise accounts. They are essentially task management for deskless workers. They work with companies like Shell, Fashion, Retail, etcetera. The founders still own about 70% of the business along with their employees. They've raised, call it, about a million bucks today. Looking to go out and raise 2 to 3,000,000 on a $10,000,000 valuation Vazquez here in

18:25the next six to twelve months. We'll see what happens. Sebastian, thanks for taking us to the top.

Sebastian Starzyński

18:29>> Thank you too for your time and for the possibility to talk.

Nathan Latka

18:36One 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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