Founder Interview
How Tweet Binder Reached $440K Revenue and 120 Subscription Customers Analyzing Twitter Data (Interview with CEO Javier Abrego)
- Interview Date
- September 23, 2021
- Interviewee
- Javier AbregoCEO
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Revenue (2020)
$440K
Revenue (YTD) (January to September 2021)
$300K
Subscription Customers (2021)
120
Net Profit (2021)
About $9,000/month
Team Size (2021)
6
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Javier Abrego during the interview recorded on September 23, 2021, and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Tweet Binder’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01Tweet Binder generated $440K in revenue in 2020 and $300K year-to-date through September 2021.
- 02The company has 120 subscription customers paying a monthly recurring fee as of September 2021.
- 03MRR from subscriptions is $19,300 and one-off reports generate about $13K per month.
- 04Net profit is about $9,000 per month, with the company profitable for roughly the last year and a half.
- 05Tweet Binder was founded in 2013 and has a team of six, including three engineers.
- 06The company raised $100K in 2017, with investors holding about 9% of the company.
- 07Javier Abrego owns 89% of the business.
- 08Churn is high because customers use the product only when they need to analyze a hashtag or keyword, not on a daily basis.
- 09The company closes about 30 new subscription clients per month but also sees roughly 30 cancellations per month.
- 10Tweet Binder was planning to launch a new product tracking Twitter user metrics hourly in October 2021.
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue (2020) | $440K | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Revenue (YTD) (January to September 2021) | $300K | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| MRR from Subscriptions (2021) | $19,300 | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Revenue from One-Off Reports (2021) | $13K/month | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Subscription Customers (2021) | 120 | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| New Subscription Clients per Month (2021) | 30 | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Net Profit (2021) | About $9,000/month | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Team Size (2021) | 6 | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Engineers (2021) | 3 | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Funding Raised (2017 round) | $100K | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Founder Ownership (2021) | 89% | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
| Year Founded | 2013 | Founder interview, Sep 2021 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
Tweet Binder generated $440K in revenue in 2020, a strong year partly driven by demand for COVID-related Twitter analytics. Through September 2021 the company had reached $300K, putting it on pace to match the prior year. Revenue comes from three streams: subscription MRR of $19,300, one-off reports generating about $13K per month, and custom service projects for clients such as universities.
Customers
The company serves 120 subscription customers as of September 2021 and sells roughly 200 one-off reports per month. New subscription sign-ups run about 30 per month, but cancellations are similarly high because customers tend to use the product only when they need to analyze a specific hashtag or event rather than on a daily basis.
Team
Tweet Binder operates with a team of six people, three of whom are engineers, based in Spain.
Profitability and Funding
The company has been profitable for roughly a year and a half, generating about $9,000 per month in net profit. Tweet Binder raised $100K in 2017, giving investors approximately 9% of the company, and Javier Abrego retains 89% ownership. The company does not plan to raise additional capital.
Growth Strategy
Two-Sided Revenue Model
Tweet Binder combines a subscription SaaS product with one-off report sales, allowing customers who do not need a monthly plan to still generate revenue for the company. Custom service projects for clients such as universities add a third revenue layer.
Shifting Mix Toward SaaS
The company has been deliberately reducing its reliance on services revenue, which historically made up about 60% of total revenue, in favor of growing the recurring subscription side of the business.
New Sticky Product to Reduce Churn
To address high churn driven by infrequent use, Tweet Binder was preparing to launch a product that tracks Twitter user metrics hourly, giving customers a reason to maintain a monthly subscription by monitoring their own and competitors' performance over time.
Customer Feedback Loop
Tweet Binder uses a cancellation survey to understand why customers leave. The feedback consistently shows customers cancel because they do not currently need the product rather than because of quality issues, and that insight directly shaped the decision to build a stickier daily-use product.
Partnership Over Full Sale
Rather than seeking a full acquisition, Javier Abrego expressed interest in partnering with a larger company that could take a minority stake of around 40% and provide resources to accelerate growth, preserving his ability to continue building products.
Best Quotes
“Right now, Tweet Binder is actually a little bit better than just before. What we do basically is to analyze information on on Twitter. We are a six people company, three engineers. 2020 was a very good year for us in terms of of revenue. And this year, we our hope is to get the same amount of of revenue than last year.”
“Okay, in US dollars last year was 440,000 US dollars, and this year, we are hitting 300,000.”
“Per month, our subscription clients, are 120 at this moment and we that's the MRR side of the business. What we have very strong as well is the one off reports, You know, sometimes you don't need a subscription, you guys want to see how your event went on Twitter, so you just buy one report. That part of the business, we are selling about 200 reports, a little bit more per month and it's getting us around, let me”
“see, around 13,000 US dollars and our MRR subscription, just subscription is about 19,300, sorry, 19,300.”
“So sometimes it's not useful to get a monthly subscription. So let's say we close around 30 to 40 new clients in subscriptions every month, but we got around sometimes 30 or even more cancels every month. And we ask our clients, we have a form saying, why do you cancel? And they don't say because the product is bad because they come back, it's because I don't need you guys right now, I will come back next month”
“No. I don't I don't want we don't need it right now. We are profitable. Thank God.”
“We have a profit, net profit of 10,000, a little bit less, 8 to 10,000 US dollars, in euro it will be like 6,000, something like that.”
“we've been profitable for the last two years, one year and a half, let's say, previous years were were very tough for Tweet Binder Nathan.”
“what I want, Nathan, is to grow this company and the only way that I know how to grow is by creating products, you know, that's my blessing, my curse at the same time. So what we want to do is not really to sell the company, is to partner with a big company that we can go with and they can buy part of Tweet Binder, let's say 40% of the company, so we can be like part of that other company, use their resources.”
What Happened Next
This interview captures Tweet Binder at a specific moment in September 2021, when the company was on pace to match its 2020 revenue of $440K and preparing to launch a new hourly Twitter tracking product. The figures here reflect what Javier Abrego reported on that date and should be treated as a historical snapshot. Visit the Tweet Binder company profile on GetLatka for the most current metrics and any updates since this recording.
View Tweet Binder’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Company Overview
- 0:562020 Revenue and 2021 Year-to-Date
- 1:22Monthly Revenue Run Rate
- 1:32Two Lines of Business: SaaS vs Services
- 2:42Subscription Customers and One-Off Reports
- 3:31Custom Report Services Explained
- 5:11Year Founded and Ownership Structure
- 5:23Funding Round and Investor Equity
- 6:32Churn Challenge and Customer Feedback
- 7:36New Twitter Tracking Product Launch
- 9:49Profitability and Net Profit
- 10:34Growth Plans and Partnership Ambitions
Introduction and Company Overview
Nathan Latka
00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Javier Abrego. He's building a cool tool called tweetbinder.com, helps you analyze your Twitter information. Javier, are you ready to take us to the top?
Javier Abrego
00:09>> Yes.
Nathan Latka
00:10Alright. So you came on this must have been a while ago, I forget, it was a while ago. Give us an update. Where's the company today in terms of product? What are guys helping customers do?
Javier Abrego
00:20>> Yeah, well, I was at your show, Deal or Bust, about one year ago. Yeah, it was great, Nathan. It was great. But right now, Tweet Binder is actually a little bit better than just before. What we do basically is to analyze information on on Twitter. We are a six people company, three engineers. 2020 was a very good year for us in terms of of revenue. And this year, we our hope is to get the same amount of
00:54>> of revenue than last year.
2020 Revenue and 2021 Year-to-Date
Nathan Latka
00:56What did you get due in 2020 revenue wise?
Javier Abrego
00:59>> Okay, here, the Latka numbers, I have them ready here.
Nathan Latka
01:03He has them.
Javier Abrego
01:05>> Okay, in US dollars last year was 440,000 US dollars, and this year, we are hitting 300,000.
Nathan Latka
01:15Right now.
Javier Abrego
01:15>> So, yeah, we hope to get there to get there at the same the same time last year.
Monthly Revenue Run Rate
Nathan Latka
01:22Got it. So does that mean you're doing, if you're at 300,000 now divided by, you know, nine months, you're doing about 35,000 United States dollars a month?
Javier Abrego
01:31>> Yeah, more or less.
Two Lines of Business: SaaS vs Services
Nathan Latka
01:32Something like that? Interesting. And and Javier, so it sounds like you're flat year over year. Why is it flat? You know, Twitter's growing fast. Why aren't you guys growing?
Javier Abrego
01:41>> Yeah, good question. In the first years, we have two lines of business, what we call the SaaS, you know, you get your report in tweetbinder.com and the services side. And we have like, let's say 60% of our revenue in the services part of the company, we have to kill that. So we have been growing the, let's call it the analytics part, the SaaS part of the business quite okay. And last year, we are better than last
02:12>> year in terms of, let's say the SaaS business, but last year we had a lot of requests for custom jobs on like related to COVID because a lot of people wanted to know what happened around COVID in Twitter last year. So it was a horrible year for everyone, but in terms of Twitter analytics, it was a good year.
Nathan Latka
02:36Interesting. Okay. So so that makes sense then. So today, how many customers are paying you per month?
Subscription Customers and One-Off Reports
Javier Abrego
02:42>> Per month, our subscription clients, are 120 at this moment and we that's the MRR side of the business. What we have very strong as well is the one off reports, You know, sometimes you don't need a subscription, you guys want to see how your event went on Twitter, so you just buy one report. That part of the business, we are selling about 200 reports, a little bit more per month and it's getting us around, let me
03:14>> see, around 13,000 US dollars and our MRR subscription, just subscription is about 19,300, sorry, 19,300.
Nathan Latka
03:26Got it. So when you add them, that's how you get $30, $35,000 a month in revenue?
Custom Report Services Explained
Javier Abrego
03:31>> Yeah. And there's a third one because we're still doing like these custom reports we have like for universities for example, they want to do something that requires a little bit from our side, you know, like I want to, for example, we have one example, we had one client that wanted to get a list of all the doctors, medical, medical doctors of France that are on Twitter, so we can do that, know, so but we have to
04:00>> do it ourselves, so that's that's the rest of the revenue comes from that type of services and it's like, I don't know, 15 clients per month.
Nathan Latka
04:13Got it. So I could, and you charge, you know, between 50 and $200 for these one off reports depending on how much history you're pulling for somebody, but Javier, if I wanted to ask to pay you and I said, Javier, I really want just a list of everyone on Twitter who has the words angel investor in their bio, you could go pull that list for me. Yeah. Interesting. Would I get their email as well? No. So
04:39what what dataset would I get from you in that report?
Javier Abrego
04:42>> The well, you are going to get the number of followers, the number of following, the the location, where they're If I mean, the number of tweets, the number of likes they are getting, the number of retweets they are getting, and then on top of that, that's the public metrics of Twitter, we can give you like other metrics, grossing those metrics on engagement rates, like those kind of things. But the email is the email is private part
05:09>> of I see.
Nathan Latka
05:10On your Jira account.
Year Founded and Ownership Structure
Nathan Latka
05:11And so so you launched this business in what year?
Javier Abrego
05:14>> 2013.
Nathan Latka
05:162013. And are you do you own a 1009089%.
Javier Abrego
05:20>> 89. Who owns the rest?
Funding Round and Investor Equity
Javier Abrego
05:23>> A small fund here in in Spain that we closed a deal, a funding round in two thousand seventeen, one hundred k. They got around 9% of the company and the rest of the company is from one client and one worker here in Dubai.
Nathan Latka
05:43Got it. So you give your client a little bit of equity?
Javier Abrego
05:46>> Actually, it's a funny story in less than a minute. This fund wanted to interview our clients to see if it was worth to invest in Tweet Binder and when this this client knew that Tweet Binder was seeking for funds, they wanted to invest in Tweet Binder, so it was very good for us.
Nathan Latka
06:04That's very cool. So you own 89%, investors own 9% and then a customer plus an employee own the other, call it 2%.
Javier Abrego
06:12>> Yep.
Nathan Latka
06:13That's great. So what's the plan with the business? I know you came on Deal or Bust a year and a half ago. We had buyers lined up. There was a nice little back and forth. Did you get I forget. Did you get any offers?
Javier Abrego
06:24>> Not that day.
Nathan Latka
06:25Not that day. Have you had people try and buy the company?
Javier Abrego
06:28>> Yeah.
Nathan Latka
06:29What are people trying to buy it for?
Churn Challenge and Customer Feedback
Javier Abrego
06:32>> Less than 1,000,000 US dollars, so it's not worth it for me. Two offers and less than 1,000,000, 2.5 and we said no. But one of the things, answering your questions, one of the things that I don't like about Tweet Binder is that people only use us when they need us. So our churn is very high. This is not a product that you use on daily basis because you analyze hashtags or you analyze keywords when you need
07:03>> to. So sometimes it's not useful to get a monthly subscription. So let's say we close around 30 to 40 new clients in subscriptions every month, but we got around sometimes 30 or even more cancels every month. And we ask our clients, we have a form saying, why do you cancel? And they don't say because the product is bad because they come back, it's because I don't need you guys right now, I will come back next month
New Twitter Tracking Product Launch
Javier Abrego
07:36>> or in two months. So answering your question, what we are building right now is another product based on Twitter that requires that you pay every month. For example, look, this is I mean, the people in the podcast are not going to see this, but what I'm holding right here is one analysis of Nathan Latka, your profile.
Nathan Latka
07:59How am I doing?
Javier Abrego
08:01>> Actually, very good. You know, you grew in the last month 254 followers. Yeah. And actually, you are getting a lot of retweets and likes as well.
Nathan Latka
08:11I love that.
Javier Abrego
08:12>> What we are doing now with this, Nathan, is like we are going to launch and this is an exclusive for you. We are going to launch launch, sorry, a product that tracks Twitter users and we every hour we are going to update the metrics, following followers, list, retweets, likes, everything, everything. So every hour you're going to get updates in the Tweet Binder dashboard.
Nathan Latka
08:41So Javier, I think a lot of founders will fall into this trap which is they want to decrease churn, they want to launch new product that feels stickier, but like how do you know that that's what I How do know someone's gonna pay monthly for that? Like, I don't wanna get hourly update. Like, what am I gonna do with that information is the big question I think with any reporting SaaS.
Javier Abrego
08:57>> The good thing is you can compare with your competitors. I mean, maybe you are not a good client. I mean, actually, you can have this for free, know, and if you want, you ask Nathan, but let's say you are a beer company, you want to compare your performance on Twitter with other beer companies, so you can group them in this product and you can compare what they are doing. Ask our client, what do you need? What
09:22>> do need? What can we what can we do to stay with us? And they ask for this. So
Nathan Latka
09:27When does this launch, Javier?
Javier Abrego
09:30>> We launch in two weeks.
Nathan Latka
09:32Okay. Well, we're looking for we're recording today on Thursday, September 23, so two weeks from now, it'll be like October 5, sixth time frame, we'll see or October 10, we'll see how that goes. Talk to me a little bit more about what you plan to do over the next twelve to twenty four months. So do do you anticipate staying do you think you'll raise more capital or no?
Profitability and Net Profit
Javier Abrego
09:49>> No. I don't I don't want we don't need it right now. We are profitable. Thank God.
Nathan Latka
09:53How much do you guys how much do you make per month?
Javier Abrego
09:56>> We have a profit, net profit of 10,000, a little bit less, 8 to 10,000 US dollars, in euro it will be like 6,000, something like that.
Nathan Latka
10:06Congratulations, that's great, right? Very few SaaS companies are profitable, so congratulations.
Javier Abrego
10:11>> Yeah, it's, we've been profitable for the last two years, one year and a half, let's say, previous years were were very tough for Tweet Binder Nathan.
Nathan Latka
10:22So if somebody's listening right now, we have a lot of buyers and private equity firms that listen to the show and they came to you and offered you, you know, 1,800,000 all cash upfront for the business, would you sell?
Growth Plans and Partnership Ambitions
Javier Abrego
10:34>> Will probably say yes, but what I want, Nathan, is to grow this company and the only way that I know how to grow is by creating products, you know, that's my blessing, my curse at the same time. So what we want to do is not really to sell the company, is to partner with a big company that we can go with and they can buy part of Tweet Binder, let's say 40% of the company, so we
11:03>> can be like
11:05>> part of that other company, use their resources. That's what we, that my wish that will be, we will that if somebody offers me 1,800,000, I mean, that's great because I own 90% of the company, but you know, I have so much fun during the day, so much fun and
Nathan Latka
11:24That's a good thing, otherwise you wouldn't be doing what you're doing. Javier, out of time here, let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book?
Javier Abrego
11:31>> Business book? It's not famous five, it's famous eight or something. It's more than
Nathan Latka
11:36Well, yeah, we ask a couple extra questions. You know the you know the drill.
Javier Abrego
11:39>> Okay. The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
Nathan Latka
11:41Okay. And is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Javier Abrego
11:44>> Yeah. Andrew Gazdecki from MicroAcquire.
Nathan Latka
11:48Number three. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Javier Abrego
11:51>> Eight.
Nathan Latka
11:52And what's your favorite online tool for building the business besides your own?
Javier Abrego
11:56>> Yeah. I hate this question because nobody says Tweet Binder in your in your podcast, but I will say Slack, of course.
Nathan Latka
12:02Slack. Yep. And then what's your situation? Married, single, kiddos?
Javier Abrego
12:05>> Married and two kids.
Nathan Latka
12:06Two kids. And how old are you?
Javier Abrego
12:08>> 42.
Nathan Latka
12:0942. Take us home here, Javier. What do you wish you knew when you were 20?
Javier Abrego
12:13>> Well,
12:17>> I will say like,
12:21>> to be patient, you know, to be patient mostly.
Nathan Latka
12:25Guys, Tweet Binder, they got off onto a great start in 2013, they broke $400,000 in revenue last year, now doing $35,000 a month in revenue, profitable, $10,000 a month to the bottom line. They do a lot of revenue via one off reports. They make $13,000 a month doing that. All the other revenue comes from 120 customers that pay for their recurring fee, launching a new SaaS product here in October that will help them drive more SaaS
12:46revenue and scale. Javier still owns 89% of the business. They sold 9% in a $100,000 pre seed round back in 2017 at a $900,000 valuation as he looks to continue to scale with his team of six. Javier, thanks for taking us to the top.
Javier Abrego
12:59>> Thank you, Nathan.
Nathan Latka
13:02One 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
13:27Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM 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 an acquisition, a big
13:50fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you wanna 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 people are saying. Sign up
14:12for 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 to counter those people. We
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