Vonza Revenue, Valuation & Funding (2024)

[00:00] Hey, folks. My guest today is Doctor. Uyi Abraham. He came to America with only a $100 in a suitcase of clothes. With over twenty years as a creator, he was frustrated with the complexity and the time required to simply create and sell online. He is looking to fix that with vonza. Follow along at vonza.com. Doctor Uyi, you ready to take us to the top? [00:18] >> Hey, Nathan. I'm so glad to be here, man. I've been looking forward to be on this show for a long time. [00:23] Oh, are you a big listener? [00:25] >> I am. I binge binge watch on this show. In fact, my wife knows your voice, you know. So when I told her I was coming, she was like, yay. Then when I came to New York, I was at the Founder's Summit, which was the best SaaS Founder's event I've ever been to. I text my wife that this is the greatest event I've ever been. She's like, did you tell Nathan I say hi? I say, yeah. I [00:47] >> told you hi. So my wife said hi, you know. So I've binge watched on the show, man. Thank you for all you do for the culture, you know. [00:54] You bet. Well, I hope you enjoyed meeting everyone at Founderconf. I know you got some one on one time with Henry Schuck, the CEO of ZoomInfo in the VIP room. I hope that was valuable, but I'm looking forward to focusing on you today. Okay? [01:03] >> Yes. Let's do it. [01:05] Alright. So vonza, what are people paying you for? [01:08] >> So what vonza does is that we make it easy for creators to create and sell online courses, memberships, products, and pretty much run the entire business in one place. So before vonza, I as a creator, somebody like you too, you know, we need like 12 plus tools to do what vonza does for them. So you need one platform for your courses, another one for membership, another one for scheduling, another one for payments, and it's just all [01:34] >> about the place. It's a very stressful experience for creators and just people just starting out in business. So what we did was that we built a really good, easy, and simple all in one platform that helps anybody with a knowledge, a content, or something to offer online to easily grow their business online, monetize it, and also to serve their customers. [01:55] I love that. Okay, and how many paying customers do you have today? [01:58] >> So we've done so right now, have about 5,000 customers that have paid us. We we did our one time specials, and also to we have about about 20 something thousand dollars in MRR right now, but we have about 5,000 that have signed up for our platform and about 2,000 that paid us for one time special that we offered at 30 times. [02:24] How many are paying a monthly recurring fee? [02:27] >> So right now, about a 100 something, that puts us at about 20 something thousand a month in MRR. [02:35] Okay. Got it. So about a 100 customers pay $200 a month, something like that? [02:40] >> Some more, some less. Yeah. Over a 100, probably cost a 150. [02:45] A 150. Okay. Got it. Okay. Well, this is great. So so how are you converting people that are free, 5,000 of them, to a paid plan? [02:54] >> So right now, we really have just been really focused on really the product, you know, because starting a SaaS company and being bootstrapped is a full time work, you know. So we really have not spent a lot of time trying to monetize those freeloaders, so to speak, on the platform. But right now, we're looking at, you know, raising some funds and also to, you know, building a good marketing team and onboarding team and help those who [03:18] >> are just kind of stuck on the free plan to become paying customers. [03:21] How much are you looking to raise right now? [03:24] >> Right now, we're trying to raise $5,000,000. [03:26] At what valuation? [03:28] >> Probably at 40. [03:30] 40,000,000 pre money or post? [03:33] >> Pre. [03:34] Pre money. Okay. Interesting. And how's it going? [03:38] >> We're just in the beginning process of doing that in the midst of talking to different investors right now. So I'm hoping that in the next two or three months, we should be able to close with the right partner. [03:49] And you're bootstrapped to this point, or have you raised already? [03:52] >> We are bootstrapped to this point. [03:54] Oh, what's going on there, YouTube? Good to see you guys. Now imagine this. You love watching these interviews with SaaS founders, but imagine if we took all of the valuation data out from over 2,807 interviews I've done manually. Saves you a lot of time. Well, we've done this. We've built it into the beautiful interface inside of Founderpath. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second, but you log in, you connect [04:18] your Stripe account, you see your valuation real time, you can see what it changed over the past eighty eight days and even set goals for valuation this year. Now the secret evaluation is there's many different ways to value a SaaS business. So the reason you're gonna see three or four different valuations inside of your Founderpath dashboard, this is all free by the way, is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SaaS company, you're gonna [04:42] get a different valuation. A VC is gonna pay a different valuation, private equity firm is different. If you're gonna do a minority sale, that's different. And if you sell the whole business, that's a different valuation. You can see all those when I hover over here. Right? So the teal is what a VC would pay. Yellow is what private equity and red is if you sold the whole thing outright. Now what's cool about this is this is [05:04] not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founder share with us on the show. So traction, 1,200,000 seed round, 3.7 raise. They sold 22% of their business. Go in here and filter by the event. Maybe you only wanna see companies that have sold the whole business. Well, here are a bunch that have been acquired, the valuation and the multiple. Maybe you're [05:30] going out right now and you're raising your seed round. We'll go in here and look at all this recent seed deals that went down, what they raised, what valuation they raised at, and what percent that they sold. There's never been a larger dataset of SaaS valuations than what you can get now inside of Founderpath. And we're thrilled to bring it to you. Alright. We're gonna go back to the YouTube video here in a second, but if [05:52] you wanna check this tool out, if you wanna jump in and sign up, you can check it out for free to get your valuation at this link. This link, founderpath.com/products/valuations. Or if you go to founderpath.com and hover over products, click on get your valuation here, and go ahead and sign up to give it a whirl. Again, all that valuation data live right inside the platform. I hope to see you there. Alright. Let's jump back into the [06:18] interview. Doctor. Uyi, you got $20,000 a month in revenue. Why go give up a bunch of equity? Why why why go do a a raise? Why not just keep building and using profits from customers? [06:27] >> Yeah. The probably the reason is because, you know, our competitors, you know, they've raised a ton of money Thank you. Kajabi, they just raised $550,000,000 last year. Know, Teachable just sold Thinkific, the public now, they raised like 300 and something million last year. So they put pressure on us and to kind of get a little fund so we can grow a little faster, hire more team because we've grown all this while with just word-of-mouth, virtually spending [06:56] >> zero marketing. So we feel like if we have a little bit more fund to put into marketing, it will help us to tell our story faster and help us to serve our customers better. [07:07] And if you're doing $20,000 a month today in revenue, where were you exactly a year ago? [07:11] >> Probably about 15. [07:12] 15. Okay. That's obviously, that's not a lot of growth. It's gonna be hard to get a 40,000,000 valuation when you only five can new MRR the past twelve months. [07:22] >> Yeah, well you see too, you know, it's not just only, we're doing a lot more than 20 something thousand, right? Because we also do consulting and done for you services, which is not included, but at least this year, last year, we generated over 300, close to $400,000 from our subscription plus done for you services and consulting services as well. So a year before that was about 200,000 in kind of that money we brought in. So you [07:53] >> look at it that way, you see that there's a lot of growth, but also to considering that we've really just, you know, been focused on the product and not spend a lot of money on marketing. Then also to, another reason we're looking at our valuation as that is the size of the market. The market is so huge, right? So we're not seeing it just as only what we're doing right now, but we're seeing, hey, in two, [08:16] >> three years from now, could we be that $40,000,000 company? Could we be that $50,000,000 company, right? So that's kind of how we're also looking at valuation. [08:25] And, doctor Uyi, how many on the team today? [08:28] >> So we have about 24, 25 people. [08:33] Where are they all based? [08:35] >> Our tech team is based in Pakistan, India, Malaysia, but our support team is based in The USA. So we are in about five continents, Pakistan, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Belgium, all over the place. [08:51] And what is that like? I mean, is your engineering centralized in any of one of those locations? [08:56] >> In in Pakistan. [08:58] How did you find the team in Pakistan? Like, what's their website? [09:01] >> So the first place I went to was Upwork. So our CTO is also a partner with me. I found him at Upwork, and he was the one that pretty much just helped to recruit and build the technical team. [09:13] How much equity did you give him? [09:16] >> I don't wanna really share that right now. [09:18] 50 was it more or less than, you know, 30%? [09:21] >> Definitely, it's less than that because That's me, my wife, and our chief engineer will have equity. They're also leaving like a 10% pool for future employees. [09:32] Mhmm. So do do all 25 employees today have at least some equity? [09:37] >> No. Just right now. Just the the co founders for right now. [09:42] I see. I see. Okay. So looking at raising capital, $20,000 a month in revenue, that's pure SaaS. [09:47] >> There's other plus. Yeah. [09:49] Sorry? [09:50] >> 20,000 plus. Yeah. [09:52] Yeah. But just SaaS revenue, 20,000. [09:54] >> Yeah. Yeah. [09:55] How much how much will you do this year if you add up all of your revenue altogether? [09:59] >> I'll probably gonna get to about 40,000 this year or more in just MRR. But our goal this year is to get to $1,000,000 in ARR this year, right? [10:09] But when you say ARR, you mean total sales, consulting [10:12] >> No, no, just subscriptions. Just in subscriptions. Yeah. Because that's really what investors care about, you know. [10:18] How are you gonna grow fast? I mean, you've only added 5,000 in MR the past twelve months. What makes you think you can add 50,000 in the next six months? [10:25] >> Yeah, because our product is a lot better now than it was a year ago. And also too we kind of we build a lot more brand equity, we get a lot more sign ups than before, we're getting more conversions than before, and also too you know we're working on getting somebody to really spare the marketing because we've really not done any marketing since, So we believe that it's gonna really help us to grow faster. They've also [10:48] >> been looking at some partnerships and stuff. So we are really just, you know, planning to get to that 1,000,000 ARR this year. [10:56] I see. Okay. And of the 25, how many on your team, how many are engineers? [11:01] >> Pure engineers, probably about eight. [11:05] Pakistan. Right? Eight in Pakistan? [11:07] >> Yeah. Mostly. [11:08] And so what do what do you pay per month to your engineering team altogether? [11:13] >> Don't wanna disclose that right now because I'm gonna put in the information right there, but it's pretty pretty decent. [11:19] Are you profitable today or no? [11:22] >> We are profitable. [11:24] Okay. And did you put any of your own money in the business? [11:27] >> Yeah. I put a lot of my money into the business. [11:29] How much? [11:31] >> A lot. [11:33] I don't know what a lot are we talking, like, 10,000 or a million? [11:37] >> A little bit under in two years. We've building now for two years, a little bit under, but close to yeah. [11:43] Okay. You've put in a little under than a million dollars. [11:45] >> Yeah. But but also got I also got investments too from friends, you know, that put in a couple of money in initially to that also help us as well. But we primarily just grew it from the consulting of rather fund the business from our consulting and done for you services. [12:03] Yeah. That's makes a the primary way. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Very cool, Doctor. Uyi. Okay. So you're building your building. Talk to me quickly about product before we wrap up. What's next on the product roadmap? [12:14] >> So right now, we're just trying to go deeper in making our product a little bit better and stronger, you know, but we are trying to add some more features like SMS and CRM, you know, which we believe would be a good game changer, because a lot of our creators that use the platform are also coaches as well. A lot of coaches, they need more than just a scheduling tool. They need to be able to map out [12:37] >> their, put their customers, their clients in a funnel system and help them to get results faster. So those are the features that we are planning to bring up soon. But the primary thing we really focus right now is that we really have a really, really good product and we're just trying to build that, you know, go to market engine to help take this product to a lot of people. A creators lot don't know that now it's [13:01] >> easy to get one good tool to run your business instead of 12. So they're still using 12 tools because they just don't know that vonza is around. So we believe as we tell this message and help creators to see and use vonza, they're going to really love it. [13:18] Well, doctor Uyi, I love the story. On that note, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, favorite business book? [13:25] >> I will say Rich Dad, Poor Dad. [13:27] Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying? [13:30] >> I would say Zeb Evans of ClickUp. [13:34] >> Yep. [13:35] Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building a business? [13:38] >> I would say ClickUp. I use it every day. [13:41] Number four, how many hours of sleep do get every night? [13:44] >> Average five. [13:45] And what's your situation, doctor Uyi? Married, single, kids? You mentioned your wife earlier. [13:49] >> Married. [13:50] Any kids? [13:51] >> Three children. Three. Three. Yeah. [13:54] Wow. How how old are you? [13:56] >> I'm 40. [13:57] >> 40 years old. Last question. [13:58] Something you wish you knew when you were 20. [14:02] >> To be, okay, I would say to be more courageous, right? Because in my twenties I was a little bit more concerned about what people would think and all of that stuff, So I'm now just more like, just more confident in following my dreams. But you know another thing that is so interesting, Nathan, before you go, when we started building this all in one platform too, like two years ago, a couple of people that were telling us [14:26] >> in these big names that just focus on one tool, just focus on one tool. When the last two years, you see now many software companies now don't just offer just one product. Many software companies now are now trying to be like two, three, four products now. So we feel like we're kind of a pioneer because in 2018, we started thinking about a really good all in one tool, and now we see a lot of people are [14:49] >> trying to catch up with, you can't just offer just one product these days. I said, if you're really, really good at it, you need to help up your customers to use less tools, you know, it's a better experience for them. [14:59] Guys, Doctor. Uyi, he's funding his business from agency work, but he's slowly growing that SaaS revenue, now doing $20,000 a month in revenue, competing with like Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachable, helping course creators run their businesses online. He's got hundred one and fifty paying customers, paying about a $280 a month. He is profitable today. They're looking at raising 5,000,000 at a 40,000,000 valuation in the next six months. We'll see how that goes. Team at 25 today with eight [15:25] engineers. Alright, Doctor. Uyi, thanks for taking us to the top. [15:28] >> Thank you so much, Nathan. [15:31] One 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 [15:57] Central. 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 [16:19] fundraise, 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 wanna 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 for [16:41] 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 got [17:00] to push them away. Click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys'support. Alright, I'll be in the comments. See you.