Founder Interview
How Wint Grew Its SaaS Product 30% in 2018 with About 1,000 Customers Paying an Average of $200 a Month (Interview with Founder Björn Elfgren)
- Interview Date
- December 3, 2018
- Interviewee
- Björn ElfgrenFounder (formerly CEO)
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Customers (2018)
1,000
ARPU (2018)
$200 per month
YoY Growth (SaaS) (2018)
30%
Total Funding Raised
About $5M
Team Size (2018)
70 in Sweden plus 10 developers in Sri Lanka
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Björn Elfgren during the interview recorded in December 2018 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Wint’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01Wint had approximately 1,000 customers at the time of the interview in December 2018.
- 02Average revenue per customer was $200 per month (2,000 Swedish kronor).
- 03The SaaS product grew 30% year over year in 2018.
- 04Wint raised approximately $5M (50,000,000 Swedish kronor) in total funding.
- 05The team comprised 70 people in Sweden and 10 developers in Sri Lanka.
- 06Wint found customers only through inbound traffic, mostly from Facebook at the time, while it built its own content platform about running a company simply rather than about accounting.
- 07Churn on new clients was under 5% a month, though churn was high on the old, traditional side of the business.
- 08Wint was targeting the real estate agent vertical in Sweden to lower customer acquisition costs.
- 09The company was still investing and burning capital, and Björn expected it to become cash-flow positive in 12 to 18 months.
- 10Wint was founded in 2011 as a traditional accounting firm and transitioned to a 100% tech company.
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Customers (2018) | 1,000 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| ARPU (2018) | $200 per month | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| YoY Growth (SaaS product) (2018) | 30% | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Total Funding Raised | About $5M (50,000,000 Swedish kronor) | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Team Size (Sweden) (2018) | 70 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Developers (Sri Lanka) (2018) | 10 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Monthly Churn (new clients) (2018) | Under 5% | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Year Founded | 2011 | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
| Marketing and Sales Team (2018) | About 10 people | Founder interview, Dec 2018 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
Wint charged an average of $200 per month (2,000 Swedish kronor) per customer. With approximately 1,000 customers on the platform at the end of 2018, the SaaS product grew 30% year over year. Revenue figures for the company were not confirmed precisely by the founder, who noted the complexity of transitioning from a legacy accounting firm to a pure SaaS model.
Customers
Wint reached approximately 1,000 customers by the end of 2018. The company was actively targeting specific verticals, particularly real estate agents in Sweden, where Björn said acquisition costs were much lower.
Team
At the time of the interview, Wint had 70 people in Sweden and 10 developers in Sri Lanka. The marketing and sales team numbered around 10 people, with content creation handled internally by a small dedicated team.
Funding and Profitability
Wint had raised approximately $5M in total funding (about 50,000,000 Swedish kronor) across multiple rounds. The company was still investing and burning capital at the time of the interview, with the founder expecting to reach cash flow positivity within 12 to 18 months.
Growth Strategy
Inbound Content Marketing
Wint found customers only through inbound traffic, which at the time came mostly from Facebook while the team built its own content platform. Rather than writing about accounting and bookkeeping, the team wrote about being an entrepreneur and making running a company simple, which brought customers to the website for the sales team to convert.
Targeted Vertical Strategy
Wint shifted focus toward specific verticals, particularly real estate agents in Sweden. According to Björn, this segment had lower customer acquisition costs because Wint offered a unique and tailored solution for them.
Facebook and Social Distribution
At the time of the interview, Facebook was the main distribution channel for Wint's content. The team was working to build its own content platform to reduce dependence on social media.
Daily Content Publishing
At the time of the interview Wint was running a Christmas calendar, published every day, to help entrepreneurs think about the coming year. The team also wrote articles from the client's perspective, such as how to free up time.
Targeting New Startups
In addition to real estate agents, Wint targeted newly formed companies that had not yet established accounting processes, making it easier to onboard them without the friction of migrating legacy records.
Best Quotes
“Well, we make money on a subscription based model. We do all the accounting.”
“We started it 2011 and it's my own company and that was a traditional accounting firm that now it's just a tech company.”
“Well, we are up to the end of this year, 1,000.”
“Well, that depends on how you count it. You know, the accounts, it's like the the figures come from an old company, the accounting firm, and we transferred from... They went from 30,000,000 Swedish krona to zero and went from zero to 30,000,000, but that took, like, all these years. So the growth rate is, 30% this year.”
“Well, we are 70 people in Sweden.”
“In, like, 5,000,000 US dollars, 50,000,000 Swedish kronor.”
“I think just be brave.”
What Happened Next
This interview captured Wint at a moment of transition in December 2018, when the company had approximately 1,000 customers and, having closed down its old accounting-firm business to become 100% tech, was turning its focus to specific target markets such as real estate agents in Sweden. Björn Elfgren had recently stepped back from the CEO role and moved to the board, with the company still investing for growth. Visit the Wint company profile for the most current available data on this business.
View Wint’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:01Introduction and Company Overview
- 0:23Björn's Role and the Clean Water Project
- 1:01How Wint Makes Money
- 1:32Company Founding and History
- 1:51Customer Count and Monthly Revenue
- 2:26Revenue Growth and SaaS Transition
- 3:08Customer Acquisition and Content Marketing
- 3:37Team Size and Structure
- 5:17Funding History
- 5:31Cash Flow and Burn Rate
- 5:54Churn Rate and Retention
- 6:58Customer Acquisition Cost and Vertical Focus
- 8:35Plans for Additional Capital
- 8:46Famous Five: Books, Tools and Habits
- 9:43Advice to Younger Self
Introduction and Company Overview
Nathan Latka
00:01Hello, everyone. My guest today is Elfgren. He is the CEO and founder of a company called wint.se. He's a tech scant on a mission. They want to revolutionize the bookkeeping industry and make entrepreneurial life as easy as possible, at the same time thinking about how to bring clean water to the world. Alright. Björn, are ready to take us to the top?
Björn Elfgren
00:21Yeah. That's great. Nice to meet you.
Björn's Role and the Clean Water Project
Nathan Latka
00:23Alright. How are you doing both of these things at once? Bookkeeping and clean water.
Björn Elfgren
00:27Yeah. Well, for the first, I just checked out as CEO, so I'm working with an... I'm the founder of Wint, and I have some more time since I checked out, and now I'm in the board, and I've been working with both Wint and some startups and some of the clean water project because I think the world is needing clean water.
Nathan Latka
00:27Okay.
00:49So for the purpose of this
Björn Elfgren
00:50I think we're gonna have a real climate crisis.
Nathan Latka
00:53For the purpose of this interview, since the the listeners are mostly B2B SaaS folks, we'll focus on Wint, is your B2B SaaS products. Correct?
Björn Elfgren
01:00Yeah. That sounds great.
How Wint Makes Money
Nathan Latka
01:01Okay. Great. So tell us what the company does and how you make money.
Björn Elfgren
01:05Well, we make money on a subscription based model. We do all the accounting. We bought the software, and we have a full solution so we take care of everything
01:17according to accounting. You need a standard... You need an accountant. You don't when you use Wint.
Nathan Latka
01:17Okay.
Björn Elfgren
01:17That's the basic.
Nathan Latka
01:23And so what do people pay on average for this per month?
Björn Elfgren
01:26They pay on average 2,000 Swedish kronor. It's like $200 a
Nathan Latka
01:26Okay.
Björn Elfgren
01:31$200 a month.
Company Founding and History
Nathan Latka
01:32And when did you launch the company? What year?
Björn Elfgren
01:34We started it 2011 and it's my own company and that was a traditional accounting firm that now it's just a tech company.
Nathan Latka
01:42Okay. So it's a holding company and accounting firm. Now it's just a tech company.
01:47Is that right?
Björn Elfgren
01:47100% tech now.
Nathan Latka
01:49That's great.
Björn Elfgren
01:49It used to be 100% accounting.
Customer Count and Monthly Revenue
Nathan Latka
01:51That's great. So what have you scaled to? How many customers are using the platform?
Björn Elfgren
01:55Well, we are up to the end of this year, 1,000.
Nathan Latka
02:00Okay. So about a thousand customers. And you mentioned $200 a month was an average. So what? You're doing about $200,000 a month right now on revenue?
Björn Elfgren
02:07$200. I know it's... We are you Swedish krona here, you know, Sweden. So it's like 3,000,000 Swedish krona.
Nathan Latka
02:15Okay. $300,000 a month. That's right.
02:18200,000?
Björn Elfgren
02:20Yeah. Yeah. Up 300. So we're growing steadily every every day.
Revenue Growth and SaaS Transition
Nathan Latka
02:26And what if you're at about $200,000 or $300,000 per month today? Where were you a year ago?
Björn Elfgren
02:32A year ago? Well, that depends on how you count it. You know, the accounts, it's like the the figures come from an old company, the accounting firm, and we transferred from... They went from 30,000,000 Swedish krona to zero and went from zero to 30,000,000, but that took, like, all these years. So the growth rate is, 30% this year.
Nathan Latka
02:52Okay. 30%....
Björn Elfgren
02:53On the right product, the SaaS product, because we closed everything else down.
Nathan Latka
02:57Got it. So if it was a 30% year over year growth rate, that means you went from a $150,000 United States dollars per month to about 200,000 United States dollars per month.
Björn Elfgren
03:05Yeah. I can't give you the exact figure, but that's correct.
Customer Acquisition and Content Marketing
Nathan Latka
03:08Where is most of this growth coming from? How are you finding customers?
Björn Elfgren
03:11Well, we think... We find them only through the the inbound traffic. Unfortunately, it's... We are mostly Facebook today, but we are building our own content platform, so we talk... We don't talk about accounting and the bookkeeping stuff. We talk about how we're make running a company really simple, and that's how we get the customers to visit our website, and they they convert doing... From the sales team.
Team Size and Structure
Nathan Latka
03:37So so, Björn, what's your team size today? How many people?
Björn Elfgren
03:40Well, we are 70 people in Sweden.
Nathan Latka
03:43Seven zero?
Björn Elfgren
03:45Yeah. Seven zero. And we have 10 developers down in Sri Lanka.
Nathan Latka
03:50Okay. So... Okay. So 70 people total. And break down, like, the content marketing and sales sales teams. How big are those teams?
Björn Elfgren
03:57The the content at Lamb is approximately 10 people doing the marketing and sales.
Nathan Latka
04:03Okay. 10 are marketing and sales. And then what about the content? Who's creating all your content?
Björn Elfgren
04:08We do it ourselves in the team, in the content team, in the marketing, a really small team, and we've done that since we launched actually. But not all
Nathan Latka
04:17How do they decide... So I mean, the reason I ask you, you say your number one growth channel is content marketing. Well, like, so what does that mean? How do they figure out what keywords to write about? How long are the posts? Like, what are they doing on a daily basis?
Björn Elfgren
04:28On a daily basis, now we use this Christmas calendar, and we have one of our guys. He's called Jan Neh. We make small prints on Jan Neh every day to to just build on what to think about coming to the year. That's one thing, and we publish it every day. The other one, we write different articles both from our client perspective and what to... How to free your timing and so on, and we... And we're going
04:56through that plan.
Nathan Latka
04:58Okay. But again, how... There's infinite things you can write about, so how do you decide what to write about?
Björn Elfgren
05:02Yeah. Do you know that traditional accounting firm, they write like, you know, it's a new tax issue, but we don't write that. We write about how to be an entrepreneur, make it real simple.
Nathan Latka
05:02Okay.
Björn Elfgren
05:02That's the trick, I think, to find different way of talking to to our customers.
Funding History
Nathan Latka
05:17And have you bootstrapped the company or raised capital?
Björn Elfgren
05:20We raised capital. We raised it a couple of times. We are into... Yeah. We did.
Nathan Latka
05:25How much capital have you raised?
Björn Elfgren
05:27In, like, 5,000,000 US dollars, 50,000,000 Swedish kronor.
Cash Flow and Burn Rate
Nathan Latka
05:31Okay. $5,000,000. And are you cash flow positive today, or are you still investing? You're burning money.
Björn Elfgren
05:37It's it's still investing. So we're investing for the coming year. So we're investing in our our new strategy going to a specific target market and keep on growing.
Nathan Latka
05:49When do you think you'll be cash flow positive?
Björn Elfgren
05:51I think it will be in twelve to eighteen months.
Churn Rate and Retention
Nathan Latka
05:54I see. Very good. And any kind of SaaS company, churn is critical. What's your churn rate today, and how do you keep it low?
Björn Elfgren
06:02Well, we have a high churn rate because of the old traditional way, but the churn rate on the new clients are... They are low, but I don't have the actual figures in my head, so I can't tell you. Sorry.
Nathan Latka
06:15What what are they definitely under when you say low?
Björn Elfgren
06:18Low. Well, it's... I can't count it on my fingers. It's not...
Nathan Latka
06:24But, like, do you mean under under 5% a month, under 10% a month?
Björn Elfgren
06:24Yeah.
06:28Yeah. Under.
Nathan Latka
06:31Under what, five or 10?
Björn Elfgren
06:32Under five.
Nathan Latka
06:33Under, okay. So under 5% churn per month. And when you look at that on an annual basis, are you driving a lot of upsells and expansion revenue or no?
Björn Elfgren
06:43Well, actually, no. We have a flat rate. It depends on how the clients are growing. If the price is going up, and if they use a higher volume, it's like more paid on the traditional... On the subscription.
Customer Acquisition Cost and Vertical Focus
Nathan Latka
06:58Okay. And and when you're acquiring these companies and you look at your fully weighted CAC, right, to get a new... What what'd you say? I think you said they pay on average how much? 200 a month? What what are you spending to get that customer in the first place?
Björn Elfgren
07:11Do you know?
07:14I look at the roof here, but we we... That's one of the big changes we've done. We have a a high CAC, and don't have the figures in my head, but we have changed going on a specific target market, and for us it's the real estate market in Sweden. If you're real estate agents, that's what we do, and they are really low because they... It's a unique solution for them, so it's a much lower cost
07:39on those. That's all of the big changes because when you run a company, you you used to have your books, some did some... Somehow you do them, and they're not correct. You have a a lot of costs you have to transform it into the system from a start, and that's why we also try to reach the new start companies and some segments, some verticals like the real estate agents.
Nathan Latka
08:03Mhmm. So when you say you've gotten the CAC lower, how low have you gotten it?
Björn Elfgren
08:11Well, I don't have the figures. Sorry.
Nathan Latka
08:13I know. A range is fine. I'm just general... Like, you talking a thousand bucks or $10,000 or a $100?
Björn Elfgren
08:20Dollars. I have to transform it into euros and then to Swedish krona, so we are, I think, approximately, well, what should I guess, one year revenue.
Nathan Latka
08:32Okay. I mean, that's pretty healthy.
Björn Elfgren
08:34Yeah.
Plans for Additional Capital
Nathan Latka
08:35And any plans to raise additional capital or no?
Björn Elfgren
08:40Well, we haven't set that strategy yet, so I think probably, yeah. Yeah. But not now.
Famous Five: Books, Tools and Habits
Nathan Latka
08:46Yep. Very good, Björn. Alright. Let's let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book?
Björn Elfgren
08:52My favorite business book. The last one I read is the Elon Musk story. It was my favorite book from today.
Nathan Latka
08:59Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Björn Elfgren
09:02Yeah. The same guy. No ill.
Nathan Latka
09:04Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building your company?
Björn Elfgren
09:08For me, it's Trello.
Nathan Latka
09:10Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Björn Elfgren
09:13Sleep, I think I get, like, six hours.
Nathan Latka
09:16That's pretty good. And what's your situation, Björn? Married, single, kids?
Björn Elfgren
09:19Married. We're here to have three kids.
Nathan Latka
09:36Very good. How old are you?
Björn Elfgren
09:40Well, I'm 53.
Nathan Latka
09:4253.
Advice to Younger Self
Nathan Latka
09:43Last question. What do you wish your 20 year old self knew?
Björn Elfgren
09:46What what I knew? Well, I don't like to... I didn't want to know. I want to to do the end the same way.
Nathan Latka
09:55Well, it's it's not about a regret or something you would change. It's it's like a lesson, something you tell your kids. No.
Björn Elfgren
10:01I I think just be brave and try to step up to your comfort zone as quick as possible. Just
Nathan Latka
10:01Guys, do
10:10be brave, step out of your comfort zone, launched a company called which is essentially bookkeeping, helping folks scale and get their books done faster in a fun way. They've got about a thousand customers paying $200 a month. So doing about $200,000 per month right now in revenue, up from $150,000 just about a year ago. They are burning capital. They've raised $5,000,000, 70 people based between Sweden and Sri Lanka, under 5% revenue churn per month spending, you
10:35know, call it $2,400 to get a new $200 a month customer for a twelve month payback as they look to scale. Björn, thank you for taking us to the top.
Björn Elfgren
10:42Thank you. Great meeting you.