How Zero X Clem Reached 35 Customers Paying an Average of $3,000 a Year as a 2-Person Bootstrapped Team (Interview with Founder Daryl Brian)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00ZeroXClem. He used to be in crypto. Now his company is doing $10,000 a month in revenue. He's helping companies generate leads using a combination of not only getting the leads, but then also creating content using Jasper, right, or HyperWrite. They've got 35 customers paying $250 a month on average. Just launched back in August and completely bootstrapped. We will see what he does next. Hey, folks. My guest today is Daryl Brian. He's the founder of ZeroXClem. It's

00:23made for b to b startups and enterprises who most whose most pressing need is finding leads and getting access to key decision makers. Got unlimited access to their entire platform, and it's a disruptive growth for all lead verticals. Daryl, you ready to take us to the top?

Daryl Brian

00:37>> Yes, sir.

What Is Zero X Clem and How Does It Work

Nathan Latka

00:38What do you mean by that disruptive growth for all lead verticals?

Daryl Brian

00:42>> So, essentially, with our competitors in the marketplace, they're capping at specific credits for access to the platform. With our platform, we have unlimited use. Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

00:54Well, does it work? Obviously, if if you have unlimited use, but it's it doesn't get the thing that the users want, no one will use the unlimited use. Right? So so tell us what it does. Tell us how a customer uses you.

Daryl Brian

01:05>> So let's say, for example, you have a recruiting agency, and their main lifeblood is new recruits. You can use ZeroXClem to access specific key decision makers or your ideal customer profile directly from the platform. Our platform uses a software scraper that scans the Internet every day and uploads new leads into it so you can access their email, their phone number directly without getting a general email.

Competing Against ZoomInfo and the AI Differentiator

Nathan Latka

01:34Why would people use you over ZoomInfo?

Daryl Brian

01:37>> People would use us simply because of our integrations and Yeah.

Nathan Latka

01:41But doesn't ZoomInfo have more integrations than you? I mean, they're much, much, much larger.

Daryl Brian

01:45>> Yeah. Yeah. They they have integrations, but with our platform, we made it so seamless to where you're you're able to bounce from one lead vertical to the next. You're able to identify exactly who you wanna contact instantly. And I think one of the greatest things for our our platform is our our Chrome extension.

Nathan Latka

02:05Yeah. But ZoomInfo has all these things, and no one's gonna believe that you do it better than ZoomInfo because ZoomInfo can spend more money to do these things. So what's your unique mousetrap you're trying to win on here? Something you do that you think ZoomInfo and others are missing?

Daryl Brian

02:17>> Well, our secret, I believe, is artificial intelligence. Our goal is to create business intelligence that can link together and correlate different data points within the leads themselves. So instead of having a normal database, we're planning to implement a database in which is relational through AI so you can have a subset of customers identified per your ideal customer profile without you having to manually go look for them.

Average Customer Pricing and No-Touch Model

Nathan Latka

02:44And help me understand when customers fall in love with you, what do they pay you on average per month to use the platform?

Daryl Brian

02:49>> On average per month, we charge $3,000.

Nathan Latka

02:52Okay. So this is more of an agency model, or is it still is it truly no touch SaaS?

Daryl Brian

02:58>> This is no touch.

Nathan Latka

02:59No touch SaaS. Okay. So when did you launch the business? What year?

Daryl Brian

03:03>> We launched this year in August.

Nathan Latka

03:05Oh, okay. Nice. And how many paying customers today?

Team Size and How Two People Support the Business

Daryl Brian

03:08>> Right now, we're we're just grassroots, so we have under a 100.

Nathan Latka

03:13Okay. Well, I mean, how many? Are we talking like 10 or 90 or seven or what?

Daryl Brian

03:17>> We have 35.

Nathan Latka

03:19Okay. 35 customers. So 35 customers paying $3,000 a month?

Daryl Brian

03:23>> Yes.

Nathan Latka

03:24So it's a $105,000 a month in revenue?

Daryl Brian

03:26>> Yes.

Nathan Latka

03:27Okay. And how many folks are on your team today?

Daryl Brian

03:31>> Right now, we have two people on my team, myself and my other co founder.

Nathan Latka

03:36How do you support a $105,000 a month in revenue with just two people? Are you is that accurate revenue number?

Daryl Brian

03:44>> Yes. The reason we're able to do it is because we use core.ai for our conversational bot technology. And that way, we don't have to have additional support tickets.

Nathan Latka

03:55I just wanna make sure, Daryl, I'm getting this right. Because this would put you, like, in a world class I mean, a two person team doing 1,200,000 in ARR. I don't hear about that very often. So I just wanna make sure I'm getting this data right. You're you this month collected a $105,000 a month in revenue over the past thirty days.

Daryl Brian

04:10>> Yes, sir.

Nathan Latka

04:12Oh, 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

04:36your 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

05:00get 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

05:22not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founders 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

05:48going 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

06:10you 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

06:36interview. That's amazing. Okay. So how did you find 35 people to sign up? Where did you get them?

How 35 Customers Were Acquired via Cold Outreach

Daryl Brian

06:42>> Well, we used our platform. We identified what specific agency would need this the most. We specifically targeted large agencies because they have a surplus of budget and cash flow. And we also made sure to follow-up with a lot of people. We sent mass emails. So cold emailing our ideal customer profile for, like, fourteen days. Mhmm. Why

Nathan Latka

07:10do they pick you? I mean, I get cold emails all the time of people saying, well, we'll get leads for you. Pay us $3k a month. But I ignore them all. I just don't have time to get through them all. Why do they pick you?

AI Writing Tools Used for Copywriting

Daryl Brian

07:18>> They pick us because of our copywriting. I use artificial intelligence. I use a combination of three different artificial intelligence writing platforms.

Nathan Latka

07:27Which ones?

Daryl Brian

07:27>> I use Rytr, jasper.ai, and I also use HyperWrite.

Nathan Latka

07:33What's the writer URL?

Daryl Brian

07:36>> R ytr. And I think it's.ai..ai.

Nathan Latka

07:41And and what was the first one? Writing?

Daryl Brian

07:43>> So we have writer, we have jasper dot a I, and then we have HyperWrite.

Revenue Correction: $120K ARR Not $1.2M

Nathan Latka

07:48Oh, HyperWrite. Got it. HyperWrite. HyperWrite and Jasper. Okay. Interesting. So so just to be clear, on your website, I see two pricing plans. One is 300 a month and one is is 3,000 per year. Right? So when I asked you earlier what the average customer pays, you said 3,000 per month. Is it per year?

Daryl Brian

08:06>> Oh, yeah. It's per year. Sorry.

Nathan Latka

08:08I got to Daryl, I asked that question about three times to make sure that it was accurate. You said yes three times in a row. So you're not doing a $105,000 a month. You're doing a $105,000 a year right now.

Daryl Brian

08:18>> Yes, sir. Sorry. I'm I'm a bit under the weather. You can hear my I'm congested.

Nathan Latka

08:23Okay. No problem. Got it. So let me just let me just take a step back.

08:29This kind of thing typically has very high churn. Right? How are you making sure customers keep paying you every month?

Daryl Brian

08:35>> Our first goal is to get feedback from the use of the platform. Whether we experience churn is is for a specific reason. So we're constantly doing market surveys. And one of our greatest things that we're doing to prevent churn is by, excuse me, by adding additional features on the platform each month. So we have a roadmap and we're continually updating and providing more features.

Nathan Latka

09:00Okay. So just to be clear, you have 35 customers paying on average $250 per month, which is a $10,000 a month or a $120,000 a year run rate. Correct?

Daryl Brian

09:10>> Correct.

Nathan Latka

09:11And you've got your first paying customer four months ago in August.

Daryl Brian

09:15>> Yes, sir. Sorry for the confusion earlier.

Bootstrapped and 50/50 Equity Split

Nathan Latka

09:17No. No. No problem. We're getting it clear now. So that's good. Have you bootstrapped the company or did you decide to raise money?

Daryl Brian

09:23>> Bootstrap. I love that.

Nathan Latka

09:25That's awesome. And your co founder, do you guys put it 50/50 or how'd you decide on equity stuff?

Daryl Brian

09:30>> Yeah. We decided 50/50.

Nathan Latka

09:32So you're just a nice guy just right down the middle.

Daryl Brian

09:34>> Unfortunately, so.

Nathan Latka

09:37Alright. Very cool. And is it just it's just the two of you guys today. Right?

Daryl Brian

09:40>> Yes, sir.

Product Roadmap: Instagram Integration Next

Nathan Latka

09:41Okay. Very cool. What are the what's next on the product roadmap? What are you launching next?

Daryl Brian

09:46>> So our our next goal is to integrate Instagram. Right now we have lead generation for LinkedIn and using those Chrome extensions, but we wanna branch out to Instagram.

Nathan Latka

09:58Mhmm. And how do you guys decide how to use profits every month? Right? If you're doing $10,000 a month in revenue, do I just split it and each take home $5k or how do you think about that?

Profitability and How Revenue Is Reinvested

Daryl Brian

10:08>> Well, right now we have an approach where we wanna grow the business more than anything. So we decided to only take 10% profits, right? And the rest of it, we're putting in ad revenue and scaling via our AI and also paying conversational designers.

Nathan Latka

10:26So 10% profit margin, you're making about $1,000 a month in profit and you guys are taking $500 each?

Daryl Brian

10:32>> Yes, sir.

Nathan Latka

10:33Interesting. Okay. And then what about I mean, you look at Jasper, look at Rytr, look at HyperWrite. Which one does the best job?

Daryl Brian

10:40>> Rytr does the framework. Jasper cleans it up, and HyperWrite makes it personal.

Nathan Latka

10:45Very interesting. And is it good? I mean, if everyone in the world use AI for writing, doesn't everyone's stuff start to look the same?

Daryl Brian

10:52>> You know, I've had that discussion before. I think that we will we will reach a point of saturation in the market in which the AI will start to research the same topics and pull from each other. But I I don't think we're there yet. I think that's probably five, maybe ten years out.

Background in Crypto and the Avalanche Blockchain

Nathan Latka

11:08Interesting. And what were you doing before this?

Daryl Brian

11:11>> Before this, I was in cryptocurrency. I was an influencer.

Nathan Latka

11:15What the hell does that mean?

Daryl Brian

11:18>> I was on the Avalanche blockchain. I I came on the blockchain on this year for February. We helped over 27 different NFT projects with with their minting and marketing and advertising.

Nathan Latka

11:31Help me make like, I know what money means, money in my bank. Does that make you rich? How do you make money doing that?

Daryl Brian

11:38>> So we get paid on a per month basis, and it really depends contract per contract. Sometimes they'll pay us out per mint, a percentage of the mint. Other times, we'll we'll we'll just get a white list for the actual NFT at a lower price than other people. So, I mean, I was averaging like $8,000 a month.

Nathan Latka

11:56Now but how do you get to that number? I mean, was that you converting the token value into fiat and that was the ratio then?

Daryl Brian

12:02>> Yeah. So essentially, if if our contract was straightforward, they would pay us via USDC, which is a stable coin. Sometimes if they gave us a whitelist, we would sell the NFT in, like, immediately as soon as we could, just so we can lock in the USD value without volatility. And on other times, like, if there was a token, then we get a percentage upon the token raise.

Nathan Latka

12:26I see. I see. Interesting. Okay. And then obviously, crypto crashes and you says, okay. I'm changing I'm changing spaces.

Daryl Brian

12:32>> Yeah. I've been in crypto since 2014. I love it, but the the bear markets are are too seasonal and too frequent, you know.

Nathan Latka

12:39So it's funny. Your Zoom name here is Daryl Bubba Crypto. Well, I wanna know what your SaaS nickname is.

Daryl Brian

12:46>> SaaS nickname. Oh, man. I I guess I don't have one as of yet. You know?

Nathan Latka

12:50Daryl Daryl Bubba SaaS.

Daryl Brian

12:55Alright.

12:55>> Bubba

Nathan Latka

12:56>> SaaS.

12:56I like it.

12:57Alright, man. I get by the way, I'm trademarking that. I get percent of royalties. Alright? Okay. So so so anyways, so nice start here. Now you said you found these 35 customers using your own technology, but you have to give inputs to your technology to generate the output. So what are the inputs you're giving your tech to find these 35 customers? Like, are the keywords you're targeting on the platforms, etcetera?

Daryl Brian

13:18>> So the first thing I did was learn from the experts in lead gen. I noticed that lead gen was very manual. Like there are a lot of software as a service companies, but I think the more intelligent companies take a manual approach. So I I watched a numerous number of videos on YouTube from the experts that were doing it manually. And then I realized they dialed in their ideal customer profile exactly. So I just copied what

13:45>> they did.

Nathan Latka

13:46Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Famous Five Rapid Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

13:48Okay. Fair enough. That makes sense. Listen, we're running out of time here. Let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, favorite book.

Daryl Brian

13:54>> Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles.

Nathan Latka

13:56Say that slower.

Daryl Brian

13:57>> The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles.

14:00>> Science of Getting Rich.

Nathan Latka

14:01Interesting. Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Daryl Brian

14:07>> Tim Cook.

Nathan Latka

14:09Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building ZeroXClem?

Daryl Brian

14:13>> Axiom.ai.

Nathan Latka

14:16And number four, how many hours of sleep are you getting every night?

Daryl Brian

14:20>> Three.

Nathan Latka

14:22Three? That's not healthy.

Daryl Brian

14:24>> It is what it is.

Nathan Latka

14:25Yeah. But come on, you can't live on three. You don't get three hours every night. You'd be dead.

Daryl Brian

14:30>> When you're passionate, it works.

Nathan Latka

14:32Oh, come on, Daryl. You've got you averaged through the last thirty days. You take your average. You've only slept three hours a night.

Daryl Brian

14:37>> Yeah. You know, it's a horrible habit of drinking coffee before bed.

Nathan Latka

14:43You know, but you your organs would fail. That's not enough sleep. It's not it doesn't matter how passionate you are. I know passionate people get ten hours of sleep every night.

Daryl Brian

14:52>> Well, sometimes you have to defy the human biology to make it happen.

Nathan Latka

14:57Okay, Daryl Bubba Crypto. Number four, how many what's the situation? Married, single, kids?

Daryl Brian

15:04>> Single.

Nathan Latka

15:05Alright. And how old are you?

Daryl Brian

15:07>> 25.

Nathan Latka

15:08Last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

Daryl Brian

15:11>> Something I wish I would do.

Nathan Latka

15:13Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

Daryl Brian

15:15>> Wish I knew. Conversion rate. High volume equals the affordability of being mediocre.

Closing Summary and Wrap-Up

Nathan Latka

15:23Alright, guys. ZeroXClem. He used to be in crypto. Now his company is doing 10,000 a month in revenue. He's helping companies generate leads using a combination of not only getting the leads, but then also creating content using Jasper, Rytr, HyperWrite. They've got 35 customers paying $250 a month on average. Just launched back in August and completely bootstrapped. We will see what he does next. Daryl, thanks for taking us to the top.

Daryl Brian

15:44>> Thank you, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

15:47One 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 alive. It is fun to watch every Thursday one

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