How Zety CEO Kuba Koziej grew Zety to $1.2M revenue with a 11 person team in 2025.

hey guys my guest today is Kuba K He is building a company called bold which he sold sorry but called zti which he sold to bold in 2019 prior to that he was co-founder next CEO of inter interview me. and also resume lab Kuba you ready to get started sure uh excited to be here and thanks for having me Nathan you bet so just to be clear what is the current project you're working on right now is it uh is it uh the zti inside of bold uh yeah like bold is pretty much uh it's pretty much our company uh so we we basically uh we basically have a portfolio of website and a portfolio of products for for for job Seekers so uh back in the day we started inter interviewing me and Zi and uh what year was that when did you launch Z so uh uh so zi was launched in 2016 and we focus heavily uh we pretty much like use the experiences experience that we had building interview MLS strictly a Polish brand a Polish brand uh and we focused uh uh we focused on on SEO and we went from zero to almost 4 million uh users monthly uh I mean I mean actually uh visitors so so so zi went through the stage in what in what period of time Zer to four million users how many years after launch within within years got it so by 2018 you had four million users visiting the site monthly exactly that's great and and how are you monetizing these users uh we basically offer a resume uh a resume building uh Resume Builder as a as a service and was it a pure play ass model or a one-time fee so back in So back in the day like we started as a as a one uh one time one time one one time thing uh but but then we moved to purely recurring model when was that what year was SAS launched so uh uh so we started uh like I said like we started as interview me back in 2015 and uh pollen is uh is not really used I mean now the situation has sort of like changed but uh five years ago like no one was was using uh uh sub subscription model so uh so this is why we started as as as one as one time in the one time Fe model but uh when we when we moved when we started at Zen which was a which which was a global website we uh we basically uh we operated in a pure SAS model so the SAS model launched in 2016 exactly I see and and on interview me we introduced it in 200 2019 okay so was it 2016 or 2019 that you launched a recurring model uh on zi zc uh which is the international in the international site site like mainly focus on the US it was 2016 got it and the other one was 2019 I understand uh which of these which you were running both these businesses at the same time yeah okay and and I mean did you have investors or had you bootstrap the company so uh so we actually started as a bootstrap company and then uh in 2000 at the turn of 2015 and 2016 we had a VC uh VC investor they basically invested like 200,000 I'm sorry $100,000 so you you raised 200 Grand in in zti in 2019 uh yeah that was interview me back in the day so like we use this we use this money to start uh z.com okay are these we to make this more clear for everybody these are the same company now correct interview me and zti uh it's basically the same product uh but we offer the same product on a bunch of on on a bunch of different sites so like it's interview me PL in Poland it's. which is a global site and then in 2020 we started approaching International markets okay but from an equity perspective Kuba because it's very confusing I'm trying to make it really clear for the audience from a cap table perspective it's the same technology it's the same owners Equity owners yeah okay got it so it's not like four business units and there's different co-founders on interview me and there's different co-founders on zti and different people on Bold it's all one business just different brands yeah like so sorry sorry sorry for making for making it confusing I mean I think it actually stems from our business model so like we we we mostly use search traffic uh uh um which which we monetize so in our case it makes a lot of sense to occupy a lot of real estate in Google be it uh organic traffic or or be at paid traffic so we basically we basically have a lot of different websites for career Seekers but at the end of the day they use mostly one product clear now great let's go back to the early days because this is impressive you go from Z to 4 million views right so take me back to those early days do you remember in the first year that you were in business how much revenue you did back in 2016 yeah back back in 2016 at the time like when we uh when we acquired when we when we got the investment it was around like $15,000 uh a month okay hold on you told me about the investment in 2019 I thought no it was 20 2016 which yeah okay so you doing 15,000 a month by the end of 2016 that's also that's also the year that you raised the $200,000 of capital yeah exactly and uh and importantly that wasn't uh uh that wasn't recurring Revenue so it was uh so we pretty much I had to know make this money each and each and every month otherwise we wouldn't be breaking even and then take me into 2017 one year later how much revenue did you do in 2017 um I can't give you like the exact number but uh uh it was uh at that that time like we were growing at around like 300% a year for the next uh for the next three years so 2 17 I would say it was around like 50 $60,000 Still Still uh onetime stuff yeah okay and that was 50,000 or 60,000 for the whole year or that's what you were doing per month per month okay I see got it and then eventually you switched all this one time stuff over to SAS and that happened in 2019 correct uh yeah like I did make it make it confusing so like sorry zti uh used recurring recurring subscriptions pretty much like right from the beginning so uh so it started being uh it started it started being very profitable but uh then we uh we launched subscriptions on interview me PL which was the which was the Polish site okay I don't I don't think that answers my question when you're doing 15,000 in year one of one-time Revenue you then grow 300% you're doing 50 or 60,000 per month in 2017 regardless of zy interview me.com when did that one-time Revenue start switching over to SAS uh on inter uh on inter me it doesn't matter C it's all your Revenue this is all your Revenue so I if we talk about every brand it's going to get very confusing I'm just trying to understand when you and your team looked at the revenue and said you know what there's an opportunity to laun a recurring plan here we're doing $50,000 a month in onetime sales we're sick of selling new stuff every single month let's get some recurring predictable Revenue when was that yeah like uh uh I did get the question but uh the thing is like if if we if we have the same product on two different sites we used we used a different different business model so on z.com it was uh recurring re Revenue right from the beginning 2017 [Music] on interview mepl which was a Polish site we switched to recurring the $50,000 that you were doing monthly in 2017 that you said it's onetime stuff was that zi or interview me uh both okay got it got it so you're combining you're giving me numbers that are combined and then trying to split out the business mod which is what's making it confusing I'm trying to simplify the story here 50,000 in 2017 across both Brands was all onetime stuff correct yeah like if if we want to Simply let's let's say it was like 50 50,000 50,000,000 bucks okay you then transitioned at some point where you were selling more monthly recurring stuff and it sounds like that was in 2018 and 2019 exactly and why why did you make the switch from a Founder's perspective why go from the onetime high volume stuff to the maybe less people paying but more predictable Revenue recurring uh well numbers numbers worked worked for us so like when we started running test tests uh we started running tests on on Z com like and obviously we uh the number the number of subscriptions went down slightly uh but but our our LTV U made up for it massively so uh so so so we basically started making like three or four times uh more money yep so when you did and looking like that today for example the folks that pay you monthly to use these tools that you've built for the market what are they paying you on average per month are we talking like five bucks a month or like 500 bucks a month uh so uh back in the day like we had we had three of three plans five 10 15 uh we consolidate consolidate them into 20 into one plan which is like $25 per month and who are the people usually paying for this I imagine if I paid you to do one resume and then I get a job I'm going to stop paying the $25 a month fee uh one of your most search search terms actually is to cancel my zetti subscription I I imagine this is a theme you deal with yeah so so so so so here's how it works like so like most most of the time like uh when we think of creating uh creating a resume like we think that we will basically create a resume uh send it over to to to the employer and Bam all of a sudden we get the job this is not what happens and most of the time like the average time of looking for a job like is anything from two up to five sometimes six months so so during this period uh during this this period like uh you should be sending uh sending resum��s and customizing them for for each and every uh every position so like so our users basically come back to the platform to make some some to make some CH changes customize uh the resume for why do they need you once they get a job is my point once uh once they get a job uh I don't think that they need the Resume Builder to with uh but now we started offering a bunch of other uh a bunch of other retention features so so so we're trying to to to focus on on the value that we are providing to the user like what the social cards uh would be one of them so it's basically uh an internet profile that you know that you that you can have something like uh something something similar to uh to uh to LinkedIn profile that you may have and uh it's kind of linked to your resume so when you send uh when you send uh your uh social card to to an employer you you have basic analytics how many employers are opening your help me understand scale here I imagine most the audience listening I was curious you went from Z to 4 million users visiting the site in 2018 but how good were you at converting those users those eyeballs in actual paying customers yeah like like I said uh I wouldn't be uh I wouldn't be able to give you to give you specific uh specific numbers but we were on a at the time when we were acquired we were on a 10 million $10 million uh run rate okay got it so how many paying customers is that back in 2019 hundreds of thousands hundreds of thousands what I guess a better question might be what conversion rate were you actually trying to optimize for in terms of unique hits right unique users converting into paid was it like the 3 4% 5% we typically here or something higher no it was uh uh it was uh it was way lower than that it was it was around like one 1% 1% interesting and I guess that model can work for you right so a lot of people think they have to get that up to two three% but you made it work for you um I think our product requires a very specific bus business model so so in in a typical s uh you uh uh you get this much higher conversion rate uh three 4% and maybe maybe much higher uh in our case we uh we used uh organic traffic so like we build this content machine and there and we basically started targeting each and every person who was at the stage of looking for for a job and we were we were reaching these people with free uh free content and uh that traffic was was very uh cost efficient for us to build so so even with with around 1% and we've been able to yeah we're running out of time here last couple questions um before we wrap with the famous 5 so since you sold in 2019 has growth increased or decreased what have you grown like a percentage is fine so you don't have to give numbers yeah massively massive massively increased uh I would say like we we've still been growing at over at three digits got it so over 100% year-over-year growth since since the sale in 2019 yeah that's great with all the other brands that that we that we've built yeah yep y i me yeah and and you just sort of said you you were at a 10 million run rate in 2019 if you have over 100% of your growth that means you break 20 million last year and if all goes well maybe you can break 40 million this year you think you can do it uh I said like around but and yeah and it's it's you you're uh it's you doing the ma the math Nathan not me but uh yeah like what get you excited to stay with the company I mean you're a Founder you're a builder what is buold done incentivize you to stick around after the acquisition yeah it's funny it's funny that you're actually asking this question because we're leaving uh in about two weeks interesting what's what's next uh ask me in about six up to 12 12 months for now like uh I need I need to take take a bit of a break to explore my curiosity and uh think about it how many co-founders were did you have at zti before before you sold two just two of you guys uh and you guys just split it 5050 and then you had a $200,000 angel investor no it was uh we started we started uh we started with with my IDs so uh um I had uh you had more you don't have to say how much more but you had more yeah okay fair enough good stuff let's wrap up here quickly with the famous five number one Kuba favorite Business book well that actually uh okay I can give you like the most recent one uh extreme ownership number two is there a CEO you're following or studying basos in M number three what's your favorite online tool for building the business uh I'm I started I started as an as an SEO guy so like that was that that was has been ATS favorite so what's your favorite SEO tool ATS number three how many hours of sleep are you getting every night you to be six I'm trying to get to eight and what's your situation married single kids single and how old are you uh 35 35 Kuba last question what's something you wish you knew when you were 20 travel more and started started earlier guys zti was founded uh to help you build your resumes back in 2016 they only raised $200,000 of outside Capital Ed up scaling to a $10 million run rate in 2019 for selling or around there before selling to bold the company continues to grow internally at bold over 100% year over-year Kuba is now jumping out going to launch his new thing after a six-month break we'll see what he does kuba thanks for taking us to the top thanks thanks for having me thanks a lot one more thing before you go we have a brand new show every Thursday at 1 pm. 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