How Zirra CEO Aner Ravon grew to $600K revenue and 15 customers in 2017.

this is the top where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of Revenue or customer base you'll learn how much revenue they're making what their marketing funnel looks like and how many customers they have I'm now at $20,000 per top 5 and6 million he is help on global domination we just broke our 100,000 unit soul Mark and I'm your host Nathan lka okay top tribe this week's win of the 100 bucks is Rhett Gillan he is a restaurant industry he's in the restaurant industry and he feels stuck he wants to start his own software business so congratulations Rett for your guys' chance to win 100 bucks every Monday morning simply subscribe to the podcast on iTunes now in order to enter and then text the word Nathan to 33444 to prove that you subscribed all right guys I talked about this earlier but I schedule like so many meetings it would blow your mind I mean all my podcast interviews right hundreds of buch MERS I talk to monthly I schedule and you know what I do it so efficiently I get them all to agree to my calendar so all the calls are back to back to back that means I'm not switching in between tasks all day long I get them to batch so that I can be very efficient it's so critical and I use a tool called Acuity scheduling to do this at Nathan la.com schedu it eliminates the back and forth between me and people I'm trying to meet with it makes it very simple and most importantly they help me keep my noshow rate very low because they send out reminders helps you look very professional so go to naa.com schedu to sign up and you get a great deal you know you guys know this I hit people hard I make great deals and Gavin the CEO has given us a great deal if you sign up like normal people okay on their website you only get a 14-day free trial you use my link na.com schedule to get 45 days free okay it's the best it's free go to na.com schedule right now to sign up and I'll see you there Nathan lka here this is episode 588 and coming up tomorrow morning you'll hear from the CEO of heptio which breaks down why growing kubernetes adoption with $8.5 million raised from Excel Venture capit is so important now if you don't know what kubernetes is you want to tune in tomorrow and learn from Craig good morning folks Nathan lka here our guest today is anur Ron and he is the co-founder and chief product officer of his new company called Zer now Zero's mission is to solve the education and entry pain of the retail investor when it comes to equity investments before this company he spent his time at Celtic as VP of media and head of the business unit an there are you ready to take us to the top yeah absolutely very good so tell us what does zero do and how do you generate Revenue okay so uh we basically step into the void of between data and actual analysis of companies uh we see that retail investors or even not just retail investors people who are looking to invest uh from on behalf of venture capital firms or private Equity firms uh there's a big void between the data collection and the footwork and the actual decision- making uh about the company whether the company is worth investing in and if so under what conditions and we're trying to automate that process and make this process much easier for them so they can focus on their investment decisions and not on data collect for and so give us an example of of of like I'm I'm on the site right now and by the way make sure your microphone is not brushing up against your clothes just so we can make sure we have good audio quality um so so how how do you make money is it a software platform or pay as you go or what it's a well it's a it's a service uh we have a we have a few options uh one is allart it's pay as you go you can order we have two main products uh which we offer one is what we call a spotlight report which is which is a screening report or an investment brief uh we typically charge $49 for it but we also package it with uh with subscriptions uh and then for the more uh I would say uh for corporate investment corporate investors or more or more uh structured customers we also offer uh value packages which are monthly subscription based okay got it and and what do people so we don't have to go into each individual monthly subscription plan the one the people who are paying you monthly what are they on average paying you per month uh Angels pay us uh $99 per month uh and they get up to three free reports uh Plus discounts on our value eded Services uh private Equity firms pay us anywhere between $4.99 and $12.99 depending on the depth of service that they need to receive uh and they get either 10 reports all the way from 10 reports a month to unlimited usage okay again if we just take a quick a before we go back to your story and how you launch this if we just take a quick average across your entire customer base who's paying monthly what is the average customer paying uh about $700 $800 a month okay got it great and then take us back historically so when did you launch the business so we launched uh we started the company three years ago uh we officially launched our uh service that would have been that would have been 2014 correct yes August 2014 to be honest less than three years it felt it feels like 30 by now but it's but it's but it's only two and a half years we launched our service in Alpha mode August last year August of of 2015 not 2016 so that's a year and a half ago and we started monetizing it uh 6 months later we first offered it for free uh and we started monetizing it in November 2015 how did you know when to stop giving it away for free and start monetizing it's it's a funny story we didn't know um and uh there was actually mhid my partner and I were sitting one day and we were arguing she was she was you know she was going let's let's shut the free service down and start charging money and let's see how much money we can actually make how many M when at at that time of the argument uh we had about 150 uh 150 users and we have covered by then about 4,000 companies for these 150 customers some of these customers are actually very large private Equity firms who've been using us pretty pretty pretty heavily like like name name one or two of them just to paint a clear picture uh okay so we had Silver Lake uh a couple of banks uh in Israel we started in Israel we just made the first inroads to US market uh I guess 6 months ago um Microsoft was using us pretty heavily but free but for free and and I was kind of scared about forcing them to become a customer definitely with that kind of you know that kind of corporate um and we just sat there one you know one morning and said you know what we're not going to know if we don't do this and we we just block we just blocked for usage to the service and uh uh happily we were happy to see that most of the customers almost like 8 5% of the customers went from free to paid Services they may not use it as heavily as before uh they may pick their you know they pick the company they're actually interested in uh but we saw a very good conversion from free to premium which for us was a very good indication to the quality of the product so that that day you said you blocked the site to free users what did you do just put up a pay wall that says pick a plan to see this report yeah absolutely uh before that uh we managed the free usage uh with uh with the coupons that we distributed did so we never said uh we never said the service was going to be open forever we basically said hey we're going to charge at some point here are some free free coupons for now or free credits that you can use um and we didn't take away those credits but we stopped renewing them got it so when people when our customers exhausted their credits they got to a pay wall and we basically said put out there like a nice message saying hey you know we also got to eat so from now on it's going to it's going to cost you some money and what did they what did they what did you say pay 49 bucks now to get another report or to get 100 credits what was that first pay wall what it say so we started with uh pay $49 now to get a single report or buy 10 reports at a bulk uh and we offered it for a discount we offered it for $2.99 um and then a couple of weeks later we saw that we were converting some of those uh 10 report vouchers uh but it made much it made more sense for us to start offering a monthly subscription instead and and that's how that's how it stands right now so of your current Revenue fast forward to you know first quarter 2017 what percentage of your revenue is coming from monthly plans versus people buying one off $49 uh uh uh reports it's almost 50/50 um yeah it's almost 50-50 and I we have we actually had a development which I didn't really quite anticipate but we have quite a few habitual or regular users who are not officially monthly subscribers uh but are de facto monthly subscribers because because they order they order single reports in in a rate that is comparable to a monthly subscription that's right yeah so if you just look at the ones who are committed to paying a monthly subscription how many customers are paying that currently 15 about 15 okay and how many how many would you say for on your habitual category they come back almost every month actually about 40 to 50 of these are habitual users who who sort of structure their own subscription by being habitual okay and what is um go ahead yeah no go ahead well I was gonna say so if you add all this up right can you give us a r i mean what are you guys doing in terms of in terms of monthly Revenue uh to date if you add up all your revenue streams yeah so we we crossed a 50 $50,000 mrr one five or 5 Z 5 Z okay so help me understand I'm doing something wrong here math wise so if you have 15 one5 customers on the monthly plans and they pay on average 700 bucks a month that comes to $10,000 500 you know per month uh where's the rest of the revenue coming from right and then and then add add uh add a similar amount more or less of not official subscribers but habitual subscribers uh who add up about $1 to $15,000 a month and the rest are just one time use okay got it got it got it got it and and the one the onetime use uh how many how many how many how many of those do you have per month okay so the one time use yeah we have about 150 per month but but but we there's another product which all three uh customers convert to and that is the Deep report which we sell for anywhere between $1,000 to $3,000 okay where so where is that where can I can I see a sample of that somewhere on your website yeah yeah absolutely it's on our website where do I go I'm on it right now uh hold on is it the due diligence report yes it's the due diligence report okay got it so comp ition Market segment expert reviews patents technology open questions you ask people to put in their company first last email organization or role and phone number contact me for a quote so they contact you and then you sell them a th report yes and then we send them a th000 report and the other conversion funnel which is much more effective is that when you order a screening report when you order a spotlight report when we send you when we send you this report we offer you uh to buy a due diligence report if you're making if you're making progress with that company and some of these some of these customers that bought a single report are going to move to the next step in their in their uh deal flow process and purchase a due diligence report I see hey this is congratulations on the growth this is very cool um thank you talk to me in terms of uh in terms of Team size today what are you guys at we're 15 people uh we have we have a Dev team of uh six plus a head of R&D so that's seven allog together uh we have a desk of four uh what we call content sort of researchers uh they're not typical analysts none of them has any Financial education but they curate the result every report that is sent out uh is a result of our technology which gets all the information runs it through the business engine and puts it on the template which is digestible and easy and easy to understand but it's then proof R and curated uh for for sake of quality we basically believe that uh the moment you order something which has the the word report in it uh you expect that to be curated or proofer and quality control so that's that's the team that's what the team is doing we have another content writer and then it's my partner and me okay got it and where you guys based uh we are based in Tel Aviv Israel okay and and go ahead yeah and then are you guys bootstrapped or you raised Capital we raised Capital we raised uh close to $3 million to date uh mostly Angel Investors we have a group of uh x Microsoft executives uh who's LED their angel round uh and then we have AOL Verizon Ventures uh joined that round uh as well so they're they're a VC that invested in us as well and uh we have the since we fa since we our customers are almost you know all of them are investors uh we have a very good uh a very good opportunity to encounter new investors who could be interested in investing in the company without going on on an official round and and trying to scout them uh proactively ourselves that's right it makes that makes total sense now if you take back in terms of kind of Revenue history do you remember the total revenue you did in 2015 we did very little Revenue in uh in 2015 we just launched the service uh I think it was 12,000 or $15,000 okay and then fast forward that into 2016 what' you guys break in 2016 uh 450 4 and what's your goal for Tony what's your goal for this year uh a few Millions uh I well we want to be we want to be at a pace we want to be at a 5 million Pace at least by the end so yeah by the growth rate that we we do we are negotiating a few strategic distribution deals uh who hopefully will you know will triple and quadruple the incoming uh the incoming deal flow that we that we see uh so if we are at 50 now we want to be at 500,000 by the end of the year how many per month how many uh companies are in your system to date uh about 100,000 companies are well covered okay uh and fine well covered well covered mean that if you order a report right now the report is ready okay uh we always take we always go through the curation process like I mentioned just to make sure that nothing dramatic you know developed between the last time this report was ordered and your current uh order so that's why you don't get it immediately that's why we guarantee up to one business day uh but normally we deliver the report within a few hours um so these ,000 companies which are mostly technology um us UK Israel and Australia based these companies are pretty well covered when we get a request from a company who who comes from a non-english-speaking uh country it's it may take us some some you know a few more hours to uh to make sure that the information is is is good enough y okay that makes good sense and how are you talk to me about the engine you're using to kind of get these companies is it is it manual or are you buying access to like clear bit and full contact and some other things how how's the system the engine work so so it's a combination uh it's a combination of a few sources we tap right now we have about 85 different sources uh that we tap into some of them are the most naive ones you know the directories the websites themselves um the the P the US patent office uh job hunting uh directories and sites uh we do a lot of NLP work on the Articles we go ahead and craw the articles that every company that the company being reviewed was mentioned in and from those articles we are able to extrapolate positive sentiments negative sentiments competitors and a lots of other stuff um so all of these sources are run through our business engine the business engine has uh a comparable function so we actually calculate valuations and and chances of of exit Etc by comparing the company to the comparable companies that are engine found uh and we have a business rule engine which flags possible risks and possible opportunities for the company based on the information that we found I'll give you just a couple of very quick examples if we see that the company if if we see that a company has been hiring employees or is on a hiring spree lately uh we flag that as something which which the the investor should should note if we see that a single company a particular company has you know 20% more core Engineers than its closest competitors we flag it as an advantage that the company has from an engineering perspective uh and so forth and so forth we have about 300 different uh rules in our system right now now which we programmed into uh into this data analysis process very cool well hey this sounds like an amazing system that you guys are building what's your goal with this I mean is you want to you want to build it and sell it are you raising your next round right now what are you thinking uh we're we we want to be in a position our our our ambition is pretty uh we have you know it's pretty big we want to be the place where whenever you think about analyzing a company you would come to zero you're not you won't start with Google or with crunch base or with the like you would go to zero and start your journey there um obviously it's going to be very difficult to reach this ambition by ourselves so at a certain point I think we will become attractive to one of the leading players in that in in the space that we operate in uh current leaders in this space I guess would be the Bloomberg and the roers and and and those type of players who need to cover hundreds of thousands or millions of companies very very effectively and do not have good inroads uh to these sources of data that just I just mentioned um um but for now you know we're a small siiz team we're not I don't see us becoming a 200 employee company we definitely want to be uh substantiated or constituted on technology so I do see us becoming profitable by the end of the year what data do you guys have that mattermark pitchbooks CB insights these other companies that they don't have so I I definitely I have you know tons of respect for those I think pitchbook and C insights are great Services really truly great Services I think where we differ is with our ability to act storify uh the data and and and take a company and instead of just presenting yes instead of just putting a dashboard we're going to give the company story you're almost you're going to feel when you get a report from us you're going to feel like you know the company not like you have data and now you need to get to know the company but that you know it already and it's going to be very it's going to be a lot easier for you to step into your conclusions or to understand what are the key questions that you need to have answered so that your interest in the company will be fulfilled guys I get asked all the time Nathan you host all these interviews hundreds of them per month how do you do them efficiently and guys the answer is simple people always agree to my calendar backtack meetings I batch my interviews to stay very efficient and the way that I do it is I use a tool called Acuity scheduling at Nathan lat.com [Music] schedu and the reason I use them is very simple they keep my noshow rate very low because they send out reminders about when the interview or the meeting is coming up and also they make it very easy to schedule time right I don't have to go back and forth via email 10,000 times with people I'm trying to meet with okay at naa.com [Music] schedu helps me so much and by the way look I like have so many meetings I'm the best at meetings okay I do them back toback very very efficient you guys know me many people say I'm the most efficient they've ever seen okay so I use the tool it's so efficient and by the way I got Gavin I said Gavin he's the CEO I said I want a great deal for my people he said Nathan well most people get 14-day trial isn't that great I said no he's given us a 45-day free trial at Nathan la.com schedu that's not going to stay up forever so go get it now Nathan lat.com schedu awesome and here let's wrap up with the famous five number one what's your favorite Business book ah the Tipping Point number two is there a CEO you're following or studying right now right now uh no honestly no I mean I get I get inspired by so many um so I I'd like to say that my my true inspiration growing up with Steve Jobs I know it's a bit of a cliche but it still is number three is there a favorite online tool you have like host skater uh fam favorite online tool yep um I like actually I I I'd like ask wonder and I recommend that people use that ask Wonder yes it's a great it's a great personal assist assistance tool um it's also sort of resembling the way that we that we act and I recommend that you try that you know the users try it themselves number four yes or no do you get eight hours of sleep every night no no I wish no I get I'm happy with six number number five or actually before I do that what's your situation are you married single do you have kids married with two kids 12 or nine oh very good okay so two kids and how old are you uh I'm 45 all right so last question and our take us back 25 years what do you wish your 20-year-old self knew uh not to worry so much I mean you can just uh when I was 20 I was really worried about where I'm going to end up in life and how am I going to make all ends meet and how I'm going to be economically independent and find the women I love and set up the right family and I just wish that I knew at that point that I just shouldn't worry so much and just concentrate on life top tribe there you have it from an's the founder of Zer don't worry so much again they've just passed around $50,000 uh in monthly Revenue serving uh hundreds of customers with their business intelligence reports they raised $3 million at about 12 Grand in 2015 450 Grand in 2016 want to break a million and get into the millions here in 2017 again with their team of 15 based out in Tel Aviv anur thank you for taking us to the top thank you so much if you enjoyed anur today go back and listen to Martin yesterday who runs review which has raised $350,000 helping a th000 customers send person person newsletters very interesting New Concept you might be able to use top dribe I love giving away free money I feel like Oprah giving away cars and I have something special for you today how many of you have heard our super sharp guests talk about success they've had with Facebook and Google ads well all of you listening right now yes if you're listening you get $100 in free AdWords here's how you get it okay again thanks for listening get the free $100 from Google right when you sign up with my website host Provider Host go sign up now to get your free money hostgator.com Nathan again that's hostgator.com SL Nathan okay top tribe I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning and don't forget before you listen to any other episodes subscribe on iTunes right now for your chance to win a 100 bucks every Monday [Music]