How MarkMe LLC Reached 102 Beta Users and 64 Daily Active Devices in Kenya (Interview with CEO Toni Mumo)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Guys, Make Me Icons got started with a WhatsApp group based in Kenya. He's teaching folks graphic design via his application. He spent a dollar 50 on Facebook ads to get his first 102 beta users. 64 are still active on a daily basis. He's making sure those metrics look good. And then he's launching a paywall coming up here in January for $10 a month or about $30 for a quarter for a three month period. He raised $18,000

00:24in pre seed funding last year, is now scaling with his team of six. Hey, folks. My guest today is Tony Mumo. He is working on education technology at markmeicons.com. Tony, you ready to take us to the top?

Tony Mumo

00:38>> I'm ready to take it to the top.

Who Uses MarkMe Icons Today

Nathan Latka

00:40Alright. Who uses Mark Me Icons today?

Tony Mumo

00:43>> Today, our users are mainly beta users. We are looking for people who are interested in courses like advertising photography, web design, and business skill sets, which is our first courses that we launched with. So we actually started teaching people about subgroups. This was the test pilot for our concept to see whether we can use a chat room feature to educate people. So we did some Facebook ads, but about 100 students in our WhatsApp groups. So after

01:15>> testing it on WhatsApp is when we saw that it is a viable product if we give it full attention. And that's when we started building mac. Me icons in twenty twenty one December. And we finally launched a beta this year. So that's a bit of background of what where we've gotten so far.

Beta Users and Daily Active Devices

Nathan Latka

01:36And how many beta users do you have today?

Tony Mumo

01:39>> Today we have a 102 beta users and 64 active devices as of today.

Nathan Latka

01:46That's great. 64 active devices. How do you define an active device?

Tony Mumo

01:50>> An active device for us is a user who at least checks one session in a day of the seven sessions that we have available. So that ranks as a daily active user for us and it's a good metric for us to gauge the effectiveness of our classes. And engagement has been low since we started, but we're at least able to see people clicking on our classes.

Nathan Latka

02:17What's your most popular class today?

Defining an Active Device

Tony Mumo

02:20>> The most popular class is web design skills. And this is because in Kenya, technology is really evolving and there's a lot of interest in websites, in software. So codeless web design is the best place for someone to start their journey, especially if they don't know coding. Because for me, codeless web design, it was my first attempt to building platforms. So codeless web design is a course in Kenya.

Nathan Latka

02:49You offer courses like Talk Like a Boss, Business Communication, Create Better graphic design. My Photos Are Lit, so you teach you about advertising photography. And you're based fully a 100% in Kenya. Correct?

Tony Mumo

03:01>> Yes. Yes. Our app is only available in Kenya as of today.

Nathan Latka

03:05So it sounds like your first version was actually just a WhatsApp group. Is that right?

Tony Mumo

03:09>> Yes. Yes. So that's our first version.

Nathan Latka

03:11How did you get the first 50 people on the WhatsApp group?

Tony Mumo

03:15>> Facebook ads. So we have had quite a journey before we came to technology. We first started with video marketing. And during that video marketing phase, we really got to understand how to use Facebook ads. And in Kenya, Facebook ads are really, really affordable for as low as 120 shillings, which is about a dollar. You can run an ad. So So it was a platform for us to get to know how to target people within Kenya, especially

Most Popular Course and Kenyan Market

Tony Mumo

03:45>> in different provinces, because marketing in Kenya has to be really targeted depending on which community you are addressing. So during that phase, we really got to understand Facebook ads. So we just collected that information that we had, did some Facebook ads for WhatsApp groups, and that's how we've got our first 100 students on WhatsApp.

Nathan Latka

04:07How much did you have to spend to get one student on WhatsApp?

Tony Mumo

04:12>> We spent around 500 shilling, 5,000 shillings during that phase. So that would be at about 50, $50.50 shillings. Yeah. 50 shillings a user. So that would be less than a dollar, maybe some cents.

Nathan Latka

04:32Okay. So maybe like a dollar 50 per user that signed up and you were just using your own saved money to run these ads or did you raise capital?

Tony Mumo

04:40>> I was using my salary at the time. I worked for a company called Samchik Group as a marketer. So with my salary, was able to channel that money to my company, and that is how we got off. So at least I've had the experience of an employee. And right now where we are, I'm able to understand my team a lot better.

Origins as a WhatsApp Group

Nathan Latka

05:02Oh, 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 founder path. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second, but you log in, you

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How the App Was Built and Initial Development Cost

Nathan Latka

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07:25back into the interview. Who built or how'd you get the initial version of the app built?

Tony Mumo

07:31>> The initial version of the app was built to a friend of ours, and this was bootstrapped from friends and family. So I met the developer when I was working in Samchit Group. So he took a lot of interest in our subgroup classes and how they were growing. And at the time, with the money I had, he was a lifesaver really and took on our concepts. And with the money that we afforded at the time, we were

07:58>> able to start the projects. At the time, I didn't understand how slow it can be to build an app.

Nathan Latka

08:05We How much how much did you pay him to build the app?

Tony Mumo

08:08>> A 150,000 shillings.

Nathan Latka

08:11How many USD is that?

Tony Mumo

08:13>> I mean, that would be

08:15>> Shillings. Shillings.

Nathan Latka

08:16150,000 shillings would be about a thousand US dollars.

Tony Mumo

08:20>> Yes. Yes. Yes. So which was really afford was the most affordable. Also, as a friend, also for a startup for us, it was the perfect situation, which at least got our project off the ground. We saw a first line of code, and we were very

Nathan Latka

08:37do you plan to start charging, or are you are you already charging for the app?

Tony Mumo

08:43>> Currently, we're not charging for the app. We intend to start charging on seventh, January. Currently, there is a mobile app awards going on in Kenya, and it's been nominated, in the best education category. So, we are we are using this opportunity to gain some creators for our platform. During the beta, what we learned was that we have a whole set of users who would like to use our features for their own classes. And once we learned

09:15>> this, we saw that we can give more creative ability in our platform. And we are working on that update currently. And January 7 is when we are planning to the

Nathan Latka

09:31Connie, how are you funding right now, continuing to pay your developer friend to make updates to the application, or is he working for equity?

Tony Mumo

09:38>> He's not working for equity. Currently, we have our venture venture capital investor called AfriNext Ventures. So AfriNext Ventures met us last year on September, and they were able to invest 1,800,000, which is about $18,000, if I'm not wrong, on 800,000 shillings. So that is the money that has kept us going up until now, and they are very crucial part in what we do, and they're really doing a good job of investing in very early technology in

10:11>> the country.

Nathan Latka

10:12How much of that money, the 18,000 USD, how much of that money do you still have in the bank?

Tony Mumo

10:17>> Oh, that we have about 500,000 in the bank.

Nathan Latka

10:21Okay. So that that is what is 500,000?

10:25You have about 3,300 USD still in the bank.

Tony Mumo

10:29>> Yes.

Nathan Latka

10:30That's great. So how much are you gonna charge when you launch the paywall in in January?

Tony Mumo

10:37>> The initial idea for pricing was about $454,500 shillings for a three month course. And as we are recruiting creators, we are advising them to keep their classes within that price range, at least for the first, first few months of their product, because affordability is one thing we're really trying to push for here in Kenya. And 4,500 shillings is where we would like to start pricing our courses for a three month duration. We're starting with short courses.

Nathan Latka

11:10Very cool. Are you still getting users from Facebook apps or ads? Or do you have another way to get users now?

Tony Mumo

11:17>> Currently, Facebook ads are currently our only marketing tool. At the moment, we are not currently running more ads. We are still working on the product a little bit more. So we stopped running our ads about two months into the beta so that we focus on updating it and pushing up better products once we had gathered the information needed.

Nathan Latka

11:39And Tony, is it just still two people on the team, you and the engineer?

Tony Mumo

11:43>> No. No. Currently, are a team of six people.

Nathan Latka

11:46Six people. What do the others do?

Tony Mumo

11:49>> We have an analytics and and design manager, So he takes care of our statistics. At the same time, he's a very gifted artist. He's actually the one who has produced the MapMe icons. Can see him Yeah. The So he's the one who designs our avatars and keeps our brand alive. The other employees are Fort and Developer. So we are currently using Flutterflow to keep improve our workflow. And we have me and it is our creative director.

12:25>> So we do work on Flutterflow, which enables our work to go a little bit faster. My other team member is a chief legal officer, so she's the one who connected me to Affinix Ventures, I was able to help me negotiate a favorable agreement with them. And then we have They have an education manager. So in our beta app, there's something called lesson packs. Lesson packs are ready made content for users to consume. So Education Manager is

12:56>> able to write Got it. Yeah. He's really good at writing, so he generates such content. And then we have the developer. That is what the team might have right now.

Nathan Latka

13:08Well, we're rooting for you. We hope the Paywall launch goes well in January. You have beautiful artwork. You got your first 100 users, 64 active on a daily basis. Tony, let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Tony Mumo

13:20>> The Bible.

Nathan Latka

13:21Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Tony Mumo

13:26>> Mark Zuckerberg.

Nathan Latka

13:27Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building make me icons?

Tony Mumo

13:33>> FlutterFlow.

Nathan Latka

13:34Number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Tony Mumo

13:39>> About six hours.

Nathan Latka

13:41And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Tony Mumo

13:44>> I am dating, currently dating.

Nathan Latka

13:47No kids?

Tony Mumo

13:48>> No kids, yeah.

Nathan Latka

13:49Alright. And how old are you?

Tony Mumo

13:51>> I'm 25.

Nathan Latka

13:52Last question. What's something you wish you knew five years ago when you were 20?

Funding from AfriNext Ventures and Cash in Bank

Tony Mumo

13:57>> Not everything is going to work out and this is my purpose in life and I can't feel.

Nathan Latka

14:03Guys, Make Me Icons got started with a WhatsApp group based in Kenya. He's teaching folks graphic design via his application. He spent a dollar 50 on Facebook ads to get his first 102 beta users. 64 are still active on a daily basis. He's making sure those metrics look good. And then he's launching a paywall coming up here in January for $10 a month or about $30 for a quarter for a three month period. He raised $18,000

14:27in pre seed funding last year, is now scaling with his team of six. Tony, thank you for taking us to the top.

Tony Mumo

14:33>> Thank you so much as well.

Nathan Latka

14:35One 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

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15:44for 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

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