How Nife Labs Reached $300K Revenue and 25 Customers in 2023 (Interview with CEO Nida Sahar)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Guys, it's a hybrid cloud platform, knife.io. They're doing $25,000 a month today in revenue up from 1,000 a month just a year ago. Their pre seed round they closed a year ago for $500,000 at a five over a $5,000,000 valuation. Looking to raise 500 k now targeting a 10,000,000 valuation. We'll see if they can get it done. 25 customers paying on average $1,000 per month, a team size of 20 folks with eight engineers. Hey, folks. My

00:22guest today is Nida Sahar. She's been blessed with many empowering opportunities in the past fifteen years of her career. Her corporate experience made her extremely passionate about technology and paved her way for the world of startups. She's now working on nifeknife.io, not just for teaching her how to create technological impact, but opening possibilities and become an example for others, specifically others other women in tech. It's an application life cycle management platform. Nida, you ready to take

00:46us to the top?

Nida Sahar

00:48>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you so

00:50>> much for Yeah.

Nathan Latka

00:51You you bet. So when did you launch the company and tell us a story about a customer that's using you today?

Founding Story: Starting Nife Labs During the Pandemic

Nida Sahar

00:57>> Oh, we started off peak of pandemic, twenty twenty twenty twenty May. And, yeah, I was stuck in Singapore in a room, and then I didn't know what else to do because it was not my, country of origin. And then my coach advised me that I should start a company, and that's what happened. The two things are that simple. But yeah. So, you wanted a story of one of a customer who's using it? Correct. We have an

Customer Story: Music App Using the Platform

Nida Sahar

01:23>> interesting music app that's using our platform, and they're doing this to livestream their studio, the the production work. So different musicians from different locations are actually jamming together, and they have deployed their application through knife. So that's really interesting.

Nathan Latka

01:40That's very cool. And so what does the average customer pay you per month today?

Nida Sahar

01:44>> Average customer pays anywhere between thousand dollars, to about thousand $500.

Nathan Latka

01:50Per month?

Nida Sahar

01:51>> Yes.

Nathan Latka

01:52And what do they get for a thousand a month?

Nida Sahar

01:54>> They get a lot of automations done in single go so they can deploy their applications. Not just that, also they get performance metrics related to the applications, who's using it, how they're using it, and how they can go ahead and, scale their applications to different regions and locations as well.

Nathan Latka

02:12So your website says the fastest way to build, manage, deploy, and scale any application securely globally with auto deploy from GetZero DevOps servers or infrastructure management. So should we look at this like robotic process automation software?

What Customers Pay and What They Get

Nida Sahar

02:25>> You can look at it as an application lifecycle management software.

Nathan Latka

02:28Well, make it not so buzzwordy. Okay? Make it real for my audience. What does that actually mean?

Explaining the Product: Airbnb for Servers

Nida Sahar

02:33>> It actually means your applications need a place to stay. So we help them reach the exact location where they want to live. So my example that I always give is Airbnb for servers. Right? So we have a whole bunch of servers across the world, and we know what the kind of ecosystem and infrastructure each of the servers have. So we help your applications go and live in the location that makes more sense for them, not just

02:58>> for vacationing, but to survive and to breathe.

Nathan Latka

03:03Mhmm. Okay. And you got going in 2020. How many customers do you have today?

Customer Count and Revenue Today

Nida Sahar

03:07>> We have about 25 odd customers. We have still very good, I would say.

Nathan Latka

03:11Yes. And so 25 customers paying 1,000 a month means you're doing about $25,000 a month in revenue?

Nida Sahar

03:17>> Yes. We are.

How the First Customers Were Acquired

Nathan Latka

03:18That's great. And where were you exactly one year ago so we can calculate growth rate?

Nida Sahar

03:23>> We we were at a thousand dollars. That's about it. Exactly.

Nathan Latka

03:27Story. How'd you get your first customer?

Nida Sahar

03:30>> So our first customer came from warm reference, primarily.

Nathan Latka

03:34From what?

Nida Sahar

03:35>> A warm reference.

Nathan Latka

03:37Warm reference came.

Nida Sahar

03:39>> Yes. That was the easy part. I think getting the first customer was not that difficult. I think the difficult part was getting the second, third, fourth, fifth customer because then we had to establish patterns. We had to see, what our exact ICP is, who is our persona, which markets do we target because we were all over the place, really. So, I think a year ago, we were still doing pre and spray, I would say. But then

Team Size and Engineering Headcount

Nida Sahar

04:04>> identifying the first, getting my second or third customer became super, super, super critical. So I think it was a lot of, what do I say, marketing effort, a lot of sales effort, LinkedIn reach outs. Don't ask. It's it's been like a great learning process. Yes.

Nathan Latka

04:21And how many folks today are full time at the company?

Nida Sahar

04:24>> There are about 20 at this point in time.

Nathan Latka

04:2620. How many of those are engineers?

Nida Sahar

04:30>> Eight. Eight.

Solo Founder Journey and Co-Founder Drama

Nathan Latka

04:31Okay. And do you code?

Nida Sahar

04:34>> I do code. Yes. I'm a tech founder turned whatever business person. Yes.

Nathan Latka

04:39That's awesome. Are you a sole founder or do have a cofounder?

Nida Sahar

04:42>> I'm a sole founder. Yes.

Nathan Latka

04:43Oh, I love that. Congrats. It's so rare. Did you have people saying, oh, Nida, you've got to get somebody else? And you said, no. I'm a do it myself. Like, what was the thinking there?

Nida Sahar

04:51>> Investors said you need to find someone. You're going to go crazy. I had my coaches who said that I'll go crazy. I did try finding people. It's not that I didn't, but then it just didn't work out. So at one point in time, I said, just forget about finding a co founder if I have to build this. The drama around finding a co founder is also crazy. Right?

05:15>> Whatever. So I said, either I'm going to build a company or I'm going to find a co founder. So I said, Chuck, finding a co founder, let me build this. So there were a few investors who didn't worry about the fact that I was a solo founder even.

Nathan Latka

05:27What drama?

Nida Sahar

05:30>> The drama was a person coming in asking for stake, not wanting to work. And then the whole thing about, hey, I am am the CEO of whatever telecom organization. I'm coming down to your company, so I need to get this much pay and I don't know what not. So I think the co founder conflict part, I think probably I can write a book on it. So, yes, that's that story.

Nathan Latka

05:55Oh, 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

06:18your 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

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07:04not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founder 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

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08:18the interview. That's great. You mentioned investors. Have you raised capital, or have you bootstrapped?

Fundraising History and Pre-Seed Round

Nida Sahar

08:24>> Yes. Yes. We've raised we've raised about 500,000, close to 500,000 at this point in time.

Nathan Latka

08:30Okay. When did you close the round?

Nida Sahar

08:32>> We closed the round in August last year.

Nathan Latka

08:34Okay. 500,000. And you maybe call that your seed round?

Nida Sahar

08:38>> We are about to raise a seed round. Yes.

Nathan Latka

08:41Okay. So that was your pre seed round for 500. Okay. Most most folks in their pre seed will sell, you know, 20% of the company. Is that about how much you sold?

Nida Sahar

08:49>> We sold about 10% of our company.

Nathan Latka

08:51Okay. 10. So you were at about 5,000,000 valuation?

Nida Sahar

08:54>> Yes. We're about a 5,500,000 valuation. Yes.

Nathan Latka

08:56How did you convince folks to give you a $5,000,000 valuation? You know, in the middle of twenty twenty two, markets are going a bit crazy. You know, you're early on. How'd you get that valuation done?

Nida Sahar

09:05>> Couple of things. One is the the the topic of what I'm selling or the the product that I was working on, which is now ready, itself had a lot of potential, especially the layers that we're building on next this year and the year after that are more focused on five g. So that's one part of it. The second aspect of things is that we had, a lot of sales coming in, you know, mid, early last year

09:31>> to to the time I was raising, we already had a few customers and we had good reviews. That was the second thing. The third is, I think, come what me, our execution is super strong. A small lean team with, really low burn. So I think the investors are kind of appreciative.

Nathan Latka

09:49Low burn?

Burn Rate and Monthly Profitability

Nida Sahar

09:51>> We do about 10 k burn. That's about it.

Nathan Latka

09:54Okay. So you're profiting monthly right now about 15,000 a month?

Nida Sahar

09:58>> Yes.

Nathan Latka

09:59That's great. And so if you have profits, I mean, why raise money? Why give up 20%, 10% of your company?

Nida Sahar

10:04>> Yes. So, there are a couple of things. The amount of scale in which we want to, build the next part of the product is huge. The second thing is the kind of customer that we wanna capture, the enterprise based customers who have a slightly higher paying capacity. The the sales procedure is way too long. What we have right now is easy targets, easy customers. And if we continue doing this, our volumes will be higher, but our,

10:30>> the the purse is gonna be, leaner. So we want to, ensure that we target the big accounts, long LTV, you know, have that in place as well. So this is these are some of the things that we we really need to accelerate growth into.

Nathan Latka

10:44So this is what we you're

Why Raise If Already Profitable

Nathan Latka

10:46raising now, how much are you targeting to raise?

Nida Sahar

10:48>> We're targeting about 500 k. That's about it. Because we already a little bit revenue positive. So what we want to do is put in that money from the kitty that we're saving every month plus the money that we're raising into building something bigger than what we have

Nathan Latka

11:04right now. And what valuation are you targeting on this new round?

Nida Sahar

11:10>> I I mean, it's a conversation that I probably have with my investors. If that is okay, I'll skip this one.

Nathan Latka

11:16Well, I guess the reason I'm asking is the equity markets are really hard right now. Right? So and also, like, if you're profiting 15,000 a month already, it seems strange that you would go into a very tough equity market to try and raise $500,000 instead of just staying heads down and focusing on growth and profits.

Nida Sahar

11:31>> So it's a call that we're still taking. But the thought process right now is there are there are features that we want to build in that are more important at this point of time, like the whole decentralization of web. And so what we do today is distribution of applications we say application lifecycle management. But the whole decentralization topic is slightly more bigger and more important. And that's the reason why we want to build it now. And

11:55>> if we wait for another year or so, then it's going to be slightly problematic. The second thing is, do agree that the market is really low and not just low, it's the funding winter. Right? And winter has been here to stay for a longer time. But

12:12>> if you don't build it out now, then it's going to be there's going to be more competition coming in next year. So keeping that in mind, we just want to raise a small check right now in order to continue building, our efforts into the new part of the product and scaling the product from that perspective. I mean, that's the rationale behind it, really. It's not that we want to raise like a 2 mil or 3 mil.

Seed Round Target and Valuation Discussion

Nida Sahar

12:36>> We don't want to do that much. And we don't necessarily think that any investors would be willing to put in that much money as well.

Nathan Latka

12:44So if investor comes to you today and says, oh my gosh. Know, I love what you're building. Here's 500 k, but I want 30% of the company. How do you respond?

Nida Sahar

12:50>> Oh, no. I I don't think I don't think that's that's gonna be possible. Evaluation

Nathan Latka

12:54is be Nida, you just said that you really wanted money because you have to invest in these products, features that you need right now. Because if you wait a year, it's gonna be bad. This is why I asked the question about Nida. This is why

Nida Sahar

13:02>> I about Nida. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Come on, dude. No. No. No. No. No. We're very strict in our valuation. So where we value ourself right now is about 10,000,000. So if we if we don't get a valuation in par with what we have raised previously, it's gonna be really bad for our previous investors. So we're not gonna

Nathan Latka

13:19How do you match that, though? I mean, those investors last year, when you're doing a thousand bucks a month in revenue, I mean, this is sort of silly to do, but at a 5,000,000 post money, you could argue it's a 410 x multiple on your revenue, which is sort of silly to do that early stage. Right? So what do you mean when you say it's got to match the last valuation we raised at?

Nida Sahar

13:36>> No. I don't mean it has to match the last valuation. What I mean to say is it's going to be really not fair for my previous investors if I give away 30% of my company for 500 k. So that's what I'm trying to say. It's not going to be fair for anyone involved even in the company.

Nathan Latka

13:51Life's not fair. There's a ton of companies right now doing down rounds where the current investors are getting way more than investors last year.

Nida Sahar

13:57>> See, Nathan, frankly, if we run into a situation like that, I think I'm just going to back off and say, hey, it's okay. Let's continue working on what we have because we're not in a bad shape at all. Let's continue doing that and then see how we can scale with whatever resources we have because we've been lean and we can be leaner than what we have been so far. So that would be the call, but definitely

14:19>> not downsizing. I mean, the valuation I'm talking about thirty percent five hundred k is actually it's not suitable for anyone. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

14:28But this is why I'm pushing you. I don't know. Like, some of the top companies right now can't get rounds done at valuations they like. And so that's why when I pushed you and said, do you why do you need this money now? I think you build a great company that has profits. Why not reinvest profits? That's why I was asking the question. So we'll see what happens. I mean, do you have a term sheet from

14:46somebody right now on the terms that you want?

Term Sheet Status and Investor Conversations

Nida Sahar

14:49>> We don't have a term sheet. We do have very, late stage conversations going on with two of the investors. So, from that perspective, our valuation isn't as low as what you're saying. So I think I think we're in good shape from that perspective.

Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

15:03Well, I hope you get it done without having to sell a bunch of the company. Let me just put it that way. Okay? Alright. On that note, let's wrap up here with the famous five, Nida. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Nida Sahar

15:12>> My favorite book is mindset.

Nathan Latka

15:15Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Nida Sahar

15:19>> CEO ma'am, I'm not following any any CEO as much. Think, yeah. That that would be a

Nathan Latka

15:26Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building the company?

Nida Sahar

15:31>> My favorite at this point of time, it's ActiveCampaign because we do a ton of email marketing, CRM, and so on so on and so forth. So it's ActiveCampaign.

Nathan Latka

15:38Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Nida Sahar

15:41>> Oh my god. Good a good night's sleep is four hours.

Nathan Latka

15:46That's not healthy.

Nida Sahar

15:49>> Yeah. But I'm sorry. I'm a solo founder. What can I do? Yeah. Some days I do land up sleeping for ten hours, but then it's really not healthy what I do. Yes.

Nathan Latka

16:00Okay. Well, there you go. So you catch up. We just don't wanna perpetuate the notion that if you wanna call yourself a good founder, it means you only have to sleep for four hours a night.

Nida Sahar

16:08>> I wish I could sleep seven hours per night. I really wish I could do that, but I've just not been able to do it.

Nathan Latka

16:14You just well, you just catch up. You sleep four hours and you sleep ten hours sometimes. That makes sense. Alright. And what's your situation? Married, single, kiddos?

Nida Sahar

16:22>> I'm single. I have I do have cats, though. So yeah.

Nathan Latka

16:25Cats? Okay. Great. And, Nida, do you mind me asking how old you are?

Nida Sahar

16:29>> I am 37.

Nathan Latka

16:30>> 37.

16:30Last question.

Nida Sahar

16:31>> Something you wish you knew when you were 20.

16:34>> Something I wish I knew I when I was in 20. I think I was too serious, very nerdish. So I wish I knew how to have more fun, which I now know.

Nathan Latka

16:46Guys, the hybrid cloud platform, knife.io, they're doing 25,000 a month today in revenue up from 1,000 a month just a year ago. Their pre seed round they closed a year ago for a million bucks at a five over a $5,000,000 valuation. Looking to raise 500 k now targeting a 10,000,000 valuation. We'll see if they can get it done. 25 customers paying on average a thousand dollars per month, a team size of 20 folks with eight engineers.

17:06Nida, thanks for taking us to the top.

Nida Sahar

17:09>> Thank you so much, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

17:11One 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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