Genius Affiliate Strategy Helps Bootstrapper Hit $27,000,000 Revenue

Summary

Rebecca Shc, the founder of Flowes, shares her journey from selling MailChimp templates to launching Flowes, an email marketing platform designed for small businesses. With no outside funding, Flowes achieved impressive growth, reaching a revenue run rate of $27 million within 18-19 months of its launch. Shc emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs, community building, and the power of affiliate marketing. The company's success is attributed to its focus on product quality, customer-centric approach, and strategic marketing.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Rebecca founded Flowes, an email marketing platform, which grew from $20 million to $27 million in annual revenue within a year.
• 💼 Rebecca and her co-founders bootstrapped the company, starting with a $90,000 investment and reaching profitability without external funding.
• 🔑 Flowes' initial growth was fueled by pre-selling the product through customer interviews and understanding the market need before coding began.
• 🌐 The company leveraged affiliate marketing and word-of-mouth referrals, which now account for over 30% of their inbound traffic.
• 🎯 They achieved a high revenue per employee ratio of $540,000, demonstrating efficient business operations.
• 💡 Rebecca emphasized the importance of building a product that resonates with customers and solving their pain points, which was key to Flowes' success.
• 💼 The company has over 880,000 paying customers, showcasing the scalability of their business model.
• 📈 Flowes' growth strategy includes a focus on organic search and a strong community, which has helped them dominate in their niche.
• 💸 They have a low customer churn rate of around 2% per month, indicating high customer satisfaction and product-market fit.
• 🛠️ Rebecca highlighted the significance of having a strong cash cushion for a bootstrapped company to ensure longevity and adaptability in the market.

Q & A

What was Rebecca's business before founding Flowes?

Before founding Flowes, Rebecca was selling MailChimp templates and had a business selling templates for professional photographers, particularly wedding photographers.

How much revenue was Rebecca generating annually from selling MailChimp templates?

Rebecca was generating between $400,000 to $500,000 per year from selling MailChimp templates.

What prompted Rebecca to start Flowes?

Rebecca started Flowes after recognizing a gap in the market for beautiful, brand-representing email marketing solutions that were not being served by existing legacy players like MailChimp, especially for small businesses and solopreneurs.

How much capital did the three co-founders invest in Flowes at the beginning?

The three co-founders invested a total of $90,000 in Flowes at the beginning.

What was the initial pricing strategy for Flowes' first paid plan?

The initial pricing strategy for Flowes' first paid plan was $19 per month, which was a 50% discount for the first year. The full price was $38 per month.

What was the role of affiliate marketing in Flowes' growth?

Affiliate marketing played a significant role in Flowes' growth, contributing to over 30% of their inbound marketing. They had a strong affiliate program where affiliates could earn $19 for each new customer they referred.

How many paying customers does Flowes have currently?

Flowes currently has over 80,000 paying customers.

What is the revenue run rate for Flowes today?

The revenue run rate for Flowes today is about $27 million, up from $20 million just a year ago.

How does Flowes handle customer churn and understand why customers leave?

Flowes captures exit data through surveys when customers churn and also conducts child studies with their user experience research team to understand the reasons behind customers leaving.

What is Rebecca's advice for founders looking to start in the tech space?

Rebecca advises founders to have the courage to jump into the tech space and start a tech company sooner, as she believes getting into tech sooner would have been beneficial for her own journey.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Launching a Successful Email Marketing Tool

Rebecca, the founder of Flowes, shares her journey of creating an email marketing tool that simplifies the process for small businesses. She initially sold MailChimp templates, earning up to $500,000 annually until competition like Canva emerged. Despite the shift, she leveraged her customer base's feedback to develop a more integrated solution within MailChimp. This led to interviews with her audience and a collaboration with Honeybook's team, culminating in the launch of Flowes. With no external funding, the company has seen impressive growth, now boasting over 80,000 paying customers and a revenue run rate of approximately $27 million.

05:02

💼 The Evolution of a Business Model

In this segment, Rebecca discusses the transition of her business model. Initially thriving with the sale of Photoshop templates, the business faced challenges with the rise of SaaS tools like Canva. This prompted a strategic shift towards creating a more integrated solution for email marketing within platforms like MailChimp. The recognition of a gap in the market for beautiful, brand-representing email designs led to the conception of Flowes in 2017. The co-founders, including Martha from Honeybook, contributed $90,000 to bootstrap the venture, focusing on the underserved small business segment.

10:03

🤝 Co-founder Dynamics and Equity Split

Rebecca elaborates on the co-founder dynamics and the equity split at Flowes. With three co-founders, they decided on an equitable distribution of shares, considering the initial investment and the effort put in by each founder. They were committed to remaining undiluted and ensuring that any future equity offered felt meaningful. The co-founders were not all full-time from the start, with some joining fully later, but they were united in their vision of bootstrapping the company without external funding.

15:03

💬 Customer-Centric Product Development

This part of the interview highlights the customer-centric approach that Flowes took during its product development. Rebecca and her team conducted numerous interviews with potential customers to understand their needs and pain points. They tested pricing and positioning, offering a beta version of their service at a discounted rate. This hands-on method allowed them to gather valuable feedback and adjust their offering before officially launching their platform.

20:06

🌐 Viral Marketing and Community Building

Rebecca shares the story of Flowes' explosive growth, which was significantly propelled by a viral marketing campaign and the power of an engaged community. A friend's positive testimonial and推广 of Flowes led to a surge in trials and organic promotion across social media. The company's focus on founder-market fit and a viral loop in their product design contributed to their rapid expansion, emphasizing the importance of community and word-of-mouth marketing.

25:06

📈 Scaling Revenue and Customer Base

The conversation shifts to discuss Flowes' revenue growth and customer acquisition strategies. Rebecca explains how the company scaled from $20 million to $27 million in revenue, attributing much of this growth to organic search and a strong affiliate program. She also details the company's approach to upsell, introducing a new product called 'Checkout' to complement their email marketing tool, and their commitment to remaining accessible and affordable for small business owners.

30:06

🛠️ Building a Product that Resonates

Rebecca emphasizes the importance of building a product that resonates with customers' needs. She discusses how Flowes' success is rooted in understanding and addressing the specific challenges faced by small business owners. The company's focus on community and the founder's own experiences as a small business owner have been instrumental in creating a product that stands out in the market.

35:07

💸 Profitability and Financial Strategy

In this segment, Rebecca talks about Flowes' financial strategy, highlighting the company's profitability and cash cushion. She explains the decision to reinvest profits back into the business to ensure long-term stability and the ability to weather any potential challenges without external funding. The discussion also touches on the company's approach to acquisition offers and the importance of staying true to their mission and vision.

40:09

🏆 The Power of Community and Product Excellence

Rebecca reflects on the dual drivers of Flowes' success: a strong community and an excellent product. She discusses how the company's story and bootstrapped approach resonate with its user base, many of whom are small business owners. At the same time, she acknowledges the product's ability to deliver on its promise to help these businesses create professional, brand-aligned email marketing campaigns.

45:09

📊 Measuring Growth and Churn

The final part of the interview delves into the metrics that Flowes uses to measure growth and customer retention. Rebecca discusses the importance of understanding why customers churn and how the company uses this feedback to improve its product. She also shares insights into the company's customer acquisition cost (CAC) strategy and the payback periods they find acceptable for their marketing investments.

Keywords

💡Email Marketing

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In the video, the guest discusses her journey from selling MailChimp templates to launching a platform that simplifies email marketing for small businesses, emphasizing the evolution and importance of this marketing strategy within her business model.

💡Bootstrapped

Bootstrapping in a business context refers to starting and growing a company with little to no external funding, relying instead on personal savings, loans, and organic revenue growth. The video's subject emphasizes being bootstrapped, highlighting the company's impressive growth and revenue achievements without venture capital investments.

💡Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates for each customer brought in by the affiliate's marketing efforts. The video mentions that over 30% of the company's inbound marketing is powered by affiliate marketing, showcasing its effectiveness in driving growth and customer acquisition.

💡Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth marketing is a form of marketing where customers become advocates for a brand by recommending its products or services to others. The script notes that word of mouth plays a significant role in the company's marketing strategy, indicating the power of customer satisfaction and organic promotion in business growth.

💡Revenue Run Rate

Revenue run rate is a financial metric that estimates a company's annual revenue based on its current earnings. The video discusses the company's revenue run rate, which grew from $20 million to $27 million within a year, reflecting the company's financial health and scalability.

💡Customer Interviews

Customer interviews are a qualitative research method where businesses engage directly with customers to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. The video's narrative includes conducting extensive customer interviews, which helped shape the product before any coding began, demonstrating the importance of customer insights in product development.

💡Product-Market Fit

Product-market fit is a situation where a product being offered is well-received and in demand by the target market. The video highlights achieving product-market fit before even launching the product, indicating the product's alignment with customer needs and its potential for success.

💡Viral Loop

A viral loop is a mechanism in a product or service that encourages users to invite others to use the product, creating a cycle of growth. The video describes a viral loop in their email footers that contributes to inbound traffic, illustrating the strategy's effectiveness in expanding their user base.

💡MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

An MVP is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future development. The discussion in the video about having a viable product before coding began refers to the MVP concept, emphasizing the importance of testing product ideas in the market before full-scale development.

💡Organic Search

Organic search refers to the process by which users find content through unpaid search results. The video mentions organic search as a significant growth channel, indicating the effectiveness of SEO and the company's online presence in attracting customers.

💡Upsell

Upsell is a sales strategy where a seller offers a more expensive or higher version of a product to a customer who is considering a lower-cost option. The video discusses upsell strategies, such as offering a new product called 'checkout', to increase the average revenue per user.

Highlights

Flowes, an email marketing platform, was bootstrapped by Rebecca Shc and her co-founders with an initial investment of $90,000.

Before launching their first paid plan at $19 per month, Flowes had already sold several $19 per month plans based on mockups and customer interviews.

Flowes' revenue run rate grew from $20 million to $27 million within a year, reaching $10 million in 2021.

Over 30% of Flowes' inbound marketing is driven by affiliate marketing and word-of-mouth referrals.

Flowes has over 80,000 paying customers without any outside funding and a team of 50 full-time employees.

Rebecca Shc's background in graphic design and template creation for brands like Lincoln Park and Rihanna influenced Flowes' product development.

The initial idea for Flowes came from the difficulty Rebecca faced in implementing MailChimp templates, identifying a gap in the market.

Flowes' co-founders decided on equity split based on the amount of money each founder put in and the effort they were putting into the business.

The company's first marketing campaign involved a co-marketing strategy with Rising Tide Society, a community serving small businesses.

An unsolicited email from an influencer friend unexpectedly went viral, leading to a surge in Flowes' trials and sign-ups.

Flowes' viral loop in email footers and forms has been a significant factor in their organic growth and customer acquisition.

The company's affiliate program offers affiliates $19 for each new customer they refer, which has been a major channel for inbound traffic.

Flowes has a strong organic search presence, with many affiliates generating content that drives traffic to the platform.

The company's product, Checkout, was launched as an upsell to their email marketing service, seamlessly integrating sales funnels.

Flowes' pricing strategy is designed to be unbeatable and accessible, with a focus on not penalizing customers for growing their list.

The company's onboarding flow is streamlined to quickly get new users to their 'aha' moment with minimal friction.

Flowes has a team of around 20 engineers, reflecting their commitment to product development and innovation.

Rebecca emphasizes the importance of building a product that people love, which she believes is more critical than just focusing on SAS metrics and strategies.

Transcripts

flowes makes email marketing easy as pie

from 2011 to 2014 she was selling

MailChimp templates doing $ 400 500,000

per year ultimately canva and other

tools came in and so templat stopped

selling as well but she still had a

great built-in base that said hey we'd

love to build you know this inside of

MailChimp and make the flows easier that

prompted her to start going and

interviewing folks from her audience

pairing up with a team at honeybook and

eventually launching the three

co-founders put in $90,000 total uh back

on launch date before they launch their

first paid plan at 19 uh bucks per month

they eventually got going and today over

30% of their inbound is powered by

affiliate marketing and Word of Mouth

marketing they have over 80,000 paying

customers Revenue run rate today is

about 27 million bucks up from 20

million just a year ago and their $10

million a year was back in 2021 which

they hit just it's crazy 18 19 months

after launch all here's a cherry on top

with no outside funding and just 50

full-time employees for $540,000 of

Revenue per employee hey folks if we

haven't met yet my name is Nathan ladka

I launched and sold my first software

company back in 2015 and went on to

write a book about it which you guys

made a Wall Street Journal bestseller

purchasing over 30,000 copies thank you

so much for that after the book I

launched this show and went went on to

create founder path.com I raised a large

fund to do non-dilutive deals with B2B

software Founders so far we've invested

in over 400 software Founders totaling

$150 million here in 2024 we're doing

three to four New Deals per week so if

you're looking for Capital and don't

want to give up Equity go sign up at

founder path.com for free to get your

offer all right let's jump into the

interview hey folks my guest today is

Rebecca shc she is the chief brand

officer and founder at flowes launched

the company over six years ago after

being very active in sort of the graphic

design template space from 2011 to 2018

we're going to learn her full story

today Rebecca are you ready to take us

to the top

I so ready let's do it I am stoked

you're here I met you via Greg head at

saso a week ago and you know I rarely

get surprised but he goes you've got to

meet the Rebecca I'm like well why do

you have to meet her and he goes well

she's bootstrapped and she's doing a

crap ton of Revenue so I don't want to

bury the lead what are you at today in

terms of Revenue uh we are hovering

right around 27 million AR this is

incredible okay and and just so people

get a growth rate before we dive into

your product your background design

templates Etc where were you exactly one

year

go um I oh my goodness I feel like I'm

being put on the spot um I believe we

were at

around we're hovering around 20 okay so

sort of 20 now up to about 26 27 yes

that's great growth okay guys keep

listening we'll hear how she drove that

growth growth without raising VC even

while her competitors raise a bunch of

VC but Rebecca first how did you get

into this space six and a half years ago

oh my goodness well I mean we can go way

back so I think I think um my first job

out of college actually it it goes back

to that I was hired at this company to

be the designer for um the merchandise

for a lot of top brands so I was

designing for Lincoln Park and Rihanna

and Cheryl Crow this was my first job

out of college so that was pretty cool

and I I would I was living in LA and I

would go to Hot Topic and I would see my

designs all over um the t-shirts behind

the clerks I'd be like oh I I want to

buy a few of those and they're like well

why do you want to buy those like those

are a lot really different bands and I

was like oh I designed them and they

were like we don't believe you it's like

no really I did and uh from from there I

I fell in love with being able to design

for a lot of different brands and

especially marketing design and uh brand

design and doing like a lot of different

styles um that would excite different

people in different verticals and from

there I sort of I fell in love with um

this idea of creating for lots of

different brands and I started another

company that was a recurring Revenue

company but it was just it was just a

little um that I had online where I was

selling templates for professional

photographers and I would get all these

phers Photoshop templates that's right

yeah and I would create a lot of

different types of templates like

pricing and branding for these

professional phot wedding photographers

especially and then I started getting a

lot of requests for MailChimp templates

but I wasn't able to actually make a

MailChimp template that wasn't really a

thing it was either like you had HTML

and then you had to package it with

images from Photoshop you had to export

and then you had the copy like the um

the the written pieces of it and you

would have to paste these emails

together into MailChimp and I sold that

as a package but every time I sold a

MailChimp template the next day I'd get

an all cap super angry you need to give

me a refund email from the customer

saying like I could not Implement these

designs in MailChimp and this this

happened from about 2010 to 2014 and I

was like wow that is a big gap in the

market of people needing really

beautiful email marketing that

represents their branding and it's not

being served by the Legacy players but I

was like that's someone else's problem

surely there's going to be a squar space

of email that was 2010 to 20 you said

2010 to

2017 14 14 14 when was what was your

best year Revenue wise selling those

templates are we talking like 50 Grand a

year or like 500 Grand a year or more

maybe it was it was between four to 500

Grand a year okay so this wasn't like a

small business I mean this was plenty

for you to live on have a great

life yeah I mean it was it was it was

really Nifty I would say though that

with the onset of canva and a lot of SAS

players coming into the space the demand

for these one-off Photoshop templates a

decrease so it wasn't super sustainable

but it was something that uh that

created a really nice little lifestyle

business okay so what happened in 2014

canvas's coming in your templates are

selling less you've identified this key

need you haven't built a product for it

yet what happened in

2015 so between about so we the the idea

of flus I would say it was conceived in

2017 so I had this template shop and

then I also started to pitch template

shops to other influencers um so I was

just just making a lot of creative

output and templates for a lot of

different brands in different uh spaces

and to different audiences but in 2017

that's when I met my co-founder Martha

um and we got together and she was

working in a company a CRM called

honeybook which is CRM for small

businesses so she had a lot of overlap

with her um with her Market seeing the

photographers who a lot of them use

honeybook and she was seeing the exact

same problem where we would see these

huge influencers that were making

millions of dollars a year and had the

most beautiful Instagram feeds the most

gorgeous websites and their emails were

freaking ugly like to be completely

honest and so she saw from her side and

she saw that the uh these amazing

influencers were so Savvy with every

part of their business email and they

were struggling I saw it from my side

and we were like somebody's got to do

something about this so what was her

role at

honeybook um I believe she was working

in business development okay yeah

because I mean that was I'm just going

back and our we can do this live when we

have 3,300 episodes we had Oz Alan May

4th 2021 on the show one of the honey

book Founders and yeah yeah the data he

shared I mean they were this wasn't a

small company I mean they broke seven uh

they broke uh 10 million bucks of

Revenue uh in 2021 now over 30 million

bucks of Revenue but it sounds like she

was on to something even back then

because in 2017 when you met they had

already I mean they raised a bunch of

money so she certainly understood what

it was like to work for a VC backed

company how did that influence how you

guys split equity on day one as

co-founders and how you thought about

funding your first million of

Revenue yeah well we actually have a

third co-founder to trong who is in

Vietnam and he's our technical

co-founder and so um we we split up the

the equity um between the three of us

going forward and then we also put aside

an employee pool so from the beginning

it was just the three of us and then um

we also had uh some set aside for

employees but we we always knew that we

wanted to um remain undiluted and keep

as much of our shares as possible and

also make sure that anybody that we

brought on and offered Equity too would

feel like really bought into the company

and so that was um a big part of not

taking on VC now Rebecca did you guys

have the tough conversations early on

about are we all equal are we not do we

just do 30% each didn't have a 9% ESOP

pool I mean how did you you know you

probably can't share specific

percentages but generally speaking is

everyone equal or was it clear someone

was putting in cash and so they got more

Equity or something like that um I can't

share specifics but I think there were a

lot of interesting conversations around

the topic and we decided to split things

up based on um how much money each

founder was putting in at the time

because we fully bootstrapped and it was

out of our pockets and then about like

at the the amount of effort that each

was putting in at what stage y was

everyone convinced and ready to be

full-time on day one or did some people

keep a side gig for a little bit until

fles hit some

traction uh so Martha and I were

completely full in um at the beginning

and obviously she was working full-time

at honeybook and we were very diligent

about making sure that I that there was

no overlap in that time there um so that

she was basically Moonlighting and desk

and pulling a eight hour day in the

evenings um after work so um she and I

were definitely like full-time 100% from

the beginning and then our technical

co-founder um had his other company

going at the same time and went

full-time um within about a year and a

half of the company launching okay

that's great um I know you can't give

individual numbers but can you share

what you guys all in together put into

the company to fund it to get it going

was were talking like 50k or like 500k

or Millions can you share that

$90,000 oh great okay so you guys put in

90 grand and then what tell me how you

get the MVP launched and when you close

your first

customer oh my goodness so um I love

telling the story because I think a lot

of people are almost confused about how

we had product Market fit even from day

one but the truth is that we actually

had a viable product before we touched a

line of code and I know that sounds nuts

but when we were first starting Martha

and I had crazy amounts of customer

interviews like we probably spoke to 100

to 200 people from from our target

audience because it was just the water

we were swimming in right it was the

people that we were already hanging out

with and it were my customers and people

that she had relationships with through

honeybook so she and I were what are

what are those people people you sold

MailChimp templets to two years prior

what were those people their job titles

yeah so it's almost like the new

creative economy right so a lot they

call them solopreneurs but a lot of them

are photographers service providers

coaches Educators um people with salons

Spa Services masseuses uh creative

Services Graphic Design Services um so

it's like this sort of whole economy

that was overlooked by traditional

Silicon Valley people who have small

businesses and I think it's not super

attractive to a lot of SAS companies

because they want to go after the big

whales of of getting these uh large

Enterprise turn too much I don't want to

sell something to them they're not going

to keep things

exact exactly and Martha and I were like

no like this is almost a secret this is

a secret superpower that it's an

underserved part of the economy and it's

a huge growing sector of the economy the

small business segment and if we can

nail it um then we will then we'll

really been on to something so we

immersed ourselves in this customer

segment and I just remember it was pref

figma so I had my Envision mockups and I

would go in and be tweaking it and we

would be going walking them through

flows and having them go through sort of

like a fake Builder experience and at

the end asking uh would you be willing

to pay for this and they were whipping

out their credit card saying when can I

buy this so we had a really clear idea

of our vision and what the wait did you

close it did you if if if if okay let's

say I was one of those we actually did

we actually did we did so what what

landing page let's say let's say you

give me The Envision board it feels

almost real because it's an Envision it

feels like a real flow and at the end

you say Okay Nathan Mr hair salon guy

are you willing to pay 30 bucks a month

or whatever to pay and I say yes do you

do you to make sure they're not

bullshitting you and telling you what

you want to hear do you say okay here's

the link go swipe your card now or what

did you

do oh well so basically we had

one-on-one interviews so either in

person or on Zoom or I guess Google

meets at that point um and we would walk

them through the flow and then at the

end Martha would ask them the question

how much would you pay for this and we

would put a few numbers of pricing in

front of them because we were also

trying to test out pricing and

positioning and at that point they said

$19 a month that was what we landed on I

think we were anchoring on something

around there like $38 a month um because

that's actually our full price cost but

we offer 50% off your first year and our

special beta deal that um has long since

passed was you could get 50% off for

life if you sign up for our Beta And it

that just it worked so well um and so we

we offered the 50% off deal um and

people were loving the $19 a month price

point it was kind of unheard of to have

unlimited subscribers and unlimited

emails especially at that low price and

compared to like the major players or

the larger players like they they charge

you so much when your list gets big so

uh yeah we we had people signing up and

the service that we offered because we

didn't have a software was me just

designing their emails in Photoshop and

then plugging it into something that

could be sent so it was almost like a

design service um and then the the

platform development and the selfs serve

onboarding experience came Downstream

from that okay so how many $19 per month

plans did you sell before you said Tron

hurry up we got to launch a freaking

website that actually

works well we he was uh he was there

helping us and also managing the

engineers to help us build it um but we

I think by the time trong went

completely full-time we were in the

several thousand range of subscribers of

me of paying members wow okay okay got

it so I mean a th000 paying 19 bucks

you're making 20 grand a month before

you have a working website that was all

on Vision flows basically and you doing

custom work on the back side yes yes

that's right incredible okay okay okay

okay so when did you when did you email

all the list and say okay it's live go

to flow.com log in and create your first

thing we've pre-up loaded the designs we

already did for you so you see them in

your dashboard click the thing start

sending like when was that moment wait

I'm so sorry I just realized so we

didn't have the pay we didn't have that

many pay customers without a website in

a platform so we had maybe 50 50 people

who had signed up with their card before

we built like the entire self-service

flow but we I think the reason why it's

a little bit hard to pinpoint exactly

when that moment was is because we had a

lot of in between where we had a website

up and people were signing up but the

software had a lot of um like hum High

touch interaction from Martha and Ne to

actually give people any kind of viable

experience yep yep yep yep no that makes

a ton of sense and would when so when

did you say that would have been was

that in 2018 2019 when the website was

fully fully working yeah I would say it

was so we we had our plan launch in

August 12th of 2019 and then a month

before that we had our explosive uh sort

of pre-launch launch which I can get

into in a second because I think that's

the most fun part of the story but I

would say starting in early 2019 we

actually had a

website yes so I have it pulled up

August 16th 2018 at says flow desk it's

not fancy it's just black in the upper

left with a period there's some weird

sort of oval shapes in the background it

says beta ax is coming soon it says oh

man it says design beautiful campaigns

made with love for small business owners

and there's no login it just says enter

your email for Early Access okay tell us

about your pre-launch launch oh my

goodness so yeah thank you for taking me

fact on the trip to memory Lan there's

been so many iterations of the website I

completely forgot about that but I love

it um and we did have people coming

through through that that form at that

point um so we were planning a big

launch for August 12th and we had

planned um a co-marketing campaign with

a community called Rising tide society

which um was actually owned by honeybook

but it was a community that served the

small business world and a lot of our

target market were part of the rising

tide Society about 880,000 people so

that was sort of our big marketing

campaign but leading up to that a month

before a good friend of ours who is in

influencer was beta testing the software

and she was like you guys this is

absolutely incredible I just love flowes

and she asked if she could send out a

newsletter using flesk and move over

from convert kits so we were like yeah

we don't know exactly what's GNA happen

and hopefully you know the software will

work and everything will who was it was

it like Marie forio or Amy Porterfield

or one of these types uh one of those

types but it's actually Natalie Frank

who's um who's now our head of marketing

but uh she's also very good friend

Martha and me and she had an incredible

personal brand with a lot of followers

so she had 15,000 people on her mailing

list at that point and she shot that

email out and she plugged flesk at the

bottom with more than just our little

viral flitter that says made with love

and flesk she actually put uh a footer

at the bottom that said um if you're

loving the design of this email check

out this new service by my friends flesk

and during that time we had that website

up and we were getting maybe two to

three people people trickling in a day

just who heard about us organically or

through the great V and we we went

through why combinator startup school

and like the word was just starting to

get out a tiny bit about us in our very

close friend circles but when she

started when she so it was about two to

three a day in our slack Channel and we

had a channel that was telling us how

many trials were com through as soon as

she sends the email within 30 minutes

we're getting 50 trials or more an hour

within 24 hours we were tutorials were

popping up all over YouTube within 48

Hours it was all over Instagram and

social media and it just completely

exploded it like self- launched and

since we have a viral Loop in the

Footers of our emails and on our forms

I'm a very high touch point with um with

the with a lot of the emails that are

going out like it it was sort of like a

perpetual motion machine that just kept

going and going and it exploded so by

the time we had the large marketing

campaign plan a lot of people were

already using us it was it was just one

of the most incredible moments in my

life

that's amaz well Natalie's background

I'm going off for LinkedIn co-founder

Rising tide Society in June 2015 then

recruited in October to honeybook as

head of community right because she has

such a a great Community right and then

she effectively used that Rising tight

Society then promote flowes which is

what what really sort of made you guys

take off and then now obviously she's

full-time but this really goes to the

power of building a a community I mean

it's such a moat you can play Queen

maker is what we'll call it you can play

Queen maker on any stof where you want

right I think so and I I think that's

like a big secret to it as well I think

had founder market fit which is

something that not a lot of people talk

about um but we had product Market fit

before we touched line of code and we

had founder market fit like literally

from day one since we we signed the uh

the um incorporation papers it was like

we we not only understood our audience

but we actually were one of them like I

I felt the pain as a small business

owner with my template shop of not

having an amazing design forward super

userfriendly email tool to promote um my

template offering so I think

understanding not just understanding but

being one of our customers was a huge

advantage and were you always email or

did you have a bit of a type form

potentially play early on you weren't

sure if you were going to be a survey

tool or an email tool was it always

going to be email it was always email

just completely clear beautiful simple

email marketing it's been our thing

since day one so by August 2020 the

headline says email marketing easy as

pie and now it says put your email in

and actually try it not sign for B to

actually try it so people get in and

start going I want to touch on a couple

of things here the first is a lot of

people have problems trying to um

engineer what is called the viral

coefficient right you explained it

already it's the powered by sort of

thing right this is very powerful now

some people say we can't do this because

we don't have a software tool that is

like one to many right they don't have a

Natalie right where it's one to many

what would your advice be to them and

can you quantify the impact of your

powered by how many new trials do you

get today from click-throughs on your

premium powered by

product well um that one we get over 30%

of our total inbound traffic from the

viral Loop and from Word of Mouth

referrals which are sort of interlined

because our VI we have a really strong

affiliate program and Martha made sure

that we launched with that which is we

can touch on that in a second because

that's a big recommendation of mine but

uh we had um a give 50% off to your

audience so the coupon code would be

distributed through the people that used

in love Flo us through our Affiliates um

and you would also get $19 a month so

you basically give $19 a month to your

audience because the full price is$ 38

and get $19 so this is super simple

messaging give 19 get 19 and then um the

viral flitter isn't just taking people

to sign up for flesk it's taking people

to sign up for flesk for the affiliate

page of the person who sent the email so

that it provides a strong incentive for

people to keep that footer turned on um

and also an incentive to keep sharing

about flota so I would say for people

who don't have a huge one to many

audience I think Partnerships and

affiliate programs can be huge because

even if you yourself haven't built a

large audience you want to tap into and

leverage people that do and you can do

that by offering them a lot of

incentives and I mean everybody wants to

make money right like I think that's

that's the case and so by offering um

really strong affiliate incentives you

can tap into other people's audiences as

long as they love your product I think

the first first thing though is making

sure you build something that people are

even excited to talk about yeah look

this is interesting because I just

interviewed the CEO of sem Rush Eugene

and he said one of the big mistakes they

made early on is sem's early affiliate

program was 40% in perpetuity on monthly

receivables right so or sorry monthly

contracts and that that killed their

margin by Nature they could only have

60% margin because 40% was going to the

affiliate you've you've structured this

very nicely where it's still a great win

for everybody but it doesn't impact your

margins right give your audience 50% off

flow desk right and then and then the

affiliate is paid $19 just every time

someone signs up from their

recommendation just one time $19 correct

correct that's awesome so so how much do

you know this how much how much did you

pay out how much did you pay out to

Affiliates in 2023 last year oh my

goodness I don't have that off the top

of my head but I am pretty sure it's in

the millions because uh so so much of

our traffic comes in through Word of

Mouth yeah it's really really major

channel for us and it's something that

we're really doubling down on and

investing in because it's like if you

search for flowes even on Google you'll

see all of these blog posts and YouTube

videos evangelizing us and I like we're

we're really like Blown Away by the

amount of love and investment we've

gotten back from our community in us and

so we want to reinvest in them as well I

think it's really important to to do

that like it's like our one of our

biggest sources of of traffic well and

these things are by rosan .co.uk The

Ultimate Guide to flow desk meet the

email marketing platform I'm obsessed

with and then it's the full link and

then right there smack daab and then

it'll get 50% off flow desk right there

it is Boom um it and yeah this is great

so how many how big is the program today

how many Affiliates did you pay at least

a dollar to in the last 30 days and a

range is fine I I wish I am I had it

like thousands or is it like tens it's

thousands and do you see Power laws you

know do your top 30 Affiliates generate

80% of your affiliate Revenue yeah it

looks like a lot of the standard um

graphs that you see where it starts out

with a few that are at the very top and

then goes down but um we're one one

thing that's sort of blowing us away and

that is a little bit unusual is that we

get a lot more referrals from like

smaller high like more frequent smaller

referrals than other companies do so

most companies they have almost all of

the referrals coming in from a few big

players and almost nothing from everyone

else and for us the distribution has a

much longer tail your long tail is more

substantial than the average correct

really interesting okay 27 million books

of AR today how many paying customers

does that make we have over 880,000

that's wild okay so 880,000 paying

customers and besides the affiliate

traffic and the powered by what's your

second most powerful growth Channel you

grew from 20 million last year to 27

million

today um I I believe that it is organic

Search interesting what keyword do you

know you've just dominated it drives you

a lot of your

traffic uh

I I think it's again it's like a long

tale like I think it's a lot of little

things like we have we we just have so

many Affiliates generating content um

and I I I guess that goes back to the

affiliate Channel though um and we also

have a pretty strong paid arm as well um

but I think that I believe that's I'm

not sure about the numbers but it's not

generating um anything like our

affiliate yep yep okay so 8,000 paying

customers at 19th 19 a month is what is

that I think that's like 1.5 million per

month times 12 months is 18 million so

you have some people paying more than

$19 per month what do you upsell how and

how do you upsell yeah absolutely so two

ways so actually the $19 a month um it

we had a cuto off in 2021 of our adab

beta Campaign which which was wild and

we had a ton of people coming in there

to lock in their lifetime beta but now

what we offer is 50% off for your first

year um which is also a very enticing

deal I mean it's still a super good deal

and even so our full price is $38 a

month so we have a lot of full price

customers now so that um increased our

arpu quite a bit and then in addition to

that a year and a half ago we launched a

new product called checkout which is a

super simple way to get um a sales

funnel up with like a beautiful designs

and it seamlessly integrates with our

email product and so that is an upsell

as well you just see like these loud men

in the space selling you say I want to

beat Nathan Barry can burit and now I

see Russell Brunson at clickfunnels I'm

gonna take it to him too huh is that

what happens

here uh with the going against king

verit or going up against no I'm I'm I'm

only half joking I mean what how did you

know that this I mean sequencing with

product launches is very important you

start with email how did you know that

the best next thing you should focus on

is sales

funnels our customers are requesting it

honestly like everything that we build

goes back to what people request and we

just released a public road map so

people can up vote and downvote but

we've always had a very strong arm

around places where people can submit

their user requests we also have a very

vocal community on Facebook where we can

get real time feedback from our users

about the pains that their experience

and what they're asking for so we never

build just for the sake of building or

for the sake of making extra money or

trying to have an upsell we build

because we are all about obsessing over

what our customers want from us and then

bringing as much value to them as

possible oh my gosh Rebecca your pricing

page on this is so funny it says I'm

like I'm G to catch her on something

here I'm going to find how she upsells

and it says stop getting penalized for

growing your list and it has one of

those draggers those of you listenting

in your car it has one of those draggers

right like how many subscribers do you

have and I'm expecting like the flow

desk price to go up as I like drag the

number of subscribers up to 100,000 the

left side says flowes email marketing 35

bucks a month the right side said it's

everybody else and I drag the dragger

from 5K on my list up to 100,000

everybody else goes up to $700 per month

Rebecca and fles stay at $35 per month

this is like um this is like goes

against all conventional wisdom about

driving net dollar retention and all

this kind of

stuff yeah I mean you would think but

then I also think that there's the

Netflix model right which we were sort

of inspired by which is something where

it's like brings so much value and

especially like at the $9 month back

when Netflix had uh a little bit of a

different model that we are like we want

to make the price so unbeatable and so

enticing and have like the most

accessible possible model ever that

people can't say no to flowes desk it's

like if it's super simple to use it's

more beautiful than the other Solutions

out there and the pricing can't be beat

like how could we lose so that was sort

of the bet we made and I think it was

very resonant for these small business

owners too who struggling right like you

think about someone who has like a small

bakery in San Francisco and they're

waking up at 4:00 in the morning to make

croissants and they don't want to have

to worry about their email they want to

be able to make money and send a

communication to their customer when it

matters without a lot of friction and on

top of that we don't want them stressing

about all the stuff that it takes to

build a small business and then thinking

well if I'm successful and I get more

subscribers then I'm going to have to

get charged more as well by my email

Subscription Service like that's just

just it it makes logical sense yeah

Rebecca I just real I totally lost track

of time I'm like so into this uh do you

have a couple more when's your hard stop

how much time do we have yeah absolutely

let's keep going okay you have who

designed your on I'm just I just

onboarded because I was curious what

your onboarding flow looks like most

onboarding tools there's nine million

buttons to check you can only really do

one thing to your onboarding I click

check out I click sign up it says

welcome to the template Library checkout

is selected on the left and then the

first thing it says sell a digital

product with a big pink design I

scrolled down and it says open a

registration for an event or sell a

course like you've clearly sort of

intentionally restricted what the

options are on the onboarding flow

because you know your audience so well

how important is that for your

activation rates oh my goodness I think

it's critical right because I mean we we

talk about onboarding a lot and my take

on it is why would you put anything

between your user and the aha moment and

we know that the aha moment for our

customers was when they see a template

that resonates with their brand and

speaks to the youth case that they're

trying to solve for so so why would we

put anything in between that moment

where they sign up and the experience of

realizing that this is a tool that

understands

that this is so cool let's talk a little

bit more about people and scale so you

mentioned you some paid spend how much

do you spend per month on paid about do

you know oh I think we spend around 700k

a quarter okay 700k a quarter and do you

do this in-house or is there an agency

that you really trust that handles most

this for you we're working with an

agency well we we have a we we have a

growth team but we also work with an

agency I can't say how many how many

agencies did you go through before you

got to the one that you're on today and

what question would you recommend

someone listening if they're going to

spend 20 grand a month on ads how should

they quickly get to the right Agency for

them what question should they ask

oo I think that it's really important to

have an agency that we went through

several and I think but it's it wasn't

because they weren't good or it was just

that we needed different things at

different stages and so I think when

you're a larger company you're going to

look for an agency that is able to bring

you a lot of data have like strong

account managers that are um they're

able to set up a lot of systems for you

and work cross functionally with your

team and also be able to understand your

market and almost and and go broad but

then F tune because a lot of times as

you get to a more mature stage with your

ads you have a lot of think creative

you've tested already and then uh and

then you want

an and then you want an agency that can

help you to fine-tune um what that

creative looks like and go after target

audience um but in the early stages I

think it's really important to find an

agency that's just going to get you off

the ground with testing and throwing a

lot of tomatoes on the wall and seeing

what sticks and not worrying about

optimization because at the very

beginning you just want to know if you

have a viable product who your audience

is who it's going to speak to and if you

have an agency that's like really large

and super detail oriented and able to go

in and refine um the the the way the

audiences are built out in the creative

then that's probably too heavy-handed

for for a company just getting off the

ground but I do recommend working with

an agency if you're GNA spend that kind

of money because otherwise it's very W

are there any websites you recommend

people can go to to find an agency like

did you use f or and hire eight agencies

and give them a test and see who worked

and then hire the one that work well or

how did you what was your

process um I think that we went with

recommendations and that's my

recommendation to the audience as well

to go with the recommendations that uh

that that people are in especially in

your space to like try to find an agency

that specializes in the audience that

you know as your target market so for us

it's really important to have an agency

that understands the small business

customer segment because they behave so

differently from larger companies they

also behave very differently from uh

from consumers yep talk to me real quick

on team how many folks are full-time

today uh right around 50 okay this is C

five Zer are

full-time yes it's just wild to me how

many Freel do you how many how many

contractors do you pay at least a dollar

per

month oh I think it really depends month

to month but probably in the five to 10

reach that's just this is just wild to

me 27 million divided 50 is $540,000 of

Revenue per employee it's insane saying

what are you doing with all the profits

every month do you take it out or do you

reinvest it you just let it build up in

the bank account put it in treasuries I

mean what do you do we reinvest and uh

right now we're we want to make sure

since we are bootstrapped that we have a

strong cash cushion so that if anything

were to happen not I hope that it

doesn't but that we we create a long

runway for ourselves in case uh yeah

because we just feel like we don't we

don't have that um you know like a lot

of companies have a they feel like they

have a cushion with the VC backing and

we don't have that so we want to make

sure that um if something crazy happened

or something changed with the industry

or we had to make a complete pivot that

we have the resources to retain our team

and make sure that we do the right thing

to ensure the survival of the company

are you have you bought any companies

would you consider I'm an inorganic

growth in the future

m&a um I we have not and I think if an

opportunity presented itself for us to

find a company that did something very

specific that we wanted to integrate

into our company and the financial

numbers made sense and even more

importantly the people side of it made

sense I think we would consider it but

none of those opportunities have have

Arisen for us so far yeah are you

comfortable sharing how profitable you

are per month are we taking like 20% to

the bottom line

50% uh I'm not exactly sure but we are

very

profitable good that's a great answer

we're so profitable I don't even look at

it every month I just know we're

printing money uh we are very profitable

what's the largest acquisition offer

you've turned

down oh my goodness we you know what

we've been very um we've been very

disciplined about not entertaining the

offers um that have come so far just

because they haven't made sense for us

not even and we have so we've never even

gotten to the point where we've had the

discussions about um the and getting

into the weeds of the finances because

we just really believe in the mission

and the vision um that we are building

and we still feel that we have a ton

left on the table and so an acquisition

doesn't really make sense for us at this

point we want to remain independent and

keep serving our customers love that

love that um you don't have quota caring

reps at this price point right no

AES what is that yeah you don't have

like a an account executive you hire and

say your job is to go sell 10 customers

$1,000 per year plans and you get an x%

commission yeah no we don't have a sales

team it's all completely self-served

yeah I love that so how many of the 5050

would you say are

engineering um I believe we have a like

right around 20 Engineers give or take

yeah that's that's wild I mean this is

interesting okay is there any I look I I

see so much of this sometimes I Fall In

The Trap of asking the same questions

every founder but when you then meet a

unique founder you forget to ask the

unique thing so like is there something

that I haven't asked that you know has

been critical to your success that you

want to touch

on well I think we've touched on it but

I just wanted to say like I think

there's the sort of like the Silicon

Valley founder space and the SAS space

and there's a lot of data and numbers

but the truth is that I think success

comes when you build an amazing product

that people love and the SAS portion of

it is is just sort of your monetization

strategy and it's it's like when it you

know you build something in a

subscription model makes sense but at

the very core of what we do we listen to

the customers we spend a massive amount

of time with them we had a vision and

practically a product before we touched

the line of code and then everything

came Downstream from that and you just I

don't think that's a very common thing

to hear um in the SAS space but I think

it's critical that's that's like how you

create something that's truly valuable

to people that you want to pay for and

no matter how you try to tweak numbers

and Shuffle around data like if you

don't have that one core piece a product

that people love and that really solves

a pain then none of the other stuff

matters how much of your 880,000 paying

customers do you think pay you because

they love and respect your story and

they and they want to be like you and

they want to be in your orbit and in

your community and at your events versus

they just believe that you know your

technology allows them to create a blue

button with a certain border color and

drag it and left align it like the

technology of the whsy wig Builder that

you built is better than everybody else

so Community versus better Tech what's

the bigger

poll oh I think think it's honestly I

think it's both I think we have a lot of

um female small business owner members

and so I think um our founder story

resonates with them especially the

bootstrap piece because a lot of the

small businesses that use us love to see

that we didn't take funding they're not

able to take funding and so we've kind

of been like why should we take funding

when our customers don't have access to

the same thing it's like we really

relate to them and then I do think we

have an amazing product like we did

something that no one else figured out

which is how to make these beautiful

visual emails that allow small business

owners to keep in the in box with the

bigname brands with resources that they

don't have like most you know if you

take a company like anthropology they

have a million-- dooll marketing team

and uh small business owners don't have

access to resources to be able to do

that so we've been able to do that make

it really easy for them and I think like

that's a huge I think that's like a

larger and larger component of it

because at the beginning it was

community-led and a lot of the people

that were signing up and early members

knew us or knew us through the Great

Vine or we're friends of friends but at

this point our user base is getting so

large that a lot of them are sort of in

the outer spheres of our community and

breaking into new bubbles so they don't

even know our founder story sorry a lot

of words that's great do you get

depressed when when a logo cancels how

many people how many logos canceled in

April uh a logos yeah like a customer

how many customers canceled and how do

you how do how do manage you care deeply

about your community how do you manage

like not getting depressed every time

you see it $38 per month account cancel

oh I just muted the slack

channel that wasn't the answer I was

expecting okay so you just muted the

SL that's hysterical no no but um at

this point obviously like we have very

low turn rates um what is it 2% a month

I knew you're gonna ask me yeah

something I think it hovers around that

yes um but you know at scale obviously

when you're talking about 80 to 100

thousand people on the platform that's

not a small number per day but I think

actually um as much as I I was kind of

half joking about the sock Channel um I

think it takes a it takes a lot of

courage to go and talk to those people

and understand why they're turning and

so that's something that we we've built

a really strong muscle around is

capturing exit data on you know when we

survey them when they turn and also

having um our user experience resarch go

and speak to these members and do a lot

of children studies so that we really

understand the reason that they're

leaving and try to uh address the issues

that they're bringing up like like

literally everything we do at the

company goes back to listening to our

customers including the ones we leave so

I guess um the the high level is like do

I get depressed no because it's just I

think it's part of the business um and I

also see it as an opportunity for us to

improve and how aggressive are you on

the CAC side for the paid marketing Stu

stuff or are you willing to spend 3

months of fees to acquire the customer

upfront or what do you like to optimize

for there what would make you

uncomfortable in terms of payback

period I believe that we like to

optimize for nine months um but I'm not

totally sure because I'm not I I don't

run that part of the business yeah yeah

yep yep y but but if that was the metric

38 bucks a month time 9 is

$342 is what you'd spend to acquire that

customer and then they stick obviously

longer than that because your monthly

turn is only two months so the math

obviously works there but that's

obviously super exciting and all these

strategies feed each other um very cool

let's wrap up here with the famous 5 we

went way over but it's rare you get a

great story like this so thanks for

indulging me actually Rebecca I forgot

what year did you pass a million Revenue

do you

remember oh

20 2020 like I think January like six

months after we launched okay and do you

remember what you finished the year

after that at 2021

I remember like the 10 million number I

think that was in the 10 range you went

from one to 1 to 10 in your first 18

months yes that's really freaking that's

crazy bootstrap you went wow 1 to 101 to

10 million of AR over the first 18

months that's powerful you think is that

right you think am I saying that right I

I think so or do I have a second to yeah

look look yeah you have you have a

dashboard take your time I'll make small

talk with the crew while they're you

know parking in their garage listening

to the finale of the episode and all

that jazz but um I'll summarize some

stuff just because I think guys some

unique takeaways here that you learned

from Rebecca so far I mean the fact that

she already pre-sold so much of this by

capturing demand through user interviews

back in 2017 and 2018 there just huge

Advantage like if you know you want to

get into software one day and you know

what customer you want to serve you're

already halfway there just start

interviewing them learning capture that

stuff and then eventually you know if

software is the way to solve their issue

you build a software product and you you

have a like Rebecca before you know it

um so that's a good a good takeaway

there Rebecca I'm also curious what what

dashboard you are loading right now do

you use any tools to measure uh M growth

yeah we use

recurly um but it I'm it's asking to

enter a lot of a

we I I actually wish my VP product were

here because um Leman she's absolutely

brilliant and she's the data geek around

here and we have a lot of different

tools to measure um but the one that we

started with at the very beginning was

re curly and they are um a payment

processor for SAS companies and I really

enjoy their analytics because they make

it easy to look up metrics while you're

on a podcast

so that's awesome well it's nice I mean

you have competitors in the space that

publish a lot of their stuff uh

privately so it's kind of I mean

publicly so it's kind of cool I imagine

yours are all private and you can sort

of go hey we're actually beating them

even though the world doesn't know about

it we're beating them

yeah and I mean I think we Martha and I

have been on a lot of podcasts in the

last few years so everything is sort of

out in public if you trace back our

steps um but pinpointing okay this is a

little bit mobile not optimized she's

zooming she's

zooming yeah years all right past

18 so looking at it

um it look looks

like let's see we hit yeah

one

so 1 million Mr would be 12 million AR

and we hit that right around uh

2021 yeah that's it that's it wow and

2020 was uh you finished uh at 83,000 of

Mr Right or right around there a million

run

rate uh in 2020 we had anaz 2020 we had

a lift from the pandemic it was a really

difficult year but in terms of our

growth

uh I'm not sure no that's this is so

great no it's great look it's a you get

the idea a lot of growth here no outside

Capital it's really impressive so

Rebecca thanks for taking time let's

wrap up here with the famous five number

one your favorite Business

book

oo I have so many

um actually I'll name one that I

recently read it's called surrounded by

idiots um and I really enjoy it because

it teaches you uh different

communication Styles and how to work

within an organization which is a skill

that I've been working on a lot myself

number two is there a CEO you're

following or

studying um I've always been obsessed

with Steve Jobs I think he's absolutely

brilliant like I read the book um and

I'm always looking up more anecdotes and

quotes and videos about him I know that

he's passed away but I just think his

philosophies on design and Tech the

intersection of design and Technology

wildly inspiring in any era besides

recurly what is one of your favorite

online tools that maybe you pay a lot of

money for inside of a

flowes oh I love figma I mean I think we

live in it as a designer it makes

collaboration so easy and it's it's sort

of like it's so ubiquitous to our

process I don't even notice that we use

it it's wild just always there it's wild

how many you can build flows on that

thing that it looks like a real product

you can give demos it looks like a real

thing and no one knows there's no

there's no engineering there yet it's

amazing it's incredible anyone who's

starting a company in this day and age

has no idea how hard it was even eight

years ago to get your ideas out into the

world and test though yeah there's no

reason you can't pre-sell today when

you've got tools like figma we put it

that way yeah all right how many hours

of sleep number four how many hours of

sleep do you get every night I make sure

to get at least eight that's great and

situation married single kiddos are you

comfortable sharing yeah I'm married um

no kids yet but uh hopefully

eventually hopefully one day that'll be

good and Rebecca are you comfortable

sharing how old you are yes I turn 39

next week let's go happy early birthday

last uh last question something you wish

you knew uh when back when you were 20

years

old oh that's a good one

um there's so

many I think getting into Tech sooner

actually I know that sounds a little bit

crazy but uh I've always been uh on

computers but Just Having the courage I

think to jump into the tech space and

start a tech company sooner um would

have been like if I could older me went

back to 20-year-old me and said that I

think I would uh I would have

appreciated that advice guys there have

it from Rebecca uh flow desks makes

email marketing easy as pie from 2011 to

2014 she was selling MailChimp templates

doing $400 $500,000 per year ultimately

canva and other tools came in and so

template stopped selling as well but she

still had a great built-in base that

said hey we'd love to build you know

this inside of MailChimp and make the

flows easier that prompted her to start

going and interviewing folks from her

audience pairing up with a team at

honeybook and eventually launching the

three co-founders put in $90,000 total

uh back on launch date before they

launched their first paid plan at 19 uh

bucks per month they eventually got

going and today over 30% of their

inbound is powered by affiliate

marketing and Word of Mouth marketing

they have over 880,000 p customers

Revenue run rate today is about 27

million bucks up from 20 million just a

year ago and their $10 million a year

was back in 2021 which they hit just

it's crazy 18 19 months after launch all

here's a cherry on top with no outside

funding and just 50 full-time employees

for $540,000 of Revenue per employee

check it out flowes do.com Rebecca thank

you for taking us to the top thank you