EP 396: Why He Raised $3m Then Merged With #1 Competitor

Kevin Davis, who came up with a creative solution for tech support. After waiting weeks to get his computer back from the Geek Squad, he thought there had to be a quicker, better solution. He created Geekatoo as a platform for people to find tech experts in their own neighborhoods.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Jason Calacanis's Podcast
• What CEO do you follow? — Not really, I look at other marketplaces.
• Favorite online tool? — Base

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—Yes
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Make sure that you get your startup out as soon as possible.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Kevin
• 01:50 – Musician, tech guy, and geek
• 02:10 – Geekatoo, "like an Uber for tech support"
• 03:00 – They started out aiming for a nationwide company
• 04:10 – A platform
• 04:50 – Founded in 2010
• 04:55 – First-year revenue was literally nothing
• • 05:30 – It took over a year to get the product out
  • 06:20 – He supported himself by living back home
• 07:00 – Now it is much quicker to bootstrap a launch
• 07:45 – They take a percentage for every job that comes through
• 08:00 – Switched to solving larger-level problems
• 08:50 – Three different plans and other services
• 09:30 – Customers are covered for the long term
• 10:00 – Onboarding takes people from one service to a monthly plan
• 10:30 – Total customers is 40000
• 10:50 -- $2.7 M in capital
• 11:10 – 2015 revenue was almost $4 M
• 11:25 – Biggest costs
• • 11:50 – Provider payout and overseas center
  • 12:25 – Ad words
• 13:20 – A focus on positive economics
• 14:15 – Average project value is about $130
• • 14:40 – Acquisition cost is $20 to $30
  • 15:15 – A large volume of customers had $0 acquisition cost
• 16:00 – Reasoning behind the merger with HelloTech
• • 17:35 – "A bigger pie"
  • 18:00 – New partners coming forward
• 18:35 – kevin@hellotech.com or @geekatoo on Twitter
• 21:15 -- The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Don't worry about perfecting your business—get it out there as quickly as possible
• Do what is best to help your business grow.
• Find a simple way to communicate with your customers.

Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Base – Kevin's favorite online tool
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives