Ep154 – Nick Franklin (Founder & CEO – ChartMogul) on pricing, metrics and fundstrapping

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep154 – Nick Franklin (Founder & CEO – ChartMogul) on pricing, metrics and fundstrapping September 23, 2021 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep154 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Founder and CEO of ChartMogul, Nick Franklin. ChartMogul is the leading subscription analytics platform for SaaS companies and Nick has had a unique approach to building the company. He launched ChartMogul in 2014 as a solo founder, has grown a globally distributed team of 57 across 3 head quarters in Toronto, Berlin and Seoul and despite having spent over $20M in building their platform and company, he has not raised external funding over the last 4 years. We covered a range of topics in this interview including: A deep dive into Key SaaS metrics for startupsWhy Nick has decided to “fundstrap” the businessWhy he operates as both the CEO and Head of ProductChartMogul’s approach to pricing strategy and why they introduced a free tier& much more! Timestamps 2.45 – Nick’s background and starting ChartMogul3.53 – How the idea for tChartMogul came from his time working at Zendesk7.32 – Pursuing a business idea when you’re working for another company and managing competitors launching before you do11.07 – How competitors enhanced Nick’s conviction for their product 13.54 – Differentiating your business from competitors through finding your strengths and staying focussed on them17.10 – Deciding what to focus on and why defining the target audience is so important20.35 – Trying and failing with new product lines 27.10 – The importance of focusing on existing customers to reduce the churn rate 30.11 – The key metrics startups should be focusing on to track success34.23 – The choice to raise early then moving focus to customer revenue as a source for growth 41.06 – Why ChartMogul have taken their approach to raising and their future plans43.35 – The pricing strategy used by ChartMogul and why it was the best approach 47.18 – How to decide on the pricing strategy that is best for your business and making sure existing customers are comfortable when making pricing changes52.32 – Choosing where to open offices around the world and how ChartMogul approached it 57.51 – How Covid-19 impacted how ChartMogul worked remotely 1.02.35 – How Nick manages being the Head of Product and CEO 1.05.12 – Getting in contact with Nick and ChartMogul Links Mentioned  Nick’s Links  Nick’s Twitter Nick’s LinkedIn ChartMogul Website ChartMogul Twitter People Mentioned  Patrick Llewellyn Companies Mentioned   Zendesk Pipedrive99designs LinktreeWho Gives A CrapStripe ChargebeeRecurlyPayPalApple AppStore ConnectGoogle Play Past Episodes Mentioned  Episode 85 – Patrick Llewellyn Connect with VCs and Angel Investors: If you are planning on fundraising in the next 3-6 months and want to connect to VCs and Angel investors, apply to get featured in my monthly newsletter, Playbook Deal Flow. More details here. Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. Find all links to the podcast here. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep154_-_Nick_Franklin_Founder__CEO_-_ChartMogul_on_pricing_metrics_and_fundstrapping.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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