1 00:00:42,05 --> 00:00:45,03 Please help me in welcoming to Bismarck's finest just. 2 00:00:51,47 --> 00:00:54,89 All right thanks Kate I'm happy to be here and in 3 00:00:54,90 --> 00:00:59,08 a different capacity we've both been on this stage before but I have to tell you 4 00:00:59,09 --> 00:01:02,90 a bit of our story and our experience at Google so 5 00:01:02,91 --> 00:01:08,90 a little bit to start out with postage will we are a tool for Wordpress or 6 00:01:08,91 --> 00:01:13,51 a tool that allows marketers to schedule blogs and social media content together on 7 00:01:13,52 --> 00:01:17,71 a single calendar and then we help them publish that to their network so we're 8 00:01:17,72 --> 00:01:19,54 going to get into what we were what we did 9 00:01:19,55 --> 00:01:22,60 a little bit more but where it got started is we started 10 00:01:22,61 --> 00:01:25,86 a company and Bismarckian just and sort of company two thousand and ten called 11 00:01:25,87 --> 00:01:30,54 today made and they're still kicking and doing great too but we are out of that we 12 00:01:30,69 --> 00:01:34,62 ended up seeing an idea that opportunity to build this product and spun that out. 13 00:01:36,04 --> 00:01:41,75 That's so well about what we did Google Yes So we got this we got this email to go 14 00:01:41,76 --> 00:01:46,51 to Google and then we didn't really think it was like real at times so we didn't 15 00:01:46,52 --> 00:01:48,67 even take it that seriously but once we realized this was 16 00:01:48,100 --> 00:01:54,57 a real opportunity to go to Google we we sort of backed up and and went and I can't 17 00:01:55,47 --> 00:01:59,32 I can't say it wasn't fun it was incredible I mean it was Google and it is what 18 00:01:59,33 --> 00:02:01,78 it's all about you know I mean it is 19 00:02:01,82 --> 00:02:06,65 a culture it is an environment that just spurs creativity in individuals 20 00:02:07,30 --> 00:02:10,78 a really quick story of the story was standing in line at lunch at Google and 21 00:02:10,79 --> 00:02:14,67 there's this big guy behind me and he was just getting He was just excited about 22 00:02:14,68 --> 00:02:17,31 life and I turned around and asked him you know at Google I said you work and he 23 00:02:17,32 --> 00:02:20,70 says yeah I work here you know I'm like oh what do you do it goes I fix kitchen 24 00:02:20,71 --> 00:02:25,07 equipment and I said What will you fix kitchen equipment don't they have companies 25 00:02:25,08 --> 00:02:27,42 they can hire to do that yeah but we brought it in-house 26 00:02:27,64 --> 00:02:30,68 a long time ago and I fix kitchen of them I said it was out of all you is that 27 00:02:30,69 --> 00:02:32,40 we've always done no no I used to be 28 00:02:32,41 --> 00:02:35,88 a mechanical engineer and I thought this got to be the only place in the world with 29 00:02:35,89 --> 00:02:40,40 a happy mechanical engineers fixing toasters but it was pretty nuts and I just the 30 00:02:40,45 --> 00:02:43,95 ice. Think that the expression on his face told the entire story ask him how long 31 00:02:43,96 --> 00:02:47,82 it worked there had been there nine years you know so that's the company that he 32 00:02:47,83 --> 00:02:50,98 loves working at he loves getting up every day and going in and investing in that 33 00:02:50,99 --> 00:02:54,98 organization I think every business owner should be aspiring to create companies 34 00:02:54,99 --> 00:02:58,95 like that that employees want to wake up to and go into and are excited about life 35 00:02:58,96 --> 00:03:04,12 every single day I think more than anything it's. Being at Google is 36 00:03:04,13 --> 00:03:04,87 a little bit of 37 00:03:05,88 --> 00:03:10,21 a caffeine shot for an entrepreneur because you just get to see you know how some 38 00:03:10,22 --> 00:03:13,48 of these really large organizations have been have have done it and really what 39 00:03:13,80 --> 00:03:16,65 what's caused their success it's pretty neat great experience made 40 00:03:16,66 --> 00:03:23,57 a lot of nice folks I do it again if they asked. So they do this like 41 00:03:23,77 --> 00:03:29,21 I do this on or off or game. So you know kind of talk about what Coach control is 42 00:03:29,22 --> 00:03:32,58 and we've been around now about eighteen months in that short eighteen months we've 43 00:03:32,59 --> 00:03:36,29 had incredible growth we've gone to over four thousand paying customers that's 44 00:03:36,30 --> 00:03:39,67 every month those four thousand people come back every single every single month 45 00:03:39,85 --> 00:03:43,59 and they're located in over seventy seven countries around the world so this isn't 46 00:03:43,60 --> 00:03:46,32 something where it's you know we're selling just down the block or down the street 47 00:03:46,33 --> 00:03:49,30 or even to different cities in our state but we are selling to companies and 48 00:03:49,31 --> 00:03:53,53 organizations all over the world and in that eighteen months the growth has just 49 00:03:53,54 --> 00:03:56,40 been really really steady and amazing. It's 50 00:03:56,41 --> 00:04:00,45 a little bit about what we do we were doing today made into marketing consulting we 51 00:04:00,46 --> 00:04:04,63 were helping people with their blogging social media dip things like that and we 52 00:04:04,64 --> 00:04:09,08 thought that this side of marketing in the digital marketing in particular where 53 00:04:09,09 --> 00:04:13,21 they're creating content for their audience is growing more than ever you know we 54 00:04:13,22 --> 00:04:16,07 take a look at what type of content is being created the most this is 55 00:04:16,08 --> 00:04:20,61 a survey done by the Content Marketing Institute So we see that social media blog 56 00:04:20,62 --> 00:04:25,71 articles and blog posts and then articles on people's website for the most popular 57 00:04:25,72 --> 00:04:29,36 types of content that they were creating and so we try to do is build 58 00:04:29,37 --> 00:04:33,85 a piece of software that specifically solves some of the needs that happen when 59 00:04:33,86 --> 00:04:37,35 you're publishing that sort of content we were looking for it for ourselves we 60 00:04:37,36 --> 00:04:41,54 couldn't find it out there so it's kind of its purpose on to go ahead and start 61 00:04:42,01 --> 00:04:47,85 building codes. So looking at that slide of showing that the markets there that 62 00:04:47,86 --> 00:04:51,44 people have this problem that there's people doing social media marketing content 63 00:04:51,45 --> 00:04:54,57 marketing started looking at the tool sets that they're using we realized that they 64 00:04:54,58 --> 00:04:58,61 needed tools for planning for workflow for content creation and for social 65 00:04:58,62 --> 00:04:59,61 promotion so they needed 66 00:04:59,62 --> 00:05:03,49 a lot of different tools to get their jobs on every single day and what that meant 67 00:05:03,50 --> 00:05:07,41 is they were using potentially three four five some some people are using ten 68 00:05:07,42 --> 00:05:09,72 different tools to get the job done which creates 69 00:05:09,73 --> 00:05:12,94 a really segmented workflow every time you have to switch tools you waste 70 00:05:12,95 --> 00:05:17,38 a bunch of time it was just sixteen extremely broken in segments and there was no 71 00:05:17,39 --> 00:05:23,84 one clear leader in the space saying no no we brought it all all together so we do 72 00:05:23,85 --> 00:05:28,07 it coast as we actually take all four of those steps that planning workflow stages 73 00:05:28,11 --> 00:05:32,57 content creation stage and the social media promotion stage and we put it into one 74 00:05:32,62 --> 00:05:37,62 workflow into one tool we call in one simplicity to content marketing and we do 75 00:05:37,63 --> 00:05:37,85 that in 76 00:05:37,86 --> 00:05:41,68 a few different ways so the first one that I'm going to talk about here is how we 77 00:05:41,69 --> 00:05:46,17 integrate with Wordpress So a lot of people are familiar with Wordpress probably 78 00:05:46,18 --> 00:05:48,17 a lot of the over to the small business owners that have 79 00:05:48,18 --> 00:05:53,80 a website that runs on Wordpress and it commands fifty percent of the market people 80 00:05:53,81 --> 00:05:55,90 who build websites that are are managed by C.M.S. 81 00:05:55,90 --> 00:05:59,73 . Our Wordpress so is a really good target for us to go after so we build 82 00:05:59,74 --> 00:06:04,54 a tool that integrates deeply to Wordpress and allows them to create their content 83 00:06:04,69 --> 00:06:09,25 create their social media just like we see me doing here from the exact same place 84 00:06:09,45 --> 00:06:13,32 and combine together that's one step of the workflow the next one is we had to 85 00:06:13,33 --> 00:06:15,34 create a an amazing calendar 86 00:06:15,71 --> 00:06:19,51 a calendar that that takes Google Calendar and puts it on steroids 87 00:06:19,55 --> 00:06:25,06 a place where these content marketers could go and see. Everything that's coming up 88 00:06:25,19 --> 00:06:28,16 so we wanted to show them their blog content their website content their social 89 00:06:28,17 --> 00:06:31,36 media posts that are going out so that they only have one place to go to see 90 00:06:31,37 --> 00:06:35,58 everything that's happening as it relates to their marketing so we elater it allows 91 00:06:35,59 --> 00:06:38,27 their entire team to focus on one tool set instead of 92 00:06:38,28 --> 00:06:42,78 a lot once that content goes live once they start publishing out their content we 93 00:06:42,79 --> 00:06:46,41 start telling them how it's doing we have social analytics we have other analytics 94 00:06:46,42 --> 00:06:50,11 that we pull in so that people know exactly what's doing well and what's not doing 95 00:06:50,12 --> 00:06:53,77 well so that they can keep improving on the process so that they can keep iterating 96 00:06:53,95 --> 00:07:00,13 on their content and and continuing to grow traffic to their website or blog. It's 97 00:07:00,14 --> 00:07:02,01 a little bit about the growth and what we've seen 98 00:07:02,02 --> 00:07:07,69 a CO schedule so in the last fifteen months we have seen thirty two percent average 99 00:07:07,70 --> 00:07:10,50 growth of our of our company and that is the it is 100 00:07:10,51 --> 00:07:14,51 a look at our paid customer growth since October of two thousand and thirteen we 101 00:07:14,52 --> 00:07:18,31 launched right there at the end of September so we just kind of counted from 102 00:07:18,32 --> 00:07:23,11 October but in April of twenty four teen we took on some additional funding broke 103 00:07:23,12 --> 00:07:23,78 our team away 104 00:07:23,79 --> 00:07:27,90 a little bit from today made and really really sort of focusing more into things 105 00:07:28,09 --> 00:07:32,07 and you can just see that growth has just gone from there and has continued over 106 00:07:32,08 --> 00:07:37,59 the past few months as well looking at customers who is using coast casual you know 107 00:07:37,60 --> 00:07:42,01 we've been adding as many as twenty two new customers per day which isn't pretty 108 00:07:42,02 --> 00:07:45,90 crazy to watch and you could see like the eyes of developers get pretty huge as 109 00:07:46,08 --> 00:07:49,32 support tickets come in and questions and different things like that but you know 110 00:07:49,33 --> 00:07:55,26 twenty two per day often clients you know Discovery Education My Fitness Pal 111 00:07:55,35 --> 00:08:00,66 Anytime Fitness agency that manages content for Affleck do use Coast Kegel as well 112 00:08:00,67 --> 00:08:00,91 so 113 00:08:01,01 --> 00:08:04,54 a lot of really really really great customers got to know some of them really well 114 00:08:04,55 --> 00:08:07,11 and they've been giving us a lot of feedback Jaber who maybe 115 00:08:07,12 --> 00:08:09,29 a few people in this room know has been 116 00:08:09,30 --> 00:08:12,97 a customer buys or somebody who we've been working 117 00:08:12,98 --> 00:08:17,98 a lot with Echo schedule as well. So the talk about how we Celko schedule if you 118 00:08:17,99 --> 00:08:19,92 never heard of SAS It stands for software as 119 00:08:19,93 --> 00:08:22,34 a service what that means is that we sell the software on 120 00:08:22,35 --> 00:08:26,31 a recurring subscription every single month and we sell in three different sizes or 121 00:08:26,32 --> 00:08:29,50 three different packages to three different groups of people the first group is to 122 00:08:29,51 --> 00:08:32,90 bloggers these are your maybe hobbyists your solo bloggers Maybe you've heard the 123 00:08:32,91 --> 00:08:37,07 term mommy blogger or food blogger this is really the category for them we're going 124 00:08:37,08 --> 00:08:37,89 to help save them just 125 00:08:37,90 --> 00:08:41,66 a ton of time in their day to get back to spending time with their families that's 126 00:08:41,67 --> 00:08:41,94 at about 127 00:08:41,95 --> 00:08:45,32 a ten dollars price point for those individuals for our marketers these are our 128 00:08:45,33 --> 00:08:48,83 businesses our teams of people that are working together creating content 129 00:08:48,84 --> 00:08:50,33 a very collaborative way we've got 130 00:08:50,34 --> 00:08:54,37 a lot of additional features that we offer to that group of folks at a at 131 00:08:54,38 --> 00:08:57,56 a price range about fifty to one hundred dollars but then we have companies like 132 00:08:57,57 --> 00:09:02,17 Discovery and the next web and some of these large publishers that have potentially 133 00:09:02,18 --> 00:09:04,66 hundreds of people in their distributed teams and they have 134 00:09:04,67 --> 00:09:06,35 a lot different workflow and they need 135 00:09:06,36 --> 00:09:09,84 a lot more control and we have some advanced things that we give those individuals 136 00:09:09,85 --> 00:09:09,91 at 137 00:09:09,92 --> 00:09:13,58 a much higher price point one of the really cool things that just happened here in 138 00:09:13,59 --> 00:09:18,35 the last few months is we launched as one of twenty two exclusive the IP technology 139 00:09:18,36 --> 00:09:22,99 partners on the Wordpress platform so Wordpress is free is open source and there's 140 00:09:23,00 --> 00:09:27,62 millions of users but there is this sort of private white glove edition of 141 00:09:27,63 --> 00:09:29,14 Wordpress called Wordpress V.I.P. 142 00:09:29,32 --> 00:09:32,33 And it's actually pretty hard to get into so we're thrilled that we actually were 143 00:09:32,37 --> 00:09:36,18 in there and we're one of the only social tools that does even close to what we do 144 00:09:36,19 --> 00:09:37,73 in there so that opens us up to 145 00:09:37,74 --> 00:09:43,35 a brand new market opportunity of some really high high profile companies. So 146 00:09:43,36 --> 00:09:48,04 little about the market and how how we look look at content marketing so you know 147 00:09:48,25 --> 00:09:54,69 because we're. A high growth startup and so we look at a very big market the C.F. 148 00:09:54,70 --> 00:09:57,68 How do we fit in how can we scale that and one thing is interesting in our 149 00:09:57,69 --> 00:10:00,86 marketing content marketing what we see is a lot of players there's 150 00:10:00,87 --> 00:10:03,83 a lot of activities actual lot of these the funny millions of dollars are 151 00:10:03,84 --> 00:10:07,96 represented on that left side and in many ways but they're all very enterprise 152 00:10:07,97 --> 00:10:12,26 driven tools so you know companies to get started on these tools are to be paying. 153 00:10:13,37 --> 00:10:17,29 Five thousand fifteen hundred thirty five hundred dollars per month so they're very 154 00:10:17,30 --> 00:10:20,73 expensive and they're very out of reach and there's not really very many players in 155 00:10:20,74 --> 00:10:23,78 the space that are actually taking this bottom up approach which is actually pretty 156 00:10:23,79 --> 00:10:26,44 typical for software to have her software to start 157 00:10:26,45 --> 00:10:30,74 a lower price point and slowly work its way up the ladder so our play at Coast 158 00:10:30,75 --> 00:10:34,80 Kegel is to completely capture that bottom market and then sure there are some 159 00:10:34,81 --> 00:10:37,24 people here that are familiar with Hoot Suite which is 160 00:10:37,25 --> 00:10:41,82 a very very popular product it is the de facto social media tool for most places or 161 00:10:41,83 --> 00:10:46,18 at least they start there and you know what we want to do for content marketing is 162 00:10:46,19 --> 00:10:51,88 become that tool that level of tool for the content marketing industry and by by 163 00:10:51,89 --> 00:10:52,48 doing 164 00:10:52,65 --> 00:10:58,45 a content plus social media play so talking about where we're going you know we've 165 00:10:58,46 --> 00:11:01,94 done some projections as to what twenty fifteen is going to look like and even 166 00:11:01,95 --> 00:11:06,10 a twenty sixteen but for right now just at current growth we're looking at hitting 167 00:11:06,11 --> 00:11:09,90 about ten thousand customers by the end of this year so that more than doubles 168 00:11:09,91 --> 00:11:13,11 where we're at right now today so that's the kind of growth that we're So you know 169 00:11:13,12 --> 00:11:17,49 we're we're experiencing and we have experience for the last eighteen months. Are 170 00:11:17,54 --> 00:11:20,75 when we show this slide at talks like this our team all comes back they're just 171 00:11:20,76 --> 00:11:26,14 terrified but it's really fun and it's going to be really really cool to see what 172 00:11:26,15 --> 00:11:30,81 happens here in the summer and in the fall. So that's cost control we're looking to 173 00:11:30,96 --> 00:11:35,97 really expand post go to this next year thing along with that in two we think of it 174 00:11:35,98 --> 00:11:38,55 as good as a really great product we're a great growth or 175 00:11:38,56 --> 00:11:41,94 a successful product but we're really starting to look at how does Coast casual 176 00:11:41,95 --> 00:11:46,90 become the de facto platform for content marketing on the Web So thanks all right 177 00:11:46,91 --> 00:11:47,13 give it 178 00:11:47,14 --> 00:11:55,30 a project. So 179 00:11:55,34 --> 00:12:01,67 first off what was the biggest challenge of course schedule the first year that you 180 00:12:01,68 --> 00:12:02,97 guys got started having 181 00:12:02,98 --> 00:12:06,91 a you know another tech company under your belt but looking 182 00:12:06,92 --> 00:12:08,35 a certain close Kegel that was 183 00:12:08,61 --> 00:12:14,80 a lot more worldwide What was the one one thing that was the biggest challenge. 184 00:12:17,74 --> 00:12:22,43 I would say running a supplier of his business alongside of 185 00:12:22,44 --> 00:12:26,41 a product company I think that's the hardest thing we've ever done and 186 00:12:26,42 --> 00:12:30,96 entrepreneurs is to run to companies that have complete focus on who would tire 187 00:12:30,97 --> 00:12:36,50 different things together you know very different we you know we knew in I don't 188 00:12:36,51 --> 00:12:39,44 know probably February or March of twenty thirteen we had to get to 189 00:12:39,45 --> 00:12:41,86 a launch of Coast Guard we had the idea we had even 190 00:12:41,87 --> 00:12:45,19 a basic prototype but we needed a watch and we gave ourselves about 191 00:12:45,20 --> 00:12:49,17 a six month window we'd come up with this this big idea and we presented it to the 192 00:12:49,18 --> 00:12:50,70 team and we had slides and T. 193 00:12:50,71 --> 00:12:54,03 Shirts and everything and it was like because we needed the focus and we called it 194 00:12:54,04 --> 00:12:59,24 the fifty fifty plan and it did exactly what you know it was intended to do but it 195 00:12:59,25 --> 00:13:04,05 was that period of time was incredibly hard because we were being torn in these two 196 00:13:04,06 --> 00:13:06,11 directions viable directions to run 197 00:13:06,12 --> 00:13:10,04 a company that fifty fifty plan is basically that we were to spend fifty percent of 198 00:13:10,05 --> 00:13:13,53 our time doing client work billable work contract work and the other fifty percent 199 00:13:13,54 --> 00:13:17,82 of the time we were to do work and our old team was going to work on this this idea 200 00:13:17,83 --> 00:13:22,76 that was cut it wasn't making any money at. The big hairy secret is that right 201 00:13:22,77 --> 00:13:27,73 before I don't know Christmas time we started to realize that it's just no longer 202 00:13:27,74 --> 00:13:29,70 viable we have a lot. Coast schedule we had 203 00:13:29,78 --> 00:13:33,55 a couple of months of growth we saw that there is this huge opportunity even larger 204 00:13:33,56 --> 00:13:38,85 than we anticipated at the beginning and decided we can either keep the fifty fifty 205 00:13:38,86 --> 00:13:44,30 plan or we can gain some we can get some capital and we can really grow this thing 206 00:13:44,34 --> 00:13:44,50 as 207 00:13:44,51 --> 00:13:48,36 a separate company and there was some soul searching on that because up until that 208 00:13:48,37 --> 00:13:52,27 point we were completely bootstrapped company from the very beginning so once that 209 00:13:52,28 --> 00:13:56,89 decision was made it took us about four months to find our investors raise around 210 00:13:56,90 --> 00:14:03,31 and split the companies and stressful very very stressful but incredibly necessary 211 00:14:03,32 --> 00:14:07,17 and wouldn't have the slides or the growth that we have without making some of 212 00:14:07,18 --> 00:14:13,02 those intentional Isabel the ships moment we said you know we we need to pursue 213 00:14:13,03 --> 00:14:17,07 Kosko jewel and to put them put the figure out how to get complete focus on Coast 214 00:14:17,08 --> 00:14:20,53 Central or a dedicated team to it I think the fifty fifty plan is that it is 215 00:14:20,54 --> 00:14:24,63 a great reminder of the conflict there like if you've got to boil down 216 00:14:24,64 --> 00:14:26,49 a sound bite if you can't focus in 217 00:14:26,50 --> 00:14:28,59 a business you can't focus fifty percent of one thing if it 218 00:14:28,60 --> 00:14:31,56 a percentage or thing that means you're not that means you're not focused on 219 00:14:31,57 --> 00:14:36,48 anything so I think that's the constant pull we felt you're not really doing either 220 00:14:36,49 --> 00:14:40,78 one of them services so we buy spinning them out we became one hundred percent 221 00:14:40,79 --> 00:14:42,38 focused on coastal and be able to put 222 00:14:42,39 --> 00:14:47,85 a team that's hundred percent of today made and that transition was had sleepless 223 00:14:47,86 --> 00:14:54,20 nights attached to it. So there life with entrepreneurs and credit goes to the team 224 00:14:54,41 --> 00:14:59,07 at both companies for the for the success of all of it because you know that could 225 00:14:59,08 --> 00:15:03,71 have been an incredibly difficult transition considering that the founders are 226 00:15:03,78 --> 00:15:08,23 stepping more away from the software side of the company and the agency side of the 227 00:15:08,24 --> 00:15:12,49 company and need to define the smartest people we could to bring in to you know 228 00:15:12,66 --> 00:15:17,87 basically take over running the company and we were really fortunate to find those 229 00:15:17,88 --> 00:15:24,28 people call out to set her literally holding that he was the glue holding the today 230 00:15:24,29 --> 00:15:25,21 made chip together for 231 00:15:25,22 --> 00:15:31,51 a period of time and you know it's that that kind of. Tenacity of the entire team 232 00:15:31,78 --> 00:15:35,28 through the fifty fifty projects through getting everything watching the funding 233 00:15:35,29 --> 00:15:42,02 done is the only reason that any of us were. You to question the bank because I 234 00:15:42,06 --> 00:15:44,85 have two questions one I wanted to talk 235 00:15:44,86 --> 00:15:49,51 a little bit about your price points and how you came up with them and to how how 236 00:15:49,52 --> 00:15:54,41 you're recruiting or attracting now the talent that you need in Bismarck. 237 00:15:58,51 --> 00:16:05,01 Pricing is the second hardest thing to do. So we're getting right into it. So 238 00:16:05,25 --> 00:16:10,42 pricing kind of and I mean lots of things we did some we did wrong for 239 00:16:10,43 --> 00:16:15,11 a while at the beginning we tried all kinds. Of our pricing models we had tried I 240 00:16:15,12 --> 00:16:18,51 don't know two or three before we landed at that is our fourth one down right now 241 00:16:18,52 --> 00:16:23,66 is our fourth and we are already working on number five. And they don't always 242 00:16:23,67 --> 00:16:26,94 change dramatically there are these sort of subtle adjustments but I think I think 243 00:16:26,95 --> 00:16:30,91 the thing that we've always been that's been successful the big good about pricing 244 00:16:30,92 --> 00:16:34,38 is that I think our number one approach to pricing as have been hey how can we get 245 00:16:34,39 --> 00:16:38,75 it exactly correct and how can we avoid getting it wrong it's been more of how can 246 00:16:38,76 --> 00:16:42,03 we learn how to get to the right price and some type sometimes the best way to do 247 00:16:42,04 --> 00:16:45,39 that is by actually launching the wrong line and hearing what people have to say so 248 00:16:45,40 --> 00:16:49,08 we launched with a very risky price and we ended up kind of silly pivoting to 249 00:16:49,09 --> 00:16:51,93 a very low risk price that allowed us ten dollars 250 00:16:51,94 --> 00:16:53,40 a month that was just ten dollars 251 00:16:53,41 --> 00:16:56,87 a month for everybody no matter who you are which is doesn't scale long term 252 00:16:56,98 --> 00:17:01,46 terrible business model. But it what it did allow us to do is get 253 00:17:01,88 --> 00:17:06,00 a few thousand people in the fold that we could say OK Who are these thousands of 254 00:17:06,01 --> 00:17:09,54 people and where would we put them into categories how much would they be willing 255 00:17:09,55 --> 00:17:14,90 to pay and that I think now even though we still have some price to make it is this 256 00:17:15,18 --> 00:17:15,88 we we have 257 00:17:15,89 --> 00:17:20,48 a good bit of information to to base our base those decisions offload and I think I 258 00:17:20,49 --> 00:17:20,86 was watching 259 00:17:20,87 --> 00:17:24,46 a presentation and they said there's not there's no such thing as the right price 260 00:17:24,50 --> 00:17:25,10 there's no such thing as 261 00:17:25,11 --> 00:17:29,29 a wrong price there's just pricing that works and I think that that has to be 262 00:17:29,30 --> 00:17:34,60 a lot. I think that you have hunches on that first you know when you're launching 263 00:17:34,61 --> 00:17:36,78 something you don't know what the price that you have this hunch of what people 264 00:17:36,79 --> 00:17:38,75 might pay for it I've seen 265 00:17:38,76 --> 00:17:42,94 a lot of people on the one link up stage over the years that have had prices that 266 00:17:42,95 --> 00:17:46,80 are better maybe too low and it's because that's maybe what they would personally 267 00:17:46,81 --> 00:17:49,01 pay for the product but it's not what someone else would pay for their product 268 00:17:49,02 --> 00:17:52,28 someone else might be willing to pay triple or quadruple their or their price 269 00:17:52,29 --> 00:17:55,66 because they themselves are probably their target market and some. Cases and so 270 00:17:55,67 --> 00:18:00,84 there's some getting over that another thing about the ten dollar price was. Our 271 00:18:00,85 --> 00:18:01,64 hunches can go 272 00:18:01,65 --> 00:18:04,96 a long ways as entrepreneurs but at the end of the day the customers usually tell 273 00:18:04,97 --> 00:18:08,82 us what they like and what they don't like better than we can guess and so that ten 274 00:18:08,83 --> 00:18:11,94 dollar price basically made it and we always said this internally we made it easy 275 00:18:11,95 --> 00:18:16,55 for them to just say yes. Anytime Fitness the national brand with you know twenty 276 00:18:16,56 --> 00:18:19,03 seven hundred location resort or they're paying us ten dollars 277 00:18:19,04 --> 00:18:21,21 a month where they work and it's like that's 278 00:18:21,22 --> 00:18:24,27 a really good deal for them but we're going to we're going to learn 279 00:18:24,28 --> 00:18:27,40 a whole bunch about how they do their work flow about their team about how they buy 280 00:18:27,41 --> 00:18:30,69 and vet software decisions like there's just so much learning that if we would have 281 00:18:30,70 --> 00:18:35,09 tried to go after that that big fish right away with this huge price would have had 282 00:18:35,10 --> 00:18:35,92 a whole bunch of stuff and 283 00:18:35,93 --> 00:18:39,65 a whole bunch of learning curves that would have prevented us from growing as fast 284 00:18:39,66 --> 00:18:46,36 as we did so there is this balance of growth versus revenue and for and even still 285 00:18:46,40 --> 00:18:50,31 we're still largely to towards growth which means our pricing isn't probably 286 00:18:50,32 --> 00:18:53,96 getting every dollar out of every customer yet because we still have 287 00:18:53,97 --> 00:18:55,55 a lot to learn and we still think that there's 288 00:18:55,56 --> 00:18:59,72 a lot more for us to do so we're still in the growth pricing model and you'll see 289 00:19:00,34 --> 00:19:03,67 and you always see it that eventually you start optimizing that for revenue and 290 00:19:03,68 --> 00:19:06,77 that's that's not quite where we're that we're at but we are testing some waters 291 00:19:06,78 --> 00:19:11,57 out of this going openers second question of getting talent and keeping telling 292 00:19:11,58 --> 00:19:16,45 your business the big big question I asked that question all the time so I'd say. 293 00:19:17,91 --> 00:19:21,42 Is it is a challenge because we're a small community and everybody has 294 00:19:21,43 --> 00:19:27,81 a job right I mean so there are challenges that come with it but I think. What's 295 00:19:27,82 --> 00:19:30,34 worked for us is that we create 296 00:19:30,35 --> 00:19:35,07 a work environment that's very unique to the area and that and so we use that as as 297 00:19:35,08 --> 00:19:38,53 part of our recruiting and why you know I want to bring people in I often joke 298 00:19:38,65 --> 00:19:40,20 Internet hiring process that where if you like 299 00:19:40,21 --> 00:19:45,09 a company and I think it's sort of interesting I said this one's very passively and 300 00:19:45,10 --> 00:19:47,66 people on the team have sort of picked it up and said it over and over again I 301 00:19:47,67 --> 00:19:51,69 think. That's pretty interesting because they the team has bought into this idea so 302 00:19:51,70 --> 00:19:55,95 they clearly I'm not going to feel this way but that you know we're like 303 00:19:55,96 --> 00:19:59,29 a company of refugees where there was we didn't like how something was done or we 304 00:19:59,30 --> 00:20:01,17 felt restless we wanted to try and do things 305 00:20:01,18 --> 00:20:04,56 a new way or do something different and you know put schedule if they made 306 00:20:04,57 --> 00:20:07,79 a great place to end up to try to and we've got to give people 307 00:20:07,87 --> 00:20:10,30 a camera to try and do those things and give them 308 00:20:10,31 --> 00:20:12,78 a lot of personal freedom in their work so that I think helps 309 00:20:12,79 --> 00:20:19,79 a lot recruiting is you know is something that we're always doing I think I think 310 00:20:19,80 --> 00:20:21,06 that's kind of a part of realization as 311 00:20:21,07 --> 00:20:23,89 a business on that you're always recruiting and that you're not going to just wait 312 00:20:23,90 --> 00:20:27,31 for people to fill out your job application that you actually have to reach out 313 00:20:27,35 --> 00:20:31,60 sell them on the vision you're selling your company just as much as you know 314 00:20:31,61 --> 00:20:35,47 they're interviewing for your job so I think I think their thing is you can do 315 00:20:35,48 --> 00:20:40,53 anything you want as Mark Berndt Bismarck and everyone thinks oh well I'm going to 316 00:20:40,54 --> 00:20:43,23 Fargo we should have are going to go to Fargo and they're think if you go to 317 00:20:43,24 --> 00:20:46,23 Minneapolis you go to Minneapolis or are there things you should go to New York if 318 00:20:46,24 --> 00:20:49,13 you go to New York they all want to go to Silicon Valley even Silicon Valley they 319 00:20:49,14 --> 00:20:52,99 all want to get out of there so you know every story everywhere the grass is always 320 00:20:53,00 --> 00:20:56,76 greener so you just have to make it work is this kind of hours old talk 321 00:20:56,77 --> 00:21:00,24 a little Google Demo Day How do you guys get there I know I know the story but I 322 00:21:00,25 --> 00:21:06,77 don't know that everyone here is familiar with you guys ended up at Google. So 323 00:21:06,81 --> 00:21:13,75 Coco to the co-working space and Fargo. Minneapolis locations they're kind of the 324 00:21:13,76 --> 00:21:16,49 same area and then also have 325 00:21:16,50 --> 00:21:20,67 a place apart we have some employees in Fargo that work there so we're connected to 326 00:21:20,68 --> 00:21:24,50 call that way and cocoa is nowhere near what it was there 327 00:21:24,51 --> 00:21:28,10 a Google tech up which basically means there's like ten of these around the nation 328 00:21:28,11 --> 00:21:32,42 that Google actually put some money into and they get some special treatment too in 329 00:21:32,43 --> 00:21:36,75 terms of resources to help spur creativity entrepreneurship expensive 330 00:21:36,76 --> 00:21:43,24 a CLI in tech companies. So the so Cocoa Beach tech come with sort of that with us 331 00:21:43,28 --> 00:21:47,16 this task of finding startups that they want to recommend going to google that one 332 00:21:47,17 --> 00:21:51,16 day because they were global tech up so we were invited to pitch in Minneapolis 333 00:21:51,96 --> 00:21:56,01 there was like eleven or twelve startups there that we pitched in front of. And 334 00:21:56,02 --> 00:22:00,61 we're one of the top two teams or two companies I get that pitch at that event and 335 00:22:00,62 --> 00:22:06,22 they were both recommended to Google so that the whole audience votes through you 336 00:22:06,23 --> 00:22:12,68 know an app and then the two start ups that kind of are at the top of the list they 337 00:22:12,72 --> 00:22:19,06 both get recommended to Google and. We were up against another startup in that 338 00:22:19,07 --> 00:22:21,74 recommendation that's within a wearable tech so they had kind of 339 00:22:21,87 --> 00:22:25,92 a watch that did motion things so that it was them and us and we both recommended 340 00:22:25,93 --> 00:22:27,33 them at this waiting thing you know you wait 341 00:22:27,34 --> 00:22:31,71 a few weeks before Google sort of publicly announce it and we find out maybe 342 00:22:31,72 --> 00:22:35,20 a week before the public did that you know we were the ones that Google had picked 343 00:22:35,21 --> 00:22:39,78 to come and then eventually you know that week later they sort of started to 344 00:22:39,79 --> 00:22:45,42 publicly announce the ten or so startups from all the different competitions. Was 345 00:22:45,43 --> 00:22:52,17 the experience like Google. Pitching and everything in. Place so. 346 00:22:54,13 --> 00:22:59,26 It's one hundred fifty buildings and there's lots of transportation problems that 347 00:22:59,27 --> 00:23:01,84 come with that so I think the first thing we notice is there's like these colorful 348 00:23:01,85 --> 00:23:06,40 bikes like everywhere everywhere all over town even town SIMO. Place 349 00:23:06,41 --> 00:23:10,32 a Google has all these bikes that are painted up that allow people to ride bike 350 00:23:10,33 --> 00:23:12,12 back and forth from building to building they also have 351 00:23:12,13 --> 00:23:15,55 a busing system that will take them to other buildings and actually take people 352 00:23:15,56 --> 00:23:18,62 home to other towns other towns to do some resources like 353 00:23:19,00 --> 00:23:23,59 a specific bussing system for their company so I think it's like those sons of 354 00:23:23,77 --> 00:23:29,10 those things are pretty outrageous right away. But you know the the Google X. 355 00:23:29,11 --> 00:23:32,04 Itself was very cool it's we don't we don't need to get 356 00:23:32,05 --> 00:23:36,24 a lot of access to it but we got to do walk around the grounds we got in the capped 357 00:23:36,25 --> 00:23:43,04 Erie. And it's pretty pretty neat experience overall pretty pretty cool company. I 358 00:23:43,05 --> 00:23:47,38 think aside from that the actual Google experience that some of the most fun I had 359 00:23:47,39 --> 00:23:51,16 was just visiting with the other started founders the other people it was extremely 360 00:23:51,16 --> 00:23:55,21 . I don't know friendly it wasn't a competition it was 361 00:23:55,22 --> 00:23:56,70 a world of going together hanging out 362 00:23:56,71 --> 00:24:00,91 a google and were all sort of just really excited to be there but just hearing the 363 00:24:00,92 --> 00:24:06,31 stories from Tennessee and New York and the valley itself like all these startup 364 00:24:06,32 --> 00:24:08,79 founders from all of the nation in the different experiences that we had with 365 00:24:08,80 --> 00:24:09,90 raising money and starting 366 00:24:09,91 --> 00:24:15,99 a company and recruiting and all of the things that were sort of. Fortunate to be 367 00:24:16,00 --> 00:24:19,26 in North Dakota about Actually I think it's one that's actually 368 00:24:19,27 --> 00:24:23,89 a really good takeaway is that the factory or North Dakota actually help us 369 00:24:23,90 --> 00:24:28,26 a lot in this particular situation and I think the goal of eleven is to bring in 370 00:24:28,27 --> 00:24:33,74 startups from outside of Silicon Valley. To Silicon Valley to be able to pitch in 371 00:24:33,75 --> 00:24:37,34 and have exposure to so the value festers in Silicon Valley advisors and all those 372 00:24:37,35 --> 00:24:41,75 types of things so that they're there and they're trying to take outside in type of 373 00:24:41,76 --> 00:24:46,44 approach and so I think in some ways it was actually easier to get to Google from 374 00:24:46,45 --> 00:24:50,08 here then probably if you're in their own backyard in their own backyard there is 375 00:24:50,09 --> 00:24:53,02 a lot of noise and walking through Street San Francisco there's no there's not 376 00:24:53,03 --> 00:24:54,52 a room that you go by winter so we talk about 377 00:24:54,53 --> 00:24:59,33 a startup valuations and all kinds of fun but it's crazy there it's you know it's 378 00:24:59,34 --> 00:25:03,24 hard to get noticed and some of that too so. That's 379 00:25:03,25 --> 00:25:05,28 a pretty good pretty good thing from 380 00:25:05,29 --> 00:25:11,55 a quite quiet place that doesn't have as much activity and best of all. I guess I'm 381 00:25:11,56 --> 00:25:18,23 just wondering is there any way to protect your intellectual property or is there 382 00:25:18,56 --> 00:25:19,77 a danger of 383 00:25:20,36 --> 00:25:27,33 a larger company going you know we can do that too. Good 384 00:25:27,34 --> 00:25:29,15 question and no there's not really 385 00:25:29,16 --> 00:25:32,63 a great way to meet you can try to pad some things or whatever it's usually just 386 00:25:32,64 --> 00:25:37,35 slow and expensive and not usually worth the effort in particular what we in the 387 00:25:37,36 --> 00:25:42,98 area that we do it because in many ways. What we do is very unique but not 388 00:25:43,06 --> 00:25:45,64 particularly unique we're not the only company in the world that publishing social 389 00:25:45,65 --> 00:25:48,60 messages or helping you publish blog posts we're not the first people ever think of 390 00:25:48,61 --> 00:25:52,36 a calendar right so what we are the first you'll ever brings them together in 391 00:25:52,37 --> 00:25:53,70 a certain way that solves 392 00:25:53,71 --> 00:25:58,50 a very specific problem that customers have like the success the product is that we 393 00:25:58,51 --> 00:25:59,84 saw the probably make we save them 394 00:25:59,85 --> 00:26:04,80 a bunch of time make what they do easier and they like that so the way we approach 395 00:26:04,81 --> 00:26:06,09 it I think it was the way a lot of 396 00:26:06,27 --> 00:26:11,93 a lot of software companies have to approach it is that you. You patented by 397 00:26:11,94 --> 00:26:16,61 relevance by just becoming large enough to where they don't use there's no reason 398 00:26:16,62 --> 00:26:18,76 for a competitor to jump in that's partially like 399 00:26:18,77 --> 00:26:22,21 a price point lower growth at the beginning is the biggest thing that larger 400 00:26:22,22 --> 00:26:27,40 customer base that we can have the better off we're going to be and could have 401 00:26:27,41 --> 00:26:31,68 something bigger competitor come in and build it possibly but they haven't they 402 00:26:31,69 --> 00:26:37,21 might just prefer to buy one all right we last last question that we do every 403 00:26:37,22 --> 00:26:43,84 single week Karl would you do the honors. Just to what can Bismarck Mandan do for 404 00:26:43,85 --> 00:26:46,53 you. It's 405 00:26:46,54 --> 00:26:51,31 a great question I think. To get involved and show up in your startup community 406 00:26:51,59 --> 00:26:55,93 Garrett and I were one of the core core members of Star Bismarck which is 407 00:26:55,94 --> 00:27:00,15 a an organization that we really believe is going to change this market man and 408 00:27:00,16 --> 00:27:04,92 could change the Greater North Dakota area just because of the intensity of what 409 00:27:04,93 --> 00:27:09,63 we're trying to do there is so much already happening and if any of this sounds 410 00:27:09,64 --> 00:27:14,75 interesting or you aspire to do something someday like a tech startup or 411 00:27:14,79 --> 00:27:17,03 a bakery or anything there are 412 00:27:17,04 --> 00:27:21,41 a lot of people out there that you can get connected with that actually helps us so 413 00:27:21,42 --> 00:27:24,83 you ask how you can help us get involved because we need to create 414 00:27:24,87 --> 00:27:26,22 a place that is becoming 415 00:27:26,23 --> 00:27:31,75 a destination for people to come back to and not just believe. Bismark is that is 416 00:27:31,76 --> 00:27:35,38 a great family orientated community it's great to raise a family here but we see 417 00:27:35,39 --> 00:27:39,23 a lot of times young people leave and then they find things and I don't come back 418 00:27:39,24 --> 00:27:43,06 and it's because Bismarck is not that attractiveness that we know it can be and 419 00:27:43,07 --> 00:27:46,70 it's starting to become guys like Keenan and his brothers are creating 420 00:27:46,71 --> 00:27:51,88 a new level of young business owners that are that are basically showing people you 421 00:27:51,89 --> 00:27:55,61 can create great amazing world changing world class companies from Bismarck and you 422 00:27:55,62 --> 00:28:01,47 to right here. For coastal to exist in Bismarck for the future that it's to happen 423 00:28:02,44 --> 00:28:07,57 because if we continue to grow if we continue to need more people and more oil. The 424 00:28:07,58 --> 00:28:12,87 only way we're going to do it is at the start of community grows with us. Or I give 425 00:28:12,88 --> 00:28:13,83 it up for just one year. 426 00:28:49,90 --> 00:28:50,85 To my. 427 00:28:58,92 --> 00:29:01,20 View this program again go to free T.V. 428 00:29:01,21 --> 00:29:07,66 Dot org or watch on community access television. Quarter copy go to enforce free 429 00:29:07,67 --> 00:29:11,94 T.V. Dot org or call two five eight eight seven six seven.