– Nathan introduces Sharat and Ravi to the show 02:23 – Sharat and Ravi were classmates since fifth grade and were roommates in college 02:53 – MobStac is trying to solve the problem of online to offline device connections 03:04 – They use the technology of WiFi, bluetooth and beacons in mobile devices 03:17 – Beaconstac is one of MobStac’s products 03:22 – It is a SaaS-based product that uses Bluetooth beacon technology 03:29 – It allows businesses to gather analytics 03:34 – It charges monthly 03:47 – Beaconstac is MobStac’s main revenue stream 04:08 – Businesses use bluetooth beacons that can be deployed to physical stores 04:18 – Beaconstac’s platform can then be used to track marketing and analytics 04:27 – Pricing starts at $49 to $99 monthly 04:34 – The price will vary depending on the number of beacons deployed in any physical location 04:45 – Average cost per beacon is $5 monthly which is on top of the starting price 05:25 – Beaconstac has a mixed group of customers, from mom and pop stores to enterprises 05:57 – Some would pay $50 a month and $5000 a month for others 06:04 – There are currently around 10K beacons deployed in total 06:27 – MobStac is a software company 07:03 – MobStac has partnered with a Chinese OEM who makes the hardware 07:35 – The pay for the hardware is a one-time cost 07:40 – “You own the beacons once you pay for the beacons” 07:43 – Charge per beacon is $22 07:50 – The margin is very small 08:07 – They make revenue mostly from the software and not from the hardware 08:15 – MobStac was launched in 2010 08:24 – It was focused in building products in the mobile space 09:20 – After pivoting, first year revenue was not zero but it was small 09:35 – 2014 revenue was less than $250K with 10-15 people on the team 09:54 – Current team size is 20 10:00 – The company is based in Bangalore, India but Sharat goes to New York as well 10:17 – Last month total MRR is close to $25K 10:22 – Target ARR by the end of 2017 is 500K 10:37 – Which was only from the Beaconstac product 10:56 – Beaconstac currently has 100 customers 11:12 – One of Beaconstac’s biggest customer is Google India 11:14 – Google has deployed over 2000 beacons at 117 train stations 11:28 – It is the largest public Wi-Fi project in the world 11:32 – The beacons are used to send notifications and awareness to people who are waiting at the stations 11:46 – Sample notification 12:20 – MobStac has raised $3.5M 13:07 – The strangest customer acquisition strategy they’ve done 14:10 – Google has made the beacon technology compliant with the chrome browser 14:23 – Someone who is near a beacon can receive a notification as long as he has a chrome browser and bluetooth on; no need to download an app 15:15 – One of their customers is a freelancer who bought a beacon so whenever he goes to an event, the beacon will send a notification to other attendees to market his services 15:56 – MobStac isn’t spending anything on paid marketing 16:01 – Ravi does some content marketing for the company 16:37 – Cap table 17:31 – Sharat and Ravi still own more than half of the company 19:00 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Don’t be scared to pivot if it is for the betterment of your company. The easiest and cheapest way to market your product is by using it. Entrepreneurship is definitely not an easy route—prepare your mindset for a rough (but worth it) journey.   Resources Mentioned: Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives