Mark Organ. He’s the founder and CEO of Influitive, helping companies mobilize their advocates to produce massive increases in referral leads, reference calls, social media participation and more. He revolutionized B2B marketing and the founding CEO of Eloqua, the world leader in marketing automation software, which was acquired by Oracle for $871M. In between, he was the go-to marketing consultant for SaaS companies in North America and Asia.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Getting to Yes
What CEO do you follow? – Dara Khosrowshahi
Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “How important it was to build new relationships with people”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show
02:17 – Mark left Eloqua even before the acquisition
- 03:25 – It was the VCs that pushed Mark to leave
- 03:54 – Mark still had a great exit from the company
04:10 – Influitive helps companies grow by getting more value out of their happy customers
04:46 – Mark saw the importance of mobilized customers when he was still in Eloqua
05:13 – Influitive created communities where companies invite their customer advocates
05:51 – ACV is $50K annually
06:10 – Influitive currently has 270 customers
06:33 – ARR is close to $10M
06:51 – it would take 4-5 years for Influitive to reach their $100M ARR mark
07:02 – Influitive was founded in 2010
07:21 – Influitive has raised $50M
- 08:09 – Mark shares why he had to raise
09:13 – Influitive’s growth is faster than Eloqua’s
09:40 – 2016 revenue
10:05 – Influitive is averaging more than 50%, year-over-year growth
10:50 – Influitive is cash flow positive on some months
11:08 – Team size is 125 with 8 people in sales
11:22 – “I want all the sales guys to make money”
- 12:03 – Increased quotas make it impossible for salespeople to hit their numbers
12:55 – CAC is around $40K
14:10 – Payback period is a year to 15 months
17:01 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

VCs are there for a reason, trust them.
Reaching one’s quotas takes a much longer time than it did a decade ago.
Networking and relationships are crucial to your personal and business life.

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

846: SaaS: $50m Raised, $12m+ ARR To Incentivize Reviews and Influencers

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders