EP 327: This B2B SaaS Companies Prevents Death With Wearables

Nathan Klarer, CEO at Bridgecrest Medical. Nathan’s building a B2B SaaS company that uses wearable technology to minimise accidents in mines and oil rigs. He’s 25 years old and has already raised $1.3 million. Tune in to hear about what’s next for wearable technology, how Nathan’s driving sales, and why he wishes he’d started sooner. Famous 5: Favorite Book? – Influence What CEO do you follow? — Larry Ellison Favourite online tool? — Nova Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — To have more confidence in myself and start earlier Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan’s introduction 01:50 – Welcoming Nathan to the show 02:17 – Before Bridgecrest, Nathan worked in equity finance 02:51 – Bridgecrest is a B2B SaaS company that incorporates wearable technology into a platform that helps heavy industries prevent accidents 03:38 – Currently using wearable technology to minimise the fatigue risk of oil rig operators 04:20 – Sell directly to the operations or tech managers of oil and gas companies 04:50 – Annual contracts are in 5-6 figures 05:12 – Customers pay monthly 05:37 – Companies take 3 or 4 year contracts 06:02 – Nathan’s background is in engineering - he saw wearable technology being used for health and decided to bring it onto heavy industrial sites 07:10 – Nathan is the sole founder but has given equity to important team members 08:10 – Have raised about $1.3 million in total 08:36 – “We needed to raise that capital to build the product we wanted to build” 09:07 – Most of the costs are engineering for analytic software 09:34 – Launched the product last year 09:48 – Currently have 10-20 customers 09:40 – “We’re looking to build deep relationships with our customers” - no one has churned yet 10:50 – Sales can come through a single site in heavy industry - followed by upsales at the corporate level 11:30 – Launched in the last quarter of 2015, and made less than $1 million 12:40 – Keen to be adopted by big industry players in 2016 13:45 – As the CEO, Nathan now spends more time working on sales than engineering 10:30 – Connect with Nathan on Twitter 15:20 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: If you’re building a product, raise enough capital to get it right Getting the right team around you is all-important. Make sure your founding team complements your weaknesses and buys into the company’s vision Have confidence in your skills and your abilities. Start your company sooner. 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. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives