EP 587: Revue Raises $350k, Helping 1000 Customers Send Personal Newsletters with CEO Martijn De Kuijper

Martijn de Kuijper, founder of Revue. He’s a product guy and his company’s focus is to get your thoughts to people’s inboxes via newsletters. He previously founded Fosbury and Yunoo. Martijn is also a Techstars alum. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? –  N/A Favorite online tool? — Intercom Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Just keep doing what you’re doing and don’t get distracted by what other people are saying”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan introduces Martijn to the show 02:10 – Revue focuses on personal newsletters like editorial newsletters 02:45 – Revue helps people share their content through newsletters 02:50 – Revue currently has a free and premium model 03:20 – Average customer pay per month is $7 03:45 – Martijn is a listener of The Top 04:10 – Revue was launched in January 2015 04:27 – Martijn started Revue on his own as a side project 04:30 – Martijn was working on the acquisition of Fosbury 04:59 – Martijn shares what Fosbury is about 05:24 – Martijn was in Techstars Texas 05:44 – Team size is 5 06:18 – Fosbury wasn’t earning 07:08 – The money that Martijn received from the assets 07:42 – Martijn used the money from selling Fosbury to start Revue 08:12 – Martijn also sold Yunoo when he was 26 08:30 – The buyer is the software company AFAS from the Netherlands 09:20 – Martijn has raised $350K for Revue in convertible note 09:50 – Terms on the convertible note 10:05 – Revue currently has a thousand paying customers 10:23 – Martijn is currently focusing on growth rather than revenue 10:48 – Revue has 20K registered users at the moment with 10% active users 10:57 – Active users are the ones who send at least 1 email a month 11:27 – Monthly churn 11:35 – No paid CAC 11:49 – Revue has a content marketer 12:24 – Revue is currently sending 2M emails, monthly 12:40 – First year revenue 13:00 – Total 2016 revenue 13:26 – Martijn’s current side project 14:30 – Where Martijn got his marketing ploy idea 16:30 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Don’t be afraid to sell your company if it comes down to it. Study and strategize a marketing plan that works and at no cost. Just keep doing what you’re doing and don’t let what others say distract you.   Resources Mentioned: Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal 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. 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 Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives