In Episode #558, I interview David Darmanin. He’s the CEO and founder of HotJar. Over the 12 years before founding HotJar, he generated hundreds of millions of dollars in growth consulting small to Fortune 500 businesses. He’s got multiple teams, developed brands, and ran hundreds of tests for his clients spanning across 19 languages, 12 currencies, and 13 different industries. HotJar is now used in over 150 sites around the world and the company is growing to €3 million euros in just under one year. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing What CEO do you follow? – Jay Simons 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? – I wished I truly understood what marketing was Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:18 – I introduce David to the show 03:03 – HotJar is a tool that allows site owners to see how their users are using their websites 03:30 – Once you know the customer experience, it is easier to see what to improve next 03:45 – Nathan experienced HotJar himself, in his website 04:10 – HotJar is careful about what data to show in regards to privacy 05:05 – HotJar’s technology was expensive 05:30 – HotJar has a premium model 05:51 – Average customer pay per month is €50 06:10 – It was only €30 when HotJar started 06:33 – HotJar is currently serving 10K customers 06:50 – The number of sites each customer has 07:30 – ARR 07:40 – MRR 07:55 – Revenue goal for 2017 08:15 – HotJar currently has a team of 22 people and 8 on the leadership team 08:35 – There are 5 people in the founding team 09:14 – There are 4 big pillars: marketing, customer success, product, and operation 09:57 – Gross customer churn is higher than net negative churn 11:05 – “We are the dropping the smaller customers, but we are retaining and expanding the bigger customers” 11:20 – Both have less than 10% monthly churn 11:41 – HotJar was founded in 2014 12:20 – “If you truly want to create a premium company and not just like a trial model which is disguised as a premium, you really need to think about how does that free package stand on its own 2 feet” 12:43 – HotJar minimized the number of interface and allowed users to delete them and create new ones 13:21 – David does not track the time the customer has converted from free to premium, but they track the cohorts 14:00 – CAC is extremely conservative 15:04 – The premium aspect Hotjar offers is brand building 15:50 – There is brand value in doing different types of campaigns 16:17 – HotJar is bootstrapped 16:25 – HotJar sees other players who have raised capital 17:14 – HotJar does not see raising capital as an advantage 17:34 – HotJar gets a lot of referrals 18:10 – HotJar just recently started with paid advertising 18:40 – HotJar has an investment target model 19:10 – HotJar has used this model to offer flexibility and freedom 20:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Churn is one of the biggest challenges of a SaaS business. If you truly want to create a premium company and product—think about how that free package stands on its own two feet. Check your options because NOT raising capital can be very possible and advantageous for you.