633: Pipefy $2.6M Raised, $50k MRR, Helping 400 Customers Organize Processes with CEO Alessio Alionco - a podcast by Nathan Latka

Alessio Alionco. He’s the founder and CEO of Pipefy, which is part of 500 Startups. He’s a passionate product manager.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup
• What CEO do you follow? – Jason Lemkin
• Favorite online tool? — Yesware and Salesforce
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Alessio would tell himself to be aggressive with his goals

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:56 – Nathan introduces Alessio to the show
• 02:12 – Pipefy is a workflow cooperation software
• • 02:21 – Alessio got Pipefy’s idea from his previous company
  • 02:36 – Alessio uses a CRM to manage Pipefy
  • 02:45 – Pipefy has a dozen of processes
• 03:12 – “We coordinate people’s work”
• 03:36 – Pipefy provides guidelines for a smooth, business process
• 03:48 – Pipefy is more of a people coordination solution and Zapier is similar to IFTTT
• 04:00 – Pipefy charges per user, per month
• 04:10 – Average customer fee is $200/month
• 04:20 – Pipefy started at the end of 2014
• • 04:26 – Pipefy had its beta
  • 04:36 – Pipefy released pre-signups in April 2015
  • 04:51 – Pipefy became one of the most voted products of the day
• 05:23 – There was no revenue in 2015
• 05:32 – Pipefy started charging in August 2016
• 05:47 – Pipefy now has more than 400 paying customers
• 06:00 – Average MRR
• 06:54 – Pipefy offered a special price for customers who renew their subscriptions
• 07:00 – Pipefy has more than 60K customers who use them for free
• • 07:24 – Only a small portion of the customers converted
  • 07:40 – SMBs don’t have business processes in place and aren’t willing to pay for one
  • 08:06 – Pipefy wants to focus on companies that are close to being considered enterprise companies
• 08:42 – Pipefy has raised a seed round of $2.2M
• • 08:50 – Some of the investors are Zendesk’s founders, Valour Capital, Redpoint Ventures, FundersClub and AngelList
  • 09:06 – Pipefy has raised a total of $2.6M
• 09:13 – Team size is 33
• • 09:32 – 27 are in Brazil and 6 are in San Francisco
  • 09:55 – Pipefy is still hiring more people
• 10:00 – CAC
• • 10:30 – Overall CAC is around $900 per company
• 10:50 – LTV is still hard to predict
• 11:34 – Pipefy’s per seat pricing
• 12:10 – Pipefy negotiates deals with companies with over 10K employees
• 12:33 – 2017 revenue goal
• 12:50 – “It’s really a huge funnel to raise the seed round”
• • 13:00 – The series A dynamic is completely different
• 13:26 – 2016 total revenue
• 14:00 – Pipefy is aiming for a $200K MRR which is 10x the growth
• 16:05 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• The best time to switch to a paid version of your product requires careful consideration to ensure the conversion takes place.
• Some SMBs rely on free business software and services for their processes—therefore, you may need to adjust your target audience.
• Be aggressive with your goals and just go for it.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• 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
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• 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
• 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

Further episodes of SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Further podcasts by Nathan Latka

Website of Nathan Latka