Magnus Åström. He's the CEO and founder of Now Interact, a machine-learning, SaaS platform for omni channel optimization. He's also the founder of InLead, a business consultant and operations company which was sold in 2010 and prior to that, he was founder of Primelog, a transportation management SaaS platform which was sold in 2006. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Blue Ocean Strategy What CEO do you follow? –  N/A Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "It's all about focus"   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces  to the show 02:17 – Primelog started in 2000 02:29 - Primelog connects transportation providers with transportation buyers 02:57 - Annual revenue 03:10 – Primelog was sold to Swedish group 04:44 – They raised 4.5M 04:57 – Inlead's idea is to help customers sell in C-level 05:39 – Inlead turned out to be too heavy on the consultancy side, so Magnus sold it 05:48 – It didn't turn out as a software play 06:10 – Inlead's annual revenue was $1.5 M 06:27 – Now Interact offers machine-based algorithm software to large businesses 06:40 – The software personalizes how each customer is offered a customer service channel 07:00 – Businesses get less calls from customer service 07:30 – Now Interact tracks the data of how customers behave on a website and how they interact with a customer service 08:06 – Magnus goal is to get telco giants like AT&T and Verizon as customers 09:04 – Now Interact  has a group that chooses their customization 09:22 – Now Interact is a SaaS model 09:31 – Average customer pay per month is $10K 09:39 – Now Interact was founded in 2010 09:45 – Now Interact raised $100K in 2012 10:46 – Now Interact has raised a total of $7M 11:20 – Customer churn 11:31 – Team size 11:47 – Headquartered in Stockholm 12:04 – CAC is $30K 12:22 – Now Interact has salespeople and are doing paid content marketing 12:58 – "Sales play a lot" 13:30 – Magnus discusses what they’ll do with the capital they've raised 13:45 – Some would go to the expansion in the USA 14:05 – 2015 total revenue 14:30 – 2016 total revenue 15:00 – Magnus shared how he negotiated for the valuation 15:45 – The top 3 most important terms when negotiating 15:48 – The preference structure, the lock-in and the investors you want to have 18:00 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: You can choose to close your company if it is not going in the direction you intended it to go. Valuation is not always everything—there are more things to consider when negotiating. Stay focused, don't take on more than you can handle.   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