20 min listen
EP 457: 4000+ Units Sold Teaching Kids How To Code, $2m+ Raised with Piper
EP 457: 4000+ Units Sold Teaching Kids How To Code, $2m+ Raised with Piper
ratings:
Length:
18 minutes
Released:
Oct 24, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Tommy Gibbons, a former employee of both Goldman Sachs and Fundera. Listen to learn how Tommy met his Princeton bosses, and how he used those connections to get into Piper. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – N/A What CEO do you follow? – Mark Pavlyukovskyy – his boss Favorite online tool? — Zapier Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year-old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew how I could” Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan introduces Tommy to the show 01:41 – Piper is a guide for kids ages 8 – 12 to build their first computer 02:02 – Apple’s co-founder review on Piper 02:16 – Piper has more than 4,000 customers since launching last year 02:28 – Looking into subscription plans in the future 02:45 – Piper was launched in Kickstarter in June 2015 03:10 – Sold their first product in December 2015 03:20 – They had craigslist posters 03:40 – Title of craigslist poster was “Workers needed for packing of children’s toys in Long Beach” 04:23 – Total funding raised is $ 2.3 million 04:47 – Tommy does customer service, retail partnership and ran all school app design 05:10 – Tommy has an equity In Piper 05:40 – Piper has 3 founders 06:20 – Tommy’s approach to Mark regarding his interest in Piper 06:55 – Tommy told Mark about how he can be an advantage to the company 07:30 – Tommy was working for free for a couple of months 09:00 – The Piper question 09:30 – Cost of goods sold 09:45 – Gross margin 10:00 – Reselling 10:23 – Reseller’s price and markup 10:36 – Facebook Ad 11:00 – Reorder rate 11:30 – They are now focusing on the development of Piper computers 11:52 – Revenue goal for 2016 12:00 – Big expectations for Christmas 12:15 – Order baseline 12:55 – Baseline now per month 13:32 – They will be very happy with 8,000 units sold 13:54 – Connect with Tommy through Playpiper.com 14:55 – They do retargeting 15:45 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Don’t just tell your future boss how you can be an asset to the company – show them what you can really do. Because businesses start small, there’s always room to grow. Your degree doesn’t define your future. Resources Mentioned: 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 quality of Toptal developers. 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. Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email. Playpiper.com – Tommy’s company website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Released:
Oct 24, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Aweber Shares Revenue Numbers, Customer Count, Future: Nathan Latka brings you top entrepreneurs daily inspired by Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, NPR, HBR, the StartUp podcast, Art of Charm, Dave Ramsey, Planet Money, APM Marketplace, Mixergy, Seth Godin, #AskGaryVe by SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders