Ep 143 Pam OHara of BatchBook joins Nathan.
Pam O’Hara is the CEO of Batchbook social CRM, which she co-founded in 2006. She is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. As a businesswoman and mother, she is committed to running a company that can adapt to the unique needs of both its employees and its customers in order to foster better organization, increased productivity and more balanced lifestyles.
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3 Key Points:

As a business grows, it gains more sophisticated channels for customer acquisition.
It’s important for small businesses to be able to easily add employees and partners to their online communication networks – and Batchbook does just that.
Learning is a lifelong process, fail hard and fail fast instead of concentrating on getting every little thing right.

Episode Notes:

01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
01:42 – Pam joins the show
02:31–  Small businesses needed an online tool to keep up with their advertisers, customers, and speakers
03:20 – Pam met her lead developer for Batchbook on the playground where their children played
05:20 – Batchbook, an online service offers two pricings, 33$ or 46$ per month billed annually
05:30 – They are a 9-year-old company that is self-funded and has around 20 team members
05:50 – Batchbook is used by tens of thousands of clients – free and paid
06:36 – Batchbook was the first online organizational and sharing service to offer an unlimited user plan
08:19 – They charge by successful relationships that translate into contacts
09:36 – The average business using Batchbook pays 42$ a month
09:51 – Pam looked at things in terms of 10K increments while Batchbook grew
11:00 – For the first 10K in revenue, Pam’s priority was getting Batchbook’s name out through word of mouth and telephone (this was before Facebook was popular)
11:51 – As a business grows, it gains more sophisticated channels for customer acquisition
13:01 – Batchbook uses channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for customer acquisition -Targeting a very specific type of customer is usually more successful
13:31 – A big part of Batchbook is its integration with other software products
14:28 – Batchbook’s churn rate is private, but the majority of customer’s will stay into the second month (mostly because of the free 30 day trial)
15:45 – After the second month, Batchbook has over a 95% retention rate
16:13 – Currently Batchbook isn’t seeking outside funding
16:30 – Pam’s team is launching a new standalone product in the first quarter of next year
17:25 – Currently Batchbook is not at break-even due to marketing spend investments
20:07 – Famous Five

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Famous 5:

Favorite Book?— The Upside of Down by Megan McArdle and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
What CEO do you follow?— Chris Schroeder
What is your favorite online tool?— Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Pam gets 1 to 24 hours of sleep every night – highly dependent on her three kids.
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Continue to learn and make mistakes instead of concentrating on doing everything right.

 
Resources Mentioned:

Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
Batchbook – Pam’s business
The Upside of Down by Megan McArdle – A book Pam stands by
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz – another book Pam stands by
Slack – Pam’s favorite online tool
Chris Schroeder – CE