$70k ARR to $500k ARR in 12 Months [My Plan]

Hello Hacker Fam 👋🏼

editors note: I love you guys

Last year I acquired a company called Median off of MicroAcquire.

I financed the purchase at $280k 🤯

What is Median you ask? It's basically the worlds fastest screen share platform.

Right now it does about $70k in ARR.

I plan to grow it to $500k in ARR within the next 12 months.

Here is my plan

Step 1 - AppSumo

On March 17th we go live with an AppSumo promotion. For those of you who don't know, AppSumo is Groupon for SaaS companies. They are basically an email newsletter with INSANE Software discounts.

Interesting fact: the average AppSumo deal does between $150k and $250k

Our AppSumo rep projects that we will do about $200k, of which we take home $50k (not ARR, just cash).

The numbers

• AppSumo has 1 million subscribers
• $200k at $60 a license is 3,333 new customers
• That's a 0.3% conversation rate 😬

My Opinion
I am getting paid (up to) $50k to reach 1,000,000 people. Also $250,000 is recognizable revenue on the P&L.

Conclusion

• We have (up to) $50,000 to spend on Marketing & Dev.
• ARR impact = ZERO

Step 2 - LiveChat

Median is an amazing screen share tool, BUT most support interactions that require screen share start on other apps. For example, ticketing tools, chat tools, call centers, etc. Today Median integrates with 11 popular chat tools.

Integrations include: LiveChat, Drift, Intercom, Belco, ChatBeacon, Chatra, Olark, Re:amaze, SnapEngage, Tawk.to, Slaask

Recently I asked LiveChat's partner team why they promote SnapCall so heavily... Their answer was "They pay us"...

After 6 months of work, we have designed an integration with LiveChat that allows LiveChat customers to use Median inside of LiveChat. Basically full screen share while chatting.

Here is a screen shot

This app will allow LiveChat customers to add Median with 1 click. Through this partnership LiveChat manages all the billing. This new feature is a win/win/win.

The Numbers

• The goal is $100k ARR
• $25 per seat = $300 ARR per user
• That's 333 seats to make $100k ARR

My Opinion
We our average LiveChat customer today has 15 seats. If we land 22 new logos we will hit $100k ARR. That's 2 new customers a month. According to the LiveChat team there are over 33,000 customers. IMO $100k ARR is a conservative number.

Go Live Date = April 1st (hopefully MUCH sooner)

Rolling Conclusion

• $50,000 in the bank
• 1 million unique views
• $100k ARR

Step 3 - Median Video

One of the main challenges with Median today is communicating while screen sharing. I spent about $30,000 on a developer from Toptal to build a LIVE streaming backend to median.

Pro Tip: NEVER use Toptal. If you need context, ask in the comments

This new feature allows you to turn you product in a Zoom style confrence with 1 click. No invites, No downloads, No installs

I am biased, but this new feature is truly INSANE. If you hit our demo site at www.Median.video right now, I can pop on the screen and talk to you with 1 click.

Think Full Video and Audio chat for your website with screen share.

Go Live Date = March 1st

The Numbers

• The goal is $200k ARR
• $50 per seat = $600 ARR per user
• That's 333 seats to make $200k ARR or 33 logos with 10 users

My Opinion
This project has been done for a while and has secretly been shown to a number of people. In general the reactions are crazy. Here is a Tweet we got from @samparr

On top of that, it's an amazing sales tool. I was able to meet the teams at ActiveCampaign, Wistia, SimilarWeb, Peloton and more through cold email. All of which are on a proof of concept right now 😬

The other reason I love this feature... It is not included in our AppSumo launch because it requires per minute usage charges that we can't support on a Lifetime deal. Which means, if AppSumo customers want our video product they will have to convert to a MRR plan. Hello more revenue 👋🏼

As far as promotion of this project goes, we are looking to start with ProductHunt, followed by a Facebook and YouTube Ads strategy.

Rolling Conclusion

• $50,000 in the bank
• 1 million unique views
• $300k ARR

Step 4 - Producthunt

I understand this one sounds a little crazy but hear me out. Before this post there is a HIGH probability that you never knew Median existed. The plan is to leverage Producthunt (and other sites like it) to build a marketing campaign around each one of our integrations.

Fore Example:

• Add Screen Share to Intercom
• Add Screen share to Drift
• Add Screen Share to Tawk.to
• Add Screen Share to [insert product here]

The Numbers

• Goal $200k ARR
• Seats needed 667

My Opinion
That is a BIG ask for the marketing team. We need to pick up 667 seats across 11 integrations. That's 61 seats per integration. Do I think we can get 61 users per Producthunt campaign... NO... BUT if we slap some SEO in there along with a sprinkle of targeted FB Ads... I think we will be in good shape.

If we move our Billing to Annually (coming soon).. I think we will be in GREAT shape...

Rolling Conclusion

• $50,000 in the bank
• 1 million unique views
• $500k ARR

Step 5 - Partnerships (upside)

After speaking with LiveChat I quickly learned that almost everyone with a marketplace would LOVE to have us. I just learned we have over 100 installs on Intercom, which means we qualify for co-marketing. Hell yeah! Also, InContact, Genesys, and TalkDesk reached out to us and asked us to build apps for their marketplace 😁 Each of which have a revenue share model which we LOVE.

We recently finished a partnership with Dixa that should be going live soon and have long term goals to build integrations with Zendesk, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk, and more.

The Numbers

• Goal Unknown
• ARR TBD

My Opinion
Partnerships seem like they could be our largest and easiest distribution strategy. If the partner offers Rev share it is a true win/win/win. The customer gets an easy to install, fast, screen share product that will save them a TON of time. The Partner gets to recognize the 100% of the revenue on their P&L while picking up "free" cashflow. We get fully automated billing via the partner, ability to leverage their sales teams, and the benefit of co-marketing activities.

Rolling Conclusion

• $50,000 in the bank
• 1 million unique views
• $500k ARR
• $750,000 in Revenue for 2022
• Minimum 5 new partnership

Editors Note

This is a "PLAN" meaning it has NOT happened. There is a good chance that none of this happens and I shit the bed. Which would suck cause...

I did spend thousands building a video product
I did spend thousands re-building a LiveChat app
I did spend thousands designing a custom onboarding for AppSumo

HOPFULLY it was not all for nothing...

Would LOVE to hear your thoughts.

PS: If you are interested in following along with this "Plan" as it plays out, throw me a follow and IH will update you via email when I post.

or

Hit me up on Twitter

Cheers,