A Successful Husband-Wife Team: Moonfruit Cofounders Wendy Tan White and Joe White (Part 6)

Sramana: How do the two of you divide your roles in the company?

Wendy Tan White: I focus on the vision, brand, and growth of the company. Joe understands the operations and is strong on the structures of the business.

Joe White: That’s why we demerged Moonfruit from the French company we bought once we realized Moonfruit had stable acquisition costs. We recognized the opportunity for growth was different for each company. As members of management team, we felt our hearts were with Moonfruit. The French team is still doing very well and even today we sell each other’s software and products.

Sramana: Once you reach the stage where you know how many customers you will get and what your retention rates are, it is much easier to raise money.

Joe White: It becomes rational and mechanical.

Sramana: What kind of revenue levels did you have? What were the metrics of the business?

Joe White: We did the demerger in August 2010. In doing so, we took in $2.5 million from a U.S. investor. It was a clean, fresh start for us as a company. At that point revenues were about $2.5 million a year. We have more than doubled that over the past 18 months. We are on a 50% growth curve.

Sramana: What are your acquisition channels?

Wendy Tan White: The paid channels are primarily PPC. We have less than a $100 acquisition cost, and our LTV is closer to $450. We are in the situation now where we make money by acquiring customers.

Sramana: Is your assumption that the customer stays for multiple years?

Wendy Tan White: It is, but it is also discounted back.

Joe White: We have reasonably accurate retention rates for the products we sell.

Wendy Tan White: They are between 80% and 90% for the various products we sell.

Sramana: There are a number of small business commerce tools. What made you want to focus on an e-commerce solution?

Wendy Tan White: Our customers were clamoring for a simpler commerce tool. There are things out there today that require more work on the back end. Our customers wanted something that was more like Tumblr for shop building rather than a back-end commerce solution.

PayPal actually approached us because they noticed a lot of micro traders in the UK were onboarding through Moonfruit. Our UI tools are very good, and that attracted them. They asked us if they could help us launch that tool, so in October we launched ShopBuilder.

Our customers were also frustrated with having to deal with mobile solutions and Facebook and other social media solutions. They wanted to design their brand and presence only once, not three times. We built something that does exactly that. You can design your shop on your desktop, and it will automatically publish on mobile as well as directly to Facebook. The only place a user leaves Facebook is when he or she checks out. Around 10% of our U.S. shops have a Facebook presence. That launch went very well with PayPal. We have had 130,000 shops built since October.

This segment is part 6 in the series : A Successful Husband-Wife Team: Moonfruit Cofounders Wendy Tan White and Joe White
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