Buying Back a Business: ShareBuilder 401k CEO Stuart Robertson (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the technology angle to this?

Stuart Robertson: All our plans are sold online. We enable anyone to come to the site, get a quote, and buy the plan.

Sramana Mitra: How do people become aware of the fact that you exist?

Stuart Robertson: Through tons of SEO. Some of our key successes early on that allowed us to reach broad audiences quickly was our deal with Costco to provide an exclusively-priced Sharebuilder 401k product for their members. That allowed us to market to their client bases. We did a few others but that was the one that worked. We were really good at digital marketing.

Sramana Mitra: Is it a digital sale or a digital lead generation?

Stuart Robertson: Both. We do back it with highly-skilled advisors. The 401k has a lot of details.

Sramana Mitra: Do your clients come to the website and buy themselves or do you need to call them and walk them through?

Stuart Robertson: It’s all of these. It depends. Many businesses get a quote and buy. Our whole online experience has everything to get you through the process. We’re trying to provide digital ease with a high-service backing. It’s what we’ve evolved to.

Sramana Mitra: What year did you start this?

Stuart Robertson: We launched in late 2005. 

Sramana Mitra: What are some of the inflection points of the business?

Stuart Robertson: The first one is, we got up and running. We got search working for us. It was 2007 when we got onto Costco. That gave us our first influx. 

Sramana Mitra: Costco as a client?

Stuart Robertson: They have a lot of business clients. They have a lot of consumer clients too. They would look for certain vendors that provide low-cost offerings. They would allow you to market both through email and brochure. We were always looking at what works on their site. If they have an email blast, what sort of banner works?

The main thing is, most small businesses don’t think they even have a plan. What is the fastest way to let someone know that they can have a plan and that it’s not going to be expensive?

They gave us the audience to market to. It allowed us to learn how to talk to potential prospects. That was a huge inflection point for us. It cut down our learning by two or three years. We then got bought. The bigger change was that CapitalOne bought us in 2012. Myself and some other former Sharebuilder investors were bought out of this unit. We are not back on our own.

Sramana Mitra: What kind of metrics do you have in the business right now?

Stuart Robertson: We serve over 6,500 businesses across the US. We’ve been growing at about a thousand plans a year. We’re still seeing some decent sales over the last few months.

Sramana Mitra: What’s the revenue level?

Stuart Robertson: I think we’ll come in around $12 million.

Sramana Mitra: The buyout was entirely management-financed or did you have to use a private equity firm?

Stuart Robertson: I found other investors. I have a member who has a VC. 

Sramana Mitra: Got it. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Buying Back a Business: ShareBuilder 401k CEO Stuart Robertson
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