Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping with a Paycheck to over $15M Revenue: SoPost CEO Jonny Grubin (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise in the second round?

Jonny Grubin: Probably about £300,000. In total, we raised about £900,000.

Sramana Mitra: Excellent. I love capital-efficient businesses.

Jonny Grubin: We’ve got incredible investors, but I never wanted to be making decisions based on what an investor might want. The way we built the business means that we can do things my way. When the pandemic hit, a lot of businesses had to make decisions. We were able to make the decisions that were right for the long-term health and success of our team and customers, because there wasn’t an institution breathing down our necks.

Sramana Mitra: All the techniques and principles that you’ve discussed so far continue through the years following 2015?

Jonny Grubin: Yes. We moved away from solely gifting samples. The surface level has increased. The technology is greater. The core of it is the infrastructure for online sampling.

Sramana Mitra: How many people do you have?

Jonny Grubin: There are 75 of us.

Sramana Mitra: All over the world?

Jonny Grubin: Yes. We have a big team in the US – mainly in New York. We have people in France. We have people in Germany. We are going to be recruiting in other markets soon. We operate in 18 countries today.

Sramana Mitra: What percentage of the business is the beauty industry?

Jonny Grubin: 80%. Beauty is perfect for sampling. What was interesting is that since the pandemic, the concentration in beauty has decreased. Out of necessity, some other industries were forced to work with us. We’ve seen a lot of rapid growth in other areas as well.

Sramana Mitra: What year did you hit the $5 million revenue point?

Jonny Grubin: That would have been in 2018.

Sramana Mitra: Then the pandemic accelerated your business.

Jonny Grubin: I feel bad saying it, but the pandemic was good to us. We had two months which were terrible. The world shut down. The month after was a record month for us not just in terms of sales but also volume through our platform. The month after that, it was a record again. In the last 12 months, we’ve doubled the business in terms of sales and headcount.

Sramana Mitra: In 2021, what’s your number?

Jonny Grubin: I can’t share that number.

Sramana Mitra: A range is fine.

Jonny Grubin: It’ll be between $15 million and $20 million.

Sramana Mitra: How are you selling? Is it direct?

Jonny Grubin: Most of our business is inbound today. We have a very small team that’s totally dedicated to sales. I’ve seen businesses that really focus on building the sales team first and then the customer success structure second. They would have these organizations that are amazing at selling, but then they would churn through customers because they couldn’t deliver.

My focus was to get the product right first. I’m so pleased that we did do that. We do such a good job for our customers that they recommend us to their competitors. Someone will move from one brand to another and they’ll take us with them. Of the outbound selling, we used to do a lot in-person. A lot of it is online – email and socials.

Sramana Mitra: I love the story. You hit so many of my favorite ways of building businesses. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping with a Paycheck to over $15M Revenue: SoPost CEO Jonny Grubin
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