We’ve recently expanded the coverage for FIF to founders outside our portfolio to help shine a light on the amazing builders in the broader start-up community!
This month, I’m joined by John Ballinger (Founder and Chief Tree Planting Officer ) from Goodsign. John was previously Co-founder and CTO of AskNicely, a customer experience platform helping over 1,000 businesses globally and their frontline teams deliver great experiences using real-time customer feedback, who have raised over $15m to date from prominent VCs such as Nexus Venture Partners, Blackbird Ventures and Icehouse Ventures.
In this conversation, we explore John’s “whys” for Goodsign, a better way of delivering value to customers and his mission to plant 1,000,000 trees along the way!
Effortless e-signatures that don't cost the earth, we're planting one million trees.
John: Out of sheer frustration with the market-leading product. When I tried to use a feature offered and it wasn't available on our plan. That was the final straw. I left the company I had founded and started GoodSign.
I also wanted to try different ideas around transparency, pricing and social good. E-signatures is a well-established category. If you're going to make any impact, you need to be different on every level.
John: The largest two companies I can think of today that are usage-based are AWS and Twilio. You can start off spending $5 a month on their services and scale to tens of thousands of dollars. It's brilliant. I've adopted usage-based as a defensive strategy. All large companies have a sales team. These teams are incentivised to sell as much as possible, upfront, for long periods, using complex contracts. Usage-based requires no contracts, no term agreements, and you can get started for $5.
Usage-based pricing might be the Achilles' heel of large businesses. My intuition says, if you are going to tackle this pricing model, leave the sales team at the front door.
A distinct advantage of usage-based is the ability to innovate within your product. For example, getting documents signed quickly is a key problem. It would be easy to offer a service that costs 100 credits, to get an important contract signed quicker. Now the cost of a transaction can be matched to the value it provides.
John: 1,000,000 - that's a lot of trees. Purpose has a cost, but that cost can still be a line item within your financial accounts. Trees is a line item within the marketing budget. Instead of sending this marketing money to Google or Facebook, it's spent on trying to save the planet. This resonates with people.
Why did I choose trees? A simple filter I have is to imagine I'm 80. From here, look back at your life and think "what have I done for the world?". For me, I'm scared by global warming. When my time is up, I want to say "I tried to make a difference". More people should try this.
Three things:
1. That the founders reading this will find a purpose that they believe in. Something big. Something they can attach a goal to. When your time is up, will you be proud of what you've achieved?
2. That their companies become more transparent. GoodSign shares sales revenue, trees planted, customer growth and costs. Today our decisions are simple, but as we go forward we will share those. Transparency puts a very strong filter on the decisions you make. Would you make the same decision if you didn't have to share the outcome?
3. We plant 1 million trees on this planet we call home. Make a difference now, join me.
Learn more about Goodsign.
Important information
This information is for accredited, qualified, institutional, wholesale or sophisticated investors only and is provided by Aura Group and related entities and is only for information and general news purposes. It does not constitute an offer or invitation of any sort in any jurisdiction. Moreover, the information in this document will not affect Aura Group’s investment strategy for any funds in any way. The information and opinions in this document have been derived from or reached from sources believed in good faith to be reliable but have not been independently verified. Aura Group makes no guarantee, representation or warranty, express or implied, and accepts no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of this information. No reliance should be placed on any assumptions, forecasts, projections, estimates or prospects contained within this document. You should not construe any such information or any material, as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. This information is intended for distribution only in those jurisdictions and to those persons where and to whom it may be lawfully distributed. All information is of a general nature and does not address the personal circumstances of any particular individual or entity. The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the author as of the date indicated and any such views are subject to change at any time based upon market or other conditions. The information may contain certain statements deemed to be forward-looking statements, including statements that address results or developments that Aura expects or anticipates may occur in the future. Any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. This information is for the use of only those persons to whom it is given. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not disclose, redistribute or use the information in any way.
Aura Group subsidiaries issuing this information include Aura Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd (Registration No. 201537140R) which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a holder of a Capital Markets Services Licence, and Aura Capital Pty Ltd (ACN 143 700 887) Australian Financial Services Licence 366230 holder in Australia.