Zamir Khan

VidHug was sold to Punchbowl in 2021

You received inbound interest from a lot of investment firms, including Sequoia, including Punchbowl, which is a digital invitation and greedy card platform that wound up acquiring you in 2021, I believe, is when it finally closed.

And so you actually stayed working with the acquirer who is now called Sincere. You worked with them for another four years, which is unusual for someone to hang around that long. You didn’t have golden handcuffs for very long, if at all, but recently just what, four or five months ago, you flew the coop, you went solo, you’re hanging out.

I loved continuing to work on Vid U, which became Memento.

The acquirer of VidHug, Punchbowl, is now called Sincere

You received inbound interest from a lot of investment firms, including Sequoia, including Punchbowl, which is a digital invitation and greedy card platform that wound up acquiring you in 2021, I believe, is when it finally closed.

And so you actually stayed working with the acquirer who is now called Sincere. You worked with them for another four years, which is unusual for someone to hang around that long. You didn’t have golden handcuffs for very long, if at all, but recently just what, four or five months ago, you flew the coop, you went solo, you’re hanging out.

I loved continuing to work on Vid U, which became Memento.

Khan stayed with Punchbowl (now Sincere) for four more years after the acquisition

You received inbound interest from a lot of investment firms, including Sequoia, including Punchbowl, which is a digital invitation and greedy card platform that wound up acquiring you in 2021, I believe, is when it finally closed.

And so you actually stayed working with the acquirer who is now called Sincere. You worked with them for another four years, which is unusual for someone to hang around that long. You didn’t have golden handcuffs for very long, if at all, but recently just what, four or five months ago, you flew the coop, you went solo, you’re hanging out.

I loved continuing to work on Vid U, which became Memento.

VidHug was B2C.

Yeah. I think I started at $12 and then I increased to 15. And again, early stage, I was that founder who was like, I was putting 90% off coupons out there just to try to get people to use it, and gradually got away from that.

And they churn every time one time, right? One time.

B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

VidHug had a single one-time payment.

Yeah. I think I started at $12 and then I increased to 15. And again, early stage, I was that founder who was like, I was putting 90% off coupons out there just to try to get people to use it, and gradually got away from that.

And they churn every time one time, right? One time.

B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

VidHug's one-time payment started at $12.

Yeah. I think I started at $12 and then I increased to 15. And again, early stage, I was that founder who was like, I was putting 90% off coupons out there just to try to get people to use it, and gradually got away from that.

And they churn every time one time, right? One time.

B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

VidHug's one-time payment was raised to $15.

Yeah. I think I started at $12 and then I increased to 15. And again, early stage, I was that founder who was like, I was putting 90% off coupons out there just to try to get people to use it, and gradually got away from that.

And they churn every time one time, right? One time.

B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

VidHug had no subscription.

Yeah. I think I started at $12 and then I increased to 15. And again, early stage, I was that founder who was like, I was putting 90% off coupons out there just to try to get people to use it, and gradually got away from that.

And they churn every time one time, right? One time.

B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

Every VidHug customer churned by definition.

Yeah. I think I started at $12 and then I increased to 15. And again, early stage, I was that founder who was like, I was putting 90% off coupons out there just to try to get people to use it, and gradually got away from that.

And they churn every time one time, right? One time.

B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

Zamir Khan's revenue was about $1,000 per month immediately before the pandemic.

And if we smash cut to February of 2020, right before the pandemic starts, you had vid hug up to a thousand dollars a month still on paper use. And so that gives people an idea of you were spending years, nights and weekends to get it from, it was at 600 I think in 2018 and then a thousand dollars a month.

Zamir Khan's revenue was $600 per month in 2018.

And if we smash cut to February of 2020, right before the pandemic starts, you had vid hug up to a thousand dollars a month still on paper use. And so that gives people an idea of you were spending years, nights and weekends to get it from, it was at 600 I think in 2018 and then a thousand dollars a month.

Zamir Khan spent years of nights and weekends getting from $600 per month in 2018 to about $1,000 per month immediately before the pandemic.

And if we smash cut to February of 2020, right before the pandemic starts, you had vid hug up to a thousand dollars a month still on paper use. And so that gives people an idea of you were spending years, nights and weekends to get it from, it was at 600 I think in 2018 and then a thousand dollars a month.

Zamir Khan's April 2020 revenue was more than 100 times the previous monthly revenue.

And to give people an idea, I had said, you went from 250 actives a day up to 5,000 a day by the end of March, and by the end of April, you’re at almost 80,000. So it just, I mean, talk about exponential. And in April, again, we talked about you were at a thousand dollars a month plateaued in April. You did six figures of revenue.

you’ll find out what caused his revenue to explode more than 100 x per month

By the end of April 2020, Zamir Khan had approximately 80,000 daily active users.

And to give people an idea, I had said, you went from 250 actives a day up to 5,000 a day by the end of March, and by the end of April, you’re at almost 80,000. So it just, I mean, talk about exponential. And in April, again, we talked about you were at a thousand dollars a month plateaued in April. You did six figures of revenue.

you’ll find out what caused his revenue to explode more than 100 x per month

Pre-pandemic growth came from those answers continuing to rank.

I was on Quora answering all the special occasion related questions.

you put the Stripe link on, you did a lot of one-time things that don’t scale, like we said, Quora and Reddit, Facebook, you get that link

A lot of people at that time reached out to me say, Hey, I was in a vid hug, or a friend gave me a vid hug, and I love the platform.

Punchbowl's CEO Matt first approached as an investor and later converted to a buyer.

But in 2021 it was Matt is the CEO of Punchbowl reached out again, and instead of investing, he says, maybe we should buy you.

an eventual offer to buy the company for an amount that we don’t disclose on the show

It was seeing that number was surreal and unreal.

my heart was with making sure that they’re feeling secure because the entire company was acquired, the team, I wanted to make sure that they knew that they still have jobs and they’re part of this journey still, and they’re needed with the product.

You didn’t have golden handcuffs for very long, if at all

The acquisition deal was a full company-and-team acquisition.

But in 2021 it was Matt is the CEO of Punchbowl reached out again, and instead of investing, he says, maybe we should buy you.

an eventual offer to buy the company for an amount that we don’t disclose on the show

It was seeing that number was surreal and unreal.

my heart was with making sure that they’re feeling secure because the entire company was acquired, the team, I wanted to make sure that they knew that they still have jobs and they’re part of this journey still, and they’re needed with the product.

You didn’t have golden handcuffs for very long, if at all

The deal had no long golden handcuffs.

But in 2021 it was Matt is the CEO of Punchbowl reached out again, and instead of investing, he says, maybe we should buy you.

an eventual offer to buy the company for an amount that we don’t disclose on the show

It was seeing that number was surreal and unreal.

my heart was with making sure that they’re feeling secure because the entire company was acquired, the team, I wanted to make sure that they knew that they still have jobs and they’re part of this journey still, and they’re needed with the product.

You didn’t have golden handcuffs for very long, if at all

Timing was the real driver of Zamir Khan's deal.

And I remember when you and I talked on the phone, then in that early 2021 timeframe, I was surprised at the amount of money you were going to get because I thought of it as a one-time B2C. My valuation criteria obviously is going to be skew better for B2B for subscription.

I was like, if you don’t sell now, when the pandemic ends, does this keep going or does it not? It doesn’t seem like it will.

And so I was also, because to me, that’s, it’s not platform risk per se, but there’s an existential risk to the revenue.

Zamir Khan's deal process was run in secret from his own team.

this is not something that I wanted to present to my team and say like, Hey, we might sell the company, but it might fall through. So I knew that’s something that I had to do quietly keep the company operating because there was a lot to do, and also have these conversations and go through this due diligence.

And then at times, at one point, the other side went quiet for a long period of time, and that was incredibly stressful for me because I didn’t know what was happening.

but even up until I would say one or two days before closing, and we’re talking about a process that lasted several months, there were points in time where I thought, oh, this might not go through.

Zamir Khan's deal process included a long silent period from the buyer.

this is not something that I wanted to present to my team and say like, Hey, we might sell the company, but it might fall through. So I knew that’s something that I had to do quietly keep the company operating because there was a lot to do, and also have these conversations and go through this due diligence.

And then at times, at one point, the other side went quiet for a long period of time, and that was incredibly stressful for me because I didn’t know what was happening.

but even up until I would say one or two days before closing, and we’re talking about a process that lasted several months, there were points in time where I thought, oh, this might not go through.

Zamir Khan's deal process nearly collapsed right up to a day or two before closing.

this is not something that I wanted to present to my team and say like, Hey, we might sell the company, but it might fall through. So I knew that’s something that I had to do quietly keep the company operating because there was a lot to do, and also have these conversations and go through this due diligence.

And then at times, at one point, the other side went quiet for a long period of time, and that was incredibly stressful for me because I didn’t know what was happening.

but even up until I would say one or two days before closing, and we’re talking about a process that lasted several months, there were points in time where I thought, oh, this might not go through.