Robert Kirstuik, co-founder and CEO of Freshline, discusses how they have grown to over 100 customers with 200% year-over-year growth in the past 12 months, primarily using cold calling. We cover their product, their journey from 0 to 1, their growth journey over the past 12 months, their sales cycle, and their long-term vision.

In this interview, we discuss the following:

• How Freshline helps food wholesalers and distributors become more efficient.
• How they have acquired 100 customers, each with up to 25 warehouses.
• How they are growing at over 200% year-over-year, primarily from cold calling and organic SEO.
• What their cold calling process looks like, with a conversion rate of 2-3% from call to demo.
• How their sales cycle works, taking around 4-5 months.
• Their journey from 0 to 1.
• Their vision, external funding, and team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDQn_KLXjjQ

So you growing a , 200% year over year.

And so just help me understand, right, just from a top of funnel perspective

where you finding all of these, you know, potential leads, right?

What's been working for you in your industry?

um, we're just cold calling all day.

And so we have, we have cold, uh, a team of SDRs that, that have basically been

doing cold calling in the past year.

Um, but before that, I did all the cold calling myself.

Hello

everyone.

Welcome to the PT V SaaS podcast.

I'm your host

Today we have Robert with us.

Uh, hey, Robert.

Welcome to the show.

Hey, thank you.

All right, Robert, so let's, let's get started and let's try to

understand what your company does and why customers pay you money.

Yeah, sure.

So we're, we're an e-commerce and fulfillment platform made for food

distributors and food wholesalers.

Got it.

Yeah.

And just, just.

Uh, just talk a bit more about it, right.

About your product, right?

Yeah.

Just what you can do is just pick one of your customers and just, uh,

perhaps an ideal customer of yours and just help us understand how

exactly you solve their problems.

Yeah, definitely.

So, uh, our typical customer, you know, is a food distributor or a food wholesaler

that might be doing between say, 10 and a hundred million a year in revenue.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, usually food distributors that, uh, are about that size.

They, uh, typically have their own team of sales reps that are,

uh, really feet on the street.

So those sales reps are, uh, going out into the market and trying to

sell, uh, the food wholesalers or food distributors product to restaurants,

grocery stores, um, and retailers.

Um, so really what, what those reps are trying to do is, is drive revenue, but

they're, they're a little bit more unique.

In that, uh, the way that they operate is they're typically

maintaining most of their sales.

So most of their sales come from accounts that they've been working with for, uh,

years and years, and, uh, they don't really have much bandwidth to increase.

Their sales volume and uh, that's because they're taking orders, you know, often

at 1:00 AM 2:00 AM when service at the restaurant will finish and, uh, then they

have to wake up again, you know, at four or 5:00 AM uh, you know, in order to make

sure that all the orders are being entered properly at the production line, uh, you

know, at the food distributor's warehouse.

Mm-hmm.

So, What that leads to is really a lack of ability to drive revenue in the

later half of the day, um, because they, they've already been up for, for so

long, uh, working the business otherwise.

So, um, what our software does is we, uh, basically embed directly into

the food distributor's operations.

So that way, uh, the sales rep, instead of taking orders at 1:00 AM or 2:00 AM

by phone call, voicemail, or text, um, they can actually, uh, get that input.

Directly to Fresh Line, um, which really acts as an API layer that

lives on top of the e r p for the wholesaler or food distributor.

And, um, so we interface directly with that e r P.

We know all the business rules and that really allows us to

ingest that order without the sales rep needing to intervene.

And as a result, The amount of time that they're spending maintaining their

existing accounts dramatically goes down.

And, uh, what we find is we're able to often increase by 50 to

a hundred percent the number of accounts that a sales rep can

handle.

Got it.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Right.

So, yeah, I wanna understand about your customer base here, right?

So like, how many paying customers do you have on your platform as of today?

Uh, yeah, we're about a hundred.

A hundred.

And how big these deals are and how much do they pay you on an average?

Right.

Yeah, so it

depends.

Um, so we have, we have three different pricing plans.

So, uh, one is 400 a month per warehouse.

Uh, another one is 800 a month per warehouse.

And then our third and final is 1200 a month per warehouse.

And, and.

Typically, how many warehouses do your customer have?

I'm just looking at average numbers, right?

I wanna get a sense of how big these deals are so that I could understand

your sales motion and all of it.

Is it thousand dollars year?

Is it $10,000?

Is it a hundred thousand dollars deal?

What's, what's that, you know, sweet spot that you typically have?

Yeah, so food distributors vary quite a bit.

Um, so we have some customers that only have one, right?

Uh, we have a good number that do.

Um, but we also have some customers that are, you know, Over 25 warehouses.

Um, so, uh, that there's a really big range in there.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and, uh, you know, at our lowest tier, the, you know, the smaller

distributors that we work with, um, you know, paying 400 a month per

warehouse, they usually only have one.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but once you get up to that 1200 a month plan, uh, that's where a

lot of our enterprise steels live.

Got it.

Right.

And what's the biggest deal that you have?

Like is it $50,000?

Is it a hundred thousand dollars?

I mean, uh, you don't have to mention the specifics.

I just wanna understand Right.

So that when I could understand your G DM motion better.

Yeah,

totally.

Uh, the, the biggest deal is really a six figure, uh, deal.

Got, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah.

That, that's all I'm looking for.

Right?

So, uh, yeah, like, how are you growing like 12 months before Wave?

Were you, like, how many customers did you have, you know, on your platform?

Yeah, 12 months ago, you know, we were, uh, a lot smaller

than we are right now, that's for sure.

Um, like we've, uh, you know, over the last year we've grown, uh, over 200%.

Um, we're planning on doing that again, um, you know, or, or more this year.

And, um, Yeah.

I, I think in terms of, in terms of how we've kind of gotten to where we

are, like for the most part it's been through bootstrapping and getting

really creative.

Yeah.

I, I'll come, I'll come back to your story in a bit.

I really wanna deep dive into it.

Right.

So I just wanna understand your, you know, past 12 months journey, right.

Growth journey that you mentioned.

Right?

So you growing a , 200% year over year.

And so just help me understand, right, just from a top of funnel perspective

where you finding all of these, you know, potential leads, right?

What's been working for you in your industry?

Yeah.

Um, so we have a pretty big mix.

We have, um, uh, contractors that we work with that script the web,

uh, in a variety of different ways.

Uh, but we, you know, we also, uh, use things that are simple like Google, right?

And, um, we're just cold calling all day.

And so we have, we have cold, uh, a team of SDRs that, that have basically been

doing cold calling in the past year.

Um, but before that, I did all the cold calling myself.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, really until about, uh, Four and a half months ago, uh, I was doing

all of the, uh, sales deals myself.

So, uh, just recently we brought on our first account executive.

Mm-hmm.

But, um, before then I was doing all the demos, all the closing, um,

as well as all the, all onboarding.

I was the only full-time business person on the team.

That's, that's pretty awesome.

Right?

So, so just help me quantify this.

I know it's, it's gonna be a bit harder and tricky, but I just wanna get a sense

of how it's working for you, right?

For example, in the past 12 months, like maybe, let's say you've got

30 or 30, 40 new customers, right?

Let's just say that, right?

So like, where did they discover you?

Is it just pri primarily cold calls?

Is it, you know, maybe cold emails?

Like what's that one thing that's really been working for you?

Right?

And maybe you can quantify it, like 50, 60% coming from that one channel.

What's that channel?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

so we actually have, we actually have 25% of all

of our inbound coming from seo.

Okay.

Um, and, uh, the remainders all from cold calling.

Interesting.

And when you say seo, is it, is it your, you know, blog articles that

you've written over, over years?

Is that what's working?

Uh, you

know, the blog helps, but it, that, that's more long tail seo.

I think that's really been helping us.

I, I think the, the short term stuff has been mainly changes to our website.

And, um, making sure that we're popping up on the right keywords.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so we've, we've done a lot of work on that and, uh, that actually surprisingly,

has been a, a huge driver, um, for us.

And it, it's not even blog, it's just making sure that our website is properly,

um, updated to file latest standards.

Yeah.

Why, why does

it work for you?

Well, like, are, aren't there enough competitors?

Well, you know, who, who must just be, you know, doing all of these things.

I mean, it's pretty hard to rank your own website for such keywords.

I didn't.

If you pick any market, it's gonna be very tricky.

Like why is it working for you?

Yeah, well, I mean, we're not, we're not going

after the big keywords, right?

Like, like e-commerce for business.

Right?

We, we'd never focused on that, but we are focused on a very particular

niche, um, you know, food and in particular food distribution.

Um, and, and I think when you start looking for that kind of,

uh, company that, that's offering e-commerce in that, in that realm.

Um, you know, we're, we're consistently up there.

Got it.

Just talk about the cold calling, which is responsible for

most of your, you know, new growth.

Right.

So like, what's your process?

How does it work for you?

Like, so in this digital age, right?

I mean, cold calling, I mean, it's an usual thing, right?

But like, what's, how does it even work?

Like where do you pick your numbers?

Like where do you, just walk us through that process because

it's, it's an interesting journey.

Yeah, well

there there's a number of different ways, right?

So we have, there, there are associations out there that you can

get numbers from, but you can also get 'em straight from Google, right?

Uh, like I was said before, so I mean, we, um, we're, we're able to

just, you know, look up in a, in a given geography where, you know, these

wholesalers and distributors operate and typically they're all kind of

clustered in the same part of a city.

You know, usually the industrial part of a city where we're housing ranch is

a little bit cheaper and, um, Yeah, and we just, you know, call up, uh, either

the general number, um, or if we're able to get a better number, then, then

we'll call through that number too.

And then how, how does the reply rates or conversion rates work here?

Right?

So when you pick a call and when you just call somebody, you just start

pitching your product right away.

I mean, what happens after that?

I mean, to the really care about your pitch, right?

What really happens?

Like, do you do any sort of maybe research about them?

Like what's, what's, just talk about the strategy that you exactly use

to sort of get these deals done.

Yeah,

I mean, we pre, pre-qualify as much as we can.

So we go, we go on their website, we find out, keep it some information, try

to find the right person to talk to.

Um, and you know, I, I think in terms of the call itself, you know, we're able

to, once we're able to point in the right direction, I, I think we can, we can

kind of level set with our pitch in terms of who we're trying to talk to and why.

Um, the, the biggest problem in, in our industry, I think, is the gatekeeper.

Um, usually there's a, you know, a front desk, you know, employee mm-hmm.

Um, who's, you know, sole job on the phone, uh, is to hang up on people.

Yeah.

Um, so yeah, if we, if we can't get past them, then we're, we're,

so do you really pitch on your first call itself, or, or

your first call is just about getting to know each other or like what

happens on that first phone call?

Yeah,

we, we pitch on the first phone call.

Okay.

Um, and I, I think we, we try to do it to gain trust, you know, wanna be honest

about why we're calling straightforward.

And, uh, you know, that often does lead to, uh, a bit of hangups.

But, um, you know, at the same time when we call back again and again,

they're less and less spirit every time.

Mm-hmm.

And so, you know, you can find yourself, you know, in our industry calling.

Um, you know, between eight and 16 times and, uh, that, that might be

the number of times that you need to call in order to get to a demo.

You

call the same person eight to 16 times.

Yeah.

And, and, and like, okay.

That, that sounds a bit annoying to me.

Like, would you call me eight to 16 times if I just don't pick up your call?

Is that what you're saying?

Or?

Well, yeah, not in a row, obviously.

Right.

But we're, we're talking about over, uh, you know, an extended period of time.

We might be looking at three, four months.

Oh, okay.

But that, that's once they express interest at all.

Right.

Um, it might be, or, or maybe we're just not able to get

past the gatekeeper and we just keep calling the gatekeeper and, um, you

know, eventually they, they become kind, uh, usually, uh, because there's,

they know that there's a human on the other end and, and we're earnestly

trying to get in touch, but mm-hmm.

Um, you know, and I, I think we try to, we try to, Scope about our sales

development reps to make sure that they are kind of the, the kind of people that

try to take that more human approach.

But, um, yeah, I mean, it can go the other way for you,

right?

Can, can you put a number on this, like for, for every a hundred calls

or a hundred prospects that you try to reach out with cold calling, right?

So how many of them do really sort of take it forward from that first call?

Well, I mean, what I could

tell you is, um, you know, for every a hundred

dials that we make mm-hmm.

Um, you know, we're usually able to book, uh, you know, two to three demos.

Okay.

So that's, that's really a lot of hard work that you do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got it.

Right.

So that's, that's pretty amazing, right?

So now what happens after that cold calling, right?

Once somebody expresses interested, talk about your sales cycle.

I mean, I'm assuming you are the one who's been closing all of

these deals all these years, right?

So what happens in a sales cycle for you?

Right?

How much time does it take?

You know, how do you overcome their, you know, whatever problems that they

have, like, just talk about the process.

Yeah.

Um, so I mean, I guess in terms of our background, so we, we actually ran a

different company up until the pandemic.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it was under the same corporation.

Um, and so we actually just really released the, the most recent version

of our software about, uh, a year and a half to two years ago, depending

on where your, where your market is.

So, um, we were kind of starting from zero about two years ago.

Um, and so until about four and a half months ago, I was

the only, the only sales rep.

And so I, I think.

Uh, now, thankfully we have a, a fantastic team member there that, that's

been, been, uh, really, uh, incredible.

I, I think in terms of, uh, a hire and, and, uh, we've been

able to, to really maintain that momentum without me being there.

Mm-hmm.

But, um, yeah, I, you know, when it was only me, uh, I think what I was doing

was I was, you know, uh, probably doing two to three demos before a close.

Um, and, uh, you know, we were getting about a 30.

3% conversion rate, uh, from those demos.

Um, and, uh, yeah, I, I would just take as many demos as I

possibly could while also doing the onboarding and the customer support.

And so, um, I think I kind of reached my, my cap at about 20 demos in a week.

Um, and I, at that point, I just knew I couldn't handle the, the volume

and, uh, I had to rat it back down.

Um, until I built up sales a little bit more and then, and then

we could have hired the, um, and

then how much time did it typically take to sort of close a deal?

Like how, how long was that sales cycle?

Yeah.

You know, three

to five months.

Yeah.

Three to five months.

And you mentioned like those 18, 15, 20 conversations that you have with them

back and forth to sort of close the deal.

Well, yeah.

Well that, that's, that's before booking the demo.

And then the actual number of follow ups, uh, post demo was probably

another 12, uh, 12 touch points.

Okay.

All right.

That's, that's pretty interesting.

Alright, so yeah, let's talk about the backstory, right?

So you mentioned you just, you know, launched your product

a couple of years ago, right?

So how did you get your first couple of customers?

I mean,

yeah, so we, we were a seafood marketplace before we, we

basically were kind of a technology enabled seafood distributor.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, so we, we ran the business for, uh, really about, about four years

that way and, and built that business up to about 4 million a year in revenue.

Um, how much was that?

Can you repeat?

4 million a year in revenue.

Okay.

Uh, in, in previous business.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And, and so it's the same corporation, but when the pandemic hit, um,

we were delivering primarily only to high-end restaurants.

And so we, what we ended up doing was taking a lot of our tech and, uh,

repurposing it, rejig in, in a sense.

And our first customers were actually our former competitors.

Um, uh, and so we, you know, fun conversation to have.

Um, and, uh, yeah, we, we kind of grew the company from there, but we had known

these people and these companies for a while, uh, in the previous business.

And, and so we had their contact.

Uh, and you know, I, you know, maybe their opinion of us might

not have been, uh, uh, as happy about it, but I, you know, I think.

When we kind of came to them with the proposition that we did, um, with Fresh

Line and, and kind of them using the tech that we had been using to compete.

They, they were, they were interested and we were able to, to get a,

a handful of deals that way.

Got it.

And did you hit seven figure revenue, like as of today with this new company?

Or is it something that you I think, I

think we will by, by, uh, the end of this year.

Got it.

All right.

So, and just talk about your team, right?

So how many folks in your team as of today,

Yeah.

So, uh, right now we're six people.

Six.

And I guess you, you mentioned it's you and then you've got one sales rep, and

what, what are the rest of the hook?

Yeah.

Uh, we have, uh, one person solely focused on onboardings and,

uh, a bit of customer support.

And then, uh, uh, three software developers.

Did you,

so you, you mentioned something or you've

both stabbed this, right?

So is that true?

Like, did you, didn't you raise any external findings so far?

Yeah, so we had raised, uh, in the previous business, uh,

about 2 million, uh, dollar seed round.

Um, but you know what we, what we landed on when, uh, when that, when the pandemic

hit is we, we had already used a good portion of that because we had, uh,

been planning on raising series A at the end of 2020 or, and so what we ended

up doing was when, when we got to say 20, the beginning of 2021, Um, we were

effectively, you know, running on fumes and, um, so we, we got really creative.

Um, you know, the government of Canada had some great, uh, programs as well

that we're able to benefit from.

Um, but uh, yeah, you know, we, we've effectively got to a point

where, you know, we've been able to.

To hold the business together with, with, uh, effectively bootstrapping, uh, from

where we were at the beginning of 2021.

And then what's,

what's the vision here?

Like, where do you see, how do you see yourself growing in the next five years?

Like, what, what's, what's the vision?

What, what do you wanna do with this company?

Yeah.

You know, we wanna build a long-term sustainable business.

And, and I should mention, you know, we did, we did raise a, a small

amount of, of funds, um, in 2022.

Um, but uh, that was really just from our existing cap table, and it

was in the low, uh, six figures in terms of the amount that we raised.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but yeah, other than that, we're really effectively bootstrapped.

So, um, I would call it probably 80, 80% bootstrap in terms of email that,

that, that's still pretty amazing.

Right.

So, and like, like, so what's the vision here?

What are, what are you looking at building here?

Like?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think long term what we wanna build

is a long term sustainable company.

And, uh, you know, we're based outta Canada.

Uh, we have a, you know, a great team that we want to continue building out of here.

And, uh, yeah, I think scaling that up, you know, using profits

and, and, uh, So you don't wanna

raise any external funding going forward, you just

wanna scale slowly with your profits.

Is that the vision here?

That's our focus right now.

Yeah.

And I, I think, um, yeah, we'd like to see how far we can take

that.

Yeah.

And what, what would you do with it in, let's say, three or four

years if you managed to do that?

Let's say you grown it five or 10 million, right?

So what will happen after that?

You wanna

Yeah.

You know what?

I don't know.

It depends, you know, I think, um, We, we do have that cap table from the, the, the

round with the previous business and we, we kept everyone over on the cap table.

So, um, that's probably a conversation we need to have with that investor base.

And, uh, you know, and, and just kind of with ourselves too, you

know, as, as co-founders, you know, I think, you know, my co-founder

and I, we need to figure that out.

Alright Robert,

thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

Hope you scale fresh line to much, much greater heights.

Thank you.