Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nick López. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nick, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Would you say you are more focused on growing revenue or cutting costs? We’d love to hear how you think about these two critical drivers

Without a doubt – growing revenue. Let me explain.

As an early stage SaaS startup you must operate lean. It’s not a rule, but a requirement. When we started Prosal, we built the MVP off a $5k pitch competition win, and survived off small dollar grants. We didn’t have the luxury of spend for hiring, so all 3 founders operated on a simple principle: flexible frugality. Don’t let spending be a barrier to mission-critical tasks, but do enough research to know we’re not overspending.

So we’ve always kept our costs minimal. But additionally, an early-stage SaaS startup costs is pretty much salaries, hosting costs, and operational software (the latter two being tolerable due to the availability of startup pricing and discounts). Those things seem large at first, because the magnitude of revenue is so low ($1k-$10k, $10k – $100k), that growing revenue is easier. And revenue is a lagging indicator of customer love – so if you spend more time learning and building an incredible product, with a well thought out customer acquisition funnel, adding additional customers with high LTV is much easier than digging for costs to cut.

Lower your CAC by building a better product that your customers will tell their friends about.

I think that Series A-B when you’ve taken on operational debt, it makes sense to do routine cost reviews, but the goal of a startup is to iterate quickly and move fast from Seed – A.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Nick, CEO & cofounder of Prosal. Former ElectroMechanical engineer on hypersonic missiles, I just felt drawn to this issue of RFPs. My cofounder Alfredo experienced them on a personal level while building his agency, and while they’re touted as fair and open, they end up being so cost-intensive in terms of time and actual ROI, that they favor the well-connected.

We built Prosal to lower that barrier to entry.

Prosal helps businesses find and qualify public RFPs in a fraction of the time. Simply understanding the plight of responding to RFPs is what sets us apart – we advocate on behalf of our businesses, and show them the things that matter to them, on opportunities matched for them.

I’m most proud of our agencies, especially those who’re new to the process and have fully-committed to developing an RFP strategy, winning new clients as a result. They’ve won over $20M over just the last year, and they’re just getting started.

Prosal is changing the proposal game for agencies, and helping our customers grow on their own terms.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I’ve known my two cofounders, Alfredo & Nyle, for quite some time.

Met Alfredo in middle school (circa 2008), and has been one of my closest friends ever since. A fateful day of mountain-biking would alter both our futures and evolve our friendship in the process. He’d encountered RFPs when scaling his digital marketing agency, and I questioned the process leading to a rather delayed a-ha moment (we were both skeptical, as the problem seemed so obvious to us at the time). Our naïveté around the actual complexity of what we were trying to solve definitely fueled our fascination with the problem.

Nyle and I met in Metz, France, in the courtyard of our student housing for a study-abroad program at Georgia Tech. We instantly became friends, travelling together the rest of the semester. I admired his work ethic and adaptability, chasing down almost-missed trains and navigating foreign lands with minimal funds. When Alfredo and I questioned Prosal into existence, I knew he was the perfect engineer to steer our product ship.

It’s been our radical honesty and extreme ownership that has propelled Prosal to the rapid growth we’ve had. We have high trust and respect for each other developed over many years, and an unspoken aire of holding each other accountable simply by holding ourselves accountable

Any advice for managing a team?

Appreciation, gratitude, and transparent communication.

Your team aren’t levers to pull, they’re people.

Just like me and you, they have good days and bad days, and sometimes need an extra boost. It’s inevitable that things are lost in the shuffle, and mistakes are made, but it’s important to always zoom out and help your team see the big picture. We all need to feel valued, and perform in our zone of genius. Reward good process, not lucky results. Don’t scold – help people see their mistakes and guide them to fix it. IMO, the best leaders are enablers – they find hidden-gem skillsets in people and combine it with what makes them tick. They create an environment by unblocking: equip your stars to focus on what they do best.

Micromanaging doesn’t work for us – we’ve surrounded ourselves with self-disciplined individuals, and are all primed on the same goal. You must have operational processes in place to track, but most of the “managing” is goal setting combined with trust.

Morale is a bit more tricky – it requires an individual with unshakeable, boundless confidence, because things will go wrong. Leaders need to show that they’re accountable, but always get back up after being knocked down.

Routine morale boosting is also important – always looking back as to how far the team has come, with conversations that stimulate the excitement of what’s to come. Inspire through energy and positivity, but don’t be delusionally positive.

Last thing – celebrate the wins. Startup life is war, and your team is in the trenches with you. No-one can ever appreciate the depth of contribution your team has made towards the eventual big wins.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prosal.io
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/thenicklopez
• Twitter: @confuie