049 Nathan Miller - Solving for One, Selling to Thousands

On our SaaS Fuel™ Founder Episode this week, Jeff rides the wave with Nathan Miller, founder, and CEO of Rentec Direct. After struggling to manage his rental portfolio, Nathan set out to create software that would make his life easier and ensure nothing was missed or forgotten. He accomplished that goal not only for himself but for 25,000+ other landlords and property managers too! From an initial vision to solve his own problem, he and his team quickly realized the magnitude of the need in the marketplace and enhanced the solution to meet it head-on. Rentec Direct has consistently earned top scores from clients and industry experts like Gartner, and has grown into the third-largest property management solution in their space. In today’s episode, Nathan explains how he grew his business organically and debt-free while making significant advancements in customer experience, innovation, and technology.

Key Takeaways

00:00:00 It’s Valentine’s Day . . . Have a plan yet?

00:05:39 - Nathan’s Tech Background and Building His Own Portfolio

00:07:14 Managing Multiple Rental Properties: A Search For Software Solutions

00:07:50 - Decided to Make A Program That Can Make His Life Easier

00:09:20 - Something That Keeps Track of Things While Busy

00:10:38 Evolution Of Accounting Platforms For Landlords To Property Managers

00:11:16 - Started Expanding The Program

00:12:19 - Winning With Unique Features

00:14:04 - Automating Rent Payment Process

00:15:55 Covid Impact On Rent Payments

00:16:24 How a Pandemic Affects Rent Payments

00:18:00 - Tough Challenge: Finding Employees

00:22:46 Hiring People And Building Service Values In The Face Of Sales Tax Challenges

00:23:37 - Hire For Personality and Quality

00:25:59 Culture Wins! Facetime Matters

00:26:28 Hire Full-Time vs Outsourcing vs Remote Employees

00:28:46 - Something Unique About the Company

00:29:28 Building a SaaS Through Organic Growth

00:29:30 Organic Growth: A Unique Funding Model

00:30:29 - Be Present in Prospective Customer's Minds

00:32:30 - Distinguish Ourselves by Giving Exceptional Assistance

00:33:31 Commitment To Serving All Customers Equally: A Differentiator\

00:34:02 - Sticking True to Your Roots

00:36:16 - Is a Technical Background an Advantage?

00:39:52 - Make It Work, Make It Simple. Solve Core Problems.

Tweetable Quotes

“That's one of our core principles is just mind-blowingly amazing support. And we're going to keep doing that because that keeps people here, it keeps our clients with us because they love it.” - 00:33:18 Nathan Miller

“Something that is really admirable is that commitment to serve all customers the same, Whether they're big, or whether they're small, they're still important.” - 00:33:48 Jeff Mains

“I just like we're that company that's always nice to our clients no matter their size.” - 00:34:21 Nathan Miller

“I think we're all learning and continuing to grow.” - 00:37:11 Jeff Mains

SaaS Leadership Lessons

1. Be on the right side of sales tax. Take the time.

2. Building service values and training employees are important.

3. Companies without funding have to be creative in attracting customers and maintaining profits.

4. Replicating your vision to others is a key strategic advantage.

5. Marketing may be a foreign concept and it takes time to understand its value..

6. Emotional attachment to writing the biggest check every month

7. Devoting a fair amount of time in a day to just having fun keeps a happy group and keeps a good, nice family atmosphere.

8. The company's profits drive its marketing and keep the company running.

9. Many Companies list their customer service as a differentiator. If everyone says it, then is it really?

10. All customers are important, regardless of their size.

11. If marketing is not on your mind, it needs to be on one of your core employees' minds.

Guest Resources

Nathan Miller (Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/locux

Nathan Miller (Linkedin) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-miller-9087458

Nathan Miller (Twitter) https://twitter.com/HiTechLandlord

Rentec Direct (Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/rentecdirect

Rentec Direct (Website) https://www.rentecdirect.com/

Rentec Direct (Twitter) https://twitter.com/rentec

Rentec Direct (Linked) https://www.linkedin.com/company/rentec-direct

Resources Mentioned

Rentec Direct (Website): https://www.rentecdirect.com/

Quickbooks (Website): https://quickbooks.intuit.com/

Google AdWord

Google (Website): https://www.google.com/

Gartner (Website): https://www.gartner.com/en

Stevie Awards (Website): https://stevieawards.com/

Episode Sponsor

We always love our sponsors and today’s sponsor is SaaSOpen. Join 1,000+ SaaS Leaders, Get an Inside Look at the Future of Software, and spend time with the people making it happen. There will be 5 stages with valuable content delivered in short 20-minute segments built for SaaS founders, CMOs, heads of product, sales, and engineering. The best way to predict the future is to create it so come do that with us on March 16 & 17 in NYC. I’ll be there and would love to meet you.Get full details at SaaSOpen.com

Small Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel’

Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/

SaaS Fuel Resources

Website - https://championleadership.com/

Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmains

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/

Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains