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The SaaS Podcast - Growing Profitable AI SaaS & AI Agents
436: LodgerIn: From 850 Rejections to a 7-Figure SaaS Business - with Oscar Rubio
00:48:49
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- [00:00]
Omar Khan
Foreign welcome to another episode of the SaaS podcast.
- [00:13]
Oscar Rubio
I'm your host Omar Khan and this is a show where I interview proven founders and industry experts who share their stories, strategies and insights to help you build, launch and grow your SaaS business.
- [00:25]
Omar Khan
In this episode I talked to Oscar Rubio, the founder and CEO of Lodgerin, a SaaS platform helping organizations manage housing and relocation services for students and employees moving abroad. For nearly a decade, Oscar bootstrapped a traditional relocation services business, solving complex problems manually for clients like universities and corporations. The business grew steadily, but scaling was difficult since everything depended on people and physical presence. Then Covid hit. Overnight, his entire business collapsed, mobility stopped, borders closed, and his revenues simply vanished. With no investors and no co founder, Oscar was alone. He pushed back against the advice to shut down everything and instead made a critical pivot from services to software. He spent months in an empty office taping paper to walls and transforming years of know how into digital processes that could become a SaaS product. But he didn't stop there. As a non technical founder, he taught himself how SaaS products worked, built a small team and launched a bare bones MVP despite not being able to write a single line of code himself. Then came the truly hard part.
- [01:34]
Oscar Rubio
Sales.
- [01:35]
Omar Khan
Oscar powered through 850 meetings before landing his first customer. He even flew from Spain to the us, drove college to college around the country, knocked on doors without appointments and.
- [01:47]
Oscar Rubio
Slept in cheap motels.
- [01:48]
Omar Khan
And even his car ought to keep pushing this forward. Today, Lodgerin is a thriving SaaS company, generating over 1.3 million in ARR and expanding into global markets like the US and Dubai. In this episode, you'll learn how Oscar transformed a collapsed services business into a SaaS product during a global shutdown, why he chose to bootstrap for nearly a decade before raising outside capital and what changed how. How he persevered through 850 rejections to finally close his first customer. We talk about what went wrong with their first MVP and the simple fix that unlocked real revenue and how Oscar kept moving forward despite burnout, fear and financial uncertainty. So I hope you enjoy it.
- [02:30]
Oscar Rubio
Are you building or scaling a SaaS product? Then you've likely faced authentication and user management challenges. It's crucial, but let's face it, it's not the core focus or the most exciting part of your business. And think about it. How much time does your team spend on auth instead of building your core product and features? And as you grow, it only gets more complicated. Enterprise sso, custom security, user analytics. Soon you're drowning in feature Requests that have nothing to do with your actual product. This is where Propel Auth comes in. They handle all the authentication heavy lifting from quick integration for devs to built in user management for your customer facing teams. It's everything you need to scale without the headache. Here's an exclusive offer for our listeners. Sign up for a free propelauth account@propelauth.com no credit card required. And if you decide to Upgrade, use code SAS24 for 50% off their growth plan for six months. That's Propelauth.com I talk to a lot of founders who have this same challenge. They've got an amazing product idea but need a technical team to build or scale it. If you're looking to develop a B2B SaaS product but don't want to hire and manage an in house team, let's listen up. Gearhart is a product development studio that handles the entire technical side of building your software. They've built over 70 successful products including SmartSuite. Who's founder trusted Gearhart after his $200 million exit to help build his next big venture. Some of Gearhart's customers have gone through YC and their portfolio companies have won over 10 startup competitions. Until the end of May, they're offering our listeners free strategy sessions with their leadership team. Just visit Gearheart IO to book your session. That's Gearheart IO.
- [04:12]
Omar Khan
Oscar, welcome to the show.
- [04:14]
Oscar Rubio
Thank you. Mar.
- [04:15]
Omar Khan
Do you have a favorite quote, something that inspires or motivates you that you can share with us?
- [04:19]
Oscar Rubio
Well, I always say that I like the quote of Edison who says I tried thousand times over to do it grown. So at the end I make it right. So something like that.
- [04:36]
Omar Khan
Yeah. Sweet. So tell us about Lodjin. What does the product do, who's it for and what's the main problem you're helping to solve?
- [04:44]
Oscar Rubio
All right. Lodgerin is a digital ecosystem who digitalize and make easy the mobility ecosystem with this. I mean people who is moving abroad for medium term, let's say four or five months through our platform, they have the possibility to get all the services that they may need from housing to lawyers, banks, insurances, and then make all the processes that they may have to do during this stage through our technology check in, checkout, rental payments, documents, exchange with these service providers, everything just in one platform.
- [05:27]
Omar Khan
Got it. And then so you serve organizations who maybe have employees moving to a different country and helping them make that move connect with the services. But then you also have universities where students may be moving across countries and you're providing a similar service there.
- [05:50]
Oscar Rubio
Correct, Exactly. Basically what we do is to provide to organizations and into organizations we consider companies, corporates or international universities who send people abroad, helping them with all these services through technology.
- [06:07]
Omar Khan
Great. And you were explaining this to me a little bit earlier that it's basically a multi sided marketplace where on the one hand you've got these organizations like companies and universities, you've got the service providers who deliver on those services like you said, bank services or whatever, housing and so on that people may need. And then you have the actual users who could be employees, students, whoever. And it sounds, it just blows my mind thinking about just the dynamics of something there. But it's going to be great to unpack that a little bit. But what I think is interesting here with your story is that the SaaS business has really was the result of a pivot back in 2022 which formed this business. But you were kind of running a services version of this business from what, since 2013, correct?
- [07:01]
Oscar Rubio
Correct. I start as a relocation company. So after I got some traction with customers, I realized that the issues wasn't where the people get the service of having the house or having the lawyer or etc. The problems still comes when they arrive with the housing provider or during the stay with several incidents, etc. So at the end what I did is throw the customers I had, I was validating the issues they may have during the stays. So at the end I make longer the service providing until I get everything they need during the whole stay. So basically it was learning from customer experience what they need. I try to solve every aspect they may, they may have during the stage. And that is how I start as traditional relocation company that later on I expand in other business for property managers. So at the end I was making everything traditional until Covid. And during those, I think it was seven, eight years of experience, I learned perfectly fine what the customers need, the providers need and how to make it. The only difficulty that I got on that time, it was the scalability of the business. It was traditional service providing. So at the end, to escalate the business, I need more employees, more people, more employees be physically in the locations where I was providing the service. And that was difficult or capital intensive let's say. So at the end that was the challenge in that moment. Right.
- [08:47]
Omar Khan
Were you serving the same types of customers before with this relocation business or was it universities and businesses and all of that stuff?
- [08:57]
Oscar Rubio
Yeah, yeah, basically the same. Basically the same organization, same I mean type of customers in terms of corporates and universities, and in the other side, housing managers or property managers and banks, insurances, companies, that kind of stuff. Same kind of customer. Yeah.
- [09:19]
Omar Khan
So for anyone who's listening to this and who's been told the mantra about one icp, one ideal customer profile, their head is probably exploding right now thinking about how you would even go about getting started when you've got so many different potential customers and users and service providers. So how did you end up in this place? Was this kind of. Was it just accidental? As the opportunities came along, it just grew organically or was it more of an intentional thing?
- [09:54]
Oscar Rubio
At the beginning it was analyze what the customer needs and try to solve it. So it's like when you are pulling on a strip, so you start to pull the strip and at the end you see the whole picture. So we start with housing and then we realize that the people need or ask for services and lawyers and services with the bank account or with the city hall registration or with that kind of stuff. So we start to expand the portfolio of services through partners. So it was simple. At the end, what we did is coordinate and try to solve the situations on the problems that the customer have. So it's customer centric idea, basically. You analyze what they need and try to solve it and make it cheaper for them or aside cheaper in a good way to do it.
- [10:54]
Omar Khan
So you're running the business, you know, seven, eight years, it's growing organically. You know, you mentioned some of the scalability issues that you need to keep hiring more people to keep kind of growing the business. And then Covid comes along and then what happened?
- [11:13]
Oscar Rubio
And then a shock, Shock in every way. Mobility, close barriers or frontiers between countries, closed flights, cancellations, everything closed. So imagine that you have been growing during seven years, being sustainable financially and operationally and everything. And suddenly one day to another, everything stops. My mind blow up. I mean, it was a shock for me. I didn't know how to act, how to react. My operations chief, operations officer, which is the actual chief operations officer at Lodgerin, he said, men, fire everyone, including me, and save all the money that you can and start over when this storm has passed away. So in that moment I was so blocked to react. So I kept the business in the same way. But I start to think how to solve the situation, how to pass the situation. And the only idea who comes to my mind it was make more processes, be more international, be more scalable. So there is, when the idea of lodging, which at the end is digitalized processes and provides the platform and our expertise that we have got during eight years to the customers and the. And the service providers etc. Put it into a technology part. So during COVID what we were doing and at the office, imagine 150 square meters empty office full of tables, my chief operations officer and me putting papers on the walls. Digitalizing every process that we have been doing during eight years. So that was the. The first idea we had and it's how everything start over after Covid being more scalable and being more digital, becoming a traditional company into. Or traditional companies into digital ecosystem, a technological company.
- [13:31]
Omar Khan
And because we didn't mention this earlier, but the additional challenge was that you were bootstrapping this business. You didn't have investors or a whole bunch of, you know, money to in the bank.
- [13:42]
Oscar Rubio
No, not even, not even co founder to cry. No, it just me. I'm luck because I have a really good friend, family, really good wife who helped me during those difficult times. As I said, I have a chief operation operation officer who was with me in some part of that hell. But yes, it's. It's tough. I think, I think that there is two kind of entrepreneurs. The ones who need somebody to launch and grow and they need it because his personality needs somebody and the other ones who are like me who it's difficult to manage with more people, more co founders to get the final result that you want. So at the end I'm coming from business degree as well and I consider businesses as sustainable way and they must have dividends and they must have positive financials in order to grow strong. So my idea, first idea was to validate the business, validate the service and get my financials with my customers not with money coming from outside and then saying what you have to do or not or etc. Now it's true that we are in a moment that we are rising fast pounds. We rise in December 2023 400k as CDS and now we are looking for CDSA. But we are in a moment that we have validated the market, we have validated idea, we have traction. We have been increasing the multiples on the company during three years in a row. So now I'm feeling that, I mean the possibility to grow in a strong way. So that is why we are looking for invest. But people when they start business, they are always focusing in getting money and then validate and create the technology and etc. So at the end first start and get validation with your customers, not with your ideas, with your customers. And afterwards you can start to think in getting invest. But first of all, you must validate the idea in real market, with real customers. That is my idea, that is my thoughts about it.
- [16:28]
Yeah.
- [16:29]
Omar Khan
And it paid off. I mean, you told me about the revenue, the growth trajectory. Can you just run through that in terms of how you grew from 2022 to where you are right now?
- [16:39]
Oscar Rubio
Sure, sure. I mean, we are still not Microsoft. We will do at some point, but we start with 2022. First year it was 171,000. 2023, we close with 420 something thousand in revenue. And this year 2024 we close with 1.2 million. With every year with an EBITDA positive margin around 14%.
- [17:12]
Omar Khan
Is that euros or dollars?
- [17:14]
Oscar Rubio
Euros. Euros, yeah. We just open the company here in us so basically we have a holding with the companies in Spain and US and we are opening Dubai during, during this year. So yeah, at the end, the holding before that it was in Spain. So that is why it's in Euros, the revenue.
- [17:38]
Omar Khan
So the last three years, obviously, you know, you've turned things around, gone from that, that very difficult period in, during COVID to getting to the first million in ARR and continuing to grow beyond that. Tell me what it was like when, you know, during COVID when you're kind of going through this dark period where it looks like there's no way out for this business. Everything has come to a halt. You know, you talked a little bit about how you eventually figured out what you were going to do and to look at the processes and automation and eventually move towards a technology or a SaaS business.
- [18:17]
Oscar Rubio
But a lot of founders get into.
- [18:19]
Omar Khan
This space where things look really grim and it just feels like this hole is getting deeper and deeper and it feels like harder and harder to climb out of it. So what was that like for you? And then how did you kind of pull yourself out and start moving forward again?
- [18:36]
Oscar Rubio
I think one of my best things is the resilience that I have. I'm not the smarter guy, the smartest guy in the planet. I'm not the, you know, but I like so much and I believe so much in what I'm doing. And at the end, during COVID it was always the belief of this is going to pass, this is going to pass, this is going to pass. So what we did to, to try to survive is to find other source of revenues according our business to, to try to keep it at least in 0 or net, let's say. Right. So we have for instance, people who abandoned the houses. Right. But they left everything in the house. So we start to coordinate, get their stuff and send it back home. So with that we get a revenue source, for instance, or we have another people who says I want to get a report about numbers and etc. And we have a lot of data on our platform, et cetera, right. So we start to create reports. So when you have needs, your brain start to have ideas from everywhere and if you have that resilience of trying to survive, you find a way. You always find a way. It's true that it's difficult and it's tough and I'm not gonna lie, you I thought to quit several times during that process, that process. But here I am.
- [20:13]
Omar Khan
So not only, but you're a solo founder, you're also a non technical founder. So once you decide that, okay, I've got this, this is the direction I'm going. I'm going to build a software business, a SaaS business. A lot of people will say, well, I want to do this, but I need to find a technical co founder first or I can't do this for whatever reason. That didn't hold you back. How did you get around that? Because you still don't have a technical co founder, but you're still building the business.
- [20:47]
Oscar Rubio
There is always a way. There is always a way. If you want to make it, there is always a way. So on my end, the first step that I did is what they want to create, what I need to create this. And I start to learn myself about how to create it. Not of course to write code, right? But yes to, to how everything is. It's, it's working in that, in that area, right? But it's happened the same. If you don't know about marketing or you don't know about finances or, you know, I know a lot of entrepreneurs who are CEOs, they don't have business background and at the beginning they don't know how much they are paying for Social Security or how much they are paying in taxes or what is a balance sheet or why the amortization on an asset, right. Or if the technology that they are doing it's amortizable or not, right? So at the end is I think every aspect on life, you can learn about it. You have to spend hours, you have to have a plan. You must get people who knows more than you. Because at the end, when you don't know something and all the people have something that they don't know, it's find a way to learn it. So on my side, what I did, first of all, it was Learning about how to do what I want to do and afterwards find the right people in the team to execute the plan. It's easier than it looks. So at the end, for people who say, no, I don't have the technical ideas or I don't have the technical knowledge, or I don't have the marketing knowledge, you can solve everything. The first thing you must do is start and validate and validate the idea and get the customer and make mistakes and be flexible and adapt yourself and adjust everything that you must adjust to get to the point. You know the expression paralysis by analysis, right? The human being, it's always analyzing and thinking and 80% of the things that you are thinking don't happen, don't make an end. So at the end I think that is the biggest issue that you may have. It's true that you must have something learned before, but it's easy. You find a way, you find the people who can teach you and that's it.
- [23:28]
So hey, have you heard of SmartSuite? They were just named 2024 SaaS Startup of the Year by Startup Grind. Well, I recently discovered that Gearhart was the development team behind their success. Gearheart is a product development studio that specializes in scaling B2B SaaS. Companies built by serial entrepreneurs. They understand the unique challenges of startups and can plug into your team to accelerate growth. With offices in San Francisco and London, plus a distributed team of 43 experts, they've helped build over 70 successful products. To learn more about how Gearhart can help scale your development, check them out at Gearhart IO. That's Gearhart IO.
- [24:07]
Omar Khan
Before you started building the first version of the software or the mvp, you talked about validating the problems with customers. But in many ways, hadn't you already done that for like eight years before? Like, weren't you like, okay, I know this, I'm going to jump into building the software now.
- [24:26]
Oscar Rubio
I always have meetings with the customers. Even if now that I'm CEO, I have salespeople, I always like to know about what are the clients concerns and I always, I'm showing and I'm sharing my ideas, I'm creating this. How do you feel about it? And make prototypes. I'm creating this. How do you see this possibility for your customer? Do you see interesting or not? With this, with these small questions, these small interviews, these small meetings, you are validating already the customer and then the most difficult part, which is validate if what you are delivering they are willing to pay for it, which is important. So at the end it's a process, but as soon as you do it one time, your brain make it automatically. So it's always the same process. It's about processes at the end. So when we are launching a new functionality at our software, or we are launching a new product or whatever, we always follow the same steps. Validate first with the customers, show my ideas, collect the feedback, and then start to make it according to what the customer needs. It's true that we all have ideas, really good ideas. I want to create this app or this software or this. At the end, you need to create something that people wants to pay for it and need it because it's the way that you are going to sell. So if you create something that you think it's important, but it's important just for you, or the market is so small you are not going to success. So at the end, in our site, it was simple, validated with the customer.
- [26:20]
Omar Khan
So you're learning about building software, something that's new to you. You're building a vision of what this product is going to do and you're having conversations with customers about just validating, getting feedback and seeing how much interest there is. You start hiring people, building a team around you who can build the software or execute on this vision. What was the first version of that product, how much did it do and how long did it take you to close that first, the first sale to prove that they would pay for it?
- [26:59]
Oscar Rubio
Do you know what I do, what I'm still doing? I keep each version of the product that we are launching and I have still the first version of the product we launch. It was 2022. It was Marketplace of housing where students can make the reservation of the housing in the website, right kind of Airbnb for students. If you see the user experience, the product itself, it was my gosh, I remember that nobody understand how to make a reservation. It was so complicated, so complicated. The process of creating a property into the software was super difficult, super difficult to understand, super difficult. So at the end, the first version doesn't matter what clear you have your ideas is going to be difficult. But you must launch and you must test and you must receive feedback because the margin of improvement is unlimited always. So if you wait to have the perfect product, it's never going to happen.
- [28:19]
Omar Khan
Did anybody pay for that first version or did you have to go back and start making it better at the beginning?
- [28:25]
Oscar Rubio
At the beginning we got money or revenue from complete reservation. So we, we didn't make a process where the housing owners has the availability of their Housing updated. So we receive thousands of requests for the housing that we have in our platform. But as we didn't have the availability, housing owners were cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel. So we lost in the, in the first quarter, we lost a lot of money that we could have and we didn't have because that simple mistake. Half a calendar to update the availability. So afterwards we start to improve that part, et cetera, and we start to get the revenue that we were expecting.
- [29:13]
Okay, wait.
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Omar Khan
So the business model at the time was you would get paid if somebody completed a reservation, like a student with.
- [29:22]
Oscar Rubio
The technology, it was like kind of Airbnb for students.
- [29:27]
Omar Khan
Right. And so people were booking and then you were realizing that there wasn't availability for a bunch of these properties. And so the money that you thought you were going to get, you weren't. Because the calendars on the property owner's side weren't up to date.
- [29:41]
Oscar Rubio
Exactly, exactly. Exactly. Simple mistake. We were making everything regarding the housing owner in terms of pictures, information, housing conditions, contract conditions, everything. But we didn't realize about availability because we said it's going to be available. I mean, is thousand of, of housing right in there is going to be available dates? No, this date is not working well because we have a group who is coming in two weeks. So that part, which seems simple and understandable, it was a tough part of the, of the technology. And that was the first mistake. After that mistake, another 10,000 mistakes, let's say, during, during the process. So it's like that you are learning from mistakes.
- [30:33]
Omar Khan
So you fix, so then you go back, presumably, and you fix the availability problem so they can, they can update and so on. What was the next piece? Because I know most of the growth that came wasn't from these transactional things. It was from going out and doing direct sales. And so how did that come about and how did you find those first, you know, say the first 10 customers?
- [30:58]
Oscar Rubio
Well, at the end we always said that what we try to do with lodgering is to solve problems. So when we start to make the sales to organizations such as corporations or universities, we analyze what are their problems regarding the international mobility, where they were suffering more. Right. So at the end we realized that the housing was the main pain. And then the incidents that happen during the stays regarding the housing, I don't know humidity or they make the check in and the housing is not what it looks like in the pictures or to make the payments. The housing owners wants to make it by wire transfer, but they want to pay by car. All the Issues that they may have that at the end were received by the organizations, by the companies and the universities. Imagine sending people abroad and receiving. My landlord is not giving me this or I have to change, but I don't know where to look. So at the end we start to customize all the projects with these organizations to provide them aside the technology and all the these issues they may have, providing them the solution to these issues. So the first, the first customers, the first customer, it was coming to us instead us coming to them. We were making. I remember entering in the office of International Mobility in Comillas, which is an university in Madrid, selling the service, the product, everything. And I never heard about them in three, four months. And then I received a call and they told me, Oscar, we don't need the housing, but we need this issue that we have with emergencies that happen during the stays with the housing. Can you provide this? That is how it starts to solve a process and a problem making a customized project for them, including the housing. And that was the first customer. And then it's true that in our sector, in our market, referral works really well and it's a small sector. So universities and companies talk each other and recommend logarithin as company to use for these issues. And that is how we start to generate the first 10 customers. But to be honest, to get 10 customers before the first customer, I made like 800 meetings. 850 meetings, something like that.
- [33:45]
850 meetings with potential customers.
- [33:49]
Correct. And do you imagine entering with no appointment because they didn't answer the phone or they didn't reply the email or things like that, going directly to the office, knock the door and say, hi, I'm Oscar, I'm coming here to sell you this. But not just in Spain. I take a flight coming us and going university by university with my car, sleeping in motels and doing like that. And that was the beginning of this story.
- [34:25]
Omar Khan
Wow. You know, it's like, I think a lot of people just wish that they, they hear this, they see this stuff on X or wherever and it's like, so I just build a landing page and then run some Google Ads and customers find me. But the, the reality is you often have to do a lot, do things that most people are not willing to do. And what you just told me there, I would say 99% of people, I don't know if they would ever do that.
- [35:01]
Oscar Rubio
It's resilience, resilience and adaptability to change, to get the customer. That's it. That's it. When I always tell this story. People say wow. It's not wow, it's simple. It's quite simple. To be honest. Everyone can do that. But you must have the resilience to don't get paid for long term, be in a car, be far from your home, going, knocking doors and do that.
- [35:33]
But what kept you going?
- [35:34]
Omar Khan
I mean, how many times did you need to be rejected before you say okay, enough.
- [35:37]
Oscar Rubio
I believe it, I believe it. You know how I start all this? Because I was studying my degree in Leeds, UK and when I was there, I have a lot of issues with the housing and I saw a lot of people with a lot of issues with housing, changing houses, problems with the housing owners, having problems with the Social Security to get the Social Security number, open the bank account. And I said, if one company for a small money was in this business, I will hire them. Because at the end it's suffering a process that should be super good process, you know, or super enjoyable process. So I believe on this since long term. So I think my believing my, my first, first person experience was the, the, the key to keep there. And then to be honest is it's a matter of personality as well. I mean I always like build projects and run businesses.
- [36:37]
Omar Khan
So it sounds like the, the thing that kept you going was a lot of the times founders will, you know, talk to 10, 20, 30, 40 potential customers get nowhere and eventually the energy fades out or they decide this is the wrong thing to do. And the thing that kept you going was, from what I'm hearing, is that because you had experienced this personally, you are absolutely convinced that this was a painful problem that needed to be solved and they just needed to understand how this solution could help them.
- [37:13]
Oscar Rubio
Exactly. But as well, I know it, I knew it, that they have that issue as well. The only thing is that everyone is so busy with their daily task and they don't focus on how to solve those issues because they are focusing in their own stuff. So when somebody comes to sell, always says no because I don't have the time to focus on you. But when they start to listen and they realize, oh right, all right, I'm gonna use it. So at the beginning it's like that. I mean you are going to receive a lot of no's. And again, I'm not gonna lie, it's tough, it's tough to keep going. But if you believe it and you know it, not believe it, you know it just keep going.
- [38:03]
Omar Khan
So after those 800, 850 rejections, what happened? Tell me about the time that somebody.
- [38:11]
Oscar Rubio
Said, yes, the first customer I had, as I told you, the comillas, I remember on my family, my brother saying, congratulations, you did it. And no, no, no, I didn't did it. I just closed one customer summer and now is when. When the fun begins. I remember the guy at the university who was managing what we were doing, suffer two heart attacks in several years, coordinating all the staff of housing arrivals, etc. So at one point somebody at the university says, wait, you are not here for this. We must standardize this. As we were the ones who were knocking doors and saying, I have this service, I have this to provide you. They said, all right, let's go with them, let's try with them. So after I remember it was super painful. It was like six months negotiating the contract, insurances, everything into the contract, we close it. And afterwards, when you think that you have it is when everything starts. Because you start to receive problems from every site. And then you must start to recruit people and you must have an operations team who get formatting during the process of learning. So it's quite complicated at the beginning. You need time to learn and to implement new features, new processes, improvements. But if the customer is loyal and they see on you that you are there to make it done well, they trust on you. Because the alternative maybe is more expensive, or maybe it's not there, or it's not willing to do what you are willing to do when you are starting. Because when you are starting, you are willing to do everything they need to solve the situation. And that is what gets you more customers and improvements and everything.
- [40:19]
Omar Khan
Let's talk a little bit about fundraising. The original relocation business, it was bootstrapped for at least a couple of years. When you pivoted and started to build the SaaS business, you continue to bootstrap the business. You got to seven figures in ARR. What was the driver for you? Because I know you talked about saying, hey, building a sustainable business that I can scale is important. So what eventually drove you to raising money? Because you raised, what was it?
- [40:57]
Oscar Rubio
€4000-004004-00000. Same story that with customers, it was here, it was 955 meetings with potential investors from August. I have the list. I have the list from August 2023 to December 2023 to get four investors for those 400,000. And it was crazy at the end. The reason of rising money is growth and expansion, but big plans of expansion. So now, after the rising on 2023, which it was difficult, etc. I must say that I got the right investors because they support a lot. We multiply per three all the KPIs. I show them that the business plan is possible. Now we are opening another investment round for the end of this year and the actual investors are making follow on on this invest to keep the growing plans that we have at the end. Now we were established last year in US because we were in Spain. Even if we were operating in Italy, Portugal and Spain. Now we are operating aside Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, uk, Dubai and US. We have a plan of expansion that is going to be really, really strong, really, really capital intensive. So that is why we are rising funds basically and why we rise funds.
- [42:51]
Omar Khan
One year ago all right, we should wrap up here. So let's get onto the lightning round. I've got seven quick fire questions for you. You ready?
- [43:01]
Oscar Rubio
Let's go.
- [43:02]
Omar Khan
What's one of the best pieces of business advice you've received?
- [43:05]
Oscar Rubio
Every problem has a solution.
- [43:07]
Omar Khan
What book would you recommend to our audience and why?
- [43:10]
Oscar Rubio
From 0 to 1 million of Peter Thiel. You realize about adaptability and how to change to get that figure, but make this lean startup way of of getting.
- [43:30]
Omar Khan
What's one attribute or characteristic in your mind of a successful founder?
- [43:34]
Oscar Rubio
Oh, resilience, of course.
- [43:38]
Omar Khan
What's your favorite personal productivity tool or.
- [43:41]
Oscar Rubio
Habit running at morning? I think it provides you all the strength that you need for the day and liberate your stress or on your head so you can start fresh every day.
- [43:57]
Omar Khan
What's a new or crazy business idea you'd love to pursue if you had the time?
- [44:01]
Oscar Rubio
Kind of. Omg. For entrepreneurs who don't have resources from Africa or some other areas. They don't have the resources or the education, but they have the ideas and they have things to be successful, but they don't have the people around to do it.
- [44:26]
Omar Khan
What's an interesting or fun fact about you that most people don't know?
- [44:30]
Oscar Rubio
I refound the receipt of my mobile line to ask my wife to marry me to buy the the ring. I refound the the invoice of the phone because I didn't have money in the account.
- [44:47]
Omar Khan
Wow.
- [44:48]
Oscar Rubio
I refund it. I refund the invoice because I was expecting a payment of another client. So in the meanwhile. So I do it in that way. So yeah, 2014.
- [45:02]
Omar Khan
Love it. And finally, what's one of your most important passions outside of your work?
- [45:07]
Oscar Rubio
My family. My children. The best. The best.
- [45:10]
Oscar.
- [45:11]
Omar Khan
Thank you. It's been a pleasure talking just. We often hear about resilience and how important it is for founders but some of the numbers that you just gave me and this list that you've been tracking about the number of rejections before you got your first customer, the number of hundreds of founders, investors you had to talk to, I mean, that is a living, breathing example of resilience. And you know, now that I'm, you know, I'm in, I'm in Florida now, right. So I'm just a few hours away from you. If I ever want to improve my resilience and get better at taking rejection, I'm just going to drive down to Miami and hang out with you for a while because it's, you know, as.
- [45:54]
Oscar Rubio
I told you, every problem has a solution. And at the end, if you enjoy what you are doing, you will get it after or sooner. But you will have it. As I told you before, I mean, everyone wants everyone, everything now. And you must be patient at some point.
- [46:15]
Omar Khan
Love it. All right, so if people want to find out more about Lodgering, they can go to Lodger. That's L O D g.
- [46:25]
Oscar Rubio
Exactly, exactly.
- [46:26]
Omar Khan
Lodgerin.com and if folks want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to do that?
- [46:31]
Oscar Rubio
Well, LinkedIn is where I'm more active, is where I'm receiving everyday messages and connections and I think it's the best way to connect with me.
- [46:40]
Omar Khan
We'll include a link to your profile in the show notes as well so people can find you more easily. Awesome. Thank you my friend. It's been a pleasure and I wish you and the team the best of success.
- [46:49]
Oscar Rubio
Thank you. Thank you very much. You pass by Miami, let me know.
- [46:52]
Omar Khan
I will, definitely. Okay, cheers.
- [46:55]
Oscar Rubio
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