Top Founders

Latest Episodes:

EP 462: $8.8M 2015 Sales of iPhone Repair Parts with CEO Chris Koerner Oct 29, 2016

Show notes

Chris Koerner, founder and CEO of LCDcycle – a company that recycles broken iPhone screens and supplies wireless repair shop with wholesale electronic parts. Aside from being a motivational speaker and winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, Chris is a guy who appreciates the haters.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — Flipboard
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try but I don't
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Tell myself to appreciate the haters"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:46 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
02:31 – LCDcycle was founded in 2013
02:43 – Chris opened a smartphone repair shop in college in 2010
- 02:51 – Sold it for $ 30,000
03:50 – They started in Alabama
04:10 – They got more customers in the Texas market
04:45 – The supply parts to repair shop
04:58 – First year revenue
- 05:08 – Did $ 2.1 million for the first full year
05:13 – For 2014, they did $ 4.8 million and $ 8.8 million in 2015
05:36 – They are doing cold-calling to get customers
05:57 – Uses a lead generation tool to scrape the repair shops details
06:25 – Gross margin average is 31%
06:55 – Team size is 12
07:08 – They are self-funded
- 07:31 – Started with $ 30,000
- 07:41 – Chris asked his family and friends for a loan
08:16 – Total volume of parts shipped
- 08:27 – About million parts
08:45 – Most of their shipments are iPhone screens
08:53 – Average price point for the shops
09:17 – Spending $ 23 for raw material
10:15 – 8% net margin
10:30 – Supplies are coming from China
10:49 – LCDcycle sells new screens and buying the broken screens from the repair shops
- 11:05- Broken screens are being sent to China
11:27 – Their revenue is shrinking this year to $ 6.5 million
11:41 – There's a shortage in supplies last year so there was a spike in sales
12:25 – They're supplying to 700-800 unique shops
12:36 – Reorder rate
13:45 – Chris raised money last year
14:21 – Chris would sell to a bigger company
15:20 – Connect with Chris through his Facebook
17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You have a good chance of developing a great company—you just need to be willing to navigate through the failures. Believe in yourself.
Expansion—even in the face of risk—is worth it.
Always appreciate the haters.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Facebook – Chris' personal Facebook account.
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 461: $2m Raised, SpokenLayer Turning Blogs Into Audio Content with CEO Will Mayo Oct 28, 2016

Show notes

Will Mayo, founder of SpokenLayer. Being dyslexic led Will to find an alternative to written text and he thought of an audio solution. Listen ad Will talks about how SpokenLayer changes mainstream reading and how it helped him personally.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The E-Myth
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — Streak
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Just keep trying and you'll figure it out"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:13 – Nathan introduces Will to the show
02:05 – How is a podcast different from SpokenLayer
- 02:28 – "Spoken edition is a different interpretation of what audio can be"
- 02:44 – It caters to listeners first then letting them choose the experience
02:53 – Working for about 30 properties
03:13 – SpokenLayer distributes articles for Playboy
04:10 – Different publishers work in different ways
- 04:15 – Some publishers would pay to have a spoken edition
- 04:27 – SpokenLayer help publishers sell advertising and sponsorship
04:50 – "In the long term, the growth of ad revenue will be the largest component of a business but it takes a while"
- 05:05 – They make more revenue from the SaaS side
- 05:15 – The other side of the business works with non-media clients
05:50 – The pay depends on volume of content
07:05 – SpokenLayer started as an iPhone app in 2012
- 07:17 – They didn't pursue the app idea
07:35 – They did Angel finance and tapped family
- 07:50 – Price rounds and notes
- 08:08 – Raised over a bit of $ 2 million for the past 6 years
08:20 – Expenses for the team and the studio
08:37 – Technology and infrastructure fund the SpokenLayer
08:52 – Handling 40 or 50 clients at the moment
09:16 – Getting customers through inbound
09:25 – They're getting more requests than they can handle
09:55 – Focused on English and other local languages
10:27 – Focused on clients that has over 10 million audiences
11:25 – Content analyzing
- 11:35 – Not all content is worth voicing
- 12:00 – "There are great content and great stories that people want to consume"
12:06 – Example of phenomenal contents and stories
- 12:19 – "Anything that is written as a first person is a personal story destined to be an editorial or an opinion"
13:05 – There are different types of distribution
- 13:30 – Some people use different platform to consume the audio
13:50 – They've been working with Time, Reuters, and ZY to name a few
14:24 – Some of the team members are based in Manhattan
- 14:40 – 10 full time
14:50 – Raised capital
- 15:03 – The core team is interested in raising capital
- 15:20 – Their another product Audio
16:06 – How much do you want to raise?
- 16:25 – "Somewhere between third or half of the round"

17:05 – Connect with Will through his website and Facebook

18:17 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Disabilities can turn your life around—it all depends on your attitude and ingenuity.
Not all content is destined to be vocalized.
Keep trying until you figure it out…whatever that it may be.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
SpokenLayer.com -Will's business website
Facebook – Will's business Facebook account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 460: One Man Agency Does $500k Recommending Health Plans with Michael Chapman Oct 27, 2016

Show notes

Mike Chapman, an author, speaker and subject-matter expert for both healthcare and insurance matters. Listen as Mike talks about helping self-employed and small business owners take control of their health.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Approach
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Acuity
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Make the leap—start a business earlier."

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Mike to the show
02:10 – Why people should listen to Mike?
- 02:25 – "There are so many basic things that people can do that will save money and provide better options for healthcare"
02:37 – Mike is a consultant for small businesses and individuals. He's also a broker
03:13 – Total revenue in 2015 is under $ 1 million
03:38 – Sometimes, Mike will hire people, depending on the season
04:04 – Average annual net profit
04:45 – Mike has been in the business for 15 years
04:54 – First year revenue
05:20 – Mike is a marketing guy
- 05:34 – Mike used to do SEO for insurance
06:13 – Goal for 2016 revenue
06:36 – How Mike gets paid
- 07:01 – Mike gets paid directly from his recommendation

07:43 – Mike recommends Nathan alternatives for healthcare providers
- 07:54 – Consider a small group plan or business plan
- 08:24 – A short term plan can get coverage for you

- 08:50 – Why do you get penalize for not having health plan?
- 08:53 – Part of Obamacare
10:02 – Mike would get 3% - 6% per plan
10:47 – September expenses
- 11:00 – Marketing expenses
11:30 – Mike had signed-up hundreds to thousands of people
11:40 – Mike is based in Texas
11:58 – Mike does speaking to increase his network
- 12:03 – Email and web marketing
12:20 – Mike has about 6,000 subscribers
12:40 – Connect with Mike through his Facebook and website
14:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can save money and have better healthcare—it just takes planning and discipline.
Entrepreneurship is the avenue to fulfilment.
You can hit two birds with one stone – maximize your resources and network.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Facebook – Mike's Facebook account
TheMedicalInsuranceExchange.com – Mike's website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 459: Magically Make Paper Dissappear with $2m/yr Company Amipaperless CEO George Bandarian Oct 26, 2016

Show notes

George Bandarian II, CEO and President of AMI – The Paperless Company. He has a mission of eliminating paper and a vision for simplifying work for companies such as SpaceX, Walt Disney, MBC Universal, schools and colleges. Listen as George explains their unique culture and what he and his team are working on to disrupt the document management industry.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Bold
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — Headspace and Calm
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Fail fast, fail often, and fail forward"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:10 – Nathan introduces George to the show
01:58 – "In this day and age, there shouldn't be any paper documents"
- 02:20 – It is senseless to route documents from desk to desk
- 02:43 – They automate business processes and digitize the paperwork
03:28 – The price will depend on what the client wants them to do
- 03:40 – Provide full-service solution
- 04:22 – "It feels like we're handing them a new car key"
- 04:38 – They're an agency
- 04:50 – Product range is from $ 10,000 to $ 400,000
05:35 – Number of unique customers
05:50 – Team size is 25
- 05:59 – It should be 40 by the end of 2016
06:05 – The breakdown of work
- 06:20 – They have BPO service who does organic services
06:47 – Are you trying to build robots?
07:10 – George's father founded the company in 1968
- 07:28 – When George's father passes, his mother took the business over
- 07:36 – George went to ULC and finished early
- 08:10 – They started as micro-fund company but have gone through iterations
08:23 – First year revenue in '68
08:33 – 2015 revenue
- 08:42 – They might end at $ 2.5 million this year
09:08 – George's passion is in software and SaaS companies
09:21 – Some companies got bloated and expensive
09:43 – "We think that it is always a good time to think what customers really care about"
09:54 – They have a 45-day implementation guarantee
- 09:58 – Their number one core value is "follow the light"
10:50 – Working life as a bootstrapped business
11:08 – They've been profitable for decades and never had to raise funds
11:25 – Help people achieve breakthroughs
11:46 – Connect with George through his email at george@amipaperless.com
12:47 – George's focus on the business
13:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Go with your passion.
Fail fast, fail often, and fail forward
Technology is always changing—adapt to the change and stay ahead of the curve.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
George@amipaperless.com – George's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 458: 1200 Pay Her $47/Mo, Will do $2M This Year with Boom Social CEO Kim Garst Oct 25, 2016

Show notes

Kim Garst, CEO of Boomsocial. She's also best Selling author of Will the Real You Please Stand Up, Show Up, Be Authentic and Prosper in Social Media. She's internationally recognized and regularly contributes to www.Entrepreneur.com

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Lean In
What CEO do you follow? – Sheryl Sandberg

Favorite online tool? — Slack, Canva and Buzzsomo
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "I would tell myself to become an entrepreneur"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Kim to the show
02:57 – Kim was earning $ 3,000 per month
03:32 – As of the moment, they are generating $ 56,494 a month
- 03:50 – Kim asked her staff about the numbers before the interview
04:17 – www.KimGarst.com – where her new product is
- 04:43 – Focus on how you can truly make money from social media
05:20 – Kim runs a 3-lane, 3-stage sales funnel
- 05:28 – 3 different premiums
- 06:10 – Starts with a free offer then a mini course
- 06:50 – In just an hour, they can learn something and implement it in their business
- 07:24 – "We try to over deliver and give great content"
07:58 – About 11.2% of the people who take the free offer took the $ 9 upsell
- 08:07 – 70% take the free trial directly and the 30% will eventually take the 3-stage series
08:45 – Three landing pages and their conversions
09:57 – Kim explaining the process of landing pages conversion
- 10:03 – People don't immediately go to the $ 1 trial, they download the premium first
- 10:09 – First upsell is the mini-course
12:44 – The landing page that converts 40%
13:50 – 10% take the membership trial
15:00 – 30% monthly churn
15:15 – Customer value is $ 263
15:22 – Customer acquisition cost
15:25 – ROI
- 15:30 – Spent on Facebook ads
- 15:55 – 18% of profit is organic
16:16 – You can get traffic for free from social media
16:38 – Been using Facebook ads for quite a few months
17:00 – Average opening cut-through rate
- 17:12 – Open rate used to be 18-20% but right now it is 15-17%
- 17:25 – "I'm always wanting more"
18:20 – 2015 Boomsocial's total revenue
19:30 – Connect with Kim through her website and Boomsocial.com
21:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

People will come back to you if you have good content.
Increasing traffic through organic campaigns is free and effective.
Don't be content—always find ways to improve.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Boomsocial.com – Kim's business website
KimGarst.com – Kim's personal website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 457: 4000+ Units Sold Teaching Kids How To Code, $2m+ Raised with Piper Oct 24, 2016

Show notes

Tommy Gibbons, a former employee of both Goldman Sachs and Fundera. Listen to learn how Tommy met his Princeton bosses, and how he used those connections to get into Piper.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – N/A
What CEO do you follow? – Mark Pavlyukovskyy – his boss
Favorite online tool? — Zapier

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year-old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew how I could"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:10 – Nathan introduces Tommy to the show
01:41 – Piper is a guide for kids ages 8 – 12 to build their first computer
02:02 – Apple's co-founder review on Piper
02:16 – Piper has more than 4,000 customers since launching last year
02:28 – Looking into subscription plans in the future
02:45 – Piper was launched in Kickstarter in June 2015
- 03:10 – Sold their first product in December 2015
- 03:20 – They had craigslist posters
- - 03:40 – Title of craigslist poster was "Workers needed for packing of children's toys in Long Beach"
04:23 – Total funding raised is $ 2.3 million
04:47 – Tommy does customer service, retail partnership and ran all school app design
- 05:10 – Tommy has an equity In Piper
05:40 – Piper has 3 founders
06:20 – Tommy's approach to Mark regarding his interest in Piper
- 06:55 – Tommy told Mark about how he can be an advantage to the company
07:30 – Tommy was working for free for a couple of months
09:00 – The Piper question
09:30 – Cost of goods sold
09:45 – Gross margin
10:00 – Reselling
- 10:23 – Reseller's price and markup
- 10:36 – Facebook Ad
11:00 – Reorder rate
11:30 – They are now focusing on the development of Piper computers
11:52 – Revenue goal for 2016
- 12:00 – Big expectations for Christmas
- 12:15 – Order baseline
- 12:55 – Baseline now per month
13:32 – They will be very happy with 8,000 units sold
13:54 – Connect with Tommy through Playpiper.com
14:55 – They do retargeting
15:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don't just tell your future boss how you can be an asset to the company – show them what you can really do.
Because businesses start small, there's always room to grow.
Your degree doesn't define your future.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Playpiper.com – Tommy's company website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ep 456: $700k Agency Enters Group Coaching Space. Why? With CEO AriMirza Oct 23, 2016

Show notes

Ali Mirza, used to sell personal insurance door to door in Canada before getting fired and electing to venture out on his own. Listen to learn how he transformed his floundering sales career into a winner that he now sells to other companies.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People
What CEO do you follow? – Henry Ford

Favorite online tool? — Mixmax
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Stop being so afraid and just go do it. Work hard and smart."

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Ali to the show
02:06 – Ali build sales processes for mid-market companies
02:22 – Ali charged based on the work that he has to do
- 02:40 – His program ranges starts at $ 20-25,000 to $ 130,000
03:00 – Typical retainers
03:43 – HH Land Developments as a client
- 03:53 – Didn't pay retainers
04:20 – Ali has 4 employees
04:33 – Ali's business was founded in 2011
04:42 – First year revenue
05:25 – Total 2015 revenue
05:35 – 2016 target revenue
05:58 – They are back on startup level now
06:20 – Number of customers at the moment is 5 – 6
06:45 – Ali wants to be a consulting space
07:17 – Why would people choose Ali?
- 08:20 – "It doesn't matter what you're selling. What matters is what your client is buying"
- 08:41 – Need to figure out what the client exactly need
09:24 – Ali is launching a new business
- 10:30 – Building an online platform where we can do Monday morning meetings
- 11:27 – Is a webinar based hosting a sales meeting
- 12:45 – People will pay Ali a subscription fee to meet him in Monday morning meetings
- 12:50 – Will be launched in Canada in January
- 13:00 – First year goal
13:33 – Net margin in consulting business
14:17 – "In the long term, I may have thousands of people in Monday morning meeting"
14:45 – Reach Ali through RoseGardenConsulting.com
16:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Take your failures and turn them into inspiration.
Be your own self.
Adjust to your client's needs and don't just stick with what you can offer.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
RoseGardenConsulting.com – Ali's website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 455: Exited in 2013, Now Moving From "Job" To Startup CEO Again. How? with Ariel Camus Oct 22, 2016

Show notes

Ariel Camus, a product builder, 500 startups alumni and the CEO and Founder of TouristEye, acquired by Lonely Planet in 2013. Today, Ariel is building a new education system called HackerPath that utilizes collaboration between peers and bots.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Founders at Work
What CEO do you follow? –

Favorite online tool? — Google Apps
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Relax, you're doing well. Have more fun"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:12 – Nathan introduces Ariel to the show
01:35 – TouristEye is Ariel's first company and exited it in 2013
01:45 – TouristEye is a travel guide for mobile devices with all information offline
- 02:03 – Revenue is from referral fees and premium features in application
- 02:24 – Raised funding for TouristEye
- 02:55 – Acquisition price of Lonely Planet
- 03:18 – Why did you sell TouristEye?
04:50 – Ariel was 26 when he sold TouristEye
05:00 – Ariel joined Lonely Planet after selling TouristEye
06:00 – Ariel is starting a new project related to teaching
- 06:30 – Building a new platform online
- 06:46 – The project is called HackerPath
- 07:04 – Still in the process of building the database
- 07:18 – Goal is to make it open to everyone
- 07:37 – Recruiters are charging companies a 20% fee
- 07:53 – Currently pre-revenue
08:20 – No retainers for TouristEye
09:00 – "Do something you really love. Don't waste time and just do it"
09:24 – Ariel and his friends talk about ideas and how to make to make it happen
10:00 – What salary would be giving up should you decide to quit completely?
- 10:12 – A 6-digit salary
10:35 – "I can start a new business and pay developers to help me"
11:04 – Most of the money that were spent so far was for an experiment that was launched last week called Coderoulette
- 11:25 – Did it to validate the interest
- 11:33 – Did well on the launched
- 11:45 – Used existing technologies
12:00 – Put in $ 10-15,000 for the project
12:19 – Connect with Ariel through Twitter
13:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Do something you really love. Don't waste time and just do it.
Selling a business is a crucial choice – make sure you won't regret it.
Relax and have more fun.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
@arielcamus - Ariel's Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 454: $6.9M Movie Tickets Sold In Discount Marketplace DealFlicks with CEO Sean Wycliffe Oct 21, 2016

Show notes

Sean Wycliffe, CEO of Dealflicks – a company that helps movie theaters move tickets at discount prices. Listen as Sean breaks down how he uses affiliate-driven system to drive a $ 240,000 per month business.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Laws of Leadership
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Definitely
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Wish I would have got to real estate earlier"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show
02:10 – What is Dealflicks and how it makes money?
- 02:15 – Dealflicks is partnered directly with movie theaters
- 02:27 – Currently all over the country
02:47 – Number of ticket moving per month
03:20 – Average ticket price
- 03:45 – 70,000 tickets per month and 70,000 from concessionaires
- 04:05 – 2 tickets per transaction
04:16 – Average order value is around $ 13
- 04:25 – People buy them as gift cards
- 04:44 – The $ 13 can be for a ticket and a concession
05:05 – Marketplace
- 05:13 – Movie theaters are allowed to have inventories in the platform
- 05:24 – Sellers are the theaters; buyers are the movie-goers
05:31 – There's around 800 movie theaters and 6000 screens on the platform
06:02 – Number of unique buyers since the Dealflicks started
06:41 – Dealflicks was launched in 2012
06:48 – First year revenue
07:17 – Dealflicks takes a pre-arranged percentage per ticket sold on the platform
- 07:36 – An average of around 15%
07:58 – Gross margin
08:30 – Current team size
- 08:40 – 8 full-time employees
09:21 – Raised $2.9 million and opened up a bridge net recently
09:58 – Aiming on getting Series A next year
10:20 – They're willing to take investors
- 10:27 - "If you're a startup, you can always raise money but it's not always necessary"
11:07 – Dealflicks is making $ 50,000 per month
11:24 – No other expenses
11:30 – In July, they crossed over $ 480,000 for revenue
- 11:50 – Spending more on marketing and team
12:13 – Valuation of the company
13:45 – They recently expanded internationally
- 14:18 – It's a big proof point
14:43 – 2015 total transaction volume
16:16 – 2016 growth goal
16:36 – Number of unique buyers per month
17:40 – Reach Sean through Twitter and Facebook
19:50 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

If you're a startup, you can always raise money but it's not always necessary.
Aim for a healthy growth.
There's no age limit in entrepreneurship – you can start as early as you want.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
@dealflicks – Sean's business Twitter handle
Facebook – Sean's Facebook account
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 453: $2M Agency Helps Brands Raise Capital, IPO, Sell, with ROIworks CEO George Revutsky Oct 20, 2016

Show notes

George Revutsky, CMO for Soothe – the world's largest on-demand massage service. He's also the CEO of ROIworks – a growth agency that runs growth and build growth agency teams for funded startup and Fortune 1000 companies like Headspace, TriNet and Original Stitch just to name a few. Listen as George talks about how he generated double digit revenue for Soothe in straight 11 months.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Don't Make Me Think
What CEO do you follow? – Aaron Levie

Favorite online tool? — Optimizely and Hotjar
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Knew the value of moderated user testing and customer development when founding companies or evaluating product"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:10 – Nathan introduces George to the show
01:48 – ROIworks started as an agency 10 years ago
- 02:12 – Used digital tools such as aid acquisition, A/B testing etc. for a series of experiment
02:40 – Typically, they would make some kind of retainer
03:15 – They used to have 3-6 months contract
- 03:40 – Shifted to monthly
03:51 – Average pay per customer
- 04:00 - $ 240,000 per customer
04:05 – Number of total unique customers
- 04:25 – Worked for hundreds for the last 15 years
04:45 – First year revenue
05:05 – ROIworks is making roughly around $ 2 million a year
05:15 – 12 people in the team
05:30 – ROIworks changed their model
- 05:43 – Used to have smaller retainers
- 06:16 – Now they're getting larger retainers and less clients
- - 06:25 – They're getting deeper with these Series A and B clients
06:30 – Monthly head count expenses
06:50 – Agencies should retain a 25% percent after all the expenses
07:20 – What George does with the cash flow as the CEO
- 07:40 – "We like to be conservative and be safe for our team members"
- 07:50 – Keeping some cash in the bank
- 08:04 – Give bonuses to team that is coming from the cash flow
08:54 – How Soothe works with ROIworks
- 09:00 – The founder of Soothe invested in one of George's startup
- 09:15 – George takes a leave from 6-12 months
- - 09:27 – George co-founded SplendidLabs during his leave
  - 09:50 – It is a machine-learning based personal shopping assistance
  - 10:08 – Sold it because they can't find a particular market fit
- 11:13 – Became friends with the owner of Merlin of Soothe
- - 11:40 – George started providing ROIworks' discounted marketing services to Soothe to help the beta testing
  - 12:21 – Soothe grew steadily and Merlin got Angel funding
  - 12:33 – Soothe got Series A for $ 10.6 million
  - 13:00 – Merlin asked Gerry if he can worked with Soothe in Hollywood
  - 13:35 – They got 3 months of dramatic revenue bills
  - 13:51 – Merlin hired George directly as the contract CMO
  - 14:30 – Able to put together 11 straight months of double digit growth
  - 14:45 – The growth led to their Series B which is for $ 35 million
  - 14:55 – ZEO is their biggest competitor
15:10 – Created a playbook to acquire customer
- 15:30 – Doing Facebook advertising, AdWords, re-marketing and a lot of paid ads
- 16:00 – Paid acquisition is foolproof
- 16:17 – Soothe was in the Ellen show for Mother's Day
- 16:59 – Who to approach with the Ellen team
17:45 – Connect with George through george@roiworks.com and ROIworks.com
19:00 - The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Make your team members happy – it will boost their confidence and will reflect to their work.
Be happy on being a part of one's success.
There are tons of ways to acquire customer – you just have to find what works best.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
ROIworks.com – George's business website
george@roiworks.com – George's email address
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected