A Step by Step Guide to Pre-selling With Carl Mattiola

by Scott

Most people who try to start a business begin building something before getting a dime from a single customer…

“Que triste” as my Brazilian friends would say!

Today I’m pumped to chat with Carl Mattiola, founder of ClinicMetrics, about pre-selling and the exact steps he used to get paying customers before he built any software.

In this interview you’ll learn:

The process he used to go from no idea to settling on building clinic metrics [3:42]
Which prospects to start with when you’re ready to pre-sell [10:03]
The logistics of his first pitch and what happened immediately after [20:39]
The power of “price anchoring” and how to utilize it in pre-sales [26:29]
Common objections he received in his pre-sales process and how to overcome them [31:58]
Tactics to de-risk …
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Building SaaS Businesses, Enterprise Sales, and Bootstrapping with Spencer Fry

by Scott

Today I’m pumped to bring you an interview with my buddy Spencer Fry, Co-Founder of Uncover and all around awesome guy.

Over the past ten years, Spencer has built 2 profitable companies without raising a dime and is now well on his way to his 3rd. #studmuffins anyone?

In this interview we talk about:

The founding and developing of his first successful company Typefrag which is still going strong today with 30+ employees
His transition to Carbonmade and how to bootstrap a SaaS business while doing consulting work
The number one thing that all aspiring programmers should have if they truly want to learn how to code. Maybe why I failed…
Why to never give something away for free, even your a startup with no customers or …
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The Story of LaunchBit and Hustling With Elizabeth Yin

by Scott

Today I’m pumped to bring you an interview with Elizabeth Yin, Co-Founder of LaunchBit, the leading ad-network for email newsletters.

You know those people that peak your interest that you just kind of sort of end up just following from a distance? Elizabeth was totally one of those people for me until we did this interview. First I saw LaunchBit and was like, gee that’s a good idea. Then I started subscribing to LaunchBit’s newsletter of highly curated customer acquisition articles (woah another good idea). The she launched a conference called Hustle Con…at that point I was like okay, I seriously need to meet this person! Anyways, Elizabeth is a total rockstar and has an awesome story so definitely …
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Getting Traction In Local and Selling into Enterprise with Ryan Jeffery, VP of Business Development at Belly

by Scott

A little over a year ago I met Ryan Jeffery, Vice President of Business Development at Belly, a startup focused on enriching the loyalty experience for both local businesses and consumers.

When we met I could tell Ryan was a sharp guy…and I’ve been really impressed by the growth that Belly has achieved in the beast that is local. Naturally I thought he’d be fun to do an interview with : )

In this interview we talk about:

How they initially pitched and sold local businesses in MVP mode (WARNING: includes ipad glue stories)
The first thing they did after they got their very first customer
How they scaled once they had initial product/market fit
Insight into their hybrid inside/outside sales distribution strategy (and why this …
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Self-Improvement and Behavior Change With Jason Shen

by Scott

In this edition of the Life-Long Learner Show (that’s right I’m calling it a show now), I sit down with Jason Shen, Co-founder of Ridejoy and The Art of Ass Kicking.

Jason is an accomplished dude across the board: National Champion Gymnast, Y-Combinator Alum, Stanford Grad. The guy has done some cool stuff which made this interview really fun to do.

In this interview we talk about:

Some surprising benefits of being authentic about your self-improvement journey
A primer on rejection therapy: what it is, why he did it, and how to get started if you want to push your comfort zone
How evolutionary biology plays a role in human behavior
The power of branding a “habit change” and how this can actually make behavior change …
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Startup BD and Channel Partnerships with Andrew Dumont, Director of BD at SEOmoz

by Scott

I recently had the chance to chat with Andrew Dumont, director of BD at SEOmoz.

I’ve been following him from a distance after discovering his blog so it was awesome to get some facetime to rap BD, life, and other coolness.

In this interview we talk about:

His introduction to working in tech at the ripe age of 18 years young and various startup experience since then (Tatango -> Seesmic -> SEOmoz)
How to manage business development relationships when you’re company pivots…a lot
What the heck business development at SEOmoz actually means
How he evaluates channel partnerships and the expected conversion rate he anticipates for channel deals. A lot of startup founders need to understand this if they pursue this distribution strategy
The greatest …
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Marketplaces, Managing A Pipeline and Biz Dev with Max Altschuler

by Scott

Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing my buddy Max Altschuler, VP of business development at AttorneyFee and previously BD at Udemy. Max is a GTD type of dude.

 

In this interview we talk about:

How he started a business making American $money$ abroad right out of school before joining education marketplace Udemy
Insight into creating a process to build out the supply side marketplace for Udemy (hint – they leveraged outsourced labor!)
Critical elements to successfully managing a pipeline and the “apology technique“
Ways they compelled teachers to take action on their verbal commitments to teach courses
Advice he’d give anyone whose looking to land a startup job
His new gig at Attorney Fee and what he likes about the business (profitable and bootstrapped …
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Gumroad, Business Development, and Hustle with Ryan Delk

by Scott

Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Delk, head of Growth/Business Development at GumRoad.

Ryan is a stud. I met him 6 weeks ago and could tell immediately that a) he gets it and b) he’s a doer. He was an early employee at GumRoad and dropped out of college to join the team. In their first year, they’ve raised over 8 millions bucks from Silicon Valley’s finest and seen awesome growth in transactions/users.

In this interview we chat about:

What GumRoad is and how it’s changing the way commerce is done online
What Business Development at GumRoad means (like doing deals with Enimem, Ellie Goulding and other cool peeps)
How a little startup can get deals with major record labels and …
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