The Top Entrepreneurs In Money, Marketing, Business And Life

Sujan Patel, an entrepreneur and a marketer who’s made a career out of learning how to keep an eye on ALL the moving pieces of his business. He's the co-founder of two successful digital marketing companies, ContentMarketer and Web Profits. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Never Eat Alone What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Buzzsumo 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 wish I knew that I could work harder”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:43 – Nathan introduces Sujan to the show 02:03 – What is Web Profits and how does it make money? 02:09 – Marketing agency 02:20 – Average retainer is $ 10,000 a month 02:40 – Reject 90% of the people 03:00 – 20 clients at the moment 03:05 – Web Profits is founded earlier this year 03:12 – Consulting firm 03:40 – Joint venture with a big company in Australia 03:55 – 90 team members 04:09 – 8 people are in Austin 04:21 – Total revenue at the moment 04:28 – Goal in 201

Sean Howell, the founder of Hornet - the second largest gay social network with 15 million members worldwide, known for its ongoing “Know your Status” HIV campaign. He's a speaker on mobile technology and his opinions have been featured all over the place, even the New York Times. Outside of work, Sean likes to serve on various non-profit boards and committees like the World Affairs Council, PFLAG, and UNAIDS, Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Alibaba What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — Insightly 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 wish I started earlier”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:38 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show 02:13 – How Hornet generates revenue 02:23 – Premium subscription model 02:53 – Direct deals 03:08 – Premium subscription service 03:29 – No restrictions 03:43 – 5% of their user base 03:37 – 15 million user base 03:53 – Hornet was founded in October 2011 04:13 – MAU 04:22 – Metric 04:

Laura Behrens Wu, the co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Listen as Laura talks about how a laundry list of shipping obstacles with her previous e-commerce store birthed the idea for Shippo. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Things About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Patrick Collison Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “I wish” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Trust that things will turn out right”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:45 – Nathan introduces Laura to the show 02:13 – E-commerce business Laura had 02:27 – Started at Shopify 02:40 – Sourcing unique items from NGO 03:07 – Shipping problem 03:32 – Revenue with the e-commerce business 03:50 – Laura was 21 when she started her business 04:13 – Financing with Shippo 04:17 – Drop shipping 05:08 – Typical shipping pricing 05:30 – Shippo shipping rates 05:58 – Volume metric 06:07 – Doing millions of packages a month 06:30 – Negotiation with shipping providers  06:44 –

Zach Benson, an award-winning dancer who travels around the world running instructional clinics. He's been featured as a Round 4 finalists on FOX TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” and he’s also the founder and CEO of Assistagram.co. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Slide Edge What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Olson Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Usually 7 and a half” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew everything then that I know now”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Zach to the show 02:13 – How the dance clinic works 02:20 – Place, schedule, and class pricing 03:06 – Total revenue of the dance clinic in 2015 03:35 – Zach talks about how he partners with dance studios 04:25 – CTA 05:14 – Number of students per class 05:53 – Assistagram.co 06:07 – Team in the Philippines 06:27 – Hashtag optimization 06:58 – How to find hashtags to use 07:14 – There’s no database 07:40 – Follow/unfollow proces

Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, a company that provides predictive intelligence for emerging technology trends, startups, and corporate. Their customers include Cisco, Marketo, and Red Hat, just to name a few. Prior to CB Insights, Anand managed the $50 million Chairman’s Innovation Fund at American Express. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Gmail Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “I wish” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Be patient”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:42 – Nathan introduces Anand to the show 02:45 – “If you buy something for 2 and sell it for 1, you will not make it up in volume” 03:12 – He was in-charge of spending money 03:25 – Sent to London for Cosmo Europe 03:40 – Overspent 04:00 – Rationalizing the expenses 04:45 – Worked in American Express after Cosmo 06:25 – Salary in American Express 06:55 – “Decided to take the plunge” 07:3

Victor Levitin, co-founder and CEO of CrazyLister. Prior to CrazyLister, Victor ran a retail business that he drove from $0 to $4.5M in revenue in just three years. In fact, it did so well it won an eBay award for highest conversion rate. Victor channels his eBay retail experiences through a blog called “eBay Sellers Journey to $100K a month” where he helps eBay sellers avoid mistakes and grow their business the right way. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Elon Musk Biography What CEO do you follow? – Alex Turnbull Favorite online tool? — Intercom Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “About 7” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Teach myself how to code and learn the balance”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:37 – Nathan introduces Victor to the show 02:08 – What is CrazyLister and how does it make money? 02:16 – Created for sellers 02:50 – Similar with creating websites 03:28 – Built-in to eBay’s API 03:40 – You have to know how to code to use CrazyLister 03:49 – Pricing sch

Brad Costanzo, an entrepreneur, investor, and business consultant who built (and sold) two digital businesses. Today, Brad helps companies use proven marketing methods, innovative branding campaigns, and form strategic alliances to grow their revenue. He also hosts the “Bacon Wrapped Business” podcast on iTunes. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – One Simple Idea What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — MindMeister and XMind Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Typically 7” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t seek comfort, seek challenge.”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:44 – Nathan introduces Brad to the show 02:06 – Brad sold two digital businesses 02:30 – Dating and relationship product, real estate product etc. 03:10 – Fun bar tricks 03:38 – Sold it for six figures 04:05 – Pigtones.com 04:23 – Sold it for less than $100,000 04:36 – Brad now focuses on consulting, crowdfunding, and coffee 04:50 – Equity crowdfunding 05:08 – What he did after s

Liz Pearce, CEO of LiquidPlanner–a fast-growing, Seattle based, maker of dynamic project management technology—and an active member of the Seattle startup and technology community. Listen as Liz talks about her passion in mentoring and advocating for technology and leadership. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Search Inside Yourself What CEO do you follow? – “My Top 5 Customers” Favorite online tool? — Mint Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t let go of  your interest and you will always get something back when you give”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:38 – Nathan introduces Liz to the show 02:02 – What LiquidPlanner is and how it generates revenue 02:08 – Project management software 02:28 – How does the customer use Liquid planner 03:13 – LiquidPlanner is a SaaS business model charge per user 03:30 - Pricing 03:52 – First year revenue in 2007 04:01 – Worked as a marketing contractor of the business 04:32 – What happened to

Jim Fowler, the founder and CEO of Owler– the crowd sourced competitive intelligence platform business professionals are using to out-smart their competitive insights and uncover the latest industry news and alerts. Prior to Owler, Jim founded Jigsaw in 2003 and was the CEO until it was acquired by Salesforce in 2010 for $ 175 million. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Owler Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “How to plan for the worst case scenario and hope for the best case scenario”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:43 – Nathan introduces Jim to the show 02:12 – Jim was at NathanLatka.com/thetop73 02:45 – Where is Owler now? 03:23 – New product of Owler 03:41 – Do I need to build manually or you scrape the data out of searches? 04:32 – Most data input by users 05:00 – HeYo’s data on Owler 05:24 – Data sources 06:00 – Howler’s challenge 06:47 – Data sources

Josh Ledgard, co-founder of KickoffLabs to The Top. KickoffLabs is a viral lead generation platform with amazing landing pages, lead capture forms, and e-mail marketing rolled into one seamless package. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The 4-Hour Workweek What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — https://www.helpscout.net/Help Scout Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Working smart is way more important than working hard”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show 02:03 – What KickoffLabs does differently and how it makes money 02:15 – Engage customer as a form of marketing 02:43 – Online advertising 03:12 – KickoffLabs is a SaaS business 03:58 – Pricing plan 04:20 – Customer churn for HeYo 04:40 – Josh’s monthly churn rate 05:10 – How to mitigate churn rate 06:00 – Paid acquisition 06:08 – Types of paid acquisition 06:48 – Monthly spent on blog content promotion 07:18 – Boo

Nathan Putnam, an entrepreneur who’s currently working on a company called Monumetric. Their focus?—help people unlock the earning potential behind online content through data analysis and optimization strategies. As Nathan says, “What we do is not magic. It’s science.” Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Start with Why, Reality Check, Leaders Eat Last What CEO do you follow? – Brian O’Kelley Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “No. Not close” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Look stop listening to music as entertainment. Remember, whatever you put in your brain, that's what's going to come out”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Nathan Putnam to the show 02:27 – Monumetric functions 03:44 – Current number of publisher partnerships 04:05 – Why people use Monumetric and not Google Analytics or AdSense 04:29 – Second price auction 04:58 – “Google is our best partner but also our greatest competition” 06:55 – Business was fou

Sue Zimmerman, the creator of the online Instagram course Ready, Set, Gram! In addition to her popular instruction, Sue is also a powerful speaker on prominent stages like Social Media Marketing World, and a highly sought after business coach. She's passionate about teaching business owners and marketing professionals how to leverage the power of Instagram to get tangible business results. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Book Yourself Solid What CEO do you follow? – Sophia Amoruso Favorite online tool? — Dropbox Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Absolutely. I have to” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew how to collaborate with people who I knew, like and trust.”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:37 – Nathan introduces Sue to the show 02:40 – Sue’s focus at the moment 02:45 – How to leverage power of Instagram stories 03:04 – How Sue makes money in teaching 03:17 – Successful online courses 03:56 – Paid webinar 04:18  - Sent email to list of a little over

Gavin Zuchlinski, the founder of Acuity Scheduling—the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He’s a self-professed tech geek and an espresso-maniac who wholeheartedly believes that business should be totally fun. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Anything You Want What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove Favorite online tool? — Canary Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “8 and a half hour is my ideal number” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing.”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:37 – Nathan introduces Gavin to the show 02:09 – Gavin is on his 4th espresso for the day 02:25 – How Acuity Scheduling generate sales 02:30 – SaaS to manage scheduling appointments online 02:48 – Developed for Gavin’s mother 03:00 – 2006 started 03:21 – Start of Gavin’s business 03:48 – 2007 first year in business 04:05 – Only a side project 04:54 – First year revenue 05:

Egbert Ootsburg, onto The Top. Egbert runs a company that designs apps for the scalding-hot consumer drone market. Listen as Egbert talks about his strong ambition to make a difference in the world and how he takes advantage of the drone market. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – Andy Stanley Favorite online tool? — Evernote Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Are you kidding?” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “To get started faster and not to wait for something to occur before giving yourself permission to succeed”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:37 – Nathan introduces Egbert to the show 02:06 – How Egbert generate money 02:18 – Open Skkye App 02:45 – Helps Drone pilots find places where to fly versus not fly 03:25 – 2015 total revenue 03:44 – Drone Aviator 05:00 – Leaving the corporate world 05:10 – Worked with Pfizer in 2009 05:38 – Biggest recommendation 05:55 – “There’s always a way to bootstrap something” 06:20 – Egbert did

Keith Perhac onto The Top. Keith is a marketing expert, developer, and designer. His goal is to take complex things and make them simple, understandable, and actionable for business owners. Today he is the CEO of SegMetrics and DelfiNet, technical marketing agencies that help companies create highly optimized sales funnels. Famous Five:   Favorite Book? – Work the System What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — HarvestApp Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “It’s not as scary as jumping off and leaving the company that you’ve been working on for 6 years to start on your own.”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:13 – Focus: DelfiNet or SegMetrics 03:02 – Founding day of SegMetrics and first revenue 04:20 – How SegMetrics is built 04:50 – Focused on building the greatest product 05:48 – Margins are better in SaaS 06:19 – Average sales per customer per month 07:10 – August Revenue 09:40 – 50% gross margins 10:15 – Biggest le

Pablo Fuentes, founder and CEO of Proven—a company that specializes in small business HR solutions. In addition to his passion for helping both minorities and women start businesses, Pablo also owns a BA from UCLA and an MBA from Stanford. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Art of Learning What CEO do you follow? – Richard Branson Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Start Jiu-jitsu earlier”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:35 – Nathan introduces Pablo to the show 02:04 – How Pablo’s business generates sales and collaborates with talent managers 03:21 – First year revenue in 2009 versus revenue in 2015 03:45 – How do you make money? 03:55 – When small businesses post a job 04:30 – Average pay per company location 04:51 – Average revenue per user 05:00 – Lifetime value 06:10 – Average churn = of 2 years 07:10 – August Revenue 08:10 – Subscription vs. pay as you go pricing 09:40 – 50% gros

Yuri Elkaim, a nutrition fitness and fat loss expert, onto the podcast. Yuri is a New York Times best-selling author of “The All-Day Energy Diet” and “The All-Day Fat Burning Diet”. He's a former soccer player turned health crusader, and is most famous for helping people who've tried everything to lose weight but enjoyed very little success.  Famous Five:   Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – Peter Teal Favorite online tool? — Google Docs Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— About 7-8 If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Focus on one thing”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:34 – 25 million Youtube views 03:06 – Yuri’s focus on building now 03:59 – Webinars 04:11 – Conversion from the webinar 04:30 – Shut down the sales page 04:39 – Facebook Ad expenditure 05:21 – Totalwellnesscleanse.com 05:40 – Facebook ad look and landing page 06:17 – Eyelid test guide 07:00 – Number of webinars per month 08:00 – No domain for webinar 08:30 – Webinar sell price

Matt Tumbleson is the founder and CEO of Teckst – a New York based startup that's transforming customer service by directly connecting consumers with businesses via 2-way text messaging. His own frustrations with lengthy hold times and incompetent customer service representatives are why he decided to launch Teckst. Prior to jumping into entrepreneurship, Matt worked as the Creative and Marketing director of Seamless (now Grubhub), and worked as a graphics journalist at The Miami Herald. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — WorkFlowy Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Stick to one thing long enough to see it through”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:37 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show 02:31 – What Matt does and how they make money 03:09 – Selling ROI 03:15 – Created software in a house in NY 03:33 – They have monthly subscription plan 03:50 – Current

Johnson Emmanuel the founder and CEO of Clients Attraction, a company that specializes in online marketing strategies engineered to attract big-ticket clients. Listen as Johnson shares his story of starting a business in Nigeria, and how he used his passion for marketing to start chipping his path to the top. Famous Five:   Favorite Book? – The Ultimate Sales Machine What CEO do you follow? – Richard Branson Favorite online tool? — Asana Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – Focus on your marketing and charge more sooner.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:20 – $230K in revenue in 2015 03:00 – How Johnson’s company makes money 04:00 – Johnson uses a lot of Infusionsoft with his clients 04:30 – When you’re selling a high value product, you don’t list your prices you have a conversation 05:15 – Johnson charges his clients between $5k and $20k per month 05:55 – Johnson’s top client paid $25K last year 07:30 – It’s important to learn, but don’t