Big Break Software Podcast

David Rosa, CEO, and co-founder of Neat, talks about coming up with his company’s idea, funding the MVP, acquiring his first customer, and navigating the 0-30,000 MRR journey. Listen closely. 

The internet has transformed the world into a global village, allowing shoppers to purchase goods from various parts of the country. However, making online payments can be a huge challenge, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.

Neat, a fintech company based in Hong Kong specializes in giving small and medium-sized businesses an alternative to conventional corporate banking. The company offers access to traditional banking services, credit cards, and customized startup solutions.

Through these solutions, customers can make payments locally, efficiently, and conveniently regardless of their jurisdiction. Join David, the CEO, as he discusses his journey with Geordie.  

• The role technology and compliance played in the founding of Neat
• The amount David spent on the MVP
• How David and his team survived after their bank account was closed
• Challenges Neat faced during Covid
• Importance of working with like-minded individuals 

In today’s world, where eCommerce is becoming more popular by the day, the availability of flexible payment networks is necessary. However, this is hardly the case. Neat, David says, seeks to solve the existing payment networks split in various parts of the globe, to make them more accessible for SMEs.  Large banks and multinational corporations often take care of this split, making it difficult and costly for small businesses to link to such payment networks.

David talks about his previous experience working at Citibank before co-founding the Asian branch of integral Capital Management, a company he would later sell in 2014 to focus entirely on Neat. Listen to David as he talks about the challenges that pushed him into founding Neat. He also talks about meeting his co-founder and how they invested in the know your customer (KYC) concept that the Hong Kong government would later award.  

After developing their MVP, David and his co-founder searched for early adopters, and settled on University students. He says University students had sufficient time to test and interact with the product and give them feedback. They would leverage the feedback to make any necessary improvements on the product. However, the time students had, and which David had leveraged turned out to be a liability. How was that? Find out the details from the podcast.  

David and his team went back to the drawing board. They later found product-market fit from young professionals brought to Hong Kong for training, who experienced challenges opening a bank account. While the market was very shallow, everything changed within 12 months.

At some point, David realized the young professionals were running side hustles, and they (the young professionals) urged them to develop an SME payment network solution. That was the first time David and his team identified a pain point in the market. David gives more details in the podcast.

The young professional’s demands pushed David to transform his business into an SME solution. David says that point marked the beginning of their growth. David has some advice for people who are considering venturing into the startup world. Listen to the podcast for the details. 

David invested lots of money in the MVP, most of which paid salaries and other fixed costs like acquiring infrastructure and making deposits. Pivoting into the SME space was a significant move that prompted massive growth. David mentions one incident when their first banking partner closed their bank account because they could not handle their rapid growth.

The incident almost killed their business, and David gives an extensive explanation of why the bank closed their account in this podcast. After that incident, David and his team came back stronger with even more significant shareholders.  

When Covid hit the world, many companies struggled to survive while others experienced tremendous growth. At the onset of the global crisis, David says, there were a few challenges but they managed to sail through and even grow five times. One of the biggest challenges Neat had to navigate is managing the team, keeping them focused and motivated.

Some of Neat’s competitors include modern banks and challengers, which David mentions in this podcast. Businesses should watch out on the competition without obsessing over it in David’s words.  

Suppose David could turn the hands of time based on his experience in the fintech industry today. In that case, he would first raise a considerable amount of money before venturing into the market. He says obsessing about making ends meet as a beginner is not necessary. David concludes the podcast by inviting interested parties to reach him should they need his assistance.  

Neat

David Rosa LinkedIn

Vijay Krishnan, CEO, and CTO of turing.com, talks about how the company developed and funded their MVP, acquired the first clients, and navigated the 0-30,000 MRR journey. Listen in.  

Turing.com is a platform that pairs companies with verified global remote talent and facilitates success in the resulting collaborations. Vijay Krishnan, the CEO, is a machine learning entrepreneur and researcher. He talks to Geordie about his journey.  

• How Vijay came up with the Turing idea
• What problem does Turing solve for their customers?
• Remote work-based problems that Vijay and his team had to solve
• How to make remote work effective
• How Turing attracted its first clients
• Why Vijay and the team decided machine learning was ideal for their platform
• How Turing developed tests
• Problems machine learning solves with ease
• Tools Turing uses to operate machine learning
• Strategies Vijay and his team are using to accelerate growth 

Before venturing into the machine learning world, Vijay worked in academia, industry research, and the startup sector. During that time, he gained tremendous experience dealing with a wide range of initiatives such as data science and art.

At Turing, Vijay and his team specialize in sourcing software developers from across the globe before interviewing and testing them extensively. That strategy allows Turing to develop a comprehensive profile of different developers.

According to Vijay, over 600,000 software developers from more than 10,000 cities worldwide are already registered on their platform. All of them have been pre-vetted and are ready for the job market. Vijay explains how they go about matching companies with the relevant software developer based on their needs. Listen to the podcast for the details.

Hiring the right team can be a challenging process that Vijay and his business partner faced before starting Turing. He talks about what they did to counter that challenge in this podcast.  Vijay says they had sufficient experience from their previous startup when building the Turing MVP. Listen to the podcast to find out how they funded the MVP.

While working remotely is fast becoming popular, many companies are yet to embrace it. Turing's main goal was to eliminate some of the challenges hiring managers faced. Vijay sought to ensure clients enjoyed excellent quality talent, collaboration, and value. When they ventured into the market, Vijay and his team realized that they could solve a significant percentage of hiring managers' problems.

They decided to take their venture a notch higher by devising a robust global solution. Get all the details from the podcast. He also highlights various challenges in the development industry today. Vijay says they adopted all standard marketing methods like posting ads to reach potential customers.

Building an MVP and acquiring your first customer can be a prolonged process. Vijay says they first focused on building their platform, an experience that directly exposed them to pain points which they improved over time. It took them nine months before signing in their first customers. What is Turing's pricing model? Vijay says their standard model involves companies engaging with a pre-vetted software developer. 

The platform, he says, allows companies to hire developers on a full-time basis after paying a fixed fee. Choosing the ideal candidate manually can be a long, frustrating process that many hiring managers are unwilling to struggle with. However, with machine learning, they have managed to ease the process. He explains why machine learning is appropriate in solving the hiring process.

With machine learning, Turing has developed an extensive profile of their software developers more robustly than what potential employers would get from a resume. While machine learning facilitates the matching process, it also assists with the test design. Vijay gives a detailed explanation of how the platform works. You cannot afford to miss this part of the podcast.

The prevailing pandemic has affected nearly all businesses across the world in various ways. Vijay says the market experienced shock with people not knowing what was happening at the beginning of the pandemic. A few months in and Turing started experiencing massive growth. He mentions that some of the people who had resented remote work previously started embracing it. Developers do not pay to join the Turing platform. 

Vijay Krishnan LinkedIn

Vijay Krishnan Twitter

Turing.com

CEO and founder of Horizen Capital talks about his expectations when making investments and what to include or eliminate in your SaaS pitch. Get all the details from the podcast.

As the SaaS industry advances, many entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities to venture into the market. Akeel Jabber, an expert in growing SaaS companies, tells Geordie about what you need to invest in a SaaS business.

• Why outsourcing the technical part of your SaaS business can be a huge mistake
• Why investors should avoid hurried decisions
• Why Akeel and his team picked 500 thousand MRR as their cut off line for their potential SaaS companies
• Why Akeel targets companies with a big LTV (lifetime value)
• What is seller earnout?

Horizon Capital works with B2B SaaS companies whose MRR is between 500 thousand and 5 million. Akeel says they come in when the businesses have already identified product-market fit. He explains two things that the company does at that point to accelerate growth. Get all the details from the podcast.

Akeel is neither a marketer nor a technical or product specialist. He is a petroleum engineer turned entrepreneur who worked in the white-collar industry for many years. His entrepreneurship journey began during his days in the University when he ventured into the stock market and learned the mistakes that come with investing. He discusses some of these mistakes in the podcast.

Akeel would later invest in the real estate industry before venturing into other businesses where he gained tremendous experience. Listen to him as he narrates his entrepreneurship journey. He also discusses SEO, email marketing, and affiliate marketing. Akeel bought his first startup company before joining a different company to become the CEO.

While working as a CEO, Akeel says he doubled the company’s earnings within five months. The growth earned him another project that would land him in California, where he worked as a CEO for all the SaaS companies in the group. He highlights some of the lessons he learned during that phase of his life.

How do Akeel and his team go about handling deals? He says they collect all the necessary information to ensure it meets their investment framework before doing extensive due diligence. He also mentions valuation, saying some people expect more than the actual value of their companies.

How do they handle such cases? Find out from the podcast. Akeel mentions three key factors you should consider to determine your valuation. These are churn, growth rate, and lifetime value (LTV). However, he mentions numerous other things to look out for, which you can find from this podcast.

Which is Akeel’s ideal company? To answer this question, he gives an illustration that you can learn about from the podcast. Akeel says they target companies that have been in operation for a minimum of three years with a 1.1% churn rate and a minimum LTV of between 1500 and 2000.

Reaching people looking to sell their SaaS businesses can be a difficult task. However, Horizen Capital has an inbound strategy where they generate lots of high-quality content and SEO. He opines that many people find them after reading their articles. He explains this strategy further in the podcast.

They team also reaches potential customers directly via LinkedIn. Here, they get powerful founders from different databases who share their experiences. Apart from cash, Akeel says there are numerous ways of financing a company based on where you are.

In Canada, for example, there is a system where investors can acquire a small business administration loan from a bank. He explains how the system works. Akeel mentions the seller financing system as another viable company financing strategy. Listen to the podcast to find out how it works. Akeel also highlights other financing methods in this podcast. Listen and learn.

Horizon Capital strives to offer quality instead of quantity. According to Akeel, they are comfortable doing fewer deals and doing them exceptionally well than handling more deals hurriedly.

If you are looking to invest, Akeel breaks the process into three parts: do a great deal, do nothing, or do a bad deal. Doing nothing, he says, is better than doing a bad deal. He advises potential investors to peruse through deals and understand what is on offer before committing themselves.

Akeel concludes the podcast with some advice to investors wishing to buy their first SaaS Company; invest in something you are passionate about and prepare to study and understand how the industry works.

Resources 

Akeel Jabber LinkedIn

Akeel Jabber Twitter

Akeel Jabber YouTube

Horizen Capital

Kyle Roof, founder of PageOptimizer Pro, talks about inventing his idea, building his MVP, and navigating his entrepreneurship journey from zero to 30,000 MRR. Listen for more insights.  

Like many entrepreneurs, Kyle Roof struggled with SEO before finally devising a robust strategy to rank websites. His strategies help marketers, and business owners eliminate their SEO challenges, accelerate their goals, and save money. Join the conversation as listen to Kyle as he tells Geordie about his journey.  

• Specific areas that Google checks on your website
• Who is Kyle’s ideal customer?
• Challenges that Kyle and his team faced during the software development stage
• At what point in the business did Kyle and his team start developing the SaaS tool?
• The testing concept and how Kyle executes it
• Most effective areas to position your keyword
• How to get your SEO right
• How Kyle handled the MVP development process 

In his quest to understand Google’s algorithm, Kyle co-founded and acquired a patent for high voltage, an agency to facilitate his efforts. Through the agency, Kyle and his team develop controllable environments to regulate all web pages before it (the agency) evolved to become a SaaS platform.

Kyle and his team have mastered identifying what can or cannot be a ranking factor, and factors that could be stronger than others. Kyle mentions one lesson he learned from testing the Google algorithm, and you can learn about it from the podcast.  

According to Kyle, Google analyzes various sections of your website by searching for critical terms, your target keyword, or the main keyword. He would later realize that the Google algorithm is math-based. Identifying and granting the algorithm the correct math, helps you develop the best content to rank better than your competitors.  

Previously, the agency did everything manually, which Kyle admits was terrible. They later changed to Google Sheets before writing a script. Find details of what happened once Kyle had a script in the podcast. Are you looking to rank better on Google? Kyle says you are his target customer.  

Before venturing in the tech world Kyle was a lawyer. However, he quit and moved to South Korea. While he had intended to remain there for a year, his stay stretched to five years, during which he launched a business, a school. At some point, Kyle needed a website, but the process was slightly complex even though he had some website development experience from his college days.

While building his team took a while, he ended up with a strong team. Kyle later figured he could contract websites and went ahead to do so. Kyle collaborated with his brother, a web development and design expert, with whom they opened a company in India before he (his brother) was thrown in jail. Find out why the police raided their small company in India and how they freed Kyle’s brother from the podcast. 

They say necessity motivates you to invent, a phrase that applies to Kyle’s situation when he had no option but to learn SEO immediately. He, then acquired SEO clients from his failed company marking his entry into the world of algorithm testing. Kyle mentions that everything they incorporate within their strategies is tested and data-driven to guarantee results.

Following the need to automate their processes, Kyle and his team decided to develop software. He explains some challenges they faced before finally getting the software right. Get all the details from the podcast. Kyle also gives a detailed explanation of the testing and SEO concept. Do not miss this informative part of the podcast.

What problem does Kyle’s platform seek to solve? It helps users figure out how to generate excellent content that helps them rank better than their competitors. For example, if you have a target keyword, the platform helps you determine the number of times it should appear in your paragraph and the number of times you should include it in your age tags.

Listen to the podcast for extensive details on how the platform operates. He also breaks down their MVP development phase and pricing model since inception to date. Working with a development team can be challenging, especially if you are doing so virtually. Kyle talks about some of the challenges he has had with his development team.

One of the most effective strategies that Kyle and his team used to navigate from 15,000 to 30,000 MRR was attending conferences, appearing on YouTube shows, and doing podcasts. Kyle concludes the podcast by discussing some of the lessons he has learned during his journey.

PageOptimizer Pro. 

Kyle Roof Twitter

Kyle Roof LinkedIn

CEO and Co-founder of Tithe.ly talks about founding Tithe.ly, how they funded, built it, and evolved from zero to 30,000MRR and beyond. Listen and learn.  

Dean Sweetman spent over 30 years in ministry before launching Tithe.ly. The platform is designed to give you the tools you require to engage, stay connected, and ease the lives of your congregation and staff. He tells Geordie about his journey.

• How Dean collaborated with his son to develop Tithe.ly
• How Dean transformed his business from an app to SaaS
• What problems do Dean and his team solve?
• The problem Dean's platform seeks to solve for the congregants
• Importance of content marketing
• How Dean and his team integrated other software into his platform
• Why company missions should be well-aligned to customer’s missions
• What does Dean attribute their success to?
• How Dean and his team handled tremendous growth during the onset of Covid

In his childhood, Dean was a passionate surfer who did not grow up in church. He gives basic details about his life from birth, growing up, and how he ended up being a youth pastor. Dean describes his journey to tech as the "30 years of preparation".

At some point in his life, Dean had an encounter that he discusses in this podcast. Listen in for first-hand details.  The advent of the iPhone in 2012 was pivotal in catalyzing Dean's idea of transforming giving in the church into a smooth process.

He sought to ensure that people could do it through a mobile gadget, anytime and anywhere. Dean describes a particular incident in Starbucks where he bought coffee and paid through his mobile phone. Listen to the podcast for this exciting story. 

After the Starbucks incident, Dean tasked his oldest son, an engineer, with developing an App through which congregants could contribute directly to the church bank account.

Nine months later, the app was approved on the App Store, and Dean stood in front of his church with his MVP in hand. Dollars started trickling in through the App from the first month. How did Dean market the product?

Being well connected, he encouraged his congregants and friends to download the app and utilize it in their churches. Listen as Dean explains his son's role which he continues to play in developing and running the platform.

Dean and his team offered the App free of charge initially, but their business model changed as they evolved. Listen to the podcast for more details. Dean maintains that they strive to price their products fairly, and as the platform evolved, their vision moved from being an endpoint giving solution only, to an entire technical stack that churches require.

The team continues to develop more products, and Dean illustrates them in this podcast. He talks about the problems he and his team solved for the church, and you can learn about them in the podcast.

How do congregants benefit from Tithe.ly? Unlike in the past when credit cards were commonly used, many people are now transacting through mobile devices. Dean says nearly every industry has adopted mobile technology apart from the church, which limits their potential. He explains this concept further in the podcast.

In a world where competitors are increasing every day, entrepreneurs need to devise strategies to remain ahead. Dean explains how they have managed to beat the competition. If you are an upcoming entrepreneur, listen to this section and gain the lessons.

What pricing model does Dean use on big churches? He says they have a SaaS fee affiliated with larger churches and admits that 80% of their revenue comes through payments. Should you develop or buy software? Dean mentions that integrating different software into their platform was one of the biggest challenges they faced.

He recommends developing software from scratch and explains how fortunate they were to acquire great technology from a small company. Listen to the podcast for comprehensive details.

According to Dean, they experienced explosive growth during Covid. He explains how they execute their vetting process to ensure they are dealing with authentic churches. SEO plays a critical role in business growth, and Dean explains that most of the churches found them due to their powerful SEO.

Before COVID, Dean and his team had devised a robust SEO strategy that came in handy to help them attract the right audience. He concludes the podcast by explaining what they are doing to reduce churn rate.

Tithe.ly

Dean Sweetman LinkedIn

Dean Sweetman Twitter

Michael Ashford of the Receptionist talks about changing the company's marketing and growing amidst economic challenges triggered by Covid. Get insights from the podcast.

Michael has navigated various fields before getting to where he is today. He started in the engineering field before transforming into a sports writer and plunged into project management along the way. He would then end up in the sales and marketing industry. Michael admits that his vast experience in different fields has prepared him to thrive in any field. He tells Geordie about his journey in this must-listen-to podcast.

• Importance of working together as a team
• The best approach to adopt as a marketing manager
• Strategy Michael and his team used to identify highly valuable leads
• How to get a precise picture of your marketing activity
• Importance of reviews
• What to do after getting a bad review
• How the visitor management system works

While some organizations experienced hard times at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, others like The Receptionist thrived. However, it took a change of strategy to navigate through the hard times.

Michael talks extensively about the concept behind The Receptionist. He gives an illustration of walking inside a company building as a guest or visitor, where you have to sign in to inform the authorities of your presence. Listen to the podcast for more details. 

Michael joined The Receptionist some years back to help build the marketing team. The Receptionist works with numerous businesses that deal with walk-in visitors and have no front office staff, probably because they cannot afford to pay them.

How the system works is that; you are a health practitioner for example, handling a client and your next client is waiting at the front office. The system lets you know that someone is waiting in the line and eliminates the need to keep walking to and from your office to find out whether you have clients waiting.

Michael describes his experience when he first joined The Receptionist, which you can only understand by listening to the podcast. Regardless of the team's efforts to boost the organization's performance, none was designed under the go-forward strategy umbrella.

Michael's first task was to outline everything the company was doing and bring it under one cohesive go-forward approach. Working together as a team is critical even when you are the overall manager.

According to Michael, collaborating with the entire team played a significant role in boosting the organization's performance. Acquiring traffic and leads as a new company can be a difficult task. Michael says that a big percentage of their leads and traffic was from referrals and organic traffic.

He mentions that the company was already excelling from an SEO point of view, and the team needed to focus on getting paid search. Michael also discusses another area they needed to focus on building, and you can get the details from the podcast.

Michael explains how to get started as a marketing manager in detail. If you want to enter the marketing world, you cannot afford to skip this part of the podcast. Breaking down data and separating valuable and non-valuable leads was a straightforward process, in Michael’s words. He explains how they did it, and you can get the comprehensive details from the podcast.

Data is critical when defining the direction a company is taking and what the team should do to boost performance. However, Michael admits that he did not appreciate data before he ventured into the marketing field.

Still, he mentions that other factors are critical for performance enhancement. Listen to the podcast to learn some of the surprises that Michael encountered along his marketing journey. When Michael joined The Receptionist, they did not have a robust strategy to get reviews.

Instead, they relied on natural and organic traffic. He highlights the company's only strategy then was the post-customer drip campaign. The Reception has since evolved and adopted an advanced traffic generation approach. He talks about this concept in detail in this podcast. To acquire reviews, Michael and his customer experience representatives had to work hard and implement a solid strategy. Listen to the podcast to learn more about it.

The Receptionist team values reviews and usually incentivizes clients that leave honest reviews with an Amazon gift card. Michael talks about how they address negative reviews, and you can learn about it from the podcast. He also discusses how the company operated during the onset of the pandemic down to the peak of things.

How did they navigate the challenges? Listen to the podcast to find out. Michael also explains the strategy they used to keep the business afloat in detail. It would be best to listen to this part of the podcast whether you are a startup or an established entrepreneur.

The Receptionist

Michael Ashford LinkedIn

Brian Casel of Restaurant Engine tells Geordie about working as a restaurant web designer and evolving to become a website SaaS owner. Listen to the podcast for more insights.

Brian Casel is an experienced software developer and website designer with many years of experience. Over the years, Brian has evolved from being a freelance web designer into developing a products business. He talks to Geordie about his journey. 

• What it takes to move from freelancing into productizing
• What problems do Brian and his team strives to solve?
• Which strategy does Brian use to attract customers?
• Why valuable content is critical
• Importance of being intentional in decision making
• How a productizing service works

Starting a business has never been easy. As a startup entrepreneur, learning from experienced people who have been in the business world for years can be beneficial. Apart from setting websites for restaurants and related businesses, Brian blogs about productized services, bootstrapping and moving from a freelancer to a fully-fledged entrepreneur. If you are considering venturing into the entrepreneurship world, then this podcast is a must-listen. 

Brian says moving from freelancing to productizing did not happen overnight. It took him many days of working extra hours, during the weekends, early mornings, and late nights to get his business up and running. Currently, Brian says he is working with a small team of professionals, and the business is doing well. Listen to the podcast to find out why Brian chose to venture into the hospitality field. 

While many restaurants today have websites, some of them are still stuck with outdated versions. In today’s fast-evolving world, numerous people rely on their mobile gadgets to get information. As a result, every business needs a mobile-optimized website to attract the right clients and scale. Businesses that lack this feature risk losing a significant percentage of potential customers.

Together with his wife, Brian introduced online ordering to their client’s websites some years back. While this feature has been around for some time now, it has just started getting momentum, with many customers preferring it for its convenience. Restaurants are also appreciating the feature due to its impact on sales, according to Brian. Find out how the online ordering method works from the podcast. 

Finding clients interested in Brian’s service is not easy, but he has devised the right strategy to reach his target audience and attract customers. Listen to the podcast to learn about this strategy. Apart from Restaurant Engine, Brian also runs Hotel Propeller and a podcast where he talks about everything to do with running a business. Why did he start podcasting? Get the answer from this podcast.

Brian is a passionate writer who expresses himself better in writing. He explains why being passionate about something is crucial. In the future, Brian hopes to be waking up every morning and loving his work. Leaving a full-time job was borne out of a passion for pursuing valuable things.

Brian explains that he is currently doing what he loves while building things he wants to pursue in the future. Given a chance, would you follow your passion for no pay, or would you opt for something that makes you money first? There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Brian says you can use some opportunities as a stepping stone to get where you want to be. He explains his concept further in this podcast.

Brian learned a few lessons after breaking from the freelancing world and venturing into entrepreneurship. He mentions that having the business run on autopilot has freed him to venture into other interests. He also talks about other lessons which you can learn from the podcast. 

Over the years, Brian has learned through self-teaching and reading widely. He mentions one book that has been a game-changer in his journey. Learn all about it from the podcast. Whether you are a startup or an established entrepreneur, Brian says you should strive to work on your business instead of working in your business. He mentions that working on what will propel your business forward is critical.

You do not have to focus on things you get paid for, according to Brian. Brian says every person should strive to build something for the future and gives an example to illustrate his sentiments. Not many people would delegate their duties to other individuals, but Brian opines that doing so frees you to concentrate on other valuable tasks. 

Restaurant Engine

Brian Casel Website

Brian Casel LinkedIn

Brian Casel Twitter

E Myth Revisited Book

Michael Mandel, CEO and co-founder of Compstak talks about building his MVP, meeting his co-founder, and building the company from 0-30,000 MRR. Listen for valuable lessons.

Compstak is a marketplace that is based on a crowd-sourced framework. Users can leverage the framework to find hard to get data. Michael Mandel, the co-founder, and CEO of this marketplace, talks to Geordie about his journey. 

• Who is the ideal Compstak customer?
• What data does Compstak offer?
• How Compstak members earn
• Where do Compstak members get data, and how do they submit it?
• Importance of granular information
• Importance of having a technical expert
• What does credit mean, and how does it benefit Compstak members?
• Comparison between getting funding and bootstrapping

The real estate industry is broad, and sometimes finding detailed data can be a difficult task. Compstak, a real estate data company, promises to give you ample experience by providing comprehensive data you would otherwise have difficulties finding.

Michael says they collaborate with approximately 30,000 commercial real estate appraisers, brokers, and research experts who share on the Compstak platform. What information do these experts share? Listen to the podcast to find out. 

As the team of professionals shares data on the Compstak platform, they give Michael and his team a comprehensive database comprising all deals in the market. Compstak then sells subscription access to allow their clients access to the data. According to Michael, the company is popularly known for its lease comps, and he explains what these are. Get details from the podcast. 

Michael says sharing unique, recent, and comprehensive data on Compstak earns clients attractive credits. If they (clients) want to retrieve the data, they can leverage their credits to do so. Listen to the podcast for more insights on how this approach works. 50% of people who give Michael and his team data are brokers, while the remaining 50% are people working in real estate brokerage firms.

Compstak members can use a wide range of methods to submit data, which Michael talks about in the podcast. The team has also devised software to ease the process of uploading data while making it as efficient as possible. 

Michael’s stint as a commercial real estate worker gave him massive experience which played a major role in founding Compstak. He says their mode of operation was inefficient and that pushed him into devising an easy to use and more effective platform. Michael gives a detailed explanation of how clients leverage their data to achieve results. Listen to the podcast and learn. 

Compstak has evolved over the years and Michael says they have learned the importance of leveraging crowdsourcing to collect data. He mentions another crucial crowdsourcing lesson, which you can figure out from the podcast.

Michael’s co-founder who is also the technical expert was working for Compstak full time before Michael joined him even though the company was inexistent then. He (Michael) mentions the process he went through before finally getting a technical person he could partner with. Get the details from this podcast.

According to Michael, collaborating with a technical expert is critical, especially if you do not have the technical know-how. He supports his sentiments with an example, which you cannot afford to miss. Starting and building a company can be a tedious and time-consuming process.

Michael explains how his initial days looked like as he sought data from every broker he knew. Every startup entrepreneur needs to listen to this part of the podcast. Earning your first customer is not a walk in the park.

After launching Compstak in January 2012, it was not until nearly 10 months later that Michael and his team got their first paying client. How did Michael and his team come up with the pricing? While Michael does not remember the details, he says they researched around to determine what their competitors were charging. 

Raising money to fund the business was not an easy process. After a year of trying to figure out how to raise money, Michael and his team got angel investors before working with micro venture capitalists. At some point Michael joined the 500 startups accelerator which he admits was a great experience. Listen to the podcast for more details on the accelerator experience.

Collaborating with big companies can be both a good and a bad idea. Michael talks about his experience working with a big company. Listen to the podcast for more insights. He also discusses a few mistakes they made along the way. This part is a must-listen for startups and already established entrepreneurs. Michael concludes the podcast by telling listeners to appreciate the small breaks as much as they do big ones. 

Michael Mandel LinkedIn

Compstak.com

Michael Mandel Twitter

Chris Daigle, founder and M & A advisor, talks to Geordie about his passion of the digital marketing industry and how he helps businesses scale. Listen in for the details. 

Chris Daigle boasts many years of experience in M & A digital marketing, business development, and business management industries. Today, he is a leading strategic advisor and growth architect. Chris is committed to helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses. He talks to Geordie about his journey. Listen to the podcast and take away some valuable lessons.   

• Why rapid growth can be chaotic for companies
• How the entrepreneurial operating system (EOS) works
• Importance of planning in business
• Importance of thinking in entrepreneurship
• What does Chris look for in potential clients?
• What strategy does Chris use to help clients increase the valuation of their companies?
• Why every entrepreneur should know their conversion numbers 

Chris always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from his fifth-grade days when he sold candy bars from his locker. He says that experience opened his eyes to the world of possibilities.

At the age of 20, Chris was already running a restaurant, but he was yearning to go to Silicon Valley and learn about technology. Chris would later land in Silicon Valley, where he had an excellent time. Listen to the podcast and get more details about his experience and the lessons he learned.  

Amidst business growth, Chris says, entrepreneurs should devise ways to maintain sanity and prevent chaos. A chaotic situation not only stalls development but also may result in business failure.

Chris mentions that he has spent the last 20 years enhancing his methodology and devising new strategies to scale companies while ensuring that the scaling is valuable. He highlights a specific quote in the podcast that every entrepreneur should listen to. Chris also explains how he collaborates with company owners to help them recognize opportunities.

Together with his team, Chris leverages this strategy to propel companies from seven to nine figures within a record 36 months. Listen to him as he illustrates his magic methodology in this podcast. EOS (entrepreneurial operating system) is designed to give businesses a robust framework to assess their day-to-day operations. Chris talks about the system in depth in this podcast and you cannot afford to miss it.

Why do you need a plan for your business? It allows you to achieve your target goals fast, and will still be available when you are not. At some point, Chris discusses the shower time concept, in relation to having a plan, an idea that he got from his friend Justin. Get details of this exciting story from the podcast.

Who is Chris’s ideal client? He says, his perfect client is someone who is looking for more than just money. He breaks down the components of his ideal client, and you need to listen to the podcast to understand them clearly. Chris also talks about thinking and why doing so is critical.

Asking critical questions is crucial for business success. Chris says the quality of your questions determines the quality of the results. He gives an example of growing a business double forth. To achieve valuable growth, entrepreneurs must work as hard as their anticipated growth. Listen to the podcast to understand Chris’s perception of how this concept works.

How does Chris’s strategy accelerate business growth? Results depend on the business level. For example, he says, if your business has already hit seven figures, that indicates the market has identified something valuable from your enterprise.

A lot goes into growing a business, and while Chris will not tell entrepreneurs what to do, he assists them in asking the right questions to facilitate growth. Are you an upcoming entrepreneur? Get some examples of those questions from the podcast.

Chris explains the strategy he uses to encourage entrepreneurs to ask the right questions that facilitate businesses growth. How does he tell whether a system is working or not? Chris has mastered the art of asking specific questions. He supports his answer with an example which you can listen to from the podcast.

Instead of focusing on scaling the business only, Chris says he strives to help entrepreneurs evaluate and stabilize their successful strategies. He explains this method further in the podcast. Affiliate marketing is still significant in today’s world. Chris mentions that he collaborates with affiliate marketers and describes how he executes the process. If you are considering affiliate marketing, you do not want to miss this section of the podcast.

Chris concludes the podcast by giving listeners some advice he has acquired from working with diverse clients. These are; watch your language and monitor the questions that run through your mind. He expounds on this advice, and you can get valuable insights from the podcast. 

Chris Daigle Website

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Adrian Tobey of Groundhogg talks about coming up with his business idea, building his MVP, and how he propelled his SaaS from poor performance to 30,000 MRR

Adrian Tobey is the CEO and sole founder of Groundhogg, a market automation and customer relationship management WordPress Plugin that offers users a comprehensive integration in their WP environment. He talks to Geordie about his journey.

• How Adrian discovered CRM
• How did Adrian’s first product operate?
• Why developers should focus on building their own products
• The shoemaker’s son’s syndrome
• Lessons Adrian learned while working in the agency
• How Adrian funded his MVP
• How Adrian and his team launched Groundhogg
• Advantages of partnering with other professionals
• Why cheaper solutions hardly solve significant problems
• What strategy did Adrian use to attain his big break?

Groundhogg software is specially designed to cater to WordPress and digital marketing agencies. Adrian says he gained experience working as a WordPress developer. His primary focus was building WordPress websites for his clients, complete with layout design and page builders.

He would also integrate the websites with effective marketing automation and CRM products such as Hubspot, Active Campaign, and Infusionsoft. Having worked with numerous small businesses, Adrian understands how much small companies struggle with implementing practical strategies with marketing automation software. Groundhogg does not handle small businesses. Find out why from the podcast. 

Groundhogg’s core business focuses on areas where they are likely to make the most profit margins, that is, WordPress and digital marketing agencies. Apart from requiring minimal support, Adrian says already established agencies are high spenders and always renew their licenses whether their clients thrive or not.

Agencies are both persistent and consistent, making them easier to work with. According to Adrian, his business found him, and he gives a detailed explanation why. Listen to the podcast for this exciting story.

Many businesses struggle with attracting the right audience to their websites and converting them into paying customers. At some point, Adrian and his dad were working to identify the right strategy to initiate and maintain a conversation between visitors and the business until they finally become paying customers.

Adrian explains the most common method that many firms used in the past (some still do) to start conversations which you can find out about from the podcast. He also explains the method he and his dad used to start conversations with potential clients. 

At 18 years old, Adrian was already a certified partner of Infusionsoft. During that period, he worked with numerous small businesses and companies. Apart from building thousands of campaigns, Adrian attended the funnel hacking conference to horn his skills. He would then develop his first product while still in University. Adrian learned to code from YouTube and later quit the university.

Working on your own product is crucial for creating wealth and establishing yourself in the industry. According to Adrian, working for agencies is similar to the shoemaker’s son’s syndrome. Listen to the podcast to learn what the syndrome is all about.

What is Adrian doing to improve his product? He says a combination of building features and listening to customer demands works for him. Working with the agency exposed Adrian to numerous lessons, which he uses to build his business. He narrates some of these lessons in the podcast. 

At some point, Adrian realized that he was getting a raw deal from working for the agency and decided to quit. He gives details of this realization in this podcast. While he is no longer involved with the agency, he agrees that he can identify with most agencies’ problems. 

Quitting employment can be an easy process, but surviving after that and running a personal business can be difficult. Adrian borrowed some money from his grandfather, which he intended to depend on until his business stabilized.

Being at the right place at the right time is crucial for an entrepreneur. Adrian says he spent lots of time in areas where small businesses and agencies were, like Facebook groups. Here, he noticed the frustrations many companies were facing. Listen to the podcast to find out what these were. Adrian knew he could offer solutions for all those problems without fail. 

When Adrian and his team launched Groundhogg, they faced numerous challenges. He explains the strategy he used to attract regular customers. This is a long and detailed process filled with multiple failures that you cannot afford to miss. He would later devise the right strategy to develop an audience and create a constant flow of customers, which he would later convert into revenue. Listen to the podcast and learn about it.

At some point, Adrian attended an event where he discussed his cash flow and revenue problems. Listen to the podcast to find out the solutions he got from the professionals in attendance. He also explains how he leveraged those lessons to get his big break.

Adrian concludes the podcast by encouraging listeners to reach him with any questions they may have. He says he’s very reachable and ready to assist where possible. 

Ygroundhogg.io

Adrian Tobey LinkedIn

Adrian Tobey Twitter