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I built an agency. 5 years later, added an e-learning company. Another 4 years later, a SaaS company. AMA.

I started with a blog in 2011. Then turned that into an agency. Later, invested agency profits to start an e-learning business. Stumbled upon an unsolved problem, and used agency+elearning profits to fund the launch of a SaaS company.

Now I grow a portfolio of companies. Founder of CXL, Speero (both mid-7 figures, growing 40-50% YoY), and Wynter (startup).

Have any questions about how I built the businesses? How to build a successful agency? How you can use agency profits to build a scalable business? Whatever else business building related? Ask away!

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    No ideas atleast none that would be convincing.
    Ideas that I am confident enough to generate profits.
    What would you advise a software developer looking for a ideas to work on? How to find them?

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    How did you initially validate the idea for CXL? It looks like you guys train several Fortune 1000 companies - but what was it like getting your first few customers? Did you go for enterprise or SMB accounts and did you approach them through cold-emails or through referrals in your network?

    Big ups, too, on all the success.

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    How much revenue did the agency generate and how much of the cash did you need to start the e-learning business?

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      In 2016 when starting the e-learning business, I set up a whole new team for it. Hired new folks. I think my monthly burn for the team + office and other expenses was around 40k/mo.

      The agency had a few hundred thousand dollars of cash.

      Milestones:

      1. January 2016 - set up the new team.
      2. May 2016 - launched the product
      3. September 2016 - achieved breakeven and started to make a little profit.

      So the agency funded it for about 9 months. I was hoping for a faster breakeven, the agency was actually running of cash. I was one month away from letting everyone go - and then achieved breakeven.

      To be safe, I'd save enough for a 12mo runway.

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    Hey Peep,

    What happened in between starting a blog and then turning it into an agency? How does someone with a successful blog (btw what metrics/visitors were you seeing) go about that?

    Cheers.

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      I got to around 50,000 visits / mo within 1 year. I had income from other sources before the blog became one.

      I blogged about conversion optimization, started getting leads - people asking me to offer services. Once I heard if often enough, hired first set of people and got going.

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        What were some of the tactics you used to get those 50k/Month views? Were you posting on a specific schedule? were you promoting them in some way? Did you keep the articles to a certain length? Congrats, too, on the success.

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