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