How Jared financed startup costs before launching

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Join me, Nik (https://x.com/CoFoundersNik), as I interview Jared Kotter (https://x.com/Jaredkotter), the former middle school teacher who accomplished the seemingly impossible: launching a drywall business and scaling it to $1.7 million in revenue in just 10 months!

Jared shares the unorthodox approach he took, leveraging his background as a college athlete and LDS missionary to develop unique sales skills. Instead of buying equipment or hiring crews, Jared established a powerful model: acting as an account manager and commissioned salesman for his brother's company, Canvas drywall, earning a 50% split of the net profit.

He breaks down how he uses Construction Monitor to source high-end custom homes and reveals his secret method for closing deals at three times the average rate. This strategy involves doing things that don't scale, namely, showing up in person to measure jobs, which allows him to build immediate trust with the home builder.

We also discuss why he views this successful venture as a stepping stone and how leveraging your unfair advantage is crucial for entrepreneurial success.

Questions This Episode Answers:

How can you achieve $1.7 million in revenue with no experience in a trade industry?

What is the simple sales secret sauce that leads to a 3x closing rate in construction?

How do you find and approach high-quality, high-margin construction leads for new builds?

What is a fair net profit split when selling and managing fulfillment for a service business partner?

How does focusing on good fulfillment immediately create recurring revenue in the contracting world?

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This week we covered:

00:00 – Intro: From teacher to $1.7M drywall business

00:42 – What is a drywall business & how Jared earns 50% profit

02:30 – Leaving teaching to build financial freedom

05:40 – Early side hustles before launching drywall

07:05 – How the drywall model works with almost no labor

08:10 – Finding high-end clients through construction permits

10:30 – Cold-calling builders & landing first deals

12:55 – Managing projects and understanding the 50/50 split

15:15 – Using drywall as a stepping stone to bigger goals

22:30 – Prepping for launch & funding startup with Christmas lights

27:15 – Tracking leads manually and learning sales discipline

29:20 – Secret to closing 3x more deals: meeting clients on-site

39:10 – Final lesson: Find your unfair advantage and start