Before Blockworks became a $150 million media force, Jason Yanowitz was just a kid flipping baseball cards on eBay - discovering early what it meant to build leverage online.
Raised in a countercultural, entrepreneurial family, Jason never saw the traditional nine-to-five as the only path.
In 2017, Jason went to an event that'd change his life, as a result he quit his job, partnered with co-founder Mike Ippolito, and within 60 days, BlockWorks hosted its first event.
Every success since has been iterative: from cold-emailing thousands of people to sell tickets, to surviving an 80% revenue drop, to now to raising $12M to go all-in on building at the intersection of media and tech.
Blockworks was bootstrapped and survived and has become a $150M powerhouse. I sat down to talk to Jason about his founder journey, lessons for company builders, frameworks for hiring and scaling a company and how BlockWorks is on a clear trajectory to do over $100M a year in revenue.
Follow:
Wouter - @WouterTeunissen on X
Jason - @JasonYanowitz on X
Blockworks - @Blockworks_ on X
Timestamps:
(0:39) What its like growing up in an entrepreunerial family
(15:06) When to Double Down on an Opportunity
(20:22) The Blockworks Origin Story
(29:32) Why booking bigger speakers mattered
(37:29) How BlockWorks survived an 80% Revenue Drop
(57:15) Jason’s Advice for New Entrepreneurs
(1:01:49) Identifying Which Data is Valuable Data
(1:07:20) What is the (Clear) Path to $100m/Year in Revenue?
(1:10:40) The Account-Based Seller Structure
(1:14:54) How to Hire as a fast growing startup
(1:21:17) Do Things That Don’t Scale ;)
