Ramp it up or shut it down: How ConvertKit’s Founder and CEO made his most important business decision
May 22, 2024
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Founder and CEO of ConvertKit, Nathan Barry, discusses his journey from almost shutting down his business to building a $200 million company. Topics include annual life review ritual, transformative writing habits, flywheels in sales, and the importance of team building for success.
Nathan Barry tracks personal goals and business ventures annually to assess opportunities.
Important business decisions should be evaluated based on pivotal questions and a structured framework.
Deep dives
Nathan Barry's Journey from Struggle to Success with ConvertKit
Despite facing failure early on and being advised to shut down ConvertKit, Nathan Barry's persistence and strategic shift from content marketing to direct sales led to its transformation into a thriving multi-million dollar software company serving 50,000 creators globally.
Implementing Flywheel Framework for Business Growth
By applying the concept of flywheels, Nathan Barry explains how every step smoothly transitions to the next, making it easier with each rotation and delivering more results. His direct sales approach involved personalized outreach, feedback-driven solutions, concierge migration services, and leveraging customer recommendations to fuel business growth.
Nathan Barry's Sabbatical and Prolific Work Habits
Inspired by his team, Nathan Barry took a well-deserved sabbatical, balancing learning, staycation, and minimal involvement in business activities. As a prolific creator, he emphasizes simplicity over complexity in achieving goals and highlights the importance of team building and delegation in sustaining creativity and productivity.
How does an entrepreneur go from being told to shut down their business to building a software company worth over $200 million and serving over 50,000 creators? In this episode of How I Work, Nathan Barry, founder and CEO of ConvertKit, shares his incredible journey and the counterintuitive strategies that propelled his success. In this episode, we discuss:
🤔 Nathan's annual life review ritual: We delve into how he not only assesses business opportunities but also tracks his adventures, home life updates, fitness endeavours, and personal goals.
🛑 The turning point: Just 18 months into launching ConvertKit, a friend advised him to shut it down. Discover the pivotal questions Nathan asked himself and the framework he used to make that crucial decision.
💬 Nathan shares his transformative experience of writing 1000 words a day for 600 consecutive days and how this habit has evolved over time.
🌀 What on earth are flywheels? We unravel this concept and discuss how Nathan applied it to the sales process at ConvertKit.
👥 The importance of team building and its ripple effects on business success.
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