Just Go Grind #175: Peter Davis, Founder & CEO of Ampjar, a Curated Community of Brands Who Share and Support Each Others' Messages, on His LAUNCH Accelerator Experience, Building a Remote Team, and The Challenges of Being a Network Effect Company
Peter Davis is the founder and CEO of Ampjar, a karmic advertising community that helps small brands to acquire customers through a fast and simple exchange of shout outs.
Prior to running Ampjar, Pete ran a social and digital media agency which worked with household name brands in 6 countries. Pete sold the business to Private Equity in 2017. Pete is based out of Melbourne Australia where he lives with his wife Maria and 5 year-old twin girls. He plays soccer though admits his dreams of ever pulling on the shirt of his boyhood club Norwich City have probably gone, though it depends how bad they can actually get!
Connect with Peter Davis
This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media and Toptal. More on both of them below.
Some of the Topics Covered by Peter Davis in this Episode
- How Peter got started with Ampjar
- The business model for Ampjar
- How their pricing model has evolved over the years
- Deciding to fund-raise for Ampjar
- Getting hand-picked by Jason Calacanis to participate in the LAUNCH Accelerator
- Peter's experience going through the accelerator and fundraising
- The sacrifices made by the partners and families of entrepreneurs
- Deciding to build a remote team
- Customer acquisition and Ampjar's scouting program
- How Ampjar's network works and the application and onboarding process
- The challenges of being a network effect company
- Ampjar's current traction
- How Peter maintains relationships with investors
- How Ampjar has supported its community during COVID
- The big vision for Ampjar
- How Peter's previous experience running a social and digital media agency has impacted how he runs Ampjar
- Peter's book recommendations
- How Peter recharges away from work
Links from the Episode
- Jason Calacanis
- LAUNCH Accelerator
- #134: Zuleyka Strasner, Founder and CEO of Zero, on Building a Convenient Zero-Waste Grocery Delivery Service, Becoming the Largest Sustainability Platform in the U.S., and Growing 15X in 5 Months
- Chip Meakem at Tribeca Venture Partners
- Slack
- Zoom
- Basecamp
- Canva
- Who Gives A Crap
- Turning the Flywheel by Jim Collins
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.
Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work", 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.
Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.
Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.
This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.