#148: These Bootstrappers Sold Modern Digital LeadGen to Conservative German Businesses - Chris Erler

15 snips

Jun 13, 2025

Chris Erler, co-founder and former COO of ComX, shares his journey in transforming lead generation for traditional German businesses. He emphasizes the challenges of bootstrapping in a conservative market while growing his company to $20 million in revenue. Chris discusses innovative strategies that blend technology with human insight, adapting U.S. tactics to European markets. He also explores the impact of AI on marketing, stresses the importance of customer value, and reflects on the lessons learned during their acquisition and rapid growth.

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ANECDOTE

Early Days: Agency Before Software

ComX began as a lead generation agency leveraging methodologies like Predictable Revenue.
The actual software platform was developed later after validating customer needs through consulting.

INSIGHT

Filling the 'Pre-CRM' Market Gap

ComX filled a 'pre-CRM' market gap combining ideal customer profiles, messaging, data scraping, outreach, and reporting.
This integrated workflow drastically cut sales cycles and boosted conversion in SMEs.

ANECDOTE

Tech-Enabled Service with Consulting

ComX combined consulting with technology, helping clients with messaging and data as a free added value.
A team in South Africa manually scraped data to maintain quality lead generation despite the old-school appearance.

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Chris Erler was co-founder and COO of ComX, a sales pipeline generation for mid-market B2B companies in Germany and Europe. Chris and two other founders started the company in 2018 to conduct turnkey modern digital marketing and lead generation solutions for traditional German companies.

As a tech-enabled service that combines technology, data, and people-powered solutions, ComX delivers proven results through subscription and outcome-based pricing. They grew quickly to approximately $20 million in revenue in four years before being acquired by the private equity firm FLEX Capital.

In this episode, Chris talks about:

Growing a team of 70 employees in South Africa
Starting in Germany with mid-market companies
The challenges of debt financing of private equity buyouts

Quote from Chris Erler, cofounder of ComX

"99% of the time, I ask the founder, Why are you raising money from investors that early? I'm very pushy on that one because I know the freedom that you can create when building a bootstrapped business.

"For me, raising money from investors and giving away shares very early means you're not focusing on customers, but rather focusing on collecting capital to build the product without having it validated too early. I just share our bootstrapped story with ComX which I believe works well.

"That's why I'm a big fan of your podcasts. There's a huge education needed, especially in Europe. People need to be educated on how to found properly. Of course, it can go well, but the chances that something f***'s up are much higher. And then young people are in a very bad situation."

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