EP 516: SalesHacker $2.5m 2015 Revenue Helping Sales Reps Get Smarter with CEO Max Altshculer

Max Altschuler, CEO of Sales Hacker – a rapidly growing media company focused on the future of B2B sales. Max wrote the book Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High Velocity Sales Machine which was recently published by Wiley. Aside from sales hack and angel investors, Max advises startups all around the globe.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The 48 Laws of Power
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A

• Favorite online tool? — Boomerang
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Max wished he could have studied Psychology a bit more

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Max to the show
• 02:07 – Sales Hacker is a media company ushering the future of sales
• • 02:35 – Sales Hacker does crowdsourcing of content on their blog and holds conferences throughout the year
  • 03:12 – The conferences are Sales Hacker's main revenue stream
• 03:20 – Sales Hacker's last conference was in June 2016
• • 04:09 – The sponsored revenue for the last conference was $1.2 M
  • 04:14 – Ticket sales was $300-400K
  • 04:22 – Average ticket price was $400-500
  • 04:28 – Total attendees
• 04:41 – The cost per conference is less than $1M
• 04:53 – Max shares how they manage the cost of the conference
• 05:51 – You need to find venue sponsorship
• 05:57 – Max helps clients with bigger conferences like Pulse
• 07:00 – Sales Hacker finds out which businesses are interested in the conference
• 07:33 – Have prospective sponsors sign up and pay early
• 09:15 – Sales Hacker's average revenue per event depends on the event
• 10:54 – Sales Hacker takes a percentage from the total profit of SaaSters
• 11:30 – 2015 total revenue is $2.5M
• 11:45 – Team size
• 12:04 – Max shares why he didn't build a SaaS business
• 12:59 – Sales Hacker's list size
• 13:55 – Max's goal for a VC round
• 14:07 – Max is from Udemy
• 14:35 – Max had 2 companies before Udemy
• 15:20 – Max's second business was Last Call
• 15:45 – Max's 3 favorite investments at the moment
• 16:50 – The average amount Max is investing in a business
• 18:00 – Max sets expectations of what he will and will not do for a company
• 18:36 – Max is trying to invest in B2B companies
• 19:21 – Connect with Max through LinkedIn, Twitter and his website
• 21:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Closing a business does NOT mean it was a failure – you gain experience and learn valuable lessons from that process.
• Take the time to research and know where to invest.
• Even if you're working with SaaS businesses, that doesn't mean you should or can build one as well.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• @MaxAlts – Max's Twitter handle
• LinkedIn – Max's LinkedIn account
• Sales Hacker – Max's business website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives