SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 723: He Sold His Company to Richard Branson, Then Oil Tanked Him
Jul 17, 2017
17:37
Scott Duffy. He's the co-host of Business & Burgers and a contributor at Entrepreneur.com. He's also listed as one of the top 10 keynote speakers of Forbes and Entrepreneur. He started working for bestselling author and speaker, Tony Robbins. He's been a part of early stage exits and worked with big brands like CBSSport.com, NBC internet, Fox.com. He sold his last company to Richard Branson's Virgin Group. He's the best-selling author of the book called Launch!.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – You Are a Badass at Making Money
- What CEO do you follow? – Dave Meltzer
- Favorite online tool? — Skype
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5 to 6 hours
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "You don't win by hard work alone"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:02 – Nathan introduces Scott to the show
- 01:51 – Scott wants to tell The Top tribe that it is all about being real and integrity
- 02:01 – Scott is doing a lot of work regarding mindset
- 02:05 – Scott has a new book coming out called Breakthrough
- 02:26 – It is being published by Entrepreneur Press
- 02:30 – Scott was working on the timeline
- 02:54 – Scott shares a story about failing
- 02:58 – Scott had a business called Smart Charter
- 03:04 – Scott was looking for distribution and ended up making a deal with Virgin
- 03:16 – Scott was putting in $10K-15K of his personal money
- 03:33 – Scott closed a deal and they moved to their new office
- 04:12 – Scott is now officially a part of the Virgin Group
- 04:42 – Scott wasn't paying himself nothing before he sold the company
- 04:54 – Prior to Smart Charter, Scott was a part of Sports 1 USA
- 05:20 – Majority of Scott's savings went to Smart Charter
- 05:51 – Instead of taking money out out Smart Charter, Scott decided to go all in
- 06:18 – Scott now has equity with Virgin
- 06:57 – Scott sold Smart Charter in 2008
- 07:10 – Scott learned that the biggest job of an entrepreneur has nothing to do with business
- 07:19 – The most important job for an entrepreneur is to protect himself
- 07:44 – Smart Charter had an equity pool prior to Virgin
- 08:22 – The possible deal from Virgin
- 09:17 – In a matter of weeks, everything changed with Virgin/Smart Charter
- 10:05 – On Scott's first day with Virgin, he knew that if he messed up, there wouldn't be another chance
- 10:28 – Scott's superpower is in getting distribution for early stage companies
- 10:51 – As a small company, dealing with big companies does not make you better
- 11:19 – The deal with Virgin didn't turn out the way Scott thought it would
- 12:26 – As an entrepreneur, Scott thinks he was played
- 12:53 – Entrepreneurs have to know how to repackage the things that have happened to them
- 13:09 – Business & Burgers is a search for the best burger in America and offers a side of great business advice
- 13:14 – They hit the best restaurant and talk to the top local entrepreneur
- 13:35 – Next episode is Daymond John from Shark Tank
- 15:20 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- Don't be discouraged; sometimes, you just have to learn things the hard way.
- Entrepreneurs need to know how to protect themselves.
- Take time building relationships – relationships are everything.
Resources Mentioned:
- 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
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- 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
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives