The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Today we are talking with Tyler Williams, founder of Failure Inc. With beginnings in the art world, Tyler discovered a niche that could make him a good living on the side. His coworker at his day job thought he could take it a step further and create a whole business and platform around it. Starting with just $1400, the two would create and grow a company over 9 years that would then exit for $65million. From Artist To Entrepreneur Tyler went to art school for video and animation and hadn’t really considered being an entrepreneur. He was working at a studio that did animations for CNN and other large networks when he noticed they were using a lot of stock images and video in their work. Then he saw how much they were paying for those, and he thought that was something he could do. Tyler started making his own stock images and video on the side and uploading them onto various platforms. With Tyler's work selling like crazy, he was making more off of it than he was at his day job. Talking to a coworker about his success, the idea was introduced that they could create their own platform to sell their work on. Thus, Motion Array was born. Bootstrapping The two started out with just $700 each and paid a company out of India to build their initial site for them. They set it up to run as a membership site and thought they were off to the races. They got their very first member, and then crickets. Refusing to be discouraged, the two kept at it. For 2 years, they made all the content on the site themselves. Things started to pick up, and they were tracking site visitors and memberships. Time To Sell Eight to nine years in, an investor from the company Artlist reached out to Motion Array on LinkedIn. They set up a casual meeting and Artlist offered to invest in their company. Tyler told them they weren’t really looking for investments, and they went their separate ways. Over the next 6 months, Tyler, and his cofounder would have discussions about selling the company. They both wanted to be able to spend more time with their families. That’s when another investor from Artlist reaches out. They took it as a sign that it was time to sell. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Tyler would warn himself that things are going to be a lot harder and take a lot longer than you think. He would tell himself to stick with it though because it will all be worth it. He also says he wishes he would’ve known to not get so caught up in the details of things like accounting and legal. So often he would stress himself out over it and not even want to continue with the business. He’s since learned that a lot can be cleaned up after the fact. He believes that’s where a lot of people get stuck. They think they have to know it all. Tyler says to take action now, learn as you go, and clean it up later. What Tyler Is Up To Now Despite selling the last business because he wanted more time with his family, Tyler has already jumped into a new business. As the founder of Failure Inc, Tyler says it’s a parent company for all of his other projects. A main project currently is www.bestlist.com, a search engine/discovery platform. Pursuing many other ideas, Tyler says he’s looking for cofounders interested in starting something together. If that’s you, visit www.tylerwilliams.com, https://failure.inc/ where you’ll find links to both LinkedIn and Failure Inc. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today we are talking to Tien Wong, the CEO of Opus8, a private investment, advisory, and conference management firm. Long before that, Then was a co-founder and CEO for CyberRep, Inc., one of the 3 largest private contact center companies in North America. After 12 successful years, CyberRep was acquired by Affiliated Computer Services in 2003. Tien walks us through the process and how he treated his team of, 2300 employees right through the transition. Chasing The American Dream Tien’s parents were both immigrants that came to America to chase the dream. His father owned a Chinese restaurant, while his mother had a travel agency. While in high school, Tien spent a lot of time working with his dad. When he went away to college, Tien knew no other way of life than to work for your money, and so he was involved in 3 businesses. After college, Tien joined a startup that never made it off the ground. That’s when he decided to give corporate America a try. After about 3 years of working for the man, Tien was tired and ready for a change. That’s when he and two friends founded CyberRep. Meager Goals The three founders weren’t thinking in terms of institutional growth or product market fit, they simply wanted to match the salary they were making before without having to work for someone else. For the first 7 years, the company was run and grown with their own money before Allied Capital came along to back them. They credit having institutional money with helping them to select a good banker later down the road. The banker they ultimately went with was one that they had met at a conference. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Tien says the main lesson he has learned is that everything is harder than it looks and takes longer than it looks. He stresses the importance of never overestimating your own skills and knowledge. In addition, he says to always be working on building your network, it's something that no one can take from you. What Tien Is Working On Now Currently, Tien is working to acquire a platform company in the CRM space. At Opus8, he spends most of his time helping clients to raise money through their network of investors. Tien also spends a lot of time as a host for the CONNECTpreneur Forum. It’s a group of business leaders and entrepreneur forms around the world that produce unique content and events for other entrepreneurs and business leaders. In 10 years, they have done 66 events. They have 8 in-person events planned for this year. All virtual events are free and can be found at www.opus8.com. If you’d like to reach out to Tien, he can be found on LinkedIn as well as Twitter. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today we are talking to Eli Portnoy, the co-founder, SVP, and GM of Sense360. With an entrepreneurial spirit that started in high school, Eli always knew he wanted to be a part of the startup world. He’s had two successful exits, both of which he says were great experiences. He’s here to talk about how and why he exited his companies. He’ll touch on the process of transitioning his 11-person company to a large, publicly traded company. Knowledge as Payment Eli’s first business attempt came in high school, when he and a couple friends realized there were no concessions available at their school. The group brought their idea for a school store to the administration and were given the green light. Reaching out to suppliers, they were able to put together a store in just a couple of weeks. Eli says the store did phenomenally well, and while all the proceeds went to the school, he walked away with a lot of knowledge. The Entrepreneurial Itch Strikes Again Down the road, Eli found himself working as a product manager at Amazon. Working with the Digital Video team, Eli’s job was to define the experiences across connected devices. Working closely with all departments, Eli learned how to influence people, which would be a great skill to have. While he enjoyed the experience, he was ready to start his own company. Researching different industries that he thought were interesting, Eli began the search for a co-founder. Once he found a worthy partner, Eli left Amazon and started Thinknear, a location-based mobile ad network. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Eli says, looking back, he wishes he would’ve taken bigger swings and bigger risks. He’s always operated from a mentality of trying to minimize the risks rather than leaning into them. Knowing now how the markets evolved, he would’ve gone deeper. All in all, he would tell himself to stop focusing on what could go wrong, and start focusing on what could go right. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Eli says, looking back, he wishes he would’ve taken bigger swings and bigger risks. He’s always operated from a mentality of trying to minimize the risks rather than leaning into them. Knowing now how the markets evolved, he would’ve gone deeper. All in all, he would tell himself to stop focusing on what could go wrong, and start focusing on what could go right. To Connect With Eli Eli can be found on LinkedIn or reached through their website, www.sense360.com. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today we are talking to Patrick Lee, one of the founders of Rotten Tomatoes, a review website for film and television. Eager to become an entrepreneur, Patrick didn’t finish college, but instead jumped right into the startup game. It took a few tries before he helped to found a successful company. Patrick and his colleagues rode the wave through a market collapse before ultimately selling for above their valuation. Building For Me, Not For Thee Patrick attended UC Berkeley and made a bunch of friends his freshman year. By his sophomore year, Patrick was too impatient to finish school, so he convinced three friends to leave school and do a startup. The four started off selling computer systems and components, but that didn’t go anywhere. They transitioned into web design for the entertainment industry, working for a lot of big names. They were doing quite well and revenue was growing quickly, but Patrick wasn’t interested in being in the service industry. He didn’t like building what clients wanted him to build, he wanted to build what he wanted to build. It also struck him that they weren’t building anything they owned. It was about this time that the company’s creative director came up with the idea for Rotten Tomatoes. They Like Us, They Really Like Us The team saw their other friends raising a lot of money, building up a business, and then selling it. Patrick knew it made more sense for them to do something that was theirs. They incubated the idea for a year before officially launching it, but when they did, it took off. Yahoo would feature them and bring in traffic, a famous film critic would include them in his article about the best movie websites, bringing in more traffic. Finally, Pixar released a Bug's Life and sent a lot of traffic to Rotten Tomatoes. Even Steve Jobs was a fan, mentioning Rotten Tomatoes in three separate keynote speeches at Apple. All this early success told the team that they had stumbled upon something great. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Patrick says he would tell himself to build a network. He says having connections to go to for advice can make a huge difference. He believes that had they had that network to help them gauge the market, they may have ended up in a position to sell to Google. What Patrick Is Working On Now After selling Rotten Tomatoes, Patrick went to China to work on a new startup with a friend. He says that company didn’t go anywhere and that they tried two others that didn’t take off either. Coming back to the US, Patrick tried his hand at creating a mobile game but found that the cost to acquire users was more than they could make off of those users, so it just didn’t make sense. Feeling burnt out on startups, Patrick spent some time just doing speaking engagements. He ended up running a group for notable tech founders. Two of those founders approached Patrick about doing an investment syndicate. If you’d like to connect with Patrick, he can be found on LinkedIn or Twitter @rottendoubt. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today’s guest on the Exit, presented by Flippa, is Michael Gallucci. Michael has had great success building a sports memorabilia company from the ground up, scaling it, and ultimately exiting as the global leader of sports memorabilia." Sportsmemorabilia.com had humble beginnings as a self funded startup, but through hard work and SEO tactics, they began to make waves. After their sale to Fanatics Inc, Michael began to use what he had learned to advise other budding entrepreneurs and founders. The Importance Of Sweat Equity Michael says that growing up he admired his father as an entrepreneur and even worked with his brother in restaurant services while attending college. The summer between his junior and senior year, Michael watched all his friends start exciting internships, and he decided he wanted to pursue the same. He says he went on Craigslist and found a posting for a sports marketing internship. When he showed up, he expected a super cool office, but instead found a small, shared office with a couple of scrappy individuals. Still, he joined the team as an intern, making $50/week. It’s where he first learned about SEO and how Google worked. He credits the opportunity with teaching him about sweat equity. Traffic=Conversions After that summer ended, Michael went back to school, but stayed in touch. After the men had moved from New York to Florida, they called Michael and said they wanted to explore future business partnerships with him. Michael went to Florida and was invited to be part of their next venture, which was sportsmemorabilia.com. Starting the company in 2006, they saw their first real functional year in 2007. With a background in SEO, the team was tracking the number of organic visits each month. The more traffic they got, the more they shifted their focus to conversions. Disrupting An Industry As they began to disrupt the memorabilia industry with the addition of licensed sports jerseys, they were on the radar of other competing companies. Dreams Inc did wholesale memorabilia and their owner had a relationship with sportsmemorabilia.com. When Dreams Inc sold to Fanatics, sportsmemorabilia.com got on their radar. As they were looking into a partnership with the company FansEdge, FansEdge was also acquired by Fanatics. Michael saw where things were headed and as the number one search result, with high organic ranking, it was only a matter of time before they were approached by Fanatics as well. Current Ventures Michael's current focus is helping founders & executive teams spark growth through content & commerce. He also advises other budding entrepreneurs and founders. For anyone that would like to connect with Michael, they can do so through his website, www.gallucci.co -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today's guest on the Exit, presented by Flippa, is San Eng. San is currently a Managing Partner at Skytian Capital, an International multi-strategy investment holding company. He’s also a real estate investor and crypto and blockchain enthusiast. Prior to that, he’s had some success in building and exiting businesses. He talks about everything from team building to timing. Earning A Living As A Way Of Survival San is a first generation immigrant that came to the US from China at the age of 9. He describes his family as not only dirt poor, but heavily in debt. San would begin working right away to help his family pay off their debt over the next 17-18 years. Working at the age of 9 to earn his own keep, San says he learned the ways of business and making a living as a way for survival. Even in high school, he was starting businesses, but his first real big business wasn’t until the age of 27. Prior to that, though, San would graduate college and try working for others. It didn’t take him long to realize he needed to do his own thing. Co-founding oCen communications, San would serve as the CFO and then CEO. As Asia’s leading internet/telephone service, they raised $65million in capital. Multiple Ways To Make An Exit When you’re in a venture backed startup, the path is clear. Chase an exit through an IPO. For non venture backed, San says it depends. In the real estate business, for example, there are multiple exit opportunities from refi to asset sale. Regardless, San says you should always be prepared for an exit. There are day-to-day things you have to do to stay organized so that when someone does come to you looking to buy, you can be ready to go. San says that for Skytian he doesn’t have an exit plan though, other than continuing to grow things until his children can take over. Passing the business onto your children is indeed an exit that requires organization just like any other. San says he has noticed that anytime a deal didn’t work out, the number one reason was organization. Lucky Number 150 By the time oCen communications made its exit, they were at what studies show is the ideal employee number, 150. They say it’s small enough that you still know everyone’s name, but just large enough that it makes sense to implement systems. When they got to that point, San had his board help him find a new CEO that was more seasoned to put those systems into place. San says getting to that number was one of the hardest parts because there was so much money in chasing talent. He says they would give two job offers, sometimes three, to entice people. Management would take potential hires out to the nightclub to flush out personalities before making the final offer. Current Projects San says he spent a few years researching and writing a book about investing called The 10 Commandments Of Investing. It includes some of the most successful people you can think of. Other than that, he’s working on deploying his own capital. San says about 70% of his time is allocated to family real estate, with 15% in blockchain and crypto, and 15% in growth capital. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today on the Exit, presented by Flippa, we are talking with Patrick Sullivan, founder and CEO of Bonsai, an online platform that connects individuals seeking career and business advice. Before founding Bonsai, Patrick had some very successful exits to large companies like Google and Facebook. Today, he shares how those acquisition conversations began and how the process transpired. Small Beginnings, Big Dreams Growing up in the Bronx, Patrick says his parents were 6th grade educated immigrants that didn’t have much to offer in terms of possessions, but were big on dreams. Patrick was taught to shoot for the stars from an early age. He says as a child, he took the idea of creating a lemonade stand very seriously. He’s a firm believer in learning the basics of sales at a young age. Solving A Problem While working in the music industry, digitization of music had taken center stage. Patrick noticed a need for large scale licensing and thought that he could build a better system. That’s when he quit his day job and founded his first company, RightsFlow. Patrick was hyper focused on building something that solved a big problem in the music industry, and that’s exactly what he did. By the time Google acquired them in 2007, RightsFlow had 22,000 customers using their system globally. A Deliberate And Calculate Approach Going through the acquisition with Google was quite the learning experience. Patrick says larger companies usually have an entire department when it comes to onboarding new businesses. He quickly learned the importance of a data center and having all your paperwork organized. The acquiring company will be looking for any holes in your business, mainly your liabilities. Patrick says the whole process consisted of about 60-80 meetings where they were tasked with eliminating any doubt. He says the entire process was very much treated like litigation; everything was very deliberate and calculated. Merger And Acquisition Deal Of The Year While Patrick was selling Google on his company, Google was also trying to sell themselves to Patrick. One main selling point was all the technical and engineering resources Patrick was promised. Patrick says their deal sponsor ended up leaving the deal, and they found themselves now a part of this large company with no resources. Things ended up working themselves out, however, and Patrick says they ended up winning the Merger and Acquisition Deal of the Year award. With a team of 24 people at the time of the acquisition, Patrick was tasked with defending the how and why each person would work within the business. He says not everyone fit Google’s criteria, so not everyone stayed on. Where To Learn More Patrick's newest endeavor is as the Founder and CEO of Bonsai. He encourages anyone that wants to connect with him to do so by visiting www.joinbonsai.co/patrick. As a professional network for career and business advice, they offer one on one video chats. They’ve also just launched a global partnership with Google. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today on The Exit Podcast, we interview the CEO of Trinity Audio, Ron Jaworski. With a long list of experience and a successful exit of $13million, Ron has some stories to tell. With his first business being in the night-life industry, Ron learned a lot about people. He took what he learned and created companies in both the media and audio industries. As someone that doesn’t shy away from using failures as learning experiences, Ron is committed to a lifetime of learning. Getting started is the hardest part, but the knowledge will always come once you do. Failures=Lessons While attending university for a computer science degree, Ron thought he wanted to be a programmer. Surprisingly, the first thing he did when graduating was to open a bar with a group of friends in Tel Aviv. Ron says it was super fun, and it came with a lot of failures, but also a lot of lessons. He would spend the next 5-6 years in the night-life industry, where Ron says he learned a lot about working with partners. The whole time, Ron says he was constantly thinking about how to computerize everything. When the time came to try something new, an opportunity in the media landscape became available. Learn As You Go Ron will be the first to admit that he didn’t know much about the media world, but he’s a firm believer in just jumping in and learning as you go. The company was made possible by funding from a friend to the tune of a couple of hundred thousand dollars. With a group of friends, the company was built up bit by bit. After about a year, they found themselves hitting $1million in revenue a month. With lots of ups and downs to get to that point, Ron says it was both exciting and frightening. Width Vs Depth As the company grew, Ron always kept a close eye on the relevant size of the matrix. He wanted to make sure the width and depth of what they offered was always in balance. Oftentimes you’ll see a company that has too many products with not a lot of depth in them, or they go deep on one product and ignore the rest. It was important to Ron to always have a clear business plan. He says it’s fine to sell a dream, but that dream should lead to something. When A Sales Opportunity Comes Knocking Just 18 months into starting their media business, a middle man came to Ron saying he knew a public company that was looking to get into the field. They decided to set up a meeting, even though Ron and his partners weren’t planning on selling. The talks went along well, and they became open to the idea of selling. That’s when a technical issue that affected revenue came up. It took the team a couple of months to get things fixed, but by that time they were sitting in an even better position than before. This caused the sale price to go up. After another couple of months, they agreed on the terms and signed the contract. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Ron jokingly says he would have told himself to buy Bitcoin. But in all seriousness, he says he would tell himself to believe in himself. There will always be ups and downs, but it will all be okay. He would tell himself to take both failures and successes and learn from them. He would highlight the importance of staying calm and focused while enjoying the ride. He’s a firm believer that you learn more from failures than successes. He says it’s so important to be learning all the time. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today's guest is Luis Cambronero Perez, the current head of sales at Aza Finance. He is here to share the story of his exit from Transfer Zero, a fintech startup that changed the money transfer business. He’s also a freelance Senior Sales consultant that helps companies in the financial sector, including crypto. Spain’s Very First Fintech Company Born in Spain, Luis’s father was an interpreter. During his summers off from college, Luis would assist his father, and this is where he says he learned a lot about business, and money transfers in particular. When Luis finished his business degree, he went to work in the UK in the financial industry. After gaining 6-7 years of experience, Luis realized he wanted to build something of his own. He ended up starting a company with his father. He explains it as more of a traditional money transfer company. When that company didn’t work out, Luis decided to go completely into the fintech sector. That’s when he co-founded the first fintech company in Spain, Transfer Zero. It was a peer to peer, money transfer app that could send money all over the world within seconds and with zero fees. Learning From Your Mistakes When the company first started out, Luis says they made plenty of mistakes, such as trying to do everything as cheaply as possible. Another mistake was to outsource all the technical side. As a fintech company, it became apparent that they needed their own technical team. Luis and his co-founder began to hire people, and after a year their team consisted of ten people. Half of the employees were engineers and the other half were in marketing and compliance. Letting The Market Be Your Guide It took a bit for them to find their niche. They first started trying to expand into as many countries as possible. When they weren’t succeeding, they took a closer look at each individual market and let that give them the right path. Once they focused on the right areas, they were able to grow exponentially. In some places they were able to compete with the big companies like Western Union and MoneyGram. Doing What’s Best For Everyone Involved As the company began to prepare for their Series A, they weren’t thinking at all about an exit. They met with hundreds of investors in Spain and realized there wasn’t much of an appetite for that type of business. So, they took their search to the US. While networking in San Francisco, Luis realized their business model didn’t fit. Thinking about possibly having to downsize, they went to their partners and asked if they wanted to do a joint venture in order to expand their business. They ended up with 3 or 4 joint venture opportunities, and 2 or 3 opportunities for an exit. Luis says their African partner had a good mindset and business ideas. So, he thought, why not come together. That’s when Luis learned that his co-founder wanted to focus more on his other business. They ultimately decided that selling may be the best option for the company. What Luis Is Working On Now Luis says he’s 100% into crypto and learning to code. He started learning to code back in university, but never finished, so he’s really excited to get back into it. For anyone that would like to connect with Luis, he can be found on Twitter @LCambronero or on LinkedIn under Luis Cambronero Perez. If you have interest in defi, blockchain, or web3, he’s happy to talk. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today we are talking with Jeff Durso, the co-founder of Blitzr, a one-on-one conversations platform. Graduating from MIT just as the internet was being created, Jeff benefited greatly from the dot-com boom. With an exit to the tune of $10million, he was just getting started. Being a part of several startups, Jeff has plenty of knowledge to share and does so through a Startup Mastermind group. Down The Rabbit Hole It was the late 70s, early 80s, and arcades were all the rage. Growing up, Jeff remembers seeing Pong when he was little and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Soon after, his family got an Atari, and Jeff was thrilled every time a new game came out. In 1981, Jeff’s dad started thinking about computerizing his office and began looking into the Apple 2, a cutting edge 8-bit computer at the time. At just 9 years old, Jeff was intrigued by the technology and went down the rabbit hole. He got it in his head that he could make his own video games, and he started brainstorming. When Jeff’s dad brought the computer home, Jeff became obsessed with it. It was a time when average people were starting video game companies from their kitchen table. Jeff desperately wanted to do that. The Beginnings Of The Internet Hearing about MIT, Jeff knew he had to attend. In his mind, computers and business went hand in hand. Jeff followed through with his dream and graduated MIT just as the internet was becoming a thing. Jeff knew then that it was inevitable that he would start a software company. Every weekend, Jeff and his brother would brainstorm ideas about what they could build on the web that would turn into something huge. Finally, they decided to start a consulting company and help others to design their web ideas. That was the beginning of the Open Enterprise Corporation. Things took off from there, and they began building financial service applications. A Growing Team The 3-man company tracked what it needed to make daily to survive, but that wasn’t very inspirational. Once they switched to focusing on where they could take the company, they realized they needed more people on board. The group started hiring friends they’d gone to school with, one at a time, until the team reached 15 people. As they passed the $2million per year run rate, they realized they needed to start raising venture capital. A Day To Remember While trying to raise funds, Jeff learned of another company in their space that shared similar values and strategies. The company was like them, only further along. They started talking casually with the other company with no intention of selling. It wasn’t until they realized that they couldn’t grow their capacity fast enough that they started talking about selling to a larger company to gain a bigger team. On March 10, 2000, they were set to pitch their company. Jeff knows the date well, as it was when the Nasdaq peaked on the dot-com boom. They walked out of that meeting with a $10million deal. Jeff says it was surreal and a big transition. They literally went from charging payroll to their credit cards, to driving their dream cars almost overnight. What Jeff’s Working On Now Jeff’s main focus is his company Blitzr, a speed networking platform. It was the answer to the problem of Zoom fatigue after the pandemic hit. If you’re curious to know more about it, visit www.blitzr.com. In addition to that, Jeff is working on building a community of entrepreneurs through his Startup Mastermind group. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/