From bootstrapped to $100Million in revenue: Key Lessons
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@aymanalabdul Owners Own ExecutionI
@aymanalabdul Owners Own Execution
I had a “trouble” child I kept having to micromanage. I wanted to pull my hair out.
He said, “It’s not his fault; it’s yours. What you allow to continue will continue.”
Poor Execution is only one person’s fault… yours.
Own it, you’ll stop it.
@aymanalabdul Summary from $1M
@aymanalabdul Summary from $1M to $100M:
– Tech is a cheat code
– Specialists > Generalists
– Values > Task Management
– Wall Your Arena
– Leading vs Lagging Indicators
– Every 3x It Breaks
– Follow a North Star
– Simplify
– Compound daily
– 70+70 +140
Growth is the small things magnifed.
@aymanalabdul 70 + 70
@aymanalabdul 70 + 70 = 140
If you ever catch yourself saying, “But I can do it better than someone else, you’re doing it wrong.”
After all you may be a 100% solution but if you hire two 70% solutions you are at 140%.
By yourself you will never scale.
@aymanalabdul The best leaders
@aymanalabdul The best leaders don’t fire, they persuade.
He told me, if you’re wondering if you should fire them, you should.
BUT, the best leaders fire less & coach people to move on and find what’s right for them more.
Not the right hire for you is right for another.
@aymanalabdul Leading vs Lagging
@aymanalabdul Leading vs Lagging Indicators
Most use lagging indicators to try to grow.
I.e. 500,000 emails. 30% revenue growth.
The best companies use leading indicators.
To get 500,000 emails we need to write 50 blog posts.
The indicator isn’t emails… it’s blogs. Flip the script.
My friend took a
My friend took a company to $100Million in revenue and profitability w/o VC funding.
I sat with him to learn how to do the same; here’s what he told me:
I didn’t tell @aymanalabdul
I didn’t tell @aymanalabdul about this. 😅
But he’s brilliant and took Appsumo from $1M to $100M.
His ideas when we met led me to 3x our sales.
My key to success is getting in the right room, with the right people, and asking the right questions.
How to hit $100M…
@aymanalabdul The Generalist to
@aymanalabdul The Generalist to Specialist cycle.
Every business goes through 4 cycles:
1) You do everything.
2) You hire generalists to do many things.
3) You hire specialists that replace the generalists.
4) The specialists run everything.
Hire specialists, not generalists to scale.
@aymanalabdul Choose your arena,
@aymanalabdul Choose your arena, then wall it off.
Successful companies are just groups led by leaders with tunnel vision.
Every day something shiny will come your way, your job is largely to say no to anything that is a distraction from your North Star.
@aymanalabdul Have A North
@aymanalabdul Have A North Star
And actually follow it. Each company needs a big hairy goal they obsess on day in and day out.
I got my team one of these that counts emails.
North star, grow this, and it auto populates to our list. https://t.co/kJx8opYgl0
@aymanalabdul 3X Rule”Prepare for
@aymanalabdul 3X Rule
“Prepare for the curse of growth,” he said.
Every time your company 3x’s it’s going to break.
Turns out he’s right. Every time we triple in revenue or total users something goes haywire. Prepare for it.
@aymanalabdul Values eat tactics
@aymanalabdul Values eat tactics for breakfast.
I was trying to micromanage too much so he said instead:
Value speed instead of task management.
Value innovation instead of tracking.
Value attention to detail instead of micromanagement.
Then watch how values translate to less oversight.
@aymanalabdul Occam’s RazorSimplify as
@aymanalabdul Occam’s Razor
Simplify as much as possible.
In all you do, simplify. Complexity kills organizations.
When in doubt, cut something out.
@aymanalabdul Tiny compounding creates
@aymanalabdul Tiny compounding creates giants.
$100M may sound crazy but over 10 years from $1M thats .36% growth a day.
Do you think you could grow by .36% a day? Yes you can. https://t.co/Tlg2IEissJ
@aymanalabdul Your tech stack
@aymanalabdul Your tech stack is a cheat code.
Having built a company focused on tech at Appsumo we talked about how most people try to cut down trees with nail files.
What if you give them an ax? Then a chainsaw?
Never let your tools limit your people.
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