Ben Fisher, the co-founder of Lean Startup Machine, and Alchemy. Listen in as Ben talks about his growth process with both Lean Startup Machine and Alchemy, what he learned, and what lessons can be applied universally.
Ben, a New York Citybased designer + hacker, cofounded Lean Startup Machine and Alchemy (acquired by Red Rover in 2013).
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:08 – Nathan’s introduction
01:35 – Welcoming Ben to the show
01:50 – Talking Lean Startup Machine
02:00 – You will fail, you will focus on the wrong stuff.
03:23 – Lean Startup Machine started as a weekend-long experiment
04:25 – The ascension of Alchemy Labs
06:14 – Collaboration software—Google Group meets LinkedIN
07:30 – WeWork was one of the earliest customers…bottom line at $100/mo
08:50 – By the time they raised $60K in funding, they realized they didn’t have the energy to build the company—they therefore jumped on an acquisition offer
11:38 – Ben was drawn to Jordan because he’s a fantastic marketer
12:27 – People pay a ton of money on user-acquisition, but it’s highly inefficient
14:00 – 100 paying customers right now—not profitable, but close!
15:05 – Currently have raised $300K (originally wanted to boostrap)
15:58 – SkinnyAndBald
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – Thinking in Systems
What CEO do you follow?— Brian Fenty
What is your favorite online tool?—Duet Display
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Collaborate more.
3 Key Points:
Don’t try and do it all yourself.
Being profitable isn’t important at the onset.
If you don’t have the energy to do something right, don’t do it at all.
Resources Mentioned:
Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for.
Host Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable.
Duet Display – The online tool Matthew can’t live without
Thinking in Systems – Ben’s favorite business book
Brian Fenty – The CEO Ben closely follows
Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop
The Top is FOR YOU if you are:
A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)
STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)
An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)
The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).
Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.
Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop
