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