Ep 121 Chad Wittman joins Nathan Latka. Chad sold EdgeRankChecker for about $3m and then founded Dolly, an app built to bring moving into the 21st century. Listen as Chad talks about abandoning the “security” of a job, bootstrapping a start-up, and managing a business with partners.
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3 Key Points:

If you want to reap 100% of the rewards, you need to bootstrap your business.
The sharing economy has touched a variety of markets, but not every market—find your niche.
Valuations are insanely high right now.

Episode Notes: 

01:02 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show with  Chad Wittman
01:25 – Edge Rank Checker
02:19 – Making $50-60K in the agency
03:00 – How Edge Rank Checker made money
03:30 – Launched in 2012 with a $30/month price point
04:22 – Two co-founders
05:40 – Within 2 months they were making $20K per month
08:20 — $60K a month at its peak before selling to Social Bakers
08:44 – Selling the technology but not the team
09:10 – Negotiating Sale Price
11:30 – 6 month earnout
11:55 – 75-25 cash-equity split
12:50 – Chad was paid out 100% b/c they were 100% bootstrapped
13:20 – MRR x $60k x 12 x 4
13:44 – The moving business digitized—Dolly
14:15 – The financial model of Dolly
15:00 – Valuations are high right now…some as high as $25X
16:05 – The sharing economy has touched a lot of form factors, but not the pack-up truck market
17:48 – The Famous Five

Resources Mentioned:

Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects without hiring full time employees.
Edge Rank Checker – Chad Wittman’s original foray into entrepreneurship
Dolly—Chad’s new venture, an app for moving your stuff intelligently

Famous 5

Favorite Book?— Getting Real (I’m listening to How to Win Friends and Influence People for free using Audible while I travel for the holidays)
What CEO do you follow?— Elon Musk
What is your favorite online tool?— Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—Yes
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Do not overvalue an idea

 
 
 
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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