(B) Zero to $25mm of Revenue in 18 Months with Oliver Schmalholz
In this episode, we get a behind the scenes peek at what it truly takes to rapidly scale a massive company - learning the inside lessons that enabled our guest to build his telecom startup from zero to twenty-five million dollars in recurring revenue in 18 months, with our guest Oliver Schmalholz.
Oliver Schmalholz is the co-founder and CEO of News Quantified. News Quantified provides powerful analytics to generate insights from market-moving news, earnings, and other corporate events. For the past 15 years, Oliver successfully built four start-up companies, raised over $50m in venture capital, AND grew a US equities trading firm to over $1b trading volume in three years. When the European Telecom market de-regulated, he signed the first interconnection agreement in Austria leading to an acquisition by a Fortune Global 100 company.
Lessons from scaling multiple startups (some good, some not so good!)
Choosing the market to focus on when opportunity strikes
How to use comparative analysis to find really powerful market opportunities that others might miss
How to scale a company from $0 to $25mm in ARR in 18 months
Key lessons of rapidly scaling any companies revenue
Recurring revenue businesses are essential
Manage and keep your churn rate low
Leverage a sales and marketing strategy focused on having low fixed expenses.
No advertising expense, having a “no-cap” commission plan, leveraging variably compensated
Leverage third party distribution deals.
“SDR” - Sales Development Reps - being fed prequalified leads and set up appointments.
Have a performance-based, uncapped sales team that works the leads generated by the SDRs.
Leveraged a “partner” strategy to partner with big telephone producers and gain access to their customer base, in exchange for giving them an ongoing residual.
The pitch to big providers was "You make one intro to our sales team and you get an ongoing commission going forward."
The importance of having a fearless approach to sales and business development.
How to generate huge value from your sales team using these strategies.
Pay your salespeople a higher upfront commission, front-load it, and also offer them endless, uncapped residuals on the back end, with a right to buy them out at the end of the contract with 12-24 months worth of commissions.
Lead generator / SDR Role"
Basic quota: 3-4 meetings/day (part of your fixed comp) ($2500-$3000/month)… you can double it with great performance.
Any production beyond that, you get $10-$50 per appointment set.
Make sure appointment sticks, a canceled appointment gets pulled back out of their bonus.
The 3 keys to rapidly scaling a business:
Recurring Revenue
Efficient Distribution (leveraging variable compensation & performance-based metrics)
Operational Excellence
How do you think about positioning yourself into the industries that have the biggest potential for substantial growth and scale?
Pay attention to platforms and multi-sided marketplaces.
Homework: Pay attention to recurring revenue opportunities and see if you can turn your opportunity into one that has recurring revenue?
Homework: Call up 100 potential customers and pick their brains before getting into their space. Be fearless with your business development approach.
Thank you so much for listening!
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Want To Dig In More?! - Here’s The Show Notes, Links, & Research
General
Media
Crunchbase Profile - Oliver Schmalholz
Finance & Markets - Product Review: How to Trade the News with News Quantified by marketsfinance
[Podcast] Cashflow Hacking Podcast with Casey Stubbs - Special Report: Oliver Schmalholz Interview by Finance & Markets
Videos
Oliver’s Guest Appearances on Timing Research Youtube Channel
Dana Derricks - Oliver Schmalholz Review Dream 100 Course
Stephen Bigalow - Public Stock Chat August 16th, 2018 with Guest Speaker Oliver Schmalholz Trade Thirsty - Oliver Schmalholz Sept 2018 Toast to Traders