Frat Guy Takes 2K a Month Side Project to 10Mil a Year Media Company, EP 286: Madison Wickham

Madison Wickham, CEO and co-founder of Grandex - a media and content company that’s behind the sites Total Frat Move and Postgrad Problems. Madison’s also created two successful apparel companies, and is generating around $10 million in revenue a year. Listen in to hear Madison talk about the secrets of capturing an audience, quitting his job with a 10-day old baby, and how to turn content followers into customers. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – Zero To One What CEO do you follow? — Jonah Peretti What is your favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —That I didn’t have to have a definitive plan...I just had to be doing something productive and learning stuff Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:50 – Yuri’s introduction 02:30 – Welcoming Madison to the show 02:50 – Started Total Frat Move as a one-liner comedy website with a fraternity buddy 03:40 – “Our business plan did not exist...we were trying to capture an audience” 04:56 – Started with advertisements but starting experimenting with other revenue streams 05:38 – T-Shirts worked extremely well - “We gravitated towards merchandise” 06:25 – At what point did Madison realise his project was a legitimate business? 07:20 – “In 4 months we had $2000 a month from ad revenue” 08:32 – Quit their jobs and dived in full-time 09:32 – Madison had a 10-day-old baby when he quit his job 10:11 – Went full-time in October 2010 11:20 – “It was the most liberating thing I’ve done in my life” 13:10 – Financing? “We always made more money than we spent - we didn’t have experience of doing anything else” 13:50 – About 3 years in, they formed a relationship with an angel investor in Austin 15:15 – Learned from him about the process of raising money to develop a team 16:25 – Raised $2.3 million over 12 months 16:44 – $20 million pre-money valuation 17:16 – 3.5x multiplier on topline revenue 18:00 – Grandex currently runs 5 websites 18:21 – Rowdy Gentleman designs, creates and sells apparel 18:54 – Male Outfitters is a premium online menswear store 19:40 – Grandex generated around $10 million revenue in 2015 21:10 – Revenue from TFM and related sites is through advertising and promotions 23:10 – “The media is the lifeblood of our business” 23:45 – Promote apparel products to their media audience 25:00 – What’s worked best for you when promoting online? 27:40 – Things change constantly - it’s vital to be tapped into the social media landscape 28:20 – What’s next for Grandex? 30:30 – Releasing their first feature-length film this year 31:20 – Connect with Madison at the Grandex website and the Inside TFM podcast 34:42 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Capture an audience. Profit will grow out of having people that follow you. Be hyper-aware of what’s happening online: social media changes in an eyeblink You don’t have to know what your grand plan is. Just start doing something productive. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives