He's Making How Much from Text Message Marketing? EP 288: Chris Brisson

Chris Brisson, the founder of Call Loop website. Call Loop is a voice and text messaging service that’s used by a huge range of clients. Listen as Chris and Nathan talk buying out a co-founder, building a company while working full-time, and how to pivot with an established product. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Stealth Marketing What CEO do you follow? — James Clear Favourite online tool? — ClickFunnels and ConvertFlow 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 being young is an advantage - take the opportunity to make mistakes Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan’s introduction 01:40 – Welcoming Chris to the show 02:00 – Call Loop is a voice and text messaging service 02:22 – Had the idea in 2009; business was founded in 2011 03:00 – It took 3 years to build the software as a side project 03:55 – Put in $10,000 to kick-start the project 04:12 – Bought out his business partners in 2015 04:50 – Two investors put in $90k total for 7.5% equity 05:55 – How did buying out his co-founders work? 06:20 – One co-founder had a full-time job and didn’t want to be hands-on 07:20 – Chris wasn’t financially experienced - hadn’t put caps of cliffs on the equity 08:10 – Co-founder had 25% 09:10 – Bought out for less than $100k 09:30 – “We have SaaS components but we’re not really a SaaS business” 10:00 – Different customers have extremely different needs - they buy credits differently 10:45 – Topline revenue in 2015 was $385k 11:25 – Reinvested $150k in the company in 2015 12:15 – Revenue goal in 2016 is $430-450k 12:35 – Around 1000 unique customers each month 13:54 – Sending around 400k text messages each month 14:34 – Goal is to develop the software behind the product, add features, and scale 15:45 – Chris hopes to pivot towards marketing automation 18:18 – Connect with Chris at the Call Loop website 19:55 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Youth is an advantage. Don’t be scared to act because you’re too young. When you’re distributing equity with co-founders, by sure to have a vesting schedule. You’ll hugely reduce the risk of problems down the line. Look for opportunities to pivot, even when you’re an established company. The market changes; technology changes: make sure you keep up. 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