Episode #37: Bootstrapping a $9 Million Business from Scratch in 3 Years and Disrupting the Freelancer Marketplace with Nathan Hirsch

Episode Summary

Nathan Hirsch shares his entrepreneurial journey of founding his first business in his college dorm room buying and selling text books, and explains how he scaled that to sell $25 million on Amazon in the next 6 years. He then explains how, at age 27, he founded FreeUp to help businesses hire pre-vetted virtual assistants and freelancers. He started the business with $5,000 and was able to scale it to $9 million in gross annual revenue in just 3 years. He explains how he was able to enter a crowded marketplace of freelancer platforms and disrupt it by substantially differentiating his value proposition and marketing it in a way that enabled him to scale very quickly. Nathan then goes on to talk about his biggest setbacks, how he overcame them, and what he learned. He gives his top tips for effective hiring and management of large distributed teams, and how to create a peak performance company culture in a remote company. He also talks about how, as an introvert, he taught himself to network and to be the face of the company in podcast interviews and on public speaking stages. He shares his morning routine, his day structure, and his productivity tips, as well as his stress management techniques. He also shares his most influential book, app, and the person he would most like to have dinner with. Nathan concludes with the most important piece of advice (also his biggest business lesson) that he would give to his 18-year-old self if he could go back in time. Full Show Notes available at www.TheMaverickShow.com

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What You'll Learn

How to bootstrap and rapidly scale a multi-million dollar business
How to differentiate your business and disrupt a crowded marketplace
The most important techniques when hiring and managing a distributed team

Links From the Episode

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GET A $50 CREDIT TO TRY OUT FREEUP

NATHAN’S BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

APP (PRODUCTIVITY TOOL) RECOMMENDATION

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#1 PERSON WITH WHOM EKATERINA MOST WANTS TO HAVE DINNER

Jeff Bezos

PLACES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

CHECK FLIGHT PRICES TO ANY OF THESE LOCATIONS

CONTACT NATHAN

Time Stamped Show Notes

[3:54] NATHAN’S ENTREPRENEURIAL BACKGROUND

Nathan’s entrepreneurial tendencies growing up
Nathan’s work an internship experiences
Setting a goal to build a business before finishing college
Starting his first business buying and selling textbooks

[8:06] BUILDING A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR AMAZON E-COMMERCE BUSINESS

Learning how to drop ship
Testing many different product categories
Breaking through with the baby product niche
Selling $1 million in baby products in a single year
Getting burned out and deciding to start hiring
Nathan’s jackpot first hire

[14:36] NATHAN’S EARLY LESSONS IN HIRING STAFF

Assessing numerous bad hires
Asking for feedback from staff on management style
Why hiring for skill alone does not work
Learning the importance of attitude and communication in vetting applicants
Refining and systematizing the hiring process

[19:00] ONBOARDING, INTEGRATING AND MANAGING STAFF

Strategies for reducing turnover
The transformative impact of exit interviews
The value of critical feedback in improving management skills
Communicating better and giving people ownership over projects
The communication channels that Nate’s company uses
The project management systems that Nate’s remote team uses

[25:14] FOUNDING AND SCALING FREEUP

Why Nate Founded FreeUp
Resolving his own pain points
Creating a referral program to rapidly grow the business
Scaling techniques and cash-flow management during rapid company growth
Intentionally running a lean business with very low expenses
Using podcast appearances as free marketing to other people’s audiences
Using micro-influencers to get business exposure

[31:35] DIFFERENTIATION AND DISRUPTING A CROWDED MARKETPLACE

How FreeUp created differentiation in a saturated market
How Freeup built a unique value proposition targeting unaddressed pain points
The categories of virtual assistants available through FreeUp

[38:25] OVERCOMING SETBACKS AND HANDLING BUSINESS PROBLEMS

How Nathan approaches business problems
Nathan’s biggest business setbacks and what he learned from them
Why Nathan will never open up another office

[43:38] NETWORKING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING AS AN INTROVERT

What being an ‘introvert’ means
Why Nathan intentionally puts himself in uncomfortable situations
Nathan’s networking strategy

[45:40] PRODUCTIVITY TIPS, DAY STRUCTURE, AND STRESS MANAGEMENT

Nathan’s day structure
Prioritizing his morning work block
The crucial importance of working out every day
How stress can inspire business problem solving
The importance of staying even-keeled
Relying on your business partner for counterbalancing your stress

[49:18] THE LIGHTNING ROUND

Nathan’s #1 recommended book
Nathan’s #1 recommended app
The person with whom Nathan most wants to have dinner
The advice Nathan would give to his 18-year-old self

[53:38] CONTACT NATHAN

About the Guest

Nathan Hirsch

Nathan Hirsch is a location independent entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of FreeeUp, which connects businesses with pre-vetted virtual assistants and freelancers. Nathan founded FreeUp in 2015 at age 27 with just $5,000 and he subsequently bootstrapped and scaled the business to $9 million in annual revenue in just 3 years. Nathan has been an entrepreneur for a total of 10 years, having founded his first online business with just $20 out of his college dorm room, buying and selling student textbooks. He rapidly expanded and scaled that into a multi-million dollar e-commerce business, and proceeded to sell over $25 million on Amazon over a 6 year period while serving over 10,000 customers. His primary business challenge during this period was that it took him way too long to find talent, and so founded FreeeUp to address his own frustrations. Today, FreeeUp receives hundreds of applications each week from freelancers and virtual assistants each of whom are rigorously interviewed and vetted, and only the top 1% (based on skill, attitude and communication), are made available to FreeUp’s thousands of business customers all over the world. With over 3,000 rigorously vetted freelancers now on the platform, Freeup provides all of It’s business clients a “no turnover” guarantee covering replacement costs if a freelancer ever quits, along with 24/7 customer service. Nathan runs his business completely remotely and is also an avid traveler.