37: Bootstrapping a $9 Million Business from Scratch in 3 Years and Disrupting the Freelancer Marketplace with Nathan Hirsch
Jun 18, 2019
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