Podcasts about ltv

Are you obsessing over your average order value but still struggling to grow a profitable, repeatable photography business?In this no-fluff episode, Jonathan Royle, Ronan Ryle, and Jeanine McLeod dive deep into the growth seesaw—that delicate balance between average order value, client volume, and the overlooked goldmine of lifetime client value (LTV). Whether you're a high-ticket studio or running volume-based sessions, this episode will challenge your assumptions and change the way you grow.Why photographers should hit play:The truth about “protecting your average order value”—and how it could be holding you backWhy “today's business card is tomorrow's brochure” (and why you should never ignore small bookings)Why ego and awards don't build a sustainable business—profit doesHow to create a business built on repeat clients, referrals, and real lifetime valueReal-world numbers from a studio generating $60K+ LTV per clientThe secret to getting clients to return 2–3 times a year—for 18 years straightWhat to do when a potential client says, “I'm only buying the minimum”If you're ready to trade hype for real business growth, this episode is your wake-up call. Grab your coffee, press play, and let's talk strategy that actually works.Join the Difference Maker Revolution!Take the first step toward creating a photography business that makes a difference. Visit Difference Maker Inner Circle to learn more about transforming your business through proven strategies and mentorship.The Difference Maker Revolution podcast helps you grow your photography business by teaching you how to:Generate highly targeted leads.Increase conversions with ideal clients.Build long-term client relationships.Create consistent, predictable revenue.This show is hosted by industry experts:Jonathan Ryle: Photography marketing funnel specialist.Ronan Ryle: Board of Directors of the PPA, Professional Photographers of America.Jeanine McLeod: Family portrait photographer specializing in joyful, storytelling photography for parents.Tune In for Real-World StrategiesGain insights from professionals who know what it takes to build a successful photography business. Whether you're looking to increase client satisfaction, improve your sales, or align your work with what clients truly value, this episode is packed with actionable advice.Through fun, educational, and inspiring discussions, the Difference Maker Revolution aims to help you create a healthier society through photography.

In this episode, Emma and Danny Hoffman (Head of Global Amazon Strategy, Flywheel) dig into the power of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) for brands looking to unlock a deeper understanding of their business. Discover how AMC helps you measure long-term value (LTV), new-to-brand (NTB) acquisition, and the true point of market entry (POME). Hear real-world examples of how these metrics can shape smarter strategies, build brand loyalty, and drive sustainable growth.

Marcin - Co-founder and GTM lead at Redstone, crypto veteran since 2017 with background in quantitative economics. Previously worked at Google Cloud before founding Redstone in 2020.The Oracle Infrastructure RevolutionRedstone's Modular Architecture Redstone built a fundamentally different oracle system designed for scalability from day one. Unlike traditional models that were difficult to scale across networks and assets, Redstone uses a modular architecture with four modules—keeping three off-chain to minimize integration complexity. This design enables rapid deployment across new blockchains and virtual machines.Multi-Chain Pioneer* First oracle on many non-EVM networks including TON (Telegram), Starknet, and Fuel VM* Strategic expansion philosophy: "Go where people want us, not where we force ourselves"* 75% of company are engineers, maintaining 100% reliability with zero mispricing incidentsWhy Solana, Why NowPerfect Timing Convergence Redstone's Solana launch aligned with a critical market moment. Their partnership with Securitize to serve major tokenized funds (BlackRock BUIDL, VanEck, Apollo, etc.) coincided with Solana's emerging RWA momentum through protocols like Camino, Drift, and Jupiter.Foundation Support Meeting Lily (Solana Foundation director) at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai catalyzed the expansion, providing technical resources and ecosystem connections for smooth integration.Real-World Assets ExplainedTwo Flagship Products* Tokenized Treasury Bills (T-Bills)* Low-risk, yield-bearing government securities* Principle should always appreciate (barring systemic USD issues)* Considered equivalent to cash in accounting (0-3 month bills)* Apollo's Diversified Credit Fund (Tokenized as ACRE)* Private credit outside traditional banking system* Example: Entrepreneur needs $10M for factory railway, banks reject due to complexity* Apollo intermediates: lenders provide capital at 8%, borrowers pay 12%, Apollo manages 4% spread* Involves real risk of default, but diversified across 100-1000 loansAccess Revolution* Traditional minimum: $5-10 million* Tokenized minimum: $50,000 (100x reduction in barrier to entry)* Global accessibility without complex traditional finance onboardingThe Technical Innovation: sACRESecurity vs. Utility Challenge ACRE is a security token, making it non-transferable and unsuitable for DeFi liquidations. Securitize created an elegant solution:* sACRE: Non-security wrapper around ACRE* Enables DeFi integration while maintaining regulatory compliance* Liquidators interact only with sACRE, never touching the underlying security* Vault system allows redemption back to USDC when neededDeFi Use Cases and Looping StrategiesThe Looping Mechanism* Deposit $1M worth of sACRE as collateral* Borrow $500K USDC (50% LTV for safety margin)* Buy more sACRE with borrowed USDC* Repeat process until hitting minimum investment thresholds* Amplify exposure while maintaining liquidation safetyRisk Considerations* Platform risk (Drift/Camino vulnerabilities)* Asset price risk (private credit can decline unlike T-Bills)* Liquidation risk if looped too aggressively* Need for proper risk management and position sizingInstitutional Adoption PathwayBaby Steps Philosophy Unlike crypto's "10x or bust" mentality, institutions take measured approaches:* Current: Basic tokenization and custody* Next: Simple lending and structured products* Future: On-chain hedge funds and complex derivativesBenefits Driving Adoption* Broader Access: Geographic and capital barriers removed* Secondary Liquidity: Instant swaps vs. 90-day redemption periods* DeFi Composability: Integration with lending, looping, structured products* Transparency: On-chain visibility vs. opaque traditional systemsMarket Lessons and Risk ManagementLearning from Terra/Anchor* Size caps prevent systemic overheating* Transparency requirements for risk assessment* Multiple audits and conservative approaches* Recognition that 20% yields were unsustainableCurrent Systemic Risks* Staking derivatives pose the largest potential systemic risk* Liquid staking tokens widely used as collateral across DeFi* Any major exploit could cascade across ecosystemFuture RoadmapImmediate Developments* Additional Solana-native stablecoin feeds* More yield-bearing asset integrations* Jupiter's "Drip/Plant" lending protocol (partnership with Ethereum's Fluid)Long-term Vision* Yield-bearing stablecoins as mass adoption driver* 4-6% yields as the "sweet spot" for user interest* Cross-chain collaborations and composability* Gradual expansion of on-chain institutional productsBuilder Ecosystem* Testing available at app.redstone.finance (Push → Solana)* Open communication channels via Telegram/Discord* Custom data feed development for specific use casesThe Bigger PictureAdoption Paradigm Shift Traditional crypto adoption focused on retail users buying NFTs and meme coins. RWA adoption brings institutional capital seeking familiar products with blockchain benefits—better access, liquidity, and composability.Global Financial Rails Redstone's vision extends beyond individual assets to creating seamless global financial infrastructure. Current traditional systems are siloed by country/region, requiring inefficient bridges. Blockchain technology enables truly global, instantaneous settlement.Competitive Collaboration The Jupiter-Fluid partnership exemplifies healthy ecosystem growth—established players collaborating rather than zero-sum competing, recognizing the early-stage nature of the overall market. Get full access to The Dramas of Thomas Bahamas at thomasbahamas.substack.com/subscribe

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupIn this no-fluff edition of All Killer No Filler, Jordan Gordon lays out the retention blueprint based on four fundamental customer cohort types. Whether you're selling one-time purchases or building a subscription empire, this episode helps you build the right post-purchase flows, campaign cadence, and automation strategies based on your actual repeat data.Key Takeaways:Acquisition Cohorts need evergreen “gauntlets” — front-loaded automation built once, used foreverBalanced Cohorts benefit most from segmented post-purchase flows that drive 30-60 day repeatRetention-Heavy Cohorts (like consumables) should use SMS and social to boost LTVSubscription Cohorts must push trials and upgrades fast — packaging insert CTAs and paid retargeting are keyThis episode isn't just about theory. It's about practical segmentation and flows to extract every dollar of LTV your cohorts are ready to give — without wasting effort on email trees that don't convert.Did you know that 98% of your website visitors are anonymous? Instant powers next-level retention by identifying who they are and converting them into loyal shoppers. Sign up for a quick demo today to get 50% off and unlock a guaranteed 4x+ ROI: instant.one/dtcTimestamps00:00 - Four cohort profiles every DTC brand must know03:00 - How to approach retention for acquisition-focused brands08:00 - Email gauntlet strategies that boost first purchases10:00 - Tactics for balanced brands to drive second purchases17:00 - Segmented post-purchase flows vs. clean funnel approach22:00 - Classic retention businesses and high-frequency repeat tactics27:00 - Subscription-first brands and why LTV hinges on autoship33:00 - Building effective replenishment and subscription paths36:00 - Why inboxing, volume, and content drive retention success38:00 - Cohort analysis frameworks for optimizing retention strategyHashtags#DTCMarketing#EmailMarketing#CustomerRetention#EcommerceStrategy#ShopifyBrands#LTVOptimization#RetentionMarketing#SubscriptionBrands#PostPurchaseFlows#AKNFPodcast#TWBERP#Pilothouse Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Ready to transform your customer retention from 3.5 months to 15 months with just five emails?In this tactical deep dive, George Bryant returns to share the exact frameworks he has used to scale companies from $1 million per month to $2 million per day. We explore the three critical mistakes that can kill your customer journey (dubbed the "Triangle of Poop" by George's 8-year-old), and unveil the APPLE communication framework that has revolutionised how businesses build relationships at scale. Whether you're selling supplements, software, or socks, these proven strategies will help you plug the leaks in your business and create customers for life.The Zone of Doubt: When Customers Fall Into Black HolesThe first mistake in the Triangle of Poop is creating what George calls "zones of doubt"- those moments when customers are emotionally invested but encounter a communication black hole.If you've ever put your email address in for a lead magnet on the internet... you get to your inbox and it's not there. What feeling pops up? You get upset. Now do you think you're going to have a seamless experience or be as excited to consume that lead magnet?Common black holes include:Lead magnets that never arriveOrder confirmations that don't acknowledge what was purchasedDMs promising links that arrive days laterPost-purchase emails pushing unrelated productsThe impact? Immediate erosion of trust. As George explains, humans create unspoken contracts with each other - when you break these, you break the relationship before it even begins.The Ego Journey and Why "I" Language Kills ConversionsThe second critical mistake is falling into the ego trap—focusing on your story instead of the customer's transformation.George's brilliant example contrasts two approaches to a skincare welcome email:The Ego Version: "Hey Jane, thank you so much for buying our product. My name is George. I've spent the last 14 years of my life scouring the jungles of Costa Rica..."The Customer-Focused Version:Hey Jane, how does it feel to have healthier skin, and we haven't even shipped your product yet? Truthfully, our commitment to you is to help you glow from the inside out, even if you don't use our product...The difference? One makes it about the founder's journey; the other makes it about the customer's transformation. Remember: customers don't care about your story until they've rewritten theirs.The Fire Hose: Death by Information OverloadThe third mistake is overwhelming customers with too much information at once, which George refers to as the "fire hose effect."Using the parent-child morning routine as an analogy, George illustrates why micro-commitments work better than information dumps:If my son wakes up tomorrow morning at 5 am, and I say, 'Hey bro, we have to leave at 7:30. I need you to brush your hair, brush your teeth, pack your backpack, eat your breakfast, make your bed, check your homework, and meet me at the car...' What are my chances of success? Zero.Instead, successful customer journeys break down the process:Give bite-sized tasksBuild confidence with each stepCreate buy-in through progressionCelebrate small wins along the wayThe APPLE Framework: Your Blueprint for 10x RetentionGeorge's APPLE framework transformed a supplement company from $75 LTV to $744 LTV using just five emails:A - Acknowledge: Close the emotional loop and confirm they made the right choiceP - Prepare: Set clear expectations and reduce uncertaintyP - Project: Paint the vision of their future...

Ready to secure investment for your startup or small business? This podcast summary, featuring Chris Van Dusen from Calico Capital, reveals how to approach the funding journey strategically. We dive into the differences between Venture Capital and Private Equity to help you target the right investors. Get a pre-investment checklist for founders, emphasizing the crucial need to know your numbers (CAC, LTV, Burn Rate). Understand why proactive investor communication is vital and how the focus is shifting to sustainable profitability. Learn how fractional CFOs and remote experts can accelerate your growth without breaking the bank. Equip yourself with the knowledge to attract and retain the right capital partners.

Forget “growth hacks.” Understand your numbers.In this episode, Neil sits down with Jeremy Reeves to break down the economic engine behind real business growth. Jeremy shares how he scaled a supplement brand to $1 million per month and helped 8-figure companies fix cash flow and profitability by mastering one thing: the math. From customer acquisition costs to lifetime value, he explains how to diagnose what's actually holding your business back and how to fix it with systems that scale.In This Episode, We Cover✅ Mindset impacts your cash flow more than you think✅ How to calculate CAC and LTV the right way✅ Why some “profitable” businesses are actually burning cash✅ When to launch your second sales channelChapters:[00:01:05] What's Happening in the Economy Right Now[00:07:26] Why Revenue is Not the Goal[00:15:00] Most Founders Misread Their Metrics[00:18:41] When to Add Another Channel[00:28:00] Designing a Life Beyond Business[00:33:22] Final Thoughts: Focus Over Everything 

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupHello and welcome to the DTC Podcast with Eric Dyck. Today, we're joined by Jason Prowd of AMP / Lifetimely to dive into how DTC brands can move from data paralysis to strategic action. Jason shares how cohort analysis, optimized subscription offers, and behavioral triggers unlock new revenue.Explore Lifetimely by AMP: https://useamp.com/products/analytics?utm_source=dtcnewsletter&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=lifetimely&utm_content=trylifetimely Key Insights:Retention vs Acquisition: Why the second-half funnel yields better ROICohorts over Averages: Finding hidden cohorts with 2× LTV and reallocate spendSubscription Strategy: Optimize first-order vs ongoing discounts, plus surprise incentivesTest Culture: Run 2–4 week experiments, build a feedback loop for continual learningBehavioral Flows: Triggered campaigns outperform generic campaignsThis episode is packed with analytical tactics for performance marketers, founders, and operators aiming to optimize LTV and margins.Timestamps:00:00 - Why customer insights need constant validation02:00 - The danger of tracking too many metrics04:00 - How to find hidden revenue in underused cohorts08:00 - Lifetime value vs volume-driven strategies14:00 - How Lifetimely gives actionable analytics23:00 - Rethinking subscription discount structures29:00 - Flows vs campaigns in retention32:00 - Importance of behavior-based triggers and referral timingHashtags:#EcommerceData#CustomerInsights#DTCMarketing#LTVStrategy#SubscriptionOptimization#EmailMarketing#RetentionStrategy#CohortAnalysis#MarketingAnalytics#Lifetimely#AmpByShopify#FlowsVsCampaigns#CustomerSegmentation#IncrementalRevenue#MarketingStrategy Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Send us your thoughtsIn this episode of CFO 4.0, Hannah Munro is joined by Matt Topham, Director of Practical CFO, to explore what makes a modern CFO truly effective—from KPIs to strategic decision-making.Key topics covered:Matt's unconventional journey to CFOThe realities of working as a fractional CFO and identifying clients ready for changeHow to use KPIs like productivity, overhead rate, and LTV to CAC to guide decisionsWhy speed and imperfection often beat precision in fast-moving environmentsManaging cash, growth, and riskPractical tips for new CFOs on building meaningful KPIs and driving strategic clarityLinks mentioned: Matt's Linkedin Learn more about Practical CFO Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here. Subscribe to our Podcast!

De 6 horas para 15 segundos: Luis Roloff, CEO da Veros, revela como a rastreabilidade digital está revolucionando o compliance no agro. Luis Roloff, CEO e fundador da Veros, compartilha sua trajetória de inovação desde a infância até criar a primeira blockchain da América Latina. No episódio, ele detalha o desafio de digitalizar e automatizar a rastreabilidade no agronegócio, especialmente diante das novas exigências de compliance para exportação. O principal insight: processos que levavam horas agora são resolvidos em segundos, mudando o jogo para indústrias que precisam comprovar sustentabilidade e origem.

Looking for a smarter, safer way to invest in real estate—without picking up a hammer or managing tenants?This week on the Exit Strategies Radio Show, host Corwyn J. Melette sits down with Merriah Harkins, Chief Sales Officer at Lucrum Capital, a private real estate lending firm structured as a REIT. With more than 20 years of experience in raising capital for alternative investment funds, Merriah breaks down how accredited investors can earn steady monthly income (7%–8.5%) by passively investing in short-term, first-position loans secured by real estate.She explains the mechanics of Lucrum's conservative fund structure, how their low loan-to-value (LTV) model offers downside protection, and why their REIT structure provides additional tax advantages for investors—especially those using retirement accounts.

Are you struggling to find product-market fit or scale your e-commerce brand? For that and more, follow us here and subscribe to our YouTube channel!In this episode of Built Online, we talk with Daniel Budai, founder of Budai Media, an e-commerce growth agency. Daniel shares his journey from studying geology to becoming a copywriter and agency owner, offering insights on the power of social proof, key e-commerce metrics like AOV, CAC, and LTV, and how to optimize marketing strategies, websites, and email to grow and scale your business. ------------DANIEL BUDAI:- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedanielbudai- Website: https://thebudaimedia.com/- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/------------

In this episode of Agents of Nonprofit, I welcome Gregory Warner, founder of MarketSmart and creator of the Fundraising Report Card, for a deep dive into data-driven donor engagement. Whether you're wrestling with donor retention or chasing ROI, this conversation offers a powerful blend of insight and strategy that reframes fundraising as a journey of shared values and lasting relationships.Topics We Cover:Why many nonprofits misuse surveys and feedback tools—and how to fix itThe “before and after” model for measuring impact and fundraising ROIWhat the Fundraising Report Card reveals about donor retention, upgrades, and lifetime valueWhy donor lifetime value (LTV) is the most predictive and essential fundraising metricHow to identify and re-engage lapsed major donors hiding in your CRMThe surprising statistic that 25% of major donors start at the major gift levelWhy relational fundraising beats transactional tactics—and how to offer lasting valueTo Learn More and Connect with Gregory:Fundraising Report CardGregory Warner on LinkedInGoogle's Zero Moment of TruthFundraising Effectiveness ProjectSupport the show

"Send me a text"Why Chasing LTV Alone Is Costing You More Than You Thinkn this episode, we explore the tension between maximizing customer lifetime value and genuinely improving customer health outcomes in the supplement industry. You'll hear real examples, strategic insights, and practical steps to align business growth with true customer success.Key Takeaways:Why focusing solely on LTV can backfire in the long runHow customer success drives word-of-mouth and retentionPractical ways to personalize, educate, and support customers post-purchaseKey metrics to track beyond just revenueHow to build supplement journeys that create loyal, long-term customersIf you're interested in working with me one-on-one to improve your supplement business. You can learn more at https://creativethirst.com After working with dozens of dietary supplement brands, I've uncovered the three critical funnels needed for success. Click here to discover the 3 funnels that can help your health supplement business succeed.If you're interested in working with me one-on-one to improve your supplement business. You can learn more at my website https://creativethirst.comGetting people to your sales page or funnel is how you grow a direct-to-consumer supplement company. But how do you get them there?The quickest way to do that is through paid advertising.Buying buyers with ad dollars to scale is how all the supplement businesses do it.Now you can discover the strategies and tactics that work in supplement advertising.For just $7.Click here to grab your copy of the Health Supplement Ad Swipe Guide.

El crecimiento ya no funciona como antes.Durante años, bastaba con invertir más en paid media, lanzar campañas sueltas y empujar tráfico a un funnel más o menos lineal. Pero el terreno ha cambiado.❌ El coste de adquisición se ha duplicado.❌ Las cookies ya no nos dan superpoderes.❌ Solo el 17 % de los usuarios siguen un funnel como lo conocíamos.❌ Y cada equipo optimizando por su cuenta genera hasta un 30 % de ineficiencia.Hoy, crecer exige algo distinto: sistemas, no tácticas. Coordinación, no silos. Validación, no intuición.

When was the last time you really looked at your numbers? I'm not talking about follower count or how many likes your last reel got. I mean the real numbers in your business. The ones that actually tell you if your subscription box is healthy, sustainable, and built to grow. If the idea of diving into your numbers makes you want to run and hide, this episode is for you! Because today, I'm walking you through the five most important metrics every subscription box owner needs to track. I'll break down what they are and how to calculate them, and explain what they mean for your business and how to use them to make smarter decisions starting today. Whether you're brand new or scaling toward your next milestone, these numbers will give you clarity, confidence, and control. Don't feel like you have to track everything all at once.Pick one number and start there. Maybe this month, you track your retention rate. Next month, add Customer Acquisition Cost. Then plug in your numbers for LTV. In this Friday Fuel episode, I'm breaking down the 5 metrics that matter most and how to start tracking them (without the overwhelm). Don't ignore your numbers because they feel confusing or overwhelming. Because clarity? That's power. Mentioned in This Episode: Free Retention Rate Calculator Box Budget Worksheet Launch Your Box Training Library (members only) Inside Launch Your Box, we take this even further, teaching you how to track, interpret, and use these numbers to scale your subscription box business. If you're ready to stop guessing and start making decisions based on data, we're here to help. Join me in all the places:     Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website  Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today! 

Ryan Groh is the Associate Director of Ecommerce at BYLT Basics, a California-based premium apparel brand. With over seven years of experience in ecommerce and digital merchandising, Ryan has led initiatives that have significantly increased online revenue and improved customer experience through personalization and streamlined checkout processes. He played a pivotal role in BYLT's migration to Shopify's Hydrogen framework, enhancing site performance and enabling seamless omnichannel operations. Before his current role, Ryan was the Ecommerce Manager at Absolute Merch Inc. In this episode… Brands often wonder whether building a mobile app is worth the investment when a responsive mobile site already exists. The decision is particularly tricky for ecommerce companies trying to boost loyalty, retention, and customer lifetime value without overwhelming their tech teams. How can businesses know if an app will genuinely enhance the customer journey and deliver measurable ROI? Ryan Groh, an expert in ecommerce and digital merchandising, shares how his team approached the mobile app question by focusing on their most loyal customers. Ryan explains that an app can provide a more curated, frictionless experience for high-value buyers — especially those already engaged via SMS or email. He recommends identifying segments with high purchase frequency or cart value, using exclusive in-app promotions, and ensuring tech integrations support a seamless UX. For Ryan, app-driven ecommerce growth hinges on choosing the right platform vendor, personalizing content, and building app-based features that align with the brand's LTV strategy. In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Ryan Groh, Associate Director of Ecommerce at BYLT Basics, about scaling loyalty and retention through mobile apps. Ryan dives into how push notifications outperform traditional channels, how to evaluate whether your brand is a good fit for an app, and the value of a headless CMS in crafting seamless user experiences.

En 2025, el crecimiento en eCommerce no pasa por captar más, sino por retener mejor. En esta mesa redonda diseccionamos el Lifetime Value (LTV) desde tres ángulos complementarios: la gran distribución, el growth estratégico y la visión omnicanal.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Ever wonder what separates a $1M agency from a $30M agency? It's not just better SEO or more employees. It's how you run the business behind the scenes. We sat down with today's featured guest to dig into what's powered his insane growth from barely crossing seven figures back when we first met… to now staring down $35–$40 million in pure service revenue. He's sharing some great advice on the evolution of his role as CEO, his new-found love for podcasting, and all kinds of golden nuggets for agency currently in the “no man's land”. Chris Dreyer is the CEO of Rankings.io, a law firm marketing services agency that delivers exceptional results for attorneys without compromising on customer service. He'll discuss his agency's substantial growth from under a million to over $30 million in revenue, his reliance on data and key performance indicators (KPIs), the transformative role of AI in various aspects of his operations, the importance of in-person client meetings for building relationships, and much more. If you're still guessing your numbers or putting off tracking your team's time — you'll want to pay attention. In this episode, we'll discuss: The CEO's true job. Hidden agency growing pains. The key to client happiness. In-person hustle and outbound sales. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. Why Data Became Like a Religion Back when Chris and I first locked ourselves in a tiny Atlanta room for a workshop, Rankings.io was barely peeking over the $1M mark. He was still deciding who to serve and how. Fast forward about 8-9 years to today, and he says there's no bigger reason for his success than his top-to-bottom data obsession. Most agency owners track just enough to feel busy: a few pipeline numbers, maybe close rates if they're fancy. But Chris tracks everything. He knows the lifetime value of a client paying $5K a month versus $10K a month. He knows exactly how each account manager's retention rate impacts revenue. He even scores sales reps like a fantasy football league. And it's not just vanity metrics. If an account manager is great at keeping clients but terrible at preserving the original retainer size, they fix it. If time tracking shows poor utilization? They fix it. It's relentless. The big unlock for him was getting a real CFO to build this machine — and shifting from QuickBooks to more robust systems like Sage. No more flying blind or hoping for the best. If you don't know your LTV, churn, win rates, and retention by the exact dollar, you're leaving growth up to luck. How AI Became His Secret Weapon (and Why You Should Care) Most agency owners dabble in AI: a blog here, a few prompts there. Chris has gone full cyborg. Every single month, his team uploads their entire reporting package into ChatGPT. They don't just glance at dashboards — they get an AI board of advisors that points out trends, flags issues, and even suggests campaigns based on sales funnel leaks. If they have clients applying but not booking, the AI says: launch a re-engagement sequence. If they're not sure why the expense spike looks off, the AI will cross-check it with your event calendar. Chris used to hate looking at financials — now AI does the heavy lifting. When it comes to AI agents, they're not doing as much and prefer to use AI assistants for content, link building, and optimization. He even has an AI board of advisers with different personalities. This isn't replacing people. It's leveling them up. It's like strapping a rocket to every role — so you can do more without burning out your team. If you're not leaning on AI for context and next steps, you're probably making slower (and worse) decisions than your competitors. The CEO's True Job: Gotta Catch ‘em All Now that he's running an agency pushing $40M in service revenue (not pass-through, real revenue) Chris defines his role as: “Playing people Pokemon. Gotta catch ‘em all. I get the clients, and my president keeps them.” He sets the vision, runs point on marketing and sales, hosts the podcast, and stays the face of Rankings.io. Meanwhile, his right-hand man, Stephen, owns retention and delivery. This split lets Chris hunt big opportunities without getting bogged down in fulfillment fires. It's the perfect example of how an owner's role must evolve. If you're still stuck in the weeds, wearing every hat, and calling that “leadership” — you're capping your agency's growth. The goal isn't to do everything. It's to build a team that does everything better than you ever could alone. And Chris's story is living proof. The Hidden Growing Pains Nobody Warns You About Ever heard of the dreaded “no man's land” for agencies? For Chris, it began after he crossed the $8M to $10M mark and things got painfully awkward fast. In this stage, you're forced to hire the roles that don't directly bring in revenue: HR, finance, middle managers. Suddenly, your once-scrappy margins start leaking everywhere. It feels counterintuitive, all these new salaries, and yet no extra billables. But here's the catch: this is the awkward but necessary step that'll set you up with the infrastructure to move from $10M to $15M, $20M or beyond. This is generally the zone where you feel like an imposter CEO — one foot in the hustle, one foot in the corporate world you swore you'd never build. The truth is, every growing agency owner faces this inflection point. And if you get it right, you build a structure that can handle scale. If you get it wrong, you risk staying stuck at the same revenue ceiling year after year. You Can't Turn It Off — And Maybe That's Okay Most founders agree they find it difficult to turn their business brain off, and honestly, they don't want to. Business is the hobby. While their kids are at soccer practice, their brain is rewriting the service agreement or tweaking a proposal. Sure, there's a cost. Vacations come with podcast episodes in the car. Weekends sometimes mean scanning P&L spreadsheets. But, as Jason and Chris admit: the key to staying sane isn't to “balance it perfectly” — it's to have the right partner who gets the obsession. Because when you're building a business that supports dozens, even hundreds of families, switching it off just isn't realistic. So you find the support system that lets you go all in and come home for dinner. Why Core Values Actually Matter Early on, you might roll your eyes at “company core values.” Chris admits he did and saw it as just a lot of fluff. But once you're managing 50, 100, or more people, vague values don't cut it — you need a shared language to protect the culture. His agency now runs on three non-negotiables: Excellence (do great work, always) Execution (don't just talk, get it done) Grit (stick with hard things for the long haul) While he used to rely on platitudes like “team player” — he sees now that the wrong person will be weeded out fast as long as the core values are clear. He also bails at the mention of “work-life balance” in an interview. Because for this team, the culture is built for people who like working hard. The Surprising Key to Client Happiness Think your killer case studies will keep clients happy forever? Think again. Client happiness is very subjective and your biggest churn risk isn't bad work — it's bad relationships. Sure, you can track Net Promoter Scores all day. But real retention comes from catching early warning signs, which Chris calls “saves”. A client going quiet, missing calls, or hinting they're not vibing with an account manager should be signs to take action, if you start tracking them, as he has. And here's the overlooked move more agencies need to revive: visit your clients in person. Everyone's got Zoom fatigue. Booking a flight and breaking bread goes a long way toward making you not just a vendor, but a trusted partner. How In-Person Hustle and Outbound Hunting Keep You on Top Even with all the fancy dashboards, AI copilots, and mega forecasting tools, Chris and his president still jump on planes to shake hands with clients. They even budget for it. When you're running a high-ticket service where each client can be worth $125,000 or more over their lifetime, dropping a couple grand to show up in person is a no-brainer. It's how you show you care more than the next guy who's sending templated emails and hiding behind Slack. Chris's take is simple: Want to stand out? Do what you say you're going to do. Show up. Make your clients look like heroes. When a big-name CEO flies out to see you — even if you didn't sell them the deal — you remember that. Big relationships should get the handshake treatment. Using AI for Confidence in an Agency Acquisition Chris didn't buy another agency until he was already pushing $30 million, while most owners pull that trigger way earlier to leapfrog plateaus. Why wait? According to Chris, he didn't have the confidence to do it. Until AI changed that. He used ChatGPT to run diligence questions, draft the LOI, check for financial holes, and sanity-check the entire earnout structure. Sure, he has a great CFO — but that AI second brain made the whole thing faster and way less intimidating. Now that he's got the first deal under his belt, he's hungry for more. That's how scale works: get clarity, take the shot, rinse and repeat. Pro tip: If you're scared to buy, partner, or hire, dump your numbers into AI. Ask it what it would worry about if it were buying you. It'll show you every skeleton in the closet — so you can fix them now. Why Outbound Sales is Your Insurance Policy Chris used to be very resistant to doing outbound but now it is saving him from the Google rollercoaster. Inbound is sexy when it works. But we all know it can be feast or famine. Algorithms change. Referrals dry up. And you're stuck hoping this month's pipeline looks like last month's. After getting tired of hoping, Chris built an outbound team that's now about 30 people deep. He's got BDRs making 50 high-quality calls a day, sending out handwritten notes with books, running multi-channel outreach, and gifting prospects to cut through the noise. Each practice area has its own sales enablement rep feeding lists, building sequences, and arming the closers with context. It's consistent and it means Rankings.io can hunt, not just fish. Big lesson: if you don't control at least three lead sources (inbound, outbound, and strategic partners), your agency's growth is on borrowed time. Don't put all your eggs in Google's basket. Outbound is insurance. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

In this episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex pulls back the curtain on how the top 1% of entrepreneurs use data to dominate their industries. Success isn't built on guesswork—it's built on clear insights, rapid adjustments, and data-backed decisions that fuel serious growth.What You'll Learn:Elite-Level Metrics: Uncover the KPIs the top performers obsess over—like CAC, LTV, and conversion rates—and how they use them to scale fast.Trend Mastery: Learn how high-level entrepreneurs spot patterns early and use them to stay ahead of market shifts.Fast, Smart Execution: Discover why speed matters and how the best in the game make bold moves by trusting the numbers, not just their gut.

Is that $20 fee really worth losing a $7,000 customer?In this episode of the Profit Cleaners Podcast, Brandon Schoen tackles a common mistake that's quietly costing cleaning business owners thousands—charging customers extra for skipped cleans or changes in service frequency.Sparked by a lively debate in the Profit Cleaners Facebook community, Brandon breaks down why prioritizing short-term profits over long-term relationships can sabotage your brand's growth. Backed by real data and examples from his own highly successful cleaning business, he shares a better approach: focus on customer lifetime value, build remarkable experiences, and create loyal, long-term clients.In this episode, you'll learn:Why customer retention matters more than minor service feesHow to calculate and protect lifetime customer value (LTV)The hidden ROI of surprise-and-delight momentsWhen to be flexible, when to set boundaries—and how to do both smartlyHow premium service leads to long-term profitabilityWhether you're just starting out or looking to scale, this episode will shift your mindset and give you practical tools to build a resilient, customer-first business.Want to learn how top cleaning businesses create lasting customer loyalty? Join thousands of others in the Profit Cleaners Facebook Group or visit profitcleaners.com to access tools, coaching, and strategies for building a high-retention, premium brand.Highlights:(02:26) Why charging extra for skipped cleans might be hurting your business more than helping it(04:45) – Understanding the lifetime value (LTV) of a recurring cleaning customer(07:58) – Handling bad reviews with proactive service (and turning them into 5 stars)(09:59) – What kind of story is your brand telling? Cheap vs. premium experiences(11:48) – Scripts and systems to handle skipped cleans without damaging the relationship(15:00) – Are you making deposits or withdrawals in your customer relationships?(15:23) – Final thoughts: How to build brand loyalty that outlasts your competitionLinks/Resources Mentioned:Profit Cleaners Website Watch the FREE Masterclass: https://profitcleaners.com/masterclass)Join the FREE Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitcleaners/

 In this episode of Inside Startup Investing, Chris Lustrino sits down with Dr. Zwade Marshall, founder and CEO of Doc2Doc Lending, to explore how a physician-turned-founder built a fintech company by solving a deeply personal problem — the financial barriers doctors face early in their careers. Zwade shares how Doc2Doc raised $21M almost exclusively from fellow doctors, built a flexible underwriting model to beat SoFi's default rates, and scaled to over $100M in originations while staying lean and mission-driven. For any founder tackling industry-specific pain points or looking to raise capital from within a community, this conversation is a masterclass in focused execution and founder-market fit.Highlights include...Founder-market fit: Why Zwade understood this medical niche better than traditional lenders (4:18)Outperforming SoFi: 2.23% default rates with a 600 FICO borrower base (12:05)Revenue model breakdown: interest spread, servicing, referral, and origination fees (14:08)Structuring capital efficiently: lending with $150M in debt capacity, not equity (15:33)Strategic expansion to other healthcare professionals with high LTV (22:57)

On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with David Hirschfeld, owner of 18 year old business Tekyz, that boasts a hyperexceptional development team building high “ticket” products in the B2B space. They speak about ways in which AI is a gamechanger, how Tekyz backs their work for clients with relentless pursuit of quality, and how Tekyz practices ruthless compassion,to protect the company and enable it to grow Having collaborated with over 90 startups, he developed the Launch 1st Method—a systematic approach that minimizes risks and accelerates software company success with reduced reliance on investor funding, after observing that many companies launch a product first and then fail at a later stage – With Tekyz approach of Launch 1st exceptional founders are in love with the problem not the product.   David's expertise bridges cutting-edge AI technologies, workflow optimization, and startup ecosystem dynamics. When not transforming business strategies, he enjoys woodworking, golfing, and drawing leadership insights from his experience raising four successful sons. You can find out more about David and Tekyz at: https://sites.google.com/tekyz.com/david-hirschfeld?usp=sharing https://tekyz.podbean.com/ - Scaling Smarter Episodes. www.scalingsmarter.net - Schedule an interview https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhirschfeld/ https://x.com/tekyzinc https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhirschfeld/ https://www.facebook.com/dmhirschfeld       transcription:  00:04 Welcome  back to the Founders Sandbox.  I am Brenda McCabe, the host here on this monthly podcast, now in its third season. This podcast reaches entrepreneurs, business owners that are scaling. 00:31 professional service providers that provide services to these  entrepreneurs, and corporate board directors who, like me, are building resilient, purpose-driven, and scalable businesses with great corporate governance. My guests to this podcast are business owners themselves, professional service providers, and corporate directors who, like me, want to  use the power of the private company to build a better 01:01 world through storytelling with each of my guests in the sandbox. My goal is to provide a fun sandbox environment where we can equip one founder at a time to build a better world through great corporate governance. So today I'm absolutely delighted to have as my guest, David Hirschfeld. David is the owner and CEO of Techies, 17 or 18 year old business now that boasts 01:29 a hyper exceptional development team that are building high ticket products in the B2B space.  Welcome David to the Founder Sandbox. Hi Brenda and thanks for having me. Great. So I'm delighted that we  actually did a dry run in February.  We've known each other for some time  and AI, we're going to be touching on AI.  And I think that the world of AI 01:58 particularly in software development,  has changed significantly since we last spoke in February. So we're going to be getting into  some, I think, novel concepts for  the listeners of the Founder Sandbox. So I wanted to, you I always talk about how I like to work with  growth stage companies  that  typically are bootstrapped  and 02:26 It's only at a later stage do they seek institutional investment  by building great corporate governance  and reducing the reliance on investor funding  until such a time that they choose the right type of investors that can help them scale. So when I found out what you do at Techies with Launch First  and the type of work you do in B2B businesses, I absolutely wanted to have you here  on the  founder sandbox. 02:56 So let's jump right in, right? I think I'm eager to learn more about how to scale your bespoke development at Techies, right? To scale my own business? Okay. So there's a lot of different aspects to scaling my business and I bootstrapped for the last 18 years. 03:25 I've never taken any investment  with techies.  And I've  done that very specifically because  it gives me a lot of freedom. I don't have  a reporting structure that I have to worry about. That doesn't mean that I can be lazy with my team.  To grow my team, I have a philosophy 03:52 that I only hire people that are smarter than I am.  And the  ones that are in a position to hire, they can only hire people that are smarter than them. And by  really sticking to this philosophy, even though sometimes it makes us grow a little slower than we would like, it means that when we bring in people, those people  contribute immediately and contribute in a way 04:21 that it's our job to get the impediments out of their way and to facilitate them  so that they can contribute and  help us grow the company. So I call it  the ball rolls uphill  here because  my job is to support everybody that is above me, which is everybody. And then the people that I support directly, their job is to support the people that are above them. 04:51 Because if we're hiring correctly, then  people that we bring in can contribute in the area that we're bringing them in way more than the person that's hiring them. Okay. Thank you for that. So before you launched Techies, you had a career in companies like,  I  believe, Computer Associates, right? Texas Experiments and TelaMotorola. 05:19 There was a period of time between your  experience in these large corporations before your launch tech is where you actually had your own startup  and  you sold it in 2000, right? And I believe you also learned perhaps with the second startup about how hard it is to find product market fit. Can you talk to that for my listeners, please? 05:46 I don't know that it's that hard to find product market fit. It depends if that's your focus or not. If your focus is to nail down product market fit, then  it's not that hard to determine whether you can achieve that or not fairly quickly.  You can do that by  selling your product to potential customers.  That sounds strange. Of course, we all want to sell our products, but 06:14 What I'm suggesting is you start selling your product before you have a product, before you have a  full product. And I don't mean an MVP, but a design prototype. You go out to the market and you start to sell it. If you have product market fit and you've identified the early adopter in your market and you know that they have a very high  need from a perception perspective  and there's a big cost to the problem that you're solving. 06:45 then you can offer them a big enough value upfront that they'll buy your product early and you can prove that there's a market for your product and they'll buy it in enough numbers that you  can achieve a measurable  metric, which I kind of call the golden ratio, which is three to one in terms of what is the lifetime value of a customer versus what does it cost to acquire that customer? And you can get to that three to one ratio. 07:13 in a prelaunch sale model before you ever started developing your product as a way of proving product market fit. Or you pivot quickly and cheaply because you're not having to rebuild a product that you've built in the wrong way. Or you  fail fast and cheap. And every entrepreneur's first goal should be to fail fast and cheap. know that sounds backwards, but that should be your goal is that you can fail fast and cheap or if you 07:42 If you fail to fail fast and cheap, that means you've found a path to revenue  and  product market fit. And now you know you have a viable business. making the investment to build the product  is a no brainer.  And you came upon this methodology, right? Yes.  because you did yourself when you had your first company, you did not understand the funding part, right?  Can you talk? 08:12 a bit about your specific example and then how that's informed now 17 years of techies and over 90 projects with startups. Okay. So my first company was Bootstrap. Okay.  And that one was successful and we grew it despite  me, it was me and a partner. And  despite ourselves, we grew it  over eight years. 08:39 where he ended up with 800 customers in 22 countries and sold it to a publicly traded firm out of Toronto. That was in the product food, snack food distribution business because that was what our product was focused on. So I started another company about five years later, not realizing the things that I did the first time. 09:08 that made it  so successful,  which really fit the launch first model to a large degree.  But the second time I built a product that would have been successful had I followed my first model,  but I didn't. So I went the route of building an MVP and getting customers on a free version of it, and then going out and trying to raise money, which is the very classic approach that the SaaS products 09:38 take now.  And the problem is with that approach is that you end up digging a really deep hole  in terms of the investment that you make to build the product with enough functionality that you can convince people it's worth putting an investment in and you're not generating any revenue at the time. And I should have just started selling the product and generating subscription revenue right from the beginning. First of all, I would have been able to  raise money much more easily. 10:08 Secondly, I would have not needed to raise money as much if I'd focused on sales. The problem with a lot of founders is they fall in love with their product. They believe that people will buy it at enough numbers and that investors will see the potential. they're afraid of sales. I've fallen into this trap before too. I've done it both ways. And I can tell you selling early 10:38 and staying focused on the customer and the problem are the way to be successful. So founders who I find are consistently successful, they are focused on the problem, they love the problem. The product is just the natural conclusion to solving the problem, not something to be in love with. They spend their time talking to customers about the problems.  So how does a potential customer find you and work with you? 11:08 Oh, they can find me at Techies or they can find me at LaunchFirst, was spelled launch1st.com. And they can find me on LinkedIn. And then to work with me, it's just give me a call, send me an email, we'll set up a Zoom. I'll start to learn about what you're trying to accomplish and what your requirements are. And I'll typically spend quite a bit of time with any potential clients. 11:39 in  one to usually multiple calls or Zooms, learning and  creating estimates and doing a lot of work in advance with the idea that there'll be a natural conclusion at the end of this that they'll wanna start working with me in a paid fashion. So there's a lot of value that my clients get from me whether they end up contracting me or not.  And how, again, back to,  thank you for that and that. 12:08 how to contact you will be in the show notes. But what types of sectors do you work in?  You know, in your introduction, I talk about high ticket B2B, right?  who are the,  so  what founder that's has some idea today?  What would be  their call to action to find techies? And what would you, is it launch first before you go down? 12:35 No, it's not necessarily. It may be an existing company that  is trying to implement AI or implement workflow automation, or they have a project and they don't have the IT team or capacity to handle it.  We love those types of projects. It might be an existing startup that is struggling with their software development team and they're not 13:04 getting  to the end goal that they're expecting and the product's buggy, it's taking too long,  there's constant delays, they're way over budget  and they  need to get this thing done. And  I call those recovery projects,  they're probably my favorite because people  recognize very quickly  the difference  that we bring. 13:33 and they really, really appreciate us.  As far as what sectors,  business sectors,  healthcare, law enforcement,  prop tech, real estate, finance,  entertainment, I mean, we work in  many, many different sectors over the last 18 years.  So  regardless in  B2B, B2B2C,  not so much e-commerce unless there's some 14:03 complex workflow associated with your particular e-commerce, but there's lots of really good solutions for e-commerce that  don't require developers to be involved.  But  mobile, web, IoT,  definitely everything is AI now. Absolutely. And in fact, when we last spoke,  I'd like to say that you started to drink your own Kool-Aid at Techies. 14:33 you're starting to actually use AI automation for internal functions as well as projects at Techies. So can you walk my listeners through how you're using  AI automation  and what's the latest with agentic AI?  So let's do the first.  Yeah,  okay.  So there are a bunch of questions there. So  let me start with 15:02 that we're building products internally  at Techies to help us with our own workflows.  These products though  are  applicable to almost any development company or any company with a development team.  Some of them are, and some of them are applicable to companies that are, well, so one product  is  putting voice capability in front of project management tool. 15:32 and we use JIRA and JIRA is an incredibly technical tool for project managers and development teams to use to  their projects, requirements, their  track bugs, all of that.  And so your relationship with what I call relationship with project management is very technical one. If you're a client, some clients are willing to  go through the learning curve so that they can enter their own... 15:59 bugs and feature requests and things like that directly into JIRA. Most don't.  They  want to send us emails, which is fine,  and just give us a list of what's going on and the problems that they're finding or the things that they need  for a future version and the planning and the documentation, everything else. This is a real technical thing. We're going to make it a very natural personal relationship by  adding voice in front of all this so that you can 16:29 be sharing your screen with your little voice app and say, just found a problem on the screen.  And  the voice app can see the screen. It knows your project. It knows your requirements. And it can identify problems on the screen that you may not have even noticed.  And it can also prevent you from reporting bugs that have already been reported and tell you when they're planned to be built.  And all of this just with a verbal discussion with the app. 16:58 that basically knows your project.  Kind of like talking to a project manager in real time, but they don't have to write down notes and  they can instantly  look up anything about your project in terms of what's been reported in terms of bugs or feature requests  and update them or create new ones for you or just report them to you and tell you when things are planned to be built and released or. 17:24 where they've already been released and maybe you need to clear your cache so you can see the change, whatever.  Yeah. So it be like an  avatar, but it's trained and it's  specific to Jira  in your case?  In the first version, it's actually being built architected so that we'll be able to add other project management tools to it besides Jira in the future.  to begin with, because we use Jira,  it's going to work directly with Jira to start. 17:54 And this, by the way, you asked about agentic workflows,  right? So we're  building an agentic workflow  in this tool where we have more  different agents  that work together to resolve these issues.  so we have an agent that reads and writes documentation to JIRA.  We have an agent that communicates with  the user and the user might be the programmer 18:23 might be a person in QA, it might be a client for a lot of different things. And we have an analyst agent that when the person talks, the voice agent says to the analyst agent, here's what I understand. Here's the information I just got. Go do your work and come back and get me the answer. And it'll speak to the JIRA agent to get the information. It will also speak directly to us. 18:52 a vector database, which is a database where all the documentation from that project  is ingested into our own  separate AI model so that the context of all the communication is about their project and doesn't go off into other directions.  And then can  get back. So this is an agentic workflow.  The idea of 19:20 agents is like everybody keeps talking about agents. Not everybody is really clear on what that even means. Can you define  that?  an agent is an AI  model  that you can interact with that is focused on  one specific area of expertise.  So if it's a travel agent, the word agent fits very well there, then their expertise would be on everything related to 19:49 travel and booking travel and looking up  options and comparing prices. And  that would be an AI  travel agent.  So that's very different from an AI project management agent, very different from an AI financial analyst agent.  So each agent specializes in its own area of expertise and may draw from specific 20:18 repositories of information that are  specific to that particular agent's area of expertise.  And they actually look from the perspective of that type of person, if it was a person. So,  and so they'll respond in a way that is consistent with how somebody who is a project manager would respond to you when you're talking to them, asking you questions about your requirements, knows what 20:46 information it needs to be able to assess it properly, things like that.  wouldn't be very good about travel because that's  not its area of expertise. Right.  So is it  common to have companies that are creating with their own large language model, right? Or their workflow processes internally to the company to create their own agent AI? 21:14 Or is there a marketplace now where you can say, want this type of agent to get in. This is a very basic question, but  do build it? Right. Or do you buy it? Or is it something in between? It's something in between.  So there are tools that allow you to  basically collect agents out there.  And there's a difference between an agent and a context.  Cause you hear a lot about model context switching and things like, don't know. 21:44 if your audience knows these things.  Or model context protocol. A context is not an agent, but it has some agent capabilities because it's kind of specializing your model in a certain area. But you would use this, but you're not, if it's a true agent, then  it's probably tied to its own vector database. 22:12 that gets trained with specific information. It might be company's information. It might be information, let's say if I'm a security agent, then I'm going to be trained on the entire NIST system as well as all of my security architecture that's currently in place. And that so that it could monitor and 22:41 assess instantly whether there's  security vulnerabilities, which you wouldn't ask Chet GPT to do that. No. Right? Because it couldn't. Because it doesn't know  anything about your organization or environment. And  it  really also doesn't know how to prioritize  what matters and what doesn't at any given moment. Whereas a  security agent, that would be what it does. 23:10 I don't know if I answered that question. Oh, bad thing about building or buying.  there are- Or something in between,  Yeah. So there are tools that you can use to build workflows  and  bring in different agents that already exist. And  you can use something like OpenAI or Claude  and  use it to create an agent and give it some intelligence and- 23:37 give it a specific, in this case, you're giving it a specific context.  You could even  tie a special machine learning database to it  and make it even more agentic in that way.  And then  build these workflows where you're  like, let's say a marketing workflow,  where you're saying you first go out and research all the people who are your  ideal customer profile. 24:07 I was going to say ICP, but I'm trying not to use acronyms because not everybody knows every acronym.  Ideal customer profile.  And then it finds all these people that fit your ideal customer profile. Then it says, well, which of these people  are  in the countries that I do business? And then it illuminates the ones that aren't. then which ones, and it may be using  the same agent or different agents to do this.  Then once it's nailed it down to the very discrete 24:37 set of customers. Now  the next step in the workflow is, okay, now  enrich their data  of these people to find their email and other ways of contacting them as well as other information about them so that I have a really full picture of what kind of activity are they active  socially? they speak? Do they post? What are they speaking about? What are they posting about? What events are they going to? Things like that. 25:07 So that would be the next step and that'd be an agent that's doing all the enriching.  And then after that, the next step would be to call basically call a writing agent to go do, am I writing an email? Am I writing a LinkedIn connection post? Am I doing both?  Set up a drip campaign and start reaching out to these people one at a time  with very customized specific language, right? That  is in your voice. 25:34 It doesn't sound like it's written by a typical AI outreach thing. All right, so these would be  steps in a workflow that you could use with several different tools to build the workflows and then calling these different agents. 25:48 Let's go back to the launched first. What would be a typical engagement with a company? you know, they, um, the founders that have the greatest success in your experiences are the ones that love the problem space and not the product. All right. So walk my listeners through. 26:17 What a typical engagement. it's staff augmentation. it  full out  outsourcing? it tech?  because it's very complex. I can touch so many. can touch high  tech and high ticket B2B products,  sector agnostic. what,  put some legs on this for my listeners, please. Sure, sure. We're not. 26:46 so much a staff augmentation company, although we'll do that if asked to, but that's not  the kind of business that we  look for.  We look for project type work. So a typical engagement for launch first would be  somebody wants to launch a product, they're in the concept phase. We help refine the concept and we build out,  help that we do the design and then we build a high fidelity prototype, which is a design prototype. 27:16 When I demo a design prototype to somebody, they think that they're looking at a finished product,  but  it's not. It doesn't actually do anything. It just looks like it  does everything.  So it's very animated set of mock-ups is another way to look at it.  And it's important because you can build out the big vision of the product this way in a couple of months, whereas 27:46 it takes instead of, you so you're looking at the two year roadmap when we're done of the product. If we were to build an MVP, then you're going to see a very limited view of the product and it's going to cost a lot more to build that MVP than it takes to build this design prototype. Now we're in the process of doing this. We're also nailing down who that early adopter is. And there's a, there's a very, 28:14 metrics driven methodology for doing this.  your launch first. Within launch first, right. Okay. All right. And then  we'll help the client build a marketing funnel and help them start to generate sales.  We're not doing the selling, they're doing the selling. And it's important that founders do the selling because they need to hear what customers are saying about the thing they're demoing, why they want it, why they don't. 28:43 So that  if we need to pivot, which we can do easily and quickly with a design prototype,  then we can  pivot and then go and test the model again, two or three or four times in the space of a couple of months.  And we'll either find a path to revenue or accept the fact that this probably isn't the right product for the right time.  But in the process of doing this, you're learning a lot about the market and about the potential customer. 29:13 I want to be clear about something. Almost every founder that comes to  that I meet with, they love the product, not the problem. They started out with a problem that they realized they had a good solution for and they forgot all about the problem at that point. And so I spend a lot of time with founders  reminding them why the  problem is all that matters  and what that means and how to approach customers, potential customers so that 29:41 you're syncing with their problems, not telling them about this product that you're building because nobody cares about your product. All they care about is what they're struggling with.  And if they believe that you really understand that, then they  care about whether you can solve that problem for them or 30:01 And can  I be  audacious and ask you what a typical engagement duration is like? So this would be for launch first. Yes. If it's a,  and our hope is that they'll  find a path to revenue and start building the product and engage us for the development. Cause that's really our business is building the products.  So, but it's not a requirement.  And,  and our typical engagement with our clients are several years. 30:32 Not all of them, but most of them, would say. Once they start working with us, they just continue to work with us until they decide to bring in their own in-house team  or they fail eventually, which many of our clients do, which is why I  created Launch First. Right. You often talk about your hyper exceptional team at Techies. What is it that's so highly exceptional? Talk to me about your team. Where are they? Yeah. 31:02 And if you go to my website, which is tekyz.com,  you'll see at the very top of it  in the header above the fold, it says hyper exceptional development team. And I don't expect people to believe me  because I write that down or I tell them that I expect them to ask me, well, what does that mean? Do you have evidence? And  that's the question I want to get because I do.  Because when you work in an exceptional manner, 31:31 as a natural consequence of working that way, you produce certain artifacts  that the typical development teams don't produce. And I'm not saying there aren't other exceptional teams, but they're really few and far between. And what makes a team exceptional is a constant need to  improve their ability to deliver  and the level of quality that they deliver as well and the speed at which they develop. It's all of these things. 31:59 So,  and, you know, after 18 years, we've done a lot of improving and a lot of automation internally,  because  that allows our team to work in a really disciplined protocol manner without having to feel like they're under the strict  discipline and protocol of,  you  know, a difficult environment to work in.  And so we  create automation everywhere we can. The voice... 32:27 tool is one of those automations.  The way we  do status reports, it's very clear at the level of detail that we provide every week  to every client in terms of status reports  where we're showing here's what we estimated, here's the actual, here's our percent variance  on how much time we spent and how much it's costing.  We want to always be within 10 % above or below. 32:56 Either  being above or below is not,  know,  the fact that we're ahead of that doesn't necessarily mean that's a good thing, right? So we want to be accurate with our estimates.  And we are typically within 10%. In fact, our largest customer last year, we did a retrospective and we were within six and a half percent of what our estimates were for the whole year.  and that's a,  we're pretty happy with that number. 33:24 I think most teams are looking at many, many times that in terms of variance.  it's not that uncommon for teams to be double or triple what they're or even higher what the actual estimate was. So  when we do invoicing, we invoice for each person at their rate. 33:50 based on their level of expertise, which is all part of our agreement upfront. So the client is very transparent every month for the hours that they work. And we attach the daily time sheets to every invoice. I'm the only company I know of right now that does that. I know there are others. I've seen monthly, but I've never seen daily. Yeah. Yeah. Because for me, if I could ask, well, 34:18 why did this person ask a work that many hours that last month? What did they do? I hate that feeling that I get when somebody asks that question. I know they're only asking because they have to justify it to somebody else or whatever the reason, but I don't like the way it feels because it feels like my integrity is being questioned. I don't get upset at people for asking me that. I just feel like I'm not giving them enough information if they have to ask me that question. So we started about eight years ago. 34:47 providing the daily time sheets because I don't like that question. And we never get questioned on our  invoices ever anymore. I bet you it's informed you  as well in  future  projects,  maybe on  including workflow automation in your own internal processes, right? When you see people's time sheets, right? And you've gone over budget. So it informs you internally. So it's not only for the client. 35:16 I suspect, right? No, it's not. Right. And we use it ourselves to also, because it also helps us looking at our overhead costs because not everything gets built to the client. And so we track all our own times, you know, what we're spending doing what. And we don't get to, it's not like a developer has to spend a lot of time or a QA person or whatever, putting in a lot of detail. We just need a couple of bullets, you know, every day in the time sheet with the, whatever they spend. 35:45 If they spent four hours on one thing and three on another, they'll just break it into two entries just to make it easy.  And that's important for us, or they may be working on two different projects and each project. So when we do the timesheets also every month, we give our clients a breakdown by project. So if we're working on four different projects  for a client  or even one project, but it has four different really 36:15 functional elements that are very clearly different. Like let's say a mobile app and a web app  and a  particular client implementation. Each one of those gets assigned its own project and we break down summaries of the time spent on each of those every month and who spent the time on those, along with the daily time sheets, along with the invoice.  And nobody else does that because it takes a lot of discipline and protocol and you have to have lot of systems in place 36:45 to do that without  literally getting everybody to quit, right? That works for you. And nobody minds doing it because it's easy because of all the systems we put in place to do that.  That's the whole point, right? Right. were  not particularly happy of getting asked that question oftentimes. So eight years ago, you set out to  provide the information on a daily basis, which is incredible.  We started that with blended rates like a lot of companies do. 37:14 And then I didn't like that because at the end of a project when most of it's QA, people would start to get frustrated that they're still getting billed the same blended rate, even though for the more expensive period at the beginning of the project,  I thought, okay, forget this. Well, just bill based on individual.  And then I didn't get those questions anymore, but then I would get questions about individuals on the month. And that's when I started doing the time sheets. 37:43 And like I said, I'm sure there's other companies that do it, but I haven't run into  one or somebody that works with one. So  that's an exceptional thing that we do. But it also allows us to do  really, really good reporting to the client on status on what we've spent our time on, what we're expecting to spend our time on  next week, what we just spent our time on this week, where we are. 38:12 in terms of our plan for the month, things like that.  So let's switch gears, David.  Yeah. Back to  actually the podcast and  some of my guests and listeners  are corporate board directors. So they're sitting on either advisory boards or fiduciary corporate boards.  And with all the hype around AI. 38:39 it's not uncommon for them to be asking, what are we doing, right? For existing companies, right? And  I'd like you to walk my listeners through while it's in the, you know,  in the imaginary realm, what is it? I think any founder today that's actually scaling, right? Has to have some AI element. At least I've even heard you need to have it. 39:08 an AI officer in the company. So what's your take on that? What would you respond to either to your board of advisors, your advisory board, or your board of directors?  So,  and of course, a lot of it depends on the type of company you are. Absolutely. Right. If  you're making  alternative material I-beams, for example,  for skyscraper construction, then 39:37 AI, other than maybe in the design process of these specialized materials,  AI may not be as big a critical factor, although for invoice reconciliation and  distribution and  scheduling and all that, AI could be a huge value to you if you don't have super efficient systems already.  For most everybody else though, if you have not embraced the need to 40:06 leverage AI and everything you're doing,  then you're way behind already.  That doesn't mean you have to be in a race to do this. just, because  I'm  of the belief that  you have to slow down to speed up. But you do need to make it a priority.  And in a lot of different ways. Number one is, 40:36 The most obvious is workflow automation. You should be probably tackling  workflow automation as just a part of your constant improvement program  to become more efficient, whether it's with AI or not.  But AI is particularly good at workflow automation  because it can tackle steps in that workflow that couldn't be tackled without AI.  So the  first thing 41:06 the companies should be doing if they're not doing it is documenting all of their processes,  all of their tribal knowledge into playbooks. So when you have somebody who's an expert in something in your company and they're the person who's the only one that knows how to do it and so we can't live without them, that's a bottleneck for scaling. Because if you bring somebody else in to expand their capacity, they're going to... 41:32 put a big dependency on that person with all the expertise, which is going to cause problems.  So  anybody in a position like that should be documenting all of their  procedures and protocols and especially all the nuances and all the edge cases into playbooks.  And there should be some centralized playbook repository for the company. And this becomes part of your intellectual property and part of your value if you ever 42:02 you're trying to raise money or you're trying to sell your company. So it increases your value. So you do that, then AI,  you start to look at automating those workflows because now they're documented. So now what can be automated in them from just a workflow automation perspective. And then how much can you implement AI in there? Because now AI can learn to make the same kinds of decisions that this person is making. 42:31 And this is like the low hanging fruit that I'm talking about right now. Right. Exactly. Right. Because the bigger stuff is if we implement AI in here, what workflows would we totally  throw away and start from scratch?  Because we can think of way more sophisticated ways of addressing this now that we have intelligence involved in all these steps.  But that's later. 42:57 worry about that once you get your arms around implementing AI,  automated workflows and then- So workflow automation. So playbooks, workflows and AI in your automated workflows. That's sort of the stepped wise process. Excellent. You heard it here  on the founder sandbox. Thank you, David.  And if you're not sure how to do all that, 43:25 ask AI, okay, here's my company. What should I be focusing on if I wanna implement playbooks, workflow automation and AI? And AI will help you figure this all out. Right. That's a jewel here. So what'd you do? Chat GBT, co-pilot, what's your complexity? Where would you go to? All right. Well, it just depends on the flavor of the day. Right now. 43:53 I was using chat GPT primarily for this stuff just because it was a first and I'm very comfortable with the apps. have them everywhere. And Claude's recently come out with a  new version and it's in some ways I'm just finding the output way more organized and smarter. And so I've been using Claude more in the last couple of weeks, but that'll change in another week or two.  Any one of them will do a pretty decent job. 44:21 I'm  not using perplexity because it's built on top of the other ones.  But perplexity is a great tool if you're newer with this because it makes some of the... It's a little bit more accessible for somebody who doesn't know how to use AI.  Gemini is also  really good, but that's  more of a technical... And there's so many things you can do. 44:49 with AI that you wouldn't even think about. And I'll give you an example, more as a brain opening exercise for everybody than anything else. Because this is something I did about seven weeks ago.  I,  chat GPT had just come out a week or two before with their vision capability in the mobile app. And for  those of you who don't know it,  with chat GPT, there's a talk 45:19 button. It's not  the microphone. It's the one that looks like a sound wave  in the mobile app. You tap that, and now you have a voice conversation with chat, which I use this constantly. Even when I'm working with,  I've got some contractors at my house whose English isn't very good, so I ask it to do real-time translation for me. And it does matter the language.  And I start talking, and it translates to their language. And they respond 45:49 in their language and it translates to English and it's doing it perfectly. And so I can have a very natural conversation with anybody just holding my phone up in front of them now.  Right?  But it has this vision capability  where when you go into that voice mode, you tap the camera next to it, and now it's looking out the front of your screen while you're talking to it. And so I'll give you a couple of examples where I've used it  six weeks ago and again, like 46:18 weeks later and I now used it many times like this.  I was in  Lowe's, which is a  store for home improvement.  And  for some project I was on, my wife calls me and says, I need fertilizer for a hibiscus. And I say, well, what do I get? She says, anything that says hibiscus on it, it'll be fine. I said, okay, fine. And if anybody that knows these big box stores, there's like hundreds of bags of fertilizer of different brands. 46:48 And I couldn't find one that said hibiscus. This is a typical thing with my wife. Oh, just look for this. And of course, there isn't that. So I asked Chess GPT, okay, I'm in  Lowe's  and I'm looking for a fertilizer for hibiscus.  What would you suggest? And it said, oh, there's a number of brands that are high acid.  And I said, we'll recommend a brand. Tonal is a really good brand. And I said, okay. So I'm looking and I can't find it. 47:18 So I walked 30 feet back and I'm talking, right? I'm having this, know, people are looking at me like, what the hell is he doing? And I walked 30 feet back because there's many, many shelves, you know, columns of shelves with fertilizer. I walked back and I turned on the vision and I say, okay, there's all the fertilizers. And I'm moving my phone across all these shelves. say, do you see tonal here? And it says, yes, look for the one in the red and white bag. 47:48 And  I see it on the shelf. So I walk straight forward. see a red and white bag. That's not tonal. said, this isn't it. And she, cause it's a woman's voice that I have, she says,  it's two shelves to the left, second from the top.  I walk over there and it's right where she said it was. Crazy. And you're not a beta user. So this is available today. This is available. It's been available for a couple of months. And then 48:18 My daughter-in-law asked me to get something from the pharmacy, from CVS, another  big box pharmacy store, right? And this is something I don't even know if I'm in the right aisle because it's something I've never bought. So I ask it, I say, I'm looking for this brand  and I'm not sure if I'm in the right aisle or not, but I'm going to walk down the aisle and tell me if you see it. As I'm walking down the aisle, holding it straight forward so it can see both sides.  And it says, well, 48:45 Yes, I'm familiar with the brand. You should look for it in a green and white box. then she goes like this. Oh, I see it. It's down there on the right on the bottom shelf. And I turn and I look and it's right by my right foot. 48:58 You heard it here. This is crazy. think it's a bit creepy.  How many times have you been looking for something on a shelf? You know, and you're like, oh, how long, how many hours is this going to take me to spot it?  Good internet connection and all that. So, oh my goodness. It's creepy and it's wonderful. So  same time.  the same time. Yeah. Yeah. For quality of life and even for,  um, yeah.  So 49:25 That's a mind opening thing is all the reason I bring that up. Excellent. Hey, let's go. Let's continue on in the founder sandbox. I'd like to ask each of my guests to  share with me.  I'm all about working with resilient, purpose driven and scalable companies in the growth phase. So what does resilience mean to you? You can either answer, you know, what's the first thing that comes out of your, you cannot use chat, GBT. I'm not fancy. No hands. 49:55 No hands, and I don't have the voice version going because you'd hear it. Podcast we could do it.  And we are real. We're not. Yeah, we are real. We're not. So I think that's, I don't think that's a difficult question to answer. Resilience means opportunity. So no matter what happens, even if it seems terrible, what  opportunity does that create? Excellent. If you ask that. 50:22 keep reframing everything from that perspective,  it creates resilience. Right. Thank you. What about purpose-driven?  Purpose-driven  means having  a clear  long-term path and goal  and  asking yourself if the things you're doing keep you on purpose to that. 50:56 Scalable. What's scalable mean for you? Scalable for me means  eliminating tribal knowledge or not eliminating it, but documenting tribal knowledge.  First of all, figuring out how you generate revenue and then how you expand your ability to generate revenue, which means growing your 51:25 growing your team, growing your capacity  and identifying the bottlenecks and focusing all your energy on the bottlenecks. And usually the bottlenecks have to do  with tribal knowledge or with  lack of workflow automation. Wow, you know, it's easier said than done though, that tribal knowledge, it is resistant, right? Oh yeah,  because it's  career,  what's the word I'm trying to think of? 51:55 It  keeps you in your job forever if you're the only one that knows how to do the thing. Absolutely. That's for another podcast, David. My  final question today is,  did you have fun in the Founder Sandbox? Oh, yes.  I had a lot of fun. Thanks. That's a great question too. Thank you, Brenda. Did you have fun? 52:20 Did you? I had had fun. And particularly in this last part, right? Cause we're talking about some heavy duty, you know, uses of, um, agentic AI, right. And scalable, you know, LTV, CAC and all that. And then we get to hear these real life, you know, kind of creepy, um, uh, uses of, um, on our phones today with, um, with AI, which is, which is quite amazing. But I also know that in your world of techies, 52:50 your team, which is distributed, have a lot of fun events too. So you probably- have one more thing on the whole scalable thing. You have to be compassionately ruthless or ruthlessly compassionate, however you want to say it. Okay. So that the people, every, and the ruthless is anything that's going to get in the way of you growing your company, which benefits everybody in the company. 53:19 it needs to be addressed in a ruthless way. But if you build a culture of ruthlessly compassionate, then all the people that work for you feel that same level of ruthlessness to protect the company and make it grow. And you practice what you preach, I suspect, at Techies. Yes. Yes. It took me a while, but if we accidentally hire the wrong person, either because 53:45 we made a mistake in the process or they faked us out and we recognize they're not smart enough. Literally, that's usually the problem. They're not smart enough to carry their weight. We fire them immediately. We don't try to bring them along because you can't improve somebody's IQ. You can improve any other aspect, but their IQ is their IQ.  And  that will be a bottleneck forever. 54:13 in our team and it'll require other people to carry that person. And it sends the wrong message to the team that I don't value them enough to make sure that we only surround them with people that are going to inspire them and help them grow. Excellent. And I suspect they are not fungible by AI, your employees, not techies. I mean, we've gotten better and better. 54:40 at not making those mistakes over the years. So that doesn't typically happen. takes us, we're much more careful about how we hire.  AI gives us the ability to recruit faster, more broadly,  along with workflow automation. But  what I mean by real, this is the compassionate. Once my team understood this, now they embody that and  they will get rid of somebody if they made a mistake. I don't have to force the issue ever anymore because 55:10 they recognize how much, important it is to protect their teams. So to my listeners, if you liked this episode today with the CEO and founder of Techies, sign up for the monthly release of founders, business owners, corporate directors, and professional service providers who provide their examples of how they're building companies or consulting with companies  to make them more resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven. 55:40 to make profits for good.  Signing off for today. See you next month in the Founder Sandbox. Thank you.  

As a property manager, have you ever worked with foreign investors? If not, what is stopping you? Is it because you don't know another language or because you don't know where to find foreign investors? What if there were a service that handled that piece for you? In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull sits down with the founder of HomeAbroad and Ziffy to talk about how property managers can connect with investors living outside of the United States.  You'll Learn [01:49] Building a Platform that Helps Foreign Investors Find Properties  [08:21] Helping Investors in the U.S. Find Investment Properties  [14:46] How HomeAbroad and Ziffy Can Benefit Property Managers  [25:23] Using Real Estate Investing and Property Management to Move to the U.S.  Quotables “No one wants to be a landlord… They're looking for a good way to maximize return on their investment or return on their cash.” “If you are a smart investor, if you are running this as a business, right, you got to have property management.” “You can't build a portfolio of a hundred properties by managing each property yourself.” “You grow together. It's a small industry, you know, we got to help each other and we grow as a business together.” Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript [00:00:00] Client finds the property through a platform. We do the mortgage financing, so we will introduce the property manager at the right time and say, "Hey, by the way, you can find the right property manager to help you manage this property, so, we'll kind of introduce you in the right point in that journey to make sure that you have a high conversion as well.  [00:00:20] All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we have spoken to thousands of property management business owners, coached, consulted, and cleaned up hundreds of businesses, helping them add doors, improve pricing, increase profit, simplify operations, and build and replace teams. We are like Bar Rescue for property managers. We have rebranded over 300 businesses and we run the leading property management mastermind with more video testimonials and reviews than any other coach or consultant in the industry. [00:01:06] And if you are wanting help with any of that stuff, then reach out to us at DoorGrow. So we believe at DoorGrow that good property managers can change the world, and that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. [00:01:28] We want to transform the industry, eliminate the bs, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win.  [00:01:38] Now let's get into the show. All right, so my guest today, I am hanging out with Amresh Singh, welcome to the DoorGrow Show.  [00:01:46] Thanks, Jason. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.  [00:01:49] It's good to have you. So I would love to get into your background so people understand, like who are they listening to or viewing on this, and tell us a little bit about your journey into entrepreneurism and how you kind of got started and that will lead us into your business. [00:02:04] Awesome. So my background has been at the intersection of mortgages and technology. I used to work for a leading international bank before I started HomeAbroad. And originally I'm from India, so I moved to the US 10 years back, working for this big bank who moved me from India to the US to work closer to the headquarters over here. [00:02:25] I managed their international customer acquisition. And you know, in that journey, you know, I realized that two things that we have. Or I should say two really fascinating things about the US real estate market, which is, you know, 30 year fixed state mortgages, which we, in the US you know, we tend to ignore and we take it for granted. [00:02:45] It does not exist in most places around the world. It's a superpower, 30 year fixed state mortgages. Right? Yeah. Plus combine that with, you know, higher rental leads in the US market. You know, you're really looking at a true wealth building too. Right? So that realization coming from, you know, an international market into the US market, seeing the superpower of the, you know, how real estate in the US can really help you build generational wealth. You know, gave me the idea to start HomeAbroad, you know, which was a company that was focused on global investors investing in USD asset market, right? You know, and taking the advantages of, you know, some of these superpowers, I will speak later in your podcast. [00:03:24] Right? But that's how the journey started. And then, you know, as part of that journey, we realized, you know, some similar gaps exist in the domestic market as well that led to formation of Ziffy, which I'll talk about as well as we progress in the podcast. So that's kind of in nutshell, my know, my entrepreneur journey, my background, so.  [00:03:40] Very cool. I've noticed, you know, every now and then I get clients that they've got some special connection to an international market. You know, I've got a client from Israel and he's able to pull in Israeli investors and they're wanting to get into the US market, and he helps them handle all of that. [00:03:56] I had a client that same thing with China you know, and other different foreign countries, you know, and so that's a competitive advantage that each of these property management business owners have, but it's not one that every property manager can just create because they don't know a different language. [00:04:14] They don't have a network or connections overseas, and so that could be a challenge. But I see how that could be a competitive advantage for building up your own portfolio if you could access international investors. And I didn't really realize that, but I just grew up in this bubble of the US but 30 year fixed rate mortgages sounds so normal. You know? Yes. So, okay. So cool. So, so tell us a little bit about what you've got going on.  [00:04:40] Yeah, so, you know, as I mentioned, you know, we operate two brands. HomeAbroad is where we started, right? And that's a shop, that's a PropTech and FinTech shop that's focused on helping global investors invest in the US real estate market. [00:04:52] Right? If you think about, you know, real estate, right? It's kind of, you know, wealth building tool or is a mode of, you know, building generational wealth around the world. People invest in real estate for stability, right? For, you know, that that ease of mind, okay my investment is going to grow, right? [00:05:08] But you know, in most places around the world when you're investing in real estate, you're not doing that with leverage. You know, you are buying that in cash and you are, you know, mode for return on that investment is really banking on the capital appreciation on that property, right? What changes in the US market is because of 30 year fixed rate mortgages, there's no payment shock. [00:05:28] The rate is fixed for the term of the loan. That's 30 years. Since it's amortized for a 30 year period, your monthly payments are lower, right? Rental liens are higher. So what ends up happening in the US market is rent covers mortgage in majority of the scenario. [00:05:44] Yeah. It cash flows day one. Absolutely right. And that is something. So think about it, right? So you are generating cash flow from day one with leverage. I'll repeat that with leverage, right? So 20-25% of your money is able to help you buy a hundred percent of the property with cash flow or passive income from day one. [00:06:05] It just does not happen in most places around the world. Now imagine this: you explain this to someone who has no idea about the US state market, right? And then you tell them, Hey, not only you know the value prop, but as a company HomeAbroad, we are going to give you mortgage financing with no US state history. [00:06:25] Right. And we are going to underwrite you not based on your personal income or assets from your home country. We are going to look at the property's income, right? And we're going to underwrite based on that, right? Suddenly someone who has no affiliation with the US, you know, market or financial market is able to invest or buy US real estate for the obvious benefits I mentioned, right? [00:06:49] Cash flow with leverage, but also you're putting your money in the largest economy in the world. USD is still the reserve currency, right? So you're shielding yourself from currency risk that's might exist in your home country, right? And suddenly when you explain this to a global investor, it's an aha moment for them, right? [00:07:04] Because this is something that does not exist in their home market. You know, they want to, you know, kind of diversify their assets and dip into what US has to offer this kind of opening American dream to the world. Yeah. Without them having to live or work in the US. You can live and work in your home country and dip into what America or American dream has to offer, you know, while you sit in your home country. Right. And that's kind of what was a game changing phenomena for us. Great traction, great, you know, reserves. But what we saw, Jason, you know, these people were coming in and we're like, okay, great. I want to invest in USA asset market. But I don't know where to invest. [00:07:40] Right. I don't know the US market, I don't know which city to invest in. Right. And my team, you know, we found ourselves going onto Zillow doing investment analysis and coming back to them and saying, "okay, this is a good place to invest." And then we said, "okay, wait a minute. Let's just build a tech platform, and that's what led the evolution of Ziffy, which is kind of, you know, Zillow for investment properties, ziffy.ai, where you know, as an investor you can kind of just say, okay, this is my investment objective. [00:08:05] I want to generate X dollar cash flow every month. I want to generate Y percent in rental. I want to find all the rent properties. And the algorithm mines everything that is listed on MLS right now from an investment perspective gives you detailed investment analysis and helps you take the data driven recommendation. [00:08:21] And then we realized only 8% of Americans own investment properties. If it's such a good thing that global investors want to put their money in the USA market, why Americans are not building generational wealth by investing in real estate. Right? Because people don't want to be a landlord, right? [00:08:37] Right. But once you put this data in front of them, suddenly the perspective changes. And that's what we are right now. We are launching ziffy.ai where it's going to be the Zillow for investment properties to really help more Americans buy and invest in US real estate.  [00:08:50] Okay, great. And what's that tool called? [00:08:52] It's Ziffy, Z-I-F-F-Y, dot A-I.  [00:08:56] ziffy.ai. Okay. And you mentioned the big other z name Zillow, you're like, you're trying to take their lunch, I guess. Right? We'll see how...  [00:09:06] not really. Thing about it, zillow is focused on primary market, right? Yeah. It's a much bigger market. Right. And, you know, investment, of course, 16% of the transactions are investment properties. [00:09:17] Right. But having said that, it's a huge market and there's lot of, you know, scope for growth because a lot of Americans still, you know, what they don't know about is there are specialized loan products that exist, you know, that can underwrite based on the rental income of the property. [00:09:32] So if I have a mortgage, I have a car loan, I think, okay, there's no way I can buy investment property. No one's going to give me a loan. I'm going to walk in my local bank or my local branch, and they're going to say, "okay, Jason, you know, what's your current mortgage? What's your car loan? Oh, you don't qualify based on your debt to income ratio." [00:09:49] They don't know that this specialized loan product called DSCR loan, which is debt service coverage ratio loan, where I'm qualifying you for the mortgage based on the rental income of that property versus your personal income. Right. So suddenly now you can build portfolio of hundred of investment properties because each property qualifies based on its own merit. [00:10:11] You buy one investment property, right? Rent covers mortgage from day one generates you cash flow. You wait three, four years, you gain equity in the property, do a cash out refinance, take that money to put down payment on other property. That property is cash positive from day one and the cycle repeats. [00:10:27] So if you're a smart investor can really help that first investment property, help you build a portfolio of investment property over 10 to 15 year period and build that generational wealth for you and your family. And people just don't know about it. And that's what we're trying to democratize.  [00:10:41] All right. [00:10:41] I love the idea. You know, we've leveraged a DSCR loan and it's nice because you don't have to give them all your personal info. You know, it doesn't matter how much debt you already have leveraged with properties you already have. So the rates are a little bit higher. [00:10:55] Right. But if you're able to cash flow it effectively, then I guess it doesn't matter.  [00:11:01] It doesn't matter. But also, I'll tell you, Jason, it's not that much higher either. No. If you think about an investment property loan from Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae conventional loans the rates are going to be higher than what you're going to pay for a 30 year fix it mortgage for a primary home. [00:11:14] Right. If you compare an investment property loan from an, from the jcs versus a DSCR loan, the rate difference you're talking about is 0.25%, or, you know, like, so it's not, it's very competitive.  [00:11:28] So. A lot of the people listening run property management companies. They've got a pool of investors. [00:11:33] These are their clients. How do they leverage  [00:11:37] HomeAbroad or Ziffy? That's a great question. Right? So we are also opening a marketplace for property managers, right? Because think about these foreign clients that are coming over to us, right? Think about domestic clients, right? A lot of these clients, you know, no one wants to be a landlord, as I mentioned earlier, right? [00:11:52] They're looking for a good way to maximize return on their investment or return on their cash. Right. And they don't want to take the day-to-day hassle of being a landlord. Right. Right. That's where property management comes in. Right. And if you are a smart investor, if you are running this as a business, right, you got to have property management. That's what we tell our clients. You can't build a portfolio of a hundred properties by managing each property yourself. You got to get property management in, right? Yeah. And what we are doing is we are trying to, you know, open up a marketplace where, you know, foreign investors, of course, they have no idea about whom to work at in the US so they can connect to property managers in the US through a platform. [00:12:31] Right. But in addition. If you're a property manager and if you have clients who are looking for next investment and so forth, you can white label our Ziffy platform for your clients. Right, okay. To give them as your own tool. And if they come back to us, you know, for a mortgage, we give you a referral fee. [00:12:50] You know X, we give up to 40 to 50 basis point on the loan amount as their referral fee. So that could be not only you're servicing your clients, you're giving them tools to help them find their next investment, which by the way, you will end up managing as well. But you're also increasing your value prop by helping your client find the next investment and adding additional revenue stream to your overall portfolio, right? [00:13:12] So it's a win-win situation for everyone.  [00:13:15] So becomes absolutely profit center. Okay, so. And they can white label Ziffy. What about is the Ziffy and HomeAbroad databases, are these linked? Like, are these properties, because you know, I think a lot of property managers listening are like, "how can I get access to these foreign investors because I don't have that capability?" [00:13:32] They're linked. It's just the branding, right? Because for foreign investors, you know, we go with the brand name HomeAbroad, okay? And for domestic, of course, you know, HomeAbroad will not resonate with the US based customers, right? So that's where Ziffy comes in. And we are kind of actually actively going through a rebranding exercise where HomeAbroad will become powered by ziffy.ai. [00:13:52] You know, so at the end of the day, Ziffy is the overall umbrella brand, right? Ziffy.ai is our AI powered investment property search platform and HomeAbroad is the portion of Ziffy that's focused exclusively on foreign investors. But if you're part of our network, you get access to both clients, you get access to foreign investors, you get access to local investors. [00:14:13] Okay, perfect. So it sounds like property managers, if they're listed in this marketplace, it sounds like 1. You might be feeding them some free business from. Absolutely. HomeAbroad brand. Yep. They wouldn't be able to access otherwise. And they're able to support boots on the ground helping with the property locally. [00:14:32] Yep.  [00:14:33] And then they can also leverage Ziffy and do a white label thing for their existing clients and help get them and facilitate getting them into more property.  [00:14:41] Absolutely. Yep.  [00:14:42] Awesome. Okay, cool. Yeah that's very cool. So how does a property manager get into this marketplace?  [00:14:49] What are your qualifications? [00:14:51] So we of course, want to make sure that our clients are taken care of, you know, so we do initial vetting, just to understand, you know, you have the I would say capabilities and infrastructure to help service our clients. So everyone has a good positive experience, right? And then once we kind of have that initial meeting to vet you out, you will become part of our network. [00:15:10] We'll sign a good partnership agreement. You'll be part of the network and then, you know, you'll be listed prominently. If the customer is looking in that particular area, you know, you'll be listed prominently within that ecosystem. Now, good news is we are vertically integrated shop, right? [00:15:24] So client finds the property through a platform. We do the mortgage financing, right? And you know, we know exactly when the customer, you know, is closing that transaction, right? So we will introduce the property manager at the right time. There's no point introducing a property manager right when they're starting their journey to find an investment property, right? [00:15:42] But as soon as they close on that transaction, we'll introduce the property manager. We will expose our, you know, marketplace to them and say, "Hey, by the way, you can find the right property manager to help you manage this property from our vacant property management, based in say, Phoenix, Arizona, or say, you know, Dallas, Texas, like wherever the client is, you know, closing that transaction. [00:16:03] Right. So, we'll kind of introduce you in the right you know, point in that journey to make sure that, you know, you have a high conversion as well.  [00:16:11] So how do you, at Ziffy and HomeAbroad, how do you determine which markets you want to be in and focus on?  [00:16:21] So the cool thing, Jason, you know, like as the customer decides for us, right? [00:16:24] We are operating in 43 states, right out of 50 states in the US right now, right there are of course hot markets, right? But you know, we let our algorithm, because now, it's data, right? We know the data. We know what's the expected rent, which is our for algorithm to calculate the expected rent across every plus property listed on the MLS right now for sale. What's your monthly mortgage payment is going to be? We are the mortgage shop. So we know what the monthly mortgage payment is going to be. Yeah. Rent minus mortgage is your cashflow. Right? So you can basically punch in those numbers and you say, okay, I want to generate $500 in cashflow every month. [00:16:59] Show me properties in entire us. Show me properties in Midwest us. Show me properties in California. Show me properties in Texas. Right? Whatever is your appetite, right? But you can kind of, you know, find that right investment property with right investment objective, you know, and I would say market agnostic. [00:17:16] Right? Yeah. Find that property and then say, okay, yeah, this makes sense, this doesn't make sense. And what we are adding to our AI layer. You can ask AI question, show me population growth trend in this area in the last five years. Show me rent you know, growth in this area in the last five years. [00:17:30] Show me you know, is this a landlord friendly state? You know, like our AI will help you basically California, evaluate that property.  [00:17:36] So basically, California's out. Florida and Texas are in, or?  [00:17:40] Yep. Yep. And that's what we see. That's what we see. You know, Florida and Texas are two hot markets. Yeah. [00:17:45] Midwest is really picking up, you know, because the property prices are lower, taxes are lower, rents are higher, right? So Midwest US is the new hot market from a rental standpoint Okay. Is what we are seeing a lot of fixed and player opportunities as well. But Florida and Texas continue to be two hot states, you know, from a rental property standpoint. [00:18:03] Got it. Okay. Now, these people that are, you know that they're global investors. They're around, you know, around the world. They're watching the news, they're seeing all this stuff that's going on in the us. I don't know what their perception is, but when they're watching all this, I'm sure that factors into their decision making in which states they want to be in. [00:18:23] Absolutely a hundred percent.  [00:18:25] So they're like, it does, I don't want to be in California. They look like they're crazy there and they're watching the news and they're seeing these, you know, sanctuary cities with homeless people everywhere. And then they're like looking at like areas where it's more conservative and there's like more freedom and more options. [00:18:41] Then they're like, maybe, maybe there. So perception, I would imagine affects where they're choosing to invest as well.  [00:18:49] Yeah, it totally does. Right? And what we tell our clients, you know, you got to think of real estate as a long-term investment game, right? For example, you know, the rhetoric around current administration, right? [00:19:00] From global investor standpoint, you know, like, do I really want to put my money in the US at this point? You know, what happens if like X happens? Y happens, right? And what we tell our investor, right? The basics why US, you know, is a good market for real estate investment has not changed, will not change, right? [00:19:15] It's going to be still remain a good market for US estate investment. The question is, where do you invest, right? And what are your objectives, right? You want to invest in a landlord friendly state, right? You want to invest in, in states with, you know, job growth, population growth, right? And you want to invest in state you know, in a market where you're getting good ROI on your cash investor, right? [00:19:36] And that's a function of, you know, appreciation and function of cash flow, right? That you're generating. Right. So until you have those data points figured out, right, you know, in long term it's going to be a viable investment. Right. And you're going to make money, right? Is what we tell our investors, right? [00:19:51] And when we explain them from that perspective, from that lens, you know, I have not seen someone that has said, okay, USDS investment is off my list. Right? Is something that just still motivates and drives them.  [00:20:04] Very cool. All right. I like it. And the best property managers, they're DoorGrow clients, like we help them figure out how to actually do a good job. [00:20:10] Most property managers suck in most markets. This is... absolutely, yeah. The admission of property managers, they're like, I get a room of property managers. I'm like, how many of you believe all your competitors suck or most of them do? And everyone's hands go up. And everybody that comes to me and says, "Hey, I'm thinking of starting a property management business." [00:20:27] I say, cool. And they tell me their story. It's they have investment properties and they tried property managers and most of them were terrible and they decided to finally start a good company. And so there's this issue. So yeah, maybe we should get all the DoorGrow clients getting into your marketplace. [00:20:43] So  [00:20:43] A hundred percent, you know. Let's talk about that a hundred percent.  [00:20:46] Alright, cool. Have you heard a Blanket, have you heard of these guys? Not really. So I think I should connect you to Lior over at Blanket. They've got a really cool platform as well, and I think there's some synergy. [00:20:59] They're basically like a retention platform. Okay. For property managers. They were one of our sponsors at DoorGrow live. And they've created a platform that allows their clients to see all of... they're basically a white label portal for all their clients to have their portfolios. And it allows them to keep the properties in their portfolio by helping them find and access other owners when that owner wants to sell. [00:21:25] Awesome. Okay. I think there'd be some awesome synergy between these two tools. Yeah. And I'm always making connections. You guys don't see this, those that are watching the podcast behind the scenes, I'm always trying to connect different vendors to each other when I see some synergy. So, but I think that might be a cool connection. [00:21:40] So, because I think what you're doing would work really nicely with that and it'd be a really cool synergistic thing. So we'll just get HomeAbroad, Ziffy, Blanket, DoorGrow, and then some other vendors, we'll just start stacking, we'll create Voltron. Yep. This ultimate, you know, superpower to help.  [00:21:57] This very exciting. [00:21:58] Hey you grow together. You know, that's how I've always believed. You know, you grow together. It's a small industry, you know, we got to help each other and we grow as a business together.  [00:22:06] Yeah, absolutely. So, well, I like what you're doing. What's the easiest way for a property manager to reach out? [00:22:14] Which of the websites should they go to? How do they start getting vetted so they can get into this marketplace? And is this like a free thing because they're providing value or do they pay to become part of the marketplace or how does that work?  [00:22:27] It's a free thing, right? They will be listed on a platform for free. [00:22:31] So it's a two way street, as I mentioned here, right? So we are going to pay a referral fee to our property manager partners, when they refer clients over to us, we're going to give them free tools to help facilitate that process and vice versa. You know, we'll collect a referral fee if our existing client signs up with them as well. [00:22:47] You know, it's a revenue stream for us too.  [00:22:48] So if let's say I have one of those clients that has, a bunch of connections in a particular country like Israel or China or something like this, would there be an advantage to them to leveraging HomeAbroad to facilitate that rather than having to figure out all this work themselves? [00:23:05] Absolutely. Absolutely. Because we are, as I said, you know, we are one stop shop, right? So say for example, you have an Israeli client that is just thinking about investing in US real estate, right? So what we do, we start. From setting up the LLC, right? If you are US based, you know, setting up an LLC, receiving an EIN is pretty easy, straightforward process, right? [00:23:23] If you're a foreign national who has doesn't have an SSN or an IT number, just getting an EIN number from a IRS, you know, you're talking about faxing, you're talking about mailing, you're talking about six months, six to eight weeks to get, you know, your number in mail. Now, you know, we kind of have developed that expertise in this segment so we can get an EIN and with an analysis set for a foreign national not living in the US within a week. Right. Wow. We can help them open a US bank account while they're in their home country. Right. Of course, you know, we'll need the US Bank account as part of the mortgage process, but also they will need a US bank account to manage their property, right. [00:23:58] When they invest in the US market, right? We can, of course, financing for Foreign National, which is our bread and butter, right? So we help them with 75% LTV or 75% leverage to purchase an investment property in the US. So they only need to put 25% down payment on that investment property, as I mentioned, we don't look for any US history. [00:24:18] We don't look for trade lines or create history from their home country as well. It's a pretty straightforward process for foreign nationals. You know, all we are looking for is, you know, they have enough assets to close, which is 25% down payment plus closing costs. Right? And if the appraisal comes in right where we want it to be, right. [00:24:36] So whether they meet the ratio or the DSCR ratio where rent covers mortgage, right? Even if it does not, we have a sub ratio DSCR program for them. So one way or the other. You know, we'll be able to do the loan just based on the property's income versus considering their personal income or assets in their home country. [00:24:52] Right? So we covered them right from helping setting up an LLC you know, opening US bank account mortgage financing, connecting them with a local realtor, which is not just any realtor, but a realtor with CIPS, which is certified International Property Specialty Designation by now. Right. So they have gone through specialized training to work with foreign national, global investors, right? [00:25:13] And then property management connections, you know, through a marketplace, right? So we are kind of one stop shop for everything that foreign national would need to do to invest in the US real estate.  [00:25:23] Interesting. So here's another random idea that comes up. And I don't know if this even relates, maybe this is just completely out of left field, but occasionally I get clients that they've come from a foreign country to the US. [00:25:36] And in order to, you know, to immigrate and to become integrated in the US, they have to start a business. And so they will buy a franchise sometimes, which usually in this industry, buying a property major franchise, I'm pretty outspoken about that. I think it's generally a bad idea. I get a lot of franchisees coming to me that have struggled like, you know, a gal that came, bought into a franchise, she's already invested $100k into this and the franchise gave her poor strategy and she only has one unit under management and she's $100k in and over half a year in invested into this. And she's like, you know, concerned and freaking out. I've got another client, he's immigrated from the uk. [00:26:16] He's built a property management business. They both built their business in Florida, by the way. Nice. So the land of freedom and humidity. So is there some sort of advantage for some of these people that are overseas also? They're like, "you know what? I like the idea of investing in, you know, the US but I want to be in the US." [00:26:37] Is there a way that they could build a business leveraging this and could that be something that is facilitated as well?  [00:26:45] Yeah, that's a great question, Jason. You know, and something like a lot of, you know, foreign clients ask us, right? So I'll give you a two part answer to this question, right? [00:26:52] One, if you are part of E3D countries, right? So US has a E3D, you know, with I think UK, Japan you know, Australia, Canada, and the few other countries on that list, right? Yeah. So if you're part of one of these countries where the, where you have a E3D you know, with the US you get a visa called E2 Visa. [00:27:12] E2 Visa, where, you know, where you can start a business in the us, get that visa to come manage the business. And a lot of our clients in from these countries would start up LLC to manage two to three properties. Show that okay, they're managing a real estate business. Right. To kind of get that E2 visa, right? [00:27:29] And so it's a great way for them to not only build you know, a profitable business in the US right? And kind of benefit from the US estate investment, but then also, you know, try get a residency visa, you know, based on this business. Property management kind of falls under the same aspect as well. [00:27:46] Okay? Then other countries which are not part of the E3D, where you have something called an EV5 Visa, which is you know, which were one of the key differences is that you have to show that you generate 10 employments and invested at least around a million dollars in the US to generate those employments. [00:28:03] Now that is where, you know, it becomes a little bit trickier, right? Because you know, you have to show that you brought that money in, you putting that money in real estate qualifies. Right. But the the important aspect is creation of 10 jobs. You have to show that you've created 10 jobs through that investment, you know, for that purposes. [00:28:21] If you buy, you know, like 10 properties or buy a multifamily unit and you know, you have a property management around it that employs 10 people to take care of it, technically it qualifies. Right. You can also you know, buy a hotel, you know, buy 2 commercial property that employs, you know, 10 people to kind of, you know, to qualify on the, that, that visa rule. [00:28:44] Right? But again, you know, you're talking about a million dollar investment. You know, from your end, you know, which is not, you know, applicable for everyone, right? Yeah. So there are a couple of ways, right? But for E2 Visa, you know, it becomes really easy, right? Because that job requirement criteria is not there. [00:28:59] You have to show that it's a functional business. It's an active business, which could be a real estate business, right? And it becomes, the qualification becomes a little bit easier on from that perspective.  [00:29:09] Got it. Okay. Interesting. If you run into these people, we should totally be homies and... [00:29:15] absolutely. [00:29:15] If you run these people one of the things we're really brilliant at DoorGrow is helping people avoid all the mistakes they make when they get their business started. We help them clean. We're like bar rescue for property managers, as I said in the intro. And for startups, we're ideal. [00:29:29] We help them avoid all the pitfalls of the franchises. We help them come up with their own brand, their own website. We help them build out their hiring process. We help them make sure they get good people, like we help optimize the business and get the right systems and installed. And so we really are like the ultimate franchise alternative. [00:29:46] And I've just gotten tired of seeing the franchises hurting people. And so my mission. Is to get people to sign up with DoorGrow instead of going to these franchises and set ourselves up as a franchise alternative because we can help them get going with a lot less cash involved and a lot more help. [00:30:05] And and then we can help them give them real strategies for growing their portfolios. And it sounds like this might be a really nice addition to any of my client's strategies for growth is to leverage HomeAbroad because they would love to have people that are hands off. Yeah. In another country trusting you to just take care of stuff that, that's a easy, no-brainer type of client they would love to have. [00:30:25] Yeah, absolutely. Jason, and we should talk after this podcast. We'll talk, you know, this. I think there's a lot of synergies.  [00:30:31] Okay. Very cool. So, well, what else should property managers or investors listen to the show know about HomeAbroad or Ziffy that we haven't covered? Or what questions do people tend to ask that they're concerned about? [00:30:45] Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things, you know, that we also advise our clients, right? You know, it's not about, you know, property management eating into my cash flow, right? Because that's something that we see, you know, people concerned about, or people you know, like want to kind of, you know, want to do it by themselves because they want to make sure they maximize their cash flow, right? [00:31:05] But what we tell our clients, you know, at the end of the day, you got to think of it as a business, right? And what's your net return and how do you value your time? Right. What's the hourly rate that you assign to yourself, right? And what would else you'd be doing if you're not managing five properties on your own? [00:31:21] Right? That's an opportunity cost, right? So think about this more from an opportunity cost standpoint versus, you know, okay, it's eating into my cashflow because that opportunity cost can help you buy five more properties, right? That can, you know, overall amplify your return on your cash invested versus nickel and diming, you know, the money that you're trying to save, right? [00:31:42] And you know, when we kind of, you know, talk to them about your, their ROI return cash, we want them to kind of consider this as an expense that goes into it. Because at the end of the day, even though we are not the property management providers, right, we partner with your clients, so to speak, Jason, right? [00:31:58] We are trying to do what's in best interest of that client in order to build that real estate investment portfolio. Right. So that's something that, you know, just want to reiterate to you, to the listeners of your podcast. Right. Why partner with us? You know, because that's something that we inherently, you know, advise our clients, you know, and we position property management as one of the pillars, they need to really succeed to build a successful real estate investment portfolio. [00:32:22] So you kind of insulate, because I know there's some property managers listening and they're like, man, some of these foreign investors are such cheapos. They're like so cheap and they complain about everything and they're really difficult. You kind of insulate them from that. Yep. With your organization and you know, and property management really, yeah. It is a no brainer. I mean, there's a lot of properties that a lot of these investors on their own probably wouldn't even accurately raise rent. And so if they didn't raise rent over the last two to three years, for example, they're probably 10% below market rate anyway. And so if the property manager just kept rent where it actually is in the marketplace, the property management basically is free. [00:33:01] Yeah, it pays for itself. Hundred percent. It's a no brainer. And so, yeah, I think the biggest mistake investors can make period, if you're an investor listening to the show, is to not use a property manager, a good one. Because there are bad ones. But if you can find a good one, that is the biggest game changer because it takes all the work off your plate and you make just as much money. [00:33:22] Absolutely. And another thing for your listeners, Jason, right. You'd be surprised how few people know about the specialized loan products for DSCA investor, right? So if your client is with you managing one property and is thinking in my head, oh, I already have a mortgage in my primary, I have another investment property here. [00:33:38] No way in the world I can buy another investment property. It's an education gap. It's a knowledge gap, right? Yeah. So they can help educate and that's where like and HomeAbroad comes in. because we will educate them on your behalf. You know, you retain the relationship, you retain your brand, right? We'll white label it, but like not only show them properties that will give them their next cashflow investment. [00:33:58] But also educating them, okay, for this loan to qualify, I don't need to see your debt to income ratio. I'm going to qualify based on that property's income. And you know, the only upfront cost is an appraisal cost, right? But us being the mortgage shop, you know, vetting that, okay, this property gives you cash flow, or from a conservative standpoint, it's good for you at the end of the day because you know, you won't invest if the property is not cashflow policy from day one, right? [00:34:24] So something that people don't know, you know, and there's a gap there.  [00:34:27] Yeah, we've had some lenders on talking about DSCR loans in the past, and yeah, a lot of people just aren't aware of it as an option. Yeah. So property managers, if they can have a partner like yourself to, you know, educate them on these alternate sources of funding and methods of getting cash to invest in real estate. [00:34:46] Yeah, it's going to open up the door. Not only that, but I like the idea of those because it kind of creates this veil of protection. So it's not an asset in your name if there ever is a liability with the rental property. Absolutely. They don't even know who the owner is. It's an entity and there's kind of a shield there of protection. [00:35:05] And so there's some additional advantages to going that route as well.  [00:35:09] So, absolutely. And like majority of our clients request the title in an LLC. What's the reason that you just mentioned you always need to have that, you know, protection around you in a litigation rich country, so. [00:35:21] Got it. Cool.  [00:35:22] Well, hey, I think this is a really awesome idea Amresh. It's great to have you on the DoorGrow Show. Any parting words or how can people get in touch and how can they find out more?  [00:35:32] Sure. You know, so if you're a property management company, you can get them in touch with us at partner@homeabroadinc.com or partner@ziffy.ai. [00:35:42] You know, my personal email address is amresh.singh@homeabroadinc.com. You can shoot me an email as well. Website is HomeAbroadinc.com for HomeAbroad and Ziffy.ai for our Ziffy brand. Okay.  [00:35:56] Awesome. Alright, thanks so much for coming to the show. So those of you listening, if you've ever felt stuck or stagnant, you want to take your property management business to the next level, reach out to us at doorgrow.com. [00:36:07] Also, be sure to join our free community just for property management business owners at doorgrowclub.com. We reject 60 to 70% of the people that apply to join that group. And if you found this even a little bit helpful, don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a review. We'd really appreciate it. Until next time, remember, the slowest path to growth is to do it all alone, so let's grow together. [00:36:30] Bye everyone.

In this episode, Alex Immerman, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, joins CJ to discuss the CFO role and how it's changing in the era of AI. He explains what the components of a company's AI agenda the CFO should own, how and where it should be leveraged in an organization, and why, if you're preparing to go public, AI needs to be mentioned in your S-1. He breaks down how the financial landscape differs greatly between AI-native SaaS companies and traditional B2B SaaS companies in terms of retention curves and gross margins, and how this relates to the ever-important LTV to CAC metric. As someone who has worked with prominent CFOs and interviewed many for a16z's portfolio companies, Alex also describes the qualities of a great CFO, and shares his favorite interview question, before discussing CFOs, CEO, and board dynamics.—LINKS:Alex Immerman on X (@aleximm): https://x.com/aleximmAlex Immerman on a16z: https://a16z.com/author/alex-immermanAlex Immerman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immermanAndreessen Horowitz: https://a16z.comCJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222Mostly metrics: http://mostlymetrics.comRELATED EPISODES:So You're Looking for a “Strategic” CFO? Bloomerang's Steve Isom on What That Really Means: —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Preview and Intro(02:19) Sponsor – Navan | NetSuite | Planful(05:52) What Separates Good CFOs From Great Ones(11:56) Questions Alex Asks When Interviewing CFOs for Portfolio Companies(15:17) How CFOs Should Engage With Investors During the Hiring Process(17:22) Sponsor – Tabs | Rippling Spend | Pulley(22:22) What a Great CFO-Investor Relationship Looks Like(24:46) The CFO-CEO-Board Dynamic(28:27) How the Role of a CFO Is Changing in the Era of AI(31:41) AI-Native Company Versus Incumbent for Finance Category Leader(33:49) Components of a Company's AI Agenda That the CFO Should Own(38:39) Why the LTV to CAC Metric Is So Important to Investors(41:13) LTV to CAC by Sector(42:41) The Importance of Gross Margin Adjusting Your CAC Payback(43:21 Retention and Churn Patterns in AI-Native Companies(45:23) Gross Margin in AI-Native Companies Versus Traditional B2B SaaS(50:11) What It Takes To Be a Public Company-Ready CFO Today(53:58) How IPO Expectations for the CFO Have Shifted in the Past Few Years(55:05) Wrap—SPONSORS:Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. It connects to your existing cards and makes closing the books faster and smarter. Visit navan.com/Runthenumbers for your demo.NetSuite is an AI-powered business management suite, encompassing ERP/Financials, CRM, and ecommerce for more than 41,000 customers. If you're looking for an ERP, head to https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning.Planful's financial planning software can transform your FP&A function. Built for speed, accuracy, and confidence, you'll be planning your way to success and have time left over to actually put it to work. Find out more at www.planful.com/metrics.Tabs is a platform that brings all of your revenue-facing data and workflows - billing, AR, payments, rev rec, and reporting - onto a single system so you can automate and be more flexible. Find out more at: tabs.inc/metrics.Rippling Spend is a spend management software that gives you complete visibility and automated policy controls across every type of spend, saving you time and money. Get a demo to see how much time your org would save at rippling.com/metrics.Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: pulley.com/mostlymetrics.#AINativeSaaS #a16z #CFO #LTVtoCAC #AIinSaaS Get full access to Mostly metrics at www.mostlymetrics.com/subscribe

In today's Wholesale Hotline (Astroflipping Edition) Jamil shares a story of how he landed a fully renovated property in Phoenix's Biltmore area for no money out of pocket—and turned it into a massive cash-flowing asset. Show notes -- in this episode we'll cover: How Jamil used a 75% LTV private lender strategy to structure the deal, cover all renovation costs, and even get paid to buy the house. The property's unique layout—including individual entrances for each room and a converted garage—made it a perfect candidate for co-living transformation. Full breakdown of converting a 3 bed/2 bath into a 7 bed/7 bath co-living setup with only $70K in renovations, projected to net $3K–$4K/month in cash flow. Jamil explains why these kinds of deals aren't unicorns—exactly how he found it and structured the deal. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ☎️ Welcome to Wholesale Hotline & Astro Flipping breakout

In episode #288 of SaaS Metrics School, Ben Murray tackles a frequent mistake SaaS operators make when calculating Lifetime Value (LTV) — treating it as an aggregate rather than the point-in-time metric. Ben breaks down the correct formula, shares how to align it with gross revenue retention, and explains when LTV (and LTV to CAC) should be used SaaS businesses. What You'll Learn: Why LTV is a point-in-time estimate, not a company-wide average The correct formula for LTV in SaaS: Cohort ARPA × Gross Margin ÷ Churn How to choose the right churn input using gross revenue retention When LTV to CAC is reliable vs. misleading based on your sales motion (SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise) Common pitfalls when using LTV in low-volume enterprise models Key SaaS Metrics Covered: LTV (Lifetime Value) LTV to CAC Ratio Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) Cohort ARPA / ACV Churn measurement strategy (trailing 3 vs. 6 months) Who Should Listen: SaaS CFOs, founders, marketers, and RevOps professionals looking to improve financial modeling and SaaS efficiency metrics — especially if you rely on paid acquisition or track LTV to CAC closely. Resources Mentioned: SaaS Metrics Foundation Course: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/the-saas-metrics-foundation Free SaaS Metrics Tools: TheSaaSCFO.com Subscribe to Ben's SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page Like What You Hear? Please leave a rating and review to help this podcast reach more SaaS professionals who want to build metrics-driven businesses.

SD311 - Do Atendimento Pontual à Receita Recorrente: O Poder do Acompanhamento. Neste episódio, Dr. Lorenzo Tomé mostra como grandes empresas constroem negócios sustentáveis, e o que médicos podem aprender com elas. De forma didática, ele apresenta estratégias práticas para aumentar o LTV do paciente por meio de retenção, fidelização e upgrade. O plano de acompanhamento, também chamado de acompanhamento longitudinal, aparece como peça-chave para transformar atendimentos pontuais em receita recorrente, ao mesmo tempo que entrega valor real ao paciente, com uma gestão contínua e integrada da sua saúde. Se o podcast já está abrindo sua mente, imagina o que dois dias de imersão com a gente pode fazer pelo seu negócio médico. Garanta sua vaga com 10% de desconto na Imersão SD! Só clicar AQUI  Participe das comunidades SD Conecta. Acesse AQUI! Baixe nosso app: Android ou IOS O Background do Lorenzo Casado com a Natália e pai de 3 filhos, Lorenzo é médico, Cofundador e CEO da SD Conecta e SD Escola de Negócios Médicos, host do 1º podcast do Brasil a apresentar tecnologias para médicos que está no ar desde maio de 2018. Ele é Professor de Medicina Digital na Faculdade de Medicina São Leopoldo Mandic, fez Mestrado e MBA em negócios nas melhores escolas de negócios do país, é Internship no Hospital Center University de Rouen - França entre várias outras atividades. Assista este episódio também em vídeo no YouTube no nosso canal Saúde Digital Podcast: AQUI! Acesse os Episódios Anteriores! SD310 - Transição de carreira na medicina com brilho nos olhos SD309 - A Virada de Chave rumo à Autonomia Profissional SD308 - Colaboração e Inovação: O Poder da IA na Aceleração Científica Music: - With You - Declan DP "Music © Copyright Declan DP 2018 - Present. https://license.declandp.info | License ID: DDP1590665"

Today we're joined by Dylan Ander, founder of heatmap.com, to talk attribution, LTV, CAC, creative testing, and what actually moves the needle in media buying performance.We unpack why conversion rate alone isn't the best indicator of success and what to look at instead, from holdout testing and CAC payback windows to 60-day LTV. Dylan shares his approach to attribution when platform data (especially from Meta) falls short, and how to build creative testing frameworks that truly help scale spend.We also dive into the nuances of media buying across channels, how to interpret noisy performance data, and the signals that actually matter. Dylan breaks down how to use on-site surveys to gather clearer attribution insights - what to ask, how to ask it, and how to use the data. Plus, we get into pricing strategy: why many brands hesitate to raise prices, and how pricing impacts both conversion and LTV.Finally, Dylan walks through an audit of Cody's website using heatmap and revenue data, offering tactical, high-leverage feedback on what's working, what's not, and what to test next.If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv600:00 Meta Summit Takeaways02:47 AI in Marketing Strategies06:08 Introduction to Dylan Ender09:04 Core Web Analytics Insights11:55 Customer Feedback and CRO15:13 The Importance of AOV and Conversion Rate17:58 Revenue Per Session vs. Conversion Rate20:50 Price Testing Strategies39:41 Revenue Testing and Feedback42:08 The Importance of Price Testing43:36 Challenges in SaaS Pricing44:57 Understanding Heat Maps and Analytics52:58 Live Testing vs. Split Testing56:20 The Role of Customer Feedback in Marketing01:01:12 Understanding Funnel Metrics01:08:53 Optimizing Navigation for Better User ExperienceEpisodes discussed in the show:Episode 1 - A Deep Dive into Attribution and Measurement Episode 27 - How We Set Goals, Attribution Limitations and KPIs for Growth? Powered by:Motion.⁠⁠⁠https://motionapp.com/pricing?utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast&utm_medium=paidsponsor&utm_campaign=march-2024-ad-reads⁠⁠⁠https://motionapp.com/creative-trendsPrescient AI.⁠⁠⁠https://www.prescientai.com/operatorsRichpanel.⁠⁠⁠https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdescAftersell.https://www.aftersell.com/operatorsRivo.https://www.rivo.io/operatorsSubscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here:https://www.youtube.com/@Operators9Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPSSign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: https://9operators.com/

Prime Day 2025 is going from 2 to 4 days—and advertisers need to be ready. In this episode, Joe Shelerud and Maarja Hewitt break down what this longer event means for budget pacing, conversion trends, and media planning. They explore performance data from past Prime Days, how the extended format could shift buyer behavior, and what strategies will help brands win this year.

Send us a textReady to unlock the secret to scaling a real estate portfolio without tying up your own capital? Dive into the BRRR method with Jessie Lang—who grew her portfolio to 70 doors while self-managing and breaking free from the W-2 grind. This episode is a masterclass in smart, scalable real estate investing.In this episode, host Vinki Loomba sits down with Jesse Lang, a seasoned real estate investor and educator managing over 70 long-term rental units in Columbus, Ohio.Key Takeaways:The BRRR method explained: How to buy undervalued properties, renovate smartly (focus on function and safety), rent at market rate, refinance at 75% LTV, and repeat without using your own money.Avoid “deal-itis”: Don't force deals; rely on precise underwriting and realistic renovation budgets.Renovate for long-term durability over cosmetics to minimize costly repairs and maximize tenant satisfaction.Tenant screening is critical — better to have a longer vacancy than a bad tenant who damages your property.The power of delegation: Hiring trusted help frees your time to focus on acquisitions and scaling.

⭐ Join Rental Property Mastery, my community of rental investors on their way to financial freedom: https://coachcarson.com/rpm  

Today, we sit down with Supersonic's Samantha Benjamin and Guy Agiv to discuss the hit game Screw Master 3D. From adapting trends out of China to hybrid monetization tricks and creative secrets, this episode is packed with actionable insights for anyone in mobile gaming.What you'll learn:How Screwmaster 3D's physics-puzzle and meta layers drive insane engagementThe models and tactics behind maximizing eCPMs and LTV in ad-heavy gamesThe secret to rapid adaptation, culturalization, and scaling trends globallyA-B testing, skip-its, and boosters—hybrid casual best practices for monetization without killing UXCreative production at Supersonic: data-driven, AI-boosted, always iteratingThe new era of hybrid casual is ruthless: if you want to compete, you need to move fast, master ad monetization, and out-iterate everyone on creative and product. Screwmaster 3D is proof that the real money is in the details.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Youtube: https://youtu.be/OmGzUDUiPsQJoin our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipgChapters00:00 Introduction to Screw Master 3D02:37 Game Mechanics and Design Insights05:39 Adapting for Global Markets08:38 User Engagement and Retention Strategies11:50 Monetization Strategies and Challenges14:33 Future Developments and Game Evolution26:56 Balancing Game Difficulty and User Engagement27:50 Analyzing User Metrics and Revenue Streams29:09 Retention Rates and User Engagement Strategies31:09 Ad Monetization Strategies and User Experience35:34 Optimizing Ad Experience and User Segmentation40:14 ECPM Management and Ad Impression Strategies45:26 Implementing Skip It Feature in Game Design49:19 User Acquisition Strategies and Channel Mix52:44 Channel Mix and Budget Allocation55:43 The Power of Playable Ads01:00:21 Creative Testing and Iteration Strategies01:01:53 Balancing Playable Lengths for User Engagement01:05:00 Testing New Channels and Creative Strategies01:12:19 Exploring New Channels for Growth---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

Here's a tough pill to swallow — chasing a high ROAS might actually be costing you growth and customers.Over the last few months, we've been deep in the weeds with brands trying to “beat” their ROAS targets, only to realize they're leaving massive opportunities on the table by focusing on the wrong metric.In this episode, we're tearing down the myth that higher ROAS is always better. Instead, we show why the smartest brands are going after the lowest sustainable new customer ROAS to dominate ad auctions, outbid competitors, and drive real profitability.This isn't guesswork. We share real client examples where dialing down the ROAS target, backed by strong retention and lifetime value, created insane competitive advantages.Ready to rethink your ROAS strategy and win the auction? Let's dive in.Key Takeaways:00:00 Intro00:42 Defining Acquisition Media Efficiency Ratio (aMER)01:48 Critique of chasing high ROAS benchmarks04:24 Winning ad auctions with lower bids07:39 Importance of aligning aMER with profitability goals10:03 Role of retention and LTV in lowering aMER targets11:37 Common client misconceptions about ROAS and profitability14:58 Business model impact on aMER targets17:29 Profitability targets affect acquisition strategy18:37 Why agencies must integrate forecasting and LTV knowledge20:40 OutroAdditional Resources:Follow us on X:

What makes one investor's offer stand out over another's—even when the numbers look the same?   In this episode, Angel hosts Fernando Arias and Anna Latysheva for a detailed walkthrough of how underwriting variables impact real estate valuations, investor returns, and bidding strategies. They examine the unseen levers—like DSCR, interest rates, amortization schedules, and capital expenditures—that can shift IRRs dramatically. With real-world scenarios and expert commentary, this episode provides valuable insights for both novice and seasoned investors navigating a tightening lending environment.     [00:01 - 04:14] Why Debt Terms Change the Game The significance of DSCR in determining actual loan amounts—not just LTV assumptions How interest rates and loan terms affect down payments and investor returns The need to build strong banking relationships for accurate underwriting inputs   [04:15 - 08:44] The Impact of Amortization on IRR What amortization periods reveal about monthly debt service and deal feasibility Why a higher down payment reduces IRR—even if the NOI stays constant The importance of recalculating purchase offers based on updated debt quotes   [08:45 - 13:28] Expense Assumptions That Can Break a Deal How slight changes in operating expenses significantly affect valuation The importance of classifying capital expenditures below the line Why expense accuracy is essential in low-cap markets   [13:29 - 18:00] Income Projections vs. Market Realities Why underwriting based on realistic rent comps boosts your competitiveness The significance of local PM data over online averages like Rentometer How fluctuating lending terms can lead to broken contracts   [18:01 - 23:40] Cap Rates, Risk, and Investor Psychology Why understanding cap rate spreads is essential for valuation decisions The relationship between NOI, cap rate, and perceived asset risk How market psychology and alternative income streams influence investor behavior       Connect with Anna:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibuybuildings/   Connect with Fernando:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandoapartments/     Key Quotes:   “Just because your pro forma shows a 1.89 DSCR a year from now doesn't mean the bank will underwrite that way.” - Fernando Arias   “Every $1,000 in NOI can mean a $20,000 swing in valuation in low-cap markets.” - Anna Latysheva     Visit sponsorcloud.io/contact today and unlock $2,000 of free services exclusively for REI Rocks community members! Get automated syndication and investor relationship management tools to save time and money. Mention your part of the REI Rocks community for exclusive offers. Help make affordable, low-cost education summits possible. Check out Sponsor Cloud today!

On the podcast I talk with Tim about the importance of trust in web2app funnels, replacing free trials with money-back guarantees, and how they've found success with contractors after struggling with in-house marketing hires.Top Takeaways: 

Need any advice or information, message us.I sit down with Catherine Palacios from Done Deal CR to break down everything you need to know—from navigating the buying process to understanding the technical details of financing in Costa Rica, including loan terms, interest rates, LTV ratios, and more.Free 15 min consultation:  https://meetings.hubspot.com/jake806/crconsultContact us: info@investingcostarica.comCatherine Palacios: cpalacios@donedealcr.com

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupIn this episode of the DTC Podcast, Eric interviews Alex Yancher, Co-founder & CEO of Passport, a leading global ecommerce provider powering end-to-end growth for fast-growing DTC brands. Alex breaks down the seismic shifts caused by recent tariff increases, how duty drawback programs work, and why every DTC brand is now — whether they realize it or not — a global brand.Key Takeaways:The US tariff floor is rising to 30–50%, reshaping cost structures for brands.Duty drawback offers a refund path — but only if your inventory data is airtight.Smart DTC brands are moving inventory directly into high-performing international markets.Localizing checkout and language increases conversion rate abroad.DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) shipping avoids post-delivery sticker shock, improving customer experience and LTV.Learn how Passport is helping brands like Dolls Kill, HexClad, and others navigate this new era of global DTC.

On this episode I'm talking about investing in creator brands with CJ Daniel-Nield, co-founder of Planes Studio.We unpack why creator-led businesses are booming, the shift from personal brand to product ecosystem, and why CJ believes creators have already solved the hardest part of building a business: distribution.We dive into projects like Skin Rocks and Mila, explore the challenges around LTV and long-term engagement, and discuss what it takes to spin a creator brand out into a standalone company. CJ also shares more on Kites—Planes' new initiative to support creators with capital, product, and operational backing—and what the modern playbook for audience building looks like in a post-D2C world.If you're building, backing, or advising a creator-led brand, this one's full of lessons and signals.This podcast is brought to you by our friends at Omnisend. Your email marketing platform shouldn't send you on side quests just to get help. Omnisend's 24/7 support is always here — real people, real answers, no hold music. So good, it's boring! Try for free today.Checkout Factory here.Sign up to our newsletter here.

Mike Morawski is a 30-year real estate investing veteran, author, speaker, and founder of My Core Intentions. Over the course of his career, he's controlled more than $450 million in real estate, scaling a portfolio of 4,000 units and a property management company overseeing 7,500 doors. Mike's journey includes extraordinary growth, painful setbacks—including federal prison—and a powerful comeback centered around coaching, transparency, and helping others build wealth through multifamily investing.     Make sure to download our free guide, 7 Questions Every Passive Investor Should Ask, here. Key Takeaways Mike built a $100M real estate business but lost it all and spent time in federal prison due to nondisclosure and overextension during the 2008 crash. His biggest lessons: don't grow too fast, avoid over-leverage, never be undercapitalized, pay attention to detail, and surround yourself with the right people. He now focuses on ethical investing, transparency, and long-term strategy while helping others avoid similar mistakes. Mike uses creative deal structuring, including seller financing and assumptions, even on large multifamily assets. He believes the current market presents one of the best opportunities in a generation to build long-term wealth.     Topics From Building to Breaking to Rebuilding Built a $100M syndication portfolio between 2005–2008, including 4,000 units and 38 companies. The 2008 crash triggered liquidity issues, leading to improper fund transfers across companies without investor disclosure. Sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. There, he wrote two books, taught ethics and real estate, and earned a degree in theology. Today, he coaches investors and shares his story to help others avoid similar missteps. The Five Lessons He Now Teaches Everyone Don't grow too fast—scaling without structure leads to collapse. Don't over-leverage—he recommends staying under 65% LTV. Don't be undercapitalized—lack of reserves causes panic decisions. Pay attention to details—asset management is where deals live or die. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth—and listen to them. Creative Financing for Multifamily Deals Mike dispels the myth that creative structures are only for single-family. Shared a case study of a 450-unit deal acquired with a $12.5M loan assumption and $2.5M seller carryback—no new equity. These deals still exist if you listen to sellers and find their pain points. Market Cycles and Timing Believes we're at the bottom of the current cycle and entering a major wealth transfer phase. Urges investors to act now while cautioning against recklessness—stress-test underwriting and be conservative. Expects shorter, more volatile cycles in the future, making education and adaptability more important than ever. Resources for Passive Investors Created a free risk-tolerance quiz to help LPs understand their investor profile and make better decisions. Advocates for transparency and full disclosure between sponsors and passive partners—especially in turbulent markets.    

No matter how simple a metric's name makes it sound, the details are often downright devilish. What is a website visit? What is revenue? What is a customer? Go one level deeper with a metric like customer acquisition cost (CAC) or customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV, depending on how you acronym), and things can get messy in a hurry. In some cases, there are multiple "right" definitions, depending on how the metric is being used. In some cases, there are incentive structures to thumb the definitional scale one way or another. In some cases, a hastily made choice becomes a well-established, yet misguided, norm. In some cases, public companies simply throw their hands up and stop reporting a key metric! Dan McCarthy, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, spends a lot of time and thought culling through public filings and disclosures therein trying to make sense of metric definitions, so he was a great guest to have to dig into the topic! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Should you be making web funnels for your mobile apps? In this episode of Growth Masterminds, host John Koetsier chats with Igor Lyubimov, CEO of web2wave about the benefits of web funnels for mobile apps. Igor explains how web funnels can significantly improve app revenue through better conversions, higher lifetime value (LTV), and more efficient marketing strategies. They dive into the intricacies of setting up effective web funnels, optimizing them for different app categories, and the role of platforms like Meta in achieving these goals. Igor also highlights the common pitfalls and best practices in creating high-converting web funnels.00:00 Introduction to Web Funnels01:01 Understanding the Benefits of Web Funnels02:02 Challenges and Solutions in Web Funnels03:51 Optimizing Marketing and Attribution07:51 Expanding Revenue Opportunities13:17 Practical Tips for Small Startups16:26 The Role of Meta in Web Funnels21:16 Connecting Web to Mobile26:56 Key Features of a Good Web Funnel35:20 Exploring Different Verticals39:10 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Over the years, in the property and investment world, the industries have come up with some savvy and strange acronyms to describe what we do and how we do it and for many of us this is a second language.   However, for some of you, it will be completely baffling so if you want to know the difference between net and gross yield, how LTV works with BTL or PRS and how your FRI works in your SPV to avoid CGT then this podcast is for you!   Know your numbers means learning these metrics and you'll finally be able to understand what we're all talking about!   Success and failure are both very predictable.   I hope you enjoy. This isn't a theory. It's a proven Blueprint.

Want to boost app revenue and retention without major redesigns or dev time? In this video, I break down two easy A/B tests that delivered massive gains in trial conversions and lifetime value (LTV) — fast.

Send us a textStill just using ChatGPT for copy and a few product images?You're 10% of the way there.In this episode of Secrets to Scaling Your Ecommerce Brand, I'm joined by Debarshi — co-founder of Maverick and one of the leading builders of AI tools for ecommerce.We break down how top brands like Dr. Squatch and Bruce Bolt are using AI to increase engagement, LTV, and conversions — while actually feeling more human.Time Stamps:00:01 – 03:00 → Intro & founder backstory04:00 – 09:00 → How AI video works and results from brands like Dr. Squatch06:00 – 08:00 → Jordan's story: 20% LTV lift from personalized videos17:25 – 25:00 → What is Optimizr and how it improves email campaigns19:30 – 23:30 → Why inbox placement (Primary vs Promotions) is critical28:00 – 30:00 → Shift from attributed to incremental revenue31:00 – 34:00 → Biggest failure: 15 product flops before first $10 sale35:00 – 36:30 → Secret to scaling: Great product + clear ROIWhat you'll learn: – The best AI tools for e-commerce right now (and what to avoid) – Real examples of how AI is used in e-commerce businesses for 3–5x engagement – Why sender identity is the secret weapon in your email performance – The death of “attributed revenue” — and what incremental revenue actually means – How to scale human connection with AI… without losing trustConnect with Debarshi: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/debarshi-chaudhuri Website: https://www.trymaverick.com/optimizer Email: debarshi@themavericklab.comIf you're an ecommerce expert, founder, or marketer trying to cut through the noise, this episode will completely reshape how you think about AI.Subscribe for weekly strategies to grow faster, spend smarter, and stay ahead of the AI curve.

This week Natalie Brunell is joined by Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike and founder of Twenty One Capital, for a behind-the-scenes look at the future of Bitcoin lending, capital markets, and corporate treasuries. Jack shares his vision for Twenty One Capital and the launch of Strike's industry-leading Bitcoin-backed lending product. Topics include: Strike's Bitcoin-backed lending product: borrow cash without selling your Bitcoin (50% LTV, no rehypothecation) Jack's mission to reduce interest rates and help the Bitcoin loan market mature Twenty One Capital: a Bitcoin-native firm going public to bring blue-chip credibility to the space How transparency and strong leadership can set new standards in Bitcoin financial services Supporting and educating companies on Bitcoin treasury strategy Why the U.S. dollar is weakening and how Bitcoin is emerging as a neutral, global reserve asset And much more! ---- Guest Bio: Jack Mallers is co-founder and CEO of Twenty One Capital, a Bitcoin-native financial firm started in 2025 aimed at institutional adoption and treasury innovation. He's also the founder and CEO of Strike, a Bitcoin payments company leveraging the Lightning Network to enable instant, low-fee transactions. Follow Jack on X at https://x.com/jackmallers  ---- Coin Stories is powered by Bitwise. Bitwise has over $10B in client assets, 32 investment products, and a team of 100+ employees across the U.S. and Europe, all solely focused on Bitcoin and digital assets since 2017. Learn more at https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com  ---- Coin Stories is also powered by Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) is a publicly-traded leader in Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing. Learn more at https://www.bitdeer.com  ---- Natalie's Bitcoin Product and Event Links: Secure your Bitcoin with collaborative custody and set up your inheritance plan with Casa: https://www.casa.io/natalie  Block's Bitkey Cold Storage Wallet was named to TIME's prestigious Best Inventions of 2024 in the category of Privacy & Security. Get 20% off using code STORIES at https://bitkey.world   Master your Bitcoin self-custody with 1-on-1 help and gain peace of mind with the help of The Bitcoin Way: https://www.thebitcoinway.com/natalie  For easy, low-cost, instant Bitcoin payments, I use Speed Lightning Wallet. Get 5000 sats when you download using this link and promo code COINSTORIES10: https://www.speed.app/sweepstakes-promocode/  Safely self-custody your Bitcoin with Coinkite and the ColdCard Wallet. Get 5% off: https://store.coinkite.com/promo/COINSTORIES  River is where I DCA weekly and buy Bitcoin with the lowest fees in the industry: https://partner.river.com/natalie   Earn 2% back in Bitcoin on all your purchases with the Gemini credit card: https://www.gemini.com/natalie   Bitcoin 2025 is heading to Las Vegas May 27-29th! Join me for my 4th Annual Women of Bitcoin Brunch! Get 10% off Early Bird passes using the code HODL: https://tickets.b.tc/affiliate/hodl/event/bitcoin-2025    Protect yourself from SIM Swaps that can hack your accounts and steal your Bitcoin. Join America's most secure mobile service, trusted by CEOs, VIPs and top corporations: https://www.efani.com/natalie   Your Bitcoin oasis awaits at Camp Nakamoto: A retreat for Bitcoiners, by Bitcoiners. Code HODL for discounted passes: https://massadoptionbtc.ticketspice.com/camp-nakamoto  

How to Truly Know the Value of your Collateral - #270 Knowing the true value of your collateral is one of the most critical parts of being a successful private or hard money lender. In this episode, Jason and Chris break down exactly how they determine property values beyond just appraisals and third-party reports.

Apple's payment policy just took a major turn—and it could unlock huge revenue potential for app developers. A federal judge has ruled that Apple must now allow developers to offer alternative payment methods outside the App Store.In this session, Steve P. Young joins Andrew Davies, CMO at Paddle, to break down what this means for your app business, including:✅ New monetization opportunities are now available✅ How Paddle manages payments, refunds, taxes, and fraud compliance✅ Key considerations before moving away from Apple's in-app purchase system✅ How this shift could impact LTV, attribution, and growth strategies

In this episode, hosts Tait Duryea and Ryan Gibson deliver an in-depth, pilot-friendly primer on syndications and passive real estate investing. They break down the risk spectrum from core to opportunistic deals, while sharing real-world analogies and experiences from their own projects, like the Canyon City land entitlement. Learn how to properly evaluate risk-adjusted returns, the importance of DSCR vs LTV, and what preferred return really means in a syndication waterfall. This episode is a must-listen for high-income professionals looking to navigate passive investing with clarity and confidence.Show notes:(0:00) Intro(02:23) Active vs passive investing explained(04:03) Is syndication risky? Understanding real risk(05:22) Core, Core Plus, Value Add, Opportunistic defined(10:11) Operational vs physical value-add(13:35) What are risk-adjusted returns?(17:19) How leverage impacts risk(20:02) DSCR vs LTV: What's more important?(22:59) Preferred return vs cash flow(33:50) What is an accredited investor?(38:55) Outro— You've found the number one resource for financial education for aviators! Please consider leaving a rating and sharing this podcast with your colleagues in the aviation community, as it can serve as a valuable resource for all those involved in the industry.Remember to subscribe for more insights at PassiveIncomePilots.com! https://passiveincomepilots.com/ Join our growing community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passivepilotsCheck us out on Instagram @PassiveIncomePilots: https://www.instagram.com/passiveincomepilots/Follow us on X @IncomePilots: https://twitter.com/IncomePilotsGet our updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/passive-income-pilots/Do you have questions or want to discuss this episode? Contact us at ask@passiveincomepilots.com See you on the next one!*Legal Disclaimer*The content of this podcast is provided solely for educational and informational purposes. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts, Tait Duryea and Ryan Gibson, and do not reflect those of any organization they are associated with, including Turbine Capital or Spartan Investment Group. The opinions of our guests are their own and should not be construed as financial advice. This podcast does not offer tax, legal, or investment advice. Listeners are advised to consult with their own legal or financial counsel and to conduct their own due diligence before making any financial decisions.

In this episode of The Wealthy Way podcast, I sit down with Brian Moran, the founder of SamCart, an eCommerce platform that helps business owners sell products, maximize profits, and build long-term customer relationships.We dive into Brian's journey, the birth of SamCart, and how it's changing the game for digital sellers. We also talk about effective upsell strategies, how to grow a business with recurring revenue, and how SamCart got its first round of funding. Brian shares some incredible insights about the impact of money on business, maintaining faith during tough times, and why customer lifetime value (LTV) is key to success.Plus, we discuss how SamCart helps businesses grow faster by cutting out the fluff and focusing on what really works. If you're an entrepreneur looking to grow your business the right way while balancing faith, family, and health, this episode is packed with tips you won't want to miss!Get access to our real estate community, coaching, courses, and events at Wealthy University https://www.wealthyuniversity.com/Join our FREE community, weekly calls, and bible studies for Christian entrepreneurs and business people. https://www.wealthykingdom.com/ If you want to level up, text me at 725-527-7783!--- About Ryan Pineda: Ryan Pineda has been in the real estate industry since 2010 and has invested in over $100,000,000 of real estate. He has completed over 700 flips and wholesales, and he owns over 650 rental units. As an entrepreneur, he has founded seven different businesses that have generated 7-8 figures of revenue. Ryan has amassed over 2 million followers on social media and has generat...