SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
936 He Made $8m Last Year Getting Ordinary People On Stage with Bon Jovi
15 Feb 2018
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is the Top Entrepreneurs Podcast, where founders share how they started their companies and got filthy rich or crash and burn. Each episode features revenue numbers, customer counts, and other insider information that creates business news headlines. We went from a couple of hundred thousand dollars to 2.7 million. I had no money when I started the company.
It was $160 million, which is the size of many IPOs. We're a bit strapped. We have like 22,000 customers. With over 5 million downloads in a very short amount of time, major outlets like Inc. are calling us the fastest growing business show on iTunes. I'm your host, Nathan Latka, and here's today's episode.
Chapter 2: How did Steve Sims start his luxury concierge business?
Hello, everyone. My guest today is none other than Steve Sims. He's the visionary leader of a company called Bluefish, the world's first luxury concierge company that delivers the highest level of personalized travel and entertainment services to corporate executives, celebrities, professional athletes, and other discerning individuals interested in living life to their fullest.
Steve, are you ready to take us to the top? I'm here. I'm so stoked you're back on. So we have obviously a little history, guys. I met Steve many years ago when a friend told me, Nathan, hey, you want to go to the go to Elton John's Oscar party? I said, what the hell? How does that happen?
Chapter 3: What unique experiences has Steve created for his clients?
And he goes, I've got this guy named Steve. I bought a table and Ben made it happen. And so that's kind of how I got even closer to Steve. So, Steve, tell people what you do, because, listen, this space is crowded with wannabes, like people that say amazing experiences. And it's like not a real experience. Give me the craziest experience you've created for somebody.
Oh, God. Well, Forbes called me the real-life Wizard of Oz, which I should get made into a T-shirt. I've had a client who wanted to get married in the Vatican by the Pope. I've sent people down to the Titanic.
Chapter 4: How does Steve's business model work financially?
I took over the Academia Museum in Florence because a client wanted... an exclusive Italian restaurant. And then I had Andrea Bocelli come in and serenade them. I've stuck people on stage with the Rock Band Journey. I've had a guitar lesson by ZZ Top. I've had a drum lesson by Guns N' Roses. I've had a two-seat pillion ride on the back of, not me, my clients, of a Ducati MotoGP bike.
I've had unarmed combat by Navy SEAL. I can't say what team they were, but one of the big Navy SEAL team. So I'm the guy you contact when you want to get shit done and you've got a checkbook can afford it.
Chapter 5: What challenges did Steve face while building his business?
Yeah, I think, Steve, the business you do is what's going to become more and more valuable over the next decade as everyone gets accustomed to this very boring digital experiences. You shock their emotions with these experiences. In fact, I'm in West Hollywood and I get a text from Ben. Hey, this guy's going to deliver tickets to you.
And I'm like expecting him to like show up in like a limo and like a suit and everything. And here comes this motorbike loud as fuck in West Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard, pulls up to a coffee shop, pulls out these tickets. He goes, here are the Oscar tickets. And sure enough, it's you. These piercings on going, what the hell is this guy?
Chapter 6: How did Steve transition from a doorman to a successful entrepreneur?
I want to know more.
Well, yeah, it's worked for me, the fact that I've never conformed to the stereotype of what people think they're going to get. And I'm on the media. I do loads of media and stuff like that. So it's not like they can't actually research me or just bloody Google my name and see what I look like.
But you still do get some people that are a little bit stunned when they see me turn up and they try to hide their kids and protect their wallet.
Yeah. So talk, okay, the experience thing speaks for itself. Unbelievable experiences. Talk money to me though.
Chapter 7: What insights does Steve have on networking and introductions?
How do you build a business around this?
Do you know, that was the tough thing, but I was never embarrassed to ask for money. I was ignorant to the fact of why shouldn't you? You know, as an East London bricklayer, it just came natural. You want something from me, I'm going to charge you a hundred bucks. I want something from you, I'm going to give you a hundred bucks. It was a very easy thing for me to ask for money.
As I started doing this and getting people into clubs when I was a doorman, when I started sending people into parties that they shouldn't have gone into, it was a very easy transition. What became tough was when you actually try to legitimize it and you actually try to make it a real business. And that's where you kind of screw up and fuck up like all entrepreneurs do.
Chapter 8: What can listeners learn from Steve's journey and his new book?
The second you try to make it official and proper and real, that's when you start really diluting the passion and the growth in it. But I really just thought my core source was was I only wanted people in my circle that I liked and I could relate to.
So me turning up to a motorcycle to see you for the tickets, if I'd have seen you and you'd have come across as a prick and I didn't like you, I'd have literally turned around and gone, do you know I left the tickets at home? I'm sorry, pal. I'll see you around. And I'd have gone. I want to make sure that the people that are in my world, luckily you're not because you're cool.
It's the hair, right? It's the hair.
It's the hair.
I share my hair with Steve, right? We...
We're there, we're there, we're hair partners. But I just want to make sure that if I can stop the a-holes at the door, I've negated 99% of my problems. And then it's just a case of, okay, you have this dream. Do you have the resources to be able to afford it? Because if I go and do something, I'm going to put steroids on this thing.
And so I'm very, very, very, very open to saying, look, there's money that talks here at certain parts. So you've got to be able to have the wherewithal to afford me.
Yep. So how many people first off, when did you launch this company? How many years have you been doing it?
So we've been doing the first time we used Bluefish and it was a password to get into a club in Hong Kong. That's how it came about.
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