SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 333: How Did He Make $15 Million from Managing Ads in 2015?

22 Jun 2016

21 min

4238 words

2 speakers

22 Jun 2016

Audio

Description

Warren Jolly, the CEO of Ad Quadrant, a social marketing agency that made $4 million in revenue in its first year. Warren's an expert in leveraging social media and mobile marketing. Listen in to hear why you need to plan obsessively before you launch a business, why focus is the key to success, and how Warren aspires to scale massively...without becoming a SaaS business. Famous 5: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? — Gary Vaynerchuk Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Focus on one business; be great at one thing at a time Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:27 – Nathan's introduction 01:49 – Welcoming Warren to the show 01:56 – Ad Quadrant was founded in 2014 02:05 – It's a managed services agency 02:35 – Ad Quadrant works in the social marketing niche, including social media and mobile advertising 03:12 – They make money by charging a percentage of the ad spend that they manage - if they meet their acquisition targets then the ad spend may be increased 04:00 – "First year revenue was $4 million" 04:23 – Spent a lot of time pre-planning and finding clients before they launched the business 05:14 – "It was a painstaking process...we failed a lot and spent a lot of time working out our niche" 05:25 – Revenue in 2015 was $15 million 05:46 – 33 employees, based in California and New York 06:01 – Take around 20% of ad spend on average 06:14 – Will take more than that if they arbitrage a campaign - and will take less from high-volume clients 07:02 – Have 35 active clients 07:17 – Most revenue comes from percentage fees from ad spend - and some comes from a different model where they take a fixed price-per-action from customers 08:24 – The metrics that are important to Warren's team are new opportunities, growth, and churn and attrition 08:55 – "If you're not carefully focused on churn, you're just filling a leaky bucket with more water" 09:05 – "The two things you can control are flawless quality and fanatical customer service - those are what reduce churn" 10:30 – Ad Quadrant's aspirations are to develop and incubate consumer products 11:05 – "If we can find verticals that are ripe for disruption and a good fit for social, then we want to use our expertise to get into that space" 12:08 – Warren believes in bootstrapping - he's more interested in investing in the business than paying himself a large salary 13:16 – "Reach an inflection point and pay yourself a ratio" 13:45 – Don't try to run 5 businesses at once - find the one that you really want to focus on. Passive investment is an option as well 14:50 – Warren's generated his own wealth from prior exits 08:16 – Connect with Warren on Linkedin or Twitter 17:44 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Focus on one thing at a time. If you're in a service industry, you've got to control churn. Have astonishingly good customer service - otherwise you'll bleed clients instead of growing. Plan. Plan painstakingly and obsessively before you try to launch your business. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Chapters

1. What is the main topic discussed in this episode? 2. What is Ad Quadrant and what services do they offer? 3. How did Warren Jolly achieve $4 million in revenue in the first year? 4. What strategies did Warren use to plan before launching his business? 5. How did Ad Quadrant grow to $15 million in revenue by 2015? 6. How does Warren manage client churn in a service-based business?

Featured

Nathan Latka

Warren Jolly

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 9.041 Nathan Latka

This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base.

Chapter 2: What is Ad Quadrant and what services do they offer?

9.522 - 19.394 Nathan Latka

You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million.

Chapter 3: How did Warren Jolly achieve $4 million in revenue in the first year?

19.414 - 35.514 Nathan Latka

He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark. And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay, Top Tribe, remember, every Monday I give one of you $100 to invest in your idea to help get it to the top.

Chapter 4: What strategies did Warren use to plan before launching his business?

35.534 - 46.148 Nathan Latka

To enter, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes now and then text the word Nathan to 33444 to prove it. Again, that's Nathan to 33444 to prove it.

Chapter 5: How did Ad Quadrant grow to $15 million in revenue by 2015?

46.849 - 51.735 Nathan Latka

Last week's winner was Mike Shcherbakov. Mike runs his own internet business.

Chapter 6: How does Warren manage client churn in a service-based business?

51.775 - 67.033 Nathan Latka

He's doing between $100,000 and $500,000 per year. He's a blogger, author, and influencer building his business listening to The Top. Okay, Top Tribe, this episode is brought to you by FreshBooks, the invoicing tool that I use to make sure I collect all my money in an efficient manner.

67.374 - 89.172 Nathan Latka

To claim your free month, go to NathanLatke.com forward slash FreshBooks and enter The Top in the How Did You Hear About Us section. This is episode 333. Coming up bright and early tomorrow morning, you will hear from Jake in episode 334. He is creating the new billion-dollar direct mailing industry. It's very weird. You don't want to miss it. Top Tribe, good morning to you.

89.312 - 105.699 Nathan Latka

Today's guest today is Warren Jolly, and he is a serial internet entrepreneur and investor. He's currently the CEO of AdQuadrant, a $15 million fast-growing performance marketing agency focused on social advertising. Warren, are you ready to take us to the top?

106.4 - 107.061 Warren Jolly

Absolutely, Nathan.

107.081 - 113.552 Nathan Latka

Thanks for having me. All right, let's do this. Okay, first things first. What year did you found AdQuadrant, and how old is it?

113.532 - 117.606 Warren Jolly

AdQuadrant is actually only two years old. We started the company in April of 2014. Okay.

117.887 - 122.884 Nathan Latka

And you consider yourself a SaaS company or an agency or what bucket would you put yourself in?

123.185 - 129.775 Warren Jolly

We're more of an agency, but I would say somewhat of a hybrid as well. But our focus is really managed services.

130.076 - 143.637 Nathan Latka

Managed. OK, got it. So, yeah. So let's so this is much more like, you know, professional services, things like that. Correct. OK, very good. OK, so you founded it, you said, in 2014, two years ago. What prompted you to found the company? Did you leave corporate or something or what?

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 333: How Did He Make $15 Million from Managing Ads in 2015?

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Chapter 2: What is Ad Quadrant and what services do they offer?

Chapter 3: How did Warren Jolly achieve $4 million in revenue in the first year?

Chapter 4: What strategies did Warren use to plan before launching his business?

Chapter 5: How did Ad Quadrant grow to $15 million in revenue by 2015?

Chapter 6: How does Warren manage client churn in a service-based business?

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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 333: How Did He Make $15 Million from Managing Ads in 2015?

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Chapter 2: What is Ad Quadrant and what services do they offer?

Chapter 3: How did Warren Jolly achieve $4 million in revenue in the first year?

Chapter 4: What strategies did Warren use to plan before launching his business?

Chapter 5: How did Ad Quadrant grow to $15 million in revenue by 2015?

Chapter 6: How does Warren manage client churn in a service-based business?

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