Dan Anton on Creating a Software Empire – Cubicle Liberation Podcast

Intro Dan
- before we get started, where can someone learn more about you and what you can offer?
- smartengage.com
  - Integration: Email Auto Responder + FB messenger + Web Push notifications + SMS
Currently…
- Puerto Rico
  - month long vacations
Dan’s story from the beginning
- looking critical turning points
- 95-96 in high school, ~sophomore
  - AOL
  - buy video games & sell for $5 more
  - New Jersey
  - message people who had video games on the profile
  - ~$200/m
- college ~y2k
  - comp sci major –> biz
  - eBay
    - building computers
    - concert tix
    - World of Warcraft guide buy rights –> eBay sales page + unlimited quantity
- never thought online was going to be career…
- 9/11 –> army
  - loved army
  - 10 years in army
  - infantry…injured
  - didn’t want desk job
- lost identity…
  - scary…
  - ~3 months to ETS (getting out)
  - what to I want to be/do?
- brother was working at an SEO agency
  - …Warrior forum
  - started ranking…
  - ~2009-2011
- saw a needs/questions –> Software make
  - hired a developer on freelancer.com
    - 1st hire burned him…out $5k
    - considered stopping
    - 2nd guy…vetted a bit more
  - Backlinksindexer.com
    - still ranks
  - The Best Spinner guy…
    - emails him
    - Google’s “how to setup affiliate program”
    - strike while the iron is hot
    - $1k/m –> $18k/m in recurring rebills overnight
      - uhh, shit!
      - pressure to stay
  - Dan knew his market research…
    - questions being asked…
    - usually starts as a problem for him…
      - is there a good solution that exists already?
        
        improve upon it?
        
        no, no worries
        
        yes, potentially build it
      - can it be automated/systemitized?
        
        no ==> not start it
  - As an entrepreneur…If not growing, falling behind
  - More affiliates…
    - Colin Klinkert affiliate
  - reinvesting $$ in other ideas
    - some didn’t work…some did
  - His SW Dev team
    - A, B, C teams
      - A team for big, complicated projects
      - team leader
    - lots of options now to find good people
    - need to have some technical writing…
      - specs, docs
- If had to start over…
  - look for upcoming talent on upwork/etc
    - interview thoroughly
    - do right by them
    - finding undiscovered talent
    - Vietnam…genius
  - SAAS…no…
    - Free Chrome Extension –> Build list –> paid version
    - do market research
    - ~$2k-$5k –> MVP
      - 1 programmer — 2-3 months
    - or buy an old extension that they let die (haven’t been updated in a long time)
      - come in with email list
    - avoid scope creep…3 months –> 6 months
      - only revise original plan if it is critical
    - how market it
      - reviews are very important for extensions — stimulate reviews
      - email list it comes to
      - downloads/traffic
      - FB Ads –> extensions
- 2013
  - Bachelor fan site purchase…
  - 50k email list…
    - built to 300k emails
  - knew nothing about marketing
  - easy to market to non-marketers
    - need –> solution –> buy
      - vs need –> solution –> lotsa stuff –> buy
- 2013/2014
  - JV Zoo event
    - run into people who know his stuff
    - people said he should do affiliate
    - he was doing and still does SEO
    - crowd search
    - started putting his face to the products
- Smart Engage
  - 2-2.5 years old
  - why create?
    - built out of necessity
      - email lists…msgr’s list…sms lists…push notifications
      - couldn’t identify what was getting them the most results
  - now trying to streamline
    - understand where the market is going
  - onboarding process
    - learning curve…
    - 1-1 conference call
    - improve domain reputation…making sure they hit the inbox
  - Ads/Organic –> FB Msgr (best way to start) –> Email
- Grew up in a household to do the best he could
  - Felt embarrassed to not do his best
  - False motivation is better than no motivation
  - Didn’t want to take a step back
    - …didn’t want his ex wife to think he’s fallin’ on bad times
- Attitude change for being wholly responsible
- Big plans in the future?
  - Long term goals? ~2030
  - Agency
    - Micro niche agencies
    - register domain –> new client within 30 days
    - exit strategy
  - Structure business around life
    - Puerto Rico + 1 month traveling
      - 2017 hurricane…no work for 2.5 weeks…infrastructure has gotten better
      - traveling with laptop…do a little bit each day
      - took about 3 years to really reach this point
- Typical Dan Day
  - get up at 6 am ish…
    - work from 7am – 1pm…go to gym…
    - try not to work @ night
  - his personal calendar from Asana
  - check in on slack
  - jira project management tool
  - looks at ads — FB, Google
    - optimizes ads himself
  - yearly/quarterly/monthly/weekly
    - hitting objectives on conversions
    - churn…onboard…
    - features
Outro Dan
- THANK YOU SO MUCH DAN
- plug again — smartengage.com — grab a free trial
  - if found through podcast in support and get an extra month to the free trial!!

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