Ep04: How Todd Garland, Founder of BuySellAds, Started An $18 Million Dollar Company While Working A 9-5 Job

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Have you wanted to take the plunge into entrepreneurship but aren’t quite ready to give up your day job yet? Well, that’s exactly what Todd Garland, CEO of BuySellAds did as he worked at HubSpot from 9-5 and orchestrated a multimillion dollar business during off hours. I should also mention that everything was bootstrapped and profitable in the first year!

In this interview, you’ll learn the processes he used to maneuver himself into position to eventually leave his already cool day job and go all in with entrepreneurship.

Key Takeaways

• Build something people want. Doesn’t matter how good your marketing is if you have a crappy product.
• Routine while working 9-5
  • Wake up early and do work
  • Work before bed
• How to set specific goals
  • Listen to instincts
  • Be realistic
• On getting funded:
  • Raise money only if you know what you’re going to do with the money.
  • They didn’t raise money only because he wouldn’t know how to make it scale significantly.
  • It depends on what kind of company you’re trying to build. If it’s not labor/capital intensive, you don’t need massive funding. If it’s a huge/new idea, you probably do.
• What motivates you?
  • Proving people wrong and doing things in unconventional ways.
• On remote teams
  • On hiring the right people: Understanding whether or not someone is a good communicator or not. People who communicate well end up being contributors in general because they can communicate much more effectively.
  • Tools for communicating: Campfire, Skype, E-mail
• User acquisition
  • For the first 100 customers, you knock on their door and you do the unscalable stuff.
  • Spend the first 100 days within your control to over exceed their expectations. These people will be your champions. Go beyond their expectations.
• Must Read Book
  • Getting Real
• On coding as a founder
  • His team tries to keep him away from committing code but he thinks they should always be getting their hands dirty with the product. You gotta Marissa Mayer it.