Zero to a Million

Bootstrapping a $1,000 Athleisure Business to 10M Revenue with Rob Fraser

HIGHLIGHTS  Creating an athleisure product category with $1,000 Building an online brand with micro influencers and ambassadors Organic funnels and global shifts to online business grows endūr Growing an ambassador program with genuine passion QUOTES Rob: "We're talking one sale a day, sometimes zero sales a day. This was a very long slow burn. Over a year in, there were some days where we wouldn't have one Shopify sale. These things take time. We didn't really start paying to acquire ...

How to Build Product Partnerships and Community to Scale Your eCommerce Business with Ori Zohar

HIGHLIGHTS  Growing 4-5x by developing an excellent online platform Embracing the advantages of a small company for genuine connection A spice forum became the company's hub for content and engagement Website feedback and a fun buying experience for repeat customers  Collaborations and formulating spice blends QUOTES Ori: "If chefs who have access to all the best ingredients in the world are getting this excited about the spices, then maybe there's an opportunity. Also, not just for m...

Creating an Effective PR Strategy for Your eCommerce Brand with Tyler Sickmeyer

HIGHLIGHTS A different PR strategy based on personalization and trust Be prepared and thorough when pitching to journalists  Choosing the right clients with or without media training  PR and SEO: A unique offering that anticipates bad links  QUOTES Tyler: "It all comes down to building relationships and building trust with producers, with journalists, with editors on why we're going to bring value time and time again... Once we bring them one or two quality guests and quality appearanc...

Scaling a Chocolate Business with Elaine Hsieh

HIGHLIGHTS A passion for pastries ushers in the chocolate business Figuring out storage and shipping for chocolates Word of mouth and direct marketing with newsletters  QUOTES Elaine: "That's been a bit challenging in terms of the physical space because we don't have a very large space, so that is one thing that we are now running into is the fact that we're limited, in some ways, by the physical space that we have." Elaine: "Interspersed with that newsletter will be other things that ...

How to Scale Using Direct Mail with Michael Epstein

HIGHLIGHTS Several touch points make return customers more likely Robotic handwritten cards as a marketing strategy Leverage post-purchase campaigns QUOTES Michael: "Customers do buy more when there's a multitouch approach. They're more likely to come back, they're more likely to spend more, when you combine the power of your digital marketing campaigns and offline direct mail campaigns." Michael: "We have robotic technology that literally holds a pen, holds a pen to paper, writes the ...

How to Create Community Then Product Sales with Hansol Hong

HIGHLIGHTS Founding Robolink to make technology fun and approachable Testing in an after school program and perfecting product market fit Marketing with Kickstarter and winning the 2019 CES Innovation Award  Fostering community, online camps, and robotics clubs QUOTES Hansol: "We were testing our product every single day with our students, so that's why when we actually released our janky product prototype, and then when that went to the market, it had a really good product market fit....

Easy to Execute Conversion Rate Optimizations with Drew Himel

HIGHLIGHTS  Being everything to everyone initially and focusing services after that  Working with the Chargers move from San Diego to LA  Red flags in clients to watch out for  Improvements in UX/UI that increase conversion Creating a customer journey and improving the subscription model QUOTES Drew: "What I typically recommend is, if you're starting out, maybe having the full service or having like one or two freelancers is a little bit easier so that they scale and grow. But, as you...

Zero to a Million Compilation Episode

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego showcases the season's best moments. We featured founders and organization movers who built their companies from the ground up as they shared their biggest wins, losses, and all the lessons they learned in between. HIGHLIGHTS  Aneela Idnani, Co-Founder of HabitAware Ryan Smith, Head of Partnerships at Emotive Nathan Rothstein, Co-Founder of Project Repat Phillip Rivers, Founder and CEO of Tetra Marketing Melissa Tavss,...

Scaling eCommerce with a Personal Brand and PR

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Chris Meade, CEO and co-founder of CROSSNET. He recalls how they came up with the idea of a crossnet as a fun mashup of their favorite games and how they made up the rules as they played it. Chris shares their go-to-market strategy of just playing the game and their marketing strategies which leaned heavily on Facebook ads. One of their first main obstacles was their messaging as different people with literally dif...

Gihan Amarasiriwardena- Co founder and President - Ministry of Supply

HIGHLIGHTS  00:40 A passion for materials innovation, comfort, and human performance 04:55 Market research: Figuring out how to make the most versatile products 09:09 Launching on Kickstarter after many product iterations  12:36 Creating a Shopify product page for your brand and ideal customers 20:35 The user experience of Ministry of Supply's website 21:06 The brand's future with video ads 24:57 Connect with Gihan and Ministry of Supply QUOTES 02:43 Gihan: "What we both did is we w...

Your eCommerce Brand with Content and Podcast Partnerships with David Roger

HIGHLIGHTS  00:48 The genesis of Felix Gray by answering a consumer need 04:41 Product development process: Hard work puts you in a position to get lucky 07:01 Committing to thoughtfully-designed and research-backed designs  10:50 Content collaboration: Podcasts extend ad reads to good effect 15:58 Setting up attribution and collecting data: How did you hear about us survey 19:10 Working closely with an agency for effective podcast ad reads 22:17 More distribution channels and creatin...

Education and Performance — Providing Nutrition For Athletes By Athletes with Albert Matheny

HIGHLIGHTS  00:46 An awareness of the impact of nutrition as a college athlete 03:47 Promix: Bootstrapping the company and leading on the ground   07:11 Focusing on sustainability and growing the brand with Amazon 13:02 Going to market and providing PR with athletes for brand awareness  16:43 Relationship building to create trust and repeat buyers 22:10 Sharing education and choosing content (blogs vs Tiktok) on social 27:55 Connect with Anthony QUOTES 07:20 "I'm really good at taki...

Dapper Women — Building A Menswear-Inspired Brand with Laura and Kelly Moffat, Founders of Kirrin Finch

HIGHLIGHTS 04:39 Market and product research: Focus on button-up shirts and producing them really well  07:02 Joining an accelerator program and getting guidance for product iterations:  08:42 Building the brand pre-launch: Creating email lists and building Instagram followers 10:18 Size forecasting is a primary challenge  12:29 SEO groundwork to drive organic search and producing engaging content 17:59 The Dapper Scouts: Brand ambassadors that drive community, empowerment, and accepta...

How To Follow Market Demand To Scale Online And In Stores

HIGHLIGHTS 00:38 Ice cream as a hobby and falling in love with the bourbon flavor 04:41 Tipsy Scoop revenue streams and growing online 08:37 Driving online traffic with promos  11:11 Social media actually pushed for the creation of brick and mortar  14:00 User-generated content, win-back programs & future offerings 18:45 Shipping as the biggest challenge  QUOTES 01:24 "I started with just a little alcohol and then fell in love with that vanilla bean bourbon flavor where the bourbon r...

Scaling Email Marketing And Preparing For iOs15

HIGHLIGHTS 00:31 Phillip's success in ecommerce and focus on email marketing 05:30 Capture leads for insights into segmentation and core personas 09:19 Speak differently to leads and customers 10:30 iOS 15 updates: Metrics to look for are click rate and purchases    16:11 First party data for optimization and re-engaging users 24:25 Optimism on the near future of email, SMS, and Tiktok 28:09 Upcoming iOS 15 changes  QUOTES 03:25 "The way that I look at email and SMS is it's a modali...

Converting Customers At The Right Time With Email Marketing

HIGHLIGHTS  03:04 Upcycling as a solution to t-shirt manufacturing waste 05:25 Groupon as Repat's go to market strategy  07:39 Creating American textile jobs in NC and Texas 10:51 Growing with Klaviyo and Shopify and focusing on lead capture 17:07 Others tools and owned channels for success 19:56 Experimenting and nurturing tried and tested social media channels  23:55 Appreciating the work of selling quilts and transforming local economics 25:10 Connect with Nathan QUOTES 04:19 "W...

Scaling Your e-Commerce Store with SMS

HIGHLIGHTS  00:37 Ryan's career journey and entry with Emotive 02:36 Target customers at Privy and partnerships at Emotive 05:28 Noticing SMS for a more personalized customer experience 10:58 Merchant strategies to capture email and phone numbers 15:36 The rising priority of owned channels and engaging in human interactions 21:32 Relying on one channel alone is not advisable 25:52 Connect with Ryan QUOTES 05:50 "How can I learn more about your interests? I want your birthday, your p...

Building Content And Community To Scale Your eCommerce Brand

HIGHLIGHTS  00:40 Founding HabitAware as a personal need living with Trichotillomania 04:45 Growing up unaware of Trichotillomania and learning to heal 08:16 HabitAware product development and meeting technical co-founders 13:28 Marketing HabitAware without outing people to their condition 16:08 Scaling: Education, word of mouth, outreach, and 3rd party consultants 22:13 Converting peer coaching to an online course and testing  25:59 Updates to iOS have made tracking numbers difficult...

How to manage Facebook Ads with changes to iOS14

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Antoine Gagné, Founder & CEO at J7 Media. The release of iOS14 brought a massive change to the effectiveness of Facebook ads.  By prompting users to opt out of data tracking, CPM numbers began to reflect inaccuracies which have severely affected companies depending on Facebook ads as their main line of business. This change brought to the forefront the necessity of integrating other channels to ensure profitability...

How to Use Owned Data to Scale Ecommerce Marketing | Andrew Bialecki, Klaviyo

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Andrew Bialecki, CEO of Klaviyo about how you can use owned data to successfully scale ecommerce marketing.

How to Build Anticipation and Urgency With Black Friday promotions | Jack Born, Deadline Funnel

How to Accelerate Your SaaS Company Through Partnerships | Aaron Krall, SaaS Accelerator

How to Use Business and Marketing Knowledge to Scale Agencies | Jarod Spiewak, Comet Fuel

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Jarod Spiewak, Lead Strategist at Comet Fuel about the use of business and marketing knowledge when scaling agencies.

How to Successfully Launch a Digital Product | Jonathan Hensley, Emerge Interactive

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Jonathon Hensley, Co-Founder & CEO of EMERGE and author of the must-read digital transformation book Alignment about how to successfully launch a digital product.

How to Build Strategies for SEO & Digital Marketing | Steve Wiideman, President, Wiideman Consulting Group

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Steve Wiideman, President of Wiideman Consulting Group, about strategies for marketing and SEO. You can listen on Apple or Spotify now.

Managing Your Startups Finances While Scaling | Parker Stevenson, Co-Owner, Evolved Finance

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Parker Stevenson, Co-Owner of Evolved Finance  about managing startups finances while scaling. You can listen on Apple or Spotify now.

The 4 Key Pillars to Scaling Your Business | Jeff Chastain, Host of the Building to Scale Podcast

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Jeff Chastain, Host of the Building to Scale Podcast about the 4 key pillars to scaling your business. You can listen on Apple or Spotify now.

How to Launch and Scale Your Startup Sales Organization | Scott Clary, Host of Success Story Podcast

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Scott Clary, Host of Success Story Podcast about launching and scaling your startup sales organization. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

How to Scale to 500k Customers | Rachel Ten Brink of DYPER, Techstars, Day One

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Rachel Ten Brink of DYPER, TechStars, and Day One about scaling to 500k customers. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

How to Find and Pitch Investors | Allison Byers, Founder & CEO, Scroobious

This week Zach Rego talks with Allison Byers, Founder & CEO of Scroobious about the best strategies to find and pitch your products to Investors. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

Developing a Product Led Growth Strategy | Ramli John, Marketing Director of ProductLed

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Ramli John, Marketing Director of ProductLed and author of "Eureka" about developing a Product Led Growth Strategy.

How to Create & Scale Your Content Strategy | Jeff Coyle Co-founder, MarketMuse

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Jeff Coyle, CEO and founder of MarketMuse, about how to create and scale your content strategy. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

How to Scale Your Startup (even if it feels like it's failing) | Ryan Deiss CEO and Founder of Scalable

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Ryan Deiss, CEO and Founder of Scalable, about how to scale your start-up (even if it feels like it's failing. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

How to Scale Your Startup (even if it feels like it's failing) | Ryan Deiss CEO and Founder of Scalable

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Ryan Deiss, CEO and Founder of Scalable, about how to scale your start-up (even if it feels like it's failing. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

How to Prepare to Launch Your SaaS Platform | Jessica Meher, CEO & Co-Founder of Wonderment

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Jessica Meher, CEO and Co-Founder of Wonderment, about how to prepare to launch your SAAS Platform effectively. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now.

How to Build and Manage a Board | George Kassabgi Angel Investor, Director

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with George Kassabgi, an Angel Investor and Director, about how to build and manage a board. You can listen on  Apple or Spotify now. Connect with George on LinkedIn and Read his articles on Medium!

How to Build and Test a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) | Aram Melkoumov Co-Founder of Crowdlinker

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Aram Melkoumov, Co-Founder and CEO of Crowdlinker, about building a proof of concept, MVP, and validating products.

How to Make an Investor Pitch Deck | Andrew Goei Co-Founder of PitchPages

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Andrew Goei, co-founder of PitchPages & Ketchup Labs, about his career progression in Entrepreneurship and making a pitch deck.

What to Look For In Venture Investing | Eric Bahn Co-Funder of Hustle Fund

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Eric Bahn, co-founder of Hustle Fund, about his career progression to becoming a founder and partner investor.

How to Engage With Venture Capital Firms For Funding | Charlie Hipwood CEO of MassVentures

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Charlie Hipwood, President and CEO of MassVentures about his journey to becoming an early stage venture investor, and how to engage ventures for funding.

How to Make Your Business More Attractive to Investors | Stewart Bradley Co-Founder of El Cap Holdings

In this weeks episode of Zero to a Million, Zach Rego speaks with Stewart Bradley about how he transitioned from NFL Professional, to Co-Founder of El Cap Holdings. Bradley informs us what he looks for when investing in business, and what strategies you can use to make your business more attractive to investors.

What do investors look for in a startup? | Ralph Folz Startup Investor

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Ralph Folz, an experienced entrepreneur, board director, and startup investor based in Boston. Ralph shares his journey, why he's passionate about working with startups, and what he looks for when he's investing in companies.

How and Why to Fund Your Startup Without Giving Up Equity | Nathan Latka CEO of Founderpath

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Nathan Latka, CEO of Founderpath about strategies he uses to help grow his podcast and business. Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn & Twitter. Check out the Founderpath website. Connect with Zach Rego on LinkedIn.

Startup Marketing Trends 2021 Report | Deep Dive

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego takes a deep dive into the Unstack startup marketing trends 2021 report, talking strategies and report data.

How to Create a Successful Podcast | CRO, Collin Mitchell

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Collin Mitchell, CRO of Salescast, about strategies to use when starting and scaling a podcast. After growing his career in sales, Collin started his own business with his wife where they bootstrapped $5M. Collins true passion is sales, but when he attended as a guest with his co-worker on a podcast, he realized that the answer to all of the social media engagement that he was missing was right in front of him. After asking some que...

How to use content to acquire your first 100 customers | Nikhil Aitharaju, Co-Founder of Topic

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Nikhil Aitharaju, Co-Founder of Topic, about strategies needed to scale new startups. In this episode, Nikhil explains that working closely on a single niche and going above & beyond for your beginning customers really helps you understand customer needs. Nikhil shares terms like "marketing ammo" and how to find and use it to focus particular needs in todays competitive market.

How to build a personal brand on LinkedIn and its business impact | Jackie Hermes CEO & Founder of Accelity

This week, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Jackie Hermes, Founder & CEO of Accelity, about personal brands on LinkedIn and its business impact. In this episode, Jackie shares more about her growing business and narrows in on how and why creating a personal brand on LinkedIn helps businesses new or existing to scale. Connect with Jackie on LinkedIn, check out Accelity!

How to Build an Audience | Eric Siu, CEO of Clickflow

In this episode, VP of Sales and Marketing Zach Rego talks with Eric Siu, CEO of Clickflow, about how to build an audience. Eric Siu is an investor, founder and advisor to companies. He is the Chairman of digital marketing agency Single Grain, which has worked with companies such as Amazon, Uber, and Salesforce. He also hosts two podcasts: Marketing School with Neil Patel and Leveling Up, an entrepreneurial podcast where he dissects growth levers that help businesses scale. Connect with Er...

How to price and monetize your SaaS product | Patrick Campbell CEO & Founder Profitwell

How to price and monetize your SaaS product Patrick Campbell CEO + Founder Profitwell

How to scale using automation -- Bryan Golkhajeh, Co-Founder of Workload