Learnings at Scale

Lessons From Building a 150 Million-Dollar Ad Machine with Bruce Tannenholz | E12

Bruce Tannenholz has spent 10s of millions on digital ads and driven hundreds of millions in revenue. This episode dives into the critical, yet often overlooked, elements behind companies that are successful in acquiring customers through paid advertising, going beyond just "running ads."
Bruce, a seasoned marketing and sales leader, shares his journey from headhunting to building a $150 million revenue business through strategic customer acquisition. He reveals his playbook for maximizing lead value, upselling, and optimizing unit economics to fuel continuous ad scaling.
 
Show notes:
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(00:00) Introduction and Background(00:38) Early Career and Headhunting(04:30) Building an Affiliate Network(07:09) Scaling Marketing and Sales(14:29) Shift to PR Business(28:04) Understanding Marketing ROI(29:33) The Importance of Upselling(31:59) Targeting Home Services(34:50) Leveraging Third-Party Expertise(38:32) Optimizing Lead Forms and Landing Pages(41:37) Scaling Paid Advertising Programs(48:15) Adapting to New Advertising Platforms(52:26) Educating Small Business Owners(55:19) Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Links:
Are you a high-growth company looking to scale your marketing efforts profitably? Reach out to Opascope for a free, comprehensive go-to-market audit of your paid advertising, SEO, user experience, analytics, and much more at https://bit.ly/4fhXCQ5
 
Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know when we release new episodes: https://bit.ly/46knTZO
 

How a Scientist Boosted Typeform’s ARR by $8 Million Dollars | E11

Ignasi Buch Mundó drove $8 million dollars in ARR at Typeform through pricing and packaging. Today, Ignasi is a principal product manager at Happy Scribe. Previously, he led product-growth strategy for companies like Typeform and Pitch.
Before tech, Ignasi was a biotechnologist with a specialization in computational biophysics. With that foundation in mind, it’s no surprise that Ignasi brings a scientific approach to iterating on pricing and product strategy.
Show notes:-(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:59) The $8 Million Pricing Strategy(00:07:28) Building a Data Foundation for Product Growth(00:15:25) Hypothesis-Based Product Strategy(00:23:43) Navigating Imperfect Data(00:29:23) Building a Growth-Oriented product Team(00:36:58) Leading & Building Product Growth Teams(00:40:21) Ignasi's Book Recommendations-Links:
Are you a high-growth company looking to scale your marketing efforts profitably? Reach out to Opascope for a free, comprehensive go-to-market audit of your paid advertising, SEO, user experience, analytics, and much more at https://bit.ly/4fhXCQ5
 
Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know when we release new episodes: https://bit.ly/46knTZO
 

Tinder, AI, and Scaling a Startup to 2MM ARR in 14 Months with Anis Bennaceur | E10

Anis Bennaceur is the CEO and Co-Founder of Attention. In this episode, Anis breaks down his unconventional growth tactics, sharing what he learned from being an early employee at Tinder focused on growth, bootstrapping his first startup, and building his latest venture, Attention, to $2M ARR in just one year.
 
Show notes:
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(00:00) Introduction(01:59) Anis' Background(05:00) Joining Tinder and Growth Hacking(09:16) Launching Mixer: A Network for Creatives(17:15) Founding Attention: AI for Sales(21:43) Growth Hacking and Experimentation Insights(33:36) Building AI Products and Customer Focus(40:23) Learning and Scaling as a CEO
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Links:
 
Check out attention.tech if you're interested in leveling up your sales team, and say hello to Anis on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anis-bennaceur/
 
Are you a high-growth company looking to scale your marketing efforts profitably? Reach out to Opascope for a free, comprehensive go-to-market audit of your paid advertising, SEO, user experience, analytics, and much more -> www.opascope.com
 
Subscribe to our newsletter on www.learningsatscale.com and be the first to know when we release new episodes!

Scaling to 8,000 Members & Millions in Revenue with For Them's Kylo Freeman | E9

Kylo Freeman is the CEO and founder of For Them. For Them produces chest binders for the trans and non-binary community but Kylo’s mission goes beyond their product. At For Them, Kylo and their team are working to build a supportive ecosystem around their customers. This episode explores Kylo’s unique approach to entrepreneurship, balancing a deep commitment to care and community with the demands of scaling a successful business. 
 
(00:00) From PwC to PreHype: The Path to Founding For Them
(02:29) Finding the Right Problem and Ideation Phase
(05:21) Validating the Idea and Early Customer Research
(07:06) Hacking Product Development
(18:18) Building and Scaling the Community
(23:43) Balancing Creative Vision with an Operational Mindset
(34:01) A Renaissance Human: How Kylo Diversified Their Skills
(41:22) Crossing the Chasm and Navigating Growth Chapters
(46:46) The Future of For Them

Cartier Legacy to Lab Diamonds: Disrupting Designer Jewelry with Jean Dousset | E8

Jean Dousset, noted jewelry designer and descendant of Louis Cartier joins Max on the pod. Jean Dousset’s namesake brand creates custom pieces for high-profile clients, including Eva Longoria and Paris Hilton. Dousset also pioneered the use of lab-grown diamonds in fine jewelry, making stones of the best cut and clarity available to a wider range of consumers. Discover how Dousset turned a small brand specializing in high jewelry into an industry disrupter.
 
(00:00) Introduction to the Jewelry World(00:19) Family Legacy and Early Career(01:21) First Steps in High Jewelry Sales(03:45) Training and Craftsmanship(07:55) Developing a Unique Design Philosophy(12:00) Retail Challenges and Career Growth(27:57) The Impact of Online Diamond Sales(34:12) Simplifying the Diamond Selection Process(35:44) Building the First Website(37:09) Starting from Scratch: The eBay Store(37:47) Learning the Craft of Jewelry Making(39:51) Bootstrapping the Business(42:59) Opening the First Showroom(45:54) Scaling the Business(47:54) The Lab-Grown Unlock(57:05) Advice for Aspiring Jewelry Designers(59:29) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Secret to Growth Marketing for Early Stage Startups with Matias Ketonen | E7

Matias has led growth at Typeform, Pitch, Cello and other successful startups. In this episode, Max and Matias talk about how to decide which marketing levers to pull when you’re in the early stages and discuss the art of scaling product-led growth and building out the ideal team for a PLG motion. They dive deep into an effective strategy for building lead magnets, the nuance of channel selection, why simplicity is so important in a startup, and much more.
 
(00:24) Early Startup Experiences(02:43) Marketing and Complexity(03:32) Balancing Data and Intuition(11:29) Building Great Lead Magnets(29:37) First 30 Days in a PLG Company(32:31) Challenging Assumptions and Key Metrics(36:23) Building Effective Growth Systems(38:02) Systems and Experimentation(48:17) Channel Selection(51:20) Adapting and Evaluating Success(56:24) The Value of Generalists in Early-Stage Companies(56:48) Learning and Curiosity: Keys to Success

Scaling from $1M to $100M ARR: Lessons from a Marketing VP | E6

Max sits down with Charlie Liang, VP of Marketing at Kula and former Head of Demand Gen at Lattice. Charlie, a SaaS marketing expert with over a decade of experience, shares what he’s learned helping companies scale from 1 million dollars in annual recurring revenue to 100mm in ARR and beyond.
Max and Charlie talked about poker math and how to apply it in marketing, the best cold outreach Charlie has ever received, the importance of process, and a whole lot more.
(00:00) Introduction(02:20) Poker Math & Probabilistic Thinking(06:46) Knowing Your Numbers & Building Intuition(16:57) The Importance of Documentation & Building Your Narrative(21:35) Leveraging AI & Maximizing Website Value(27:29) The Future of Work & Early Career Development(33:05) Charlie's Journey(37:47) Systems Thinking in Marketing

Landing HBO & Building a Global Tech Powerhouse from Finland with Reaktor's Mikael Kopteff | E5

Max sits down with Mikael Kopteff, CTO at Reaktor. Reaktor is a global technology consultancy that builds digital products for some of the worlds top companies. Their clients include HBO, Virgin Atlantic, Adidas, Metso, Rovio, the Finnish Defense Forces, and more. Since landing a contract with HBO in 2013, Reaktor has grown into a sector leader with offices in six countries and three continents.
 
Episode Chapters:
(00:00) Introduction
(01:06) The HBO Pitch
(10:53) Opening the New York Office
(13:00) Building a Culture of Curiosity
(25:09) Navigating Conflict to Build Trust
(26:35) Agile Coaching
(32:23) Recruitment and Onboarding at Reactor
(37:26) Demystifying AI
(49:09) Cultivating Curiosity

eCommerce Conversion Secrets with Erik Christiansen, CEO of Justuno | E4

Max sits down with Erik Christiansen, CEO and co-founder of Justuno. Justuno was born from an idea Erik and his co-founder had while running the e-commerce store for Sierra Snowboards: users who left the site and Googled "Sierra Snowboard Coupon Code" would come back and have a sales conversion rate between 8% to 12%. That insight led them to ask the question "what if we show them that coupon on the site?"
Today, Justuno helps over 133k brands turn their website visitors into customers.
(00:00) Introduction(10:03) Bootstrapping a Business: Eric's Journey(12:50) The Birth of JustUno(15:31) Understanding Website Optimization(22:04) Maximizing the Value of Website Visitors(31:41) The Amazon Effect on E-commerce(38:50) Navigating a Cookieless World(42:33) The Role of Data and AB Testing(52:53) Future Trends in Conversion Rate Optimization

$1,000 To Millions: The Salesflow Growth Story | E3

Max ⁠sits down with Besnik Vrellaku, CEO, and Chintan Maisuria, COO, of Salesflow. Salesflow is a business that helps B2B companies generate leads and automate quality outreach. By balancing research and testing in both acquisition and retention phases, Besnik and Chintan make prescient decisions. Their well-timed growth strategies turned a scrappy bootstrapped startup with $1000 in the bank into a multimillion-dollar B2B SaaS company.
 
(00:00) Introduction
(10:02) Chintan’s Learnings from Validating 100+ Companies
(19:43) Building MVPs and Bootstrapping Challenges
(29:16) From $1000 to Millions: Getting the First 100 Customers
(38:21) SaaS Attribution Challenges
(41:18) Balancing Attribution Models
(43:50) The Role of Different Ad Channels
(45:30) Intent Channels
(48:04) Meta in B2B Marketing
(53:43) Growth Hacks and Retention Strategies
(58:52) The Future of Growth Strategies
(01:20:16) Final Thoughts