From Start-Up To Exit In Three Years
Peter Shankman started Help A Reporter Out (HARO) to connect experts with journalists who needed people to quote for stories. HARO sent a simple email three times a day to subscribers and because every email had the potential to be a reporter from a media outlet like The New York Times, the email open rates were close to 80%. Most days Shankman worked from his sofa with two employees helping him remotely.
Within three years, Shankman was generating $1.5MM from selling simple text ads on his email blasts. That’s when Shankman’s largest advertiser approached him to buy HARO. In the episode you’ll learn:
- the remarkable relationship between ADHD and entrepreneurship
- the surprising upside of selling instead of scaling your business
- the truth about who is most likely to buy your business
- the best way to find a strategic buyer for your company
HARO was acquired by its largest advertiser, a software company called Vocus. A big customer has an obvious strategic reason to buy your business and turn a cost center on their P&L into an asset on their balance sheet. Customers are one of eight strategic buyers you’ll evaluate when working through The Short List Builder, Module 11 in The Value Builder System™. Complete Module 1 right now by completing the Value Builder questionnaire.
Click to Tweet: Ep. 80 of Built To Sell Radio, From Start-Up To Exit In Three Years.
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About Peter Shankman
The New York Times has called him “a public relations all star who knows everything about new media and then some,” while Investor’s Business Daily has labeled him “crazy, but effective.” Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of pure creativity with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage.
Listed as number four in Meeting and Conventions Magazine’s Top 25 C Suite speakers to hear in 2016, Peter is an author, entrepreneur and corportate keynote speaker, and “worldwide connector,” recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about customer service, social media, PR, marketing, advertising, and ADHD.
Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year became the defacto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 200,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something”, proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week. In June of 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc.
The ADHD Entrepreneur
Have you ever wondered why you get bored with a business after a few years of running it? Chances are you might have some of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
How To Double An Acquisition Offer For Your Business
Bobby Albert took over the family moving business when his father died unexpectedly. Determined to succeed, he transformed his father’s five-person business into a fast growth company, eventually employing 150 people before The Albert Group of Companies was approached by a strategic acquirer.
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