To all the builders struggling out there:

It’s 12 years ago.

6 months earlier, I left my fancy job

Talked to 20+ customers
Built our site
Spent 100 hours a week cranking

We finally launched…

After a week and $10k in ads, we made <$500 in rev

In short, we had failed👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
1/ First, what was the biz?

We found potential students for online universities by buying search ads that went to our "matching engine."

If we paid $1 per click and 5% matched, our cost would be $20 and the schools would pay $40.

We THOUGHT we'd be printing money, but...
2/ Our conversion rate was closer to 0.1%

We were F****d

Our financial model was totally wrong!

We we're on the cutting edge:
• Keyword scraping tools
• A unique bidding framework
• Super Slick matching engine in JS

But it wasn't working.

I emailed a friend at Google...
3/ Her response: "Dude, Fail. You picked the absolute worst vertical. It's so competitive, even Google doesn't support/advise in it. I wish you spoke with me before doing this."

I wished I had, too. I was numb, my face flushed...

Why did I leave my job?
4/ We were bootstrapping, @aniketkshah and I lived with my parents.

My dad, himself an entrepreneur + triathlete, took me for a run.

"Why are you doing marketing with no prior experience? You said your boss at GS made millions, what were you thinking!?"
5/ He ran an 8 min mile vs my 10 min so I just kept panting...

Which was ideal, because I didn't have any good answers.

Instead, we went into scramble mode for the next 2 months.

Here's how we saved the company:
6/ First, we called all our clients - apologized we weren't delivering the volume we promised and assured them we were committed to success.

None left and all were impressed by our candor/proactivity.
7/ Then we sent out pings to any/everyone we knew who could help.

We asked for introductions to competitors, ad experts, friends, cousins, anyone who could teach us anything about digital marketing.

We learned a tremendous amount in those 8 weeks.
8/ Simplified as much as possible - We had over complicated everything.

We had 4 channels, 4k keywords, 8k match types, dynamic bids, 20+ landing pages.

Our "smarts" led us to create an unsolvable problem.

Our new mantra: 1 keyword to 1 landing page that converts profitably
9/ We hustled - my then girlfriend, now wife @tweepika started cold calling publishers who would send us traffic.

We looked at competitor websites and borrowed liberally.

It turned out this demo didn't want a slick funnel and that was part of our conversion issues...
10/ Roughly 7 weeks later with less than $10k in our bank account + $50k of credit card debt, it was my 26th birthday.

We "launched" again for the 9th time.

Spent $2k on ads ($25 CPL) and generated $3500 in revenue.

IT WORKED!!
11/ 2 months later, we started advertising on $FB

11 mos later, by August of 2011, Ampush generated $2M in revenue and spent $1.2M on ads every month.

That was around the time we got a call from Facebook...

"You are one of our top 100 advertisers, what's an Ampush?
12/ But that's a story for another day...

My advice:

1. Stay tenacious, don't be afraid to ask for help
2. Iterate quickly.
2. Focus on “rate of learning/improvement” vs absolute position.
3. Nothing ever works the first time.

Share this with an entrepreneur who needs it!
13/ If you enjoyed this thread, follow me!

@jspujji

I've bootstrapped multiple 8 figure businesses, grew Ampush to $400,000,000+ in FB spend, and now run a venture studio launching a profitable company every quarter.

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More from @jspujji

31 Dec 21
11 Predictions for 2022 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
11/ Work from Office Returns with a Vengeance

Yes we can 100% work remotely. But as Omicron finally brings herd immunity, I think people will return to the office.

And. It. Will. Be. One. Huge. Party.

People will remember the social aspect, energy and learning that goes on.
10/ Crypto will have a Reckoning.

Full disc: my knowledge is a 2/10 in Crypto. But what @jack started in ‘21 will become a full blown war in ‘22.

And ultimately that will lead to certain “teams” (btc and eth) winning and others (shit coins) losing.
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30 Dec 21
The founder I most look up to is someone who:

• Built a $10 billion company
• Acquired 12 MEGA brands
• Gets home daily by 6pm

Here’s 12 timeless lessons from one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our generation👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
@RicElias is one of most successful + least known entrepreneurs of our generation.

His company Red Ventures is the largest digital media company in the US.

He’s also one of the most humble, kind hearted people I know. And an amazing mentor.

Alright, onto the lessons…
Lesson 1: You own your business, your business doesn’t own you

In 2017, I was feeling stuck after many years of running Ampush.

He encouraged me to use my work for personal growth + ask my team to do the same.

He reminded me that as the CEO/founder I can change anything
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29 Dec 21
The question I get most often in my DMs is: "Will you invest in my company?"

But a close #2 is for book recommendations...

Here are 11 of my favorite business books, each one is worth reading twice👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
1/ The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success

This book changed my life.
2/ Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

A must read for anyone who's job depends on persuasion.
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28 Dec 21
Bootstrapping is hard.

You feel lost and stretched constantly.

Cash flow. Working capital. Inventory. Where do you focus?

I wish I had a top metrics cheat sheet when I started my first co.

So I wrote one.

Pay attention to these 5 metrics to make bootstrapping easier👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
1/ #1 - Debt capacity against assets/sales

One of the most important things we did early @ampush was borrow (factored) against our receivables.

Back then, it was still pretty old school/sharky but today there are myriad of options like @getclearco and @AssembledBrands
2/ The important metric is: how big is your AR, Inventory or subscription revenue (whatever “denominator”) you are receiving debt against?

How much can you borrow against that?

And what are your ongoing cash costs to fund operations?
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28 Dec 21
Twitter is the greatest university in the world.

You can learning anything here.

Including my favorite topic:

Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship

Here are my 7 favorite bootstrappers on Twitter.

Follow them for delight, inspiration, and to learn daily 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
1/ @businessbarista

• Bootstrapped a $75MM+ business
• Practices what he preaches
• Fantastic Writer

Best Tweet For Bootstrappers:
2/ @Codie_Sanchez

• Super cool person and investor
• Practices what she preaches
• Runs over dozens of businesses

My Fav Tweet For Bootstrappers:
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