Magazine Sales Prospecting
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Craig Fuller built a business acquiring niche hobby magazines and using them as lead generation tools for high-ticket sales opportunities. The company, Firecrown, now owns 44 magazines and is projected to do $50M in revenue with 18% EBITDA.
Key Points:
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Acquisition Strategy:
- Buys magazines for 3-5x EBITDA
- Targets magazines focused on expensive hobbies (flying, boating, RC planes)
- Acquires titles in bulk from old family companies
- Currently owns 44 different magazine brands
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Business Model:
- Uses "negative CAC" - customers pay for magazine subscriptions
- Magazines act as lead generation for high-ticket items
- Media business pays for audience creation
- Uses audience to bootstrap other commerce opportunities
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Revenue Example (Flying Magazine):
- Bought magazine and 300-acre plot for $7M
- Created flying club/residential development
- Sells luxury homes around private airstrip
- Brokers private jet sales ($7-10M transactions)
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Financial Performance:
- Q4 2024: $15M revenue
- 2024 Projection: $50M revenue with 18% EBITDA
- 2030 Target: $1B revenue with 30% profit margins
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Growth Strategy:
- Find old titles around expensive hobbies
- Use magazine to build qualified audience
- Create commerce products to sell to audience
- Scale through multiple magazine acquisitions
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.