Industry-Focused CRM Solutions
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Follow-up Boss built a successful vertical-specific CRM by focusing exclusively on real estate agents, growing from a bootstrapped startup to a $500M exit.
Key Points:
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Product Focus:
- CRM specifically for real estate agents
- Helps track leads from sources like Redfin and Zillow
- Manages client relationships and home buying/selling process
- Similar to Hubspot/Salesforce but specialized for real estate
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Initial Development:
- Found idea by monitoring Facebook groups for real estate agents' pain points
- Built MVP in 6 months
- Started with just one customer paying $150/month
- Bootstrapped the entire company
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Growth Strategy:
- Built business primarily through Facebook groups
- CEO personally helped in groups without direct selling
- People would see his profile, notice he was CEO, and investigate the product
- Focused on solving real problems rather than aggressive marketing
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Business Metrics:
- Took 4 years to reach $100k monthly revenue
- Had 11 employees at $100k monthly revenue mark
- Eventually sold for $400M upfront + $100M earnout
- Built with less than 100 employees
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Exit Details:
- $500M total potential value
- $400M upfront in cash
- $100M additional earnout
- Bootstrapped to exit with no outside investment
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.