VaynerMedia's Bootstrap Growth

A story about how Gary Vaynerchuk managed rapid growth at VaynerMedia in its early years.

"In September 2011, I made the decision to go full-time Vayner, no longer what I would call full-time Wine Library with secondary Vayner. When I made that switch, the lighter fluid kind of went on.

What helped was that I'm really good at top-line revenue driving initiatives. Because I'm able to create so much top-line revenue and because I'm playing forever - similar to Wine Library which was my dad's family business - I'm just able to hire a lot.

With retail it was really easy because I knew how to sell wine. With B2B it took me a little while to calibrate - like 'oh wait, they didn't pay us, why didn't they pay, the bills are due.' But overall it's just staying in your business.

I'm not a CFO-oriented CEO, but I'm also not a shlameel. I always have a good sense of whether we're going to be in debt or trouble. I try to stay within those confines."