Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to 5 Million Plus: Nick Shaw, CEO of Renaissance Periodization (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to that moment in 2012 when you started RP. What did you start with? Was there an app or was it straight away online consultation?

Nick Shaw: It was just me and my buddy. We were already working with clients online and in-person. It was this idea of, “Let’s join forces.” There was no funding. It was just him and me founding it. We didn’t really have these great visions that would take off and grow into something a lot bigger. It has become that now. It was just one of those things where he and I loved health and fitness.

We would work with our close friends and family. We would do a good job with them. We would just work off referrals. That’s how it all got started. >>>

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to 5 Million Plus: Nick Shaw, CEO of Renaissance Periodization (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.

Nick has built a very interesting e-learning company and addressed scalability with nifty strategic choices. Read on. You’ll learn a lot.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Nick Shaw: I was born and raised in the state of Michigan. I grew up with the goal of wanting to go to the University of Michigan. It’s a top-level school. I was lucky enough to get accepted there. I started in the Sports Management program. I originally wanted to be an athletic director. >>>

Spotlight on Entrepreneurship in Florida

We have done several spotlight posts on entrepreneurship in different parts of the world: Colorado, Utah, Czech Republic.

Today, we will turn the spotlight on Florida.

As usual, we start with a Unicorn: Modernizing Medicine. It’s a wonderful company from serial entrepreneur Daniel Cane. The HealthcareIT company has raised over $350 million in funding, has over $100 million in revenue, and is a legitimate unicorn.

Read: Equity Financing from Customers: Modernizing Medicine CEO Daniel Cane, Boca Raton, Florida

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Bootstrapping with Paycheck to $15 Million from Tennessee: Gene Caballero, CEO of GreenPal (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: How big a company do you think you can build? Obviously, you probably have a sense of the total market that you can access. What is the size of that market?

Gene Caballero: The landscaping industry is about a $9 billion a year industry. Our TAM is almost limitless. In 2019, we want to be in all the major top 100 markets. Then in 2020, we’re going to double back and hit some of those sub-markets in those areas. By then, our revenues should be in the neighborhood of $80 million a year.

Sramana Mitra: Right now, you’re doing it with just the two of you. Do you use a lot of outsourced resources? >>>

Bootstrapping with Paycheck to $15 Million from Tennessee: Gene Caballero, CEO of GreenPal (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Can you talk a little bit more about the Facebook outreach? What did you learn? What have you learned about doing the Facebook outreach? Whom do you target?

Gene Caballero: We target landscaping professionals on a geocoding basis. We are able to get those down to about $3 or $4 a click. That has been our goal. Now we’re getting about 10 vendors a day as opposed to 10 vendors a week, and we’re able to hyper-target specific areas. Facebook outreach has been a gamechanger for us.

Sramana Mitra: It sounds like landscape professionals are identifying themselves on Facebook for you to be able to target 

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Bootstrapping with Paycheck to $15 Million from Tennessee: Gene Caballero, CEO of GreenPal (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to reach the $1 million annual revenue level?

Gene Caballero: We did that in 2015.

Sramana Mitra: This is revenue – not gross merchandise value, right?

Gene Caballero: Yes. >>>

Bootstrapping with Paycheck to $15 Million from Tennessee: Gene Caballero, CEO of GreenPal (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to scrape and convince enough Craigslist lawn mowing people so that you could launch the service?

Gene Caballero: It took about three weeks to a month of calling. For vendors, it’s free. There’s not any cost associated. We knew that if we were calling these professionals and charging them, we wouldn’t be in business.

Sramana Mitra: That’s right. In the beginning, that doesn’t work at all.

Gene Caballero: Probably to this day, it still doesn’t work because you hadn’t really given them any value. You can promise them the world, but if >>>

Spotlight on Entrepreneurship in Colorado

The Economist recently did an article titled Why Startups Are Leaving Silicon Valley. The positive message in the article is that entrepreneurship has now spread around the world. Compelling ventures are getting built everywhere.

Today, we put the spotlight on Colorado.

First, a look at the Unicorns.

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