Jon Gillon, 7x startup founder, 4x failer, general Silicon Valley Hustler, and free-style rapper. Listen in as Jon shares his story of early failure, how he remained persistent, and how his latest startup Roost came to be.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:08 – Nathan’s introduction
01:30 – Welcoming Jon to the show
01:53 – The 4 failures were Jon’s most important lessons
02:40 – Did the friends and family round
02:53 – Hiring an engineer is the hardest part of getting a business off the ground
04:05 – Just in the failed businesses Jon’s raised $35K
05:20 – Jon’s biggest competitors
06:00 – 15% transaction fee on all Roost transactions
06:29 – AirBNB for inanimate objects
08:22 – How to look for a lead investor—it’s not a willy nilly process
09:45 – Zipcar and Enterprise are big partners of Roost
10:16 – Finding a technical co-founder at the start of Roost
12:20 – http://www.medium.com/@jongillon
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People
What CEO do you follow?— Jack Dorsey
What is your favorite online tool?— Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Nobody really knows what they’re doing…they’re learning as they go along. Just try it and be confident.
3 Key Points:
You’re not looking for a lead investor, you’re hiring one—this person will be a part of your company for a long time.
Bringing a GREAT engineer on-board early is key to the life of your business.
Nobody knows what they’re doing until they’re actually doing it—just give something a try!
Resources Mentioned:
Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for.
Host Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable.
Slack – The online tool Matthew can’t live without
How to Win Friends and Influence People – Jon’s favorite business book
Jack Dorsey – The CEO Jon closely follows
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The Top is FOR YOU if you are:
A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)
STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)
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The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).
Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.
Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop