Ep 161 Tom Hunt, a location independent founder of online marketplace Virtual Valley. Listen as Nathan and Tom talk about the latter’s experience selling men’s leggings and hiring offshore employees.
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Bio
Tom Hunt is a TEDx Speaker, Dragons Den “Failure” and Location Independent Founder of Online Marketplace: Virtual Valley (Launching Jan 2016) That Connects Entrepreneurs & Rockstar Virtual Assistants (www.blog.virtualvalley.io).
3 Key Points:
- Publicity from shows such as Dragon’s Den usually won’t benefit a company directly but can raise publicity for an area of products.
- Getting press is much easier for a business if it jumps on top of an existing trend.
- According to Tom, often times it’s more worthwhile to focus on the journey than the result.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
- 01:27 – Tom joins the show
- 01:51 – Tom tells the story of how he started selling men’s leggings.
- 03:18 – As a part time project, Tom and his partners started selling them online and was able to sell 150 pairs in the first year.
- 03:50 – Eventually, Tom’s efforts were chronicled in an online article that was shared about 66K times.
- 04:46 – Tom talks about how he got onto Dragon’s Den, UK’s equivalent of the show Shark Tank.
- 06:10 – Tom’s revenue since selling men’s leggings was roughly 160K.
- 07:01 – Tom’s online store saw a big spike in traffic the day after Dragon’s Den. 100 -> 1000.
- 07:28 – The store got more traffic from the daily mail article because there was a direct link to the site.
- 08:00 – The online store is still operational and doesn’t spend any money on paid acquisition. All the advertising is done through social media outlets.
- 10:10 – Virtual Valley is a service in which people looking to build a team can acquire its members virtually.
- 11:30 – There’s a 20% service charge for using the platform – Virtual Valley provides advantages such as employer/employee insurance and an online time tracking program that it believes is covered by the fee.
- 13:14 – Virtual Valley’s services are based in the Philippines.
- 15:04 – The company’s goal is to have 7K monthly recurring revenue by February. By the end of 2016, 15K per month in recurring revenue.
- 15:53 – Getting press is much easier if a business can jump on an existing trend.
- 17:51 – Famous Five
Resources Mentioned:
- Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
- Daily Mail – Article about men’s leggings
- @tomhuntio – Tom’s twitter
- Tom Hunt – Tom’s personal website
- Meggings – Tom’s e-commerce business
- Virtual Valley – Tom’s online marketplace
- The Icarus Deception – Book Tom stands by
- Sniply – Tom’s favorite online tool
Famous 5
- Favorite Book?— The Icarus Deception – by Seth Godin
- What CEO do you follow?— Nathan Latka
- What is your favorite online tool?— sniply
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—Focus more on the journey instead of the result.
Credits
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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