Madison Wickham, CEO and co-founder of Grandex - a media and content company that’s behind the sites Total Frat Move and Postgrad Problems. Madison’s also created two successful apparel companies, and is generating around $10 million in revenue a year. Listen in to hear Madison talk about the secrets of capturing an audience, quitting his job with a 10-day old baby, and how to turn content followers into customers.
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – Zero To One
What CEO do you follow? — Jonah Peretti
What is your favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —That I didn’t have to have a definitive plan...I just had to be doing something productive and learning stuff
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:50 – Yuri’s introduction
02:30 – Welcoming Madison to the show
02:50 – Started Total Frat Move as a one-liner comedy website with a fraternity buddy
03:40 – “Our business plan did not exist...we were trying to capture an audience”
04:56 – Started with advertisements but starting experimenting with other revenue streams
05:38 – T-Shirts worked extremely well - “We gravitated towards merchandise”
06:25 – At what point did Madison realise his project was a legitimate business?
07:20 – “In 4 months we had $2000 a month from ad revenue”
08:32 – Quit their jobs and dived in full-time
09:32 – Madison had a 10-day-old baby when he quit his job
10:11 – Went full-time in October 2010
11:20 – “It was the most liberating thing I’ve done in my life”
13:10 – Financing? “We always made more money than we spent - we didn’t have experience of doing anything else”
13:50 – About 3 years in, they formed a relationship with an angel investor in Austin
15:15 – Learned from him about the process of raising money to develop a team
16:25 – Raised $2.3 million over 12 months
16:44 – $20 million pre-money valuation
17:16 – 3.5x multiplier on topline revenue
18:00 – Grandex currently runs 5 websites
18:21 – Rowdy Gentleman designs, creates and sells apparel
18:54 – Male Outfitters is a premium online menswear store
19:40 – Grandex generated around $10 million revenue in 2015
21:10 – Revenue from TFM and related sites is through advertising and promotions
23:10 – “The media is the lifeblood of our business”
23:45 – Promote apparel products to their media audience
25:00 – What’s worked best for you when promoting online?
27:40 – Things change constantly - it’s vital to be tapped into the social media landscape
28:20 – What’s next for Grandex?
30:30 – Releasing their first feature-length film this year
31:20 – Connect with Madison at the Grandex website and the Inside TFM podcast
34:42 – Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Capture an audience. Profit will grow out of having people that follow you.
Be hyper-aware of what’s happening online: social media changes in an eyeblink
You don’t have to know what your grand plan is. Just start doing something productive.
Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives