Shawn Livermore. He’s an author and technology consultant and more recently, the founder and CEO of tech startup Ziptask which has generated nearly $2M in revenue. He has raised 4 rounds of funding and closed it down to take on new opportunities.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Tipping Point
- What CEO do you follow? – Mark Fields
- Favorite online tool? — Acuity Scheduling
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Calculate risk carefully”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 02:00 – Nathan introduces Shawn to the show
- 02:30 – Ziptask is a fully-managed outsourcing with a progressive effort to fix the problem of outsourcing technology projects
- 03:23 – “We succeeded in the goal, but we failed as a company”
- 03:31 – Shawn raised 4 seed rounds
- 04:18 – Shawn also had his day-time clients as a technology consultant
- 04:50 – Ziptask dissolved in September 2016, and was launched in 2010
- 05:05 – Ziptask’s MRR was $107K
- 05:30 – Shawn shares why they shut down Ziptask
-
- 06:59 – Shawn launched Ziptask prematurely
- 08:35 – Shawn also did NOT try to sell the business
- 09:30 – Shawn is now working with Carvana
- 10:00 – Connect with Shawn through Twitter. Medium and email
- 10:15 – Shawn is currently working on a book called Obscurity
- 12:45 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- The time will come when you have to pull the plug – and when it happens, just do it.
- Reaching your goal is NOT the peak of success.
- Calculate risk carefully.
Resources Mentioned:
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
- Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
- Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
- Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
- The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
- Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan kept his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it at the airplane’s back seat pocket
- Carvana – Shawn’s current employer
- @shawnypants – Shawn’s Medium handle
- @shawnypants – Shawn’s Twitter handle
- ShawnLivermore@gmail.com – Shawn’s email address
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives