Max Altschuler, CEO of Sales Hacker – a rapidly growing media company focused on the future of B2B sales. Max wrote the book Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High Velocity Sales Machine which was recently published by Wiley. Aside from sales hack and angel investors, Max advises startups all around the globe.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The 48 Laws of Power
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Boomerang
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Max wished he could have studied Psychology a bit more

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Max to the show
02:07 – Sales Hacker is a media company ushering the future of sales
- 02:35 – Sales Hacker does crowdsourcing of content on their blog and holds conferences throughout the year
- 03:12 – The conferences are Sales Hacker’s main revenue stream
03:20 – Sales Hacker’s last conference was in June 2016
- 04:09 – The sponsored revenue for the last conference was $1.2 M
- 04:14 – Ticket sales was $300-400K
- 04:22 – Average ticket price was $400-500
- 04:28 – Total attendees
04:41 – The cost per conference is less than $1M
04:53 – Max shares how they manage the cost of the conference
05:51 – You need to find venue sponsorship
05:57 – Max helps clients with bigger conferences like Pulse
07:00 – Sales Hacker finds out which businesses are interested in the conference
07:33 – Have prospective sponsors sign up and pay early
09:15 – Sales Hacker’s average revenue per event depends on the event
10:54 – Sales Hacker takes a percentage from the total profit of SaaSters
11:30 – 2015 total revenue is $2.5M
11:45 – Team size
12:04 – Max shares why he didn’t build a SaaS business
12:59 – Sales Hacker’s list size
13:55 – Max’s goal for a VC round
14:07 – Max is from Udemy
14:35 – Max had 2 companies before Udemy
15:20 – Max’s second business was Last Call
15:45 – Max’s 3 favorite investments at the moment
16:50 – The average amount Max is investing in a business
18:00 – Max sets expectations of what he will and will not do for a company
18:36 – Max is trying to invest in B2B companies
19:21 – Connect with Max through LinkedIn, Twitter and his website
21:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Closing a business does NOT mean it was a failure – you gain experience and learn valuable lessons from that process.
Take the time to research and know where to invest.
Even if you’re working with SaaS businesses, that doesn’t mean you should or can build one as well.

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
@MaxAlts – Max’s Twitter handle
LinkedIn – Max’s LinkedIn account
Sales Hacker – Max’s business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 516: SalesHacker $2.5m 2015 Revenue Helping Sales Reps Get Smarter with CEO Max Altshculer

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders