EP 530: Shut Down $2m Business, Why with CEO Shawn Livermore

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