Published: Oct. 24, 2016, 9 a.m.
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Tommy Gibbons, a former employee of both Goldman Sachs and Fundera. Listen to learn how Tommy met his Princeton bosses, and how he used those connections to get into Piper.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? \\u2013 N/A
- What CEO do you follow? \\u2013 Mark Pavlyukovskyy \\u2013 his boss
- Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Zapier
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\\u2014 Yes
- If you could let your 20-year-old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cI wish I knew how I could\\u201d
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Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:10 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Tommy to the show
- 01:41 \\u2013 Piper is a guide for kids ages 8 \\u2013 12 to build their first computer
- 02:02 \\u2013 Apple\\u2019s co-founder review on Piper
- 02:16 \\u2013 Piper has more than 4,000 customers since launching last year
- 02:28 \\u2013 Looking into subscription plans in the future
- 02:45 \\u2013 Piper was launched in Kickstarter in June 2015
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- 03:10 \\u2013 Sold their first product in December 2015
- 03:20 \\u2013 They had craigslist posters
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- 03:40 \\u2013 Title of craigslist poster was \\u201cWorkers needed for packing of children\\u2019s toys in Long Beach\\u201d
- 04:23 \\u2013 Total funding raised is $ 2.3 million
- 04:47 \\u2013 Tommy does customer service, retail partnership and ran all school app design
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- 05:10 \\u2013 Tommy has an equity In Piper
- 05:40 \\u2013 Piper has 3 founders
- 06:20 \\u2013 Tommy\\u2019s approach to Mark regarding his interest in Piper
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- 06:55 \\u2013 Tommy told Mark about how he can be an advantage to the company
- 07:30 \\u2013 Tommy was working for free for a couple of months
- 09:00 \\u2013 The Piper question
- 09:30 \\u2013 Cost of goods sold
- 09:45 \\u2013 Gross margin
- 10:00 \\u2013 Reselling
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- 10:23 \\u2013 Reseller\\u2019s price and markup\\xa0
- 10:36 \\u2013 Facebook Ad
- 11:00 \\u2013 Reorder rate
- 11:30 \\u2013 They are now focusing on the development of Piper computers
- 11:52 \\u2013 Revenue goal for 2016
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- 12:00 \\u2013 Big expectations for Christmas
- 12:15 \\u2013 Order baseline
- 12:55 \\u2013 Baseline now per month
- 13:32 \\u2013 They will be very happy with 8,000 units sold
- 13:54 \\u2013 Connect with Tommy through Playpiper.com
- 14:55 \\u2013 They do retargeting
- 15:45 \\u2013 The Famous Five
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3 Key Points:
- Don\\u2019t just tell your future boss how you can be an asset to the company \\u2013 show them what you can really do.
- Because businesses start small, there\\u2019s always room to grow.
- Your degree doesn\\u2019t define your future.
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Resources Mentioned:
- Toptal\\xa0\\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal\\xa0 developers.
- Host Gator\\xa0\\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
- Freshbooks\\xa0\\u2013 The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
- Leadpages\\xa0 \\u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
- Audible\\xa0\\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
- Assistant.to \\u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
- Playpiper.com \\u2013 Tommy\\u2019s company website
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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