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Rob Biederman, founder of HourlyNerd - a platform that bypasses traditional consultancies to help companies hire just the experts they need. HourlyNerd serves more than 4,500 companies, including GE, Microsoft and American Apparel. Listen as Rob and Nathan talk about spotting a market gap, dividing equity, and why you should have studied computer science.

Favorite Book? \u2013 Only the Paranoid Survive
What CEO do you follow? \u2014 Jeff Immelt
What is your favorite online tool?\u2014 Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?\u2014 Take some computer science papers

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:15 \u2013 Nathan\u2019s introduction
01:40 \u2013 Welcoming Graham to the show
01:56 \u2013 \u201cCompanies use us when they have a pressing need for a solution that can\u2019t be provided by their current workforce\u201d
02:00 \u2013 HourlyNerd makes money by taking a small percentage of transactions
02:30 \u2013 Example: connected GE to a robotics professor who could educate them about commercial robotics
03:30 \u2013 Around 80-85% goes to the consultant, the rest goes to HourlyNerd
04:00 \u2013 Rob worked in private equity before starting his business
04:34 \u2013 Had the idea of bypassing traditional consulting to connect people to talent directly
04:58 \u2013 Rob started in private equity aged 21, and founded the company aged 26
05:40 \u2013 He gave up a $400-600k salary
06:40 \u2013 \u201cI\u2019d saved a tremendous amount...I could mitigate the risk\u201d
07:20 \u2013 How did Rob and his founders divide equity?
07:30 \u2013 They used a vesting schedule to accommodate any changes
09:15 \u2013 Worked with 5,000 customers in 2015 and had 21,000 nerds
09:31 \u2013 Nerds actively making money would be \u201cin the low single-digit thousands\u201d
09:50 \u2013 \u201cWe work with clients from GE down to a woman called Jenny in Massachusetts\u201d
10:40 \u2013 Founded in 2013
10:51 \u2013 Total revenue in the first year was $150k
11:00 \u2013 Total revenue in 2015 was above $5 million
11:20 \u2013 Have raised about $10 million in capital
11:25 \u2013 \u201cNobody on our founding team could code...we needed to pay a development firm\u201d
12:40 \u2013 Gave up around 20% of equity via convertible note to fundraise
13:30 \u2013 Auditioned for Shark Tank: dropped out but ended up with Mark Cuban as an investor
14:40 \u2013 Connect with Rob at HourlyNerd or on Twitter

3 Key Points:
Be wary of how much equity you\u2019re giving up in the early stages of your company. Make choices that minimise dead equity.
Don\u2019t be afraid to give up a salary to follow your ideas
Learn some computer skills as soon as you can

Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator \u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible \u2013 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

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