Mastering Tech Growth

Selling your business is where most founders lose their leverage, not win it. This episode shows how to turn your tech company or agency into a sellable asset years before exit so buyers pay up instead of retrading you down at the last minute.Perfect listen if you’re a bootstrapped or lightly funded tech / agency founder who wants real exit options, not burnout, golden handcuffs and a surprise haircut on valuation.To unpack this, I sat down with Jordan Calderon, a two-time exited founder and president of StratDev, one of the top 100 marketing firms in the US. He’s built and sold multiple bootstrapped companies, lived through a painful retrade on his first exit, then engineered a multi-offer, over-ask sale on his second.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-a-calderon/In this episode:The simple “hit-by-a-bus” test Jordan uses to spot founder dependency early and remove it so you don’t get stuck in multi-year earn-out handcuffs.How the M&A process actually works (CIM, LOI, due diligence, retrades) and the brutal $50m → $1.2m horror story that proves why exit readiness is a 1–3 year game, not a 3-month sprint.The three levers buyers care about most: sustainable growth curves, a business that runs without you, and SOPs that can add roughly +1x EBITDA to your valuation almost out of thin air.A dead-simple framework for building SOPs in Google Docs (including the “Starbucks stranger” test) so any new hire—or buyer—can follow your processes like a recipe.How Jordan uses offshore and nearshore teams to charge “US prices, global costs” while improving delivery quality and margins.The pricing and negotiation moves he used to go from being retraded on his first deal to running a competitive process with 11 LOIs, anchoring high, and protecting terms inside the LOI.Get the links, notes and resources from this episode at masteringtechgrowth.com

Marc Adams helps business owners plan their exit the smart way. He is a top business exit planner, M&A expert, and best-selling author. Marc shows founders how to grow their business, sell it, and keep more money. He is backed by £18 billion in family office support. His system helps you find hidden value, grow through acquisition, and avoid big tax bills when you sell.In this episode, Marc answers:→ What is a business exit strategy, and why should you plan it from day one?→ How can business exit planning help you keep more of what you built?→ What is the smartest way to grow through acquisition as a founder?→ How can you buy a business with no money down, even with no experience?→ Why do most business owners lose money in M&A, and how can you avoid it?→ What does a tax free business sale look like, and who qualifies for it?→ How does personal legacy shape your exit plan, and why does it matter?If you’re a founder, business owner, or entrepreneur who wants to grow, sell, or keep more from your exit, this episode is for you.Where to find Marc Adams:→ Website: https://acquisitions4you.com/→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1marcadams/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ Website: https://www.mikesirius.com→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/In this episode, we cover:00:00 The Journey of a Young Entrepreneur03:10 Understanding Business Valuation and Exit Strategies05:59 The Importance of Planning for Business Sale08:57 Overcoming Personal Challenges and Finding Purpose12:13 Strategies for Doubling Business Value15:12 Navigating Tax Implications in Business Sales18:01 Acquisition Financing and Consulting for Equity20:53 Building Value Without Cash Investment33:56 Turning Points: A Teen's Journey from Trouble to Triumph36:21 Creative Financing: Strategies for Young Entrepreneurs38:33 The Information Game: Knowledge vs. Implementation40:50 Tax Strategies: Navigating Business Structures43:41 Finding the Right Specialists: Building Trust in Business48:15 Setting Goals: The Importance of Vision in Business51:39 Accelerating Growth: Strategies for Rapid Business Expansion01:02:03 Understanding Business Value and Growth Strategies01:04:25 The Importance of Tailored Business Strategies01:06:40 Secret Methods for Doubling Business Value01:07:30 Wealth Protection Post-Sale01:10:01 The Double and Keep It Blueprint01:12:13 Rapid Fire Questions on Business Acquisition01:19:19 Credibility in Zero Down Business Deals01:22:45 Understanding Earn Outs and Acquisition StrategiesFor inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email mike@msirius.com

Garrett Mehrguth is the CEO of Directive and co-founder of Abe — a high-performance LinkedIn ads agency helping companies like Uber, Zoom, Gong, and AWS turn clicks into customers. With over $68 million spent on LinkedIn ads, Garrett brings a level of insight few marketers can match. In this episode, he reveals how to build a LinkedIn marketing engine that books meetings — not just impressions.Garrett has helped B2B brands generate serious revenue by mastering linkedin lead generation, nailing down linkedin ads targeting, and aligning linkedin ads KPIs with what actually matters to pipeline. Whether you're spending $5K or $500K a month, this episode will change how you think about b2b marketing on LinkedIn.In our conversation, Garrett shares:→ Why most B2B teams waste their LinkedIn ads budget→ The truth about linkedin ads metrics (and which ones lie)→ How to reverse-engineer your linkedin ads audience using real data→ Why $5K/month is not a “test budget” — it’s a trap→ How he builds intent-based funnels without fake “intent data”→ The 15-second video strategy that cuts CPLs by 70%→ Why "clicks" mean nothing if you're not booking meetingsWhether you're a startup founder, head of growth, or B2B marketing pro, this conversation is packed with no-fluff insights into what actually drives results on LinkedIn in 2025.Where to find Garrett Mehrguth:→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettmehrguth/→ https://garrettmehrguth.com/→ https://directiveconsulting.com/→ https://www.abetheagency.com/→ https://moregoodcapital.com/Where to find Mike Sirius:→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/msirius/→ https://www.mikesirius.comIn this episode, we cover:00:00 The State of LinkedIn Advertising02:59 Understanding Marketing Dynamics05:54 Budgeting for Success in LinkedIn Ads09:04 Intent-Driven Targeting Strategies11:58 The Importance of Proper Budgeting15:12 Data-Driven Audience Targeting18:13 Leveraging AI for Market Insights21:14 The Role of Content in Marketing24:05 Optimizing Video Ads for Engagement27:14 Innovative Approaches to Lead Generation30:02 Sales Strategies for Effective Conversion32:58 Closing Thoughts on Marketing Success42:51 Authentic Engagement in Sales Calls45:24 Manufacturing Intent in Marketing46:45 The Power of Emotional Marketing50:12 Targeting the Right Decision Makers56:41 Importance of Tracking Marketing Metrics01:00:34 Common Mistakes in LinkedIn Advertising01:10:05 The Future of B2B Marketing StrategiesFor sponsorship inquiries, email mike@msirius.com#LinkedinAds #B2BMarketing #LeadGeneration #LinkedInMarketing #MarketingStrategy

Today, Mike is joined by Ben Buaron, Founder & CEO of Windmill Growth. They help founders turn their LinkedIn into their number one growth channel. No hacks, no influencer playbooks, just real, sustainable visibility that brings in leads, builds credibility and opens doors. Ben’s been a founder himself and now teaches others how to stop hiding behind logos and leverage LinkedIn to build trust. Ben and Mike unpack why visibility beats marketing and how to make organic LinkedIn work for you, even if you're just getting started. KEY TAKEAWAYS You don´t need more marketing, you need visibility, which even a new startup can get on LinkedIn. Founder-led marketing is the future. Position yourself as a thought leader and focus on top-of-funnel content. Provide value and share your unique insights and opinions. Content strategy and consistency matter more than perfect writing. Stick to your posting timetable - 2-5 times a week is ideal. Use AI, but only to refine your content. Engagement is about quality, not quantity. Build relationships - avoid aggressive sales tactics. Trigger emotions through storytelling to drive engagement and long-term connection. LinkedIn is a long-term game. It takes 6-9 months to build your personal brand and generate leads. Organic content and personal branding can generate leads and revenue more cost-effectively than traditional advertising methods. BEST MOMENTS 00.05 "Early-stage founders think that slow growth means that they need more funnels, more content, more ads, and they tend to forget that people don't buy from perfect branding. They buy from people they trust." 5.03 "If I'm not posting on LinkedIn, I'm not exposing myself, I'm not exposing my company." 5.41 "I got inbounds from LinkedIn that generated me 12k in MRR in a single month. Just because I was putting myself out there." 13.15 "I prefer to have 1 billion people say, 'This guy built it,' than have $1 billion because of the power of 1 billion people." 36.17 “If was easy everyone would do it.” 47.51 “ You engage with your ICP’s content and your competitor’s content, and everyone else in your space’s content.” 20.15 "I generated $85,000 in June just from making really good content and combining outreach." 1.00.51 “A really good hook – a short hook that includes the word I or We, works.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.windmillgrowth.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Natasha Walstra, the founder and CEO of Near Point Strategies. She helps founders turn relationships into revenue using Smart Content, Strategic Outreach and the network they already have. Her clients don't chase followers. They get sales calls, replies, and gain real momentum just by showing up with the right message to the right people. She built this approach after leading brand strategy at Carbon and Forbes Books. Natasha explains how she and her clients turn LinkedIn conversations and connections into clients, every day. KEY TAKEAWAYS LinkedIn DMs have a 10% response rate compared to email outreach at 5%. Focus on building real relationships on LinkedIn. A high follower count means nothing if none of them buy from you. People use LinkedIn to get to know you and work out if they can trust you, so be authentic. Surround yourself with people who you know need your services. Collaborating with others is a powerful way to network and provide value. Spray and pray doesn´t work anymore. Don´t DM out of nowhere. Provide value, don´t just try to sell. It is far easier than you think to consistently create content that connects and has an impact. Natasha shares several strategies during the episode. Use AI to help you create e.g. Give it an idea, some context and a template to create content. Edit and post it. AI can help you to become a good copywriter. Gain insights into turning your existing professional network into potential business opportunities Video is powerful. Natasha explains how to use it even if you are shy about doing it. Just posting content leads nowhere. You have to engage in conversations, make thoughtful comments and have a reason to DM someone. BEST MOMENTS 1.50 "Most people treat LinkedIn growth as a numbers game: more posts, more views, more followers. But, what if you don't need more strangers in your network." 3.17 “Genuine relationships that lead to real revenue, that's growth. Not a bunch of likes.” 23.26 “Find a genuine reason to actually open a conversation with someone…cold outreach doesn’t work anymore.” 37.03 "Think about your audience, and do they need to hear from you seven days a week?" 49.10 "If you're not feeling inspired that day, then don't post... posting for posting's sake is going to lead to frustration and burnout." 1.04.03 "It's about building relationships. Little things open so many doors." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndwalstra https://nearpointstrategies.com Newsletter : https://nearpoint-strategies.kit.com/subscribe ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Matthew Stafford, managing partner of Build Grow Scale, who has helped hundreds of e-commerce stores hit eight figures, including brands like Organifi and Pink Lily. They unpack taking e-commerce businesses from traffic-burning money pits to revenue-generating machines. Matthew shares data-driven strategies, smart conversion optimisation techniques, and a customer-centric approach that has taken numerous businesses from zero to six figures without additional ad spend. KEY TAKEAWAYS Traffic without conversion is a money pit. Data-driven decisions are always effective. Collect, collate, and present your data in a usable format that most people can quickly interpret. Customer search data reveals hidden product opportunities worth $100,000s. Simplify your website. Simplification scales. Build a website for the consumer, not you. A granny or 5-year-old should be able to buy from you. Know how often people come back and buy. Use Mathew's unique follow up approach for cart abandonment. Overselling in the cart hurts conversions. Use heat maps, recordings and A/B testing to reveal weak spots. Once fixed, they translate into $millions of extra sales. Each demographic browses differently. Personalisation, when not done in a creepy way, boosts conversions. Don't overwhelm customers with too many choices e.g. 15 colours. Speed up your website. Video sells. Treat customers like humans, not sales targets. Outstanding customer service is key to repeat business. BEST MOMENTS 00.38 "Traffic without conversions is essentially a money pit." 2.13.18 "If your tech stack is not organized in a way that is usable … it´s garbage in, garbage out." 11.34.54 “The number two searched item was unicorn, spelled wrong. They didn't have a unicorn for a stuffed animal, so they built one… On Amazon Prime Day, it did $498,000.” 25.02.06 “Have a website that’s really good at communicating with your customers. It's having a conversation when you're not around.” 39.36.07 “If you're not capturing at least 25% of your revenue from email … something's broken.” 1.06.23 “ Add the phone number or an email, you'll increase conversions, it´s trust.” 1.09.38 "The more complex you make the task, the less of them (customers) will do it again." 1.12.47 "Stop trying to beat them over the head to make more sales. Just treat them like a human, like you would want to be treated." If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - Hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://buildgrowscale.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Suasion-Revolutionary-Way-Influence-Persuade/dp/1847941435 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Amir Barsoum, who is the founder or co-founder of multiple highly successful businesses including Vezeeta, a leading digital healthcare platform, and In-Vitro Capital. Instead of looking for founders to invest in, Amir starts with a problem, looks for a solution, finds the right experts to solve that problem, and then builds the company. Amir walks us through how this works, why most people get things wrong and what it takes to build scalable AI-powered companies from scratch. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. KEY TAKEAWAYS Building products that customers are almost compelled to pick is key to mastering tech growth. Referrals are rocket fuel. You can’t beat others speaking enthusiastically about how your product solved their problems. Find solutions for boring industries and niche down. There are lots of opportunities and far less competition. Invest time and money into validating the problem before developing a solution. The CEO must be strong in sales or engineering. Sales focuses on building relationships with customers, fully understanding their problems and the practicality of your solution. The engineer has a strong knowledge, often hands on, of the problem and the necessary expertise to identify, influence and deliver the solution. Access to a strong base of clients and customers is essential. Track your cash flow every day. AI will massively grow markets, which is why it won´t cause unemployment. AI agents will need to be managed. Build AI with tomorrow´s far lower costs in mind. Every employee should be doing outreach every day. They need contact with the market. BEST MOMENTS "Amir starts with an idea, a solution to a problem and only then finds the right experts to deliver it and turn it into a company." "The real growth comes from referrals." "A good CEO is either sales or engineer, anything else to us is a waste of time and effort." "Sales is the capacity to build bridges with your clients." "Take an LLM, train it on your own information and data, so the decisions it will be making will be without the potential for hallucination." "You structure the data in a way that feeds your AI agents, so you end up with better agents." "We´re very generous with the equity of a hired CEO and we call them founder." "They´re not just moving with the herd …. They're very good leaders." ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmbarsoum jobs@invitrocapital.com info@invitrocapital.com ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Do you want to know what separates the startups that get funded from the ones that don´t? Today, Mike is joined by Alexandra Nicoletti, a partner at Camber Creek, one of the leading VC firms. Prior to this, Alexandra was in real estate and private equity at Apollo and worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Alexandra has seen every version of a pitch you can imagine. Today she breaks down exactly how to target the right investors, prepare a winning pitch, deliver it and follow up. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastering Tech Growth is about continually optimising the growth of your business. VCs now focus more on how strong the founding team is than they do on the product idea. Growth at all costs is no longer viable. Be clear about what your customer´s pain point is and why you decided there was money to be made from solving it. Tool change is painful for corporations. Demonstrate that what you offer represents an improvement that makes it worth going through that pain. Your investors become your partners, so it is vital they are a good fit. It´s no longer possible to ride the AI wave, it´s becoming old. Head in the cloud pitches don´t work. Be realistic and honest. Clearly identify who your customer will be. Pre-revenue startups can still raise funds. User testing, social proof and pilots are strong signs of traction. Briefly outline your go to market strategy during the pitch. If you can´t convince a VC they will not believe you can sell to a customer. BEST MOMENTS 2:27 "Every decision comes with a trade-off, particularly in the early stages." 7.00 “What VCs are looking for right now is smart growth. It's not growth at all costs.” 9:55 "At the end of the day, we're investing in the people. Less so the product." 10.22 "VCs will invest in a B+ idea with an A+ founding team versus an A+ idea, with a B+ founding team." 24.21 "We don’t need more generic wrappers for ChatGPT. What we do need is fresh perspectives….people doing things differently. " 32.05 "If you can’t sell to an investor, how will you sell to a customer?" 34.33 “Having put some thought into things like go to market is really important.” 41.41 "Founder relationships are a key reason why companies run into issues down the road.” 59.53 "Saying you're 100% going to IPO in five years … that is a red flag." 1.05.43 “I do not want to spend time watching a video demo of the product.” 1.14.53 “I want to know how much you're spending and what you're spending it on.” If you enjoyed the show, please do me a favour - hit that subscribe button and send me your growth challenges at https://masteringtechgrowth.com . I really want to know what you're working on and what keeps you up at night. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-nicoletti-a205ab11 https://cambercreek.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/camber-creek/ ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today´s episode, Mike is joined by Mike Todasco a visiting fellow at San Diego State University and former director of Innovation at PayPal. Mike holds over 100 patents and has a passion for leveraging AI to get things done fast. If you are a solopreneur who wants to scale quickly without building a team, this episode is very much for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS AI genuinely can super charge your business. Experiment to get the most out of AI. When it comes to mastering tech growth experimentation is key. According to McKenzie, businesses can use AI to eliminate 60 to 70% of their tasks. Use an AI bracelet to record what you do each day. Eliminate the tasks that are no longer necessary and aim to automate the rest. Use tools like make.com to start automating app-based tasks. It may take time to get each task automation to work, so you need to be persistent. You can outline a task to Zapier, and it will create a workflow of automation for you to tweak. Find a space or activity that lets you switch off fully and really think e.g. running or driving. That´s when the ideas flow. Pick an AI tool and go with it, learn it throughly. Once you´ve done that you will be able to master other AI tools far faster. Automate tasks that are expensive to outsource. Mike shares some surprising use cases. Empower the people who work for you with AI tools. Explore Notebook LLM for content creation. It relies solely on the sources you give it. Use reinforcement learning to get the most out of AI. The more feedback you give it the better. ChatGPT can now remember your previous chats, which means it can now learn about you, your preferences, what you are working, the language you like to use and more. Use AI in your day-to-day life e.g. to create your training routines BEST MOMENTS 00.57 "The majority of solopreneurs use AI without a system, no workflow, no structure, no AI leverage." 5.23 "Embrace your inner child, you need to experiment, you need to try stuff, you need to fail. That´s how you work with these AI tools." 13.08 "If you are not occasionally adding steps back into your processes that means you are not removing enough." 26.24 “The thing that kills ideation is having a phone. You just think oh god I´m so bored, I need to go on TikTok.” 38.26 “Just pick one AI tool and go with it. All of them are so darn good.” 52.16 “According to MIT Sloan, AI systems perform much better when they are treated as collaboration partners.” 1.02.16 “Find the tasks which are low hanging fruits, quick wins, which should not be done by hand.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/todasco https://www.bee.computer – AI bracelet ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Marcus Fontoura, Azure Core CTO, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, holder of 50 patents and the author of A Platform Mindset. Marcus is certainly a man who knows how to scale tech without breaking it. If your startup is taking off so fast that you can’t keep up or are drowning in bugs and relying on hot fixes and workarounds to hold things together, this episode is for you. It teaches you how to stop scaling your technical debt and redirect your energy and resources into scaling success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Marcus helped to shape some of the planet´s fastest scaling systems, including Google and Yahoo. Disconnected systems slow you down more than missing features. Decide on the technology, platforms, and tools early and get everyone to use them. When you tell developers which tools they will use from day 1 it frees up bandwidth for them to create faster and avoids resentment when you have no choice but to standardise the platforms used. Recognise when it is time to move from the validation stage to the professionalisation stage. Invest in infrastructure and tools that are easy to scale as demand rises. Avoid over engineering. Make sure all of your systems integrate to avoid silos and repeating work. Marcus explains how. Most startups (75%) fail because they scale too fast. On average, a day per week per developer is wasted fixing poorly planned and implemented code etc. Creating a high performing team culture is the key to fast and efficient growth. People don´t change easily that is why you need to cultivate sound cultural values, communication, trust, collaboration, willingness to take feedback etc. Protect your company values even when hyper scaling. Don’t hire brilliant jerks, they pull everyone down. Cultural skills are hard to teach, but most tech skills can be taught in months. The CEO needs to be a good role model. Build trust and collaboration between teams. BEST MOMENTS 1:09 "The fix? It starts with the platform mindset." 4:30 "Tech growth equals preparing for scaling." 16.33 "Developers waste 23% of their time…reworking bad past solutions." 30.00 "Recognise what you don´t know and pull in people who can actually help you." 43.12 "Understand the phase you are in… and scale accordingly." 50.11 "Any system you build should have inbound and outbound APIs." 54.25 "The culture enables a lot of efficiency when teams trust each other." 1.08.11 "When you are ready for hyper growth…hire the best talent you can get." 1.16.30 “Have a growth mindset to build a culture to leverage platforms for impact.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusfontoura Multipliers Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Liz-Wiseman/author/B00369WNUW Ideal Team Member - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Patrick-Lencioni/author/B001ILFMB2 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.

For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Chris Silvestri, the founder of Conversion Alchemy. Chris helps B2B SaaS companies break through the noise, reach more would-be customers and show them why they are the obvious choice. Chris’s carefully honed approach uses the alchemy of copy, UX, and decision-making psychology to turn browsers and visitors into loyal, paying customers. He digs deep into customer research, pulls out real insights, who your real buyer is, what their buying decision making process is and determine what language will resonate with them, so that your message lands and converts. KEY TAKEAWAYS Mastery is about going deeper than your competition. Invest in customer research. You can't write copy that converts without it. Build a repeatable research process. There are layers to research. The surface layer of research is reviews and competitors’ products. The deeper layers include the customer experience while using a product like yours and why customers behave as they do. Focus on the individual decisions customers make during their buying journey and why they make them. Uncover your unique narrative by asking customers what they think existing providers are doing wrong. Use reviews to understand the language your customers use. Your copy needs to resonate with – daily users, the purchasing decision maker and the check signer. Use AI combined with human data to simulate personas. Chris explains how and which tools to use. According to HubSpot, 72% of SaaS websites fail to clearly explain what they offer. Get your value proposition right. Blend features with benefits. Test and tweak your copy. To truly connect with people, use their language, their pain points and their motivations. Be clear on what you do, how you do it and who you do it for. BEST MOMENTS 1.14 "People underestimate the power of good copy when it comes to conversions." 3:25 "Invest more in research." 6:36 "The deep-seated layer tells you why customers make the decisions they make and how they make them." 15:24 "To uncover your customer´s pain points….reviews are a good starting point." 31:00 "You can make sure that everything it gives is accurate and that it doesn´t hallucinate." 40:40 "You can simulate personas with AI, but not real customer behaviour, at least not yet." 47:73 “Imagine that your copy needs to continue the phrase "I want to … that's your valuable position." 59:00 "The right message basically has the right positioning with the right language for the right audience." 1.05.36 “The best copy is copy that doesn´t look like copy.” ABOUT THE GUEST https://conversionalchemy.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersilvestri https://www.amazon.co.uk/Demand-Side-Sales-101-Customers-Progress/dp/1544509987 ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.

Today, Mike is joined by Sam Piliero, founder of The Moonlighters, a marketing agency helping brands scale profitably. Sam and his team break down why most brands struggle to scale their ads, and how small fixes in strategy can make the difference between them running ads that are burning cash and ads that enable firms to scale profitably. Sam explains how to use AI for marketing, work out what strategy is right for your company and which ad platforms are providing the best exposure and ROI, right now. KEY TAKEAWAYS Small changes in strategy can take you from burning cash running ineffective ads to spending a lot less while seeing sales soar. AI combined with manual oversight is now an effective way to craft, monitor and tweak ads. The new Meta UI is going to be transformative. The number of campaigns you should be running changes as you evolve. Nurture your existing customers but dedicate most of your budget to customer acquisition. Setting up your pixels and using that data is vital. At the start, be everywhere. Gather the data, then focus on the platforms that work best. Leverage all of the channels in the G Suite (Google). Right now, there are lots of opportunities on X for small businesses. Include as many formats as possible in each ad campaign to increase your placement levels. People resonate with stories. Analysing your ROI is essential. Sam explains exactly how to do it. Drill down into what times of the day/week convert best for you. BEST MOMENTS 3:19 "he next six months, we're going to see an acceleration of the use of some of the AI tools." 5:46 "You have to really focus on what's actually functioning the best today, and then focus on six months, nine months, then a year from now." 7:22 "Allow the market to iron things out, be a little bit later in adopting these new things." 9:55 "Companies that scale successfully evolve their customer acquisition model." 12:38 "Early days, it's okay to have even just one or two campaigns." 17.20 “Facebook and Google are the best converting platforms, period, right now.“ 21.01 “Almost every time the geo-located campaigns are outperforming the E-com side because we are targeting a specific cohort of people.“ 25.35 “Whenever big advertisers remove themselves from an ad platform, the cost of advertising decreases drastically.” 26.43 “If you spend the same amount across the board, e.g. $1,000 you would typically be seeing Facebook and Google outperform.” 32.05 “The more value you put in a piece of content, the more views it gets.” 33.16 “Virality is not only unique, it is actually earned.” 42.00 “Don't overreact to slight adjustments in the ad account.” 51.29 “Always focus on minimizing wasted ad spend and reallocating that ad spend to the best possible place.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://themoonlighters.com/techgrowth https://www.youtube.com/@SamPiliero Social - @SamPiliero ABOUT THE HOST Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals. As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.