How to build a company with a turnover of $ 35 million without a single seller. Rand Fishkin Story

10 years ago, this man founded a small seo-agency with his mother. Today, his business has a monthly turnover of over $ 30 million, he is the author of the most authoritative search marketing blog in the world, an investor and mentor for IT startups. And his official position is called "The Wizard."

It's about Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, a multiservice that combines 12 SEO tools, web analytics and content marketing.
')
In this article, we translated his interview , where Rand tells how to attract customers if you hate to sell; about fighting depression, how to build a super efficient corporate culture without money and psychologists and what a millionaire’s salary is.

How to start a startup, without knowing anything about business processes

When Randy and his mother, Jillian Messig, founded SEOMoz in 2004, they didn’t know anything about running a business.

“We had absolutely no experience on how to make sales, how to get and retain customers, not to mention how to create a viable financial model and attract investments. And when the service was launched, they did not consider the outflow indicators, MRR (monthly revenue level) and other analytics. They did not know the concept of recurring payments, although there was an understanding that regular customers are needed, that they give the main income. In other words, we were full amateurs. ”

At the same time, you should not take Rand’s initial experience as a guide to action and rush into a startup headlong, hoping to learn everything “in combat conditions”. Yes, complex processes can be mastered on the go, but the base is now available to everyone.

At the disposal of aspiring entrepreneurs dozens of resources to avoid "childish" mistakes. By the way, Rand himself generously shares his experience: he maintains his own blog for startups, and every week he publishes Whiteboard Friday video podcasts with selected cases and search marketing chips.
In addition, he recommends joining one of the business accelerators, where it is much easier to grow a working model, to find mentors and investors. This allows you to remove many painful moments.

The main thing is to find a mentor who will be really interested in what you are doing. In this case, you should not spam mentors with calls in the spirit of "Hello, I am a new Zuckerberg, even better ... give me money or take me under the wing."

Rand stresses that the right people will come themselves, at the right time, if you yourself are a fan of your business and give the world value. Everything comes naturally. This also applies to mentors, and investors, and partners.
So in 2011, Moz received a vital amount from a well-known entrepreneur, venture investor Brad Feld. Because Brad's wife accidentally read a note about finding a large amount on their blog and sent it to her husband.

The easiest and hardest things in business

Every entrepreneur has his strengths and weaknesses. Rand belongs to the type of "artists": the easiest way for him is to come up with ideas, to help people through training. But the managerial tasks are his weak side: "I just hate to" resolve "conflicts between employees." With Moz having a great corporate culture thanks to sincerity in relationships. Rand notes: “If people in a team behave differently than in ordinary life, this is terrible. I would never want to work in such a company. ”

Another thing that the founder of Moz cannot tolerate is sales. How so, because business will not survive otherwise? The trick is that Fishkin and his team built a base of 25,000 paying customers ... without a single seller.

How to attract customers if you hate to sell

While Rand didn’t want to sell, he knew that it was necessary to somehow force users to pay for Moz products. He found the solution in the Moz distribution ... for free. Namely - in the trial model.



The service can be tested for free for 30 days. As a role model, Rand took Survey Monkey (an online survey service), which reached millions of dollars with the ability to create a free account (freemium model). Users quickly “sit down”, achieve some results and switch to paid tariffs with steeper chips.

I don't care if you pay us, I care if we help

This philosophy allowed Rand Fishkin to be recognized by thousands of marketers. The average annual income per user is $ 1,300 with attraction costs of less than $ 100. With that, the Moz team does not focus on sales.

Ideal for Rand is NASA’s “moonlight” mission: “I compare web analytics with travel. As if we were sending a man to the moon and bringing him back. One big goal makes it easy to solve short-term goals. ”

How to get out of depression

In 2013, Moz lost $ 6,000,000, and Rand started having health problems. All this led to severe depression. At the same time, the surrounding people comforted: “Calm down, in essence, everything is in order. Look what kind of business you have built, blah blah blah. ”

The entrepreneur admits: “I just hated these conversations, I was not much better. A friend of mine said much more sincerely: “Yes, here you are screwed up, I understand how terrible you feel, but you can fix it.”

It is better to admit in time that you are in complete shit than to continue to smile sweetly as if nothing had happened

It is very difficult, but such a position is the beginning of recovery.

How to create a lively atmosphere in the team

The experience of fighting depression was useful for Rand in his work: “I preach openness in relationships. At Moz, we talk about topics that are banned in other companies. In my team, a person can say directly that he has problems, and we always find a way to help him.
We also regularly meet for informal meetings, where everyone can talk about personal experiences in anything. Once a woman confessed that she was transsexual and shared the details of a sex change operation. I want people next to me to feel safe without fear of condemnation. ”

To create a wonderful corporate culture does not need a lot of money. Things decide everything

The head of Moz says: "The guys easily come to see me on TV at the weekend, we have picnics, and after work I can fight with my colleagues in CounterStrike."

How much does the owner of the top company earn

According to Rand, until 2006 he wrote himself a check for $ 750 every two weeks. When at last he could afford to set a salary, it was $ 34,000 a year. And only a few years later, he went to an annual income of $ 120,000. At such times, many owners rush for a luxury car, a new home, and other pleasures of life. And Fishkin bought a damn beautiful and comfortable ... pan. “My wife and I love to cook and I decided to make her happy. I still remember this case with warmth. ”

Commentary by the head of Yagla.ru Alexander Alimov

Most of the experience of Rand "hooked" the moment with the choice of the SaaS promotion model of the company. At the start, we also used both freemium and trial. Largely because this is the standard SaaS way everyone does. After the "stuffed cones," came to the decision to abandon them. Psychology and degree of product complexity play a role here. If this is not a simple organizer or cloud storage, the majority of users never get the service, putting it off until later. And that which is postponed until an opportunity, as a rule, is never done.
It is interesting to know your opinion on this matter, share your experience in the comments.