#48: Bestselling Author Max Altschuler on Growing SalesHacker From Side Project to $3 Million in Revenue

About the Episode:

In today’s episode, we’re talking to bestselling author Max Altschuler, the CEO of SalesHacker, author of Hacking Sales and his brand new book coming in Spring of 2018, called Career Hacking for Millennials.

Max has helped build 3 multi-million dollar businesses today and he still has his hand in a LOT of different companies whether they’re side projects like his new venture, Sutra Coffee or as an investor or advisor to nearly 40 SaaS startups.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Max went to college at Arizona State University where he got his first real taste of business.

He and a few friends won a business plan competition, got a $2,000 grant, and started building out a campus-wide bike-sharing program that was backed by the university but this was 2009 and the US was in the depths of one of the deepest recessions we’ve seen in nearly a lifetime.

So, Max and his partners couldn’t get funding for their business and they had to close down shop. He learned a lot from this first experience and it eventually brought him to San Francisco where he worked for the online education startup, Udemy as their very first sales hire.

After spending a couple years building out the company’s sales process, Max launched a side project called SalesHacker—a live event that netted him a $60,000 profit on his first go-round.

Pretty shortly thereafter, he dove head first into growing SalesHacker into the business it is today, generating over $3 Million in annual revenue from events, media partnerships, sponsors, and products, on top of that, they’re bringing in over 100,000 monthly readers.

Growing that business has led Max to launch more side projects like Sutra Coffee—a healthy caffeine alternative, and to writing his new book, titled Career Hacking for Millennials coming out in March of 2018.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:

[03:00] What book he’s reading at the moment.
[03:56] Where he’s originally from.
[04:53] Why he started his bike sharing company at college.
[08:20] His first job when he got to San Francisco.
[10:40] What Sales Hacker is.
[11:49] What the website was like when it launched.
[17:46] His process of writing his best selling book, Hacking sales.
[23:02] How he promoted it initially.
[23:28] About his upcoming book.
25:50 How he’s promoting the upcoming book.
[27:26] His number one piece of advice for anyone looking to start an online business today.
[27:52] Sacrifices he’s had to make to grow his business.
[29:59] Ideas he’s tried in the past that have failed.
[31:41] The best investment he’s ever made in growing his business.

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Resources Mentioned:

Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High Velocity Sales Machine

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton

Connect with My Guest:

SalesHacker

Sutra Coffee: Healthy Caffeine Alternative (Max’s current side project)

Max on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram

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