Recap On Talk By Marshall Brain from HowStuffWorks.com (Sold to Discovery Education)

Tonight Startup-Grind Triangle hosted Marshall Brain who built HowStuffWorks into a multi-million acquisition to Discovery Education. Marshall founded HowStuffWorks in 1998 as a hobby and sold to Discovery Channel for $250 million in 2007. The talk this evening provided a great discussion on how Marshall went from idea at kitchen table to impressive exit. Plus, Marshall shared details on process called "Machine That Makes Money." 
Enclosed is recap of top insights shared:

• Idea for HowStuffWorks came after writing 8 books and his interest to publish content in real-time on chapter by chapter basis via blog so launched HowStuffWorks.com. Lesson is, things lead to other things, so just start doing and new ideas and outputs lead to new bigger opportunities.
• Enjoy the work you do, don't be afraid to try, and never give up. Just do it. HowStuffWorks started with posts for months with no one caring. No one cared about the posts for months. Then one day an article came out referencing his site and traffic grew. Then another writer referenced his blog and then things popped from there. All grew organically. HowStuffWorks took a year to get any traction and then things gained great steam. Try a hundred things to find that one thing that works!
• If you get the passion and muse to do something, then do it. Write it. Blog it. Work from joy. Perhaps no one cares. And no one may care for a long time, but at some point things pop. The "down stream" is beautiful as things happen unexpectedly over time. Opportunities come from work and effort. You will be surprised what can come your way after your sincere best efforts. Serendipity is beautiful. Have the good attitude to "give it a go".
• HowStuffWorks started as one man band. Just guy at kitchen table posting articles because it was fun. No one cared about the posts for over a year and then a blogger wrote about his website. Then someone from New York Times referenced that blogger link to HowStuffWorks. Then another writer referenced it so things built over time slowly and organically. Then things opened up with opportunity to win "Coolest Website" at big conference. He won the whole show and then investors started pouring in. From there it grew big! He even got called to be on "Oprah" because they found his name and number on his website and heard about his blog!
• Start with just growing your idea, product, and service one by one. Then look into angel investing and that can lead to winning attention and raising money from other VCs. Good to start small. Build momentum slowly but surely. Make yourself more attractive and gain leverage making it easier for other other opportunities.
• Find a guy who can "sell ice to eskimo" and then hire that guy. They hired a great sales guy who pitched the company to Discovery Communications and got it sold for $250M because of all the site traffic, impressions, users, ad revenue, and most importantly because they had a great guy who could sell the value of the company.
• Be frugal. Be conservative. Get a black belt in frugality. Don't just buy at Costco, buy the stuff on sale at Costco.
• Do things you love. Enjoy the work and just do it. Then if people care it's great, but if not, it's ok because the work is fun to you. Don't give up and be persistent as things take time to build. Things are like nature, a bamboo shoot takes years to sprout, but when it grows it explodes high quickly, but takes years just to grow a few inches before it shoots up many feet in months.
• Have thick skin. Don't get bothered if people ignore you or say no. It happens so expect it. Just keep pushing, keep trying, and enjoy the ride.
• Ask questions and be open minded to what people care about and you get great business ideas. Listen, be open minded, and make appointments to interview people about your idea, but talk around your idea without mentioning it by asking questions. Learn about peoples' pain points and discover what really matters to them so you can adapt your product idea. Interview potential customers who will show you themes in pain points that you can then address with the most robust product.
• Get your product out there to see if anyone cares. Just deliver the most viable product(MVP) and see how people react. Learn and then iterate. Just get moving. See if people engage and if market exists for your idea. Try to get to your first 100 customers asap, one product at a time. Prototype and release. Improve prototype and release.
• Biggest advice for any entrepreneur is just do something. Plan it out with discipline and with smart prep work yes, but at some point just get something in market to see if it resonates. Get off the couch and release your idea, product, or service to the world. Try it! If all works great. If not gaining traction, then try something else. Sell your prototypes. Watch serendipity happen.
• Know when to jump into your entrepreneur business fully when you feel most risk is gone, when your product idea revenue is able to replace your other job income, or when you're pushed out of other options. Follow your heart!
• See if you have AD resonance. Discover if your product advertisements resonates with people. Do people react to your ads and care enough to check out your product or service? Can you run an ad campaign and get people to react and buy your product cost effectively based on your ad cost and product sale price, margin etc. If yes, then you have the "money making machine".

Great event and special thanks to Mark Bavisotto from Startup Grind for leading event, Marshall Brain for wonderful talk, and HQ Raleigh for hosting event. Great beer from Lone Rider and food from Al's BBQ too. Looking forward to the next Startup Grind event this April 2018.

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