Do you work in private equity or something where you buy out businesses and run them?
I'm technically a type 3, but an idiot one that wasted a lot of time chasing sexy ideas with no connection real-world problems. Trying to get better now.
I have some cash cows. I buy tech businesses and streamline the business side.
> but an idiot one that wasted a lot of time chasing sexy ideas with no connection real-world problems
I hope you aren’t beating yourself up for this — that’s the kool-aid that is being served, and your path is very common.
The cool thing is that you probably developed some useful knowledge and skills along the way.
For full disclosure, I “wasted” a lot of time in my former career as a research professor. I’m glad I did it. It helped me grow as a person. It gave me opportunities to learn important things that I did not know. It was where I needed to be for that part of my life.
That said, although it’s time I won’t get back, I’m very happy about the path I’m on, and I’m not sure a younger me could have navigated this path as successfully.
> How did you get the initial capital to buy businesses, just from your savings as a research professor?
Much like Andrew Wilkinson, I started an agency. Agencies are great cash cows.
In retrospect, I could have just started with savings (I had enough). It probably would have added stress I wasn’t looking for.
That said, the agency was and is still great cash flow. It’s also a useful business space for learning how to build a business that (mostly) runs itself.
Successful tech agencies that have been started by people I know:
- programming
- digital marketing
- social media
- web development
- SEO
- data science
- AI (this is emerging)
The agency is a business that goes to other businesses and offers to solve one or more of their business problems for a fee. Sometimes these fees are one-time payments, sometimes they are recurring, sometimes both. I recommend having recurring payments being baked into your agency model.
It’s a relatively easy way to get “ramen profitable” (or more!) along with some money to invest.
would you consider a small saas product in this realm? that is, is there a clear distinction for what could be considered an agency vs a saas product? or is the line blurred in some contexts?
Yeah. If you have a SaaS that has product-market fit, you are way ahead of the game.
Cash cows don’t have to be agencies, but agencies are easier to spin up than a SaaS.
In terms of nomenclature in general, productized consulting is a thing. Whether you can spin a healthy amount of recurring revenue from it depends on the SaaS product.
I'm technically a type 3, but an idiot one that wasted a lot of time chasing sexy ideas with no connection real-world problems. Trying to get better now.