Organic Acquisition Systems for Agency Owners and Execs - Founder @ Voxen & ScalingDavids

Hi there 👋,

I'm Andrea, and here’s my story in a nutshell:

🌍 Originally from Italy, I've lived in 7 countries and learned 5 foreign languages during my early 20s! 

🚀 I worked at Meta in Sales for the EMEA markets, consulting with 500+ businesses and entrepreneurs on growth marketing and branding. 🚀

🏗️ In 2020, I founded and grew Scaling Davids, a Creative Marketing Agency focused on video ads production. 

💡 I'm building and growing Voxen, a personal branding studio that enables Agency teams and executives/founders to grow their personal brand and drive influence at scale. 📈

📊 From zero to 7 figures and a team of 20 talented individuals without any funding or previous knowledge. 
🤝 Trust-building and genuine value-based relationships have been key to getting here so far. I'm currently building a personal brand online to form relationships at scale.
💸 I'm sharing my ongoing learnings and lessons, hoping to inspire people and businesses to be better.

---

Sold SD and Voxen in 2025, currently building "A Casa Loro", to make Impact Travel a freaking thing in Italy and EU.

Follow to see the journey!

Peace out ✌️

Andrea Tonetti

Nathan Hirsch

5k to $12M ARR in 4 yrs (w/ Exit) 🔥 Scaling my 4+ B2B companies in the same way 🚀 Daily advice for entrepreneurs.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve built five businesses to 6, 7, and even 8 figures in annual revenue.  Now I buy businesses

In 2019, I exited one of them — FreeeUp — after scaling it from a $5K investment to $12M+ in ARR in just four years. It was acquired by The HOTH, and that journey changed everything for me.

Unique About the FreeeUp sale:
- No office
- No Us Employees
- Bootstrapped (No outside funding)
- Zero Money spent on Paid ads
- An internal team of 30+ All-Star Virtual Assistants from PH

These days, I’m focused on growing Hirsch Gillivan LLC — the holding company Connor Gillivan and I started. We're building a portfolio of 5-star businesses, each run by amazing operators who truly care about our clients. It’s been a blast supporting great people, growing cool companies, and enjoying life after our first exit.

Here are a few we own:

→ EcomBalance: Monthly bookkeeping for eCommerce sellers
→ AccountsBalance: Monthly bookkeeping for agencies, SAAS, and b2b businesses
→ TrioSEO: Helping SaaS and B2B brands drive high-intent organic traffic and revenue growth
→ HG Media: Growing Connor and my brand online + helping sponsors reach our audience
→ CFO Expertise: Reach financial clarity, optimize growth, and scale profits with an Ecommerce CFO that’s seen it all. Built for brands on Shopify & Amazon.

I’ve had the chance to be a guest on 900+ podcasts over the years — including shows like Perpetual Traffic, Mixergy, BiggerPockets, and Leveling Up.

Outside of building businesses, I'm a proud dad to Carter and husband to Quynh. I get in a daily hour of HIIT, run marathons, and play way too much softball. Always learning, always investing — whether it’s stocks, real estate, or new business ideas.

Want to learn more? Check out NathanHirsch.com, follow me here on LinkedIn or subscribe to https://nathanhirsch.com/newsletter for daily tips on entrepreneurship and growth.

For LinkedIn Sponsorship queries, please reach out to me at media@hirschgillivan.com

Co-Founder

🔥🔥Big News 🔥🔥

Really Excited to launch our new venture TrioSEO October 17th

TrioSEO(dot)com

For years we have ben putting out high quality blog SEO optimized articles for our different businesses leading to highly ranked websites

After years of getting asked if we can offer this for other businesses we now will be

Here's how it will work 👇

1. SEO Audit
We'll conduct a free audit on your site, share results, and let you know if we think its a good fit to work together. 

2. Keyword Research & Planning
We'll get to work finding the best possible keywords for you to be targeting where you have a good chance of driving traffic and leads. We'll put together a full strategy that we'll present to you.

3. Content Creation & Optimization
We'll start creating content for your site. We'll publish it directly on your site as we finish it. If there's pages or articles you already have that we think could move up in search rankings, we'll propose those as well and improve them.

4. Analytics & Reporting
We'll provide you with a monthtly report showing all key SEO data so you can track progress and stay involved in the process.

Interested in being one of our first clients (we have already landed a few)?  Lets chat

There’s a difference people like to confuse.

Hard is effort.
Hard is learning.
Hard is staying present when things are uncomfortable.

Disrespect is something else.

Disrespect is a signal.
It shows how power is exercised.
How conflict is handled.
How much of yourself you’re expected to compress to stay.

Staying through difficulty can be resilience.
Staying through disrespect is usually conditioning.

This isn’t quitting.
It’s pattern recognition.

Boundaries aren’t about avoiding hard things.
They’re about refusing environments where erosion is normalised.

Know the difference.

Image credit: Dearme2_ on Twitter/X

Shoutout to Chase Dimond for this awesome post!

Building A 10-Business Portfolio (5 Down, 5 To Go) | FreeUp Founder (Exited 2019) | Family First, No Work Travel

Everyone says they want top talent around them. 

Until top talent disagrees.
Moves fast.
Challenges weak thinking.
And sees things they don’t.

That’s when insecurity gets exposed.

Because working with people smarter than you sounds good in theory.

But in practice, it demands humility.

Real leaders don’t hire to protect their ego.
They hire to raise the standard.

They know that being the most capable person in every conversation is not a flex.

It’s a bottleneck.

A few truths about building around smart people:

1 • It makes your blind spots obvious.
↳ And that’s a gift, because what you can’t see is usually what slows you down most.

2 • It forces you to lead, not control.
↳ You stop trying to have all the answers and start creating space for better ones.

3 • It sharpens your thinking.
↳ Strong people challenge weak ideas fast, which makes the work better.

4 • It multiplies your output.
↳ One great mind adds value. A team of great minds compounds it.

5 • It requires security.
↳ If someone else’s brilliance feels like a threat, the issue is not them. It’s ego.

Having access to people smarter than you is a blessing.

Because proximity changes you.

It makes you think bigger.
Move better.
And grow faster than you would on your own.

The goal was never to be the smartest person in the room.

The goal was to build a room that makes everyone smarter.

Repost ♻ to educate your network.
And follow me Nathan Hirsch and Tom Pestridge for more posts like this.

Credit: Igor Buinevici

Most founders think storytelling is for marketers.

It is not.

Storytelling is how you get people to care.

Care is how you get people to act.

A great story does three things:

It builds connection.
It inspires action.
It makes your message memorable.

If you want to get better at it, keep it simple.

Start by knowing who you are talking to.

Then open with a hook that creates curiosity.

Then build emotional depth with one real detail.

Then follow a clear arc.

Beginning, middle, end.

And do not overcomplicate it.

The best business stories are not polished.

They are specific.

A customer moment.
A hard lesson.
A mistake you fixed.
A decision you almost avoided.

That is what people remember.

Quick checklist I use:

1/ One main message only
2/ One character the reader can relate to
3/ One conflict that creates tension
4/ One takeaway that changes how they think

Edit ruthlessly until it is clean

If you are building a business, you are sitting on stories already.

You just need to start telling them.

What is one business story you have not shared yet, but should?

♻️ Repost this if you want more founders to write with clarity

P.S. I share my business stories weekly in my newsletter (link in comments).

Most new managers fail for one reason 

they keep thinking like employees.

They focus on doing, not enabling.

On tasks, not systems.

On effort, not outcomes.

The best managers don’t work harder.

They think differently.

Here are 10 frameworks that’ll help you think like a manager:

1️⃣ The 80/20 Rule

→ Focus on the 20% that drives 80% of results.
→ Identify high-leverage tasks and delegate the rest.

2️⃣ The Leverage Lens

→ Ask: “Can this scale without me?”
→ Build systems, templates, and people that replace repetition.

3️⃣ The Decision Filter

→ Reversible: decide fast.
→ Irreversible: think deeply.
→ Delegatable: empower your team.

4️⃣ The Clarity Triangle

→ Every project needs clear ownership, goals, and timelines.
→ Ambiguity kills accountability.

5️⃣ The Feedback Loop

→ Give → Act → Review → Adjust → Repeat.
→ Great managers close loops, not just start them.

6️⃣ The Trust Battery

→ Every action either charges or drains trust.
→ Protect credibility like it’s your currency.

7️⃣ The Zoom-Out Principle

→ Don’t react — step back first.
→ Fix patterns, not moments.

8️⃣ The Outcome Mindset

→ Stop asking “What do I need to do?”
→ Start asking “What outcome do we need?”

9️⃣ The Coaching Model

→ Ask before advising.
→ Build thinkers, not task-doers.

🔟 The One-Level-Up Test

→ Before deciding, ask: “How would my leader think?”
→ Elevate from doing to designing.

Managers don’t just move work forward 

they move people forward.

Save this for your next leadership leap.

♻️ Repost if you’re building better managers.

Most people confuse authority with loudness.

That is just ego with a microphone.

Real authority is quieter.

It shows up in how you decide, how you communicate, and how you hold standards.

The best leaders I have worked with did not try to look important.

They tried to be useful.

Here is how you build authority without ego.

9 ways to build authority without ego

1. Be consistent
→ Do what you say you will do
→ Let patterns earn trust
    
2. Make decisions calmly
→ Remove emotion from the process
→ Explain the reasoning, not the drama
    
3. Hold standards without attacking people
→ Separate behavior from identity
→ Correct early, not harshly
    
4. Ask better questions than you answer
→ Get to root causes fast
→ Help others think clearly
    
5. Be the most prepared person in the room
→ Bring context and options
→ Respect time with clarity
    
6. Give credit quickly
→ Share wins without hesitation
→ Make others feel seen
    
7. Admit mistakes fast
→ Own the miss without excuses
→ Fix it and move forward
    
8. Teach systems, not superiority
→ Document how decisions get made
→ Make knowledge transferable
    
9. Stay close to the work
→ Understand reality, not politics
→ Lead from truth, not titles    

Authority that needs to announce itself is fragile.

Authority that is earned is hard to shake.

Which one are you focusing on this year?

♻️ Repost this if you believe respect is built through behavior

P.S. I share calm, systems-first leadership like this weekly here: nathanhirsch(.)com/newsletter

11 red flags you're not leadership material.  

(Number 7 hurts the most).  

True leaders are made, not born.  

Bad habits destroy team potential.

You might be the problem.

Confront these signs now.

Your team's success depends on you.

Their growth reflects your leadership.

Here's a candid mirror for aspiring leaders:

1. You avoid accountability  
→ You shift blame to others  
→ Fix: Own mistakes publicly and fix them  

2. You micromanage
→ You obsess over minor tasks  
→ Fix: Delegate outcomes, not processes  

3. You can't listen
→ You interrupt and dismiss ideas  
→ Fix: Practice listening first, speaking last  

4. You play favorites 
→ You reward loyalty over merit  
→ Fix: Use objective criteria for rewards  

5. You prioritize tasks over people
→ You treat employees as tools  
→ Fix: Schedule weekly 1:1s for their goals  

6. You lack empathy  
→ You dismiss emotions as weakness  
→ Fix: Ask "How are you really doing?"  

7. You're indecisive  
→ You delay decisions to avoid risk  
→ Fix: Set deadlines for all choices  

8. You can't inspire 
→ You frame work as a grind  
→ Fix: Connect tasks to a larger purpose  

9. You fear developing others  
→ You block growth opportunities  
→ Fix: Mentor openly and build plans  

10. You're emotionally volatile  
→ You snap under pressure  
→ Fix: Pause before reacting to stress  

11. You prioritize self-preservation 
→ You protect your reputation first  
→ Fix: Advocate for your team publicly  

---  
 
Leadership is a skill, not a title.

Build your team up with you.

Start with one fix this week.

Watch morale and productivity rise.

The best leaders are always learning.

Your team deserves your best self.

Commit to growing every day.

♻️ Repost this and help others.

P.S. Follow me at Nathan Hirsch for more such posts.

11 Signs You Are Not Leadership Material.pdf

Most cold email problems aren’t copy problems.

They’re deliverability problems.

If you’re landing in spam,

Your offer doesn’t matter.
Your subject line doesn’t matter.
Your follow-up doesn’t matter.

So I like to keep it simple.

Before you scale outbound, run a deliverability system.

Warmy helps you do that.

It’s built to improve inbox placement through:

Warm-up 
Authentication checks
Engagement simulation
Deliverability monitoring

Here’s the exact checklist I’d run:

1. Start with inbox placement data
→ you need a baseline before changing anything
→ measure inbox vs spam across providers

2. Validate authentication
→ SPF, DKIM, DMARC should all be green
→ fix this before sending volume

3. Track deliverability trends
→ monitor changes over time, not just one test
→ consistency matters more than spikes

4. Review provider-level proof
→ Yahoo and Outlook behave differently
→ confirm you’re landing where you think you are

This is what sustainable outbound looks like.

Less guessing.
More control.

You can try Warmy without a credit card here: https://lnkd.in/gvE2d75G

♻️ Repost this if you want systems, not duct tape.

P.S. What provider gives you the most trouble right now?

taplio

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The Battle

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nathan Hirsch's LinkedIn Performance

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