Tom Hunt

$3.6m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Jan 2014.I'm walking home from a depressing New Year's trip to Oslo with an ex. girlfriend.It's raining in East London.I made a decision:I would replace my management consulting salary (£42,000) by the end of the year.I had no idea from where, but that was the goal...I just about hit it and left the corporate world.And I haven't been back since.Fast forward a decade and I've:- Tried and failed with 17 businesses- Invested in 11- Learnt a LOTThe one that is finally working is called Fame:- We have a weird culture (in a good way)- We start and grow podcasts for B2B businesses- We are fully remote and have 75 full-time team membersI live for our awesome team at Fame, building businesses and great marketing.And I post about them here 🤗

Founder & CEO

We start and grow the world's most profitable B2B podcasts.

Clients include:

👉 IDEO
👉 Workday
👉 HighRadius
👉 People.ai
👉 Zendesk
👉 Bevy
👉 Circle
👉 Suzy
👉 Mazars
👉 LeanData
👉 CXL
👉 Ramp
👉 Alibaba
👉 Signify
👉 eToro

$4.5m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I’m doing.

“We need to let them go.”

I’m in a 1-1 and a manager thinks someone in their team isn’t performing.

I'm in shock, to me they seemed enthusiastic and a culture fit.


We dug into the details:

- What weren’t they doing?
- Why weren’t they doing it?

The manager thought they either didn't understand or couldn't do the role.

Then I ask:

“How did onboarding go?”

“What do you mean by onboarding?” they reply.


And that's when we found the issue:

We skipped the onboarding process and replaced it with "a couple of calls".


If you’re recruiting right, you owe it to yourself to onboard right.

You can’t expect someone to join and start performing, you need to set them up to succeed.

Onboard right or do it twice.

Agree?

I had a terrible boss.

And I spent more time with them than my partner.
 

They never raised their voice.

They smiled (kind of).

But they also started:

- Passing my ideas off as their own
- Expecting email responses at 10pm
- “Checking in” multiple times per day
 
Again, they weren’t ever aggressive or rude, they just slowly eroded my confidence each day.

I thought this was normal e.g. you get a job, you get a manager like this.
 

And then…

I moved roles and got a new manager, they:

- Stepped in when needed
- Never emailed after hours
- Saved most comms to our weekly 1-1
 

A great manager won’t get you promoted.

They will change the trajectory of your career.

Agree?

My 7 favourite startup lies:


1. We’re scaling
-- No, you still don't know how/if you'll be profitable

2. We’re going viral
-- No, your CEO’s LinkedIn fundraise post got a few more likes than normal

3. TechCrunch picked us up
-- No, your $10k per month PR agency got you featured

4. We’re partnering with Google
-- No, you’re paying Google Cloud for servers

5. The inbound pipeline is strong
-- No, some competitors requested a demo to see what you’re building

6. We have FANG-level talent
-- No, one of your devs interned at Netflix 6 years ago

7. The team are fully incentivised
-- No, they have paper options based on an inflated fundraise


And my absolute favourite:

8. We’re worth $30m
-- No, a hyped up VC gave you this valuation to make themselves look good (so they can raise their next fund)


Thank god we don't have to lie to ourselves.

Here’s to the bootstrappers 🥂

(Exit the hype-train and subscribe to Cash Machines)

I probably shouldn’t share this…

I like to call it the “Pay Rise Formula”.


Most people go about asking for money in the completely wrong way:

1. Pay review arrives
2. “Can I have more money?”

It’s an easy "not yet" from the boss.


But if you follow these three steps, you boost your chances of a pay rise by at least 56%:

(Not a guarantee but it works)

1. 6 months before the pay review ask your boss: “what do I need to be doing in the next 6 months to get a pay-rise?”

2. Write those things down and make a plan to hit them. Work hard.

3. A few weeks before the pay review, show the list (with things ticked off) to your boss in a 1-1 and ask them to confirm if you are actually doing those things


If done right, there is no way a boss can push back on a raise with the "not yet" excuse.

Pro-activity pays.

Agree?

"OK let me get this straight..."

"Because it kind of sounds like you built yourself a job."


It's 11:37pm in 2017 and I'm sat with a good friend enjoying a spicy margarita in a seedy city bar.

He's shouting into my ear because they closed something called a "Series A":

- How their going to change the world
- An upcoming TechCrunch article
- All the people he needs to hire
- Their "enterprise motion"


But something isn't making sense to me:

1. He has to report to the board every month
2. Any cost greater than £25k must have board sign off
3. He can't take cash out whenever he wants
4. Board needs to sign off his salary
4. If he leaves in the next 4 years he only keeps a slice of his own company
5. If they don't sell it for a massive amount he may get nothing
6. To sell it, they need investor sign off


He replies:

"Yeah I see what you're saying, but the reality is the company is now valued at £20m, my stake is £6m, so I'm basically a multi-millionaire"

😳


As you can imagine, it didn't work out well.

Glad I stuck to building Cash Machines.

$4.5 million ARR, 0 raised.

$500 invested.

It’s been a wild ride.


We have built Fame as a service business with mostly intangible assets.

We did it without selling a single piece of equity to venture capital.

But even asset-light businesses get stuck.

You often need to buy speed to hire a star developer, fund a new marketing campaign, or pay a tax bill.

In those moments, I did not want to wait weeks for a bank.

Unless I had another option.

An option like iwoca.


They fund small businesses that move quickly and have already funded 100,000 businesses in the UK. 

They lent £3.3 billion to business owners who need to move fast and build resilience.

You can apply for business finance between £1,000 and £1M in about five minutes.

They typically give you a decision within 24 hours.

Apply here to check your options: https://lnkd.in/euSG4SCm

NOTE - applying does not impact your credit score.

#Ad

Brand partnership • $4.5m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I’m doing.

It felt like the responsible thing to do... 


But then it turned out to be one of the worst business decisions ever.

Depreciating assets hurt the balance sheet, locking up capital that could be used for growth. 

For example... 

We are in a hiring sprint, bringing on 2 - 3 new team members in Feb. 

Old Tom would have dropped thousands upfront for laptops that would be worth significantly less by next year.

That isn’t scaling.

It’s a cash drain.

Instead, we are using Raylo.

It took 60 seconds to set up a subscription for the latest HP laptops, and they arrived the next day.

Here is why I recommend Raylo as an affordable option for small businesses:

- Protect Your Cash: We paid £0 upfront. Every pound saved on hardware goes straight into growth.

- Upgrade Freedom: With the MacBook M5 rumors floating around, I am not worried because we can upgrade the team to the latest models for free with Raylo's monthly rolling option.

- Zero Drama: If something goes wrong with a device during the subscription, Raylo's Lifetime Warranty covers technical faults and they sort it quickly.


Or in other words:

Stop buying "stuff" that rots on your balance sheet. 

Convert your tech to OpEx and keep your capital for growth.

Check out the subscription options for your team here: mdsh.io/raylo-business 

#Ad

Felician Rybka

Maxima Consulting

Head of Marketing

I'm responsible for creating, implementing and monitoring the marketing strategy of Maxima Consulting. 

Since 1993, Maxima Consulting has been solving business challenges and optimizing strategies for organizations around the world. From workforce development through managed IT services to cloud solutions, Maxima Consulting helps our clients reach their key business goals.

Need to build your global presence? 

Our workforce experts can guide you across the whole process, from location selection to establishing a team in a new location.

Are your cloud bills ruining your budget? 

We can optimize your existing infrastructure, and reduce your TCO by even 30-40%. Our teams created their own solutions to the most burning problems of IT departments.

Your operating costs are rising but there is little to no innovation?

Let us manage your systems and work with consultants who will look for improvements every day to streamline your operations.

Marketing Manager

Marketing Specialist

Be a B2B Leader

In this podcast, I interview today's leaders to learn about various things connected with Leadership and B2B. The goal is to build a knowledge base where you can find information and practical advice that will help you advance in your career as a marketer and business professional. 

But to advance in those roles you shouldn't focus only on marketing. That's why I'll interview also leaders from different fields like sales, HR, customer success, finance and more. There are a lot of things you can learn to be a better leader! 

If there is a topic a B2B Leader should know about, let me know.

Remember that leaders are made, not born!

Host - on HOLD

Driving Demand

Driving Demand is an invite-only community for European B2B marketers obsessed with revenue.

Member

Elite Crew

As the Marketing Manager of Elite Crew, I was responsible for the whole marketing strategy. I was also the host of "World Designer" and managed content creation, from outreach to publishing. Together with the team, we created content for entrepreneurs and designers who want to shape the world. Elite Crew is a software house based in Rzeszow, Poland. They focus on projects that have a positive influence on the planet and people. The whole team is mission-driven and believes that they can make the world a better place for us and future generations.

Podcast Host & Marketing Manager

Concise Software

My journey as a Marketer started here, I was given the opportunity to choose between the sales or marketing road. Marketing seemed much more interesting to me, and I decided that it's the field in which I'll specialize. The 2 years were spent on learning the basics to understand everything about the broad "Digital Marketing". SEO seemed like the best way to go, it was interesting at that time so I put more effort into learning it. I was responsible for implementing the marketing strategy, SEO optimization, copywriting, translations, helping the sales team and a few other things.

Head of Marketing at Maxima Consulting | We help businesses scale 🌍

When I joined Maxima Consulting as a Marketing Manager in 2020, the company’s marketing efforts were almost non-existent. Today, our marketing team consists of 3 people, including myself. Our profile on LinkedIn has more than 20.000 followers. The clients regularly mention our marketing efforts in conversations, and our campaigns drive more and more candidates into our hiring pipeline.

◆𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠◆
Building the Maxima marketing division from scratch was definitely a challenge. Today, we have a real impact on the Maxima brand, its messaging, and its image. The leadership acknowledges and appreciates the team's efforts. We’re just getting started but I believe we continue to move in the right direction.

◆𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧◆
My goal for the near future is to grow the Maxima brand: both as an excellent employer and as a trusted partner to businesses of all sizes, in Europe and beyond. For me, the sky is the limit. I won’t be satisfied until people in the industries we support recognize our brand as synonymous with quality and expertise. In marketing, there are no immediate results, so I understand we need to be patient to achieve that.

Being a competitive person, I believe that the work in marketing suits me. I enjoy solving unexpected issues, tracking our progress toward goals, and comparing Maxima’s results to the competitors. Of course, I understand that marketing is a team effort. I always put people I work with first, dedicate myself to being a dependable leader, and encourage team cooperation.

◆𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞◆
My role as a Marketing Manager is a complex one. On the one hand, I’m responsible for my team and overseeing their work. On the other, I have my own tasks to perform, including developing strategic plans, social media management, video content creation, and running paid campaigns. Even my experience in writing and translation (especially from German to Polish) comes in handy from time to time.

Outside Maxima, I enjoy following automotive news, going to the gym, and working on my podcast about leadership in the B2B space.

◆𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭◆
I’m an active LinkedIn user, so if you find my work interesting, or want to know more about my podcast, don’t hesitate to send me a message - I reply to all of them :D

I'm responsible for creating, implementing and monitoring the marketing strategy of Maxima Consulting. I manage the content strategy, creation of articles, recordings, case studies and more. My main duty is brand development, but I'm responsible for all marketing activities of the company.

Maxima Consulting is an IT consulting company founded in 1993 in Boston. We help organizations across the world in developing, scaling, and supporting their IT environments. Our powerful and reliable IT solutions are used by enterprises in Banking & Finance, Insurance, Transport & Logistics, Healthcare, and other industries.

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The Battle

Tom Hunt

Felician Rybka

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taplio

The Battle

Tom Hunt

Felician Rybka

Followers

Posts

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);}Tom Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreTom Hunt's LinkedIn Performance