Ramon van Meer, Alpha Paw // Bootstrapping To $35mil+ Revenue, Buying vs Building + DTC Growth
Ramon is a Dutch immigrant who dropped out of high school before finding an entrepreneurial path. Most recently he acquired a DTC dog ramp business (Alpha Paw) for $300k + which he's grown to $35mil+ in sales. Previously, he grew a soap opera blog to 30mil+ monthly pageviews before selling it for $9mil. In this conversation you'll learn: – why buy vs build – buying a company with little money down – growth levers to ramp up a DTC ecom business – growing through paid acquisition, influencers, whitelisting, seo + affiliates – creating a healthy channel mix + managing platform risk – benefits of in-house vs 3rd party logistics Watch + Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2DzHRUyI28Q Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Snippet 0:02:27 - Intro + Selling $35mil Worth Of DTC Dog Ramps 0:04:07 - Highschool dropout, business philosophy + 10 figure exit 0:13:04 - Finding Direction 0:16:01 - Finding A Buying An Existing Problem 0:21:35 - Pet Industry 0:23:15 - Finding A Good Business To Buy 0:29:44 - 3PL vs In-House 0:40:02 - Growth Levers To Look Out For When Buying 0:49:23 - Smart Due Diligence 0:52:18 - What To Look For In Google Analytics 0:55:37 - Amazon vs Shopify Split 0:58:40 - Paid Acquisition, Apple Update + Platform Risk 1:07:20 - Budget Allocation + Testing Channels 1:10:17 - Working With Affiliates 1:13:19 - Working With Influencers 1:18:23 - When You Should Work With An Agency 1:21:27 - Whitelisting Strategy 1:24:05 - Partnering With Investors + Funding An Acquisition Ramon's original thread: https://twitter.com/ramonvanmeer/status/1448022919901335552?s=20 Thank you to our sponsors: AppSumo - the marketplace entrepreneurs trust to buy and sell the products that grow small businesses into name brands: https://social.appsumo.com/creatorlab Nord VPN: Grab NordVPN’s Cyber Month Deal. Go to nordvpn.com/clab or use code CLAB to get up to 73% off your NordVPN Plan + a bonus gift