Down, But Not Out: Recent Episodes
Nick Hollinger
We all love to hear success stories of how an entrepreneur accomplished greatness. While accomplishing this is unlikely, these stories are shared far and wide. What doesn’t get talked about enough is when entrepreneurs make mistakes, or something changes in their business or industry, leading to impending doom for their businesses. On Down, But Not Out, we share those stories. The stories of pure resiliency where entrepreneurs had to fight to save their businesses after being dealt a death blow. These stories are meant to inspire future entrepreneurs while motivating current ones to keep fighting.
A few years into business, Ryan and his Co-Founders were faced with a difficult decision. Due to budget constraints and different skillsets, two of them had to walk away from the company. Learn how Ryan was able to face this tough decision and grow his company to over 40 employees worldwide.
In early 2020, the world was struck by uncertainty, and almost every business was impacted in one way or another. Never Settle was hit hard by their clients closing their retail stores, budget cuts, and layoffs. Listen to learn how Ken was able to manage internal costs to combat lost revenue and come out stronger in the end.
A few years into business, YouMail realized that their current B2B sales cycle was taking too long and had to pivot to service B2C instead. During this transition and downsizing, Alex was also wrongfully served which lead to them losing thousands. Find out how Alex was able to survive these hiccups and grow his company to over 70 employees.
After leaving his 30-year career with Warner Bros, Eric Frankel decided to pursue his entrepreneurial dream. A few years into business, Eric signed a two week exclusivity contract with one of their clients, Flipkart. Then, Amazon asked for a campaign to be run in this time period. Due to the contract, Eric had to say no, which resulted in losing Amazon as a client. Learn how Eric was able to survive losing this Fortune 500 client and earn back their trust years later.
In 2014, Hawke Media began to grow rapidly, taking on multiple Fortune 1000 clients. Just weeks into business, a key employee who ran campaigns for half of their clients disappeared to Hawaii to get married to a girl he just met. Find out how Erik was able to turn this situation around and grow his company to where it is today.
Just a few months after launching Cliently, Spencer Farber was faced with back to back missteps of sending emails from the wrong client accounts and their entire database being erased. Find out how Spencer’s positive outlook and resiliency were able to help him rebuild Cliently after losing all of their customers!
In this episode of Down, But Not Out Nick talks to Brian Foster about how his company, InnoSoft, almost went under due to a 3-month shareholder standstill over disagreements on how to grow the company. Due to the disagreements, Brian and the other shareholders considered walking away from the business completely. Learn how Brian and his team were able to overcome these disagreements, build a successful business, and later exit!
In this episode of Down, But Not out Nick talks to Eric Vardon about how his company, Arcane, began to struggle due to a combination of small changes that snowballed into a 30% drop in revenue. After growing Arcane to 15 million in revenue, changes in management, losing key clients, and hiring too many people too quickly, Eric had to figure out how to recover from the sharp loss in revenue. Listen to find out how Eric was able to navigate these tough waters with the help of his team.
In this episode of Down, But Not Out, Nick talks to Greg Thompson about how Big Viking Games was served a lawsuit early on that could have cost them millions and put them out of business. After growing Big Viking Games to generate over 3 million dollars a year in revenue, Greg was served a patent infringement lawsuit that buried them in legal fees and time consuming tasks. After 9-12 months and $500,000, Big Viking Games was able to beat the lawsuit and triumph over the troll. Listen now to find out how Greg and his team were able to come out stronger and ended up tripling the size of Big Viking Games.
In the third episode of Down, But Not Out Nick talks to Joe Dales about how his company, Farms.com, had to restructure after an attempt to grow too quickly. After a new CEO takes too much of a growth risk, Joe had to deal with financial hardship and laying off 80% of his staff. Since Joe’s Down, But Not Out moment, he has been able to lean on his team and grow Farms.com to a multi-million dollar business with over 130 employees. Find out how Joe came to terms with downsizing and how he was able to rebuild his company from the ground up.
In the second episode of Down, But Not Out, Nick talks to David Billson about how his company, rTraction, lost a fortune 500 client that made up ~70% of their revenue. This lead to rapid staff and attempted cost reductions that taught David a valuable lesson on the difficulty of downsizing a company. Since the Down, But Not Out moment and losing <$2M in yearly revenue, David has been able to make strides towards rebuilding rTraction and has taken the time to invest in new businesses and opportunities. Listen today to hear how David and his team overcame and adapted to their new reality.
Welcome to the Down, But Not Out podcast! In this trailer, you'll meet your host, Nick Hollinger, and learn what Down, But Not Out is really about.
The idea of Down, But Not Out was born after Nick's business, Visitor Queue, was dealt a death blow by Google. Through hard work and dedication, he was able to rebuild his business to be better than ever. Throughout this process, Nick realized that entrepreneurs don't talk about their mistakes, hardships, and changes in their industry that lead to impending doom for their business. On Down, But Not Out, we share those stories. The stories of pure resiliency where entrepreneurs had to fight to save their businesses after nearing death. These stories are meant to inspire future entrepreneurs while motivating current ones to keep fighting.
Tune in each month for a new episode and featured guest!
In our first episode, your host, Nick Hollinger, shares how his company, Visitor Queue, almost went under due to changes Google made to their APIs. This story was the inspiration behind the Down, But Not Out show and we thought it was the perfect story to start the series. Listen today to hear how Nick and his team were able to adapt and learn from their near death experience.