Story
Ovens turned repeated Skype calls into a Dropbox course
Sam Ovens sold six 1-hour Skype calls for $1,000, noticed he kept repeating himself, recorded the calls, dumped them in a Dropbox folder, and started selling that login for the same $1,000 with no refunds. That accidental product became the course business.
“I recorded the calls and then I put them in a Dropbox folder. And then the people that wanted to buy my coaching from that point on, I said, I don't have any time left, but I've got like a course that you can buy for the same price. And I would just sell it for $1,000 and give them a login to the Dropbox and they would watch the recordings in there.”
Steal thisRecord your repeated 1:1 calls, drop them in a folder, and sell that as a course at the same price once you run out of hours.
Number
Ovens bought consulting.com for $300K via a cold email
Sam Ovens found the consulting.com domain sitting empty, used MX Toolbox to identify the owner, cold-emailed asking to buy it, and paid $300,000 for the name.
$300K
Price paid for consulting.com domain · USD
“That one was $300,000.”
Number
consulting.com: $36M revenue but only $5M profit on $2M/mo ads
At its 2017-2018 peak, consulting.com did $36M a year in revenue but only about $5M in profit, with roughly 50 employees and $2M a month spent on ads, with everything breaking.
$36M
consulting.com peak annual revenue · USD/year
“it was doing $36 million a year in revenue. But profit-wise, it was probably only like $5 million on that. Most of it was, was expenses. And we had about 50 people and we were spending like $2 million a month on ads.”
Number
consulting.com: $36M revenue but only $5M profit on $2M/mo ads
At its 2017-2018 peak, consulting.com did $36M a year in revenue but only about $5M in profit, with roughly 50 employees and $2M a month spent on ads, with everything breaking.
$36M
consulting.com peak annual revenue · USD/year
“it was doing $36 million a year in revenue. But profit-wise, it was probably only like $5 million on that. Most of it was, was expenses. And we had about 50 people and we were spending like $2 million a month on ads.”
Framework
Never build software again unless it has network effects
Burned by an expensive, marketing-dependent software tool in a market he didn't love, Ovens swore off software unless it had network effects so it could grow itself like a platform, then used course profits to fund Skool for a market he loved with no CAC.
“I swore I was never going to touch software again unless it had network effects. Because I wanted it to grow itself, basically, like a platform instead of a software tool.”
Steal thisOnly build software that grows itself through network effects; fund it from a business you love so you are never capital-constrained or forced to market.
Idea
Skool's growth loop: 1% of members start their own community
Skool grows with no marketing or sales team because roughly 1% of members in any community decide they want their own, create one, and invite their own members, compounding the network.
“once you start a community and you add some content to it, the first thing you do is you invite members, right? And then what happens is roughly 1% of members create their own community. So they're like, oh, this platform's cool. I want to make one of these. And then they create their own and then they invite their members. And then that there's a, there's a loop there or a network effect.”
Steal thisDesign the product so a slice of every customer's invited users becomes a new account owner who brings their own users.
Take
Sam Ovens: AI is massively overhyped and unnecessary
Despite running a software company, Ovens says AI is massively overhyped and largely unnecessary, noting ChatGPT hasn't replaced his daily Google use and he's found no real task for it.
“I think it's like massively overhyped and somewhat like just unnecessary. Like, I don't know about you guys, but ChatGPT hasn't replaced my Google usage. I still use Google every day and I've found no real task for it, honestly. It seems— but the hype is extreme.”
Number
Sam Ovens' consulting.com claims $50-60M a year at 50% margin
Sam describes Sam Ovens' consulting.com, which sells a tiered ladder of courses ($2K, $5K, $50K) teaching people to build consulting businesses. Ovens claims roughly $50-60M a year in sales at 50% margin.
$55M
Annual sales (claimed) · USD/year
“And he claims to do something like $50 or $60 million a year in sales with 50% margin.”