Down, But Not Out
Down, But Not Out
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.
Ep. 12 How Synapse Survived After Multiple Co-founders Walked Away
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.
Jul 1, 2022
26 min
Ep. 11 How Never Settle Survived After Losing Half of their Revenue Due to the Pandemic
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.
Jun 1, 2022
37 min
Ep. 10 How YouMail Had to Reposition Twice After Realizing Potential in Serving Other Markets
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.
May 1, 2022
33 min
Ep. 9 How AdGreetz Survived After an Exclusivity Contract Lead to Them Losing a Fortune 500 Client
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.
Apr 1, 2022
46 min
Ep 8. How Hawke Media Handled an Unexpected Employee Hiatus That Almost Led to Them Losing Half of Their Clients
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.
Mar 1, 2022
33 min
Ep. 7 How Cliently Rebuilt After Product Missteps Caused Them to Lose All Their Customers
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!
Feb 1, 2022
22 min
Ep. 6 How InnoSoft Survived a Shareholder Standstill that Almost Lead to Everyone Walking Away
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!
Dec 1, 2021
42 min
Ep. 5 How Arcane Had to Remodel After Small Changes Led to Declining Revenue
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.
Nov 1, 2021
37 min
Ep. 4 How Big Viking Games Fought Off a Patent Troll
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.
Oct 4, 2021
1 hr 4 min
Ep. 3 How Farms.com Survived the Dotcom Crash
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.
Sep 2, 2021
23 min
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