Ramon van Meer, Alpha Paw // Bootstrapping To $35mil+ Revenue, Buying vs Building + DTC Growth

Creator Lab - interviews with entrepreneurs and startup founders

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

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