meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

723: He Sold His Company to Richard Branson, Then Oil Tanked Him

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Nathan Latka

Ceo, Entrepreneurs, Founders, Software, Business, Entrepreneurship, Saas, Startups

4.6683 Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2017

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scott Duffy. He’s the co-host of Business & Burgers and a contributor at Entrepreneur.com. He’s also listed as one of the top 10 keynote speakers of Forbes and Entrepreneur. He started working for bestselling author and speaker, Tony Robbins. He’s been a part of early stage exits and worked with big brands like CBSSport.com, NBC internet, Fox.com. He sold his last company to Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. He’s the best-selling author of the book called Launch!.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – You Are a Badass at Making Money
  • What CEO do you follow? – Dave Meltzer
  • Favorite online tool? — Skype
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5 to 6 hours
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You don’t win by hard work alone”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:02 – Nathan introduces Scott to the show
  • 01:51 – Scott wants to tell The Top tribe that it is all about being real and integrity
  • 02:01 – Scott is doing a lot of work regarding mindset
  • 02:05 – Scott has a new book coming out called Breakthrough
    • 02:26 – It is being published by Entrepreneur Press
    • 02:30 – Scott was working on the timeline
  • 02:54 – Scott shares a story about failing
    • 02:58 – Scott had a business called Smart Charter
    • 03:04 – Scott was looking for distribution and ended up making a deal with Virgin
    • 03:16 – Scott was putting in $10K-15K of his personal money
    • 03:33 – Scott closed a deal and they moved to their new office
    • 04:12 – Scott is now officially a part of the Virgin Group
  • 04:42 – Scott wasn’t paying himself nothing before he sold the company
  • 04:54 – Prior to Smart Charter, Scott was a part of Sports 1 USA
  • 05:20 – Majority of Scott’s savings went to Smart Charter
  • 05:51 – Instead of taking money out out Smart Charter, Scott decided to go all in
  • 06:18 – Scott now has equity with Virgin
  • 06:57 – Scott sold Smart Charter in 2008
  • 07:10 – Scott learned that the biggest job of an entrepreneur has nothing to do with business
    • 07:19 – The most important job for an entrepreneur is to protect himself
  • 07:44 – Smart Charter had an equity pool prior to Virgin
  • 08:22 – The possible deal from Virgin
  • 09:17 – In a matter of weeks, everything changed with Virgin/Smart Charter
  • 10:05 – On Scott’s first day with Virgin, he knew that if he messed up, there wouldn’t be another chance
  • 10:28 – Scott’s superpower is in getting distribution for early stage companies
  • 10:51 – As a small company, dealing with big companies does not make you better
  • 11:19 – The deal with Virgin didn’t turn out the way Scott thought it would
  • 12:26 – As an entrepreneur, Scott thinks he was played
  • 12:53 – Entrepreneurs have to know how to repackage the things that have happened to them
  • 13:09 – Business & Burgers is a search for the best burger in America and offers a side of great business advice
    • 13:14 – They hit the best restaurant and talk to the top local entrepreneur
    • 13:35 – Next episode is Daymond John from Shark Tank
  • 15:20 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Don’t be discouraged; sometimes, you just have to learn things the hard way.
  2. Entrepreneurs need to know how to protect themselves.
  3. Take time building relationships – relationships are everything.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

He started many, many, many years ago, built up savings enough to go all in on his own idea,

0:04.7

smart charter.

0:05.5

Thought he was getting a great deal selling the Virgin really for mostly an equity deal.

0:09.6

He took a chunk of that business eight weeks later or eight days later.

0:12.5

All of a sudden, oil prices increases.

0:14.0

Business goes down the tubes.

0:15.2

He obviously gets out of that business now focused on business and burgers, books, and much, much more.

0:19.8

This is episode 723.

0:21.8

Coming up tomorrow morning, we're going to learn from Colin Day.

0:25.5

He runs a 70 million plus recruiting company that I guarantee you you've never even heard of.

0:30.9

But first, here's today's episode.

0:32.9

This is the top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry

0:39.3

in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their

0:44.8

marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per talk.

0:51.3

Five and six million. He is hell- is hell bent on global domination we just broke our

0:55.0

hundred thousand units sold mark and i'm your host nathan latka hello everybody my guest today is

1:02.6

none other than scott duffy he is the co-host of business and burgers and a contributor at

1:07.6

entrepreneur dot com he's also listed as the top 10 keynote speaker by both Forbes

1:12.0

and entrepreneur. He started working and really started his career working for bestselling

1:17.3

author and speaker Tony Robbins. Early stage through exit and small, through that and small

1:23.7

businesses, that became big brands like CBSports.com, NBC internet, Fox Sports.com.

1:27.7

And then he sold his last company to Richard Branson's Virgin Group.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nathan Latka, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nathan Latka and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.