Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz & Sparktoro, Investor | The Dark Side of Venture Capital and Startups

Success Story with Scott D. Clary

Success Story Media

How To, Business, Education, Self-improvement

4.6 • 326 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2021

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

➡️ Like The Show? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory➡️ About The GuestRand Fishkin is cofounder and CEO of audience research software startup, SparkToro. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder. In 2004, he created the SEOmoz blog, which, over the next decade, became the world’s most popular community and content resource for search marketers. In 2007, the company (Moz) transitioned from consulting to software and Rand took the role of CEO.Over 7 years as CEO, Rand grew Moz to 130+ employees, $30M+ in revenue, and traffic to 30M+ visitors/year. He raised two rounds of funding, led three acquisitions, and a rebrand. Rand stepped down as CEO in 2014 during a rough bout with depression and left the company 4 years later. Rand was also the co-founder of Inbound.org alongside Dharmesh Shah. The site was sold to Hubspot in 2014.In 2018, Rand founded SparkToro and published, with Penguin/Random House, Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World. Rand previously co-contributed to two books: Art of SEO, and Inbound Marketing & SEO. He’s been profiled in the Seattle Times, featured in Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, named to BusinessWeek’s 30 Under 30, written about in Newsweek, The Next Web, the Inc 500, and hundreds of other publications. ➡️ Talking Points00:00 - Rand’s story.04:58 - Arbitraging Pokémon cards.09:54 - How Rand built Sparktoro.16:21 - You don’t need to raise VC money.24:18 - Bootstrapping vs. VC money.40:40 - Product led growth, engagement and recidivism.56:36 - The issues with startup culture.➡️ Show Linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/https://twitter.com/randfish➡️ Podcast Sponsors1. True Bill—Control Your Subscriptions https://truebill.com/successstory2. Express VPN — Protect Your Online Activityhttps://expressvpn.com/successstory3. Get Abstract - Summarizes and Rates Thousands of Bookshttps://getab.li/success4. Hubspot Podcast Networkhttps://hubspot.com/podcastnetwork

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I haven't worked with a lot of wine or liquor or alcohol sponsors, but I'm very happy
0:05.1	that Justin Wines reached out. They wanted to work with me and sponsor the podcast. Whether
0:09.1	or not you're buying wine for yourself or you're looking for corporate gifting or gifts for
0:13.1	friends and family, they got you covered. They recently sent me some of their wines,
0:16.6	including the cabs of their flagship wine. I saw sleeves and their award-winning justification.
0:21.1	I cannot wait to share these with friends and family and also drink some myself. Justin Wines
0:26.6	has been crafting exceptional wines since 1981, with world-class Bordeaux style wines,
0:31.9	Justin basically put Paso Robles region on the wine-making map. They thoughtfully produce
0:38.2	wines with boutique wine-making practices and it is the perfect gift for loved ones. Gifting
0:43.6	with Justin is effortless. You pick your wine, you select the box, you add a personal message,
0:48.7	and you leave the rest to them. You could be gifting yourself if you want to. I'm not holding
0:53.2	any judgment. Shop all of their exceptional wines at JustinWine.com and be sure to use promo code
0:59.6	success to receive 15% off your order today. Welcome to success story. The most useful podcast
1:06.3	in the world. I'm your host, Scott D. Clary. The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot
1:12.3	podcast network. The HubSpot podcast network has incredible podcasts for you to check out.
1:17.0	Like remarkable people hosted by Guy Kawasaki, of course, brought to you by the HubSpot podcast
1:24.0	network. The remarkable people podcast with Guy Kawasaki helps you better understand the changing
1:28.8	world with interviews from thought leaders, legends, and iconoclast. If you are interested in
1:34.9	business, leadership, entrepreneurship, he interviews the best of the best leveraging connections
1:41.4	that he's built over his career. Here's some of the episodes and interviews that he's done.
1:45.7	He's spoken to Seth Goden, marketing god, blogger, author. He's spoken to Pat Flynn,
1:51.7	entrepreneur, power, podcaster, and popular YouTuber. He's spoken to Jen Lim,
	...

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