I Figured Out How 20-Year-Olds Built $1B Companies

  >> Get My Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78  >> Subscribe to My Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3W2tjp2 Since the age of 17, I’ve only done one thing: building businesses. Fast forward 27 years, and I’m the founder of Martell Ventures, a portfolio of companies generating over $100M in revenue. Every week, I get thousands of DMs from business owners seeking advice, and I see the same stuff come up often. So, I’ve decided to share all my best business knowledge in today’s video. This video is packed with insights and strategies to help you start, grow, and eventually sell your business, all while maintaining your sanity. I’ve distilled 27 years of business experience into this short video, covering: The worst mistake most people make when starting their first business The best advice I got from Steve Jobs on how to choose the right industry The #1 skill that you need to work on to start a successful business The biggest lever you can pull to grow your business (even if you’re just in the early days) The exact process I use to sell a business I bet it wouldn’t have taken me 27 years to achieve what I’ve achieved if I’d watched this video in my 20s. 27 minutes to save you a few years? Sounds like a good deal to me. IG: @danmartell X: @danmartell

>> Get My Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78  >> Subscribe to My Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3W2tjp2 Here’s why I fell in love with the SaaS business model… You build the software once. And get paid every month. Recurring revenue. If I lost all my money, followers, and network today, I'd still know exactly how to build a SaaS company from scratch. Building a SaaS business might seem daunting, especially if you're just starting out. A lot of people think they need to raise capital, hire a very expensive development team, and spend years in the red before their product takes off. But the key? Start with the problem, validate your solution, and then build and refine your product. You don’t need a huge team or a ton of money… Just a solid plan and the right approach. My 7-step guide is your map, and it includes: How to pinpoint the exact problem your SaaS should solve The secret to building a prototype without wasting time or money 4 steps for creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) quickly IG: @danmartell X: @danmartell

>> Get My Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78  >> Subscribe to My Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3W2tjp2 “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn” I learned this from John Maxwell back in 2015. Everything that happens is a blessing or a lesson. You’re being guided to your higher self if you learn. Otherwise, you’ll repeat the same mistakes. When my first company failed, I was devastated. But looking back, it was a lesson, not a setback. Setbacks are valuable learning experiences. It taught me to play big and to see every challenge as a stepping stone to success. Success isn’t about avoiding failure; it’s about learning from it. This is one of the 21 Principles of the top 0.01% that have shaped my journey. I dive deep into these principles and how they can transform your life too. IG: @danmartell X: @danmartell

>> Get My Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78  >> Subscribe to My Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3W2tjp2 The other day I was hiking with my kids. And we were struggling to reach the top of a steep trail. They kept looking up. “Look how far we have to go.” I told them to look back at how far we came. That simple shift in perspective made all the difference. It's not just about the destination… It’s about enjoying the journey. And I want to show you the 23 perspectives to find true meaning in life. These gave me the perspective I needed to wake up every day invigorated and excited for life. As entrepreneurs, we get so caught up with our goals and obsessed with where we’re going…  We forget to zoom out and see how far we’ve come. This steals happiness. I often tell my private clients: “Once upon a time, you DREAMED about having the problems you have today.” A lot of people think, "Well, I gotta get to this NEXT GOAL, then I’ll be happy." The funny part is… In my experience, you’ve got to get your perspective right and be happy FIRST. Then you’ll find purpose. It’s going to stretch you… And make you question what you’re doing with your time, where your life’s going, and who you’re spending it with. GOOD! On the other side is happiness, fulfillment, motivation, purpose, and momentum like you’ve never had before. IG: @danmartell X: @danmartell

▸▸ Get My New Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78 I’m 44 years old and I’ve collected 44 cheat codes I wish I knew at 24. I want you to have them so it doesn’t take you as long to figure out. When I started my entrepreneurial journey at 17, I looked at people miles ahead of me and felt like I’d never be able to get there. Even after I sold my first company and became a millionaire, I was comparing again. Most people fall into this trap. Thinking you should be further along. Questioning why you haven’t done it yet if they did it. But we often overlook the years of hard work, failures, and cheat codes they collected over their life. The truth is… Everyone you admire started at the beginning. They’ve probably just been using a few of these cheat codes longer than you. And I would have been here faster if I learned these when I was 24. So stop comparing, grab the cheat codes, and embed them in your life. Instagram: @danmartell X: @danmartell

▸▸ Get My New Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78 24 months ago I had one of the craziest periods of business. Several things happened and I just freaked out. Out of frustration, I decided to go on Slack and I wrote out a chat post. Probably should have slept on it right? Nope. In that moment, I essentially told the whole company: “This is my vision, this is what we're doing, we're making it about the customers. And if you're not on board, I will pay you $15,000 To quit immediately.” I hit post. But here's the problem… Some of the people we wanted on the team took my offer! Why? Because they were just fed up with the drama. You see, I woke up one day, and I realized that I didn't enjoy going to work and I had a culture problem. I didn't even want to go to meetings. And I started figuring out there were some people on the team that shouldn't have been there. Here’s the deal C players will cost you your A players. This lasted for about six months. And it put me into a tailspin. I was sad and I'm not a sad person. I was having anxiety problems. I was a little depressed. And I'm on vacation in Costa Rica with the family and I was on my phone pacing on the patio pacing up and down the pool area. So after losing more than 30% of my team I finally called my business partner, Matt. He and I own a venture capital firm called High Speed Ventures. I asked him if he’d come over to SaaS Academy for the next six months and maybe help me fix this. His response: “I was wondering how long you were going to wait before you asked me that.” What I learned over the next four months is what I want to share with you today because it allowed us to build the company to almost $20+ million in the next 12 months. And we built one of the highest culture NPS scores we've ever achieved. These are the 3 things that changed everything for me. Instagram: @danmartell Twitter: @danmartell

▸▸ Get My New Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78 I went from barely finishing high school to now flying my private jet to speak at John Maxwell events. But none of that would have happened if I didn't read THESE 11 books. Seriously… When kids yell through the window of my yellow Ferrari Pista and ask me what I do… I tell them… I read books. Specifically biographies. That's where you learn from people who’ve built the most impressive companies in the world. And it took me 111 biographies to build this list for you. Read these, take the advice, and get rich. Instagram: @danmartell Twitter: @danmartell

▸▸ Get My New Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78 Back in 2009, we had a major issue that we had to solve in the business. And when I asked my business partner, Ethan, to meet me in the office, he said he couldn't... Now, we’d just raised a million dollars from some of the top investors in San Francisco, we're building up the team, and we ran into an issue with our product. So I asked him "Why can't you meet?" And he was like, "Hey man, I've got to get some laundry done." I'm like “Okay I know it's Sunday, but you can do your laundry on any other day.” He said “Yeah but I got a plan, and if I don't do it…” da da da da. So I told him “There are literally three different laundromats on your way to work that do wash and fold. They'll do it for like $35.” He’s like “Yeah, man I'm not really paying myself enough. I'm barely making rent.” Here's a situation where we just raised a million dollars to build the business… And he can't come work on the business because he's too busy doing LAUNDRY. Crazy, isn’t it? He’d rather trade his time for a few extra bucks than trade a few bucks for extra time. Most founders start like this. I did too. But the wealthy spend money to save time. Once I've got that time, I invest it in acquiring new skills that allow me to become more valuable. Then I get to make more money to buy time to invest in more skills. That is the way it works. This is just ONE way the rich think differently about money. And if you want to be truly wealthy… There’s a whole bunch more you need to know. That’s why in today’s video, I’m sharing the 14 rules of money that made me so rich I questioned the meaning of money. Instagram: @danmartell Twitter: @danmartell

▸▸ Get My New Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78 If you want to know how to create viral videos that generate 1 BILLION views a month… Today’s video is a MASTERCLASS from one of the best content creators in the game. Meet Adley Kinsman, founder of Viralish. I had an incredible opportunity to sit down with her and found myself reaching for my notebook every 30 seconds. We talked about everything from the unpredictability of viral hits… To the strategy behind creating content that millions watch and share even if you have a small following. Watch this video to uncover the secrets of viral success with Adley who continuously averages over 2 billion monthly views cross-platform. Instagram: @danmartell Twitter: @danmartell

▸▸ Get My New Book (Buy Back Your Time): https://bit.ly/3pCTG78 I was recently talking to John Maxwell, the most popular leadership expert in the world. He's written over 90 books… And is still writing. It turns out, he’s been doing leadership training for 52 years. That blew my mind. When I told him I couldn't wrap my mind around that, his reply was: “Dan, I've just been doing one thing for 52 years. I'm 73. It's not that impressive.” Then he asked me a question: “Can you wake up every day for a thousand days, call it three years, every day, and do the work?” The work is keeping the commitments you make to yourself. That could be working on your body… Working on your self-esteem... Your spirituality… Your mind... The skill sets that make you more valuable. Here’s what I’ve learned: Consistency compounds. That is the true secret to success. I go into this much deeper in today’s video where I answer some of the biggest questions from business owners. Instagram: @danmartell Twitter: @danmartell