Zuck turned down our pitch, changed his mind, and we made $745 mil

E566: Mike and Kass Lazerow are serial entrepreneurs and investors best known as the cofounders of Golf.com and Buddy Media, the leading social media marketing platform that sold to Salesforce for $745 million.

With a lifetime of stories from decades of building, Mike and Kass have supported close to 100 early-stage startup founders.

They served as angel investors and advisors to Scopely, which sold to Savvy Games for $5 billion in 2022, and Liquid Death, the canned water company whose “evil mission” is to make people laugh and drink healthy beverages, all while reducing plastic pollution.

They’re also early investors and advisors to Meta, early investors in Tumblr, and Gary Vaynerchuk created VaynerMedia in their conference room.

They have recently written a book called: Shoveling Sh!t: A Love Story About the Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success which you can pre-order at www.shovelingshit.com.

This is a fun episode, you’re going to love it.

Follow them at:
https://www.instagram.com/kassandmike/
https://www.youtube.com/@KassandMike/videos
https://x.com/kass_and_mike
https://www.facebook.com/kassandmike/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kassandmike

Compact Keywords - have buyers find your brand when they need it most: https://compactkeywords.com/

00:00 Pitching Mark Zuckerberg: The Early Days of Facebook
02:31 Building Buddy Media: The First Social Media Management Platform
06:16 Innovative Marketing Strategies for Startups
11:27 Compact Keywords
13:00 Their Crazy Business Relationships
18:46 Company Culture
34:55 Golf.com and Early Ventures
38:44 A New Business Idea
41:14 Facebook’s Game-Changing Decision
41:42 Buddy Media's Rise and Salesforce Acquisition
42:11 Negotiation with Salesforce
45:46 Impact of Facebook's IPO on the Deal
46:39 Life at Salesforce Post-Acquisition
51:25 Angel Investing Adventures
53:02 Lessons from Successes and Failures
56:21 Mental Health Crisis Among Entrepreneurs
01:00:01 Focus and Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome
01:10:45 Being Competitive
01:12:59 Content and Social Media Insights
01:17:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Edward Show. Your daily digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/

#digitalmarketing #startups #angelinvesting #ycombinator