Podcast 51:40 | Download | Stitcher | iTunes | Comment
Dan and Ian return this week with another unique entrepreneurial origin story.
In fact, today’s guest has built a business in the last four years that has revenues in the low seven figures and he now employs five employees.
Part of the reason we like to share these origin stories on the show is that there’s a moment for every one of us when we really truly did not believe that we could achieve this sort of thing.
Allen Walton knows that feeling all too well. Allen is the founder of SpyGuy.com, an eCommerce business which sells covert surveillance technology. Allen grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, and he still lives there today.
On today’s podcast, you’ll hear Allen share the story of how he grew SpyGuy.com to a seven-figure business, what happened when he cold-emailed Mark Cuban, and a whole lot more.
Listen to this week’s show and learn:
- How Allen struggled with an addiction to online gaming. (8:28)
- Allen’s first forays into the surveillance industry and eCommerce. (13:41)
- How Allen landed a job interview by sending a cold email to Mark Cuban. (24:48)
- Why Allen decided to start SpyGuy.com and how he felt when he sold his first product. (31:49)
- Some of Allen’s favorite books about entrepreneurship. (45:36)
Mentioned in the episode:
- Before the Exit – Our New Book
- TMBA Masterminds
- Sponsor the TMBA Podcast
- The Dynamite Circle
- The DC Podcast
- Help Us Choose a New Name for the TropicalMBA Podcast
- DC BKK
- Dynamite Jobs
- Allen Walton
- SpyGuy.com
- Mark Cuban
- Tim Ferriss
- The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- Starting a Yahoo! Business for Dummies by Rob Snell
- Rob Snell
- The Millionaire Fast Lane by MJ Demarco
- Consumer Electronics Show
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
- Win Bigly by Scott Adams
- Influence by Robert Cialdini
- Allen’s notes
This week’s sponsor:
This week’s episode is brought to you by Weebly. Don’t let the lack of a big budget or technology skills get in the way of having not only a beautiful website, but a powerful one. If you’ve got a product idea and you want to share it with the world, check out Weebly.com. As a special offer to listeners of this show, you can visit Weebly.com/TMBA to get 15% off your first purchase.
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- Have comments about the show, or ideas for things you’d like Dan and Ian to discuss on future episodes? Our producer Jane would love to hear from you at jane@tropicalmba.com
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Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Thursday morning 8AM EST. Cheers, Dan & Ian