Just before Christmas last year, I write an annual update about all aspects of our business.
Many of you emailed me positive feedback about it. Some of you emailed me your annual update. Astonishing.
I said to myself, “You should do this every quarter!”
So here I am.
43 days after the end of the quarter.
Better late than never.
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If 2021 is about “Back to Basics,” So far, 2022 has been the focus area to look for.
Let’s start with our largest business, Dynamite Jobs.
Too busy serving customers to improve our designs.
Our goal is to achieve 4x revenue by 2022.
While this will be difficult from a gross revenue perspective, it can be achieved with monthly run rates.
As of now, we are indeed a 7-figure business. As we said in our podcast, we believe there is a lot of potential in building a useful remote recruiting platform.Even more so than our last serious business venture, we Exited in 2015.
For the first four months of the year, our year-over-year growth rates were:
- January +47%
- February +146%
- March +81%
- April +104%
good!
We mainly through our Post a job and Recruitment product.
From a vanity metric perspective, things are looking good. Like the screenshot from Similar Web:
Plus the shocking fact 90,000 candidates Created a profile on our platform.
It’s the home game of my Clemson Tigers.
look back at mine last report In December, we were only 40,000 people. This is the equivalent of Duke University’s Wallace Wade Stadium.
I think we can all agree that this is an improvement.
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This is not without its challenges.
On the one hand, late last year, our business started to feel very “busy” with the revenue we brought in. Lots of projects, ideas, to-dos and meetings.
But our revenue was flat.
In early January, we worked to simplify our priorities.
What do we really want to do?
Internally we call it OMTM, AKA an important indicator. This is what we start with Jim Hoffman. In our case this is more of a thing.
That “thing” boils down to: we determined that our clients wanted to be inundated with the candidate selections they got from us within the first few days of engagement (we had some internal data around that we “thought” that meant). Hiring alone is not enough. Our customers want choice.
Now maybe you’re thinking, this is very simple.
And, yes.
But we’ve been using the damn thing.
If an idea is presented at a meeting, the first question we ask is: Does it contribute to OMTM?
Thinking backwards from one goal forces us to face some challenges: accepting the startup mechanics of new jobs (instead of smoothing the curve of the application), fighting spam, being more aggressive in our outreach, and a few other things that work ( or not) to varying degrees.
If you want more details on how we achieve this, we discussed it’s here.
As the company grows, many things start materialism.
It’s worth asking — always — what are the main priorities? How can we maintain our efforts?
It also inspired us to think about the way we build functionality.
For example, our Candidates ready to hire has always received attention. These are candidates that our recruiters have spoken to and believe have potential, but have not yet been placed due to factors such as time zones. Want quick access to premium options? for you!
Likewise, the idea of accepting a large pool of qualified candidates inspired us to invest and build our own in-house applicant tracking software (ATS). When an application goes directly to a third party (such as a Google spreadsheet), it can be difficult to understand the customer’s experience and how to improve it.
I’m not very experienced in software design, but it was fun to be involved in the process and watch the team build something from scratch. We’re trying to balance “why don’t we do it” doctrine with a focus on simplicity and speed.
Screenshot of customer job background
More options when clicking on candidate profile
Our custom application form generator
(If you would like a demo of ATS or view pre-vetted candidates, Connect with Alex)
Our growth also brought other challenges: building our team (especially developers and recruiters) while building our own business skill set.
Also: spam. We get a lot. Maybe we came across our internet business in the first place.
And: our SEO sucks. I wrote a heartfelt personal letter to the good folks at Google asking them to include our little site in their index once and for all. I’m sure some of you can relate.
Although we are growing, everything is under control. As usual, Ian and myself are very conservative financially.Our main goal is to stay In business, build valuable products and have fun along the way.
Looking ahead to the summer, it will be interesting to see if we can continue to look for growth opportunities even as the broader hiring market cools.
One of the best parts of running a DJ is that a lot of “our thoughts” come from readers like you.
If you’re curious about how DJs work on behalf of your company, or just want to talk about the store, feel free to Speak with our Senior Recruiter Greg Valentine Or write me an email at this domain.
Dynamite Circle and Related Community Events
Holy brioche, DC continues to grow!
We don’t do a lot of marketing group or its events. We rely on word of mouth.
We have a lot of great photos and videos, but can’t seem to find them on our social sites, SEO or public registration page.
This is a unique group of entrepreneurs and I’m excited to get back on the road this year and see what everyone is doing.
We recently hosted an event in Playa Del Carmen with 120 members.
Here are some photos:
A unique feature of DC is that it is a peer-to-peer group, rather than the “expert-to-student” setting that many communities cultivate. Our recent speaker lineup at Playa Del Carmen was one of my all-time favorites (we’ve been running the event since 2011). Here are some conversation headlines from the first morning:
- What happens when your business gets the growth you’ve always wanted
- Use systems, processes and transparency to grow to eight figures and beyond
- From player to coach: AppSumo’s sustainable expansion from seven figures to eight figures
- Tik Tok went from zero to seven figures in just one year
- Breaking the Income Plateau: Boring Basics Pt.two
Some pictures from DCBKK 2019
Recently, we announced that our big event in Bangkok (DCBKK) will be back after a 3-year hiatus.
I kid you not, we had 150 signups in the first week! It’s exhilarating to bring the event team back together. It’s becoming our biggest event ever.
In addition to the large DCBKK events, DCers meet regularly at smaller events and gatherings throughout the year. For example, the neighborhood’s “traditional” summer European swing looks to be in full swing this year.
One of our challenges is working to improve our sponsorship program. I wanted to try and target them for big companies with conference sponsorship budgets. The wealth and purchasing power in our activities is enormous. I’ve never quite been able to get the sales process on track, but maybe this year. If you have experience with this sort of thing, I’d love to hear from you.
DCers continue to impress me with the scale and quality of the businesses they create, in most cases 100% remotely. Interestingly, what was once considered a group of “rebel entrepreneurs swimming upstream” has become “the smart way to build startups” in 2022.
Tropical MBA Podcast
Aside from bringing in a new (and excellent) audio engineer, the Tropical MBA has been consistent in 2022. One thing I suspect may have an impact on the show is the growth of Dynamite Jobs.
The origin of our show has always been about two working class people trying to figure out how to run an online business. Every week, we turn on the mic and share the questions we have and what we have learned. When our business is our podcast, we basically have nothing to talk about other than topics like investing, traveling, and how to run a podcast business.
I think we could have evolved into a self-licking ice cream cone and built a podcast community on how to build a podcast community (I reserve the right to do that, haha!). Instead, we’re happy to look around for other opportunities and run Washington, D.C. first as a community rather than the business itself.
At the same time, we ran a show around interviewing entrepreneurs who are growing their agencies, publishing businesses, launching e-commerce brands, and scaling SaaS companies that are part of the DC community. Pretty and cool.
Ian and I have learned a lot this year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this had an impact on the show.
I always thought the show (and our book) would benefit from a brand overhaul, but with everything going on, it looks like the project will be pushed into the future.
personal
At the beginning of the year, I mentioned that I might spend a lot of time this year learning more about encryption. While I do read a lot on the subject, I don’t actually spend much time working there. I’m happy with my crypto portfolio and content to keep it running for the foreseeable.
Speaking of gambling, I spent a lot of time playing poker this year. A chance trip to Las Vegas with an old friend rekindled my interest in a game that was my first reliable source of online income.
For the first half of this year, I have also been revengeful. I’m on a plane every weekend. What a change from the past few years.
Finally, I’ve been spending more time on road bikes lately, looking forward to spending the summer in Spain. I need to stay in shape to enjoy the hills. I used to live in Barcelona and I miss all the outdoor adventures there – especially cycling.
Ian and I will spend the summer working, telling jokes, riding bikes, and entertaining friends.
Drop us a line if you bike and are in Barcelona.
That’s it now! I appreciate you following along.
You can always email me Dan at this domain. Give me your quarterly review! I can’t always give good responses, but I will read them and I will find some inspiration in each story.
I’ll put it in the calendar for the second quarter update, but you know how it goes.
cheers,
bear
Austin, Texas
May 2022
