Justin Rowe

Founder/CMO @ Impactable - B2B LinkedIn Ads Agency | Acquired in 2021 | 2x Acquisitions in 2024 | Making things up as I go

From Restaurant Hustle to LinkedIn Agency Founder → Acquired → Now Scaling the #1 LinkedIn Ads Agency

I went from serving tables to serving over 1,000 clients in 30+ countries - and building an agency that was acquired in an all-cash buyout.

Starting in the restaurant industry, I had a hunger for something more (pun intended). I turned to LinkedIn to document my journey and connect with people. That content led to job offers, investor conversations, and even a deal to co-launch a restaurant franchise.

I saw the power of LinkedIn firsthand and started helping others. That side hustle turned into Linknlearn, a global lead gen agency built entirely through Upwork and LinkedIn outreach. I became the #1 ranked LinkedIn expert on Upwork, launched a $500 website, and scaled the agency internationally.

In 2021, we were acquired. We pivoted to LinkedIn Ads, launched new tech tools, and Impactable was born.

Today, I lead Impactable — a LinkedIn-Centric B2B Marketing Agency and creators of DemandSense, our proprietary LinkedIn Ads platform. We’ve been recognized by LinkedIn, invited to speak at their Indie Agency Summit, and continue working toward deeper partnerships with their team.

💡 What I’m Focused On Now

👉 Helping B2B brands scale with LinkedIn + Google + Programmatic full-funnel campaigns
👉 Working with clients spending $5K–$200K/month in ad budget to scale high-value pipelines
👉 Building smarter offers, audiences, and funnels through our 90-Day Validation Sprints
👉 Empowering internal marketers with DemandSense: ad scheduling, audience testing, and signal tracking for LinkedIn Ads

🧰 Resources (Free & Paid)

🎯 Free Strategy Resources & Templates
→ linktr.ee/justin_rowe

🛠 LinkedIn Ads Toolset (DemandSense)
→ https://impactable.com/dgp-linkedin-ads-tools/


🎥 LinkedIn Ads + B2B Demand Gen on YouTube
→ https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCATGD6P27kWXDVuaAZeZBuQ/videos

📈 LinkedIn Ads Agency (Done-for-You)
→ https://impactable.com/

💬 Want to Collaborate?

→ Send me a DM if you want to:

Test your audience + offer fit on LinkedIn

Migrate from Google to multichannel demand gen

Build a scalable paid strategy with a trusted partner

Chief Executive Officer

Impactable is a Linkedin Ads Agency that specializes in Linkedin Marketing for B2B companies. We were acquired in 2021 by a data-heavy investor and made a strong pivot into Linkedin advertising. Impactable now manages over 150+ B2B brands with Linkedin advertising being our core focus. 

Other capabilities include website visitor identification, automated Linkedin lead generation, and a few saas tools we are working on.

Impactable is officially a  LinkedIn Marketing Partner for Signals Partner!
Really proud of our team and shout out to our awesome rep Mark Ayesh 🫡 

What is CAPI you might ask and why does it matter?

Super short version:
- better conversion data funneled back to LinkedIn 
-better in platform data to make decisions
-better results and more insights on conversion by demographics etc

CAPI (Conversion API) is basically the process of taking offline conversion (things you can't easily track by page load or Google Tag Manager (which most marketers hate). 

Things like webinar attendees
In person attendees
Sales accepted lead
Closed won deals
Kajabi signups

Especially things that don't happen digitally or happen on websites other than your website...CAPI could help pipe that data back to LinkedIn. 

And then LinkedIn basically will then cross-reference each person uploaded to see if any impressions were served to know if there was any influence and if so how much. 

So...I guess it's getting pretty series with this relationship. 

Come a long way from when my original startup received a cease and desist letter from LinkedIn 😂 (story for another day if you don't know this one). 

Questions about LinkedIn conversion tracking?
Drop a comment 👇

Website Linkedin Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
LinkedIn Ads Demo Video: https://lnkd.in/gudY92cC
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable Youtube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T

CMO @ Impactable | B2B LinkedIn Ads Partners | ABM + Signals | Obsessed with Account and People Signals.

Impactable becomes LinkedIn CAPI certified partners

I started in restaurants - LinkedIn helped me become a part-owner of a small 4-shop franchise.  That's where I started to learn about marketing. 

Yea...I know..you likely didn't know that about me.

My first experience in marketing was trying to leverage LinkedIn organic, Facebook, and local partnerships to get real humans to come to our physical shop. 

Not exactly the same as B2B marketing lol but it's not so different. 

1. Gain visibility and start with small ponds
Good news is that in the organic game..there are not usually 100+ restaurants trying to dominate the local LinkedIn scene in their city..so it was actually easy for me to stand out and get attention for our new sandwich shop in town. 

This actually led to real revenue and a partnership opportunity. 

2. LinkedIn lead gen - simple but effective. 

A. Created sales navigator list of HR leaders, operation leaders, event leaders at orgs, and company owners, and just sent daily connection requests and links to our menu and pricing...and this led to a big catering business. 

3. Email marketing - we started a little newsletter. 

I know that sounds crazy because we were just like a little sandwich shop so what's the newsletter even about??

I honestly barely remember, but I know we got emails of our customers who signed up for the app or DoorDash, and I'd send a monthly newsletter basically sharing local news, fundraising we were putting on, new sandwiches or shakes on the menu, and maybe an offer/deal. 

Honestly, I was mostly just trying to cover more surface area (top of funnel, I guess 😂 ) to get more humans to get a craving for our sandwiches, soups, and shakes. 

That's how it started...and this sparked my love and curiousity around marketing which later became a side hustle that became an agency that led to an acquisition. 

And yes, that's me before kids, grey hair, and facial hair apparently.

Spending 30 hours to vibe code something that saves you $50/mo is not genius… u just suck at math

Today CJ Craig hits her one-year mark at Impactable.

In 12 months she’s completely revamped our initial 100-day client journey, helped us move into a real mid-market offering, and straight-up elevated client success across the board.

The result isn’t just prettier docs. 

The team feels more proud of their work. 

We’re doing better, deeper work with fewer clients and higher revenue per client and she was a great force in that direction for us. 

She's also been a great champion of our team and moral booster as we navigate the ups and downs of startup/agency journey (which is not easy). 

CJ, thank you for the leadership, the details, and for making us choose quality over quantity. 

Proud to have you on the team. 

Here’s to year two.

Pro LinkedIn hack to 10x visibility
Comment "This is utter nonsense" on 20 posts daily

Do this and tell me your profile views, engagement, and organic reach of your actual posts doesn't 5-10x.

PSA: Don't actually do this 😂 

But there is a valuable point here...the things that "work" to get vanity metrics. you track can 100% be gamed....but how much actual valuable growth would really come from this...none I'd guess. 

And yet marketing leaders chase all sorts of "hacks" like this every week. 

Things that help show a bump in "metrics" while doing nothing for the actual business. 

Some examples:
-running top of funnel lead gen forms to a cold audience with a fluffy lead magnet that your intern made...great to show "leads" but don't waste sales time with those

-making posts on LinkedIn about how you hate AI or how you got a bad DM...great for impressions on LInkedIn but likely no use or relevance to what you actually sell

-Cutting out LInkedIn ads spend because it's hard to prove and doubling down on Google ads because it's showing all the conversions

-spending 50 hours learning and creating V1 stuff in AI or claude code just so you can make cool posts and talk down to the peons who have a life all the while we all know whatever you launched won't actually still be in real production use to clients 90-days from now

If I could give other marketers a few pieces of advice that they for sure did not ask for and would likely not ask me for 😂 

1. Almost all successful engagements I've had with clients and even massive orgs is to start by amplifying what's already working before worrying about anything new

2. Understand the foundations first: what you actually do that's different, unique, craved, and defensible....and targeting should stem from there

3. Always secure warm 1st party audiences and warm digital audience before prioritizing cold accounts

4. Never start with cold native channel targeting before tapping into existing in-market demand if it exists (paid search)

5. Always anchor scaling paid search spend with healthy retargeting frameworks to atually get the most out of competitive paid search traffic

6. Organic and paid ads should not be 2 separate strategies...paid should amplify organic

7. Use paid retargeting to funnel prospects into owned communities for more efficient long term plays

8. Build a personal brand on Linkedin or 1 core channel you choose and take it seriously

9. Pretend it's your money and you have to prove that what you're doing is working...but more importantly that there isn't an even better use of that budget even if it is "working"

10. Be humble and keep a student mentality...we are all just experimenting honestly

LinkedIn Ads + ABM: Here's how I'm advising orgs prove impact and focus on account engagement and movement vs clicks and leads -  the playbook 👇 

Short version:
Things really changed in 2025 - you can now see the EXACT companies clicking on and even just being exposed to your LinkedIn ads and can see that data by list upload or campaign which opens up huge options. 

I walk through how i'd structure reports for leadership and where and what data you can pull to show account movement and even structure campaigns a bit to give more meaningful insights like showing multiple buyer personals lighting up for top accounts and how this moves from marketing to sales. 

I'm curious how else marketing leaders are showing value and connecting the dots. 

Let me know in the comments - I need more ideas.

Way too many marketing leaders are struggling to prove ROI or even forward motion of ABM programs and especially have struggled to tie proper credit b

Open article: B2B LinkedIn Ads + ABM in 2026: Marketer's Field Guide to Proving Impact by Justin Rowe • 4 min read

B2B LinkedIn Ads + ABM in 2026: Marketer's Field Guide to Proving Impact

If someone visits your website today, what story are they going to see over the next 90 days?

Most companies don’t think that far.

At the DemandShift Summit, I talked about how middle-of-funnel content is where trust is won or lost.

Someone clicked. They showed intent. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭.

Now you have a window.

If you could shape their opinion with 15 carefully chosen pieces of thought leadership over three months, what would you show them?

That’s how I approach retargeting.

Not as a generic reminder campaign.
But as a curated content engine that reinforces authority, expertise, and point of view.

When you control the frequency and the message, you can influence the buying decision long before the sales call.

Website LinkedIn Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T
Thought Leadership Done For you Motion - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

#DemandGeneration #B2BMarketing #ThoughtLeadership #PaidMedia #Impactable

If you automate the relationship, don’t be surprised when it feels transactional.

The irony of modern marketing is that we’re obsessed with scale, but trust doesn’t scale the same way.

In my conversation with Gabe Larsen, he talked about being intentional with how he shows up. 

He posts consistently, engages directly, and personally responds to comments instead of delegating or automating that layer.

Could it be automated? Sure. A lot of people do.

But when the expert removes themselves from the interaction, the tone shifts and the connection becomes functional instead of relational.

Buyers today are more skeptical than ever and they’re choosing based on who they believe.

And belief is built in real exchanges, not optimized workflows.

Automation should enhance relationships.
It shouldn’t replace them.

Need help building/running a thought leader LinkedIn motion ? - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

#B2BMarketing #RelationshipMarketing #ThoughtLeadership #TrustBasedSelling #Impactable

Founder/CEO @ Impactable | B2B LinkedIn Ads Partners | Paid Ads + Demand Gen + B2B Audience Experts

You might already be the most visible expert in your network.

That was something I shared at the DemandShift Summit that surprised a few people.

Your feed is unique. And so is everyone else’s.

If you’re intimidated by the biggest creators on LinkedIn, here’s the reality. 

Most of your network isn’t following them. 
𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦.

If you show up a few times a week with thoughtful content, you may become the most consistent voice they see.

That proximity matters.

People don’t always follow the most famous expert.
They follow the one who feels relatable.

And that might already be you.

#LinkedInGrowth #ThoughtLeadership #B2BMarketing #PersonalBrand #BuildInPublic

Every one is obsessed or worried about attribution and proving ROI but many arn't taking basic steps to show/prove LinkedIn Ads

Here's the short version
1. With data/privacy shifting, ad pixels like LInkedIn insight tag is missing information and not passing back valuable conversion events back into the platform. 

2. This means that you'll often be flying blind with platform data and not able to see what's really working or not working from a campaign group or ad set level. 

3. This also leads to lack of insights around what audience demographics are working. 

When you have proper conversion data, you'll see things like:
-What company size are we doing better/worse with
-What industries are we doing better/worse with
-What countries are winning in vs need to stop spend

These are the kinds of insights that actually guide us to where to spend money or stop spend and where we need to double down and create more focused messaging for high-impact segments. 

Conversion tracking and attribution is something everyone seems to want to do a little better at so this should be helpful.

How server-side conversion events fix match rates, survive ad blockers, and protect privacy The LinkedIn Insight tag is great, but modern browsers and

Open article: Privacy-first tracking for LinkedIn Ads (Why CAPI Matters) by Justin Rowe • 3 min read

Privacy-first tracking for LinkedIn Ads (Why CAPI Matters)

Tons of people are making BANK ($$ for you non-cool kids) via LinkedIn DMs and they don't care if that twists your little undies or makes you FEEL some type of way. 

I get it, it's cool to show a bad email or DM where someone got the name or position wrong or double tapped a send....

Screen shot, name and shame post..get your little endorphin hit from all the "yea this is so terrible" "AI is the worst" comments - ah you've done great. 

Except...what if many of these "spammers" are actually crushing it. 
Actually getting demos booked on basically autopilot 
Actually could care less if a few messages don't hit

And spoiler alert...they are still crushing it...it does still work..and you're feelings/opinions on the matter (and your posts) don't change anything...other than making you a visible opponent of a basic tactic that works for thousands and thousands of orgs

I think the real danger comes from the collective "agreement" that seems to happen. 

Others who read your post feel it proves their own. personal bias and so they believe it...

But you know it and I know it..it's your opinion..no facts, not data, and not really based in reality. 

Yes, I agree spamming is bad and bad personalization is bad, but direct messaging still works. 

This is just my humble perspective from a founder that build a LInkedIn lead gen agency that was acquired and was running automation from 200+ executive profiles when I sold it...still worked then and still works today. 

Main changes though I'd suggest to make it work
1. Start with warm - profile visitors, company page followers, website visitors, active pipeline deals, highly engaged accounts from ads

2. Don't pitch slap - connect, introduce, and add value - add value from messages (share resources) and then share value via posts and newsletter long term

3. Be human and treat this more like a networking event vs door to door sales

4. Get serious about a real thought leadership motion with organic + paid on LinkedIn - that makes any outreach 10x more powerful by playing the long game.

You don’t need to be “interesting” to create good content.

That was one of the biggest lessons I shared at the DemandShift Summit.

Most people burn out trying to come up with something new, clever, or insightful every single day. That’s exhausting and unnecessary.

If you’re building a business, leading a team, or learning on the job, you already have content. 

You’re experimenting, making decisions, getting things wrong, and figuring things out in real time.

I started posting long before I had some polished success story. 

I documented my journey as a restaurant operator. Then as someone trying to build a lead gen agency with no clients and very little experience.

Looking back, I was early, naive, and didn’t know what I was doing yet.

And that’s exactly why it resonated.

There are always people a step or two behind you who find your experience incredibly valuable.

Need help getting your thought leadership motion going ? - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

#ThoughtLeadership #BuildInPublic #B2BMarketing #ContentStrategy #Impactable

Your posts and newsletters should be so good people are feeding their AI Agents with YOUR content.

Already people are singing up for newsletters just to be ingested by their AI agents so they can accumulate their trusted brain of knowledge to talk to.

Information is becoming cheaper, faster , and easier….. but a strong POV and TRUSTED expertise will be more rare than ever.

Website LinkedIn Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T
Thought Leadership Done For you Motion - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

AI tools are incredible for learners. 
They’re not replacements for operators.

ChatGPT and other models are phenomenal for people like me who want to understand the space, test ideas, and get smarter fast.

They lower the barrier to entry.

But they don’t remove the need for someone to architect the system, manage the risk, and make it work inside a real company.

AI is accelerating builders.
It’s not eliminating the need for expertise.

The companies that win won’t just use AI.
They’ll know how to operationalize it.

Website Linkedin Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
LinkedIn Ads Demo Video: https://lnkd.in/gudY92cC
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable Youtube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T

#ArtificialIntelligence #B2BMarketing #FutureOfWork #AIOperations #Impactable

Warm audiences are the most underutilized asset in B2B marketing.

At the DemandShift Summit, I challenged something I see all the time.

Teams pour the majority of their budget into cold campaigns while ignoring the people who have already raised their hand.

💻️ You already have website visitors.
👥 You already have company page visitors.
🪪 You already have engaged prospects, email subscribers, and pipeline sitting in your CRM.

And chances are, you already have content that’s working.

There are specific posts that consistently generate inbound interest. They spark DMs, attract ICP-fit comments, and move conversations forward. 

Those aren’t vanity metrics. They’re signals.

Instead of creating something entirely new for paid, amplify what’s already proven and show it to the people who are already warm.

If you want help turning your warm audiences into real revenue, that’s exactly what we build at Impactable.

Website LinkedIn Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T
Thought Leadership Done For you Motion - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

#B2BMarketing #DemandGeneration #LinkedInAds #PaidMedia #Impactable

The hardest part of AI isn’t building it. It’s controlling it.

Gabe Larsen told me about a Fortune 100 COO who said they won’t allow random builders plugging agents into core systems.

Why?

Because once you start connecting AI to CRM data, billing systems, and proprietary information, the stakes change.

We’re even seeing this internally.

We’ve talked about building assistants that let clients query their LinkedIn ad data, contracts, and performance history.

Sounds powerful.

But then you ask the real questions.
𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴?
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥?
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘈 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘉’𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢?

That’s when this stops being a fun AI experiment and starts becoming infrastructure.

The winners won’t just build agents.
They’ll build secure systems around them.

#ArtificialIntelligence #EnterpriseAI #AIGovernance #SaaS #Impactable

If your organic and paid strategies look nothing alike, that’s a problem.

That was one of the biggest shifts I talked about at the DemandShift Summit.

I see this all the time. 

Companies treat organic like a checkbox and paid like a completely separate, high-stakes experiment. 

That’s a red flag.

If you don’t have enough confidence in your organic content to put paid spend behind it, something’s off. 

Either the content isn’t strong enough, or you’re not listening to what’s actually resonating.

Paid shouldn’t start from scratch. 
It should amplify what’s already working organically.

Organic and paid aren’t separate strategies. 
They’re supposed to work together.

Website LinkedIn Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T
Thought Leadership Done For you Motion - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

#B2BMarketing #DemandGeneration #PaidMedia #ContentStrategy #Impactable

B2B Marketers - If every Google or LinkedIn algo update crushes your strategy...you're just a trend chaser and have WEAK STRATEGY. 

OMG LinkedIn pod usage isn't working anymore!
OMG I'm not just getting free likes on LInkedIn for any random crap I throw out there!

OMG Google is dead and now all that matters is AI/LLM visibility

OMG Google doesn't care about my AI generated blogs ranking our own brand as #1 any more...

OMG now we have to start using Reddit ASAP it's the only thing LLMs care about

OMG now we have to start publishing on youtube cause it's NOW the biggest thing LLMs care about

Every new update crashes your plans and sets you back. 
Every new update sends you back to the drawing board starting over
Every new update has you chasing the next trend

Meanwhile those who have been prioritizing producing quality content that humans actually find valuable and then ensuring distribution...benefit from every update. 

Every new update seems to penalize short term trend chasing and reward their hard work

They've been publishing valuable blogs that arn't overly promotional or self promotional and new updates just help them be stronger

They've been distributing content on LinkedIn for years before the LLM algo made LInkedIn more and more indexed

They've been leaning into youtube for a while as a bingable content hub and now getting rewarded by top indexing now for LLMs. 

They didn't just throw all their chips at Reddit because it was cool with LLMs for a few weeks. 

I know it's crazy out there but let's take a step back as marketers and realize that chasing all these trends like chickens with no heads is NOT A STRATEGY. 

That's it my friends..that's the message  - think long term human strategy and use the common sense.

Website LinkedIn Ads Agency: https://lnkd.in/guEafPKk
B2B Strategies and Guides: https://lnkd.in/gB-WQ82f
Impactable YouTube Channel: https://lnkd.in/emYVDn_T
Thought Leadership Done For you Motion - https://lnkd.in/gEn-5TuR

Question: What WON'T you Automate?....that's the real question right? Because what if it's all able to be handled by AI...the question then becomes what to keep right?

I mean really I think that might be a novel thought for many. 
We are so obsessed with what can we use AI/Automation, I don't think enough have stopped to think what they refuse to automate. 

I mean think about it - AI could indeed automate the following things...so what do you keep or ship to AI?

-Reading your emails, checking past threads for context, and drafting replies (human to review and send)

-Auto-download all meeting transcripts into central database along with your emails so you can truly own and talk to your own data...then start thinking about what automated reporting and flows to sit on that

-Remember your wifes email, pull in her web history for perfect gift ideas, order the gift and write the card, order the flowers and chocolate and schedule the delivery, create image collage from images in google drive and create signed poster showing your love, then send series of text flows expressing your love in the 2 weeks leading up to the day

-Substitute yourself for AI robot who will talk to your kids, listen to their boring stories, help them learn to read, write, and teach about right and wrong

-Scrape and store all your blogs, all your newsletters, all your Linkedin posts and youtube videos and auto-ingest all newly pubplished materials to act as a living content and knowledge storage of your expertise able to be searched or used to great thought leadership pieces from your actual experience in your actual tone and using your actual words/phrases

Ok so you get the point..there are cute innocent things AI can do, and then there are "relationship management" type things you could do with AI and I know having clients and having a partner are different things...but can you really automate any relationship?

I think there are human things that we can indeed automate...but the sheer act of automating them really does remove the human level which makes any relationship building 100% fake - just something to think about in this AI world of crazyness.

Tom Hunt

$3.6m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Jan 2014.I'm walking home from a depressing New Year's trip to Oslo with an ex. girlfriend.It's raining in East London.I made a decision:I would replace my management consulting salary (£42,000) by the end of the year.I had no idea from where, but that was the goal...I just about hit it and left the corporate world.And I haven't been back since.Fast forward a decade and I've:- Tried and failed with 17 businesses- Invested in 11- Learnt a LOTThe one that is finally working is called Fame:- We have a weird culture (in a good way)- We start and grow podcasts for B2B businesses- We are fully remote and have 75 full-time team membersI live for our awesome team at Fame, building businesses and great marketing.And I post about them here 🤗

Founder & CEO

We start and grow the world's most profitable B2B podcasts.

Clients include:

👉 IDEO
👉 Workday
👉 HighRadius
👉 People.ai
👉 Zendesk
👉 Bevy
👉 Circle
👉 Suzy
👉 Mazars
👉 LeanData
👉 CXL
👉 Ramp
👉 Alibaba
👉 Signify
👉 eToro

$4.5m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I’m doing.

“We need to let them go.”

I’m in a 1-1 and a manager thinks someone in their team isn’t performing.

I'm in shock, to me they seemed enthusiastic and a culture fit.


We dug into the details:

- What weren’t they doing?
- Why weren’t they doing it?

The manager thought they either didn't understand or couldn't do the role.

Then I ask:

“How did onboarding go?”

“What do you mean by onboarding?” they reply.


And that's when we found the issue:

We skipped the onboarding process and replaced it with "a couple of calls".


If you’re recruiting right, you owe it to yourself to onboard right.

You can’t expect someone to join and start performing, you need to set them up to succeed.

Onboard right or do it twice.

Agree?

My 7 favourite startup lies:


1. We’re scaling
-- No, you still don't know how/if you'll be profitable

2. We’re going viral
-- No, your CEO’s LinkedIn fundraise post got a few more likes than normal

3. TechCrunch picked us up
-- No, your $10k per month PR agency got you featured

4. We’re partnering with Google
-- No, you’re paying Google Cloud for servers

5. The inbound pipeline is strong
-- No, some competitors requested a demo to see what you’re building

6. We have FANG-level talent
-- No, one of your devs interned at Netflix 6 years ago

7. The team are fully incentivised
-- No, they have paper options based on an inflated fundraise


And my absolute favourite:

8. We’re worth $30m
-- No, a hyped up VC gave you this valuation to make themselves look good (so they can raise their next fund)


Thank god we don't have to lie to ourselves.

Here’s to the bootstrappers 🥂

(Exit the hype-train and subscribe to Cash Machines)

I probably shouldn’t share this…

I like to call it the “Pay Rise Formula”.


Most people go about asking for money in the completely wrong way:

1. Pay review arrives
2. “Can I have more money?”

It’s an easy "not yet" from the boss.


But if you follow these three steps, you boost your chances of a pay rise by at least 56%:

(Not a guarantee but it works)

1. 6 months before the pay review ask your boss: “what do I need to be doing in the next 6 months to get a pay-rise?”

2. Write those things down and make a plan to hit them. Work hard.

3. A few weeks before the pay review, show the list (with things ticked off) to your boss in a 1-1 and ask them to confirm if you are actually doing those things


If done right, there is no way a boss can push back on a raise with the "not yet" excuse.

Pro-activity pays.

Agree?

$4.5 million ARR, 0 raised.

$500 invested.

It’s been a wild ride.


We have built Fame as a service business with mostly intangible assets.

We did it without selling a single piece of equity to venture capital.

But even asset-light businesses get stuck.

You often need to buy speed to hire a star developer, fund a new marketing campaign, or pay a tax bill.

In those moments, I did not want to wait weeks for a bank.

Unless I had another option.

An option like iwoca.


They fund small businesses that move quickly and have already funded 100,000 businesses in the UK. 

They lent £3.3 billion to business owners who need to move fast and build resilience.

You can apply for business finance between £1,000 and £1M in about five minutes.

They typically give you a decision within 24 hours.

Apply here to check your options: https://lnkd.in/euSG4SCm

NOTE - applying does not impact your credit score.

#Ad

Brand partnership • $4.5m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I’m doing.

taplio

The Battle

Justin Rowe

Tom Hunt

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taplio

The Battle

Justin Rowe

Tom Hunt

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Justin Rowe's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTom Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJustin Rowe's LinkedIn Performance