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Here’s the crazy story of how two brothers took on the online dating giants - and won. We built a tiny dating startup to $100M revenue and 120M users. And pissed off the CEO of the world's largest dating app in the process. This is going to be a lesson on how a small company can challenge any corporate giant if they have the right strategy. And of course a bit of luck. Let’s get into it... It’s 2007 and Facebook has just launched their app platform. Many people remember Farmville and others. But we saw a massive opportunity to disrupt a deeply established market. We’d been building our new online dating business, SNAP Interactive, since 2005. And like any dating or social product you have one major issue. The network effect… Simply put, you need a critical mass of users in the network already for new users to have a good experience when they join. If there’s no one there, they’ll leave. What’s the point in a social platform without any users? It's like the telephone if no one else has a phone. So the launch of Facebook’s app platform was a game changer. And this brings me onto Major Lesson #1: Be prepared to pivot at any moment. We scrapped 2 years of work, and got started building our app on Facebook. Things started well. People were loving the app. Growth started to increase rapidly. And that’s when it happened… The CEO of the largest online dating platform at the time, Match. Was asked in an interview… “are you worried about the growth of Snap Interactive?” His response? “They’re a bunch of guys who started in a garage” It was the best single line he could have said. Here’s why: Because we were publicly traded. When he mentioned us, our stock symbol was linked in the IAC news stories. Bloomberg TV covered the story - and it was hilarious (video below). Our stock price rocketed… His insult had catapulted us into the big leagues. Major lesson #2: Any news is good news when you're a startup. The following years were a whirlwind. We ranked as the 36th fastest growing company in the US on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 Achieving 4,400% revenue growth over 5 years. Our market cap peaked at $150M in 2011 when we raised $8.5M for institutional investors. We had 50 employees and $20M in annual revenue. But there’s one more lesson you need to hear… Major Lesson #3: When you spot a life-changing opportunity, throw yourself at it. We could have sat back and laughed after the comments that were made. Instead we worked even harder. And seized the moment. We raised big money and changed the company's trajectory forever. -- If you’re a business leader or founder who needs help building or scaling your business, send me a DM or visit my website to see if we’re a good fit.

After 20+ years in the entrepreneur game, I can say this with certainty: Execution is the "secret sauce." It's not the idea. Everyone gets enamored with shiny ideas, but ideas are a dime a dozen. What really counts is what you do with them. Think about it - Amazon started by selling books online, and Google started as an attempt to build a better search engine. It's world-class execution that turned those simple ideas into the giants we know today. What's your take on ideas vs execution? -- Loved doing "Talks with Taylor." Link to the full episode in the comments. -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.

He is the reason you and so many other people are addicted to social media. Here’s the wild story of Sean Parker (and how he’s changed your life more than you realize): Let's rewind to 1979. This tech prodigy started to tinker with computers before most kids could ride a bike. Before he took the world by storm with Napster, he launched ParkerCom at age 16. Think of it as an early web crawler with real-time data harvesting capabilities. Even as a teenager he had a knack for seeing the bigger picture. Little did the world know... He was gearing up to revolutionize how we experience music and social media. In the late 1990s Parker co-founded Napster. Napster was a pioneering peer-to-peer file-sharing platform. And it completely changed how we consumed music online. Napster's popularity skyrocketed. But it brought along several legal challenges due to copyright issues. The music industry was alarmed by Napster's success. And they sued them into oblivion. But it had the desired effect already… It forced them to rethink traditional music distribution methods. While Napster faced legal battles, its influence didn’t die. The digital revolution sparked by Napster eventually gave birth to music streaming. Spotify wouldn’t exist without Napster leading the way for them. But Sean Parker’s influence didn't end with music. He played a pivotal role in shaping social media by advising a young platform: Facebook. As Facebook's first president, Parker helped Mark Zuckerberg refine the site's features and grow its user base. Under his guidance, Facebook transitioned from a college-focused platform to a global social network. One of Parker's key suggestions was letting people post pictures on the site. It forever changed how users interacted with content on social media. Creating user generated content as we know it today. He is quoted in saying: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” It was this mindset that led to the creation of features such as the “like” button that would give users “a little dopamine hit” to encourage them to upload more content. Fast forward from his early ventures to today, and Parker's legacy is etched into the digital bedrock. He transformed passive users into active participants in a sprawling online universe. Sean Parker's journey from a tech-whiz kid in Virginia to a titan of the digital age reminds us that a single vision can ripple through industries. Forever altering the course of how we connect and consume. So the next time you stream a song or share a photo. Remember the pioneer who played a part in that moment. Sean Parker, the maverick who envisioned a connected world long before most of us.

The most successful founders and entrepreneurs I know share something in common. They're obsessed with growth. Not just business growth - personal growth. They treat their own development like a full-time job. They have an insatiable desire to learn. Constantly reading, reflecting, refining. It's wired into their DNA and it's what sets them apart. What other traits have you noticed in the most successful people you know? -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.

These 3 growth hacks changed the business world forever. A growth hack is a data-driven, creative, and unconventional approach to marketing and growth that focuses on rapid experimentation and implementation of resource-light and cost-effective tactics to acquire users. Many successful startups have leveraged growth hacks to kickstart their initial success. Here are 3 of the most famous examples along with suggestions on how you can relate them to your own business: 𝟭. 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗯𝗼𝘅'𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: Dropbox incentivized users to refer friends by offering free additional storage space. 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵: Massive user growth, 3,900% increase in daily signups in 15 months. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥: Leveraged the power of word-of-mouth and provided value to existing users. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵: Implement a referral program that offers tangible benefits for users who invite friends or share your service. 2. 𝗛𝗼𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹'𝘀 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: Hotmail added "Get your free email at Hotmail" to the signature of every email sent from their service. 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵: 12 million users in 18 months. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥: Turned every email sent into a promotional tool. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵: Integrate your product into existing user behavior to encourage organic sharing. 3. 𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗣𝗮𝗹'𝘀 $𝟭𝟬 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: PayPal offered $10 to new users and $10 to the referrer. 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵: Rapid user growth, reaching 100,000 users in the first month. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥: Monetary incentives motivated users to spread the word. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵: Offer incentives for user referrals or actions that promote your product or service. What are some of the best examples of growth hacks that you have seen? Drop them in the comments 👇 -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me Darrell Lerner for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.

One of my all-time favorite podcast recordings. Taylor Kenerson dived deep into some really fun topics instead of following the usual, boring script. Check it out. 🔗 in the comments.

The biggest thing holding you back lives entirely in your head. Limiting beliefs. Invisible. Inherited. Internalized. They quietly shape what you think is possible...until they don’t. Here’s how to break free. What’s one limiting belief you’ve outgrown - and how did you do it? -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me @darrelllerner for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗱𝗲𝗱. Most people quit when the going gets tough. That's your competition. It’s easy to walk away when things become difficult, but that’s exactly why those who don't give up come out on top. Remember, it’s not supposed to be easy. Success comes as much from putting in the reps and outlasting everyone who quit too soon as it does from sheer talent. Small gains compound over time to yield significant victories. Improving just 1% every day for a year makes you nearly 38X better. Read that again... This is the power of showing up every day: • Small wins spark motivation • Motivation drives action • Action builds momentum When you keep showing up, you're not just creating momentum - you're fueling the will to keep going. That's what separates winners from quitters. That’s where the game is ultimately won or lost. In your toughest moments, remember - this is when your competition is throwing in the towel. Let that serve as your motivation to push forward. What's a small win you've experienced recently that's made a big difference for you? -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me Darrell Lerner for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.

Getting clients is hard. Keeping them is even harder. Too many focus on the former and not enough on the latter. I’ve been working with one advising client for a year and a half (far beyond industry norms). I treat her exceptionally well: Fast responses, Christmas gifts, proactive suggestions, extra attention whenever needed. Those things matter. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱? 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀. Like organically growing her revenue 15x in one year. (No, that's not a typo - we grew her sales 15x in just one year.) Or growing her social media following from a few thousand to nearly 100k engaged followers, generating more business than she can handle. All entirely organic. No advertising or extra money spent. Now, her best friend just hired me to help her grow her new venture. No pitch needed. It wasn’t necessary because she’s had a front row seat for the past year and a half watching her friend grow like crazy and rave about working with me. Too many advisors and consultants obsess over marketing hype and flashy promises, but fail to deliver meaningful outcomes. Inbound, outbound, cold, warm... You can have all the leads in the world but without delivering real results, you just have a leaky funnel. However, when your results become your reputation, you don't have to pitch - they come to you. And they stay with you. I have space for just one more advising client at the moment. If you're serious about growth and want help solving your biggest operational challenges, send me a DM or visit my website to see if we’re a good fit. -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me Darrell Lerner for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.

Most people wait until they feel ready. But clarity comes afterwards - not before. When we built AllPaws, it was far from perfect: • The product was raw • The brand was unproven • But the insight was strong: pet adoption needed a better user experience So we launched. Fast. Listened. Iterated. Grew. Millions signed up. Fast-forward 3 years - industry leader PetSmart acquired us. None of that would’ve happened if we waited until it felt “ready.” You don’t need to have everything figured out to start. You just need to start. • Start messy • Start imperfect • But just start What’s something you’ve been sitting on that you could begin today? -- If you found this post helpful: ♻️ Repost to share it with your audience 🔔 Follow me Darrell Lerner for more on entrepreneurship, startups, personal branding, and mindset.