✈️ Lessons from 2,000+ Startup Founder Interviews

Inside: Andrew Warner of Mixergy Shares What He Learned

Author

Yong-Soo Chung
July 19, 2023

First-time traveler? Welcome aboard, Jetsetter! 👋🏼

Before we take-off, there’s one thing you should do:

Join 4,000+ entrepreneurs by subscribing here.

Welcome to First Class Founders, your favorite destination to learn proven strategies to grow your business.

Have you ever wondered what would you learn if you had the chance to speak to over 2,000 startup entrepreneurs including the founders of Airbnb, Reddit, and Zapier?

Today, we’re joined by Andrew Warner, the serial entrepreneur, storyteller, podcast host, author extraordinaire, and the founder behind Mixergy.

After conducting over 2,000 interviews with startup founders, Andrew recently published a book called "Stop Asking Questions!" which I read from cover to cover.

I invited him on the podcast so I could… ask him a LOT of questions.

During our conversation, Andrew and I spoke about his life as an entrepreneur and went into some amazing details about:

  • 🎙 Secret to Great Interviews

  • 📊 Current State of the Startup Economy

  • ❌ Lessons Learned From a Previous Failed Venture

  • 💰 How Andrew Grew His Newsletter Business to $30 Million

This is an inspiring conversation that you won't want to miss!

Jetsetters, you know what time it is… let’s get down to business!

📢 Presented By: Swell AI

Jetsetters, I’m super excited to announce Swell AI as our presenting sponsor for First Class Founders!

Swell AI the best AI Writer for Podcasters. I love using it as part of my podcast workflow. It helps me with my show notes, transcripts, episode titles, episode summaries, and a whole lot more.

Cody, the founder of Swell AI is the most helpful, down-to-earth founder you’ll meet.

If you have a podcast, do yourself a favor and check out Swell AI.

🏷 Lost & Found

Did you miss these? Each week, I round up all sorts of interesting things I found on the internet that you missed. Enjoy!

Entrepreneurs & Coaches: Want a calendar packed with sales meetings? How to sell more packages & fill your calendar up with more sales-qualified meetings in 5 days… See more (Sponsored)

🎛 Metrics Dashboard

I'm building First Class Founders in public. Each week, I share my numbers exclusively through subscribers of this newsletter only.

Newsletter:

  • Subscribers: 4,970

  • Open Rate: 39.8%

  • Click Rate: 4.5%

👍🏻 Recommendation: Thinking of starting a newsletter? I use and recommend Beehiiv with powerful features like boosts, recommendations, segmentations, automations, and detailed subscriber metrics.

Podcast:

  • 90-Day Downloads: 7,140

  • 30-Day Downloads: 2,510

  • 7-Day Downloads: 620

👍🏻 Recommendation: Best hosting platform for your podcast? I use and recommend Buzzsprout. Get $20 when you sign-up using this link.

📢 Sponsored By: You?

Want to accelerate your brand affinity among ambitious entrepreneurs, creators, founders, and CEOs?

You’ve come to the right place.

Our audience consists of:

- SaaS founders
- Published authors
- Partners at VC firms
- Creators building brands
- Bootstrapped indie hackers
- Employees at Apple, Google, Meta

Interested? Let’s chat → details here.

💺 Jetsetter of the Week

Linx Digital is a newsletter from a group of seasoned marketers, storytellers & trendsetters, who are obsessed with getting you results.

It’s packed with unique insights for startup founders.

Run paid Ads? Then you’ll want to check out The Sauce, a paid Ads newsletter where you get the spiciest paid Ad strategies, guides & in-depth brand case studies every Thursday.

✈️ Travel Further With Me

Here are 3 ways I can help you:

  1. Join First Class Founders Membership:

    • Early access to new episodes each week

    • Uncut extended guest interviews that never aired

    • Private ad-free podcast with bonus episode segments

  2. Get In Front of My Audience:

    • 18k+ Twitter followers

    • 12k+ Podcast subscribers

    • 4,000+ Newsletter subscribers

  3. Work with Me:

    • Broader strategies on a particular topic

    • Dig deeper into specific tactics on a topic

💬 Final Word

Big thanks to Nik Atanackovic for covering me on his deep dive on his newsletter Creator’s Chronicle!

Nik did an amazing job outlining the trajectory of my entrepreneurial journey.

If you have a moment, check it out!

Thank you all and see you next week!

Yong-Soo Chung — Serial Entrepreneur, Podcaster

‏‏‎

P.S. How did you like today's newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Reply

or to participate.