Adam Robinson has come a long way from his days as a credit default swap trader at Lehman Brothers on Wall Street. He now runs multiple startups as a serial entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas.
In our most recent podcast, Robinson traced his journey from finance to tech entrepreneurship.
"I worked on Wall Street for ten years before starting my first startup in 2014."
His time at Lehman Brothers inspired him to make a documentary about the financial crisis.
"I made a documentary movie about my time as a credit default swap trader at Lehman Brothers,"
This project seemed to mark a turning point in Robinson's career. Shortly after, he left Wall Street to dive into the startup world.
Robinson's first startup took 18 months to build with a team of 25 people. Reflecting on that experience, he said:
"My first startup took 18 months and 25 people while my second startup, Retention.com, took just 27 weeks with Facebook ads and inbound demos with a salesperson."
This shows Robinson learned how to build startups much quicker by relying on online marketing and leveraging technology.
Robinson's second startup taps into the power of inbound marketing and a lean sales team to fuel impressive early growth.
"RB2B has seen even faster growth, going from an idea to over $1 million in annual recurring revenue within just 17 weeks."
He credits creating targeted content for B2B audiences as the catalyst. After some popular posts, Adam and his team quickly built a MVP product based on resolving website visitors to email addresses. Robinson realized he could turn his audience into a freemium SaaS business. Though the initial conversion was low, Robinson is now focused on selling leads while building upon the brand and community he created. Robinson's story offers many valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. By sharing his insights and journey, he hopes to inspire others to take the leap into startups as well.
"I now focus on selling leads while exploring new strategies like live events and information products to build upon the brand I have created,"