Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Drew Price, Founder of 10 Billion Emails, located in Atlanta, GA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I specialize in advising early-stage high-growth startups on how to build out their email channel for the first time. This begins with a focus on strategy and business goals and usually evolves to production support, where I act like an agency and will put together small, experienced teams (typically one copywriter, designer, and coder) to create an arsenal of emails to plug into that brand's lifecycle.
In addition to the advisory and agency capabilities, I am also working to build sprint courses on specific topics. This is my primary focus heading into 2023, and I'm lucky to be partnering with Demand Curve on that front. Because I work mostly with early-stage startups, my main points of contact tend to be co-founders and a small task force of early hires.
Tell us about yourself
I have more than 15 years of email channel experience across tech, publishing, and retail. My first email gig was actually with The Home Depot but on the agency side. I was on a small team, and we sent out around 20 highly targeted campaigns per week and were doing A/B experiments to optimize for each campaign back in the early 2000sā pretty intense - but a great learning opportunity. These were my training grounds before I later joined IGN Entertainment and then eventually Grammarly in 2014.
And as one of Grammarly's first marketing hires, I helped them scale from 0 to 3 billion emails per year. If you've ever used Grammarly, one of my biggest projects was getting the personalized weekly email, called Grammarly Insights, set up.
These days, my motivation is to act as an advisor and mentor and to pass on the why, how, and what to the next generation of founders and marketers so I can empower them to think outside the box and create scalable programs that are contextual to their unique business.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I successfully pivoted from full-time W2 work to full-time independent work at the beginning of COVID and have worked with more than a dozen startups in just 24 months.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
There is a constant balancing act of setting up primary and secondary lines of income while also realizing that, at least in my line of work, most engagements have a shelf-life of 3-6 months. So, having a strong referral network and driving a measurable impact with each client is crucial.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Be confident that your idea or service is truly scalable in today's market.
- Don't go all in until you've lined up enough revenue streams (clients/etc.) to keep the lights on for you and your family.
- Constantly scrutinize and evolve your offerings to focus on the lowest effort and highest impact processes and outputs.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.10billionemails.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10billionemails/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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