Insight
Craig Fuller: The Best Thing to Give a Founder Is an Enemy
“So I would say the best thing to give a founder is an enemy.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Flying Magazine Lost $7 Per Subscriber Annually for Over 15 Years
“They were generating, on average, eight dollars in revenue per subscriber per year, and it cost them 15 dollars to fill that subscriber. They were losing, and have since, as far back as our data went, it's 2006, losing seven dollars per subscriber”
Insight
Fuller: Firecrown acquires enthusiast media to sell high-ticket products
“You know, but what we're buying are these audiences that love the content. They're enthusiasts. And effectively by owning the magazine, which we finance through the P and L of the magazine itself, subscriptions and advertising. We make money in media, but we'r…”
Insight
Aviation Real Estate Arbitrage Comes From Adding Runways to Inland Property
“The arbitrage in aviation is that you're taking a piece of land that has beauty. It's a beautiful piece of land, but it's not next to a body of water to build a lakefront home. And so essentially what you're doing is you're taking this land and you're arbitrag…”
Disclosure
Fuller: Firecrown aims for $1B in revenue with no plans to sell
“Our goal is to get to a billion dollars. Like, I have no plans to sell this business.”
Disclosure
Firecrown Media Is Acquiring a Media Asset for Under 1x Profit
“I mean, we're doing a deal right now where it's a, you know, business about a minute and a half revenue About 600,000 dollars, and when you take out all the expenses, all the owner expenses, about 600,000 dollars a contribution, we'll, we'll pay less than one …”
Opinion
Fuller: BuzzFeed sold out to programmatic ads and platform reliance
“Well, I think Buzzfeed along with a lot of other publishers have sold out to programmatic and have relied upon the platforms, the Facebooks and the.”
Assertion Partly supported
Fuller: US Xpress Sold to Knight-Swift for $800M at $2.5B Revenue
“Yeah, he merged it into Knight Swift which is the largest. It was the second largest trucking merger in history. The company did about two and a half billion dollars when it sold for eight hundred million.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Craig Fuller's Family Payments Venture Reached a $500 Million Valuation
“What's funny about that business is, is that's one of the most valuable assets in the family's portfolio now. It just got a five hundred million dollar valuation last, you know, sold some stock in September of last year.”
Disclosure
Fuller: Acquired Flying Magazine for $3.5M with $1M deferred
“It was about, you know, total purchase price is about three and a half million when you look at. Cash and some deferred expenses and deferred payments. So it came out to about three and a half million dollars which, you know, seven times, five, you know, two a…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Fuller: Flying Magazine subscriber base fell from 108K to 32K post-price-hike
“So we, when we bought that, it was about a 108,000 subscribers. We actually, when we raised the price, we raised the 30 initially, it actually went down to 32,000 subscribers.”
Disclosure
Fuller: Invested $40M across all Firecrown Media acquisitions
“You know, look, we total invested about forty million dollars in the business, but that's not flying. That's all the acquisitions we've done and everything we've acquired.”
Disclosure
Fly-In Community Reached $28 Million in Bookings Before Regulatory Delays
“Yeah, we actually got up to about twenty-eight million dollars in total bookings. Yeah, total reservation deposits, but we thought we were going to get through this process for environmental approval, quick zoning approval. We actually thought we'd break groun…”
Disclosure
Craig Fuller funded media acquisitions using personal bank debt and portfolio liquidation
“I have not raised any, my father invested when he sold his trucking business last year. So he's my only outside investor other than the initial round. Everything was done by myself. And I was just using bank debt frankly, borrowing money from banks and liquida…”
Insight
Fuller: Editorial represents only 25% of a magazine's costs
“And so typically a publisher, and here's the thing about magazines is that only 25% of the content 25% of the operations of that business actually is value added to a customer. You have audience development, you have magazine production, you have layout, like …”
Assertion Partly supported
Fuller: Firecrown owns the largest space merchandise store online
“We own the largest NASA or the largest space merch store on the internet called the Space Store.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Firecrown Media Hit a $60M Revenue Run Rate at 20% Margins
“Yeah, sixty million in revenue revenue, a little bit over 60, with 20% margins.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Craig Fuller: 4,500 Magazine Publishers Have Zero Viable Exit Opportunities
“I mean, here's the reality is there's 4500 magazine publishers in there and say there's no exit for these guys.”
Disclosure
Fuller: FreightWaves Raised Over $80 Million in VC and Debt
“65 in venture capital, but we raised some debt on top of it, so total about a little bit under eighty million, or a little bit over eighty million.”
Insight
Fuller: Trucking Businesses Typically Operate on 1% to 3% Margins
“I mean ultimately in trucking, you're operating a business that operates with single digit margins, you know, one to three percent margins.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fuller: Flying Magazine ad generated over 300 inbound fly-in community inquiries
“We had over 300 inbound inquiries on that one ad we took out in our own magazine.”
Disclosure
Fuller: Firecrown has acquired around 54 media titles
“We're about 54, I think, is the number.”
Assertion Supported
Fuller: Hearst Corporation has $10B–$12B in revenue and no debt
“Hearst is amazing because it's 10, ten billion or twelve billion of revenue. No debt. Like, that's what's pretty astounding about a Hearst.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Fuller: Aero Swag will do $100,000 in revenue this year
“We have a business that I paid 10,000 dollars for. It's called Aero Swag. It's an e-commerce business. It will do A 100,000 dollars this year.”
