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Oct 20, 2016 · 22m · top-founders

EP 453: $2M Agency Helps Brands Raise Capital, IPO, Sell, with ROIworks CEO George Revutsky

George Revutsky · 13m spoken Nathan Latka · 6m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Nathan Latka interviews ROIworks CEO and Soothe CMO George Revutsky about running a profitable $2 million growth agency and scaling venture-backed startups through conversion optimization and multi-channel marketing.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 33.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.7 Guest teaching 4.0 Guest disagreement 4.0 Nathan pushing back 5.7
05100:0010:0020:001:39–8:50 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 ROIworks Agency Model, Retainers, and Profitability Nathan relentlessly interrogates George on ROIworks' financials, contract terms, and headcounts. When George declines to disclose headcount expenses by taking the fifth, Nathan immediately pivots to press on profit margins and cash distributions.8:50–18:04 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Scaling Soothe from Series A to Series B George repeatedly refuses to detail his past startup's sale to Ipsy and tries to steer the interview back to Soothe. Nathan firmly pushes back, arguing that casual mentions of company sales warrant deeper scrutiny before moving on to marketing strategies.18:06–21:10 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 HostGator Mid-Roll Sponsorship and Website Promo After a HostGator sponsor break, the segment transitions into rapid-fire questions. Nathan attempts a slight provocation asking if George gets jealous of clients' equity upsides, which George politely dismisses by citing his own equity holdings.1:39–8:50 · Guest teaching 4/10 ROIworks Agency Model, Retainers, and Profitability Nathan relentlessly interrogates George on ROIworks' financials, contract terms, and headcounts. When George declines to disclose headcount expenses by taking the fifth, Nathan immediately pivots to press on profit margins and cash distributions.8:50–18:04 · Guest teaching 5/10 Scaling Soothe from Series A to Series B George repeatedly refuses to detail his past startup's sale to Ipsy and tries to steer the interview back to Soothe. Nathan firmly pushes back, arguing that casual mentions of company sales warrant deeper scrutiny before moving on to marketing strategies.18:06–21:10 · Guest teaching 3/10 HostGator Mid-Roll Sponsorship and Website Promo After a HostGator sponsor break, the segment transitions into rapid-fire questions. Nathan attempts a slight provocation asking if George gets jealous of clients' equity upsides, which George politely dismisses by citing his own equity holdings.1:39–8:50 · Guest disagreement 4/10 ROIworks Agency Model, Retainers, and Profitability Nathan relentlessly interrogates George on ROIworks' financials, contract terms, and headcounts. When George declines to disclose headcount expenses by taking the fifth, Nathan immediately pivots to press on profit margins and cash distributions.8:50–18:04 · Guest disagreement 6/10 Scaling Soothe from Series A to Series B George repeatedly refuses to detail his past startup's sale to Ipsy and tries to steer the interview back to Soothe. Nathan firmly pushes back, arguing that casual mentions of company sales warrant deeper scrutiny before moving on to marketing strategies.18:06–21:10 · Guest disagreement 2/10 HostGator Mid-Roll Sponsorship and Website Promo After a HostGator sponsor break, the segment transitions into rapid-fire questions. Nathan attempts a slight provocation asking if George gets jealous of clients' equity upsides, which George politely dismisses by citing his own equity holdings.1:39–8:50 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 ROIworks Agency Model, Retainers, and Profitability Nathan relentlessly interrogates George on ROIworks' financials, contract terms, and headcounts. When George declines to disclose headcount expenses by taking the fifth, Nathan immediately pivots to press on profit margins and cash distributions.8:50–18:04 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Scaling Soothe from Series A to Series B George repeatedly refuses to detail his past startup's sale to Ipsy and tries to steer the interview back to Soothe. Nathan firmly pushes back, arguing that casual mentions of company sales warrant deeper scrutiny before moving on to marketing strategies.18:06–21:10 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 HostGator Mid-Roll Sponsorship and Website Promo After a HostGator sponsor break, the segment transitions into rapid-fire questions. Nathan attempts a slight provocation asking if George gets jealous of clients' equity upsides, which George politely dismisses by citing his own equity holdings.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 59.2% · guest 40.8%0:00 · Nathan 59.2% · guest 40.8%3:00 · Nathan 25.3% · guest 74.7%3:00 · Nathan 25.3% · guest 74.7%6:00 · Nathan 22.9% · guest 77.1%6:00 · Nathan 22.9% · guest 77.1%9:00 · Nathan 15.8% · guest 84.2%9:00 · Nathan 15.8% · guest 84.2%12:00 · Nathan 1.3% · guest 98.7%12:00 · Nathan 1.3% · guest 98.7%15:00 · Nathan 14.9% · guest 85.1%15:00 · Nathan 14.9% · guest 85.1%18:00 · Nathan 66.2% · guest 33.8%18:00 · Nathan 66.2% · guest 33.8%21:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%21:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:34 George attempts to redirect the line of questioning

George actively attempts to shut down Nathan's questions regarding his company sale, stating he cannot comment and does not want to distract from discussing Soothe.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:45 Nathan refuses to let guest bypass exit details

Nathan halts the conversation to explain that when a guest mentions selling a business, listeners expect an explanation rather than a brushed-off pivot.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:45 George corrects Nathan's contract value math

When Nathan underestimates the agency contract value at 150k dollars, George immediately corrects the math by explaining their low-end monthly baseline yields at least 240k dollars annually.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:32 Nathan reframes around owner profit and free cash flow

When George takes the fifth on payroll expenses, Nathan cuts straight to the core metric by asking about agency profit margins and owner compensation.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
ROIworks Agency Model, Retainers, and Profitability 6446 Nathan relentlessly interrogates George on ROIworks' financials, contract terms, and headcounts. When George declines to disclose headcount expenses by taking the fifth, Nathan immediately pivots to press on profit margins and cash distributions.
Scaling Soothe from Series A to Series B 5567 George repeatedly refuses to detail his past startup's sale to Ipsy and tries to steer the interview back to Soothe. Nathan firmly pushes back, arguing that casual mentions of company sales warrant deeper scrutiny before moving on to marketing strategies.
HostGator Mid-Roll Sponsorship and Website Promo 3324 After a HostGator sponsor break, the segment transitions into rapid-fire questions. Nathan attempts a slight provocation asking if George gets jealous of clients' equity upsides, which George politely dismisses by citing his own equity holdings.

Statements from this episode (4)

Disclosure
ROIworks generates $2M annually in retainers with 10 to 12 employees
“So we're, you know, we're doing roughly around two million a year. You know, if we're talking about just retainers and we haven't really tried to grow past, you know, 10 to 12 people, we've kind of kept it small and profitable.”
George Revutsky Oct 20, 2016 ▶ 5:02
Insight
Revutsky: Healthy agencies should target 25% profit after owner compensation
“Basically any healthy agency or any service or consulting business should try to generate 25% you know, profit after paying everybody including the owner.”
George Revutsky Oct 20, 2016 ▶ 6:53
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revutsky: Soothe achieved 11 months of 20-30% MoM growth to Series B
“We were able to put together 11 straight months of double digit growth. Mostly it was in the 20 to 30% month over month revenue growth range. And you know, that directly led to our series B which was thirty five million dollars.”
George Revutsky Oct 20, 2016 ▶ 14:25
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Soothe overtook competitor Zeel in 2015 by growing three times faster
“In August of 2015, We were a little bit behind in revenue with zeal, our biggest competitor at the time. But we know that we literally lapped them. We grew at three times their rate.”
George Revutsky Oct 20, 2016 ▶ 14:52
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