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Jun 28, 2016 · 24m · top-founders

EP 339: The $10M Website Seller Empire Flippers

Nathan Latka · 11m spoken Justin Cooke · 10m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

In this episode of The Top, host Nathan Latka interviews Justin Cooke, partner at Empire Flippers, exploring the platform's evolution from a niche website builder to a multi-million-dollar digital asset brokerage. Cooke shares practical insights on valuation multiples, marketplace unit economics, deal velocity, and bootstrapped growth strategies.

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 53.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.6 Guest teaching 2.1 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 2.1
05100:0010:0020:001:00–4:26 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 FreshBooks Sponsorship and Upcoming Episode Preview Nathan inspects an active listing on the Empire Flippers marketplace to test the pricing model. Justin clarifies how the listing fees work as qualification filters against spammy submissions.4:26–7:48 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Empire Flippers Revenue Milestones and Commission Business Model Nathan breaks down marketplace monetization by pressing Justin on whether historical revenue numbers represent gross merchandise value or net brokerage fees.7:48–10:07 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Team Structure, Customer Operations, and Founding History Justin details his team structure in the Philippines and openly critiques a third-party chat vendor before describing how their business pivoted out of building AdSense sites.10:07–13:10 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Marketplace Listing Volumes, Deal Velocity, and Buyer Demographics Nathan probes for granular monthly transaction stats and conversion rates, leading Justin to correct Nathan's assumption on listed versus closed deals.13:10–16:32 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Valuation Multiples, The Investor Program, and Due Diligence Security Justin explains standard monthly profit multiples (24x-36x) and educates Nathan on why they require a $5,000 refundable deposit to protect seller niches from copycats.16:33–18:49 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Sponsor Messages: FreshBooks Invoicing and HostGator Web Hosting Monologue sponsor reads for FreshBooks and HostGator with zero guest presence.18:49–22:40 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Justin Cooke Justin efficiently answers the Famous Five questions, praising Nathan's direct interviewing approach over conventional soft-ball podcasts.1:00–4:26 · Guest teaching 3/10 FreshBooks Sponsorship and Upcoming Episode Preview Nathan inspects an active listing on the Empire Flippers marketplace to test the pricing model. Justin clarifies how the listing fees work as qualification filters against spammy submissions.4:26–7:48 · Guest teaching 2/10 Empire Flippers Revenue Milestones and Commission Business Model Nathan breaks down marketplace monetization by pressing Justin on whether historical revenue numbers represent gross merchandise value or net brokerage fees.7:48–10:07 · Guest teaching 2/10 Team Structure, Customer Operations, and Founding History Justin details his team structure in the Philippines and openly critiques a third-party chat vendor before describing how their business pivoted out of building AdSense sites.10:07–13:10 · Guest teaching 3/10 Marketplace Listing Volumes, Deal Velocity, and Buyer Demographics Nathan probes for granular monthly transaction stats and conversion rates, leading Justin to correct Nathan's assumption on listed versus closed deals.13:10–16:32 · Guest teaching 4/10 Valuation Multiples, The Investor Program, and Due Diligence Security Justin explains standard monthly profit multiples (24x-36x) and educates Nathan on why they require a $5,000 refundable deposit to protect seller niches from copycats.16:33–18:49 · Guest teaching 0/10 Sponsor Messages: FreshBooks Invoicing and HostGator Web Hosting Monologue sponsor reads for FreshBooks and HostGator with zero guest presence.18:49–22:40 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Justin Cooke Justin efficiently answers the Famous Five questions, praising Nathan's direct interviewing approach over conventional soft-ball podcasts.1:00–4:26 · Guest disagreement 1/10 FreshBooks Sponsorship and Upcoming Episode Preview Nathan inspects an active listing on the Empire Flippers marketplace to test the pricing model. Justin clarifies how the listing fees work as qualification filters against spammy submissions.4:26–7:48 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Empire Flippers Revenue Milestones and Commission Business Model Nathan breaks down marketplace monetization by pressing Justin on whether historical revenue numbers represent gross merchandise value or net brokerage fees.7:48–10:07 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Team Structure, Customer Operations, and Founding History Justin details his team structure in the Philippines and openly critiques a third-party chat vendor before describing how their business pivoted out of building AdSense sites.10:07–13:10 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Marketplace Listing Volumes, Deal Velocity, and Buyer Demographics Nathan probes for granular monthly transaction stats and conversion rates, leading Justin to correct Nathan's assumption on listed versus closed deals.13:10–16:32 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Valuation Multiples, The Investor Program, and Due Diligence Security Justin explains standard monthly profit multiples (24x-36x) and educates Nathan on why they require a $5,000 refundable deposit to protect seller niches from copycats.16:33–18:49 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Sponsor Messages: FreshBooks Invoicing and HostGator Web Hosting Monologue sponsor reads for FreshBooks and HostGator with zero guest presence.18:49–22:40 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Justin Cooke Justin efficiently answers the Famous Five questions, praising Nathan's direct interviewing approach over conventional soft-ball podcasts.1:00–4:26 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 FreshBooks Sponsorship and Upcoming Episode Preview Nathan inspects an active listing on the Empire Flippers marketplace to test the pricing model. Justin clarifies how the listing fees work as qualification filters against spammy submissions.4:26–7:48 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Empire Flippers Revenue Milestones and Commission Business Model Nathan breaks down marketplace monetization by pressing Justin on whether historical revenue numbers represent gross merchandise value or net brokerage fees.7:48–10:07 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Team Structure, Customer Operations, and Founding History Justin details his team structure in the Philippines and openly critiques a third-party chat vendor before describing how their business pivoted out of building AdSense sites.10:07–13:10 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Marketplace Listing Volumes, Deal Velocity, and Buyer Demographics Nathan probes for granular monthly transaction stats and conversion rates, leading Justin to correct Nathan's assumption on listed versus closed deals.13:10–16:32 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Valuation Multiples, The Investor Program, and Due Diligence Security Justin explains standard monthly profit multiples (24x-36x) and educates Nathan on why they require a $5,000 refundable deposit to protect seller niches from copycats.16:33–18:49 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Sponsor Messages: FreshBooks Invoicing and HostGator Web Hosting Monologue sponsor reads for FreshBooks and HostGator with zero guest presence.18:49–22:40 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Justin Cooke Justin efficiently answers the Famous Five questions, praising Nathan's direct interviewing approach over conventional soft-ball podcasts.

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

0:00 · Nathan 77.7% · guest 22.3%0:00 · Nathan 77.7% · guest 22.3%3:00 · Nathan 39.7% · guest 60.3%3:00 · Nathan 39.7% · guest 60.3%6:00 · Nathan 54.2% · guest 45.8%6:00 · Nathan 54.2% · guest 45.8%9:00 · Nathan 25.3% · guest 74.7%9:00 · Nathan 25.3% · guest 74.7%12:00 · Nathan 41.6% · guest 58.4%12:00 · Nathan 41.6% · guest 58.4%15:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%15:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%18:00 · Nathan 52% · guest 48%18:00 · Nathan 52% · guest 48%21:00 · Nathan 72% · guest 28%21:00 · Nathan 72% · guest 28%24:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%24:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 19:15 Critique of standard rambling podcasts

Justin dismisses the conventional soft format of business podcasts, stating he hates shows that let guests ramble without asking tough questions.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 5:00 Drilling down into gross versus net revenue

Nathan refuses to let ambiguous topline numbers pass, forcing Justin to clarify whether $370k was gross site sales or net company revenue.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 15:28 Explaining the copycat protection deposit

Justin teaches Nathan why Empire Flippers places a refundable deposit barrier on buyer due diligence to prevent copycats from stealing online business ideas.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:50 Live listing financial breakdown

Nathan demonstrates commercial fluency by immediately walking through the marketplace unit economics on a live listing and calculating the broker's exact 15% cut.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
FreshBooks Sponsorship and Upcoming Episode Preview 4312 Nathan inspects an active listing on the Empire Flippers marketplace to test the pricing model. Justin clarifies how the listing fees work as qualification filters against spammy submissions.
Empire Flippers Revenue Milestones and Commission Business Model 5213 Nathan breaks down marketplace monetization by pressing Justin on whether historical revenue numbers represent gross merchandise value or net brokerage fees.
Team Structure, Customer Operations, and Founding History 3212 Justin details his team structure in the Philippines and openly critiques a third-party chat vendor before describing how their business pivoted out of building AdSense sites.
Marketplace Listing Volumes, Deal Velocity, and Buyer Demographics 5324 Nathan probes for granular monthly transaction stats and conversion rates, leading Justin to correct Nathan's assumption on listed versus closed deals.
Valuation Multiples, The Investor Program, and Due Diligence Security 5413 Justin explains standard monthly profit multiples (24x-36x) and educates Nathan on why they require a $5,000 refundable deposit to protect seller niches from copycats.
Sponsor Messages: FreshBooks Invoicing and HostGator Web Hosting 0000 Monologue sponsor reads for FreshBooks and HostGator with zero guest presence.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Justin Cooke 3111 Justin efficiently answers the Famous Five questions, praising Nathan's direct interviewing approach over conventional soft-ball podcasts.

Statements from this episode (11)

Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Empire Flippers closed its largest deal ever for a $550k Amazon affiliate site
“I can tell you the biggest sale we've had. We just sold a deal last month for 550,000 dollars was a content play, mostly Amazon affiliate marketing, makes the most of the money through the Amazon associates program.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 2:07
Insight
Empire Flippers charges listing fees to filter out unserious sellers, not for revenue
“To be honest with you though, Nathan, we make very little money on that. That's more of a filter to keep the kind of like, you know, the people are looking just to get a valuation or they're not terribly serious about listing. They're just kind of, you know, t…”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 4:07
Disclosure
Empire Flippers takes a flat 15% brokerage fee on every listed business
“We charged a 15% fee on every business we list and sell.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 5:15
Assertion Supported
Empire Flippers generated ~$700k revenue on $4.56M in transaction volume in 2015
“So we did 4.56 million in sales and that was on 176 deals. So in terms of money we took in for empire flippers is about 700,000 dollars.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 6:48
Assertion Open · timeframe Apr 2016
Empire Flippers facilitated over $1M in transaction volume in April 2016 alone
“We did a 1.9 million in Q one. And in April we did just over a million dollars. So our growth has been pretty rapid, especially the last 12 to 18 months or so.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 7:22
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Empire Flippers pivoted to brokering websites after building them became less profitable
“Over time, we had more demand than we were able to supply. Our process for building sites wasn't as profitable as it was when we started, and that's when we started brokering deals.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 9:59
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Empire Flippers boasts a 90% all-time sell-through rate for listed businesses
“So we, if you look all time, we've sold better than 90% of the businesses we've listed, but that's a little off because you figure we sell a lot of sites in the 15,000 dollar range, 50,000 dollar range.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 10:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Empire Flippers is approaching $10M in total lifetime transaction volume
“I think we're getting close to ten million in total sales, so maybe nine point something right now, ever.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 12:28
Assertion Supported
Online businesses typically sell for 24x to 36x their monthly net profit
“It all comes down to the multiple It's a multiple of net monthly profit. And sometimes it's annual, sometimes monthly, depending on which broker you talk to with us, it's monthly. And you're generally going to get somewhere between 24 X and 36 X for your busin…”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 13:55
Disclosure
Empire Flippers raised an $800k fund to purchase and operate website portfolios
“We raised 800,000 from 11 investors and put together a portfolio of sites.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 14:57
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Cooke predicts website portfolio investment funds will become a massive asset class
“I think there's a huge, there's going to be a huge industry there. I just think it's really, really early. So we're starting to see other people do that. So it's not just us. And I think that's going to be really big.”
Justin Cooke Jun 28, 2016 ▶ 15:04
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