StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Jan 31, 2016 · 18m · top-founders

How To Acquire $1m+ Company For $2 Dollars with Eric Siu CEO of Single Grain

Eric Siu · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m 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 Single Grain CEO Eric Siu about acquiring a multimillion-dollar marketing agency for just two dollars out of pocket, pivoting its business model, and utilizing its cash flows to fund a new senior living venture.

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 47.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 3.3
05100:0010:000:51–5:40 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Introducing Eric Siu and Single Grain's Agency Model Nathan interrogates the mechanics behind Eric acquiring the agency for two dollars, openly questioning how partners would surrender shares in a 1.5 million dollar business and pressing Eric to admit he used leverage. Eric remains cooperative and transparently breaks down the debt buyout structure.5:41–13:19 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Bootstrapping Care Sprout and Senior Living Lead Generation Nathan actively works through Care Sprout's unit economics in real time, calculating conversion costs and gross margins from Eric's numbers. Eric explains lead gen mechanics, AdWords call campaigns, and senior living industry commissions.13:20–15:25 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Show Notes Promotion and Sponsor Message for Growth Geeks Nathan delivers house ads and promo reads before chatting casually with Eric about favorite episodes of the podcast, maintaining a completely friendly promotional atmosphere.0:51–5:40 · Guest teaching 3/10 Introducing Eric Siu and Single Grain's Agency Model Nathan interrogates the mechanics behind Eric acquiring the agency for two dollars, openly questioning how partners would surrender shares in a 1.5 million dollar business and pressing Eric to admit he used leverage. Eric remains cooperative and transparently breaks down the debt buyout structure.5:41–13:19 · Guest teaching 4/10 Bootstrapping Care Sprout and Senior Living Lead Generation Nathan actively works through Care Sprout's unit economics in real time, calculating conversion costs and gross margins from Eric's numbers. Eric explains lead gen mechanics, AdWords call campaigns, and senior living industry commissions.13:20–15:25 · Guest teaching 1/10 Show Notes Promotion and Sponsor Message for Growth Geeks Nathan delivers house ads and promo reads before chatting casually with Eric about favorite episodes of the podcast, maintaining a completely friendly promotional atmosphere.0:51–5:40 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Introducing Eric Siu and Single Grain's Agency Model Nathan interrogates the mechanics behind Eric acquiring the agency for two dollars, openly questioning how partners would surrender shares in a 1.5 million dollar business and pressing Eric to admit he used leverage. Eric remains cooperative and transparently breaks down the debt buyout structure.5:41–13:19 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Bootstrapping Care Sprout and Senior Living Lead Generation Nathan actively works through Care Sprout's unit economics in real time, calculating conversion costs and gross margins from Eric's numbers. Eric explains lead gen mechanics, AdWords call campaigns, and senior living industry commissions.13:20–15:25 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Show Notes Promotion and Sponsor Message for Growth Geeks Nathan delivers house ads and promo reads before chatting casually with Eric about favorite episodes of the podcast, maintaining a completely friendly promotional atmosphere.0:51–5:40 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Introducing Eric Siu and Single Grain's Agency Model Nathan interrogates the mechanics behind Eric acquiring the agency for two dollars, openly questioning how partners would surrender shares in a 1.5 million dollar business and pressing Eric to admit he used leverage. Eric remains cooperative and transparently breaks down the debt buyout structure.5:41–13:19 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Bootstrapping Care Sprout and Senior Living Lead Generation Nathan actively works through Care Sprout's unit economics in real time, calculating conversion costs and gross margins from Eric's numbers. Eric explains lead gen mechanics, AdWords call campaigns, and senior living industry commissions.13:20–15:25 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Show Notes Promotion and Sponsor Message for Growth Geeks Nathan delivers house ads and promo reads before chatting casually with Eric about favorite episodes of the podcast, maintaining a completely friendly promotional atmosphere.

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

0:00 · Nathan 56.6% · guest 43.4%0:00 · Nathan 56.6% · guest 43.4%3:00 · Nathan 35.8% · guest 64.2%3:00 · Nathan 35.8% · guest 64.2%6:00 · Nathan 44.4% · guest 55.6%6:00 · Nathan 44.4% · guest 55.6%9:00 · Nathan 39.7% · guest 60.3%9:00 · Nathan 39.7% · guest 60.3%12:00 · Nathan 60.2% · guest 39.8%12:00 · Nathan 60.2% · guest 39.8%15:00 · Nathan 49.8% · guest 50.2%15:00 · Nathan 49.8% · guest 50.2%18:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 0%18:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 4:15 Eric admits giving the founder an ultimatum

In a very amicable interview, this represents Eric acknowledging the hardball stance he took with the original founder to take 100% control.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 4:15 Nathan calls the buyout story fishy

Nathan rejects the premise that partners handed over equity for a dollar out of goodwill, pushing Eric to admit the pressure he applied.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:05 Eric details senior living placement fee structures

Eric educates Nathan on industry economics, citing A Place for Mom's private equity backing and their 120-150% first-month commission models.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:48 Nathan computes CAC and margin thresholds live

Nathan demonstrates quick financial expertise by instantly calculating total acquisition cost against conversion rates to outline break-even versus profit scenarios.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Eric Siu and Single Grain's Agency Model 6326 Nathan interrogates the mechanics behind Eric acquiring the agency for two dollars, openly questioning how partners would surrender shares in a 1.5 million dollar business and pressing Eric to admit he used leverage. Eric remains cooperative and transparently breaks down the debt buyout structure.
Bootstrapping Care Sprout and Senior Living Lead Generation 7413 Nathan actively works through Care Sprout's unit economics in real time, calculating conversion costs and gross margins from Eric's numbers. Eric explains lead gen mechanics, AdWords call campaigns, and senior living industry commissions.
Show Notes Promotion and Sponsor Message for Growth Geeks 2101 Nathan delivers house ads and promo reads before chatting casually with Eric about favorite episodes of the podcast, maintaining a completely friendly promotional atmosphere.

Statements from this episode (10)

Disclosure
Siu became CEO of struggling agency Single Grain around 2014
“I took over the business around two years ago, so I'm not the original founder. It was a struggling business”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 1:31
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Single Grain generates $30,000 monthly recurring revenue from agency referral fees
“We've kind of started going in a direction of becoming a referral agency where we're giving business to other agencies and we're collecting a recurring income. So that's been continuing to grow in the last eight months. And then the monthly recurring revenue o…”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 1:54
Disclosure
Siu acquired the remaining ownership of Single Grain for two dollars
“We worked out a deal where at the end of the day, out of pocket, out of my own pocket, I paid two dollars for the company.”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 2:42
Disclosure
Siu funded the $150K founder buyout using Single Grain's own revenue
“The buyout was actually about a 150 K, but that was paid out by the company's, you know, revenue. So it wasn't coming out of my pocket.”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 2:58
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Siu: Single Grain Did $140K MRR With -$27K Net Profit at Takeover
“The company at the time was doing, let's see, one, about 140 K in MRR, but here's the thing, right? We were actually, that year we were negative. So on the, you know, let's look at the negative cash plan on, on net income. Negative. Yeah. Negative net profit. …”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 3:27
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Siu: Single Grain generates $60K to $65K in monthly recurring revenue
“We are actually around 60, around 65 ish MRR, but the referral side is what's growing right now.”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 5:42
Disclosure
Siu: Single Grain receives a 25% lifetime referral fee on clients
“Yeah, so we get, ah, we get 25% of, you know, the lifetime revenue of the client.”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 6:16
Disclosure
Siu: Takes a $55,000 annual salary from Single Grain
“Just from the business, my salary right now is only 55 K.”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 6:54
Disclosure
Siu: Channels $20K monthly from Single Grain into Care Sprout
“So I mean, we're the money that's being siphoned into the new business right now is about 20 K a month.”
Eric Siu Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 7:02
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latka: Tai Lopez Knew None of His Numbers on The Top
“So I asked numbers, and the guy just didn't know any of his numbers. I mean, it's just like, there was nothing there, except, like, an Instagram account.”
Nathan Latka Jan 31, 2016 ▶ 15:17
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more