Dan Martell

Founder & CEO, SaaS Academy · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderinvestorauthorexecutive@danmartell ↗LinkedIn ↗danmartell.com ↗

Dan Martell is an entrepreneur and angel investor who founded and exited Spheric Technologies, Flowtown, and Clarity.fm. He is the author of Buy Back Your Time and the founder and CEO of SaaS Academy.

19statements → 8claims → 1claims resolved → 3.79/5average certainty → 1.26/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated → 65said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 6 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 1 insight · 9 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Dan argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Dan Martell on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said19 What others said65 Episodes1

Everything Dan Martell said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Martell: Made $7,000 per Month Selling Drugs at Age 15

“I was making around 7000 a month.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 6:41 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Insight

Martell: At-Risk Youth Develop Unusually High EQ to Survive

“Some of the smartest kids, and I have the privilege of working with them today, these at-risk youth their EQ is off the charts because they've just, you know, they've really had to develop that muscle just to even stay alive.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 5:05 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Martell: Syncrude spent $2M on Plumtree licenses without in-house operating expertise

“There was this oil company called Syncrude that just bought this enterprise portal software called Plumtree and spent like two million dollars on licenses, but they didn't have anybody that knew how it worked.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 24:46 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Mark Cuban invested $250K in Clarity after 13 emails

“It was literally 13 email questions. And then the last one was like, I'm in for 250.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 41:57 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Clarity.fm required an enterprise expert-network pivot to reach $1B

“Couldn't figure out the business model at scale to be a billion dollar company. Knew what it would have to take, which would be totally different than what we were doing. Essentially, we would have to go more enterprise and start selling licenses to like big h…”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 43:03 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: At 16, led police on high-speed chase with a handgun

“When I was 16, I had a backpack with a handgun because the police were looking for me and I decided to steal a car. And while I was making my way out of the province, I figured I'd go to Montreal. I pulled off the highway to get gas and a routine roadblock and…”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 2:55 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Not publicly verifiable

Dan Martell: Served 5–6 Months in Adult Jail Before Rehabilitation

“I ended up doing five to six months in an adult jail due to the severity of my crime. I got released out of there for good behavior to finish off my sentence at a rehab center called Fortage New Brunswick, which was in the middle of nowhere as an old church ca…”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 8:10 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Sold receivables at a 27% discount to meet Spheric's payroll

“So I ended up having to sell my receivables to a factory company for like, I want to say, 27%. I gave them for like 90 days.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 29:20 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Martell: Spheric did $1M first year, grew 150% annually for four years

“We ended up doing about a million the first year and then just kept doubling every year for four years, a 150% year over year.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 30:16 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

What-if

Martell: Would have kept Spheric Holdings and hired a CEO instead of selling

“That's probably the one decision I would have done differently. Like now that I know what I know about business and assets and scaling teams, I would have kept it hire a CEO because it was a great business.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 32:25 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Bought back 21% equity from initial partners before Spheric exit

“A hundred percent. And when I started it with three initial guys, yeah, I gave them 21% each, seven, seven each and 21% total. And then over the first two years, I ended up buying their equity back because I learned there's a difference between being a founder…”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 33:49 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Partly supported

Martell: Demandforce Was Acquired by Intuit for $550 Million

“But, and then when Demandforce got acquired by Into it. That's when my investors, you know, they got bought for five hundred fifty million.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 40:16 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Clarity.fm raised $1.6M seed anchored by Baseline's Steve Anderson

“Originally I was only gonna raise seven 50 K, ended up one of my previous investors, Steve Anderson at Baseline, Decided he wants to write a check for seven 50 and then, and convinces me to go one six or one four. We ended up closing at one six.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 41:03 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Martell: Mark Cuban thoughtfully replied to every Clarity investor update

“Every six weeks I send an investor update and he's one of the only investors I can say has always replied to everyone with something thoughtful. Very short, but always replied.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 42:41 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Clarity.fm acquisition by Startups.co featured a zero-day earnout

“A zero day earn out. So I got to give Will props on the negotiation. I still remember the moment I was sitting, standing in my pacing in my driveway and he goes, Hey, I just want you to know, I don't expect you to stay more than a day.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 44:02 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Introduced to drugs at 13, joined motorbike gangs at 15

“I got introduced to drugs when I was 13, but what happened at 15 was meeting people that were in motorbike gangs and dealing quantities of drugs”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 3:57 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Disclosure

Martell: Maritime Vacation made $50K before losing to AttheCottage.com

“And I did that probably made 50 grand building the site cause I opened up the size of it. But after about a year, I got crushed by the guy who had at the cottage.com who obviously had a better domain focus was all of Canada, more features.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 15:26 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Martell: Flowtown Acquisition by Demandforce Was 30% Cash and 70% Stock

“It was mostly there was a big, well, not big, there was, I think, 30% was cash, 70% was stock.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 39:48 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Martell: Flowtown Reached Peak Revenue of About $240K MRR

“The best year monthly was like, 240 K MRR.”

Dan Martell Oct 23, 2020 ▶ 40:42 Cocaine, Coding, and Cashflow, The Truth about Dan Martell

The other half of the tape: Dan Martell's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 64 times in 30 episodes on Top Founders. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 24 Aaron DeCruz 7 Matt Prados 4 Ivo Dragunov 4 Brad Parker 4 Tom Nignish 3 Eran Eyal 3 David Brennan 3

Statements about Dan Martell, by other people (1)

Disclosure

Prados: Invested ~$250k in executive masterminds over the last decade

“I've spent probably a quarter million dollars in the last 10 years on my education, so I didn't go to college college, but, you know, I've joined, you know, masterminds you know, everything from Dan Kennedy to Frank Kern to Dan Martell”

Matt Prados Oct 12, 2022 ▶ 20:51 $100m Deck Builder: Bootstrapped to $100M Valuation