Disclosure certainty 5/5 debate potential 3/5

Halasnik secretly moonlit at Xerox for 18 months to build a startup

Steven Halasnik · The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move · Dec 22, 2020 · at 4:32

Serial entrepreneur Steven Halasnik describes how he transitioned from working in corporate sales at Xerox to founding his first company, DigiPrint.

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“What I did with Xerox, I worked for a year and a half for Xerox, half a day without them knowing it. And then the other half a day, I started my company.”

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More from Steven Halasnik

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Halasnik: Bootstrapping long-lasting small businesses pays better than venture-backed startups
“I have quite a number of friends who got investor money, you know, they built their companies and were successful at it. And they didn't make as much money as I did building a small company that That kind of lasts a long period of time.”
Steven Halasnik Dec 22, 2020 ▶ 15:16 The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move
Insight
Halasnik: Companies cannot surpass $3M revenue without dedicated internal operations managers
“In fact, you'll never grow in size past like three million in yearly revenue if you don't have somebody working on the inside while you're working on the business.”
Steven Halasnik Dec 22, 2020 ▶ 30:41 The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Halasnik: Financing Solutions will grow after top two US competitors went bankrupt
“And we think that As the recession progresses, people are going to come back to needing a line of credit and our two biggest competitors in the United States went out of business already. So, you know, we kind of think that we're going to do well.”
Steven Halasnik Dec 22, 2020 ▶ 37:09 The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move
Insight
Halasnik: Relying on sales hires or word of mouth is not marketing
“And I don't believe that hiring a salesperson is a marketing strategy and word of mouth about your company is not a very good marketing strategy. You have to have a variety of channels. From anything from social media to direct mail to email campaigns to SEO, …”
Steven Halasnik Dec 22, 2020 ▶ 40:42 The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move
Insight
Halasnik: Founders need three years to learn a business, ten for mastery
“It really takes a business owner three to five years. I would say closer to three to really know what they're doing, you know, with their business. And it takes 10 years to learn how to be a really a professional business owner, you know, learning all the nuan…”
Steven Halasnik Dec 22, 2020 ▶ 10:23 The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move
Disclosure
Halasnik bootstrapped multiple businesses to $25M in revenue without VC funding
“None of the businesses I've ever built, which are between six and twenty-five million in yearly sales, none of them have involved any type of angel funding or any type of VC money.”
Steven Halasnik Dec 22, 2020 ▶ 13:09 The Chess Board Secret: Why Small Businesses Only Have One Move
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