How to Build an Online Business with 45 Employees (in 3 Years) with Casey Gauss

Future Skills Casey Gauss

Do you want to build an online business?

Do you know anyone who’s made it big?

In the latest episode of Future Skills, we talk to my friend Casey Gauss, founder & CEO of Viral Launch, which have helped Amazon sellers do more than 30,000 product launches. Consider this a case study from someone young and smart who has all of the experience fresh in mind.

Casey has grown Viral Launch from 1 to 45 employees in 3 years. The company was built off the back of an email list promoting products to Amazon sellers and has now morphed into a fast-growing SAS company.

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When I first met Casey, he was already doing well. But just 1-1,5 years before that, he was in a really bad situation…

He’d dropped out of college (which he was at thanks to a scholarship on running track) and was dirt-poor; living on the paychecks from his little brother’s pizza-delivery job.

In this discussion we hear all about Casey’s backstory and he takes us through the events that transpired over the past 3 years as he’s been able to build an awesome team and continues to grow the business.

If there’s just 1 big thing you take away from the talk, it is caring.

It brings to mind something Ray Kroc said. Something like this: If you CARE about your customers, you might figure out a way to improve their basement.

It’s easy to lose sight of what matters in business. But as Casey suggests, it comes down to asking yourself: “Who did I help today?”

Other highlights from Casey:

  • What he thinks about the future of Amazon business
  • How Casey uses Mental Models to understand things fast
  • How providing the context around decisions allows others to make roughly the same decision as you would have made
  • What Casey’s typical day looks like (almost all work!)

Listen to the interview:

Things Casey said that resonated:

On optimization:
I think optimization is almost a bad word…. by doing the 20% that gets the 80% of the result, we’re able to 2-3x our revenue.
On education system:
I don’t think the curriculum is set up on teaching you to solve problems. General problem-solving.
On what a leader does:
If there is a disconnect between what the leader wanted and the group’s input, then it’s the leader’s job to provide the context necessary so that the group can make the same decision that the leader would.

If you want to learn from Casey–and see the inside of a fast-growing SAS company–be sure to follow him on Instagram. He shares videos there all the time.

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Comments

  1. As you know I’m not a big fan of audiovisual content – the information transfer efficiency is too low – but a few things about your excerpts struck me:

    1. Not sure what kind of “optimization” was meant, but trying to maximize or perfect results, without considering the costs (especially opportunity costs) is a very common human error. Sometimes there can be hidden losses associated with sub-optimal results, though, like damaging your reputation or taking away the pride your employees feel in their work.

    2. The college curriculum has nothing to do with problem solving and almost nothing to do with learning useful skills. I had a few professors who made isolated attempts to teach problem solving and the students rebelled vehemently against the very idea that anyone should expect them to even attempt to think. They thought they have a /right/ to merely memorize factoids and procedures, which is all they ever did in primary or secondary school.

  2. “Then I give my wife an hour.”
    That part made me LOL while walking outside. Got to hustle!

  3. Hey Ludvig – great talk. I’m surprised at how humble Casey seems given the strong winner effect he must be in.

    What surprised me was how you brought up the similarity between what he was doing now and studying before at business school.

    Anyway hearing this makes me feel like I need to step up. You guys are only a few years older than me and even though I am doing well in university I would like to do something independently too. Like that email newsletter you sent out a few weeks ago about different types of work.

    Thanks for the inspiration/kick in the ass guys.

  4. SAS is a great business model. As an IT professional I am looking to do something along this area. The difficulty is to find partners.

  5. Erik Tres says

    I listened to this earlier in the week. What an insane story he has.

    It was interesting to hear him on whether the Amazon market will continue to grow or not. I’m not in this field myself by I have two acquaintances who are.

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