#73: AWeber CEO Tom Kulzer on Bootstrapping From 0 to 100,000 Customers and Thriving for 20 Years

About the Episode:

In today’s episode, we’re talking to Tom Kulzer, the Founder and CEO of AWeber, one of the very first marketing automation tools to hit the internet back in 1998.

Tom originally launched AWeber as just a side project while he was in college, and since then, he and his team have grown the company to serve over 100,000 customers (including yours truly at one point in time when I first started blogging).

What Tom has managed to do with AWeber is nothing short of incredible. He was one of the original players in an industry that now boasts dozens—if not hundreds of million dollar companies.

And on top of that, Tom’s managed to completely bootstrap AWeber, meaning they’ve achieved 20 years of consistent growth without ever needing to take on venture capital funding.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:

[03:52] Where he’s originally from.
[05:15] His first entrepreneurial endeavor.
[07:06] Where he went to college.
[08:16] What inspired AWeber.
[09:44] What AWeber was like in the early days.
[11:16] How AWeber was marketed in the early days.
[13:13] When AWeber became a full-time business.
[16:40] Why he’s bootstrapped AWeber.
21:15 He’s number piece of advice for anyone looking to take their side hustle full-time.
[22:12] Strategies he’s tried in the past that have failed.
[24:04] The best investment she’s made in other to grow his business.

Like What You’re Hearing? Subscribe for New Episodes.

Ryan Robinson’s Newsletter

Connect with My Guest:

AWeber

Tom on LinkedIn and Twitter

Freelance to Founder (my friend Preston’s podcast)

Subscribe, Review, & Share:

If you enjoyed this episode of The Side Hustle Project, I would love your support. Head over to the show on iTunes or in the Apple podcast app and give us a rating, please! And as always you can catch every episode on the Apple podcast app, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.


Posted

by

Comments

One response to “#73: AWeber CEO Tom Kulzer on Bootstrapping From 0 to 100,000 Customers and Thriving for 20 Years”

  1. Silverio Ouma Avatar
    Silverio Ouma

    Astonishing on how an idea generated from one individual can grow this far.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *