Starting a $500k Side Hustle in 3 Months Michele Romanow Interview

#3: Starting a $500k Side Hustle in 3 Months and Selling Your Company with Michele Romanow

About the Episode:

In today’s episode, we’re talking to Michele Romanow, a seasoned entrepreneur who grew her side hustle in the daily deals space to more than $500,000 in revenue in just 3 months (!!!).

She’d later go on to acquire 10 of her competitors in this industry and sell the company to Groupon for an undisclosed amount. Now, Michele is a judge and investor on the massively popular tv show, Dragon’s Den, which is Canada’s equivalent to the hit show Shark Tank.

Michele also recently launched a new company called Clearbanc, that’s aiming to give modern, hassle-free financial services to the self-employed, freelancers, independent contractors and entrepreneurs.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About: 

02:10 We start off by finding out what book Michele is reading at the moment (Grinding It Out by Ray Croc).
04:31 How she got started in business and her very first side hustle.
05:40 She dives into her foray in the caviar business.
06:53 How she got her first paying customer for the business.
09:12 The role she played in that business.
10:43 Her advice for anyone looking to start a business with friends, colleagues or co-workers etc.
13:26 Her next venture after closing down the caviar business.
15:34 Closing $10,000 in deals at her first trade show with just a landing page & how she positioned her app to vendors at that show.
16:21 She goes into more detail on the early stages of Buytopia
17:38 The point she decided to quit her day job and start working on Buytopia full-time.
18:44 The most difficult sacrifices she had to make after committing to Buytopia full time.
20:08 The later stages of Buytopia before it was sold to Groupon.
22:18 How she was able to broker deals for her new app with major companies like Coca-Cola.
24:17 Her advice on how to have more effective cold pitches.
28:31 What she did next after selling Buytopia to Groupon.
29:48 What’s she’s currently doing at Clearbanc.
30:20 Her most effective channel for getting new users and testing out the product.
32:04 How she became a judge on the show, Dragon’s Den.
33:47 Advice for listeners who are seeking investor funding.
39:28 The number one thing you should focus on if you’re looking to start a side hustle.
41:55 Her recommendations on how to overcome the fear of failure & just getting started.
43:35 She gives her best piece of advice for getting your first 100 customers.

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Resources Mentioned:

Grinding It Out by Ray Crock

Connect with My Guest:

Michele Romanow on FacebookInstagram, Twitter and at her new company Clearbanc

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.

Michele Romanow Interview Start Side Hustle 500k

Shoutout:

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode, Freshbooks: Cloud accounting for freelancers, solopreneurs and side hustlers.

Freshbooks Cloud Accounting


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Comments

2 responses to “#3: Starting a $500k Side Hustle in 3 Months and Selling Your Company with Michele Romanow”

  1. Katie Griffis Avatar
    Katie Griffis

    Love this interview! Such an awesome adventure, thanks for sharing Michele 😊

  2. J.kumar Avatar
    J.kumar

    I am interested

    I want to know

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